“Good morning. How can I help you?”
Rose returned the smile, though hers dimmed in the presence of the effervescent receptionist. “I’d like a quick word with Doctor Zochowska if I may? I saw her last year and just wanted to follow something up.”
“The doctor is in this morning. Just give me a moment to see if she’s available. Your name?”
“Rose Black.”
The blonde nodded, gestured to a series of white leather chairs along the window, dappled in light from a wide venetian blind.
Rose took a seat, thumbed through a glossy copy of Country Living magazine, shook her head at the ostentatious claims on the cover of the House and Garden magazine next on the pile. The receptionist murmured quietly into her telephone for a moment, then turned her smile back to Rose.
“The Doctor will be out in a moment, Ms. Black.”
“Thank you.”
It took a few more minutes for Zochowska to appear, but when she did she looked exactly as Rose remembered. Small, thin, severe angular features, ash-gray hair pulled back in what had to be a painfully tight pony-tail. She wore a white lab coat over a navy blue skirt and suit jacket. But for all her austere appearance, Rose remembered her as a warm and friendly woman.
“Miss Black.” Zochowska offered a hand and shook with friendly firmness. “Good to see you again. I’m sorry we couldn’t help you before. What brings you back?”
“I just had a few questions.” Rose frowned, suddenly not sure where to begin.
Zochowska waved a hand back the way she had come. “Let’s go into my office and sit down.”
Once the office door was closed and Zochowska returned to her desk, Rose took a deep breath. Maybe start a little more generally. “Have you treated anyone else with a distinctive birthmark like mine?”
Zochowska’s eyebrows rose. “Miss Black, lots of patients have distinctive birthmarks. But obviously I can’t discuss them with you, or anyone, for confidentiality reasons.”
Rose had expected an answer like that, but pressed on regardless. “But have you seen anyone with a birthmark like mine? You remember the eagle shape of mine, the size of it?”
“I remember it very well, Miss Black, and I have records of our consultations, but I simply can’t discuss other patients with anyone.”
Frustration boiled up in Rose, her volume rising with it. “Doctor, please, it’s very important. Has anyone come to the clinic asking about a birthmark like mine?”
“Even if they had, I couldn’t tell you. There are confidentiality rules and laws, Miss Black.”
“Didn’t confidentiality go out the window with the well-publicized data breach you guys had?” Rose realized she was shouting, her frustration giving way to fear that the men on her tail would catch up again, that she would have no further information, nowhere to turn. She had to learn something, find some way to protect herself.
Doctor Zochowska stood half out of her seat, shocked and surprised by Rose’s outburst, her expression wide with concern. “Miss Black, please calm down. I would help if I could, but my hands are tied. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“Yes, I could very well be! I really need to know, Doctor.”
Zochowska went to the door, held it open. Her face had hardened again. “I’m very sorry, Miss Black, but I just can’t divulge any information. If you are concerned about anything, go to the police. If there’s something here that will help, and the police are involved, they may be able to request information. But confidentiality laws often block even law enforcement. I’m afraid my business hands are tied here.”
Rose stood, paused half out of the office. “Maybe you need to spend more money on your systems then. Perhaps I’ll get the information I need if I hack in as well, instead of asking nicely.” She knew she was being unpleasant, irrational, but she didn’t care. Fear and frustration made her want to lash out at Zochowska’s calm, so-called professional, indifference.
To her credit, Zochowska looked away, unable to hold Rose’s furious gaze. “I’m truly sorry I can’t help,” she muttered at the carpet.
Rose stomped from the office back out toward the reception area, mind whirling with confusion. As she reached the end of the corridor, she saw the sign for a toilet and went in. She leaned on the sink, took a few deep breaths to calm down. She certainly hadn’t handled that very well at all. Could she have approached it differently? Short of holding Zochowska by the throat and threatening further violence unless information was forthcoming, she couldn’t imagine any other course of action.
She cupped cold water from the tap into her palms and washed her face, trembling slightly with frustration. She had nowhere else to turn. Maybe she should call Crowley, ask if he had any ideas of further leads she could follow up.
When she emerged from the toilet, she glanced back down toward Zochowska’s office and saw the door standing ajar. Narrowing her eyes, she crept quietly back toward it. The doctor wasn’t there, the room empty and inviting. What chance might she have of quickly checking through the computer files, finding anything useful? She took a tentative step into the door when Zochowska’s sharp tones made her heart slam in her chest.
“Is there something further I can help you with?”
Rose turned an angry glare to the woman, though she knew deep down it wasn’t fair. None of this was the doctor’s fault. But nothing in Rose’s life seemed fair right now. “Just watch the news,” she snapped, not sure what she really meant. She just needed to score some kind of juvenile points against the woman standing in her way.
Zochowska frowned, but said nothing. Rose turned and stalked back up the corridor to the reception area. She braced herself for the bubbly, blonde receptionist and the young woman’s artificial good cheer.
But the receptionist’s face was serious as Rose emerged into the sunlit area. Her eyes darted left and right nervously.
Rose opened her mouth to speak, but the receptionist shushed her and stepped forward and pressed a small fold of paper into Rose’s palm with trembling fingers. The receptionist leaned close. “Don't read it until you're outside. And be careful.”
She turned away, sat at her desk, and busied herself typing something into a Word document open on her computer screen. Rose stared for a moment, but the woman showed no signs of making any further eye contact.
“Thank you,” Rose whispered, and hurried out, the bright, warm day unable to melt the chill running up her spine.
Chapter 9
The note had been quickly scrawled in blue ink, and gave nothing more than a street address in Camberwell, just off Peckham Road. Still south of the river and only a couple of suburbs away from the Holm Institute. Rose had used her maps apps to look it up and discovered it was a simple suburban area. Street view showed a non-descript townhouse, not unlike Jake Crowley’s from the outside, but bigger, and the suburb a lot leafier and more upmarket than Crowley’s inner-city Deptford address, where everything seemed to be gray concrete.
She called Crowley after that, while she sat drinking bad coffee in a Dulwich Village café. She told him all about the encounter with Zochowska, how poorly it had gone. He was skeptical of the receptionist coming to her aid, but agreed when Rose pointed out they had no other leads to follow.
“I finish at lunchtime today,” Crowley said. “My last class ends at twelve-thirty and I normally spend the afternoon in the staff room, marking. But today I’ll skip it and come to meet you. I don’t like the idea of you going there alone.”
Rose had been about to protest when a ripple of nerves in her gut gave her pause. Perhaps he was right, it might be too risky. What if the receptionist was on the side of the guys who had tried to abduct her twice now? What if the receptionist had aided the data breach? She hated the way her thoughts were going, the dark and paranoid possibilities she found herself considering. Rather than voice them, she simply said, “Okay. I’ll text you a place to meet.”