Part 7

Quinn and Joe were drinking coffee at Kelly's.

"Sometimes I wonder if I was doing the wrong thing here," Quinn said. "Do you suppose I really did want to get her into trouble somehow?"

"Don't see that you could have done it alone," Joe said. "The authorities didn't have to do anything about it, even after they had heard your story."

"I did check it with Joanna. She agreed."

"You've been cautious about your own prejudices. You think this girl would try to get away with that?"

"I don't know for sure. I think her brother would. Then, that she'd allow her brother to do it for her seems to be insulting her too much."

"She may have, so it's not insulting her too much."

"I don't know, Joe. Why do I have this nagging guilt feeling? Maybe Zander is right – there's something about her that does it. Or maybe it's being her nurse. Seems disloyal."

Joe smiled. "Maybe you don't feel so bad that she's been charged because you helped smoke her out. Maybe you feel it more for feeling like it's something she deserves and so you don't mind seeing her suffer the brunt of it. If that happened to somebody else, you'd still feel bad for them."

"You know, that could be it. I could be even feeling good that she had to deal with the consequences. Because I get the idea from Zander that she never does. I don't feel like I'm jealous of their past."

"This Sean got you thinking about that," Joe said. "He's in the position to be jealous of you, of Zander."

"For that matter, Emily does it, when she suggests that it was some sort of mistake they broke up. Needles at me. I shouldn't let it happen, because Zander reassures me."

"It's natural to the situation," Joe said. "You can't help but be a little jealous of their past. So would Zander be cautious of Sean and Paul. It's even worse for you, because this Emily character got into your life another way."

"Two other ways, with that accursed Shyster Sean!"

"That's right," Joe said. "You know, that is really strange. Really suspicious. Makes me real suspicious of Sean, especially."

"Are you glad I didn't marry him?" Quinn asked, smiling.

"I think I was, but see, that was because you'd be living off in Kentucky, dear, which is a lot more for my benefit than yours! But it's him too. I think. I don't question your judgment dating him and all, and when it came to the point, you made a good decision. Now it just looks like confirmation."

"Yeah," Quinn said. "I'm more sure that was the right decision. He was such a arrogant pup over at the hospital! I wanted to punch him in the nose!"

"Oh, the Irish temper."

Quinn laughed.

Someone was standing near the table. Quinn looked up, to see Elizabeth Webber standing there with a cup of coffee.

"Oh, hello," Quinn said.

"Hi," Elizabeth answered. "Hi, Joe."

"How are you doing, Elizabeth?" Joe asked. "Have a seat."

Elizabeth looked at Quinn, who nodded.

"We have our Boxcar Art Exhibit about ready to go," Elizabeth said. "Next week, we should be ready. I hope you both come out to see it."

"I would really like to," Joe said.

"Yes," Quinn echoed. "Did you know Zander passed the test?"

"No," Elizabeth answered. "I'm glad to hear that."

"He is really happy," Quinn said.

"You and your brother and the other nurse," Elizabeth went on, "I saw you at the Nurse's Ball. You were pretty good."

"Thanks."

"Then at Nicholas and Gia's wedding I met this Sean guy," Elizabeth said. "Then I saw him again recently. He was asking me questions about Emily's DUI case."

"I guess you know he was my old boyfriend from college?"

"Yes," Elizabeth grinned a little. "He came to talk to me about the night of the engagement party and the accident. He talked to Paul, too. Wouldn't you have loved to have been able to be a fly on the wall to hear that one?"

"Maybe. Ah, no. Who cares what they have to say?" Quinn stirred her coffee, smiling a little bit.

"I told Sean I didn't notice Emily drinking at the party," Elizabeth went on, "We went over that – I only remember Lucky making a show of getting her a glass of champagne. Then he started asking me about the time I visited Emily in the hospital. You weren't there, Quinn, I guess you were on another shift. She had been telling me about how she wanted to ask Zander about his family. She was complaining about how he never told her. We had been talking about that at the party. Cheryl asked Gia about her honeymoon, Gia said Oksana was giving her the time off, that led Cheryl onto Zander's problems with his parents. Emily was right there. But later on, in the hospital, Emily said that when the accident happened, she was going to see Zander. To ask him about what Cheryl had told her about his family. I didn't think much of it. As I was telling Sean, I started to wonder. AJ was driving her to go see Zander? That doesn't sound likely to me."

"You mean you think that statement means she was driving?" Quinn asked, drawn into solving the mystery in spite of herself. "Do you think that's what Sean got out of it?"

"I don't know. He's good at avoiding reactions. But the police talked to me about it and never got onto the subject of my visit to Emily in the hospital. Here was this Sean trying to help Emily, but he could have hurt her, because I remember this now. It does suggest it, doesn't it? And I told V. about it so the prosecution would know. Part of me wants to be quiet about it, because of damaging Emily's case, but part of me wants to be a good citizen and tell the truth of what I know. Emily's supposed to be my best friend, but I'm no longer real impressed by that. I keep waiting for one of her relatives to come and yell at me about it, because that's their way."

"There was something about how she was asking for Zander when she first woke up, too," Quinn said. "Though only her family heard that, and they won't say it now. Adding that to your information – well, it doesn't really prove she was driving, I guess. What do you think Joe?"

"It is more suggestive than proof," Joe said. "AJ has to say he was taking her to Zander, though. I mean, if they are telling falsehoods, they have to get their false story straight between the two of them."

"Maybe that will bring it out. If AJ says something different, because he doesn't know that part of it," Elizabeth said.

"Sean will tell AJ about it, and help them get their stories straight," Quinn said. "At least, he could."

"An honest lawyer," Joe grinned.

AJ sat on a park bench with Joanna, tossing one of Michael's plastic balls. "This gets worse," he said. "I should have realized it."

"What now?" Joanna asked. Her children and Michael were playing a few feet away.

"Never start lying, Joanna," he said. "Once you start, you have to keep doing it. Now I have to say I was taking Emily to see Zander."

"How is that?"

"She told someone else she was going to see him when the accident happened."

"You and she have to get your stories straight, of course," Joanna said. "One would think that would go without saying."

"I don't know why I didn't think about that," he said. "She had to have been going somewhere. These lawyers complicate it no end by bringing everything up."

"Yeah, everything."

"Emily could have said anything to anybody over this time," AJ observed.

"Well, aren't you in cahoots?"

"Not really! I was doing all this without her!"

"See, it doesn't even work," Joanna said. "For crying out loud, let your sister take her lumps like you did."