Almost a Family

by Roxanne Rustand

  Erin took her place at the podium. “I’m happy to announce that our USDA grant for a new X-ray diagnostic system has been approved as of this morning. We also have three other grants, available through the state of Wisconsin and a pharmaceutical company, that are looking very promising.” A smattering of applause rippled through the audience. “At our last meeting, I promised a final report by the end of the month regarding an assessment of our needs, and the total costs involved. The report covers this, plus recommendations for specialty clinics. We’d like to utilize physicians who’d come several times a month from the larger hospitals in nearby counties, and in particular we see a need to develop a dialysis unit as soon as possible. If you would open the packets that were on your chairs when you came in…”

  The crowd rustled through the papers, and from the back of the room she heard a rumble of conversation that didn’t bode well.

  After she’d carefully outlined each point in her report, Paul addressed the board for their comments. Leland picked up the mike and announced that he fully supported the remodeling of the lounge, to “create a more enticing setting for the doctors coming in for rotations through the specialty clinics.”

  Jill groaned and leaned close to Erin’s ear. “He just wants a nicer place where he can go to escape his wife,” she whispered.

  Arnold took the mike and announced that Leland’s idea was a huge waste of money better spent on redecorating patient rooms or remodeling the 1940s E.R. entrance and waiting area.

  “I thought we were on the same page,” Erin whispered. “We had a consensus!”

  “It’s all about power. Those two have been contentious ever since I came to this town.”

  “They were fine at Ollie’s!”

  “Ah, but here we have a big audience.”

  The other board members spoke about fiscal responsibility and, conversely, the need to invest in the town’s future, rambling on for a good half hour but getting nowhere, in Erin’s opinion.

  By the time Paul ended the meeting, her frustration had increased tenfold. “We’ve got funding for some of the changes already. We’ve received board approval for projects that will start if the tax levy goes through. But with all this dissension, it’s going to be hard to make things happen…and I wonder just how much support we’ll get afterward. You’d think that the community would be behind this a hundred percent.”

  Jill reached over and gave her hand a quick squeeze. “I guarantee that when this is all over, the people here will be very proud of their hospital, and will be even more proud of you for making it happen.”

  Erin followed her toward the back door, where a knot of people were speaking in low, vehement tones.

  “I saw one of ’em near town. I’d like to know what the hell we’re supposed to do to keep our kids and livestock safe.”

  “Yeah, and by the time the DNR arrives, it’s always long gone.”

  “I say, someone should go out and shoot ’em on sight.”

  Leo Crupper nodded in agreement. He raised his voice above the others as Erin walked past. “I saw your note up in the grocery store this afternoon about your lost dog. Bet a wolf got him, too,” he said with obvious relish. “But I suppose you’re one of those who just think the wolves are pretty.”

  “Without proof, I don’t think anyone can assume the wolves are at fault, Mr. Crupper.” Erin nodded politely to the group as a whole and continued on out the door.

  His words to his cronies followed her into the hallway as she made her way through the crowd and headed for her office. “What did I tell you, boys? She’s a city gal—not someone who knows and cares about the area. The last thing we need is someone like her starting a big spending spree that will sink our town in debt.”

  STILL FUMING, Erin stopped by her office to drop off her files and grab her purse. She was halfway to the door when the phone rang. Glancing at the clock, she sighed and turned back to the desk. “Mrs. Lang. Can I help you?”

  “You need to know who you’re dealing with there,” a voice growled in her ear. “Have you no idea?”

  Startled, she sat forward in her chair and grabbed a notebook, wishing the hospital phone system included caller ID. The voice sounded suspiciously like one that had left a cryptic message on her machine at home, but that number had shown up as a pay phone. “I—I’m not sure you have the right number,” she said evenly. “This is the hospital.”

  “And you’re the administrator. One who sure didn’t do her homework.” The caller gave a derisive snort. “You’ve got a doctor with hospital privileges who should have lost his license over a year ago. One who repeatedly made med errors. Failed to chart properly. Didn’t follow through.”

  She gripped her pen tighter. “I’m sorry—I didn’t catch your name.”

  “Do you really want a physician like that making decisions regarding patients in your hospital? He was investigated by our hospital review board three times…after patients suffered serious setbacks or died unexpectedly while under his care. Look out, Mrs. Lang. Malpractice suits can be a very ugly thing.”

  She scrawled notes across the paper in front of her. “You haven’t identified yourself. How can I possibly take this seriously, Mr.—”

  “All you need to know is the name of the man himself. And if I were you, I’d find a way to get him out of there. Fast.”

  “Who are you?”

  He ignored her question. “I was concerned enough to look up your name on your hospital’s Web site, so I could contact you directly. The longer Connor Reynolds has hospital privileges, the greater risk you take.”

  She took a sharp breath. Connor?

  “Carelessness kills—and we found that out in Green Bay. Let it be on your conscience if you allow it to happen. Sleep well, Mrs. Lang.”

  “Wait—”

  But the soft click at the other end of the line told her that she was too late.

  It was impossible. The caller had to be crazy—and he’d not only tracked her down at the hospital and knew her name, but had presumably found her unlisted home number, as well. That in itself was frightening.

  Surely he had to be lying. But what if…oh, God. What if it was the truth? She had no choice but to make sure. For the safety of the patients. For the future reputation of this hospital.

  She braced both palms on her desk with her head down, trying to calm her shaking nerves and the wave of dizziness.

  Then with trembling fingers she tapped in the password on her PDA, found the cell phone number of Patty Long, an old friend from nursing school who lived in Green Bay, and dialed the number.

  After five rings, the voice mail feature kicked in. “Patty—this is Erin Lang. I need some information about a doctor who had privileges at Green Bay General, and wonder if you might have heard anything about him. Call or e-mail me, stat.”

  And then she hung up, and prayed that the anonymous caller was wrong.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  ON TUESDAY MORNING, Tyler awoke with a cold and a temperature of 100 degrees, so Erin stayed home with him while the other kids went to school.

  Tyler spent the day curled up on the sofa watching Disney movies on TV. Erin roamed through the cabin, cleaning and catching up on laundry, plying him with ice cream and juice, and checking his temp every hour.

  The day dragged. Another call to Patty just reached her voice mail again. A call to Green Bay General’s human resource department yielded exactly what Erin had expected—a chilly response telling her that information about staff members could not be shared.

  After a few moments of thought, she called information for the phone number of the Green Bay Courier and requested a search of any newspaper articles in the past five years relating to the hospital and a Dr. Reynolds. The harried receptionist promised to pass on the request.

  Frustrated, Erin paced the cabin while Tyler was sleeping, then went out to stand on the porch.

  It still seemed impossible that Connor might have been investigated for malpractice. She’d seen his ge
ntle touch with the kids. She’d repeatedly heard staff comment on how thorough and caring he was with patients, and experienced nurses would be the first to know if someone wasn’t receiving good care.

  Erin’s worries eased as the day wore on, though one concern remained—who had called, and why would he try to damage Connor’s reputation? He’d claimed that there’d been newspaper coverage, so a search through the archives would either substantiate or refute his statements. Once she’d done a little more checking, she would talk to Connor and see what he had to say.

  It would certainly be in his best interest to know if someone back home was carrying out a vendetta against him. If he did move on to a new community when his uncle returned, the next hospital administrator might take such statements at face value.

  Erin met Haley at the door when she arrived after school with Drew and Lily. Drew dumped his backpack in the hall and trudged upstairs without a word. Lily went to the living room and dropped on the floor next to Tyler.

  “Thanks so much for bringing them home for me, Haley—I’ll pay for your mileage and the usual afternoon hours, but since Tyler’s sick you can just go on back to town. Fair enough?”

  Haley peered around her at Tyler, who was now surrounded by a sea of LEGO pieces and a rather impressive moat. “He looks okay to me. He isn’t throwing up, is he?”

  “Not at all. He did have a fever earlier, but that’s normal now. He does have a cough.”

  The girl shrugged. “I can stay, if you need to go into work or something. I’ve got four little brothers and sisters, and I must be immune to everything on the planet by now.”

  Erin went to check his temperature with the ear thermometer one more time. “Still normal. You’re sure you don’t mind?”

  “We have the rest of the week off for some sort of state teachers’ conference, so I can stay as late as you want. I’d just as soon be working.” The girl grinned. “At home, I watch everyone for free.”

  “I’ve got a chicken-Parmesan casserole in the oven, plus baby peas and Tyler’s favorite strawberry-banana Jell-O in the refrigerator.”

  Haley beamed. “Good deal. My mom was cooking liver and broccoli.”

  ERIN MADE IT TO THE hospital by five o’clock, and met Grace on the sidewalk just outside the front door. The older woman looked pale and tired. “Long day?”

  “Busy one. Three admits to the hospital side—one chest pain, one severe hypoglycemia, one hip fracture. One of my nurses gave her notice today, saying that she’s moving to Michigan.” Grace blew at her bangs. “And three people asked to totally change their vacation schedules during the next two pay periods.”

  Erin laughed. “No wonder you look so eager to leave.”

  “I’m getting too old for this, believe me. Sorry I had to miss the last board meeting, by the way. Two nurses called in sick, so I had to cover the floor that shift instead.” She raised an eyebrow. “I hear things got a little…tense.”

  “A few disagreements. The good news is that we’ve nearly hit the required number of signatures for the tax-levy vote. The deadline is Friday, and the auxiliary ladies are working overtime to get it done.”

  “And if it doesn’t?”

  “We’ll have to work on getting enough support for a special election in the spring, then. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

  “Dr. Reynolds was looking for you earlier.” The older woman gave her a knowing smile. “He asked where you were.”

  Erin glanced around. Though no one else was in sight, she lowered her voice. “What do you think of him—on a professional level?”

  “On a personal level, I’d say he’s…” She thought for a minute, her eyes twinkling. “Hot. Even if I am old enough to be his grandmother.”

  Hot, indeed. Just the thought brought warmth to Erin’s cheeks. “Give me your honest professional opinion. Would you send your own daughter or granddaughter to him? Your mom?” At Grace’s hesitation, she pressed on. “Nurses see the daily charting, the decision making. The types of tests ordered and how a doctor relates with patients and staff. An experienced hospital nurse like you should be a good judge, because you’ve worked with so many different physicians.”

  “Put that way, yes. I would send my mother to him. He’s thorough. Careful. He gets along well with patients and is very pleasant to the staff. And,” she added with a smile, “he listens to what we say about the condition of his patients. A good thing, because nurses are seeing those people twenty-four hours a day and a doctor sees them for maybe five minutes on his rounds.”

  “He’s professional, then? Competent?”

  Grace gave her a quizzical look. “Absolutely. Is something wrong?”

  “No. No, course not. I just wanted to ask, since he’s the newest doctor on the staff. I’ve heard nice comments from patients.”

  “I do think that you two would be a wonderful couple. I’ve seen him down in the hospital wing, watching when you walk by. I’d say there’s some definite interest there.”

  An area Erin definitely didn’t want to explore with Grace. Especially not now. “I’m sure I don’t begin to match up to the sort of women he’s dated before,” she said lightly. “Thanks for the information, though…and have a nice evening.”

  As she walked up the steps to the front door, she heard Grace snicker softly behind her.

  Had it been that obvious to the other staff, too? Stifling a groan, Erin nodded to the receptionist, went straight to her office and shut the door behind her.

  BY SEVEN O’CLOCK, she wished she’d eaten at home before leaving for the hospital. By eight o’clock, even the stale sandwiches and soft apples in the lounge vending machines seemed like gourmet fare.

  On her way downstairs to the file storeroom, Erin swung by the employee lounge, stood in front of the machines and glumly considered the day’s leftovers. Soggy tuna salad sandwiches. Some sort of mystery-meat deli sandwich on an overlarge bun. Browning bananas.

  “Quite a selection.”

  Startled, she turned around and found Connor in the doorway, leaning against the frame.

  “I usually make it a policy to avoid those things,” he added with a definite twinkle in his eyes as he surveyed the vending machines. “Unless I’m feeling masochistic.”

  “Which is…”

  He laughed. “Never, actually. How come you’re here so late?”

  “Tyler was sick today, so I’m just here for a little while catching up. How about you? I missed you at the board meeting last night.”

  “Couldn’t make it,” he said vaguely. “I heard it was interesting.”

  “Yes, and I could have used a voice of reason in that room.” She gave the vending machines a last look, then dropped some change into one and punched a button for a diet soda. “Leland seems set on having a home away from home in this building, and I think he turned a lot of the voters off with his ideas for the doctors’ lounge. Half of the attendees were more concerned about the wolves in northern Wisconsin than they were about the hospital issues. All in all, I was ready for a good stiff Scotch afterward, and I don’t even drink.”

  Connor laughed. “I’m covering for another practice tonight, and I have a half-dozen patients I need to go see. After that, would you like to go out for dinner somewhere?”

  The complexity of the situation hit her broadside. Her deepening feelings for him were as strong as ever—yet she was busy following up on his past, needing to verify whether there was any truth to that anonymous caller’s accusations.

  What did that make her? Certainly not someone who was very honorable. She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “I’m sorry…another time. I…have to be home in an hour, because Haley is babysitting and it’s a school night. And…Tyler doesn’t feel well.”

  Connor gave her a searching look, the warmth in his eyes fading as he studied her. “I see. Maybe another time, then.”

  She could’ve kicked herself. She watched him turn on his heel and disappear down the hallway. Good job, Lang. She’d always been a terrible
liar, and now she’d babbled like an idiot, which made it even worse. Even at thirty-three she couldn’t pull off a credible half-truth. But when this was all over…

  With a sigh, she gathered up her purse and the can of Pepsi, and headed out the door.

  Surely, she would discover nothing amiss. That anonymous caller had to have had a grudge. Someone who’d made up a preposterous story as vengeance for some minor incident or an unintentional slight—perhaps something he’d just imagined.

  But if he was telling the truth, and any potentially criminal negligence was evident here, she would need to call the police and the state medical board. Connor could lose his license and possibly face both legal charges and a host of lawsuits, once everyone caught up with him.

  And that thought nearly broke her heart.

  ERIN FINISHED GOING through the day’s stack of mail and her business-related e-mail, took care of everything urgent, then wearily rested her chin on her hand.

  She had over twenty Hadley charts left to review. And now a couple of dozen from Connor’s hospital admissions, in fresh, new manila folders, sat on the other corner of her desk.

  So far, she’d found four deaths among the old Hadley charts that could be considered suspicious. All elderly men who’d been doing well, according to progress notes, vital-sign documentation and lab reports. All had been close to discharge, but had passed away in the late evening or during the night. None of them had had local relatives. All were listed as DNR, Do Not Resuscitate.

  Coincidence?

  Yet two more had passed away since she’d started working here—while Hadley was out of state. Only Milton Striker had been autopsied, and that report had come back negative.

  Maybe it was a coincidence. Why would anyone target just Hadley’s patients?

  A grim thought hit her. She’d pursued Hadley because of the deaths of Frank and Milton, but without reviewing every single chart, from every admission, she couldn’t be positive there hadn’t been unexpected deaths of other doctors’ patients. And checking that could take months—unless she requested help. But who could she absolutely, unequivocally trust? And if people in the community learned of her research, what could that do to the reputations of those doctors, and the hospital itself?