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“Excellent,” Lemmon said. “In the meantime, I want you both to make a concerted effort to discuss these issues in the coming days. Keeping everything balled up inside won’t do either of you any good. Be respectful and loving in how you communicate, but you mustactuallycommunicate about this stuff. And with Hannah away, there’s no need to avoid discussing these issues out of some sense of propriety. Speak honestly and openly. Can you both promise me that you’ll do that?”
“Yes,” Jessie said immediately.
“I promise,” Ryan concurred.
“Good,” Lemmon said, “then as the cliché says, our time is up.”
Jessie and Ryan started to get up when the doctor motioned for Jessie to remain seated.
“Ryan,” she said, “if you don’t mind, I’d like to speak to Jessie privately for a moment.”
“Okay,” he replied uncertainly.
“I assure you it has nothing to do with the two of you," she told him. "It's a matter of concern to me personally, and I'd like your wife's advice. It will only take a minute.”
“Sure,” he said, leaving the office, “I’ll be in the waiting room with Grover.”
Jessie nodded. Once he closed the door, Jessie saw Lemmon’s expression turn dark. Then the psychiatrist launched in.
“I need your help.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Jessie had never seen Janice Lemmon look so grave.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Have you ever heard of Gemma Britton?” Lemmon asked.
The name bounced around in Jessie’s head, and though it wasn’t the first time she’d heard it, she couldn’t place where she knew it from. She hoped the haziness had to do with the person more than her own memory issues.
“She sounds familiar, but I don’t know why,” she acknowledged.
“She’s a psychiatrist too,” Lemmon explained. “She became somewhat well known in recent years for her appearances on television. News channels would interview her when a celebrity, athlete, or politician got into some scrape that had a psychological connection. Eventually, she went on the speaking circuit and wrote several bestsellers.”
“Okay,” Jessie said, still unsure where this was headed.
“She was murdered on Friday,” Lemmon said simply.
Jessie wasn't sure how to react, so she answered as straightforwardly as she could.
“I hadn’t heard,” she conceded. “I’ve been kind of out of the loop all weekend because of my head thing.”
“I understand,” Lemmon said. “Anyway, she was murdered in her office. Someone beat her to death. I don’t know all the details. The reason I bring this up is that Gemma and I used to be quite good friends.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Jessie said, waiting for more information before choosing to comment further.
“Thank you,” Lemmon said. “For many years we were thick as thieves, but once she got onto this celebrity psychiatrist kick, we drifted apart. I took issue with her putting personal branding ahead of patient care and told her that. She didn’t appreciate my bluntness. By the time she died, we hadn’t spoken in any meaningful way in over three years.”
“I’m sorry,” Jessie repeated quietly.
“As am I,” Lemmon said, clearly remembering better times. “I still had great affection for her and assumed that at some point we would mend fences. Unfortunately, that’s no longer possible. But whatispossible is getting her justice. That’s why I’m telling you about it. I’m not sure that’s happening.”
“Why do you say that?” Jessie wondered.
"Because it's been two and a half days since she died, and the detectives on the case seem to have made very little headway.”
“How do you know that?”
