Suddenly Read Free Page B

didn’t have to point that out. Angie was already shaking her head.
    “We’ll have to talk with them ourselves. Mara was their champion. They’ll need help dealing with her death…. Her death. My God , that’s awful.”
    Leaning against the edge of Angie’s desk, sharing the pain with someone competent enough to help with the decisions, Paige could be weak as she hadn’t been since she had found Norman in her office earlier that morning. She touched her throat. The vividness of Mara’s death was choking her.
    Annie gave her a hug. “I’m sorry, Paige,” she said softly. “You were closer to her than I was.” She drew back. “Have you told Peter?”
    Paige shook her head. She forced the words out. “He’s next on my list. He’ll be as stunned as we are. He thought Mara was tough as nails.” She made a self-deprecating sound. “So did I. Never in a million years did I imagine she would…she would…” She couldn’t say it.
    Angie hugged her again. “Maybe she didn’t.”
    “Without violence, what else could it be?”
    “I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.”
    “Wait and see” implied the future. Catching a glimpse of it, Paige felt a deep inner pang. “The practice won’t be the same without Mara. It’s been an incredible foursome. Each of us different, but meshing into a great team. The group worked.”
    Paige was its common denominator. She had known Mara from college, Angie from a year-long overlap as pediatric residents in Chicago. Angie had taken time off to have Dougie, was living in New York and ready to return to work, when Paige connected with Peter, a native of Tucker with the kind of leisurely small-town practice that appealed to the others. Given the promise of the small community hospital nearby and the fact that none of the four pediatricians was out for big bucks, they pooled their time, effort, and expertise in a way that enabled them to offer high-quality medical care while working reasonable hours. Angie’s pragmatism was a foil for Mara’s dynamism; Paige’s business sense countered Peter’s provinciality. They complemented each other and were friends.
    “Mara was a good doctor,” Angie said in tribute. “She loved kids, and they loved her because they knew she was on their side. Her shoes will be hard to fill.”
    Paige could only nod in agreement. The sense of loss she felt was devastating.
    “Will you be making the funeral plans?” Angie asked.
    She nodded again. “Not looking forward to it.”
    “Can I help?”
    She shook her head. “I have to.” She owed it to Mara.
    “We’ll close on that day,” Angie said. “Ginny can reschedule appointments once the plans are firmed up. In the meanwhile, I’ll see as many of Mara’s patients as I can. Peter will see the rest. Want me to call him?”
    “No, no. I’ll do it.” Paige was, after all, the hub of the wheel. Hard to believe a spoke had been taken out for good.
     
    She woke Peter from a deep sleep. He sounded none too pleased. “This had better be good, Paige. I’m not due at work until one.”
    “It’s not good,” she said, too mentally taut to cushion the blow. “Mara is dead.”
    “Dammit to hell, so was I. I didn’t get to bed until two—”
    “ Dead. I just came back from the morgue.”
    There was a pause, then a more cautious, “What are you talking about?”
    “They found her in her car in the garage,” Paige said. With each repetition, the story grew increasingly surreal. “They’re guessing carbon monoxide poisoning.”
    There was another pause, a longer one, then a puzzled, “She killed herself?”
    Paige heard a mumbling in the background. She waited until Peter impatiently hushed it before saying, “They don’t know what happened. The autopsy might tell us something, but in the meantime we need you here. I have to make plans for the funeral, and Angie is already—”
    “Was there a note?” he asked sharply.
    “No, no note. Angie is already seeing patients. We