Executive Sick Days

by Maria E. Schneider

  Huntington abruptly began pacing again. "Remember how I told you to go to Hawaii when things heated up and got dangerous during the last case?"

  I knew what was coming. "Yes."

  "Mark is going to buy you a ticket."

  "Mark?" I figured Huntington would be the one to ship me off for my own good. "Tell him to plan on flying there with me then."

  Huntington glanced back over his shoulder, his hand on the doorknob. "I didn't tell him to get a ticket for himself. I need him here." He opened the door, and then closed it behind him.

  I pondered the closed door. So did Huntington think Mark was going to buy me a ticket because Huntington suggested it? Or was the whole thing Mark's idea?

  Men.

  And how was I going to explain to Mark that I was mad at him for buying me a ticket to Hawaii??? I didn't want him making decisions for me, even if they were for my own good.

  This dating stuff was complex, very complex indeed.

  Chapter 24

  I used my day off to get caught up. Dr. Taylor wasn't in when I called so there was no way to get an update on Dr. Dan through him. I tried Amy's cell phone again, but she didn't answer. I had promised a lot of people cookie treats but hadn't made a single tray. I had the tins, the ingredients, and even some dough already in the freezer.

  After arranging ingredients, lining up the tins and getting two batches in the oven, I called Amy's cell phone again.

  Thankfully this time she answered, but not so thankfully, the news wasn't good. "He was doing okay, but then pressure built up on his brain. They had to drill. He woke a couple of times after the surgery, and the doctors said he responds to light and other stimuli." Her voice was beyond weary. "The doctors said this could go on for a while before they can get a good assessment. The good news is that he is breathing on his own, and all his reflexes seem to be working."

  "Is there anything I can do?"

  "Marge and Henry have the dogs. They picked Rabbit up. Oh," she paused. "I forget when that was. They have to take her back in for the stitches, but Marge said she's doing fine. They're keeping the dogs at night, but Pooh kept trying to escape and go home, so they take both dogs over there to sniff around once a day."

  "I hope Dr. Dan will also be sniffing along soon."

  She chuckled a little. "I think not. His sniffing is what started this darn mess. It's caused so much trouble, hasn't it?" Her voice trembled, the humor gone in an instant. "It's funny, we left Scottsdale to move somewhere quieter and now…It just makes a body wonder."

  "I'll call as soon as I have any news at all," I promised. "We'll find whoever did this and stop them."

  She sighed. "Of course."

  When I met Amy, she had been nothing but perky smiles. Now, all I could hear in her voice was fragile regret. "I'll call again soon. The moment there is any news here."

  "Me too," she said. "Me too."

  I finished up a few batches of cookies and went calling. I stopped in at my friend Suzy's and then went looking for Marge and Henry. Inspecting the place where Dr. Dan had been hurt couldn't hurt, and I needed to see for myself that the dogs were doing okay.

  There was still a floating yellow trail of tape at the scene of the crime. I stopped the car on the side of the road, half off the pavement. The tape was the only sign marring the peaceful countryside.

  The trees did a remarkable job of blocking noises. Only the sound of shifting branches kept me company as I got out of the car and walked around. Thankfully, there wasn't a lot of blood or gore. Unfortunately, there wasn't much else either. I could clearly see Dr. Dan's house from the road, along with his neighbor's further up. There was nothing but trees on either side of the road. Unless a car had happened to drive by when Dr. Dan was in danger or Amy had looked out the window at the right time, no one would have seen a car pull off the side of the road near where Dr. Dan walked.

  I stood next to the spot where he had fallen. From here, tucked slightly back, my car was probably still visible from the houses, but Dr. Dan and the dogs would have been behind a couple of large trees. If the driver in the car had been someone Dr. Dan knew, he might easily have stood there, letting the dogs inspect the trees while he talked. Given where the yellow tape floated, Dr. Dan must not have walked over to the vehicle because he had been well off the roadway when he fell.

  I looked into the pines, wondering if someone had counted on his walk and waited there, making no noise moving across the bed of pine needles. Doubtful. The dogs would have announced the ambush. It had to have been someone Dr. Dan knew. The person had stopped, walked over and attacked, maybe while Dr. Dan was distracted.

  Had he turned to scold the dogs? Had the dogs done their little attack greeting routine as they had when I visited, causing Dr. Dan to lean over to grab a collar?

  It would only take a second of distraction for someone to gain the upper hand, especially if Dr. Dan viewed the person as a friend.

  There were no answers waiting in the forest that smelled more of Christmas than danger. Despite the tranquil setting, I was spooked.

  I got back in my car and drove up to the house near Dr. Dan's. It was a lot like the Hernandez's; ranch style, only with a smaller porch and a single flower urn. Telltale barking indicated it was the right place. I knocked and introduced myself in case Marge didn't remember me.

  Pooh vouched for me with his enthusiastic barking.

  Marge accepted the cookies and ushered me in. Today she sported a green sweatshirt with birds stitched on the front.

  "The dogs are doing wonderfully. Is there word on Dan?" she asked.

  We didn't want too much news to get out, so I said, "He's about the same." My eyes caught sight of the injured Rabbit. "Oh no! She looks awful!"

  "A whole sight better'n she did when we took her in," Marge declared tartly. "Let me set these in the kitchen. If I leave them where these rascals can get to them, they'll be gone in a heartbeat, injury or no injury."

  She stepped down the hallway and left me to play with the dogs. "Rabbit," I whispered. "How are you?" The plastic cone around her neck made her look pathetic even without the bandages.

  From behind me, Marge said, "That's to keep her from chewing the bandage off her leg. Darn dog won't let it alone. Gets up and turns round and round like a cat."

  "Do you need anything for them?"

  "Lord, no. We've had dogs and real rabbits and birds and you name it. Trust me, I know what to feed them all. These two are a piece of cake. We keep Rabbit inside for now except to let her out to potty. Pooh still gets his walks."

  She smiled at me while I tried to pet Rabbit. The dog wouldn't sit still. She kept trying to rub the satellite collar off against my leg.

  "I don't suppose you saw who stopped to talk to Dr. Dan?" If Marge had seen anything pertinent, an arrest would have been made and surely Huntington would have called me. Well, almost for certain.

  "Lord no, I only wish I had! We take walks too, but we weren't out that afternoon. I was at the grocery and saw the police cars on my way home. Stopped and there was poor little Rabbit in as bad a shape as Dan. I zipped home to tell Henry to get ready to take Rabbit to Terrence, our boy."

  "You son is a vet?"

  "Yes, yes. That's where all the critters came from over the years."

  "Oh. She looks to be doing well." I gave Rabbit a gentle pat. "I won't stay. I just wanted to check on them and thank you for helping out."

  She waved the dishtowel. "Lordy, no need to thank us. We're the ones who talked Amy and Dan into moving here, and Henry was thrilled to pieces when Dan joined the board at the hospital. Gave it the prestige Henry's always wanted it to have."

  My gaze flew to hers. "Henry...works at the hospital? He's on the board?"

  She looked puzzled. "Well, surely. Henry is the Chief of Staff at the hospital."

  "Oh! Dr. Johnson? I didn't know that. I'm friends with Dr. Dan, but mostly outside of the hospital. I knew Dr. Dan was on the board, but not…" I was babbling so I stopped.

&nb
sp; She laughed. "Sometimes I'm so involved with it, I forget there is anything outside of the hospital. I used to be a nurse there." Her eyes twinkled. "That's how I met my Henry, of course."

  I forced a smile. And these would be the people who Dr. Dan had decided against confiding in, at least at first. Had he changed his mind? The fact that Henry was on the board and lived a few steps away from where the attack had taken place...meant nothing, really.

  I thought of something else. "I left some files with Dr. Dan. Do you think we could go over to his house and look for them? He had me drop them off from the hospital a few days ago. We could call Amy and make sure it's okay with her."

  "Oh, it's not a bother, not at all. I have the key. Let me get it."

  Marge didn't look the least bit suspicious and that bothered me. What if someone else came by and asked to go inside? I knew the answer. She'd let them right in, especially if they worked at the hospital and she knew them.

  We walked over and took Pooh with us. Pooh sniffed at everything and nothing. As we walked, I had a very reassuring thought. Surely Pooh and Rabbit wouldn't hang out happily at Henry and Marge's house if Henry was guilty of attacking Dr. Dan. The dogs were too smart. Rabbit had tried to defend against whoever had hurt Dr. Dan. She wasn't likely to forgive and forget.

  I was a lot more comfortable once I reached that conclusion. Marge unlocked the front door and we both wiped our feet before entering. Pooh went crazy, running around barking and sniffing everything.

  "I took their food bowls from here so they'd feel at home. I'm going to run back to the pantry and get the extra bag of dog food as long as we're here."

  Pooh followed me into the study. I scanned the desk, but there was no sign of the files. The shelves were so full of books there wasn't any place to store the x-ray files. A quick check of the drawers didn't reveal any x-rays or folders either.

  "Did you find what you needed?" Marge joined me, a small bag of dog food in her arms.

  I shook my head. "No, I thought the files would be right on his desk. We went over them a few days ago."

  Pooh sniffed at a spot in front of the desk. I leaned over to pet him and studied the clump of mud on the carpet. Surreptitiously, I checked my shoes, but they weren't muddy. Plus the mud on the carpet was dried. Marge hadn't come in far enough to dirty the rug. I looked around.

  For the most part, the house was spotless. Except the carpet. There were two other smudges near the doorway of the room.

  A muddy carpet wasn't enough evidence to prove someone had already retrieved the x-rays. But Dr. Dan couldn't have taken them with him. Of course, he might have hidden them before he took the dogs out, but why?

  And there were no signs of a break-in, so unless someone had a key…I didn't like where my thoughts were leading me. I gave Marge a rather sickly smile. The dogs wouldn't be so friendly with someone who had attacked them. They just wouldn't.

  I followed Marge out. As we walked back to her house, it occurred to me that I hadn't actually seen Henry around the dogs. But Marge wouldn't keep the dogs if they didn't like her husband. Dr. Dan hadn't told Henry anything initially; he'd hired Huntington on the sly to keep from causing any hard feelings. But what if he had changed his mind after viewing the x-rays?

  Without going inside again, I said my polite goodbyes.

  When I got home, the internet told me that Henry's last name was Johnson and gave me a bit of his history.

  The internet did not tell me who Dr. Dan might have called. It also didn't tell me if Pooh and Rabbit liked Henry.

  Chapter 25

  If Dr. Dan had spotted something in the x-rays, there was only one good place to find clues. Holly had indicated that she could use volunteer help. All I had to do was get myself reassigned. I called Ellen, the trainer, and left a message telling her I wanted to switch.

  Brenda was pleased with the cookies I brought for the floor, but not so happy about my reassigning myself to x-ray. "You're not going to make me tell Attila, are you?"

  "No," I said. "I'll tell her as soon as I see her. Ellen will probably call her anyway when she gets my phone message."

  Brenda grimaced. "You better make sure Ellen calls Attila before Attila finds you."

  "Will do."

  Back downstairs, I dropped off Radar's cookies. "Sorry they're a little late."

  "Who cares?" He took two out of the container and started on the first.

  "Did you ever find out for sure if anyone was in at night last week working in x-ray?"

  "Of course. Heh, heh, heh."

  "And?"

  "No one was working the night in question. The hospital only has Holly Long with two back-up technicians. One is a part-time person, Gerald Flynn. He works short morning shifts and weekends. Then there's Elizabeth Hartly, but she's a special contractor who is on call at night or for backup emergencies." He typed some more, bringing up another screen. "Bottom line, no one was called in."

  "But I saw someone!" I had seen a blond in the storage room. Holly was the most likely person to be down there, except for the fact that she was the only full-time employee and worked the day shift. It probably hadn't been Holly. Maybe it had been one of the staff getting a file for a doctor.

  "Someone involved with x-rays has to have an interest in this," I said. "And someone was in the x-ray storage room late that night."

  "Nooot necessarily just someone with an interest in x-rays." He held up his eureka finger. "After Mark called me about the duplicate x-rays, I did some more checking on our favorite three patients." He smirked happily while he typed. Within moments, a new screen came up, displaying a black background and what looked like two lung shots, side-by-side.

  "These CAT scans aren't the originals. I had to scan them into software and write a program to manipulate them. It's not perfect yet," he said apologetically.

  "Mrs. O?"

  "Mrs. O and the other two. All three of them have this same scan in their electronic file. All three have been charged for it."

  I stared at the screen. Radar did some quick tapping. "Check it out. I had to create this program, but look at this." The picture on the left moved over the picture on the right. There were blurs in some places, and even a squiggle that must have been rogue data, but the scans were of the same lung.

  I stared, my heart beating faster. This must have been how Dr. Dan felt when he realized the x-rays were duplicates. "You're sure. You didn't accidentally grab the same patient file twice?"

  He cut his eyes to me and snorted. "No, I did not." He rubbed two fingers together. "You want to see the bills that go with this type of thing?"

  I shook my head. MRIs and CAT scans didn't come cheaply. "Duplicate x-rays. Duplicate scans--expensive scans."

  "That much loot is gonna make this scheme very worthwhile for someone, maybe even more than one someone." Before I could ask, he reported, "No, not always the same doctor ordered these scans either."

  I didn't even have a chance to feel deflated. "Okay. Duplicates of electronic files are probably easier than x-ray files. You could do it if you had the originals.”

  “Heh-heh. Obviously.”

  “But for x-rays, there has to be a limited number of people with the expertise to create duplicates. I have no idea how someone did it, but it's obvious Dr. Dan was on the right track. I'm going to volunteer in the x-ray department. Maybe I can learn enough from Holly to figure out how duplicates are made."

  Radar made a cutting motion across his neck. He accompanied the motion with disgusting gagging noises. "If one of these technicians is guilty of going after the loot, do you really want to ask them nosy questions?"

  "I'm being careful," I told him crossly.

  He shrugged. "Watch your back. I don't think you want to end up in this hospital."

  He was right about that. "Who is working today?"

  "Holly. The Gerald guy works shorter shifts, all mornings or late evenings once in a while. I took a look at the department meeting notes. He does the patient scheduling. Looks lik
e he only does x-rays if the need arises while he's on duty."

  "Thanks. You told Mark and Huntington?"

  He smiled. "Of course."

  Without wasting any more time, I went looking for Holly. She was right where I expected, behind her partition.

  "Hello?" I called out.

  Holly looked up from her computer. "First patient already?" She glanced behind me at the empty room.

  "No, I thought I'd take you up on your offer and volunteer down here. I'm officially changing my schedule."

  "Really? That's excellent! Crissa was scheduled to help down here today, but she switched her days because she is going skiing with "someone special'." Holly rolled her pretty hazel eyes. "That left me completely short, because I had set a bunch of stuff aside for her to do."

  "I wonder who could be so special?" I hoped it was Dr. Fox.

  Holly yawned. "Who knows? None of my business. I'm married, and I assure you my husband isn't likely to suggest I take a day off to go skiing with him."

  "You look kind of tired. Did you have to work last night, and then come in this morning?" Radar would have made gagging noises at my not-so-subtle attempt to get information out of her.

  "I never work nights. No way could I stay awake. I'm on late morning or afternoon shifts here, but I do work a lot of hours. I worked over at The Pavilion this morning." She yawned again.

  The yawn caught me, and I was forced to join in. "Well, if we can stay awake, I can help with the x-ray development you taught me the other day."

  She grinned. "I'm almost done checking the patient schedules. Let me finish and then we can get started. If you have questions, I can get them answered before our first patient." She moved the mouse and then did some typing.

  I could hear Radar gagging in the back of my mind, but I asked anyway. “Do you ever have to send copies of these things to other hospitals?”

  I held my breath, but my question didn’t seem to raise her suspicions at all. Rather than jump up and bash my head in, she responded calmly. “Sure, all the time. I just got a call from that skier who broke his leg. You were down here that day, weren’t you?”