"Looks like things are under control," Radar said.
"Radar!"
But he didn't wait. He left me standing there with a dead body and a very unhappy kid.
"Ohboy." I didn't have a lot of experience with sympathy or kids. I pushed my feet forward, but kept an eye on the bat.
Patting him on the head didn't seem to have any positive effect at all.
I finally sat on the floor next to him. Neither of us said a word, but gradually the sobs subsided. In the end, he didn't seem to mind my awkward hug, and he let me help him up.
I used Radar’s cell phone to call his mom, and then waited with him until she arrived.
By the time the ordeal was over, and I made it back upstairs, I was ready to quit. This hospital work was too much for one person to take.
Crissa cornered me. "Sedona, what happened? I heard some kid was in the room and made a big scene, and you had to call his mother. Is the kid okay?"
I glared at her. "No more bodies," I hissed. "Next time you can stack'em up in the corridor for all I care. I am not taking anyone else down there!" I went into the break room muttering about volunteer work. I dug money out for a soda. I needed sugar. Caffeine. Hell, food. "Want to keep volunteers happy you shouldn't be asking them to go around crating…" My lunch was gone. It wasn't even noon and my bag was gone.
"AEIII!" I yelled softly.
Crissa peered into the break room. "Sedona?"
"Who was in here? Who?" I tried to keep my shrieking down.
"Everyone," she said. "Why?"
I slammed the fridge door. "That's it. I am taking the rest of the day off. That is just it." I walked away. "Work in a hospital. Nice caring place. Nothing but a loony bin. A complete loony bin." I heard Crissa call after me, but I ignored her. "Can't eat your own lunch. Can't tell anyone you're pregnant. It's a hospital. They're supposed to like people and babies, but no, people have to go around wearing flag outfits and lying all the time."
I kept right on walking until I was outside. I needed the fresh air. I needed a life.
Chapter 30
Generally speaking, I held a grudge, even an entirely unfocused one, for quite some time. It's possible that such grudges made me a little unreasonable. The afternoon off helped marginally, but someone must have tattled about the morgue episode because Huntington called to check on me. His call would have helped except he was laughing so hard, his insincere concern only made me angrier. Mark didn't laugh, but he didn't come over to console me in person. That annoyed me too, even if we weren't far enough along in the relationship for me to feel that way.
Instead of calming down overnight, I became further enraged Tuesday morning, because I still had to report for floor work rather than to the x-ray department. Until the transfer went through, I was stuck. "Don't even get paid, and she doesn't even like me, but she insists I work on her precious floor." I packed my lunch very carefully. "Who put this in here?" I mimicked. "A violation to label your lunch to protect it!"
Fine. I would go with plan B even though I had to think very hard about how to get the dead snake in my lunch bag without it ruining my real meal. Originally I had planned to make a casserole with chopped up pieces of the thing and then label it snake meat. Of course the perpetrator wouldn't believe it until they tasted it.
Despite my diabolic plan, I had never gotten around to cooking said casserole, and now I was out of time.
Dealing with the stupid snake was a bit unnerving and a lot disgusting, but there was no alternative. War had been declared. I yanked the coffee can containing the snake out of the freezer. The evil snake was frozen solid, neatly coiled like a spring in the bottom of the can. I poked at it to make sure it didn't move.
Maybe, after this, Dr. Burns would think twice about grabbing food that didn't belong to him. After he got a load of this lunch he might stop eating the patients’ food too.
I put my real casserole in plastic wrap, pulling the wrap tight. I set the whole thing in a container and then used tongs to put the snake on top of the food. Even Dr. Burns had to notice a snake, didn't he? After this I could just label my container, "snake meat casserole."
"Steal my lunch, will you?" I packed everything into the brown bag and stopped at McDonald's for breakfast. "I think I'll eat out lunch too. Forget the casserole." The bag sitting on the passenger seat watched me. Dead snake or not, I was not going to be able to unwrap the casserole and eat it. I shrugged. If the thief were caught, it would be worth it.
I put the lunch in the fridge and got started. I was barely finished with breakfast trays when Radar found me. "Got a minute?"
"Not really, but I'm in trouble most of the time anyway." I followed him back to his lab, glad for the respite.
"Check this out." He did his miracle typing and pulled up a hospital bill.
I stared at it. Tilting my head, I looked at it again. The pattern was familiar. X-rays, overnight visit, fluids. "Mrs. Johanna." The name was familiar. "Hey, she's--" I gulped, "The lady who died yesterday!"
He nodded. "That's the one. Look at the date."
I looked. The end date was this morning, not yesterday. I was pretty darn sure she hadn't gotten x-rays yesterday. Of course they could have been billed late. "Few extra charges."
"Looks that way."
"Did you call--"
"Huntington thought it was pretty interesting too. I can tell who entered the charges, but I'm positive that whoever is doing this has the passwords for all the doctors. Someone is entering the hospital tests under different doctor names. Then they must bill the insurance company. Maybe the insurance companies don’t notice they are paying one particular doctor rather than the various ones who ordered the tests on the hospital records."
"I’ll stop by x-ray to make sure Mrs. Johanna wasn't down there the day before or something."
"I don't think you want to be asking too many questions over there." He made his mock cutting motion across his neck, complete with gagging.
He had a point, but it was worth stopping in the x-ray department on the way back upstairs in case I thought of a clever way to ask questions. Besides, it was on the way. The long way, but in the same building, just a different floor.
Holly didn't have much time for me. Since I wasn't there to help her, I had to rush my questions. "Did you hear about Mrs. Johanna?"
Holly grinned. "I heard you chased some kid around with her in a gurney. You do get around, don't you?"
"That's not what happened," I grumbled. "Did you do her x-rays?"
"What x-rays?"
"I mean," I stumbled. "It's weird how one day you're doing x-rays on a person and then…poof."
She shrugged. "That's how it happens."
Before I could think of a better way to ask the question, a patient arrived. With Holly buzzing around, I couldn't peek at the schedule to see if Mrs. Johanna had come down at all in the past week.
With a sigh, I made my way back upstairs. No doubt there were bedpans to change and beds to make.
I was halfway to the nurses' station to check call lights when someone screamed. At first I assumed it was some kind of medical emergency, but the screaming was ongoing and coming from the nurses' station. "What now?" People practically died around here, and no one screamed.
In fact they did die and no one made a fuss.
Screaming, on the other hand, got more attention than a "code blue." Patients who were able aimed their walkers toward the nurses' station. What would they do when they got there? Not a one of them moved faster than a "granny shuffle."
I beat them by a mile.
Attila was the focus of attention. She stood in front of the refrigerator screaming her head off. Truthfully, with the busy morning, I had completely forgotten about the snake in my lunch bag.
My wonderful casserole was smeared across the wall and the floor. The snake was also lying in the general vicinity.
I, along with half the floor, gaped at Attila. No one had taken a step into the room after arriving. "It's not movin
g," I said to no one in particular.
Attila stopped screeching, but her mouth opened and closed as though she was still trying.
Since I knew the snake was dead, I took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold. I reached her and said, "It must be dead. Who could have put that in your lunch?"
I had no way to know what would happen when the thief saw the snake, but I had honestly believed the thief was Dr. Burns. I assumed he would either devour the thing without noticing or start paying more attention to what he stole in the future. He was so calm under all conditions, I hadn't worried about him panicking.
Unfortunately for Attila, I had been wrong in my assumptions. She stood there with a glassy stare, shaking from head to toe. My lunch was spread across the room for all the world to see.
"It's going to be okay," I said, moving a chair between her and the snake.
She whimpered.
One thing for sure, Dr. Burns was indeed calm. He came through the mob blocking the doorway, knelt over the snake and prodded it with a pencil. "It's dead. People usually skin these before eating them."
"Unhealthy!" Attila finally gasped out. "It's bad enough that people eat junk food in my hospital, but that--"
From behind me, Crissa whispered, "My God, you eat snakes. I wonder what he'll think of that." I turned to find her green eyes staring at me gleefully. "I guess we'll find out, and then we'll see how easy it is for you to steal dates from other people!" She whirled around, leaving me with my mouth open and my hands hanging in midair.
How did Crissa know it was my lunch...oh yeah. She had seen me kill the "pet" and must have put two and two together.
From behind me, Attila demanded, "Is that your lunch?"
I turned to find her finger pointing at me. I pretended to inspect the casserole that was smeared all over the wall. "Well, it's kind of hard to say." Then, I shook my head. "No, it can't be. I planned to eat lunch out today. I think it was Crissa's lunch." Try that one on for size. Accuse me of stealing a date, and get me in trouble? Hah!
Attila didn't look convinced.
I shrugged. "I'm sure yours is probably still in the fridge, right?" I started for the fridge.
Attila blocked me. "There is no excuse for that kind of food to be in this hospital! We're professionals. We should eat healthy, low salt, low fat, high protein, low carbs! We need to set an example." She flexed her arms and clenched her fists, punctuating her words like a mantra. "I won't have unhealthy eating going on during my shifts!"
Looking at the fanatic gleam in her eye, I was pretty sure she wasn't referring to just the snake. Given her passion, I bet she regularly stole every lunch she could get her hands on, deemed it unhealthy for one reason or another, and disposed of it.
"Snake is very low in fat, I would think," Dr. Burns commented. "Can't imagine it would cause health problems unless a person accidentally choked on a bone. It's all protein."
It took a lot of will power to keep a grin off my face and to keep myself from hugging Dr. Burns for his timely pronouncement. Before I lost my composure completely, I shrugged, blinked innocently, and scooted out of the break room to help reassure patients and visitors that all was well.
No telling what happened to the snake or the mess. Since I had cleaned up after the viper once, someone else could do it this time.
Chapter 31
The longer the evidence was left in the x-ray development room, the more danger I was in. Mark must have felt that way as well because he stopped by my place on Tuesday night, all dressed in black. "I suppose if I ask where you put the x-rays you'll insist on coming along?"
I smiled. "Of course. It will be a lot faster for us to get in and out together." I frowned as another thought occurred to me. "There were some other x-rays in that drawer that hadn't been developed. It might be a good idea to see what is on them."
"You want to develop them?"
Given the amount of hospital personnel around, it probably wasn't a good idea. "If I can get all the x-rays into a cassette, we can take them across the street and develop them at The Pavilion. There isn't likely to be anyone there if we go late enough."
"Have you eaten?"
I shook my head.
"Good. I brought steaks."
He grilled while I tossed a salad from the greens he had also brought. With the garlic bread from my freezer, we had the makings for a feast.
While we ate, we devised a plan. "The regular shifts end at eleven," I told him. "If it's busy, there might be a part-time person there."
"Is it usually busy at that time?"
"Not unless emergencies come in. None of the patients get scheduled after about five o'clock. Holly's shift ends at seven. Then it's an on-call person."
"How certain are you that those other films have something on them?"
"I'm not. I only know there were a few stuck in the very back where they weren't likely to be noticed. The one I pulled out had been exposed but not developed and stamped with a name."
"Why would someone leave them there where any of the x-ray techs could find them?"
The steak Mark had grilled was delicious. I took my time savoring a bite before answering. "The technicians know exactly where each sized x-ray is located. No one hunts through the drawer because nothing is supposed to be back there. It’s always dim when the drawer is opened because only the red light is activated. Even if someone stumbled across them and developed them by mistake, they wouldn't know what to make of it."
We finished eating and did the dishes. I made coffee for Mark and tea for myself. My nerves were always strung tight with Mark around. I didn't really need the caffeine.
It was barely ten o'clock, but I changed into dark clothing in preparation. We had two hours to kill. Every time I caught Mark's eyes I had this great idea of how to spend the time. Of course, there would have been no need to put my midnight outfit on if that were the case.
Mark may have been thinking the same thing. His eyes raked over me as I stood there in my tight silk sweater and black jeans. "I should have rented a movie," he said.
"We could go out to see one." My voice squeaked at the end. He looked…dangerous, staring at me as if I were dessert.
"That's a good idea." He jerked up from the chair and grabbed his jacket. "We probably look like hoodlums both dressed in black."
I didn't point out that he always looked like a hoodlum and that was part of the attraction. I got my leather jacket and followed him out to the SUV. He tucked me in, but we were both thinking too hard.
Instead of closing the door after holding it open for me, he reached in and grabbed my chin. I think he meant for it to be a quick kiss, but as soon as he touched me, I melted. My lips were as soft as the rest of me, and it was too much of an invitation. He kissed me hungrily. I wanted to taste him too, and I wanted to be closer. I put my arms around his neck, lost my balance and slid down from the seat across his hard body while our tongues tangled. He growled something unintelligible before picking me up unceremoniously and depositing me back in the SUV. "I really wish we did not have to do this tonight."
It was the last thing he said until we pulled up to the theater, but I finally understood what he meant about the job interfering with the romance.
Mark muttered something about "comedy" and got tickets.
We took seats in the back. He put his hand on my thigh.
I jumped.
He chuckled low. From the flickering illumination coming from the picture screen, I could see he was pleased. I put my hand on his, and he twined his fingers through mine. He glanced over at me, but I wasn't prepared to meet his eyes.
By the time we left, I had impressions of people moving across the screen, some shooting and a couple of explosions, but if there was a plot, I missed it.
With a real purpose at last, I was calmer and focused. The hospital was familiar territory, and I had done this before, at least most of it. We left our jackets by the escape door in the basement so we wouldn't look like what we were--thieves roam
ing the hallways about to grab something and run.
Dark shadows, we crept up the stairwell and through the corridor to the x-ray room. The outer door was locked, but once inside, the door to the dark room wasn't. We ducked inside and locked the door.
There were eight films in the back drawer. I transferred them to a cassette with only the red light to illuminate my movements.
Mark touched my arm. "If someone notices these are gone, it could be dangerous for you."
I hesitated. "Can we afford to leave them here? Right now only one is missing; the one I accidentally developed. Maybe it won't be noticed."
He thought about it and then shook his head. "Someone knows we're looking or Dr. Dan wouldn't have been hit. We need the evidence."
"Okay, then." I sealed the cassette and reached behind the cabinet to get the ones I had already developed. They were right where I left them. "Let's go."
He nodded, checked the outer room and waved me after him out into the hallway.
We were back in the SUV before I knew it.
"Warm and cozy?" he asked with a lazy grin.
"I'm getting good at this, aren't I?"
He grazed my chin with his fist. "Don't get cocky or I'll make you pick the lock on the next door."
I grinned. Unbelievably, I was having fun. I was safe with Mark, and he was right. He was doing most of the work, although I suppose I was just as culpable. All I had to do was follow.
Oh, if only it were always so easy.
Chapter 32
Instead of going through the difficult side door, Mark had obtained a key for the front entrance at The Pavilion. It took a mere second for him to unlock the door. We looked like we belonged there.
I felt quite clever about it until we got inside. The front of the building was more of a greenhouse than a building; the sloping cascade of glass partitions went above the first floor where it met the building. The second story rose above us. The glass was tinted, but we were still very exposed.
3 Executive Sick Days Page 22