“Sure, sure.” He was half mumbling as he slid into his boxers and his slacks. She dropped down the doorstop so the door was half open, and she leaned against the wall by the jamb.
“God, I need to fuck right now.”
It was true: he used sex to relieve stress. It took her awhile to realize that he was most aroused when he was under the greatest pressure. Soon after that, she came to understand that she might just as well not have been there. She was just a female body to him. A way to work off stress. Another conquest.
“Talk to your pal, Amy.” Cheryl Beth folded her arms, half feeling sorry for him, but still drunk with adrenaline fear.
“That bitch.” He slipped on his dress shirt and quickly buttoned it. His face was a caricature of little-boy petulance. She half expected to see him use his sleeve to wipe his runny nose. “She sold me out.”
“Sold you out?”
“The cops said she didn’t back up my story that we were together that night, the night that Chris was killed.”
“So she told the truth.” She was comforted by the sounds of a housekeeping crew working in the hallway close by.
“Do you know how much money I bring into this hospital as a neurosurgeon?” His adult voice was back, but with an angry edge.
“I know, you’re the famous two-million-dollar man.”
“They told me this would go away. They said it would not touch me!”
“Who told you? What are you talking about?”
“The hospital! Jim Bryant!” The CEO of Memorial. Cheryl Beth had a hard time believing such a thing. Gary’s eyes were still wild.
“Gary, I told you that night you should immediately go to the police and tell them the truth.”
“Bryant said he’d shut it down. No one would even talk about it.”
Cheryl Beth took that in but kept her face as expressionless as possible. You’re an open book.
“You’ve got to help me,” he said, adding, “Cheryl Beth.”
“I’ve done all I can do, Gary.”
“Damn you!” He shook his fist at her. “You’re such a cold bitch. It’s all because your mother never loved you. I get you.”
She pushed her anger down into her shoes and quietly said, “Gary, you never knew anything important about me. What matters to me. You weren’t man enough to ask or to understand. We just fucked. It was nothing special.” The cold harshness of her voice surprised her. His eyes widened and he actually twitched, jerking his head to the left, the veins standing out in his neck.
“Please, I’m sorry.”
She just watched him.
“You saw me at the bar that night on Main Street…”
