Malpractice in Maggody
Page 31
“What about Dr. Dibbins? I asked. “Did he make it?”
“Oh, yeah, he most certainly did. The hospital administrator’s already called this morning, demanding that we take him off their hands. I told him it wasn’t any of our business. Brenda Skiller’s staying with him, driving the nurses up the damn wall. I left a message for the prosecutor, but he’s not likely to call me back until he gets to his office tomorrow morning.” He paused for a moment, then added, “We found the Mexicans, in case you was worried about them. That accident last night that Palsy went out to see about—one of the vehicles was the van from the Stonebridge Foundation. None of them must have been injured, ’cause they were long gone when he arrived. Think I should inform the immigration boys?”
“Let ’em be,” I said. “Maybe they’ll find less stressful work and end up paying taxes like the rest of us.”
“What the hell,” Harve said magnanimously. “You don’t have to spend the day hunting for that wacky senator, by the way. She’s already over at the psych ward, trying to recruit the staff to join the revolution. I don’t think she signed anybody up yet, but you never know. Guess I’ll be calling all the patients’ families today, telling them what-all’s been going on.”
“The media on it yet? Are you going to get some publicity for all your diligence and hard work?”
I could almost see the gloat on his face. “Might just happen ’long about noon,” he said, puffing on his cigar. “Might see my face on the front page tomorrow, if I can keep the prosecutor from claiming all the credit.”
“I guess the only person we’re still missing is Walter Kaiser.”
“Oh, we got him locked up, too. That dispatcher, whatever her name is, told you about there being a hostage situation, right? Well, it turned out to be the Kaiser fellow right in the thick of it.”
“He took somebody hostage?” I said, astonished. “He seemed way too laid-back to bother.”
Harve laughed. “He claims he was the hostage. Seems he went to the bar and picked up a pretty little thing, not knowing that her boyfriend was an ex-Marine. He lured her out to that hippie van of his. The boyfriend didn’t much like this, so he started taking potshots in the parking lot. It gets kinda confusing after that, but the best I could tell, the girl skedaddled away. Her boyfriend and Walter ended up in the van, smoking pot and threatening to kill anybody who got within a hundred feet. We just waited until Walter came outside to piss, and grabbed him, then busted into the van and handcuffed one really messed-up ex-Marine.”
“And that’s why I was out at the Stonebridge without any backup? So you could sit in your car and wait half the night? I could have been killed, you know.”
“But you weren’t, so quit your yammering. I’ll expect your reports in the morning, typed up real nice and neat.”
I was tempted to throw my mug at the wall. “In the morning, you asshole? You’ll be lucky to get them in three days.”
“Nine o’clock, on my desk. Have a nice day.”
I slammed down the receiver, then rocked back and willed myself to settle down. It seemed like I was going off like a firecracker more often than was healthy. Maybe it was nothing more than PMS, I thought as I inspected the map of South America on the ceiling. The spider had disappeared into the rain forest, or more likely, the crack by the wall. He’d be back, and I supposed I would be, too. Unless I got a better offer.
Ruby Bee and Estelle were munching biscuits at the end of the bar. Ruby Bee looked over her shoulder at the clock. “Arly might be along shortly,” she said.
“And?”
“I don’t know. What do you think?”
Estelle dabbed her lip with a napkin. “You could tell her.”
“I thought about it all last night, once she’d called to let me know she was okay. That fellow from Springfield stayed with her. I saw him driving off this morning.”
“You’re avoiding the issue.”
Ruby Bee sighed. “Maybe it’s best to let her figure it out herself. I don’t want her to think I’m butting into her private affairs.”
“Maybe so,” said Estelle. “She must not have noticed she missed her period last month, but she’s gonna miss another one before too long.”
“It ain’t gonna be easy,” Ruby Bee said, mostly to herself. “But it’s not up to us to tell her what to do.” She wiped her eyes. “You want some more coffee?”
“I’m thinking I might have a small glass of sherry.”
“That’s the best idea I reckon I’ve heard in a long while.”
Contents
Acknowledgments
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