Adrianna told her that she was furious with Garth, his endless trips that didn’t include her, and his pissy attitude in general. She was breaking it off for good this time. Mandy congratulated her. Adrianna was too good to put up with Garth’s nonsense. But then Adrianna broke down. During their telephone call, Garth had begged her to reconsider. He said he really loved her and would prove it by canceling his trip to Reno and coming down just to talk to her. Adrianna told Mandy that she didn’t know what to do. While she wanted to break up, there was part of her that still loved him. Mandy, who was playing the wise therapist, encouraged her to stay firm in her decision.

Of course, it came out fairly soon into the interview that Mandy had more personal reasons for wanting Adrianna gone. The truth was that Garth had never planned to go with his pals to the mountains. His intentions all along were to come back to L.A. and sneak off with Mandy for a couple of days—just the two of them.

Mandy was in love with Garth.

Mandy suggested that Adrianna needed to go home and sleep. Adrianna wanted to go home, too, but Garth was coming in. They were going to meet at the hospital, so she couldn’t leave. Mandy “volunteered” to deal with Garth. Again she told Adrianna to go home and sit on her emotions for a couple of days. Then, with a clearer mind, she could deal with Garth. But Adrianna insisted on staying and meeting with boyfriend.

That was the first mistake.

Now Mandy was getting agitated. For the last six months, she had been planning this tryst and she was inwardly enraged at the prospect of having to cancel everything. Adrianna’s timing couldn’t have been worse. She had been putting up with Garth’s womanizing for two years. For once, she had decided to show some spine and it was totally messing up Mandy’s romantic getaway. She had to get rid of her. Not kill her, Mandy told them: that never entered her mind. Mandy just wanted Adrianna to go home and sleep for a very, very long time.

Since Adrianna insisted on staying at the hospital, Mandy suggested that she go into one of the empty “on-call” rooms and grab a couple hours of sleep before Garth came in. Adrianna concurred. Then Mandy looked up and saw her head nurse giving her the evil eye in the cafeteria. She knew she had to act quickly.