Checkmate (Caitlin Calloway Mystery Book 2)

by Applewater, Mavis

  “Been, there, done that, didn’t take. Doesn’t matter. He has fallen victim to a little prison justice.”

  “He deserved it.”

  “Even though he’s dead, the task force is still getting calls,” CC said, ignoring Palmucci’s grunts and groans. “After Max was attacked, Palmucci leaked a story about a John Doe being found in an abandoned building.”

  “Yeah, I got a call identifying the body as Sampson,” Palmucci said. “He could have had anyone make that call for him, and it still doesn’t explain his car at Suffolk Downs.”

  “Come on, that’s at least four miles from the Ballard, and there’s no way Max could have walked that.” CC handed Palmucci a photocopy. “But someone wants us to think Max is dirty. Drugs in his pocket, car at the race track, and the fifty grand you found in his account. You might want to look at that paper I gave you.”

  “What is it?”

  “A bank statement.” CC fought against the urge to shove it down his throat. “This is from Shirley Sampson’s bank account. Shirley’s father, who passed away last year, was an investment banker. As you can see, he was damn good at his job. That’s how Max could afford to retire. After his father in-law’s will cleared probate, he and his wife were set for life. He didn’t need to sell drugs. Just after Max took his spill, Detective Brooks of the San Diego PD died of a heart attack. He was found naked in bed with kiddy porn in the DVD player.”

  “This is what you’ve got?” Rousseau seemed less than pleased. “You’ve got nothing.”

  * * *

  It was getting late. Jamie sat at her desk, wondering how much caffeine was too much. Thanks to one of her students, it would be hours to go before she could even think about heading home. A loud knock on her office door disrupted her plans to search for more coffee.

  “Come in.”

  She wasn’t surprised when Murphy stormed in, his shaggy blonde hair mussed from the long night he had endured. Jamie leaned back and motioned for him to have a seat. He paced for a moment before accepting her offer. While he shifted nervously in his seat, Jamie dug through the stack of files sitting on her desk. She extracted the ones she knew she would need for the confrontation she sensed was coming.

  “Dr. Jameson, I need to speak to you.” The young man was clearly upset. Again, Jamie wasn’t surprised. Murphy had just spent the last several hours sitting by the bedside of a woman with a nasty case of diarrhea and an equally nasty disposition. “I feel you are being unfair to me.”

  Jamie opened one of the files. “Do you understand the gravity of the mistakes you’ve been making?”

  “My patients would have been fine if my instructions were followed.” His indignant tone irked Jamie to no end. “I didn’t need to be assigned as a babysitter.”

  “Dr. Murphy, you need to focus. You want to be a doctor, then you had better start learning what that means. Day one, I told you first do no harm. Trust me when I tell you that the slipshod way you’ve been handling your patients is harmful.”

  “Excuse me, Doctor Jameson, but I have to disagree,” Murphy arrogantly began to say. “It’s more than obvious that Alvarez is your favorite.”

  “I don’t play favorites. I want each and every intern, resident, and student who comes into this hospital to learn as much as they can.” Jamie was thoroughly annoyed when Murphy rolled his eyes. She managed to hold her anger at bay and picked a file from the stack that had been sitting in front of her when Murphy decided to pay her a visit.

  “Fine, you need convincing?” Jamie went over Murphy’s cases one by one and pointed out the errors he had made. She closed the folders and addressed Murphy, who was squirming in his chair. “In just over an hour from now, instead of heading home and seeing my family, I get to go before the board and explain why someone of your caliber is making so many rookie mistakes.”

  “The board?” He gulped.

  “Because of your error in misdiagnosing Darren Beauchamp, his mother hired a lawyer. There’s a very good chance the hospital will be facing a lawsuit,” Jamie said. “Take what I am about to tell you, not as good advice but as the gospel. C.Y.A. Cover your ass. For some doctors it means to do just what you’ve been doing, nothing. For me it means to be diligent. So pull your head out of your ass, do your job, and try to learn about what it means to be a doctor. If you don’t, you’re out of the program. Have I made myself clear?”

  “Yes.” He clenched his jaw as he spoke.

  “In the meantime, there’s a woman in bay seven I want you to treat. Her name is Diane Stone. She’s a flight attendant from Indiana with a very nasty rash. I expect you to be diligent with her.”

  Murphy stood silently for a moment before he stormed out of her office. Jamie doubted he had seen the light. With a yawn, she glanced at the clock and felt sick. She wanted to be home, sleeping beside her wife. Instead she was about to face a very early morning meeting with the board.

  “Putz,” she couldn’t refrain from muttering. She picked up the phone and hit speed dial. “Stella, it’s Jamie. I just sent the boy wonder over to you. I’ve assigned him the flight attendant. The one with the STD, who insists that it’s impossible for her to have a sexually transmitted disease because she only associates with nice men. Make certain he is focused and gloves up. I don’t want the little dweeb to contract anything.” Jamie listened as Stella assured her that she would be on Murphy’s case. After she wrapped up the call with Stella, she was about to get up and brew herself another pot of coffee when another knock on her door stopped her.

  “Come in.”

  “Hey, Dr. Jameson.” Tierney greeted her with a bright smile. “Got a second?”

  “Barely. What can I do for you?”

  “Well, I came by to see Dr. Temple, I know I’m early but—”

  “No, you’re late.” Jamie sighed wearily. “Why didn’t you come in on the day I told you to?”

  “I was going to, but I ran into trouble with this cab driver and—”

  “Kris, there’s no easy way to tell you this, but Dr. Temple passed away.”

  “For real?”

  “Yes. Look, standard procedure is that you file a grievance with my supervisor. There’s a problem with that since I’m filling in for Dr. Temple.”

  “Makes sense. You’ll be taking over his spot. I mean who else are they going to get?”

  “Anyone but me. The problem for you is, I’m the one who fired you. I can’t review your grievance. Here is what you can do. Go down to HR and beg them to let you fill out the paperwork. I’ll take it to the board and let them decide who will handle your complaint. If you want back in the program, you will go downstairs, right now. Don’t stop to socialize. If you’re lucky, there will be someone in at this hour. If there isn’t, stay outside the office until someone shows up. If you do everything right, you might get back in for the nex rotation.”

  “I can’t come back now?”

  “No, you’ve already missed most of the rotation.” Jamie felt her head spinning. “Go, now. Don’t stop for coffee, a donut, or to chitchat.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Dr. Jameson.”

  “The girl is an idiot,” Jamie said aloud when Tierney finally left her office. “I need coffee.” She gathered the files she would need for the meeting. Since she no longer had the time to brew a fresh pot of coffee, she opted to stop at the coffee express booth in the main building. She rushed over and managed to purchase a large hazelnut coffee with time to spare. Her glee was short lived when Dr. Nolan cut her off at the elevators.

  “Dr. Jameson, a moment of your time?”

  “We’ll have to talk in the elevator,” she said curtly. “I’m heading upstairs.”

  “This won’t take long. I’m here on the behalf of Dr. Murphy. It has come to my attention that you are singling out this fine young man. Using him as some sort of scapegoat as it were.”

  “Good heavens, this is his plan B?” She grumbled as they entered the elevator. “Look, the kid stepped in it. Either he shapes up or he’s gone.”
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br />   “I think you’re overreacting. Making him examine a woman with a nasty infection on her genitals. Don’t you think that was a little extreme?”

  “Emergency medicine isn’t pretty.” Jamie wondered when was the last time Nolan examined a patient? “If he wants glamour, he can specialize as a nip-and-tuck man. For the moment, he’s in the middle of his ER rotation. I shouldn’t need to explain to you how lackluster that can be at times.”

  “I think you’re being unduly hard on him. In fact, I’ll vouch for him. After all, I was the one who accepted him into the program. I will gladly take over as his instructor.”

  “Fine, he’s all yours. I hope you can be an inspiration to him.” Jamie willing conceded.

  “Thank you.” Nolan seemed surprised.

  “Oh, don’t thank me.” A thought occurred to her. “I’m on my way to see the board. Would you care to join me?”

  “Yes.” He was visibly stunned, yet he jumped at the chance.

  “Let’s go then. I believe they’re waiting.”

  Two hours later, Jamie and Nolan emerged from the conference room. Despite her exhaustion, she felt elated. Nolan had been so desperate to show off, Jamie allowed him to present Murphy’s case. It only seemed fair, since he had vouched for the young man’s character. Nolan prattled on and on about how Murphy was a fine young man with a bright future. Nolan went into his version of how he felt that Jamie had intentionally been treating the upstanding doctor unfairly because he was a man.

  Jamie sat there patiently while Nolan postured to prove his worth and Jamie’s lack of professionalism. He did everything he could to toss Jamie under the bus, which is why she silently sat there when Dr. Flanagan inquired about what went wrong with the treatment of little Darren Beauchamp and his emergency surgery.

  Nolan just stood there, having never taken a seat, and his mouth hung open. When Dr. Flanagan looked to Jamie for the answer, she explained Murphy’s error and the need for closer supervision. Nolan’s body shuddered as he fell into his chair. Jamie adeptly answered all of the board’s questions regarding the numerous other mistakes Dr. Murphy had committed during his rotation. For the first time since she had met him, Terry Nolan was speechless.

  Jamie felt a sliver of regret for allowing him to assure the board that he would personally be overseeing Murphy. He even had gone so far as to vow that he would groom him in an unbiased manner, something he strongly felt Jamie had neglected to do.

  “You sandbagged me!” Nolan bellowed once they were inside the elevator and away from everyone else.

  “Did I?”

  “You know you did!”

  “Only because I think the kid is a train wreck. You’re the one who has faith in him, and as his self-appointed mentor, you needed to be there when the board determined his fate. Give yourself some credit. If not for your passionate plea regarding his character and the promise to personally look after him, they wouldn’t be allowing him to stay in the program. I’ll have Grace give you a copy of his file.”

  They stepped off the elevator.

  Nolan huffed and puffed all the way to the ER. Jamie made a couple of detours in an effort to distance herself from Nolan’s wrath. Sadly, he dogged her every step of the way until she stopped to hand Stella a cup of coffee.

  “Want to tell me why Nolan’s panties are in a twist?” Stella asked.

  “You’ll see.” Jamie smiled when she spied Murphy rounding the corner.

  “You!” Nolan screeched. “Get over here, now.”

  “Dr. Nolan?” Murphy smiled brightly while waving as he hurried over. “I take it things went well.”

  “You neglected to tell me a couple things when you came sniveling into my office. I didn’t find out until I had already promised the board that I’d be your keeper. Prepare yourself to give a deposition.”

  “Uh, yeah, I kind of heard that. I really have to talk to a bunch of lawyers?”

  “You knew and didn’t tell me?”

  “My God, Nolan’s head is going to explode.” Stella giggled while she, Jamie, and the entire nursing staff watched the scene unfold.

  “Listen carefully, Murphy,” Nolan said, fuming. “From this moment on, your ass is mine. First thing you can do is fetch me a latte. Mocha with a hint of crème, and a light dusting of nutmeg.” Murphy stood there with his jaw hanging open. “Did I stutter, or do you need to write this down? Go.”

  “But—”

  “I said go.”

  “It’s a shame that kid didn’t pay attention to what goes on around here.” Stella laughed. “Can’t believe he thought Nolan was going to be his savior.”

  “I hope he pulls it together,” Jamie said. “He does have potential. All he needs to do is focus and work his ass off.”

  “If he doesn’t, I pity anyone who ends up being treated by him.”

  “Dr. Jameson, you’re needed in reception.” Grace interrupted the party.

  “Grace, what are you doing back here so soon?”

  “Couldn’t sleep. That detective from the other day is out front and would like to speak to you.”

  “Which one?”

  “The nice one.”

  “And the hits just keep on coming.” Jamie groaned.

  “What’s going on?” Stella asked.

  “Stella, you and the girls are going to have plenty to talk about today.”

  Jamie clung to the hope that Hiller had been barking up the wrong tree. As much as she disliked Nolan, she didn’t want to see him ruin his life. Her heart sank when she entered the reception area. The grim look on Hiller’s face spoke volumes.

  “I’m guessing this has nothing to do with whatever it was my wife did to your athletic supporter.”

  “I’m afraid not.” His mood only darkened.

  “How can I help you?”

  “I just need to ask you a few questions.”

  “I’ll tell you what I can.” Jamie braced herself, already filled with a sense of dread.

  “Does Dr. Nolan have privileges at any other hospital?”

  “No.”

  “Does he have a private practice? Or practice medicine anywhere else?”

  “No.” Jamie’s stomach churned. “Dr. Nolan is an attending in our emergency room, and this is the only place he’s allowed to practice medicine.”

  “Thank you. That’s all I needed to know.”

  “Is this what I think it is?”

  “I don’t know. What do you think?”

  “You’re with narcotics, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “I see.”

  “You wouldn’t know where I can find Dr. Nolan, would you?”

  “He’s in the treatment area,” Jamie said. “I’ll page him. I’m assuming you have a warrant for his arrest.”

  “Thank you. I’d rather not do this in front of a lot of people who came here for help.”

  “Bridget, would you page Dr. Nolan and ask him to meet me out here?” she politely asked the bored looking receptionist.

  “Thank you again. You’re Nolan’s boss, aren’t you?”

  “For the time being.”

  “Well, you might want to tell the suits that the hospital has nothing to worry about. Everything is on Nolan.”

  “Still won’t look good in the press.”

  Nolan stormed out of the treatment area. Judging by the scowl he was sporting, his mood had failed to improve. “Now, what do you want?” he barked at her, unaware of the three uniformed police officers behind him.

  “This is Dr. Nolan,” she said to Hiller who smiled. “Dr. Nolan, this is Detective Hiller. He would like a word with you.”

  “Yes?” Nolan snarled. “I am very busy, so make it quick.”

  “Oh, I will. Please turn around.”

  “What?”

  “Dr. Terrence Nolan, I have a warrant for your arrest.”

  “What for? Is this your doing, Jameson?”

  “No, your problems are your own.”

  “Oh, so it was your bitch wife?”
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  “If you’re referring to my good friend CC…” Hiller spun Nolan around and placed handcuffs on him. “I suggest you zip it. In fact, Doctor, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be appointed by the court. Do you understand your rights?”

  “Ouch!” Nolan squealed when Hiller gave the cuffs one last pinch.

  “Doctor, do you understand your rights?”

  “Yes, I’m not an idiot. Now tell me what this is about.”

  “Selling prescriptions.” Hiller spun Nolan around. “As for Detective Calloway being involved, I hate to burst your bubble, but I’m from Newton. For someone smart enough to become a doctor, you’d think you’d be smart enough to tell your pill-popping buddies to spread their refills around. The fifteen clients that we know about all went to the same pharmacy in Four Corners. The pharmacist thought the frequency of refills suspicious. When you get your one phone call, you might want to mention to your lawyer that the IRS has frozen your assets.”

  “What?”

  “Didn’t anyone tell you that you don’t get to keep the money from selling drugs?”

  “I didn’t sell drugs.”

  “No, just the means to get drugs.” Hiller gave him a little push. “Same thing. Dr. Jameson, thanks again. Best to CC.”

  Nolan was led out the front door in handcuffs, crying like a baby. Jamie blinked when she saw Murphy standing there helplessly with a cooling latte in hand.

  “Is he coming back?” Murphy’s voice squeaked.

  “Doubtful. We’ll need to get you reassigned.” Jamie tried to reassure him.

  “But I was on his team.”

  “You were his team. Dr. Nolan isn’t an instructor.”

  “But he was on the panel that accepted me.”

  “Yeah, he loves joining committees,” Jamie said and yawned. “Most of us try to dodge those. Since Dr. Nolan doesn’t have a whole lot to pad his resume with, he volunteers for any committee that will have him. Murphy, are you about to hyperventilate?”

  “No. Maybe.” He suddenly gasped.

  “Calm down, you’ll be fine.”

  “Can I come back to your team?”