He answered on the first ring. "Aaliyah—"
"Tuesdays and Thursdays," she said. "Cookies from State Street. The small conference room. Cody knows her name. Cody thought I knew." She stared at the concrete wall in front of her bumper. "You cleared your schedule for her. For two years. You cleared time you told me was client work."
"Some of it was client work."
"Don't."
Silence on the line. Then: "What do you want me to do?"
"I want you to tell me the rest," she said. "Not the sobriety. Not the emails. The part you almost said in the laundry room. The before. Before what, Marcus? Evelyn said Ruth wrote her at Christmas about being sick. What kind of sick?"
She heard him breathe. She heard, behind him, the muffled sound of an office going on being an office.