Page 115 of The Chain

She’s pretty, she’s young, she has a great sense of humor, and she’s smart; if she comes from money too, that’ll just about seal it for Marty,Rachel thinks. “So you’re a local, Ginger?” she asks.

“Oh my God, is my accent that outrageous?”

“No, that’s not what I was getting at. I just wondered what high school you went to. Maybe you guys went to the same one. I’m not from around these parts.”

Marty shakes his head. “Nah, she went to Innsmouth High,” he says. Rachel hasn’t heard of it. “Redneckville,” Marty explains.

“I guess I was a real boonie kid,” Ginger says. “Lucky to get out.”

Yeah, yeah,Rachel thinks.Realboonie kids don’t get PhDs at BU. Although, Jesus, she shouldn’t talk. Harvard. I mean, come on. Partial scholarship, yes, but even so.

“So what do you do in the FBI?” Rachel asks with another quick look at Pete.

“Profiling, right?” Pete suggests.

Ginger laughs. “You’d think, huh? I’ve been angling for the BAU for years, but the Bureau in its ineffable wisdom has stuck me in its white-collar-crime division.”

“Fun work?” Rachel asks.

They talk about evil bankers for a bit and in a lull, Marty asks how Kylie is doing in school. Rachel shakes her head. “She’s been under a lot of stress.”

“Have you read those e-mails her teachers have been sending?”

“Yeah,” Rachel replies. “I don’t think we should talk about this, er, you know, here.”

“No, sure, of course,” Marty says. “Only, um, if Kylie is going through something, Ginger works with psychologists and psychotherapists.”

“We already tried a psychotherapist. It’s complicated,” Rachel replies.

“I do know some really good people,” Ginger says helpfully. “Both inside the Bureau and out.”

“Drop it. Here she comes,” Pete says.

Despite her family’s concern, Kylie is all smiles. She’s got some crazy Starbucks concoction with a bunch of whipped cream and chocolate on top.

“We should go,” Marty says.

“Really? Can’t we all just sit together for a minute?” Kylie begs.

They sit at the window table and talk as the sky threatens snow. Marty observes that New England does Christmas better than anywhere else.

Rachel smiles and tries to contribute but Pete sees that she’s getting tired. They all say their goodbyes, and he takes her home.

She can’t hold down food that night.

She can’t sleep.

She sits in bed with a cold cup of tea.

Again that thought to punish herself:If she had succumbed to the cancer a year ago, none of this would have happened.

58

And still they don’t stop. The dreams. The man in the snow. The fear. The bed-wetting. The stomach cramps. Every day, Kylie is getting weaker. She puts a brave face on it but Rachel sees. Rachel knows. And she is getting weaker too. Fading away. The longer the cancer treatment goes on, the longer the process of recovery.

They have to strike now.

Pete counsels against the plan. He has his own demons. The pain is coming back. The hunger. He is failing too.