“Wait a minute,” Clarence said, holding up the suturing and staring back up at Neil. “I’m beginning to think there’s something you’re not telling me here. What’s your relationship with this woman? Are you sweet on her or what? Are you guys dating?”
“Sort of,” Neil admitted. “Actually, I’m not sure. It’s like she’s been holding me at arm’s length. We have been getting together a lot, and it’s wonderful. We never run out of things to talk about, and she’s been really open with me, telling me things she’s never told anyone else. I know that for a fact.”
“Have you guys ever hooked up?”
“No, but it’s not for not trying. I mean, we tried once, but it was awkward. It’s kind of strange. We can be talking about the most intimate things, and as soon as I try to move in on her, wham! This wall comes up.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“I know, but on the other hand she’s really smart, and she works and studies her butt off, and she’s terrific to be with. I’ve never been with a girl quite like her.”
“If she’s who I think she is, she’s also a piece of ass.”
“I can’t deny that. She caught my eye the first time I saw her as a first-year med student.”
“Okay,” Clarence said. “This all changes everything. What I’m hearing is you love this woman.”
“Let’s just say I’m interested, but since she’s got some baggage, there’s more that I’ve got to learn.”
“Are you thinking about chasing after her to India? Is that what I’m hearing you want my opinion on?”
“It is. The one thing I do know about her with absolute certainty is, she’s headstrong. She makes up her mind about things instantaneously and then holds on to her decision like a dog with a bone. At the moment she’s royally pissed at me, and I can understand why. She took me into her confidence, and now that she’s asked me to support her, I, in a sense, confirmed her worst fear by not doing so. If I don’t go over there I have to kiss good-bye any chance of learning anything more about her.”
“Then do it! That’s my advice. Handling the arrangements for the grandmother’s body will probably take all of a half-hour, and it’s over. Then you guys can make up. That way you won’t be burning bridges over this affair.”
“So you think I should go?”
“Absolutely. And you told me you found India fun, so you can kill two birds with one stone.”
“I told you it was interesting.”
“Interesting or fun, what’s the difference? As far as your responsibilities here are concerned, don’t worry about it.”
“I do have the next four days off.”
“See what I mean. It was meant to happen. Go! As far as your obligations here are concerned, after your four days, don’t worry about it. I owe you. I’ll cover for you, and when I can’t, I’ll see that someone else does.”
“I’ll certainly need more than four days. The travel alone takes four days.”
“Don’t worry about it. Okay? I said I’d cover. Do you know where she’s staying?”
“I do.”
“That’s all you need. When will you leave?”
“Tomorrow, I guess,” Neil said, wondering if he’d allowed his friend to talk him into something that might end up being more complicated and more stressful than he’d anticipated.
If he only knew...
Chapter 8
October 16, 2007
Tuesday, 7:45 p.m.
New Delhi, India
By reflex Samira Patel smiled coyly at the two tall Sikh doormen at the Queen Victoria Hospital’s front entrance. She was dressed in her nurse’s uniform, just as Veena had been the night before. They did not return her flirtatiousness. But there was no doubt they recognized her. Each silently reached out and pulled open his respective door and, with a bow, allowed her to enter.
Durell had coached her for several hours that afternoon before Samira had set out on her mission, which had included what to do once she was inside the hospital. Despite her excitement, she followed the suggestions to the letter. She marched across the lobby, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Instead of the elevator, she took the stairs up to the second floor, where the library was located. After turning on the lights, she got down from the shelves several orthopedic books and spread them out on one of the tables, even opening one to the section on knee replacement, which was the procedure her patient, Herbert Benfatti, had had that morning. All this was Durell’s idea. He wanted her to have a clear, confirmable explanation for being at the hospital after hours if one of the more senior nurses questioned it.
Once the library was prepared to her liking and she’d downloaded Benfatti’s chart from the library’s workstation onto a USB storage device, she returned to the stairwell and climbed up to the fifth floor, where the OR suite was located. By now her excitement had built to the point of true anxiety, even more than she had expected, and it caused her to question why she’d been so eager to volunteer. At the same time, she knew exactly why she’d volunteered. Although Veena Chandra had been her best friend since they’d met each other in the third grade, Samira had always felt inferior. The problem was that Samira envied Veena’s beauty, which Samira knew she could not compete against, ergo her wish to compete in every other way. Samira was convinced Veena’s hair was darker and shinier than hers, and Veena’s skin more golden, her nose smaller and shapelier.
Yet despite this competitiveness, about which Veena was totally unaware, the girls had developed a keen friendship based on the shared dream of someday emigrating to America. Like their other friends at school, both had had early access to the Internet, which Samira had availed herself of much more than Veena but which had provided both girls an oculus to the West and an introduction to the idea of personal freedom. By the time they’d reached their teenage years, they’d become inseparable and shared their secrets, which for Veena included abuse by her father, something she’d never shared with anyone else for fear of bringing shame to her family. Samira’s secret, sharply contrasting with Veena’s, was that she was fascinated by pornographic websites, and consequently sex, finding it hard to think of anything else by its denial. She was dying to experience sex herself and felt like a caged animal, especially because of her strict Muslim upbringing. Ultimately, what cemented the relationship between the two young women was their willingness to cover for each other. Each would tell her parents she was sleeping at the other’s home, enabling them to go to Western-style clubs and stay out all night. Instead of embracing the traditional Indian karmic values of passivity, obedience, and acceptance of life’s difficulties based on expectations of reward in the next life, both Samira and Veena progressively wanted the rewards in this life, not the next.
Yesterday, when Samira heard that Veena had been selected as the first of the nurses to carry out the new strategy, she’d been immediately jealous. That was why she’d acted as she had, volunteering for the next task with the claim she’d do it better and without hesitation. The reason she felt so confident was that there was one arena in which she had made more progress than her friend, and that was in the degree to which she’d abandoned the old culture of India and embraced the new culture of the West. Her affair with Durell was clear evidence.
With a trembling hand, Samira pushed open the stairwell door on the fifth floor. It was relatively dark. For a few seconds, Samira merely listened. She heard no sounds except the constant omnipresent low hum of the HVAC machinery. She stepped out into the hallway and allowed the door to close behind her.
Confident she was alone, Samira walked in the direction of the operating suite while trying to keep the sound of her heels striking the composite floor to a minimum. The lighting was dim but adequate. Passing through the outer double doors, she made certain the surgical lounge was empty. She knew that it was occasionally used during the evening, and that the night-shift staff used it to take breaks and catch some TV, even though officially it was off-limits. She moved on to the double doors to the OR suite itself and cracked them. Unfortunately, the hinges complained with a screeching noise, making Samira cringe. She could feel her heart throbbing in her chest and could hear it in her ears. After pausing for a few seconds to check for any kind of response to the sound of the doors, Samira stepped into the operating suite itself. When the same screech occurred as the door closed, she cringed again. But the earlier tomblike silence immediately descended like a heavy blanket.