hold.
Lilly’s three-day stay turned into three weeks. Zee went by every other day. One weekend, when Lilly wasn’t expecting her, Zee showed up. Lilly was in the lounge, a book in front of her. Instead of reading, she was staring out the window.
Zee paused to watch. Lilly was looking at a red construction truck, idling outside in the parking lot. Zee recognized it immediately. She had walked out of the office one day after Lilly’s session in time to see her getting into that same truck. Adam clearly knew who Zee was, and the look he gave her as she walked by that day had sent a shiver up her spine.
“You have to get away from him,” Zee said to Lilly.
Lilly didn’t answer.
By offering advice Zee knew she had crossed a line with Lilly. A therapist is never supposed to tell a patient what to do. But it was a line Zee felt she had to cross.
Zee left Lilly and called security.
William didn’t know what had happened while Lilly was away. He could tell from the police reaction that they were not as worried as he was. “People walk out on marriages all the time,” they said.
He had convinced himself that it had been a kidnapping, from which his wife had narrowly escaped. He waited until Zee had been seeing Lilly at the hospital for almost two weeks before he couldn’t stand it anymore and came by the office.
He demanded to know what had happened to Lilly. “I know she told you,” he said.
“She didn’t, actually,” Zee said. “But even if she had, I couldn’t tell you.”
“I’m the one who brought her to you. I’m the one paying the bills,” he said.
“Lilly has to be able to trust me,” Zee said calmly. “Doctor-patient confidentiality.”
It was the only time she had seen William angry. “What the hell am I paying you for?” he demanded.
The sound of his raised voice brought Zee to her feet. Mattei got to the door in time to see him hurl a glass paperweight across the room, shattering it against the far wall.
“Do you need some help in here?” Mattei asked Zee.
William looked confused and embarrassed. “I was just leaving,” he said.
“Let me see you to the door,” Mattei said.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled to Zee.
Mattei held the door for him, shooting Zee a look as they left.
Two days before Lilly was scheduled to be released, both Zee and Mattei were called to the hospital. Lilly’s hospital psychiatrist sat across from a social worker named Emily, whom Zee recognized from the Department of Social Ser vices.
“What’s going on?” Zee asked.
“We’re here because of Lilly’s physical injuries,” Emily said.
“What physical injuries?” Zee asked.
“The ones she initially presented with,” the social worker said.
“Lilly refuses to talk about them,” the staff psychiatrist said.
“She told me she fell,” Zee said. “On Halloween night.”
“That’s what’s on her admission records,” the psychiatrist said. “ ‘Suffered a fall on Halloween night due to slippery rocks.’ ” She looked at the others. “It was raining pretty hard on Halloween.”
“The bruises aren’t consistent with a fall,” Emily said. “They seem more like a beating.”
“You think she was beaten?” Zee asked.
“This is routine procedure,” Emily said. “Especially when the woman doesn’t give an explanation consistent with her injuries.”
“Lilly is scheduled to be released in two days,” the psychiatrist said. “She’s stable, her medications are properly dosed, and she’s showing no signs of depression.”
“I would respectfully disagree on that last point,” Zee said. “I think she seems depressed. She’s normally much more communicative.”
The psychiatrist paused to consider. “There is one point that makes me agree with you, Dr. Finch.”
“Only one?” Zee was getting annoyed. “What’s that?”
“Lilly does not want to go home.”
“Which plays into our suspicions of spousal abuse,” the social worker said.
“It’s not William,” Zee said.
“But if she’s afraid to go home . . .” the social worker said.
“She doesn’t feel safe at home.” Zee turned to Mattei. “If she was abused in any way, it’s Adam.”
“Who’s Adam?” Emily asked.
“Lilly was having an affair with him several months ago. He was here the other day.”
“Maybe the husband found out about the affair,” Emily suggested. “Maybe that’s what made him violent.”
“It’s not William,” Zee said again. “He’s not the type.”
Emily looked to Mattei for verification.
“I think Zee’s right,” Mattei said. “But I can’t say for certain that it wasn’t William.”
Zee shot her a look.
“I would have agreed with you until the other day,” Mattei said.
“What happened the other day?”
“There was an incident. We had to escort him from the office.”
“I think we have to cover all bases,” the psychiatrist said.
“What we really need is a formal complaint,” Emily said. “No matter which one it is.”
“You can try,” Zee said. “But I can tell you right now, she’ll never give it to you. She doesn’t want William to know about her affair. And she’s afraid of Adam.”
Not only did Lilly refuse to file a complaint, but when she was released from the hospital, she decided she wanted to see another therapist. “One closer to home,” William told Zee.
The internist who had initially prescribed the Klonopin set her up with an old-school Freudian analyst who worked out of Salem Hospital. She had agreed to meet with him five days a week and to start analysis.
“You’re kidding me,” Mattei said.
But Zee was clearly upset. “We have to stop them,” Zee said. “She shouldn’t be starting over again. That’s not the right kind of therapy for her. And she won’t tell the new therapist the truth until it’s too late. . . . We have to do something,” Zee said to Mattei.
“There’s nothing you can do,” Mattei said. “She’s not your patient anymore.”
It had been a tough winter for Zee. She’d begun to dream about Lilly, and in her dreams the images of Lilly and Zee’s mother, Maureen, had become confused. They were still separate people, but in the dream she was unable to tell them apart and kept having to ask which one she was talking to.
“This is good,” Mattei said when Zee detailed the dream in her next session.
“Really? How so?” Zee asked.
“Let’s talk about the real reason you became a therapist.”
“It wasn’t the unfulfilled dream of my mother, I can tell you that much.”
“Wasn’t it?”
“Oh, please,” Zee said.
“What was the unfulfilled