Along Came a Spider

played Alex the Shrink in the old prefab trailer over at St. A’s. Sampson and I drank a few cases of beer together. Then we tried to work it off at the gym. In between, we spent long hours at work.
    I drove to Jezzie’s apartment the day she came back. On the way over there, I listened to Derek McGinty on WAMU again. My talk-show brother. His voice calmed my nervous stomach. One time, I’d actually called in to his night show. Disguised my voice. Talked about Maria, the kids, being on the edge for too long.
    When Jezzie opened the door, I was startled by the way she looked. She’d let her hair grow and fan out so that it looked like a sunburst. She was tan, and looked as healthy as a California lifeguard in August. She looked as if nothing could ever be wrong in her life.
    “You look rested and all,” I told her. I was feeling a little resentful, actually. She had taken off before the trial had ended. No good-byes. No explanations. What did that tell me about who she was?
    Jezzie had always been trim, but she was leaner and tighter now. The circles that had been under her eyes so many times during the kidnapping investigation were gone. She had on denim shorts and an old T-shirt that said IF YOU CAN’T DAZZLE THEM WITH BRILLIANCE, BAFFLE THEM WITH BULLSHIT. She was dazzling in all ways.
    She smiled gently. “I’m a lot better, Alex. I think I’m almost healed.”
    She came out on the porch and into my arms, and I felt a little healed myself. I held her and thought that I had been on this strange planet, all alone for a while. I could see myself on this barren moonscape. It had been up to me to find someone new to be with, someone to love again.
    “Tell me everything that’s been happening. What’s it like to fall off the earth?” I asked. Her hair smelled so fresh and clean. Everything about her seemed new and refreshed.
    “It’s pretty good, actually, falling off the earth. I haven’t
not
worked since I was sixteen years old. It was scary the first few days. Then it was fine,” she said with her head still buried in my chest. “There was only one thing I missed,” she whispered. “I wanted you there with me. If that sounds corny, too bad.”
    That was one of the things I wanted to hear. “I would have come,” I said.
    “I needed to do it the way I did. I had to think everything through one time. I didn’t call anybody else, Alex. Not one other person. I found out a lot about myself. Maybe I even found out who Jezzie Flanagan really is.”
    I raised her chin up, and looked into her eyes. “Tell me what you found out. Tell me who Jezzie is.”
    Arm in arm, we went inside the house.

    But Jezzie didn’t talk very much about who she was, or what she’d found out about herself down at her lake cottage. We fell into old habits, and ones that, I must admit, I had missed. I wondered if she still cared for me, and just how much she’d wanted to come back to D.C. I needed a sign from her.
    Jezzie began to unbutton my shirt, and there was no way I was going to stop her. “I did miss you so much,” she whispered against my chest. “Did you miss me Alex?”
    I had to smile. My physical condition at that moment was the obvious answer to her question. “Now what do you think? Take a guess.”
    Jezzie and I got a little wild that afternoon. I couldn’t help remembering the night the
National Star
showed up outside our motel room. She was definitely leaner and tighter, and she’d been in playing shape before she’d gone away. Jezzie was also tan all over.
    “Who’s darker?” I asked her and grinned.
    “
I
definitely am. Brown as a berry, as they say around the lake.”
    “You’re just dazzling me with your brilliance,” I told her.
    “Uh huh. How long can we keep this up? Talking and looking, not touching. Will you unbutton the rest of your shirt buttons? Please.”
    “Does that excite you?” I asked. My voice caught in my throat a little.
    “Uh huh. Actually, you can take the shirt off.”
    “You were going to tell me something about who you are, what you learned on your retreat,” I reminded her. Confessor and lover. A sexy concept in itself.
    “You can kiss me now. If you want to, Alex. Can you kiss me without anything but our lips touching?’
    “Uhm, I’m not sure about that. Let me turn a little this way. And that way. Are you trying to shut me up, by the way?”
    “Why would I want to do that? Doctor Detective?”

CHAPTER 70

    I THREW MYSELF into work again. I had