Chapter 51

Friday, April 26

“Where’s Salvador?” Baljit demands, as she strides past Simon and into his house, clasping an aluminum mug that wafts the scent of espresso behind it.

“Didn’t you see the group text?” Reese asks from the chair where she has been sitting since she arrived five minutes earlier.

“Nope,” Baljit says. “I decided not to read the obits today.”

“Does everything have to be a cruel joke with you?” Reese snaps.

“Enough, you two!” Simon has to stop himself from adding a comment about catfights. Just the idea makes him imagine the two of them leashed and oiled up. But he forces the invasive fantasy out of mind. “Salvador said he had a work emergency.”

Baljit plunks herself down on a chair across from Reese. “An emergency for a fashion designer? That’s a thing?”

Reese shrugs. “Maybe he’s just scared of being anywhere near the rest of us.”

“Can you blame him?” Baljit asks.

It’s hard to argue Baljit’s point. Especially when Simon considers that, according to the Newport Beach Police Department’s Twitter feed, Liisa is still missing.

Reese looks from Simon to Baljit and back. “Maybe we should go speak to that detective who came to see you, Simon?”

Baljit grimaces. “And tell him what?”

“What we know about Liisa,” Reese says.

“Like what?”

“Among other things, like how she suggested that Dr. Danvers might have molested me, too, while I was under ketamine.”

“Not you, too?” Baljit squints at her. “She pulled that same crap on me!”

“You serious?” Simon groans. “Liisa was deliberately spreading false rumors about Dr. D?”

“She must have tried to plant that seed with all the women in the group,” Reese says. “Who knows if Elaine would’ve ever gone down that rabbit hole without Liisa’s encouragement?”

“Why would Liisa be stirring all this shit up?” Simon asks, but he’s really thinking of the two women who just extorted a king’s ransom out of him.

“Jealousy?” Reese shrugs. “Two therapists. One’s a Xanax addict, the other’s famous for her successful treatment program. Maybe Liisa was envious?”

“Then why sign up for therapy with Dr. D in the first place?” Simon asks.

“To undermine it?” Reese suggests.

“That’s your theory?” Baljit rolls her eyes. “First, Liisa talks Elaine into thinking she was molested. But then Elaine overdoses—or someone does it for her—before she can ‘expose’ Dr. Danvers. You can’t pin that on Liisa. Why would she kill the one person who was going to take down her nemesis? Besides, how do you explain JJ?”

“Liisa’s an experienced therapist,” Reese argues. “She would know exactly what buttons to push. Maybe she got JJ drinking again. And then convinced her to jump.”

Baljit scowls. “And then Liisa just what? Fakes her own death and disappears? That makes no sense, Counselor. God, I hope you don’t practice criminal law.”

Simon, sensing Armageddon, leans back and waits for Reese’s response.

“Do you have a better theory?” Reese asks calmly.

“All I know is that Dr. Danvers assembled this group,” Baljit says. “She heavily medicated us to the point where some of us don’t even remember some of the sessions. And then the deaths and disappearances began.”

Simon turns to Baljit. “You’re saying that Dr. D has been manipulating us all?”

She holds up both palms. “Who knows? I was only trying to stop gambling. I never signed up for the rest of this snake pit.”

“Why don’t we at least talk to Dr. Danvers?” Reese suggests.

Baljit frowns. “Do you still trust her?”

“I do,” Reese says without hesitation.

“Do you?” Baljit asks Simon.

Simon mulls the question over. Dr. Danvers has helped him. A lot. Maybe more than anyone else since Jeremy. But he also can’t forget what she did to him at their previous session, adding that sedative on top of the ketamine. “Not sure I do anymore. Dr. D basically roofied me the last time I saw her. Why would she do that if she has nothing to hide?”

“Fine,” Reese says. “I’ll speak to her myself.”

They lapse into morbid silence for a few moments. Simon considers again how effective that combination of medications had been in smudging his memory—and how useful it could be under different circumstances.

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to do it without her,” Baljit finally murmurs, her head hung, and her eyes glued to the floor.

“Do what?” Reese asks.

Baljit looks back up at them with uncharacteristic vulnerability. “Stay out of the casino.”

Reese shows her a small smile. “Took all my willpower not to stop at the liquor store on my way home from work last night.”

Simon nods. “Yeah, my… urges are coming back, too.”

“What a sorry lot we are.” Baljit chuckles grimly. “We can’t live without her. But no guarantees we’ll live at all if we stick with her.”