by Robin Cook
“Did you think he was going to change?”
“Not really. I have to say I admired him for his dedication and sacrifice, and I still do. Maybe that says something about me, but that’s beside the point at the moment.”
“I’m not going to argue with you about any of this. I’ve pretty much felt the same about Craig’s personality, having gone through the same training system and felt the same pressure myself. I just couldn’t have put it into words as well as you have. But that’s probably because, as a psychologist, this is your area of expertise.”
“It is. Personality disorders have been my bread and butter. I knew before Craig and I married that he had a lot of narcissistic traits. Now it might even have risen to be a disorder, since it’s made aspects of his life dysfunctional. The trouble is, I’ve been unable to convince him to see someone professionally, which isn’t surprising since narcissistic people in general have trouble admitting any deficiencies.”
“Nor do they like to ask for help, since they see dependency as a sign of weakness,” Jack said. “I’ve been down that road myself. Most physicians have at least a touch of narcissism.”
“Well, Craig has a lot more than a touch, which is why he’s finding this current problem so overwhelming.”
“I’m sorry to hear all this, Alexis, but those dead patients of mine are starting to get restive. I don’t want them to walk out without having been seen. Could I call you back this evening?”
“I’m sorry to be blabbing,” Alexis said quickly. “But I have a favor to ask: a rather big favor.”
“Oh?” Jack said.
“Would you be willing to fly up here and see if you could help?”
Jack gave a short laugh. “Help? How could I help?”
“You’ve mentioned in the past how often you testify at trials. With all that experience in the courtroom, you could help us. The insurance company lawyer assigned to represent Craig is experienced and seems competent, but he’s not relating to the jurors. Craig and I have talked about asking for another lawyer but have no way of judging if that would be wise or not. The bottom line is that we are desperate and pessimistic.”
“The vast majority of my courtroom appearances have been in criminal proceedings, not civil.”
“I don’t think that matters.”
“In the one malpractice case I was involved in, I was on the side of the plaintiff.”
“I don’t think that matters, either. You are inventive, Jack. You think outside the box. We need a small miracle here. That’s what my intuition is telling me.”
“Alexis, I don’t see how I could possibly help. I’m not a lawyer. I’m not good around lawyers. I don’t even like lawyers.”
“Jack, when we were younger, you always helped me. You’re still my big brother. I need you now. As I said, I’m desperate. Even if it turns out to be more psychological support than actual, I would be so thankful if you’d come. Jack, I haven’t pushed you to come to visit us since you’ve been here on the East Coast. I know it was hard for you. I know you have some avoidant traits, and that seeing our daughters and me, too, reminded you of your terrible loss.”
“Was it that obvious?”
“It was the only explanation. And I’d seen some evidence of that kind of behavior back when we were kids. It was always easier for you to avoid an emotional situation than confront it. Anyway, I’ve respected that, but now I’m asking you to put it aside and come up here for me, for my daughters, and for Craig.”
“How long is the trial supposed to take?”
“Most of the week is the general consensus.”
“The last time we talked, there was something new in my life I didn’t tell you. I’m getting married.
“Jack! That’s wonderful news. Why didn’t you mention it?”
“It didn’t seem right after you told me the latest about your marriage situation.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. Do I know her?”
“You met her the one and only time you visited me here at work. Laurie Montgomery. We’re colleagues. She’s also a medical examiner.”
Alexis felt a shiver of distaste descend her spine. She’d never visited a morgue before visiting Jack’s place of work. Even though he’d emphasized that the building was a medical examiner’s office and that the morgue was merely a small part of a larger whole, she hadn’t found the distinction convincing. To her it was a place of death, plain and simple, and the building looked and smelled as such. “I’m pleased for you,” she said while she vaguely wondered what her brother and his potential wife might talk about over a routine breakfast. “What makes me particularly happy for you is that you’ve managed to process your grief about Marilyn and your girls and move on. I think that’s terrific.”
“I don’t think one ever gets completely over such grief. But thank you!”
“When is the wedding?”
“This Friday afternoon.”
“Oh my goodness. I’m sorry to be asking for a favor at such a critical time.”
“It’s not your fault, that’s for certain, but it does complicate things, yet it doesn’t preclude it, either. I’m not the one making all the plans for the wedding. My job was the honeymoon, and that’s all been arranged.”
“Does that mean you’ll come?
“I’ll come unless you hear back from me in the next hour or so, but I’d better come sooner rather than later so I can get back here. Otherwise, Laurie might start thinking I’m trying to get out of it.”
“I’d be happy to speak with her to explain the situation.”
“No need. Here’s the plan. I’ll come up on the shuttle late this afternoon or early evening after work. Obviously, I have to talk with Laurie and the deputy director, as well as clean up a few things here in my office. After I check into a hotel, I’ll call your house. What I’ll need is a complete case file: all the depositions, description or copies of any evidence, and if you can, any testimony.”
“You’re not staying at a hotel!” Alexis said with resolve. “Absolutely not. You have to stay at the house. We have plenty of room. I need to talk with you in person, and it would be best for the girls. Please, Jack.”
There was a pause.
“Are you still there?” Alexis questioned.
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
“Since you are making the effort to come up, I want you at the house. I really do. It will be good for everyone, although that might be selfish rationalization, meaning I know it will be good for me.”
“All right,” Jack said with a touch of reluctance in his voice.
“There’s not been any testimony at the trial as of yet. The defense is giving its opening statement as we speak. The trial is very much still at the beginning.”
“The more material you can give me about the case, the greater the chance I might be able to come up with some suggestion.”
“I’ll see what I can do about getting the opening statement of the plaintiff.”
“Well, then, I guess I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks, Jack. It’s starting to seem like old times knowing that you’re coming.”
Alexis ended the call and slipped her phone back into her bag. When all was said and done, even if Jack didn’t actually help, she was glad he was coming. He would provide the kind of emotional support only a family member could offer. She headed back through security and took the elevator to the third floor. As she entered the courtroom and allowed the heavy door to close as quietly as possible behind her, she could hear that Randolph was still describing the deleterious effect current-day medical economics was having on the practice of medicine. Choosing to sit as close as possible to the jury, she could see by their glazed eyes that they were no more engaged than when she had left. Alexis was even more pleased that Jack was coming. It gave her the sense that she was doing something.
5
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Monday, June 5, 2006
3:45 p.m.
For a few minutes after hang
ing up with his sister, Jack sat at his desk and drummed his fingers on its metallic surface. He hadn’t been completely up-front with her. Her assessment of why he’d avoided visiting her had been on the money, which he hadn’t really acknowledged. Worse yet, he hadn’t admitted it was still the case. In fact, it might even be worse now, since Meghan and Christina, Alexis’s two youngest, were currently about the same ages as his late daughters, Tamara and Lydia. Yet he was caught in an emotional bind, considering how close he and Alexis had been back in Indiana. He was five years her senior, and the age difference was just enough for his role to be somewhat parental yet close enough to also be solidly brotherly. That circumstance, plus guilt from having avoided Alexis for the entire ten years he’d been in New York, made it impossible not to respond to her pleas in her hour of need. Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be easy.
He stood up and for a brief moment debated whom he should talk to first. His first inclination was Laurie, although he was hardly excited about the prospect, since she was clearly uptight about the wedding plans; her mother was driving her crazy and she was, in turn, driving Jack crazy. Consequently, he thought perhaps speaking first to Calvin Washington, the deputy chief, made more sense. Calvin was the one who would have to give Jack permission to take time off from the OCME. For even a briefer moment, the hope that Calvin would say no to additional leave passed through his mind, since both Jack and Laurie were already scheduled for two weeks’ vacation starting Friday. Being denied leave to go to Boston would certainly solve his issues of guilt toward Alexis and reluctance to confront Alexis’s daughters, and the need to bring up the idea with Laurie. Yet such a convenient excuse was not going to come to pass.
Calvin wouldn’t say no; a family emergency was never turned down.
But before he’d even logged off his computer, rationality prevailed. Intuitively, he knew he should at least try to talk with Laurie first, since if he didn’t and she found out that he hadn’t tried, there’d be hell to pay, as close as it was to the wedding date. With that idea in mind, he walked down the hall toward Laurie’s office.
There was another reason Jack was not excited about the proposed trip to Boston, and that was because Craig Bowman was far from his favorite person. Jack had tolerated him for Alexis’s benefit, but it had never been easy. From day one when Jack had just met the man, he’d recognized the type. There’d been several similar personalities in Jack’s medical school, all of whom had been at the very top of his class. They were the type of individuals who made it a point to smother someone with an avalanche of journal article citations supposedly confirming their viewpoint whenever they got into a medical discussion. If that had been the only problem, Jack could have lived with it, but unfortunately, Craig’s opinionated ways were also sprinkled with an irritating degree of arrogance, grandiosity, and entitlement. But even that Jack could have found bearable if he’d been able to occasionally steer the conversation with Craig away from medicine. But he never could. Craig was interested only in medicine, science, and his patients. He wasn’t interested in politics or culture or even sports. He didn’t have time.
As Jack closed in on Laurie’s office door, he audibly harrumphed when his mind recalled Alexis suggesting he had avoidant traits in his personality. The nerve! He thought for a moment and then smiled at his reaction. With a flash of clairvoyance, he knew she was right and that Laurie would wholeheartedly agree. In many ways, such a reaction was evidence of his narcissism, which he had admitted to Alexis.
Jack poked his head into Laurie’s office, but her desk chair was empty. Riva Mehta, Laurie’s darkly complected, silky-voiced office mate, was at her desk and on the phone. She glanced up at Jack with her onyx eyes.
Jack pantomimed by pointing toward Laurie’s chair while raising his eyebrows questioningly. Riva responded by pointing downward and mouthing “in the pit” without taking the telephone receiver from her ear.
With a nod of understanding that Laurie was down in the autopsy room, undoubtedly doing a late case, Jack reversed course and headed for the elevators. Now if Laurie found out he’d gone to Calvin first, he’d have an explanation.
As per usual, he found Dr. Calvin Washington in his office next to the chief’s. In contrast with the chief’s, it was tiny and practically filled with metal filing cabinets, his desk, and a couple of straight-backed chairs. There was barely room for Calvin’s two-hundred-fifty-pound frame to squeeze past his desk and lower itself into his desk chair. It was Calvin’s job to run the medical examiner’s office on a daily basis, which was not an easy job considering there were more than a dozen medical examiners and over twenty thousand cases per year resulting in almost ten thousand autopsies. On a daily basis there were on average two homicides and two drug overdoses. The OCME was a busy place, and Calvin oversaw all the pesky details.
“What’s the problem now?” Calvin demanded in his basso profundo voice. In the beginning, Jack had been relatively intimidated by the man’s muscular bulk and stormy temperament. As the years passed, the two had grown to have a wary respect for each other. Jack knew Calvin’s bark was worse than his bite.
Jack didn’t go into details. He merely said he had a family emergency in Boston that required his presence.
Calvin regarded Jack through his wire-rimmed progressive lenses. “I didn’t know you had family in Boston. I thought you were from somewhere out there in the Midwest.”
“It’s a sister,” Jack said simply.
“Will you be back in time for your vacation?’ Calvin asked.
Jack smiled. He knew Calvin well enough to know that he was making a stab at humor. “I’ll try my darnedest.”
“How many days are we looking at?”
“Can’t say for certain, but I’m hoping just one.”
“Well, keep me informed,” Calvin said. “Does Laurie know about this sudden development?” Over the years Jack had come to realize that Calvin had assumed an almost parental attachment to Laurie.
“Not yet, but she’s at the top of my list. Actually, she’s the only one on my list.”
“All right! Get outta here. I’ve got work to do.”
After thanking the deputy chief, who acknowledged him with a wave of dismissal, Jack walked out of the admin area and took the stairs down to the autopsy floor. He waved hello to the mortuary tech in the mortuary office and to the head of security in the security office. A waft of what New York City residents call fresh air came in from the open loading dock looking out to 30th Street. Turning to the right, he walked down the stained, bare concrete flooring past the big walk-in cooler and past the individual refrigerated compartments. Reaching the autopsy room, he glanced inside through the wiremesh window. There were two figures in full protective gear in the process of cleaning up. A single body with a sutured autopsy incision was on the nearest table. It was obvious the case was over.
Jack cracked the door and called out to ask if anyone knew the whereabouts of Dr. Montgomery. One of the occupants said she’d left five minutes ago. Cursing under his breath, Jack retraced his steps and took the elevator back up to the fifth floor. As he rode, he wondered if there was any way to present the situation that would be easier for Laurie. His intuition told him she wasn’t going to be happy with this new development, with as much pressure as her mother was putting on her about Friday’s proceedings.
He found her in her office, arranging things on her desktop. It was apparent she’d just arrived. Riva was still on the phone and ignored them both.
“What a nice surprise,” Laurie said brightly.
“I hope so,” Jack said. He leaned his butt against the edge of Laurie’s desk and looked down at her. There was no other chair. Not only did the medical examiners have to share offices in the outdated OCME facility, but the offices were small to begin with. Two desks and two file cabinets filled the room.
Laurie’s questioning blue-green eyes stared back at Jack without blinking. Her hair was piled on top of her head and held in place with a faux-tortoiseshell cli
p. A few wisps of hair curled down in front of her face. “What do you mean ‘I hope so’? What in heaven’s name are you going to tell me?” She was wary.
“I just had a call from my sister, Alexis.”
“That’s nice. Is she all right? I’ve wondered why you two don’t stay more in touch, especially since she and her husband have been having their difficulties. Are they still together?”
“She’s fine, and yes they are together. The call was about him. He’s going through a difficult time. He’s being tried for malpractice.”
“That’s too bad, especially since you said he was such a good doctor. I hate to hear that kind of story with what we medical examiners know of the doctors who ought to be sued.”
“The bad doctors are much more risk-management-oriented to make up for what they lack in skill and know-how.”
“What gives, Jack? I know you didn’t come in here to discuss the malpractice crisis. I’m sure of that.”
“Apparently, my brother-in-law’s case is not going well, at least according to Alexis, and with the extent of his ego investment in being a doctor, she believes he’ll decompensate if he loses. Furthermore, she believes that if that happens, the marriage and family will fall apart. If Alexis didn’t have a Ph.D. in psychology, I might not give all this much credence, but since she does, I have to assume it’s on the money.”
Laurie cocked her head a few degrees to the side to view Jack from a slightly different angle. “You’re obviously leading up to something, which I have a feeling I’m going to find upsetting.”
“Alexis has pleaded with me to rush up to Boston and try to help.”