“So we went back to the clinic to see if there are other cases,” Marissa explained. “But they would not let us search their files for reasons of confidentiality.”

“If you were running a clinic,” Robert asked Gustave, “would you let a couple of people off the street come in and access your records?”

“Absolutely not,” Gustave agreed.

“That’s what I tried to explain to the ladies last night,” Robert said. “The clinic is only operating in a reasonable, ethical, and legal fashion. I would have been shocked if they had given any information at all.”

“We are hardly ‘people off the street,’ ” Wendy said heatedly. “We’re doctors as well as patients.”

“Being two of the five in your own series hardly makes you objective,” Gustave pointed out. “Especially with the hormones you women have been taking.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Robert said, raising his beer bottle.

Wendy and Marissa exchanged frustrated glances.

After wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Robert turned back to Marissa. “Five cases?” he said. “Last night you mentioned four.”

“Rebecca Ziegler had the same problem,” Marissa answered.

“No kidding,” Robert said. Turning to Gustave, he said, “She was the woman who committed suicide over at the Women’s Clinic. She went berserk in the waiting room just as Marissa and I arrived, the very day she jumped. I tried to restrain her but she slugged me.”

“Wendy told me about her,” Gustave said. “You tried to restrain her before she jumped?”

“Nothing so dramatic,” Robert said. “She was about to attack a receptionist. Seems the receptionist wouldn’t let her see her records. It wasn’t until later that she jumped out of the window. And that was from the top floor, not the waiting room.”

Gustave nodded. “Tragic case,” he said.

“It may be more tragic than you think,” Marissa blurted without thinking. “Wendy and I learned something else today. Rebecca Ziegler might not have committed suicide. She might have been murdered. That’s how reasonable, ethical, and legal the Women’s Clinic is being run.”

As soon as Marissa had mentioned this shocking possibility, she regretted it. There were a number of reasons she shouldn’t have said anything, her promise to Ken foremost among them. She tried to change the subject to tuberculosis, but Robert wouldn’t let it go.

“I think you’d better explain,” he insisted.

Realizing her mistake, Marissa decided she had no choice but to tell the whole story. After she’d finished, Robert sat back in his chair and looked at Gustave. “You’re a doctor,” he said. “What do you think of what you just heard?”