Doctor's Orders

by Deanna Ashford

  Duncan seemed to be enjoying this immensely as he sat down obediently. ‘It’s great, isn’t it?’

  ‘I’m a doctor not a detective,’ she muttered as she pushed him forwards.

  They passed the lift leading to the maternity and the annex, just in time to see the down arrow light up, and hear the soft hum as it started its descent. Not wanting to be seen, Helen pushed Duncan faster, almost running in her haste. She glanced back, just before they negotiated a sharp corner, and got a quick glance of the chauffeur exiting the lift alone. With luck he didn’t see them as she skidded round the bend in such haste that Duncan was forced to hang on to the arms of the chair to stop himself falling out.

  By the time they reached reception, Helen’s heart rate had slowed a little and she had her agitated breathing under control. The lobby was only dimly lit, the front doors were locked, and only a security man was on duty.

  ‘Evening, Dr Dawson,’ said the security man, glancing with interest at Duncan, obviously recognising him but not wanting to say so. ‘You and your patient are up late.’

  ‘Evening constitutional,’ Duncan explained. ‘I was getting tired of looking at four walls.’

  ‘Mr Paul wanted to check up on a friend of his, George,’ Helen smoothly lied. ‘He heard his friend was due to be admitted today and we wanted to know which room he’d been taken to.’

  ‘I wasn’t aware that anyone was coming in today,’ George said, sifting through the papers in front of him. ‘I’ll check the list – I may be wrong. What was the gentleman’s name?’

  ‘Cartman, Mr Cartman,’ Duncan improvised.

  George looked down at the list in front of him. ‘No sir, nothing like that here. In fact no-one has been admitted or was due to be admitted today.’

  ‘What about tomorrow?’ Helen suggested.

  ‘Or tomorrow for that matter,’ George replied. ‘It’s very quiet at present.’

  ‘Yes, I suppose it is,’ Helen agreed. ‘Thanks for your help, George,’ she added, pushing Duncan towards the lifts. Once they were inside the lift and on their way up to the first floor, she glanced down at Duncan. ‘Penny for them,’ she said, as Duncan appeared deep in thought.

  ‘I was thinking that we have to find some proof,’ he replied. ‘If, as we suspect, people are coming here to have their faces altered for some dodgy reason, then this should be brought to the attention of the authorities.’

  ‘Having your looks changed drastically isn’t necessarily illegal,’ she pointed out. ‘Not unless they’re terrorists or something, looking for a total change of identity.’

  ‘Then I suppose helping them would be classed as aiding and abetting,’ Duncan concluded. ‘But we couldn’t go to the authorities with just suspicions.’

  ‘If there’s no proof, then I doubt they’d even bother to investigate.’ She pushed his chair out of the lift and slowly along the near-deserted hospital corridors.

  ‘So we need concrete evidence, like medical records, and their actual identities, just to build up a convincing case.’

  ‘Ben downloaded all those suspect records on to a disc. He wouldn’t have done that unless he intended to keep that information somewhere,’ Helen said.

  ‘And he must keep records of current patients, but where?’ ‘Maybe in his apartment, or an office somewhere – does he have an office in the hospital?’

  ‘There’s one, but it’s shared by all the registrars,’ Helen replied. ‘However, he did once mention that he does a lot of his work in Justin’s office, because the lab is so quiet in the evenings.’

  ‘Then we should try and break into it,’ Duncan suggested, with rather undue enthusiasm.

  ‘What’s all this we?’ she asked. ‘I think it actually translates as “I”, Duncan. You’re due to leave pretty soon, and frankly I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to go about breaking into a locked office.’

  ‘If I wasn’t slap bang in the middle of filming, I’d stay longer and help you out.’

  ‘But you can’t,’ she said, then fell silent as they approached the nurses’ station on the East Wing, where a few night staff were on duty.

  Neither of them said another word until they reached the privacy of Duncan’s suite. ‘You’re right.’ Duncan yawned as he climbed out of his chair. ‘I’m not one hundred per cent at present. Usually I’d still be brimming with energy at this time of night, but I’m worn out.’ He pulled her close. ‘And another thing, my butt’s sore!’

  She gave a soft laugh. ‘It is a rather enjoyable soreness, isn’t it?’

  ‘As a matter of fact, it is,’ he agreed with a teasing grin.

  ‘It’s late. I’ll help you into bed and leave,’ Helen said, suddenly conscious of a slight headache in her right temple.

  ‘Stay with me,’ he said, kissing her forehead and cheeks.

  ‘I can’t, not in your room all night, it wouldn’t be right,’ she said awkwardly.

  Such behaviour would compromise her position even more than she had done so already. Even taking him to her apartment had compounded her sins, especially while he was still an in-patient of the hospital.

  ‘We’ll discuss things tomorrow then,’ Duncan replied, disappointedly. ‘I’ll help you figure out your next move. If needs be I could think of employing a private detective to help you. We might even be able to find a way of getting him in here, either as a patient or member of staff.’

  ‘I think that should be considered only as a last resort,’ she said cautiously, fearing that someone like that might uncover some of the seedier sexual goings on in this hospital. Apart from what she knew about Justin, Ben and Sandra, she’d heard lots of rumours circulating. She was inclined to believe many of them, but any such sensitive information would reflect badly on the hospital governing board. She still cared for Max’s wellbeing even though she no longer wanted to be involved with him.

  ‘If you –’ Duncan paused, as they heard a faint knock on the door. ‘Come in,’ he called out.

  Colin entered dressed in jeans and a casual shirt, obviously ready to go off duty after his shift. ‘I was hoping to catch you, Dr Dawson. There are a few phone calls you need to make tomorrow morning,’ he said, well aware that he could speak freely in front of Duncan.

  ‘About what?’ Helen asked. ‘And please don’t forget that I asked you to call me Helen.’

  ‘Yes, sorry. I’ve discovered some things about Dr Taylor which may be important,’ Colin explained. ‘Over the last few months he has taken on a number of extra duties. He’s now the consultant physician for a couple of old people’s homes in the vicinity, and a local home for maladjusted children. From what I can garner he’s put a number of these patients on Ampesoman. I’m sure if you spoke to the people in charge of these places you could get far more information.’

  ‘Could you find out more?’ Duncan asked Helen.

  ‘Probably,’ she agreed thoughtfully. ‘I’d have to come up with a convincing line as to why I was checking up on Ben though.’

  ‘God knows how many people he’s got on this drug,’ Duncan added. ‘He could be raking in a fortune.’

  ‘I’m more than certain that he’s not passing the payments on to the unsuspecting patients,’ Colin added, frowning.

  ‘I’ll do what I can to find out more tomorrow,’ Helen told them. ‘You can give me a list of the addresses and phone numbers, Colin. If needs be I’ll visit the places and try to get some concrete evidence.’

  Up to now Helen had been inclined to blame Justin for all that was going on around here. She quite liked Ben, and had always considered him basically OK, but just weak and easily led. She had been totally wrong in her assumptions, and she began to see just how much she had misjudged this man.

  ‘Another thing,’ Colin continued. ‘I managed to grab a quick word with Fran. She couldn’t tell me much because her boyfriend keeps her pretty much in the dark. She did say that for some time now, Jack has been doing theatre work at odd times, late at night. Jack was deeply in debt when they first me
t, two years ago. Now he’s free and clear, buying them a house, has a substantial amount in the bank and has just splashed out on a brand new sports car.’

  Helen hid a yawn as she walked through the East Wing. She had spent a very restless night, her sleep filled with strangely erotic dreams in which Duncan, Ben and Justin figured, but she couldn’t remember one single detail of what had happened between them.

  She wasn’t expecting to see Ben – according to the staff rota he wasn’t on duty until after lunch – but she saw him striding towards her, coming from the direction of the annex. Obviously he had been visiting the new arrival, although the annex was officially still off limits to all staff.

  ‘Helen,’ he acknowledged. She didn’t know if she was imagining it, but she thought that he was looking at her a trace oddly.

  ‘Ben,’ she smiled with extra warmth, hoping that appearing to be extra friendly might lull him into a false sense of security, although she despised him now more than she cared to admit. ‘I was hoping to see you yesterday. I thought perhaps we might talk,’ she said, lowering her eyelashes flirtatiously, noticing at the same time that he had a sample bag in his hand containing vials of freshly drawn blood.

  ‘What exactly did you want to talk about?’ he asked charily.

  ‘Well –’ Helen juggled the files she was holding, managing to drop a number of them and spreading papers across the floor. ‘Oh, damn!’

  Unenthusiastically, Ben bent to help her pick them up. ‘There’s no need to carry all this stuff around with you,’ he said, laying the sample bag on the floor as he piled the papers together in a heap. Helen could see at least three vials of blood and a bloodworks request form in the bag. Samples from more than one patient were never sealed in the same bag. She couldn’t see the name on the form as it was hidden by one of the blood samples.

  ‘Thanks, Ben,’ she said as he continued to gather up her papers.

  ‘You surprised me,’ he said softly, looking deep into her eyes. ‘The other night, when we were all together. I didn’t know that you were quite so liberated. Exotic sexual practices really turn you on, don’t they?’

  ‘It wasn’t like me at all,’ she admitted, feeling the colour rush to her cheeks. ‘I don’t know what came over me.’

  ‘I do,’ he replied huskily. Helen rose swiftly to her feet, as Ben straightened and placed her papers on the counter of the nurses’ station. She vaguely heard the phone ringing as he put a hand on her arm and added, ‘You were amazing, Helen. I thin –’

  His words were cut off by the nurse calling his name. ‘Dr Taylor!’

  ‘Yes?’ Ben sounded a little irritated.

  ‘Could you go to X-ray straightaway, they need you.’

  Helen heard Ben swear under his breath. ‘Yes, nurse,’ he agreed, smiling charmingly at the young woman. ‘Tell them I’m on my way.’ He stepped forwards and thrust the bag of samples into nurse Barker’s hand. ‘Dr Masterson is waiting for these. Take them straight down to the lab. Don’t let them out of your sight, and don’t give them to anyone but him. They’re very urgent.’

  By the time Helen had dumped the rest of her files on the counter, Ben was disappearing in the direction of X-ray and nurse Barker was walking briskly towards the nearest lift.

  Helen hurried after her. ‘I was hoping for a quick word, nurse Barker,’ she called out.

  Nurse Barker paused and turned to look enquiringly at Helen. ‘Is something wrong, doctor?’

  ‘On the contrary.’ Helen smiled. ‘It concerns the matter we spoke of the other day. Mr Paul will be only too happy to give you his autograph. He said to pop into his room, and don’t forget to tell him what message you want him to write. I dare say he will give you some autographed photos for your friends as well.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Nurse Barker’s face lit up. ‘I’m so grateful, Dr Dawson,’ she said with enthusiasm. ‘Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get down to the lab.’

  ‘I’d like to get a look at the samples first if you don’t mind.’

  ‘You heard what Dr Taylor said.’ Nurse Barker clung determinedly on to the bag. ‘That I shouldn’t let them out of my sight.’

  ‘They won’t be out of your sight,’ Helen said soothingly. ‘I know the samples are urgent. All I want to do is see if Dr Taylor included a request for an ESR,’ Helen explained. ‘It would be a pity to have to subject the patient to another blood test when the request can easily be added to this form.’

  ‘I suppose so,’ nurse Barker agreed reluctantly, as she handed Helen the bag.

  ‘By the way,’ Helen said as she opened the bag and examine the contents, thinking that a further sweetener wouldn’t go amiss. ‘Mr Paul suggested that you might like to visit the set of his latest movie. He’ll be filming on location close by, quite soon. I’m sure it will even be OK if you want to take a friend.’

  All nurse Barker’s concerns about the samples disappeared in a flash as she stared in disbelief at Helen. ‘You’re really sure about this?’

  ‘Quite sure,’ confirmed Helen. Ben had written out a request for a Full Blood Count, including ESR, biochemical analysis and group and cross-match for imminent surgery. The name on the form was amusingly familiar – Mr Homer Simpson.

  ‘This is unbelievable,’ nurse Barker said, hardly able to contain her excitement, as Helen handed her back the small bag.

  ‘Mr Paul’s secretary will be contacting you with the details,’ Helen said, certain Duncan could arrange what she had so rashly promised. ‘Oh, and by the way, do me a favour, Nurse Barker. Don’t mention to anyone that I looked at the samples. I wouldn’t like Dr Taylor to think I was checking up on him – it could prove embarrassing.’

  When Helen entered Duncan’s room, to her surprise she found it in utter chaos. Duncan, dressed in a pale suit, was speaking agitatedly on the phone, while another guy was gathering up papers. A young, smartly dressed, rather plain looking young woman was sorting other files, putting some of them into a Gucci briefcase.

  ‘Helen, there you are!’ Duncan slammed down the phone, and walked over to her, running a hand through his hair. ‘This is my secretary, Susanna,’ he said, introducing the young woman.

  ‘Hello.’ She flashed a polite smile at Susanna, who appeared a trace concerned. ‘Something wrong?’ Helen asked Duncan.

  ‘Isn’t there always?’ He sounded frustrated as he put an arm around Helen and led her into the bedroom. ‘Sorry if I sound uptight, but this extra pressure – being producer as well as the star. There’s so much to organise, and with my leg still strapped up –’

  ‘Slow down,’ she said soothingly. ‘Just tell me everything, Duncan.’

  ‘The backers have got into a panic. They think the delay, because of my ankle, will put us way over budget. It’s far too complicated to explain. What it means however, is that I have to fly to Paris for a meeting and try to calm them down.’

  ‘But I thought the insurers wanted you to remain in hospital a few days more?’

  ‘Crazy isn’t it?’ he said. ‘I’m being yanked in both directions at once, and they can’t bloody well agree on anything.’ He smiled at her. ‘That’s the movie business, Helen.’ Duncan paused and pulled her close, kissing her with such passion that her knees grew weak. Then he cupped her face in his hands. ‘You know I don’t want to leave. I should stay and help you discover what’s really going on around here.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter,’ she told him. ‘You go to Paris. The success of your movie is at stake.’

  ‘It’ll teach me not to be so keen in getting involved in production as well,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘I meant what I said last night. I could easily hire a decent private detective, employ them to help you.’

  ‘No – not yet. Let’s wait and see what Colin and I can find out for ourselves. I do have him, Duncan, and he is a reassuring presence.’

  ‘I’ve asked him to keep a close eye on you and make sure you’re OK.’ Duncan pressed a card into her hand. ‘Here’s my secretary’s number, she ca
n get hold of anything you might need. And my private mobile number. Only a very few close friends have that.’

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ she insisted.

  ‘I’ll contact you as soon as I get back from Paris.’ He paused and glanced towards the door at the sound of someone noisily clearing their throat. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked Susanna, who was standing awkwardly in the doorway.

  ‘The car’s here, Duncan. The driver has your passport and flight ticket,’ she said, holding out his briefcase.

  ‘Thanks.’ Duncan looked back at Helen. ‘Walk down with me?’

  ‘Of course,’ she agreed. ‘But walk? Hospital policy insists on wheelchairs for all patients checking out after surgery.’

  ‘I obviously have some clout then, don’t I?’ He took the briefcase from Susanna.

  ‘I worry about you, Duncan. You take too many chances with your health.’ Helen grumbled as they walked out of his suite. He slid an arm about her waist, holding her close, and she gave up any attempt at lecturing him as they made their way downstairs to the lobby.

  There was no chance of being alone to say their final farewells; at this time in the morning the lobby was crowded with patients arriving for treatment or due to attend various clinics. Helen saw a large black Mercedes parked outside, and Duncan’s chauffeur waiting patiently just inside the entrance doors.

  ‘We should say goodbye.’ She turned to look deep into his gorgeous brown eyes. ‘I’ll miss you, Duncan.’

  ‘Wait just a second.’ He walked over to the chauffeur, and handed the man his briefcase. ‘Give me a few minutes,’ he said to the man, then moved back to Helen, all the while looking thoughtfully around the lobby. ‘I want to kiss you,’ Duncan whispered in her ear. ‘In fact I need to fuck you – right here, right now,’ he added softly, so that only she could hear.

  His unexpected words made Helen glow as she experienced a sudden surge of lust. ‘How can we?’ she asked, as his warm breath brushed sensuously against her earlobe.

  She couldn’t contain her gasp of surprise as he grabbed hold of her hand and pulled her towards the unisex toilet, heedless of who might be watching them.