I made it to the clinic in fifteen minutes. I
pulled around the back of the building, like Janice had instructed,
and sure enough, she was waiting for me at the back door. This late
in the day, her gray hair frizzled out of the bun she wore to keep
it off her face, and she snubbed out the butt of her cigarette as I
reached her. “Oooh, he’s pissed,” she said with a shake of her
head. One foot kept the door open, which she pulled wide to usher
me inside. “You better be right about this, Curt, because he almost
bit my head off when I told him he had one more scheduled.”
“You didn’t tell him it was me?” I asked,
concerned.
The incredulous look she gave me made me
laugh. “Are you kidding? I dropped the news like a bomb and got out
of there before he could explode.” Leading the way
