Lisey's Story(137)

Having delivered himself of this diatribe, Scott had then, to the best of her recollection, gone back and rewritten the pages in question.

The holdmusic cut off. "Mrs. Landon, still there?" Cassandra asked.

"Still here," Lisey said, feeling considerably calmer. Scott had been right. Reality was a drunk buying a lottery ticket, cashing out to the tune of seventy million dollars, and splitting it with his favorite barmaid. A little girl emerging alive from the well in Texas where she'd been trapped for six days. A college boy falling from a fifth-floor balcony in Cancún and only breaking his wrist. Reality was Ralph.

"I'm transferring you now," Cassandra said.

There was a double click, then Hugh Alberness - a very concerned Hugh Alberness, she judged, but not a panic-stricken one - was saying, "Mrs. Landon? Where are you?"

"On the road to my sister's house. We'll be there in twenty minutes."

"Amanda's with you?"

"Yes." Lisey had determined to answer his questions, but no more. Part of her was quite curious as to what those questions would be.

"Mrs. Landon - "

"Lisey."

"Lisey, there are a great many concerned people at Greenlawn this afternoon, especially Dr. Stein, the on-call physician, Nurse Burrell, who is in charge of the Ackley Wing, and Josh Phelan, who's head of our small but ordinarily quite able campus security team."

Lisey decided this was both a question -  What did you do?  - and an accusation -  You scared the hell out of some folks today!  - and thought she'd better respond to it. Briefly. It would be only too easy to dig herself a hole and then fall into it.

"Yes, well. I'm sorry about that. Very. But Amanda wanted to leave, she was very insistent about that, and she was also very insistent about not calling anyone from Greenlawn until we were well away from there. Under the circumstances, I thought it was best to go with the flow. It was a judgment call."

Amanda gave her a vigorous double thumbs-up, but she couldn't afford to be distracted. Dr. Alberness might have been a huh-yooge fan of her husband's books, but Lisey had no doubt he was also excellent at getting things out of people that they didn't want or mean to tell.

Alberness, however, sounded excited. "Mrs. Landon...Lisey...is your sister responding? Is she aware and responding?"

"Hearing is believing," Lisey said, and handed the phone to Amanda. Amanda looked alarmed, but took the cell phone.

Lisey mouthed the words Be careful.

10

"Hello, Dr. Alberness?" Amanda spoke slowly and carefully but clearly. "Yes, this is she." She listened. "Amanda Debusher, correct." She listened. "My middle name is Georgette." Listened. "July of 1946. Which makes me not quite sixty." Listened. "I have one child, a daughter named Intermezzo. Metzie for short." Listened. "George W. Bush, sad to say - I believe the man has a God-complex at least as dangerous as that of his stated enemies." Listened. Shook her head minutely. "I...I really can't go into all that now, Dr. Alberness. Here's Lisey." She handed the phone back, her eyes begging for a good review...or at least a passing grade. Lisey nodded vigorously. Amanda collapsed back against her seat like a woman who has just run a race.

" - still there?" the phone was squawking when Lisey put it back to her ear.

"It's Lisey, Dr. Alberness."

"Lisey, what happened? "

Chapter 22

"I'll have to give you the short form, Dr. - "

"Hugh. Please. Hugh."

Lisey had been sitting bolt-upright behind the wheel. Now she allowed herself to relax a little against the comforting leather of the driver's seat. He had asked her to call him Hugh. They were pals again. She would still have to be careful, but it was probably going to be all right.

"I was visiting her - we were on her patio - and she just came around."

Showed up limping and without her collar, but otherwise fine, Lisey thought, and had to clamp down on a crazy bray of laughter. On the far side of the lake, lightning flashed brilliantly. Her head felt like that.

"I've never heard of such a thing," Hugh Alberness said. This wasn't a question, so Lisey stayed silent. "And how did you...uh...make your exit?"

"I beg pardon?"

"How did you get past the Ackley Wing reception desk? Who buzzed you out?"

Reality is Ralph, Lisey reminded herself. Taking care to sound only a little puzzled, she said: "No one asked us to sign out, or anything - they all looked very busy. We just walked out."

"What about the door?"

"It was open," Lisey said.

"I'll be - " Alberness said, and then made himself stop.

Lisey waited for more. She was quite sure there would be more.

"The nurses found a key-ring, a key-case, and a pair of slippers. Also a pair of sneakers with the socks inside them."

For a moment Lisey was stuck on her key-ring. She hadn't realized the rest of her keys were also gone, and it would probably be better not to let Alberness know that. "I keep a spare car key under the bumper of my car in a magnetic box. As for the ones on my ring..." Lisey tried for a halfway genuine laugh. She had no idea if she succeeded, but at least Amanda did not pale noticeably. "I'd be sorry to lose those! You'll have the staff hold them for me, won't you?"