A Necessary Evil(54)
Collin turned to see Oliver standing at the doorway looking confused and nervous.
“What is it, Oliver?” Franklin said, still breathing heavily.
“The jury, sir. They’re done deliberating.”
“They have a verdict for me?” Franklin asked as he stood upright.
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, all right, then. That was fast.” He turned to face Collin. “Let’s go see what the jury has decided. Are you ready to find out exactly how you’re going to die?”
Chapter 27
Mollie
She picked at the hem of her shirt and looked around the waiting room at all the crazy people sitting in chairs around her. Mollie wasn’t thrilled with the idea of talking to a shrink, but her mother had insisted after their meeting with the detective. When Mollie realized it was pointless to argue, Kitty had called her own psychiatrist, Dr. Hannah Fischer, and she’d managed to squeeze Mollie in only half an hour later.
Now, Mollie looked at the other patients and wondered why on earth she had agreed to be seen by a shrink. One man was standing by the window quoting lines from The Godfather. Another one, closer to her, stunk to the highest heaven and was rocking back and forth while he muttered, “I’m so sorry, Mama,” over and over again. A lady near the door was scratching her arms repeatedly, leaving long, red nail marks on her skin.
“This was a mistake,” Mollie said to Kitty.
“I know it’s intimidating,” Kitty responded. “But you’ll really like Dr. Fischer. She’s nice and so easy to talk to. I’ve been seeing her for years.”
“I had no idea.” Mollie looked at her mother curiously. “Why do you need to see a shrink?”
Kitty flipped her wrist and rolled her eyes. “Nothing major. Just maintenance, that’s all.”
Mollie wasn’t sure what “maintenance” meant. She assumed people only went to shrinks if they were depressed or crazy. And as far as she knew, her mother was neither. She wondered what else she didn’t know about her mother.
Bored, Mollie picked up the closest magazine from the top of a long glass coffee table. It was a People from November 2014. Katie Holmes graced the cover in a white scoop neck t-shirt. Her luxurious black hair spilled over her shoulders, and a wry smile spread across her beautiful face. She flipped to the article and read about how Katie had finally gotten away from her eccentric husband, Tom Cruise.
“Mollie?” A nurse in maroon scrubs held the door open with a file folder in her hand.
“That’s us,” Kitty said as she picked up her purse and pulled it over her shoulder.
“Great,” the nurse said. “Follow me.”
Mollie stood and followed her mother, who followed the nurse, whose large rear end swung from side to side as she walked down the hallway.
She stopped about halfway down and extended her arm toward an open doorway. “Please have a seat. The doctor will be with you momentarily.”
Mollie sat on the couch, assuming that was where she should sit, and Kitty sat next to her and set her purse down at her feet. The nurse smiled at them before closing the door, leaving Mollie to feel claustrophobic in the tiny office.
Besides the cream-colored leather couch that took up half the room, there was a small mahogany desk with a large matching wingback chair. The wallpaper was a neutral tan with a white embossed border, and a fake ficus tree sat in a gold pot in the corner. With no magazines to read in this room, Mollie pulled out her cell phone and looked at her Instagram account. She hadn’t posted, or even looked at it, since before Collin McAllister had shoved her into the back seat of her car.
“Do you have to do that now?” Kitty asked.
“Why not?”
“I don’t know. Can’t we just…talk?”
She knew her mother had missed her like crazy and had worried about her while she was gone, and part of Mollie felt guilty that she hadn’t spent much time with her since returning home. But the other part of her wanted to withdraw from everyone and everything around her. She wasn’t ready to talk about what had happened, but it meant a lot to Kitty, and so for her, Mollie would tell this doctor what had happened and how that made her feel. She lowered her phone and slid it back into the pocket of her jeans.
“Thank you,” Kitty said. “So. Did you and Laurel have fun last night?”
Mollie shrugged. “I guess.”
“What did you two do?”
“Nothing, really. Just talked. And we painted our nails.” Mollie looked down at the nail polish she’d already mostly picked off.
“It’s a pretty color.” Her mother was trying, bless her heart. Mollie just wasn’t interested in small talk. It felt so…pointless.
Then she remembered something she’d been meaning to ask her mother since this morning. She’d forgotten with the whole debacle at the police station. “Hey, Mom?”
Kitty looked at her with raised eyebrows.
“Have you seen my journal?”
“What journal?”
“Never mind.”
The door opened, and in walked a tall woman with blonde hair pulled back in a tight French twist. She wore thin-rimmed glasses low on her nose and a navy blue skirt suit with a white silk blouse. Her makeup was done perfectly, and her fingernails were pink with white tips. Mollie guessed this must be the shrink.