CHAPTER ONE
1821 Words
CHAPTER ONE
“Dr. Stark,” said Dr. Preston Kane, his voice loud in the hushed hospital auditorium. “Dr. Stark!”
Morgan startled. “Yes. Sorry. Could you repeat the question?”
Kane scowled at him, his eyebrows coming together in a V. He was a white man in his sixties. Distinguished. A touch of silver at his temples, but reasonably fit. He’d worked at Georgetown for over thirty years and probably would refuse to retire for another twenty at least. He was officious, condescending, and, as luck would have it, in charge of the hearing deciding what disciplinary action the hospital would take against Morgan. “I asked you if you could describe for the panel what you did on the night in question?”
Morgan sighed. He’d have been happy to stipulate all these details, but Kane clearly wanted to add a little slice of humiliation to the s**t sandwich he was making Morgan eat. “I returned to the hospital and searched for patients who had been treated by Lexa Windham and who had had their labs run by Michelle Schultz. I then reported those findings to Special Agent Danielle Hernandez.”
“Were you aware that you were violating HIPAA regulations by doing so?” Kane asked.
“Yes.” Morgan leaned back in his chair.
Kane stared at him, clearly expecting Morgan to offer some kind of defense for what he’d done.
Morgan had no intention of doing so. As far as he was concerned, everything he’d done had been worth it. What he’d discovered by bending the rules here and there had led to them stopping a deranged serial killer who would have killed again and again and again. Hesitating for a few more hours would have left at least one more victim dead. Who knew how much longer it would have taken to catch the culprit?
He only wished he’d been able to do it sooner. He looked down, a wave of sadness crashing over him. Lives were lost unnecessarily. Promising lives. Innocent lives. His only satisfaction was that the man responsible would be spending the rest of his life in prison, unable to ever hurt anyone again. He stood by his actions.
“Dr. Stark!” Dr. Kane raised his voice again. “Are you listening?”
Once again, Morgan forced himself to focus on the proceedings. He should care. He should care a lot. He just couldn’t seem to.
The career that he’d dedicated his life to, that he may well have sacrificed his marriage for, hung in the balance and he couldn’t bring himself to do much beyond go through the motions. He looked out over the spectators in the auditorium.
Normally, the auditorium was set up for presentations and Morbidity and Mortality conferences with all the chairs and tables facing the front of the room. It still largely was, except Kane had insisted that Morgan be seated facing the assembled audience of his peers as if he was on trial, which he supposed he was, in a way.
More people attended the hearing than Morgan had expected. There were a few out there with gleams in their eyes, looking for a little schadenfreude. Morgan hadn’t always been as careful as he could have been about trampling the egos of his peers. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t suffer fools gladly, he just didn’t suffer them at all. He’d stepped on some toes and bruised some egos, never only for the joy of it, but always in service of a patient’s well-being. Apparently, it mattered more to him than it did to others, some of whom were here today to watch Morgan get taken down a peg. Well, let them.
One friendly face stood out in the crowd. Ashley. She looked understated and professional in a dark navy suit with a narrow pinstripe running through it, a single string of pearls around her neck, and blonde hair neatly styled. Even though he’d signed the papers and their divorce was proceeding, he still thought of her as his wife. Maybe he always would. He wished he didn’t feel so responsible for the worry lines on her forehead. There’d been a time when he could have smoothed those away with a touch.
“Is there anything else you’d like to add, Dr. Stark?” Kane asked, wrapping up the hearing.
Morgan shook his head. “Not at this time. No.”
“The board will now confer.” Kane gestured with a head nod toward the rest of the panel. The group of four men and three women filed out.
Morgan stood, legs stiff from sitting for so long. After months of drinking too much, eating nothing but take-out and cafeteria food, and sitting around feeling sorry for himself, he’d started running again. His muscles creaked, but in a good way now. He felt stronger and clearer. He made his way to Ashley.
She moved aside her briefcase that had been on the seat next to her to allow him to sit down.
“How do you think it went?” He slumped into the seat, hitching up the legs of his gray trousers.
Around them, people began to file out of the auditorium. The show was over. Morgan ignored the surreptitious glances being cast his way. He didn’t care what other people thought. He never had. He wasn’t going to start now.
Ashley took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Morgan, do you even want to keep practicing medicine?” A true daughter of the South, her honeyed drawl combined with her blonde hair and big blue eyes had fooled a few people into thinking she wasn’t too bright. Most of them had paid for that assumption. Ashley was sharp as a tack, insightful, and incisive.
He straightened. “Of course!” Was he being honest with himself, though? He wasn’t sure. He’d spent so much of his life getting to this point. Would he really give it up? Forever? “I at least want the option.”
“It didn’t really look like it up there.” She stood up, brushing the wrinkles out of the front of her skirt. “Come on. I’ll buy you a cup of coffee. They probably won’t make a decision for at least a few days.”
He’d rather have a beer, but coffee would have to do. “Sure,” he said. “It’s not like I have anything else on my schedule.”
Ashley extended her hand to him, he took it and stood. It felt good to touch her, even if it was in this limited platonic way. Sometimes the amount he missed her nearly took his knees out from under him.
The auditorium was almost empty now. They made their way up toward the exit doors, their footsteps barely making a whisper on the carpeted stairs. They hadn’t even made it to the top row when Morgan’s cell phone buzzed.
He pulled it from his pocket and stared at it for a moment, not quite certain he could believe what he was seeing.
“What is it?” Ashely asked.
“They made a decision.”
“That was fast.”
Morgan made a face. Fast was an understatement. They’d barely had time to get to the conference room, much less spend time conferring. The hearing had been for show. The board had clearly already made its decision before he’d answered a single question.
“Well?” Ashley asked, her hands twisted in front of her. “What did they say?”
He sighed. “I’m being suspended without pay for the next six months.”
Ashley looked down at her feet. “We expected as much. That’s not so bad.”
His heart swelled at her use of “we.” There was still a connection there for him. He suspected Ashely felt it too. As for the matter at hand, though, she was right. They had expected the suspension. The Board had to do something about Morgan’s breach of patient privacy. It would be a terrible precedent to set if they didn’t. He’d hoped it wouldn’t be for more than a few weeks, though. Apparently, they wanted to send a more significant message than that.
“So at the end of six months, you can come back.” Ashley gave him a weak smile. “It’ll go by quickly. You’ll see.”
He wasn’t so sure about that. “They’re reserving the right to further review.”
Ashley sucked in a breath.
That wasn’t great news. It meant they could still decide to terminate him completely.
Ashley slid her arm through his. “Come on. How about we make that coffee a martini instead?”
He laughed. “Sounds like a plan.” He pulled her arm in close to his side, enjoying the feel of her soft warmth against him, and they made their way out the doors of the auditorium.
They’d barely made it into the wide hallway when a familiar figure strode toward them. Tall and leggy, dark hair pulled back into a low ponytail, and wearing a black pantsuit, Special Agent Danielle Hernandez walked across the space with purpose and determination. What was she doing here? Had she somehow already been informed of the Board’s decision?
“Dr. Stark,” she said, then turned to Ashley. “Ms. Stark.”
“Ashley, please.”
The two women shook hands. They’d met before during the wrap up of a case Morgan had worked with Danielle on before. From what Morgan could tell, they’d sized each other up quickly, according each other the respect of two women who knew what it was like to succeed in male-dominated fields. “Good to see you again,” Danielle said and then turned her attention back to Morgan. “How’d the hearing go?” she asked.
So she had been keeping track of him. “Could be worse.” He didn’t feel like going over the details right then. “What brings you here?”
She tilted her head to one side and looked up at him. “Still interested in being an FBI consultant?”
His heart sped up. Working with Danielle on the Georgetown Hospital murders case had been a life saver for him. Sure, it had gotten him suspended just now, but at least he was really living and not going through the motions the way he had been for months. It had been a good deal of what had shocked him out of the soul-sucking depression he’d been sliding into. Besides, what else did he have to do for the next six months? He certainly wasn’t going to be practicing medicine. “Yes. I’m absolutely interested.”
“Great,” she said, turning to walk toward the door, assuming he would follow. “Come on. We’ve got a case.”
- Writer
