Flashback

by Michael Palmer

  Do what you can to keep your father from destroying what your brother has worked so hard to build, and give us all a rest." She snatched up her handbag and, without waiting for a response, raced from the office.

  For a time, Zack sat numbly, staring out the window at the waning afternoon. A trigger, or a sequence of triggers. Perhaps that was the key. Suzanne had no recollection of the episode at the Meadows during their picnic, but something weird had happened to her. A switch had been thrown. But what? A word? A sound? A smell?

  Zack drummed his long fingers on the desk. He felt his thoughts darting out at the answer again and again, like the tongue of a snake. But each time not quite far enough… not quite far enough… Finally, he slid Toby Nelms's file back in front of him and opened it, — ice again, to the first page. They're not going to get you, kid, " he whispered. "I swear, they're not going to get you." Come, here. So., ong the best of the old New England inns, the Granite House "Darral. The slanting, hardwood floors, beamed ceilings, and oddly regard foroms, each with a stone hearth, were rated by the guides as man who is Vess wonderful than the cuisine and service. being your brotin had chosen the spot carefully for his first encounter tal." egional trustees, specifically, this night, a successful "It's not his hccrook, and Whitey Bourque, the rotund, often outtoo much on my mithe local A amp; P. "Like what? " I gone well-better than he had dared hope.

  Every instinct wated the conversation beautifully, weaving accounts his theories to himstsses and plans in with reminiscences of some golf He stared down at. d with Crook, and some interested queries about Mainwaring wqhter, Renee, one of the finest young horsewomen in the "Suzanne, ` lieve that humey sat in the otherwise deserted Colonial Room, sipping "Now smoking after-dinner cigars, he felt ready to nail the two "And.". might bre were twenty-one members of the board. Frank considered six Srm to be all but in the bag-either because of their relationship enci him or because of business they would lose if Ultramed was forced sut of Sterling. Allowing for two no-shows at the meeting-and given the board's track record, that was a conservative estimate-he would need only three or four more votes to block the buy back regardless of the Judge's position. And at least half of those votes were right there at the table, sitting, it seemed, in the palm of his hand. All he needed to do, ever so carefully, was close his fingers.

  Unlimited potential… Frank allowed himself the flicker of a smile.

  Don't go too far away, Ms. Baron, he thought, eyeing the two men over his snifter. I'm coming. "They sure know how to do it right here, don't they, " he began. Bill Crook, logy from the meal and the drinks, mumbled agreement.

  He was a slap-on-the-back Ivy Leaguer with a reputation for enthusiastically supporting the ideas of others while never coming up with an original one of any substance. Whitey Bourque belched and dabbed at his lips with the corner of his napkin. Frank noticed the tangles of fine veins reddening his cheeks. "Good beef, " he humphed. "Nothing we don't have at the store, but good."

  "Lisette always said yours is the only place in town to buy meat, Whitey, " Frank said. "As a matter of fact, I think I'll have her stop by tomorrow and stock up our freezer… So, now, before we break up and head home to our families, I want to be sure I've answered all the questions either of you might have about just what Ultramed has on the drawing board for our hospital.

  Bill?"

  The banker thought for a moment, and then shook his head. "Sounds like a pretty ambitious and exciting set of objectives to me, Frank, " he said.

  "And don't forget for a moment that Ultramed plans to finance every one of these projects with local money. Sterling National Bank money, if I have my way. Whitey?"

  Bourque shook three sugars into a cup of coffee and drank it in one gulp. "No questions, " he said. "I'll have details of our proposal for competitive bidding on our dietary service in your hands by the end of the month."

  "That'll be fine, Frank. Fine."

  "Excellent." Frank glanced at the check, and then handed it and his Gold Card to the waitress. "Bring us a few more of those little mints, honey,

  " he said. He cleared his throat and turned back to the table. "So, gentlemen, I've enjoyed sharing this meal with you both, and I presume Ultramed and I can count on your support at the board meeting Friday."

  The two men looked at one another, silently selecting a spokesman.

  Whitey Bourque was chosen. "Well, Frank, " he said, "all we can tell you at this time is, that depends."

  Frank felt suddenly cold. "Depends on what?"

  "On what your father comes up with these next couple of days. He called us yesterday, Frank, and asked us to keep our minds open on this business until he had checked up on a few things. I felt that considering how much help he was to me during last year's fund raiser for the new parish house, that was the least I could do."

  "And I owe him for the way he stepped in when my boy Ted experimented with that damn dago red wine and had that accident," Crook chimed in.

  "He saved the kid's buns for sure."

  "Gentlemen, please, " Frank said, struggling to keep any note of desperation from his voice. "I'm not arguing against the good works the Judge does around this town. For goodness sakes, that's a given. And I'm proud to be his son. But it's apples and oranges. What we're talking about here is support for your hospital and the good works we've been doing. Renee's broken wrist, Whitey. Remember that?

  Or… or how about that coronary your mother had last year, Bill?

  People say that if it weren't for our new unit and our new cardiologist, she would have died."

  "I… I understand," Crook said, staring down into his empty glass. well? 77 Whitey Bourque sighed. "Frank, we're sorry, " he said. "We'd like to help you out, but we gave the Judge our word we'd wait and follow his recommendation. He's the chairman of the board, and he's doin' all the legwork on this thing. All we want is what's best for Sterling. Since we're all too busy to do in-depth research of any kind, we're sort of counting on him to steer us in the right direction. I hope things work out. And whatever happens, I intend to help you and the hospital in any way I can."

  "Ditto for me, Frank, " Crook said. "Well, then… I guess there's nothing more I can say, is there."

  "You gave a good presentation, Frank," Bourque said, standing. "A damn good presentation. Your father'd be proud."

  "Hey, what the heck. We'll work it out, Whitey. I'm sure of it."

  Frank forced the words through a noose of anger and frustration tightening about his throat. He walked the two men to the dirt parking lot, shook their hands amiably, and watched until their taillights had disappeared into the night. Then he turned and landed a vicious kick on the door of the Porsche, leaving a dent and a small scrape. Heedless of the damage, he leapt behind the wheel and skidded from the lot, spraying a retired salesman and his wife with sand and stones. From the moment she had heard the Porsche screech into the drive and the screen door slam, Lisette knew it was going to be another one of those nights. With a mumbled greeting and not so much as a peck on the cheek, Frank stormed past her and into his den. She stood in the darkened hallway, waiting for the clink of ice in his glass. Frank did not disappoint her. Now, as she brewed a pot of the herbal tea that Frank had once introduced to her as "the only drink I ever touch after ten, " she battled the urge to bury herself in bed. She set the pot, two cups, some sliced lemon, and some sugar wafers on a tray and carried them to the study. Frank was standing in one corner, his back to her, reading. "Hi, what's the book?

  " she asked. "Nothing."

  He shoved the volume back into the bookcase and turned to her, but she had caught enough of a glimpse to know. It was his high school yearbook.

  "Frank, are you okay?"

  "Yeah, sure, I'm great. Do me a favor and just leave me alone, will you?

  " His words were already beginning to slur. "I brought you some tea."

  "I don't want any fucking tea."

  "Frank, please."

  "I said I don't want any goddamn tea!"

&n
bsp; He swiped his arm across hers, sending the tray spinning across the room. Tea splattered on the wall. The fine china, a wedding gift from her mother, shattered. Stunned, she stared at the mess. "Frank, something's wrong with you, " she said as calmly as she could. "You need help. Please, honey. I love you. The girls love you. For our sake, you've got to get some help." She stepped toward him, her arms extended.

  "I don't need any help! " he screamed. "What I need is to be left alone! "

  "Please."

  She took one more tentative step forward, and he hit her-a swift, backhand slap to the side of the face that sent her reeling against a chair. "I don't need you. I don't need my fucking father. I don't need goddamn Ultramed. I don't need anyone! I'm going to make it, and nothing any of you can do is-" He stopped in mid-sentence and looked down at her as if noticing her for the first time. Instantly, the fury in his face vanished.

  "Baby. Oh, Jesus, are you all right? " he asked, moving toward her.

  Lisette backed away, forcing herself not to touch the burning in her cheek. Then she turned and bolted from the room. BARON stared thoughtfully at the receiver in her hand, and then set it gently in its cradle. "Frank just lied to me, Ed," she said. "I don't like it. I don't like it at all."

  As she sipped her coffee, she gazed out of her thirtieth-story office window, across Boston harbor to the airport. It was just after eight in the morning, and traffic was, as usual, badly backed up coming into the Sumner tunnel. She had spent the night in the city, working into the early morning on several impending Ultramed acquisitions and then catching a few hours of sleep on the fold-out in her office. The RIATA CEO, still perspiring from his daily seven-mile run, scanned the list of the Davis Regional Hospital board of trustees. "Which two did he meet with? " he asked. "The top two on that sheet, Bourque and Crook. He told me just now that the session went well and that both men were as good as in the bag."

  "Those were his words?"

  "Precisely. The only problem is that Stan Ogilvie, our man on the board, told me last night that Judge Iverson had contacted all of them, and that Bourque and Crook had both given their word to go along with anything he recommended."

  "So maybe Frank talked them into changing their position?"

  "Possible, but doubtful. Ed, he's scrambling. I just know it. He refuses to admit that he's in over his head. No matter how big the writing on the wall becomes, he keeps thinking he's going to pull this off."

  She filled two crystal goblets with fresh orange juice and passed one over. gcthis is your baby, Leigh, " Blair said. Leigh nodded grimly.

  Three more New England hospitals were close to coming over, but all of them were holding out until the Davis Regional sale was final. Blair was watching her performance as closely as she was watching Frank's. And the genius behind RIATA International was hardly one to tolerate a failure of this magnitude from anyone. "Well, " she said, "I guess it's time I took a little trip up north."

  "I think, my friend, that is a wise decision. You've done an excellent job with Frank Iverson-an amazing job, all things considered. But it's becoming increasingly clear that the man is limited. It would seem he has gone about as far as he can go."

  "And then some, " she observed. She sighed. "What is it? " Blair asked.

  "Surely you can't be upset about pulling the plug on a man who's so blatantly put his own concerns ahead of yours or our company's?"

  "No, " she said. "But I can't help thinking that I'll miss him at all the regional meetings."

  "Miss him?"

  "Yes." She smiled wistfully. "Frank Iverson may be a little short on principles and a little long on ego, but he's been great visuals."

  The pain, a gnawing, empty ache centered beneath the very tip of Frank's breastbone, had begun soon after his fight with Lisette and had intensified throughout the night. He had thrown up several times, and he suspected-although he had not turned on the bathroom light to check-that the last time had been blood. A bottle and a half of Maalox had helped calm the burning some and enabled him to shave and dress and make it to his office in reasonable shape, but he sensed that it was only a matter of time before the searing pain resurfaced. It was Lisette's own damn fault that he had hit her. If she had only been more patient, more understanding of the stress he was under, she could have been a wife, and not just another strain on his life. Zack, the Judge, Mainwaring, Leigh Baron-as if he didn't have enough balls in the air without Lisette taking potshots at him, what goddamn nerve, telling him he needed to get some help when she should have been giving it to him. It was a miracle his stomach hadn't gotten fucked up long before this. He snatched up the phone and dialed the hospital pharmacy. "Sammy, it's Frank Iverson.

  What's the name of the stuff that's good for stomach troubles?… No, no, not that stuff, the pills… Cimetidine. Yeah, that's it. Listen, could you bring me up a week's supply?… I know it's a prescription drug, dammit. I don't need any lectures. What I need are those pills..

  .. Good. And not a word about this to anyone, right? " All he needed was a rumor going around that Frank Iverson had a bleeding ulcer. He slammed down the receiver and took another long swig of Maalox. It might have been a mistake not to have leveled with Leigh Baron about Bourque and Crook, but this battle was between him and the Judge, and the encounter with those two spineless yes-men was no more than a skirmish. By the meeting, he would have more than enough votes to block the buy back. He thought about calling Mainwaring for a progress report. If anything could help calm down his stomach, it was a few reassuring words from him. Two hundred fifty thousand back in the Ultramed-Davis account and $750, 000 left over to build on. Just the notion of that kind of money was enough to ease the queasy sensation. He simply had to calm down, ignore Lisette's behavior, and concentrate on the Judge and the board.

  The ultimate success, both within the company and without, was so close he could taste it. He culled Mainwaring's Atlanta number from his Rolodex and was in the process of dialing when his secretary cut in on the intercom. "Mr. Iverson, it's Annette."

  Her voice instantly stirred up images of their sensual, uncomplicated, unselfish evenings together-evenings in sharp contrast to those he had been enduring with Lisette. Annette was the perfect low-stress woman for high-stress times, and Frank made a mental note to have her work late again as soon as possible. "Yes, Annette, " he said, "go ahead."

  "Mr. Iverson, Dr. Jack Pearl is here to see you. He knows he doesn't have an appointment, but he says it's quite important."

  Pearl. Frank could think of nothing the distasteful little fairy could have to say that he would ever possibly want to hear. "Annette, ask Dr.

  Pearl if whatever it is can wait until later on this — oh, never mind.

  Have him just come on in," Pea ri, looking, as usual, as if he hadn't shaved in two days, entered Frank's office with a sheaf of papers in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, and immediately caught his foot on the doorjamb and stumbled, sloshing most of his coffee onto the Persian rug. "Oh shit… oh fuck, " he mumbled, dropping to his knees and dabbing at the spill with a handleerchief that was far from virginal. Frank was about to insist that he simply get up and leave the mess to housekeeping. Instead, he threw Pearl a towel from the bathroom and watched with some amusement as the physician crawled about the floor, alternately swearing to himself and clucking like some obscene, gigantic chicken. "Enough, Jack, enough, " Frank said finally. "Take a seat. I'll have Annette get you a replacement for your coffee-unless you want to wring that towel out into your cup." He laughed heartily.

  "Sorry, Jack, I was just kidding, just kidding. Seriously, do you want some more?"

  "N-No, Frank. No, thank you."

  "Okay, then. So, what is this matter of such earthshaking importance?"

  Pearl shifted uncomfortably. "Go ahead, " Frank said. "I'm not going to bite you."

  "There'sum.."

  Pearl coughed and cleared his throat. "There've been a couple of things that have come up… problems… with Serenyl." Frank's eyes grew n
arrow and hard. "What the fuck are you talking about, Jack? " The anesthesiologist began to tremble. "Well, " he managed, "what I meant was, not problems, exactly… um, a… more like potential problems. I really needed to talk to you, Frank. You haven't been around."

  "Business, Jack, I had business. For Chrissake, get to the point."

  "I had a visitor in my office Monday morning, Frank"-his words began to come a bit more easily-"a doctor who is on the verge of figuring out that Mainwaring and I aren't using the anesthe ics my operative notes say we are."

  "That's impossible, " Frank said, his mind already churning through the implications of discovery at this final stage of the game. Awkward, certainly, he concluded, perhaps even expensive if some sort of payoff was needed. But not catastrophic. The testing was complete. The whole project had been designed to make Jason Mainwaring comfortable enough with Serenyl to buy it, and in that sense, the project was already a total success. "I warned you this might happen, " Pearl was saying. "I warned both of you."

  "What are you talking about, Jack?"

  "The recovery time. I told you and Mainwaring someone might pick up on it, but you wouldn't listen to me. And now, someone has." His word, initially stuttered and uncertain, began spilling out like a slot machine payoff. "And that's not all, either. There's this kid we operated on last January for a hernia, and… and he's been having these nightmares, and-"

  "Okay, okay, " Frank said, holding his hands up, "enough of this bullshit. I want you to slow down, calm down, go back, and start at the beginning. Got that?… Good. Now, first of all, Jack, exactly who are we talking about?"

  "Well, Frank, it… it's your brother. Your brother Zachary."

  Zack again! For Frank, the minutes that followed were the purest torture. He listened impassively, struggling to maintain his concentration and composure in the face of the grotesque little man and the fireball of hatred that was tearing at his gut. He studied the notes Pearl had brought-Zack's review of the gallbladder cases and the hospital record of Toby Nelms. Then he insisted Pearl go through the entire story again, step by step. Midway through that recounting, he excused himself for a few minutes, citing the need to get some papers signed and in the mail to Boston. Then he strolled placidly through his outer office and down the hall to an empty men's room, where he threw up. Twenty minutes later, he had picked up the cimetidine and some more Maalox at the pharmacy and stood confronting himself in another men's room mirror. As a quaterback, he had learned that plays seldom went exactly as the coaches had diagrammed them in the playbook. A lineman stumbles, and everybody's timing is thrown off, a halfback is thinking about a fight he has had with his girlfriend, and misses a crucial block. The quarterback worth his salt always kept his head, always expected the unexpected. And it was in this area, Frank reminded himself — the instinctive, reflex ability to react and to adjust-that Frankie Iverson had been the very best. This time, as in so many sticky situations on so many playing fields, his edge would lie in keeping a cool head. He had picked through Pearl's story a piece at a time, and realized that things weren't yet nearly as bleak as he had initially perceived. When he returned to his office he was scrubbed, combed, and outwardly calm. Annette Dolan, dressed in a short-sleeved pink sweater with a band of fine beadwork flowing over her breasts, looked even more alluring than usual. Much work to do. Keep tonight open if you can.