Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place

same security protocol. The only hitch here is that I’m a surgeon, not a records clerk. I have access, but it will log that I’ve looked at records that I probably have no need to review. It will send a report up to the IT people and I’ll have some explaining to do”
    “You’ll think of something,” Emily said. “You can be a good liar when you want to be” She hated herself for saying that, but the words just slipped out. David was doing some thing that she needed done. Desperately. A court order would take too long.
    Jenna won’t be another Kristi Cooper.
    “Where’s your printer?” Emily asked.
    “You didn’t say anything about making copies. I could get in deep shit for this. No copies.”
    “You want me to be here all day? Do you want me to get to the bottom of this?”
    David eyed his office door. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but he was willing to consider what Emily was saying. His assistant Lindsay dropped off some correspondence. She smiled at David. It was a slightly flirtatious smile, not quite come hither, but far past cordial.
    The look for a single doctor. Emily figured she didn’t know that Dani was at home, pregnant and destined to be the doctor’s wife.
    After she left, David spoke.
    “Okay, the printer is next to Lindsay’s workstation. I’ll tell her you are printing out some tax stuff for us, and to keep people clear of the printer. She’ll listen.”
    “Yeah, she’s in love with you.”
    David blushed slightly, but he didn’t deny it. “Just do what you need to do. For Jenna” He left his expansive office, letting the door shut slowly behind him.
    Emily stared at the screen and began to type: Angel’s Nest + Agency. The system’s hourglass timer began to spin as the computer worked through the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of records. Emily looked around and noticed for the first time a photo of Jenna and David taken at the Grand Canyon. She was missing from the shot. Not because she’d held the camera-as she did on most of their travels but because he’d cropped her out. She could still see the shadowy form of her arm over Jenna’s shoulder. Emily shook her head. The computer kept grinding. Through the frosted glass panels alongside his office door, Emily could see Lindsay’s silhouette moving around her cubicle.
    The search screen popped up.
    What the-?
    It was packed with entries for Angel’s Nest. Bonnie Jeffries’s name leapt off a few of the citations. There must have been more than a hundred. Emily started scanning them when Lindsay decided she needed to come in with a mug of stale hospital coffee.
    “Want some? Dr. Kenyon told me you’re his ex-wife,” she said, though there was no reason except the medical assistant’s apparent need to confirm what her boss had told her.
    “I’m fine,” Emily said. “I’m printing out some private tax records”
    “David told me,” she said.
    David? Hmmm. Poor Dani. I almost feel sorry for her. Almost.
    “I’ll get those pages for you”
    “No,” Emily said firmly. “I’ll get them. They are, after all, private.”
    “Oh that’s okay,” the assistant said with a smile. “David trusts me with all of his private affairs.”
    “But I don’t.” Emily got up, pushed past the dumbstruck young woman and went to the printer. She guarded it as page after page rolled out. Finally, a moment or two passed, and the machine stopped. She retrieved the stack and started for the elevator.
    Lindsay stood there with her hands on her hips. She was talking to another medical staff member. Emily could read just one word on her lips.
    “Bitch.”
    You don’t know the meaning of the word, Emily thought. But Dani will teach you.

Chapter Twenty-nine
    Sunday, 5:10, Seattle
    It was very late afternoon when Emily returned to her hotel room. She’d practically lived on her cell phone since leaving David’s office with the medical records tucked into a Macy’s shopping bag next to Lindsay-in-love’s desk. She’d talked with Gloria at the sheriff’s office back home. No news. She left a message for Olga. She had even talked with Dani to try to patch things up. The conversation played in her mind and she felt her anger rise.
    “I am sorry,” Emily had said, gritting her teeth somewhat, but making a valiant effort. An outboard motor went by. Dani was out on the deck overlooking the lake.
    “I’d like to believe you,” Dani responded, coolly. “For Jenna’s sake”
    Why do you insist on being such a