InSight

of her and a half-filled glass in her hand.”
    This was another one of those things Abby didn’t see coming. “Break it. Break it now.”
    Luke moved her back and burst through to the sound of splintering wood. He took Abby’s arm and led her inside.
    “Lucy?” Abby called. She knew Lucy’s house like she knew her own, but fear of something happening to her mother caused her to lose focus, and she bumped into a table.
    Luke grabbed Abby’s arm and whispered in her ear. “Lucy hasn’t even looked up. She’s sitting immobile, contemplating the drink.” He moved Abby into the room. “Are you okay, Mrs. Gallant?” he asked.
    The strong scent of scotch and Luke’s description of Lucy rekindled Abby’s childhood memories. The small girl taking the glass from her mother’s hand after she keeled over onto the table. The teenager coaxing Lucy to give up just one more .
    “I’m going to take this out of your hand,” Luke said.
    “Oh no you’re not. You leave it right where it is.”
    Lucy responded in a tone that Abby hadn’t heard in a long time.
    “I didn’t see what she said, but I can tell I’d better not touch that drink.”
    Abby sat down beside her mother and reached for her hand. “What happened, Lucy?”
    “Meyer had a stroke last night. He’s in intensive care. The doctors aren’t sure he’ll make it. If he does, he might be permanently impaired.”
    That word again: impaired. Lucy meant paralyzed, but I won’t call her on it this time. “Have you seen him?”
    “We were together when it happened. I recognized the symptoms and called 911. They operated on him last night and said if it wasn’t for me, Meyer would have died.”
    “Did you go to the hospital?” Abby asked.
    “I spent all morning there, but I was a wreck. His children told me to go home and that they’d call as soon as they knew something.”
    Abby moved closer, her voice calm. “So why the drink? Do you think that will make everything go away?”
    Lucy took her time answering. “I’m not like you, honey. I’ve never been able to confront things the way you do. I’m weak; I’ve always been weak. That’s why I drank in the first place, so I wouldn’t have to face what I couldn’t handle.”
    Abby wanted to tell her how weak she had been after being shot, the temptations she contemplated, but this wasn’t a time for her. This was Lucy’s time.
    She put her arm around her mother’s shoulder. “Not true. You were my rock after I was shot. No one could have been stronger or more supportive. You never let me feel sorry for myself, and I sure as hell tried. Without your strength, I wouldn’t have survived. That’s a fact.”
    “I don’t know if I can do it again, baby. I depend on him so much; I don’t know…”
    Lucy’s sniffles hit Abby hard. “You can’t do this to yourself. If he makes it, he’ll need you, and this isn’t going to help.” She felt her way down Lucy’s arm and reached for the glass. Lucy let her take it. Abby held it out for Luke. He took it. She heard him pick up the bottle and carry them to the kitchen.
    Lucy’s sobs came in gushes. She rested her head on her daughter’s shoulder and Abby wrapped her arms around her, kissing the beehive of hair. “It’ll be all right. You’ll see.”

Chapter Twenty One
    A Piece of the Puzzle

    A bby stayed the night at Lucy’s to make sure her mother didn’t fall off the wagon that’s always parked outside an alcoholic’s door. In the morning, Lucy insisted she could handle the hospital visit alone.
    “Are you sure you don’t want me to go?”
    “No, you have patients to see. I can do this.”
    “Give him my love.”
    Meyer Goldman was more like family to Abby and Macy than the Gentrys were during her nine-year marriage. He mourned the loss of his adopted granddaughter as if she were his own. To think of him suffering broke Abby’s heart.
    Abby called Cleo and told her she’d be a few minutes late. She had one client this morning who she hoped would understand. Then she canceled her usual taxi pickup, and Lucy dropped her at the office. She walked into a hornet’s nest when she arrived.
    “Jonah Wall is here, Abby,” Cleo said. “He’s upset he had to wait.”
    “How can you be late, Doctor Gallant?” Jonah said in a childish frenzy when he took his seat in her office. “I wait all week to see you, and you’re late. A few weeks ago, that guy who came out of your office upset you, and you were distracted all during my