Free Square in the Face (Claire Montrose Series) by April Henry

world.”
    “Yeah, that kind of talk would be grounds for a class action suit nowadays,” Lori said. “Go on, try it on.”
    Claire stood up and Lori helped lift the dress over her head, the fabric cool as it slid across her skin. She looked in the mirror. The dress fit her like a dream, the knit hugging her, but not too tightly. Turning to the side, she smoothed the dress over her abdomen. Was it her imagination, or did it already look poochy after two days without exercise?
    Lori read her mind. “Just go buy some of those Perfect Silhouette pantyhose. They’ve got a lot more than a control top - they also stop your thighs from jiggling and contour your butt.”
    Claire was curious. “Where does all that extra flab end up? Can I move it up to my chest and give myself cleavage for the night? I’ve always wanted cleavage.”
    Lori snorted. “It’s overrated. I got to be a double-D when I was nursing, and I quickly found out that it’s no fun when your breasts are bigger than your head.”
    At the thought of nursing, Lori started to look sad again, so Claire switched subjects. “This dress doesn’t make me look too pale, does it?” Her skin seemed as ghostly white as the vanilla ice-milk Jean used to buy by the half-gallon box when she was dieting (and then polish off in a single night).  
    “There are yellow-based blacks and blue-based blacks,” Lori said with the air of a connoisseur. Claire had never noticed any such thing herself. “And while a yellow-based black would make you look sallow, a blue-based black actually compliments the slightly rosy undertones in your skin and also sets off that apricot-colored hair of yours.”   She gathered up Claire’s hair loosely and pulled it to the top of her head. Their eyes met in the mirror. “Wear it up like this. Not too tight. And not too many hairpins, either. You want some of these curls to spring up.”
    “I’m not trying to seduce the guy. This is a fact-finding mission.” Claire regretted the words as soon as she said them, because they brought her friend back to reality. Lori’s shoulders curled over and her lips pressed together in a thin white line. “There is something else you could do to help me. I need to know everything you remember about the layout and the staffing of the clinic.”
      “It’s been nearly ten years, but I’ll tell you what I remember.” Lori took a notepad and pencil from the drawer of a bedside table. “It’s near Sylvan.” She drew a thick line, then a narrower line that snaked up at a right degree angle to the first line. “Here’s the highway, and up here there’s a private drive. It’s not really marked - you have to know what to look for. I remember that by the time you get to the top you don’t even believe you’re near a city any more. The cedar and fir trees up there must be a couple of hundred of years old.”
      “And what’s the clinic like inside? Does the doctor have an office - and where is that in relationship to the exam rooms? Is everything visible from the nurses’ station, or are there walls in between?”
    “I was afraid you were going to ask me about stuff like that.” Her teeth sank into her lower lip. “That’s one part I just don’t remember a lot about. There’s a waiting area, and a nurses’ station in the front, but I don’t really remember where things were exactly.”
    Claire was beginning to feel frustrated, although she knew it wasn’t Lori’s fault. “How about the records? Do you remember where they kept the records?”
    “All I remember is that they always had a big fat manila file in the room.   But now that I think about it, I’m pretty sure it had a number on it, not a name.”
    A number. That meant even if Claire could find the records, they might not do her much good. Maybe a better bet were the people. “Okay, so there’s the head nurse, Vi. Are there other staff?”
    Lori sighed. “Another nurse or maybe two. I only really dealt with Vi. And Dr.