“Well, it’ll have to wait. You’re not my only patient, you know.” She gave a conspiratorial wink. “But maybe later, when I drop by with your needle.”
6:00 P.M.
St. Paul’s Hospital,
Buffalo, New York
Earl sat rereading the article for the tenth time when a quick rap on the door startled him.
Janet walked in. “Hi, love. Got a minute for me? It’s been a hell of a day in the case room.” She came up to him and pulled off her surgical cap, her short blond hair popping out from its confines like a golden star burst. She flipped the paper aside and pulled him to his feet, slipping her arms around him.
He felt his wife’s slim body beneath her OR greens, but returned the hug woodenly.
“Hey! That’s no way to treat a lady,” she said, pushing back and smiling up at him. Tall as he was, his six-foot frame outranked hers by only a couple of inches. Whatever she saw in his expression, she immediately knew that he was upset as hell. “Earl, what’s the matter?”
He sighed and handed her the article.
“Did you know her?” she said after skimming through it.
“She was in my class.”
“My God! That’s awful. I’m sorry. Were you friends?”
“She was in my study group. Along with Melanie Collins, Ronda Collins’s older sister, and, of course, Jack MacGregor,” he quickly added, giving her names he knew she’d recognize.
On hearing Jack MacGregor, Janet grimaced, and a pained expression crossed her face. MacGregor had died two years ago saving Earl’s life.
“There were a few others with us whom you don’t know,” Earl continued, feeling uneasy.
She read a little more of the column. “How creepy. Did you have any idea she’d been murdered?”
“No.”
“Even after she just disappeared without a trace?”
“We all thought she’d run away from her husband. It really wasn’t a happy marriage.”
“But no word from her, and you suspected nothing?”
“Of course we were worried. But you don’t know the man we thought she was escaping from. She’d told most of us she was going to leave him, yet insisted we not try and trace where she went. She was afraid he’d track her down by following us if we tried to contact her, so we figured that was why she just cut off all ties. After the police found no evidence of foul play, as far as I was concerned, no news meant she’d gotten away, free and clear.”
“Do you think he killed her?”
“Chaz? He was mean enough to. I met him during our cardiology rotation at NYCH and when Kelly had our group up to their country home. He could be a bit of a charmer on the outside, but always found a sneaky way to criticize her, hiding it in a joke. And he could sure throw back the martinis at her parties. His comments got more cutting as the day wore on. None of us liked the son of a bitch.”
She put down the paper and studied him. “You sound angry.”
“I am. She was a friend. We all felt protective of her, especially since the rest of the class had given her the cold shoulder from the get-go. Most figured her a dilettante who was just slumming, riding the Braden name. Then when she worked her butt off and cut it better than a lot of them, they resented her more.”
“Sounds like she was a pretty remarkable lady.”
“She wanted to do pediatrics, and would have been great at it. Whoever killed her snuffed out all that.”
“But you went on thinking she’d run off, even when her parents insisted her husband had a hand in her disappearance?” Janet’s blue gaze grew skeptical. “That doesn’t sound like the poke-his-nose-where-it-doesn’t-belong man I married. Didn’t you wonder why she never so much as contacted them?”
“She seemed to have little to do with her mother and father. I never knew why and, believe it or not, since it wasn’t any of my business, didn’t ask. As I said, we all wanted to believe she’d successfully pulled off a vanishing act. It seems stupid now, but we convinced ourselves.”
Janet studied him a few more seconds, put her hands around his face, and kissed him gently on the lips. “She was lucky to have you as her friend.”
Some friend, he thought.
She turned for the door. “I’ve got to get back to the case room, but should be home in a couple of hours. Can you stop by the store and pick up some milk?”
“Sure.”
“And tell Brendan I’ll be there to tuck him in. Poor little tyke probably feels abandoned.”
“How about I promise we’ll sandwich him between us for his story tonight.”
She laughed, said, “Love you,” and was gone.
He hadn’t lied outright to Janet, but what he’d left unsaid seemed tantamount to lying… big-time.
The ache in his gut spread through him – like a stain.
8:00 P.M.
Geriatrics Wing,
New York City Hospital
She had no idea how long she’d been dozing when a soft cough roused her.
“Hi, Bessie.”
She blinked a few times to bring her eyes into focus on the figure who was standing inside the room. “Melanie? Melanie Collins?”
“Yes. I just dropped by to say hello.”
“My, I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Little wonder. You were snoring like a truck driver. How are you doing?”
“Well, I obviously could have used you when I came into ER three months ago.”
“Oh, Bessie, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.”
“Pull up a seat.” She gestured to the little-used visitor’s chair with her good arm.
Melanie obliged.
Soon they fell deep in conversation making small talk, but after a few minutes Bessie inexorably returned to her present plight. She found release in complaining about it to other doctors, knowing they would best understand the scope of the outrage that had been done to her. When her own patients had gone on and on about their various illnesses, reciting the relapses and symptoms far more than necessary for her to make the diagnosis, she thought it was because they had little else to talk about, their diseases having pervaded every aspect of their lives. Over the last few months she’d come to realize that they’d been venting, sharing their symptoms so they wouldn’t feel so alone – a compulsion, she ruefully acknowledged, that she couldn’t even stop in herself.
“So-called emergency doctors – they simply didn’t get it the way you did.”
“Well, I knew your history. And remember, you were already admitted for pneumonia, so there were no delays. Who knows what would have been the outcome if I hadn’t had you on the floor and under my thumb when it happened? But since I did, the rest was easy-”
“Easy my ass, Melanie. Remember, you’re talking to a physician here. Don’t make excuses for their shoddy work by minimizing how great you were.”
“Now, Bessie-”
“I know full well that the blood tests indicated I was properly anticoagulated and shouldn’t have had another embolus. But unlike the bozos this last time, you were smart enough to treat the patient-”
“ ‘And not the test.’ ” Melanie gave an understanding shake of the head. “I know. I tell that to the residents all the time.”
“I hope those young punks in ER have at least learned to listen, or pay attention to someone even when they can’t talk.”
“I’m sure they have.”
“But look at me.” She laboriously raised her right shoulder and upper limb. Her hand and fingers drooped off the forearm, curled into a lifeless claw. “God, I didn’t think I’d end up like this.”
“I know.”
“And does anybody want to talk about it? Not on your life. They all think I’m going to sue.”
“Are you?”
“Of course not. I’m a doctor. I won’t go after my own. But I damn well want them to improve – be like you were in training.”