“It was evidence. You should have given it to the police.”
“It would have been nice if the police had told me that.” She heard the defensiveness and stress in her voice.
He made notes-an impossibly long paragraph-and sat back studying her. He spoke after a long pause.
“So how long have you been seeing Dr. Nagle?”
“Damn it.” She spoke quietly but vehemently. “Who told…?” She stopped herself, feeling small and off balance. “We saw each other for about a year.”
“While he was married?”
“He was separated.” She sighed. “Part of that time, but, shit, sure, he was married.”
“Did Dr. Lustig know?”
She became only gradually aware of the avalanche bearing down on her. “Am I a suspect?”
Dodds pursed his lips. “I can declare you a person of interest. That’s not quite a suspect.”
“Holy crap,” Cheryl Beth said. “You can’t think I could…? I found her!”
“Dr. Nagle told us that you and he had an affair.”
“Why isn’t he a suspect? Because he’s a hotshot neurosurgeon?”
“You might both be suspects,” Dodds said.
“Look, Detective.” Cheryl Beth touched his arm and drew back. “This isn’t what you think…Hell, I know you hear that all the time. You’re used to people lying to you. Me, too. It goes with my job. I broke it off with Gary three months ago. Christine probably knew about it for a long time. But we weren’t enemies.”
Dodds again let the conversation fall into another canyon of silence. He hadn’t mentioned that Cheryl Beth and Christine had been at a bar together that night. That meant Gary hadn’t told him, despite the threat he had made at her house. Why? She realized she didn’t know Gary at all. Indeed, she was now afraid of him.
“How would you characterize your relationship with Dr. Lustig?”
Cheryl Beth was aware of how fast her breaths were coming. “Coworkers. Colleagues.” She nervously added, “In another life maybe we could have been friends.”
“Really?” Dodds’ comeback was sudden. “Funny way to treat a friend.”
Dodds clapped his large hands on the tops of his thighs and stood, leaving the nurse sitting, staring at his back as he did his heavy stomp away. Then she put her head in her hands, just for a few seconds, before sweeping back her light-brown hair, adjusting her white coat, and at a brisk pace joining the flow of people headed into the main part of the hospital. She had large, attractive eyes and moved with an intuitive grace. Will watched from his wheelchair and turned to follow Dodds.
