Looking for Jane (73)

Nancy opens her mouth to speak again, and at the same moment, Patricia reaches down to the floor and pulls a handgun out of her big black purse. Rising from her chair, she points it directly at Nancy.

“I’m going to need you to stand up slowly and put your hands behind your head.”





CHAPTER 20 Evelyn




JULY 1984




“What the hell was that?” Evelyn freezes, her pen suspended over the clipboard where she’s reviewing that day’s patient docket. She and Alice were just about to head into the procedure room.

She can hear muffled voices from inside the room. They layer themselves over the strange piercing screech that’s still ringing in her ears.

“Evelyn?” Alice is immediately at her side. “What—?”

The door opens and Nancy emerges, her eyes wide and watering, hands clasped behind her head. Behind her is Evelyn’s next patient, Patricia. Her shirt is pulled up at the beltline and tucked in behind a small black box at her waist. She’s holding a gun in one hand and a walkie-talkie in the other, which she now speaks into.

“Suspects are neutralized. Move in.” The static of the walkie-talkie clicks off and she slips it into the back pocket of her denim shorts.

“Fuck,” Evelyn swears under her breath.

“Evelyn.” Alice’s voice is small, afraid.

“I’m so sorry,” Nancy whimpers.

“Quiet!” Patricia snaps. She waves her gun at Evelyn and Alice. “Both of you, get your hands up, same as her.”

Evelyn swallows the harsh reality of this inevitability. Alice’s hands go up beside her, but Evelyn presses her thumb down on the metal clamp of the clipboard, removing the patient docket that lists the names of all the women who are scheduled to receive abortion procedures today. She folds it into quarters.

“I said get your fucking hands up!” Patricia shouts at her.

“I think I’m going to need to see some identification first, Patricia,” Evelyn says, not taking her eyes off the officer’s. Her stomach is sinking into her legs as she feigns boldness.

“Evelyn,” Alice mutters beside her.

The police officer licks her lips. “Don’t move.” She reaches into the purse hanging off her shoulder, and in the fleeting seconds when she takes her eyes off her suspects to fish out her badge, Evelyn slides the paper into the waistband of her jeans.

Patricia holds out her badge and Evelyn nods curtly. She raises her hands up behind her head, heart hammering off the walls of her rib cage. “Well played, Officer.”

“Be quiet.”

The door bursts open and both Evelyn and Alice jump. Nancy yelps.

“Oh my God! Oh my God!” Nancy wails as a stream of three, four, five other officers force their way into the apartment. Suddenly it feels smaller and even more oppressive. Evelyn thinks of Doris, who left just before Patricia arrived to escort Kathleen into a taxi three blocks away. She’s due back any minute.

“Who’s in charge here?” one of the officers demands to the room at large.

“I am,” Alice says immediately.

“Alice,” Evelyn snaps, though she experiences a rush of affection for Alice’s loyalty.

“No, she isn’t. That’s the doctor there.” Patricia points to Evelyn, her gun still extended at Nancy, whose eyes close against a stream of tears. The brand-new diamond ring glints in the light from the window. This girl has her whole life ahead of her, Evelyn thinks. She can feel Alice shaking beside her. Alice, who’s supposed to be getting married tomorrow…

“Is that gun really necessary at this point?” Evelyn shouts, her initial terror turning to anger. “Patricia, or whatever the hell your name actually is? You fucking traitor to women.”

“That’s enough, ma’am!” a burly male cop barks at her, his bristly moustache inches from her face.

“It’s Doctor, not ma’am, Officer.”

“It’s Sergeant, not Officer, Doctor.”

Evelyn physically bites down on her tongue to stop the retort she longs to throw at him. This had to happen eventually, she realizes. So why not today? It’s as good a day as any. She stands up straighter, stares with all the hatred she can muster at the female police officer.

Do your worst, bitch.

“What’s your name?” the large sergeant spits at her.

“Doctor Evelyn Taylor. Can we take our hands down now? You know we’re unarmed.”

“Yes, you can, actually. You can all put them behind your backs.”

“Excellent,” Evelyn mutters, as the female officer and two others each handcuff Evelyn, Alice, and Nancy. “And now I’m going to need you to tell me what we’re under arrest for.”

“I’m pretty sure you know what for,” the female cop pipes up. “For inducing miscarriages out of an unregulated medical facility. Illegal abortions.”

“Mmm,” Evelyn says. “And what evidence do you have of that?”

While she fakes confidence, Evelyn’s mind is racing. Alice disposed of the products of Kathleen’s abortion while Nancy was doing pre-op prep with the so-called Patricia. There are medical instruments in the procedure room, but that doesn’t prove anything. The only records they keep for a given day are currently folded neatly in her waistband; she can feel the crinkle of the paper against the backs of her thumbs.