by Dobi Cross
“I’m good. Thanks for asking.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later. I have a meeting starting in the next few minutes.”
“Okay, bye.” The line disconnected. Zora shook her head and chuckled as she ambled back to the couch, laid down, and closed her eyes. Her mother had not changed—she remained the queen of meetings. If Zora got a dollar for every time she heard her mother was headed to a meeting, she would have been a very rich woman by now.
Zora was no longer affected as she used to be about her mother’s penchant for meetings. It used to make her mad. But everything had changed when the pendant that her mother had given her had literally saved her life. It seemed that was all she had needed—an assurance that her mother loved her. They still had some ways to go, but the relationship was getting better and better each year.
“Zora!”
Zora’s eyes sprang open. She’d thought she was the only one at home.
“Zora, I didn’t know you were back.” Christina came into view wearing a pink T-shirt and grey yoga pants. Her gorgeous red hair was held up in a twist with chopsticks.
“Yep. I thought you were still in the hospital.” Zora sat up to make room for Christina on the couch. Christina leaned back and placed her feet on the coffee table.
“My shift ended early. How was your day?” Christina asked.
“Hectic as always. But the weirdest thing happened to me today. My patient disappeared into thin air.”
“Hmmm. Wait, what?” Christina sat up.
“Crazy, right? I remembered operating on this one guy—John Doe—and had Stewart follow him to the SICU. Now he’s disappeared and there are no hospital records for him.”
“And he wasn’t discharged?”
“No. It’s like he’s never existed. Poof. Gone.”
“How is that even possible?”
“That’s what I’ve been racking my brain about. Dr. Edwards thinks I’m hallucinating.”
Christina fixed her gorgeous green eyes on Zora. “Zora, if you remembered operating on this patient, then you did. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Zora gave her a hug. Christina’s familiar soft lilac scent enveloped and warmed her. “That’s why you are my best friend. Always in my corner.”
Christina hugged her back. “Speaking of best friends, don’t forget to buy me a gift in France.”
Zora let her arms drop and leaned back on the couch. “The trip is cancelled.”
“What do you mean cancelled? You’ve been looking forward to this trip for a few months now.”
“I stepped on Graham’s toes and Dr. Anderson gave my spot to him.”
“That’s absolute nonsense! That toad. He’s always after everything you have. So what are you going to do?”
“I have no choice than to suck it up. I now have to be on-call for the next three days.”
“But you just finished your set of calls today!”
“That’s Dr. Anderson’s punishment for what happened. And I have to just accept it if I still want a chance at getting the GI fellowship. No sense in rocking the boat so to speak.”
Christina’s eyes searched Zora’s face. “But are you okay?”
Zora allowed the corners of her lips to turn into a thin smile. “I’ll be fine, eventually.”
“Okay, I know what would make you feel better.”
“What?”
Christina’s face split into a grin. “Ice-cream! I bought your favorite ice-cream from the grocery store on my way back. Give me one second.” Christina hopped up from the couch and headed into the kitchen.
The sound of Beethoven’s Fur Elise classical music filled the air. Christina pivoted and scrambled to her room.
Zora’s face squeezed in concern. The only time Christina played classical music was when she was melancholic about not being in a relationship. Which meant she was more susceptible in accepting the next guy that came her way. That had resulted in some very terrible boyfriends in the past. Zora had even enlisted Marcus’ help to scare off one guy that had ended up stalking Christina. And the fact that she’d turned the music into a ringtone meant that Christina was feeling down in the dumps more than ever. This was dangerous.
Christina came back into the living room, a sheepish grin on her face. “Sorry,” she said.
“Christina, what’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean nothing? You and I both know that you only play classical music when you wish you had a boyfriend. And now it’s a ringtone?”
“Uhm, do you still want the ice-cream?” Christina walked back to the kitchen and opened the freezer.
“Don’t change the subject.”
Christina turned and faced Zora. “Zora, I’m twenty-eight and I don’t have a boyfriend. Don’t you think it’s kind of pathetic?”
“Christina, the right person will come.”
“Yeah, right. Like I haven’t been waiting for like forever.”
Zora got up and strode over to where Christina stood and held her by the shoulders. “You are gorgeous and stunning. The guys around us must be blind. Really, the right person will come.”
Christina sighed. “Okay, but he’d better come soon.”
“He will. Meanwhile, what’s that?” Zora pointed at Christina’s phone. A strange emoticon danced on the screen.
Christina’s eyes followed Zora’s gaze. “Oh, it’s an alert.”
“It looks creepy.”
“I know. I’ve been using it to track my stocks. The market has been a bit volatile, so I’ve been more vigilant than usual about watching their performance.”
“I thought you were careful about only investing in sound companies.”
“I was. But something has been going on in the local stock market. There’s been rumors in the online forums that it’s being caused by Collmark group.”
Zora’s other hand on Christina’s shoulder fell to her side. She never though she’d hear that name again. She leaned against the counter. “What do you mean?”
“The speculation is that Drake Pierce is behind it. Remember he had a falling out with his father after what happened. The Collmark trades are destroying the value of their funds. There’s no way his father would sabotage his own company. So that leaves Drake. He has the motive to do so, but a source at the company says there is no evidence.”
Drake Pierce. The rapist who had been at the center of the storm that had almost ruined her life. If not for him, maybe Anna Hammond would have still been alive and her father wouldn’t have gone on a killing rampage. Which meant Zora wouldn’t have been accused of being a murderer. “I thought they said he’d disappeared.”
“Well, it seems like he’s back. There’s some speculation that he has been seen around town. So far, their funds have lost over a hundred million dollars. The trades seem to have Drake’s fingerprints all over them, even though he’s not supposed to still have authorization rights. First time it has ever happen to Collmark, but it’s not looking good for them.”
Zora shivered. She didn’t want to dwell on Collmark group, Drake Pierce, and what had happened many years ago. Besides, she already had too much stuff on her plate to deal with. John Doe for one. “Anyway, stay away from Collmark. We don’t want to get entangled in their mess. Now pass me the ice-cream.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Christina sat on her queen-sized bed with her knees pulled up to her chin. She could hear Zora from the next room getting ready to turn in for the night. It was time for Christina to go to bed as well since she had a long day tomorrow. But she was worried about Zora.
When Zora had told her about the patient that had disappeared and the missing records, Christina had been shocked. As far as Christina was concerned, Zora’s mental state was not in question. If she said a patient had disappeared, then the patient was missing. Zora had operated on John Doe.
Christina had never encountered this issue in all the years that she had worked at Lexinbridge Regional. Of course, there were patien
ts who ran away from the hospital to avoid treatment or to avoid paying hospital bills, but missing medical records was a whole different issue. The hospital was fastidious about ensuring patient privacy especially with the HIPAA law.
Which left only two options. Either someone had unauthorized access to protected health information, or a person at the highest levels in the hospital had authorized the deletion of the medical records. Either scenario had a lot of implications if the news leaked out.
Lexinbridge Regional would face civil penalties and damage to its reputation. Heads would roll and some of those affected could even face criminal penalties and possible jail time. So either the culprit wasn’t afraid of the consequences and was confident that the issue would not come to light, or would be keen on covering it up at all costs. Whatever the option, Zora could be in danger if she kept probing into the case—she could be squashed like an ant that got in the way.
And Christina could not just seat on the sidelines and let that happen. Though she didn’t have any tangible power or connections at the hospital, she was going to do all she could to protect Zora. Because Zora was the sister she’d never had. They understood each other and had stood together through thick and thin.
When Christina’s mom had been very sick, Zora had dropped everything to be by her side. Even dealing with Christina’s relationship craziness was more than one person could handle, but Zora had never complained and always forged the way in finding a solution to get Christina out unscathed each time. And that’s why Christina had been making an effort to get a strong handle on her relationship problem—Zora had no idea that the classical music ringtone was just a reminder to limit her urge to accept any boyfriend that came her way.
So when Zora had faced off with the formalin killer years ago, Christina had died a little inside, the guilt compounded by the fact that she’d been too busy at work to be there for Zora.
But this case was right on her home turf. And she was more familiar with hospital politics than Zora was. She wasn’t going to standby and watch Zora become the scapegoat if the case blew up. So she needed to keep an eye out on her behalf.
She closed her eyes and thought for a second. Maybe if she aligned her schedule with Zora’s she could help in deflecting the coming storm. Because it was on its way. Christina sensed this was just the beginning.
Her nursing director owed her and she would call in the favor tomorrow.
And maybe, just maybe, Zora would come out of it alright.
CHAPTER NINE
Drake closed the report he had been reading and tossed it on the right corner of his large mahogany desk. He looked up at a very muscular Tiny standing before him in his usual black T-shirt over black pants, his jaw sprouting a new five o’clock shadow. “How much?” Drake asked him.
“Collmark has lost one hundred and twenty million dollars.”
Drake rested his elbow on the desk and steepled his fingers. The amount was really a pittance compared to the ten billion in assets under management his father controlled, but it had made some ripple in the market so far. “Hmmm. That’s still not enough.”
“Should we continue?” Tiny asked.
“Yes, but make sure there is no evidence left behind. I’m sure those FBI folks are watching. They must have heard the rumors about my father and I. We don’t want to give them anything they can use against us.”
“Yes, sir. I have some guys watching over the team to make sure they stay in line. They know they are being compensated well enough to keep their mouth shut, and they are dead if they ever speak of it. We’ve also paid them in installments so they can’t go on a shopping spree and attract unnecessary attention to themselves..”
“Good.” Drake picked up his pen and opened the next report in front of him. When he sensed Tiny was still in the room, he looked up. “Anything else?”
“I got a message from your father. He wants to meet.”
Drake stood up from his desk and walked over to one of the floor-to-ceiling windows that spanned one-eighty degrees around his office. He stared outside at the twinkling lights from the building across the street. “That’s not going to happen. It’s not yet time. Ignore his message.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about Zora?”
“She won’t be attending the GI conference.”
“How did she take it?”
“She didn’t seem very happy about it.”
Drake chuckled. He’d expected that. The Zora he knew would be pissed. As his plans unfolded, he was sure she would get more riled up. But if Zora was as good as he thought, the experience would only shake her up but not destroy her.
“Anything else?”
“None.”
Drake swung his head around, his eyes observing Tiny’s face. “Are you sure?”
Tiny didn’t flinch and maintained his deadpan look. “Yes.”
“Okay, you can go.”
Drake watched as Tiny left the room. Why was Tiny lying to him? It was a good thing that he had another source, a guy who called himself Monkey—though Drake didn’t understand why someone would give himself such a name—that gave him updates on all things Zora. Tiny had always been reliable, but Drake had chosen to be cautious instead and it had paid off.
Monkey had reported that Zora had also lost a patient—a certain John Doe—and was searching everywhere for him. So why had Tiny excluded this news?” Of course, Tiny had a crush on Zora even though he’d always tried to hide it from Drake—it had been fun taking advantage of this in the past. But still, he did everything Drake asked of him. So, what had changed?
Drake rubbed his jaw. The why didn’t matter so much as the fact that he had done it. The only reason Tiny wasn’t dead for this disobedience was because he was still useful. He’ll just keep him out of his Zora Smyth plans for the meantime.
Drake ran his hands through his hair. His business was doing well, and he was making a ton of money. But he missed being at the center of Lexinbridge society. It had been too long. As much as he appreciated being in the shadows, he missed his old life. Maybe it was time to rectify that mistake. And it would also send the perfect signal to his father—he was available, but not to him.
It was time to visit the H Club.
CHAPTER TEN
It was a day later and the ER had been relatively quiet. Zora yawned and stretched out her arms to shake away the fatigue. Dealing with the patients had run her ragged, and she really needed to sleep.
She had been nowhere closer to finding John Doe. Every staff she had interacted with while treating him had claimed they couldn’t recall him. She’d finally caught up with Stewart and he’d drawn a blank on John Doe—as far as he was concerned they had only attended to Rick Williams, the abdominal trauma patient, but no John Doe. He claimed his phone was in silent mode the whole time she’d tried to reach him. Even Dr. Brennan had stared at her like she was nuts when she had asked about the other anesthesiologist.
Zora fiddled with the gold pendant around her neck. Was it true what they were implying—that everything was a figment of her imagination? But her memories of the patient and the surgery were so vivid that she was certain it had all happened.
She had to prove them wrong. If not, she would always wonder if something was wrong with her memory, and that would be a death sentence for a surgeon like her. The only way was to find evidence, but trying to track down John Doe, keeping up with her current patients, and being on-call at the same time had become a little too much for her. Her tank was running empty. Time to focus on something else for a change.
Zora logged into the hospital’s system on the computer in the call room and accessed her department’s training resources. There were some new minimally invasive surgery videos that she hadn’t had time to look at and she picked one to watch. Minimally invasive surgery was another area of interest for her, her second choice subspecialty after colorectal surgery. A perfect world would be to complete both fellowships, but that wasn’t going to happen. Lexinbridge Region
al didn’t offer it that way, but Zora already had a workaround in mind that would allow her to get the best of both worlds.
Her pager buzzed. She unsnapped it from its hook on her waist and checked the message. She was needed in the ER. She took a deep breath and dragged herself up. She couldn’t wait for this call to be over.
As Zora strode into the ER, someone bumped into her. Zora looked up to see a large framed muscular guy dressed in all black with a snake-like tattoo peeking out above his shirt on the side of his neck. The guy glared at her and strode off.
Zora was at a loss for words. Who did this guy think he is? He’d been the one who hadn’t looked at where he was going, and yet he’d had the audacity to be rude to her instead of apologizing. If she wasn’t in such a hurry, she would have given him a piece of her mind. He was lucky that she had an emergency patient waiting for her care.
Zora arrived at the patient’s gurney just as the nurse was hanging up the IV line. The patient had been changed into a hospital gown, and looked small on the bed with her arms restrained on the bedrail.
“Do we know why she is restrained?” Zora asked.
“She’s been having mixed delirium—one minute she is restless and hallucinating, the other she is quiet and withdrawn,” the nurse responded.
“Okay, thanks.” The nurse finished setting up the IV line and left the cubicle.
Zora looked at the girl’s face. It seemed familiar and her heart began to race. She moved in to take a closer look and gasped. The patient looked like her sister! It was the combination of the brown doe eyes, the small frame, and the honey-colored hair. Zora’s hands shook and she gripped the bedrail. It had been a while since she thought of her sister. Not that she could ever forget her—the bright flame in her life that was suddenly snuffed out.
Zora took multiple deep breaths and relaxed her hands. She couldn’t afford to go down this road now. The delirious girl lying on the gurney needed her.
