The Map of True Places by Brunonia Barry Read Free Book Online Page B

faulty; they often didn’t close properly. She’d already had two of them repaired by Adam. She’d been meaning to speak with him about fixing this final one, but she hadn’t gotten around to it before she stopped seeing him.
    William returned home later that night, but Lilly wasn’t there. The children were asleep. At midnight he called the police and reported her missing. They told him he’d have to wait forty-eight hours before they got involved. Though they didn’t share their information with him, the police had a pretty good idea where she might be.
    Lilly didn’t come home until two days later. When she did, she was sullen and down-cycling. She wouldn’t eat. She had several bruises. No matter how many times she was asked, she would never say where she’d been or what had happened.
    After the emergency room took care of her injuries, Zee had Lilly admitted to a Boston psychiatric hospital on an involuntary seventy-two-hour 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.
    â€œYou 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.
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    W ILLIAM 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.
    â€œShe didn’t, actually,” Zee said. “But even if she had, I couldn’t tell you.”
    â€œI’m the one who brought her to you. I’m the one paying the bills,” he said.
    â€œLilly 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.
    â€œDo you need some help in here?” Mattei asked Zee.
    William looked confused and embarrassed. “I was just leaving,” he said.
    â€œLet me see you to the door,” Mattei said.
    â€œI’m sorry,” he mumbled to Zee.
    Mattei held the door for him, shooting Zee a look as they left.
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    T WO DAYS BEFORE L ILLY 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 Services.
    â€œWhat’s going on?” Zee asked.
    â€œWe’re here because of Lilly’s physical injuries,” Emily said.
    â€œWhat physical injuries?” Zee asked.
    â€œThe ones she initially presented with,” the social worker said.
    â€œLilly refuses to talk about them,” the staff psychiatrist said.
    â€œShe told me she fell,” Zee said.