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even one as supposedly rich as Alexandra Royce Wright, can afford a real necklace like that. And if she was stupid enough to buy something like that, she’d have to keep it in a safe.”
    Once the shades were pulled and the facial began, the pair grew silent. Madeleine hated any distraction when she was trying to relax. She just wanted the quietly delicious sensation of endorphins -- the body’s natural opiates -- flooding her body. Gradually, her headache faded away.
    Madeleine waited until the leg waxing began to broach the subject uppermost in her mind. “Anthony tells me you’re having flashbacks about Nicole.”
    Kimmie stiffened but didn’t take her eyes off her work. “He’s telling my secrets?”
    “So you are having flashbacks.”
    Kimmie shrugged. “I don’t know whether they’re flashbacks or what he calls false memories.”
    “He says you think I struck Nicole and that’s why she drowned.”
    “Sometimes that’s what I see. I hear her screaming.”
    “You hear her screaming? Weren’t you screaming too?”
    Kimmie nodded.
    “Were you screaming because you were mad at Nicole?”
    Kimmie shook her head.
    “That’s right. We were screaming with laughter.”
    “I guess. The scene is very confused in my mind, all out of sequence. I can’t remember exactly what happened when. But sometimes I see fighting and hear screaming and it doesn’t look like play or sound like laughter.”
    Madeleine, who had been lying flat, suddenly sat up. “Have you told anybody else?”
    At that, Kimmie looked at her with wide eyes. “Of course not.”
    “Because it’s a false memory, you know. I didn’t fight with Nicole. I wasn’t mad at her. I tried to rescue her. In fact, I tried so hard I almost killed myself on whatever I hit in the water and then I got caught in the riptide too. I was terrified.”
    “That’s what you said.”
    “I didn’t get bruised or scratched by Nicole.”
    “Okaay.”
    “ Okaay ?” Madeleine asked sharply. “Admit I didn’t get bruised or scratched by Nicole. I want to hear you say that. We didn’t have a fight. All three of us were just horsing around near the pier when she was suddenly swept away. Remember?”
    “Sort of. . . . But you were fighting about something before we ever went into the water.”
    “Fighting about what?”
    “That’s what I can’t remember.”
    “You can’t remember because we weren’t fighting about anything.” Madeleine eyed her friend’s dirty-blond ponytail and blue eye shadow, the little eruption on her cheek, with distaste. The girl was so weak and unattractive. Why couldn’t an esthetician look like what she was selling? “Your memory is crap, Kimmie.”
    “My memory is fine . . . except for . . . .”
    “Except for the Dunes. So, let’s have a little test. Do you remember having sex with Dr. Beltrami when you were what, thirteen? You told me that, so don’t try to deny it now.”
    Kimmie jerked with shock. “I . . . I don’t deny it. It happened. He said that was part of the therapy. . . . I didn’t like any of it. I wish I could forget it happened.”
    “Well, sex wasn’t part of my therapy, so it’s hard to believe it was part of yours. Anthony is an honorable man, very professional.”
    “You were lucky then. And it only happened a few times.”
    “And did he give you cocaine, Kimmie?”
    “I told you, he gave me something that you said was cocaine. I’m still not sure. It was white and powdery and he made me sniff it.”
    “And you didn’t resist, did you?”
    “I was afraid to. Besides, it gave me a sensation of eu . . . eu --.”
    “Euphoria.”
    “Is that the word? It made me feel good, less depressed, more confident. But the feeling didn’t last.”
    “Did you think it was something he shouldn’t be giving you?”
    Kimmie nodded. “I did.”
    “Then why didn’t you ever report him, Kimmie?”
    She sighed heavily. “You know why. I wasn’t sure about anything. I didn’t know what the rules were