Chapter 103

A few minutes later, I got a call from a number I didn’t recognize. When I picked it up, it was the detox doctor, as I came to call him. He had a flat fee of $150,000, and without calling it a guarantee, said that within ten days, Katie would be past withdrawals and into a legitimate recovery phase. Without blinking, I simply asked if he preferred cash, check, or credit card and inquired how quickly he could get here. He said two hours.

I hadn’t left the guest house even thirty minutes, but when Kat, Rita, and I returned together, we found Katie in the kitchen screaming into her phone.

"Now!" she yelled. "N-O-W! What part of that don’t you understand? It’s only three letters!"

She screeched like a banshee and threw her phone against the kitchen floor.

"Motherfucker!" she screamed.

She was sweating, and her body shook. Kat and Rita both glanced at me. We had a shade under two hours to go before the doctor arrived. His instru