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“So, Elaine Golding, huh?” Graham says out of the blue.
Aaron turns to him. “What about her?”
“She’s the one you two were talking about, right? On the speaker phone with you-know-who?”
Aaron tightens his grip on the steering wheel. “What does any of that have to do with Hassan?”
“Nothing. But I’m guessing she has a lot to do with Holly. I did a little online search. Elaine Golding—noted opioid activist—OD’d in Laguna on the same day as that patient you two were discussing. She had to be the one who was threatening to expose Holly, right?”
“This is none of your concern.”
“What are the chances they weren’t the same person?”
“What’s the matter with you?” Aaron snaps. “Don’t you understand that I can’t talk about this even if I wanted to? And trust me, I don’t.”
“God, you’re as touchy as she is about this.”
Aaron can feel his cheeks burning. “Don’t…”
“I didn’t ask to be pulled in on that phone call, did I, Dad? But now I’m pretty freakin’ curious.”
“Let it go, Graham.”
“You got to admit, Dad. It’s kind of convenient. This woman is threatening to destroy Holly’s career with some bombshell… and then poof.” He snaps his fingers. “She ODs before she can reveal anything?”
“Leave it the fuck alone!” Aaron yells.
The shout startles Graham into silence. Aaron rarely raises his voice, and he can’t remember the last time he dropped an F-bomb, let alone in front of his son. But it’s a nerve Graham should have known better than to touch.
After dropping Graham off without so much as a look or a word exchanged between them, Aaron has to focus on his breathing to settle his raging emotions. Even before his son decided to meddle in Holly’s business, Aaron had been obsessing over his wife’s recent lack of responsiveness. After she slept over, he had begun to think they might be back on the path toward reconciliation. But since then, she has avoided his calls and his texts, and he can feel his optimism seeping away.
The last thing Holly needs is Graham poking around Elaine’s death and escalating her distress. But Aaron is also painfully aware that Holly connects best to him when she’s at her most vulnerable. The more he calms, the more opportunity he recognizes in her predicament.
Rather than turn north along the Coastal Highway toward his office, Aaron instead heads south. Twenty minutes later, he pulls up to the familiar old rancher in Dana Point.
Aaron hasn’t shown up alone at Walter’s house in years, if ever. As soon as the old man sees him at the door, he demands, “Did something happen to Holly?”
“No, no.” Aaron waves off the idea. “I was just in the neighborhood. Thought I’d drop in.”
“Ah.” Walter eyes him skeptically. “Well, I was just brewing tea. Care for a cuppa, as the Brits say?”
“I’d love one, thanks.”
Aaron can’t help but notice the new hobble in Walter’s step, but the old man still moves at a good clip as he leads Aaron into the kitchen.
“In the neighborhood, were you?” Walter asks as he fills a second teacup from the kettle.
Aaron considers making up a cover story, but he suspects Walter would see straight through it. “I’m worried about your granddaughter,” he admits.
Walter passes him the cup with the teabag still in it and then sits down across from him at the table. “Worried about what, specifically?”
“After her client died…” Aaron holds up a hand. “She must’ve told you about that, right?”
Walter nods.
“It devastated her.”
“Wouldn’t any psychiatrist be devastated to lose a patient that way?”
