Page 79 of Code 6

“Was that a compliment or a come-on?” asked Sandra, as she emerged from around the corner.

The guard started to explain, but Gamble told him to drop it. He stepped away, leaving the inmate and visitor alone at the table. Sandra crossed one khaki pant leg over the other, interlaced her fingers, and sat with her hands folded in her lap.

“You look good, Christian,” she said.

“Is that a compliment or a come-on?” he asked.

Sandra smiled. “Let’s not rewrite history. You were the one who had the crush on me. Not the other way around.”

“It was a safe crush. I knew nothing would come of it.”

“How did you know that?”

“A psychiatrist can lose her license for having a relationship with her patient.”

“You weren’t technically my patient.”

“Look, Sandra. I know you think I led you on. But I was starving for... just for someone totalkto. Before we were married, Elizabeth once said to me, ‘There’s only two kinds of people who can be totally honest with each other, lovers and strangers. Everyone else is just negotiating.’”

“I like that.”

“It’s especially true when you’re CEO of a company like mine. Elizabeth and I used to have that kind of honesty. We lost it when her ‘lover’ became vodka.”

He wasn’t looking for sympathy, but he saw a glimmer of it in her eyes.

“But you would never leave her.”

“How could I? You said it yourself. Alcoholism is a disease.”

“So?”

“If my wife got cancer, would I leave her? If she developed dementia, would I find someone new?”

“That’s not the same thing,” she said, any sympathy supplanted by pure frustration. “Cancer and dementia don’t come in a bottle.”

“Either it’s a disease or it isn’t, Doctor. ‘In sickness and in health,’” he added, referencing the traditional vows.

“I suppose some people would find that admirable.”

“You don’t?”

“It doesn’t matter. Not as long as I’m in this place.”

“You won’t be in prison forever,” he said.

“I will if I succumb to the father-daughter tag team you and Kate are playing, trying to get me to admit to something I didn’t do.”

“That’s not what this is about.”

“Then why did you come here?” she asked.

His gaze tightened. “I want to hear how you knew about the note.”

“The note?”

“The note Elizabeth left me. ‘I did it for Kate.’”

Sandra looked away, then back, and Gamble knew her well enough to see that she was going to dodge the question.

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