Pressing my luck to the limit, I kick off the workday by saying, “Hey listen, would you mind knocking out these phone calls when you get any free time today? The numbers are right here, you don’t have to look anything up. Just give them the details in that top paragraph: Sunday, six o’clock, address, et cetera. Tell them no flowers, please.” I roll my eyes to remind her of our inside joke that’s not funny. “Oh, one more.” I grab her pen and scribble a name and phone number at the bottom of the page, perhaps the only number I know by heart outside of immediate family and my childhood homes. “Raymond Harrison. He’s my oldest friend. You might have met him at a holiday party one time or another. Big guy? Just—I don’t know. Make sure he knows I want him there.”

Simone stares at the page, then up at me. “Doc?”

“Yeah.”

“We need to talk.”

“I know. How’s tomorrow? This day—” I nod toward the appointment book.

“This can’t wait.”

I check the time. “Can you do it in five minutes so doors open on time?”

“I need a raise,” she says. Well, that’s unexpected. “I’ve been here a long time.” She sounds nervous and rehearsed. “I do my job, and I do it very well, but I also do lots of things that aren’t my job.” She shakes the guest list. “This is personal assistant stuff, Dr. Hart. I should have set better boundaries in the beginning, but this isn’t my responsibility. Neither is shopping for gifts for your wife. Neither is covering your bases.” She pauses, letting this last part settle. In a hard whisper, she says, “I lied to the cops for you. You realize that, right? I’ve practically perjured myself.”

Fire in my veins. “Do you even know what perjure means? What are you suggesting?”

“I’m not suggesting anything. I’m asking for a raise.”

“Or else?”

“Or else I quit, or else—well, what are you suggesting?”

I stiffen. “Are you trying to blackmail me?”

She plays innocent with, “Do you really think that’s the kind of person I am?”

“I don’t know what to think. I’m sorry. This is a very stressful time.”

“Yes. Of course it is.” She stares into space, her head bobbing gently, then she freezes and looks me in the eye. “And you know what? I hadn’t thought of it before, but you bring up a very good point. This has been an exceptionally stressful time. If I were to lose my job or be forced to quit, it might be difficult to keep ignoring the things I ignore as part of my job. Is that what you were suggesting? Because if so, you understood what I was saying even before I did.”

I’ve never done this before. “How much?”

“Forty percent.”