The Chance (Thunder Point #4)(56)

“Playing golf?” she asked. “Wait a minute...”

“You heard this right. He put a patient under for a knee replacement, excused himself, walked out of the O.R. and apparently, out of the hospital. The O.R. staff went looking for him and couldn’t find him. Ultimately, they woke the patient and said they were worried that something had happened to the surgeon, maybe he was suddenly ill or something. Since the surgery is elective, they discharged the patient and rescheduled him with Senior’s partner for a week later.”

“This can’t be right. There must be something else.”

Pax took a breath. “I’d talked to him a few times the past couple of weeks. Briefly, but we talked. He never mentioned this. Not once. I called his office and they said he was out and asked if I’d tried to reach him on his cell. I called him again, but this time I told him what I’d heard and he got angry—said it was a schedule conflict, that he wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place and had turned the case over to the resident, who was more than capable. He said he didn’t know why the resident didn’t finish the case. He blamed the resident.”

“Wow,” Laine said. “You think he got pissed about something and stormed out?”

“He must have got into it with someone. But that’s not like him, not really. I can name a dozen surgeons who pop off, swear at their O.R. staff, throw things...Senior actually has a good reputation in the O.R. Generally speaking, people like to work with him. When he’s at his worst he’s critical or snide. He rarely loses his temper....”

“Just with me,” she said.

“That’s an old problem, you and Senior,” Pax said. “That’s one of those things between the two of you and I’ve never understood. Let me be clear—I don’t understand his point of view....”

“God, do you think it finally happened? That it’s my fault and I put him completely over the edge?”

“You can’t take that on. No, I don’t think that. This is completely out of character. But he said someone filed a complaint and he’s not seeing patients for a couple of weeks. Totally weird.”

“What the hell... Is he going to get sued or something?”

“Don’t think so. The office seems to be running interference. Apparently he’s been a little unreliable the past year or so, but he’s seventy. He cut back on his patient load and surgery after Mom died. He’s been talking about retirement.”

“God, if he retires, you’ll be stuck with him in your business all the time. Unless he gets a woman. Pax, could he have a woman? A girlfriend? He never did that before. He was pretty flaky after Mom died but...”

“No one mentioned a woman,” Pax said. “He blew me off. He said it was no big deal, that it was a scheduling mistake, that he wouldn’t have left the O.R. unless he was either finished or someone else was taking over the case.”

“Maybe he has some health issue he doesn’t want to talk about,” Laine said. “Maybe he’s on medication and it’s making him loopy—like blood pressure medicine. Or Viagra?”

Pax laughed in spite of himself.

“Okay. Okay. Talk to the housekeeper, Mrs. Mulligrew—she’s been around almost as long as we have. She probably knows more about him than we ever did. Trust me, the cleaning lady knows all—ask her to check in the medicine cabinet. Is he close to his nurse? It’s a fairly new nurse, right? Pax? Can I do anything?”

“No, that’s not why I called you. I only mentioned it to keep you up to speed. I’ll look into it, but I wanted to know how you are. I had a few minutes to talk and... I’ll talk to Mrs. Mulligrew, that’s good advice.”

“But you don’t have time for this,” she said. “You barely have time to talk to your own wife and kids.”

“Well, you’re on the outs with Senior, which doesn’t lend itself to open communication, even if you weren’t in Oregon. I’ll handle it.”

“I didn’t mean to abandon you,” she said.

“I don’t see it that way. I miss you, but you did the right thing. There are boundaries and I wouldn’t put up with that kind of constant criticism from anyone.”

“So you don’t want me to serve up my new number and talk to him?”

“No, you can just tell me how you are.”

“Well, I’m getting more interesting, as a matter of fact,” she said. “I knew I wanted a change of scenery and I had a lot of logical reasons for trying out Oregon for a while, but none of them made a lot of sense to me until a couple of days ago. I went back to the commune, to the scene of the crime. I suddenly realized that was something I had to do—not only to completely understand what happened, but to close the door on it. I didn’t even realize how heavy that baggage was.”

“How could you not?” he asked.

She laughed. “I’m disciplined. And I never take time off. Real time. I have vacations here and there, but I haven’t had any real space from the Bureau in years. I’ve been thinking about something, but you have to promise me you won’t mention it to Senior.”

“You know I’m good with your secrets....”

“I’ve been thinking ten years is enough. I think I’ve given the Bureau just about all I have to give them.” Complete silence answered her. “Pax?”