Angels on the Night Shift (16 page)

“Looks like we can go now,” she told me, stepping around Amy Connors and heading down the hallway. I told Ted where we would be and tried to catch up with her.

When we turned the corner and passed the entrance to X-ray, I asked her, “What do you think this is about, Virginia? More of Stevens’s investigation?”

“I’m sure that’s it,” she said flatly. “He told me he had some definitive information and he wanted to share it with us.”

“Definitive,” I repeated, slowly stressing each syllable. “I wonder what that means.”

She looked over at me and said, “Robert, let’s just let him do the talking. We’re only there to get information and see what he’s thinking.”

“Why do we have to deal with this guy? Why don’t we just go directly to Bill Chalmers?”

Chalmers had been the hospital administrator for the past ten years, and I had always found him to be reasonable and focused on patient care. That always made things easier for us.

“I wanted to do that too,” she answered. “But Bill made it clear we needed to deal with Stevens. Don’t ask me why, but that’s where we are.”

We turned another corner and stood in front of the door to the administrative offices.

“Remember,” Virginia said, looking me straight in my eyes. “Let him do the talking. And keep your temper. We both know how you can get sometimes.”

“Virginia, I—” But she had already opened the door and walked into the administrative waiting area.

Walter Stevens was expecting us. He didn’t stand up when we entered his office.

“Have a seat, Ms. Granger,” he said to her, pointing to one of the chairs in front of his desk.

Then he pointed to the other chair. “Robert.”

I quickly glanced around the room, noting the prominent display of diplomas on the wall behind him and the copy of the
Wall Street Journal
neatly folded on his large mahogany desk.

Something seemed odd however, and I looked over to Virginia to see if I was imagining this. I wasn’t. She was sitting low to the floor like I was, and much lower than Stevens was behind his desk. This was textbook first-year business negotiation, or maybe Machiavelli 101. He was in an elevated position, and we were forced to look up at him. It was meant to intimidate the people you were meeting with, without their even knowing it. I glanced over again at Virginia. She cut her eyes at me, looked down briefly at her chair, and gave me a slight nod. I cleared my throat and shifted in my seat.

“Dr. Lesslie, Ms. Granger,” Stevens began. “I’m glad you could meet with me this morning. I believe I have some interesting news for you, and something that should greatly relieve you.”

He paused and put his palms flat on the top of his desk, surveying the two of us with apparent satisfaction. I wanted to say something but remembered Virginia’s admonition. Between the two of them, I was much more afraid of our head nurse.

“Go on,” she said to him.

He reached behind him to a small credenza and picked up a manila folder. I immediately recognized it as an employee file, but when he tossed it on his desk, there was no name on the outside.

Stevens began drumming on the chart with his fingers as he continued. “We’ve done some extensive research into your ER staff and have found some interesting evidence. In fact, I now know beyond the shadow of a doubt who has been stealing the drugs from your department. And while I don’t know yet where they have been selling them, I know what they have been doing with the money.”

“What in the—” I uttered, cut off by a sharp glance from Virginia.

As if he hadn’t noticed my remark, Stevens went on. “You have a criminal in your department, Virginia, and it’s time for them to be exposed and terminated. Well…” he paused, chuckling at himself. “Not really
terminated,
in the strictest sense. But they will lose their job immediately. And I intend to see that they are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We will make an example of them so that this sort of thing never happens again.”

He cleared his throat and settled back in his chair.

“You may have heard my theory of ‘the bus,’ ” he continued. My ears perked up when he said this, and I thought I noticed Virginia shake her head, just a little.

“You see, the hospital is like a big bus, and it is the administration’s responsibility to be sure we have the right people on board. We want Rock Hill General to be the best bus—the best hospital—it can be. And we know clearly that someone on our bus doesn’t need to be here. It’s my job to determine that and to collect the evidence needed to prove it.”

He stopped and looked first at the head nurse and then at me. He was enjoying this and was waiting for our response. I stared at him and then at Virginia. She was amazingly calm, and just sat there quietly. Then slowly she brought her right hand up, adjusted her glasses, and put her index finger over her lips. I knew that look, and I knew she was getting angry.

“And just how have you collected this evidence, Walter?” she asked him quietly.

He leaned back in his chair and put his hands on the armrests.

“I’m afraid that is confidential,” he told her gravely. “But ironclad, you can be sure of that. And Bill Chalmers is aware of my findings and is in full agreement with my plan of action.”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Virginia’s shoulders slump a little. Her hand went back to her lap. For the first time, I was becoming discouraged.

We sat there, the three of us, and just looked at each other. It was clear to me that Walter Stevens was willing, if not eager, to sacrifice someone for his own gain. There was a malevolent streak in this man that made my skin crawl.

Finally, Stevens couldn’t wait any longer.

“Don’t you want to know who this is?” he asked, jabbing the file in front of him with his finger. “Don’t you want to solve this matter and be done with it?”

Virginia just stared at him, and I didn’t say a word.

“Well, you need to know,” he declared, leaning forward in his chair and picking up the file. “Because tomorrow, we will be taking action.”

He opened the folder, spun it around, and slid it across the desk in front of the two of us. I couldn’t read anything in the record—it was still too far away. But attached to the left side of the chart, stapled to the upper left corner, was a black-and-white picture of the employee.

I felt as if someone had punched me in the gut. It was Amy Connors.

V
irginia and I retraced our steps back to the ER, silent and shaken by what we had just learned. Stevens hadn’t offered any further explanation, and after making it clear that the meeting was over, he instructed us not to tell anyone about his plans. He was going to meet with Amy Connors the next day and “handle things then.”

Finally I looked over at Virginia and asked, “Well, what do you think of that?”

She abruptly stopped in the hallway and turned to face me.

“I think he’s crazy,” she said flatly. “He doesn’t have any idea what he’s talking about. You and I have both known Amy for more than ten years, and if there’s anyone in the department I would trust with my life, it would be her. Stealing drugs and selling them? Preposterous! Or stealing the drugs and using them herself? That’s insane! I wanted to reach over and grab him by his neck and shake him for everything he’s worth…which wouldn’t be much!”

Suddenly, I had of vision of her doing this, and I couldn’t keep myself from smiling.

“Don’t you laugh at me!” she huffed, then turned and started off again for the ER.

I caught up with her long strides and said, “After hearing all that, don’t you think we need to go to Bill Chalmers? I mean, this is so off the wall, I think he ought to know about it.”

“I’m going to do just that, this afternoon,” she told me with determination. “But I’m a little concerned. Bill made it clear how he wanted to handle this, and he may not be willing to listen. But he’s got to know what Stevens is up to, and I know he doesn’t want to lose one of the best secretaries in the whole hospital.”

We had turned the corner into the department and stopped outside the empty ortho room.

“This business about us not telling anybody,” I said quietly. “I’m not sure if that’s—”

“What business are you talking about?” she asked with a straight face.

“You know, the—”

“I didn’t hear anything like that,” she interrupted. “In fact, I’m going to sit down with Amy right now. She needs to know what’s going on, and she needs to know where I stand on this before Stevens gets hold of her.”

She was about to walk up the hall, when she added, “You can sit down with us too, if you want. In fact, that might be a good idea.”

Things were happening quickly and I was still trying to get my head around what Stevens had told us. But of course I would sit down with the two of them. I didn’t want Amy to think I had any part in this.

I followed Virginia up the hallway to the nurses’ station, where she stopped, leaned over the counter, and said something to Amy.

Ted came out of room 1 and walked over to me.

“Well, how did
that
go?” he asked me, knowing only that we had met with one of the administrators. “Anything serious going on?”

He put his chart down on the counter and started making some notes, obviously not too concerned.

“Just some of the usual,” I told him. Once things were out in the open, I would make sure he knew everything that was going on.

“Yeah, I know how that goes,” he replied, not looking up from his work. Then speaking to Lori Davidson, he said, “Lori, the guy in 1 needs a urine and a CBC.” He handed her the chart and added, “Thanks, and let me know when it’s back.”

The countertop was empty, with no patient charts to be picked up.

“I’m going back to the lounge for some coffee,” he told me. “Want a cup?”

“No, I’m fine,” I answered, watching Virginia and Amy step into the head nurse’s office. “I’ll be with Virginia if you need me.”

“Okay. I’ll be right back. There’s not much cookin’ right now.” He headed down the hallway, and I walked over to Virginia’s office.

Amy glanced over at me as the door closed. She was sitting in one of the chairs across from Virginia, and I walked over and sat down beside her. She looked first at the head nurse, then at me, and then back to Virginia.

“What’s up?” she asked, smiling. “Did I win the lottery? Or am I in some kind of trouble?”

Virginia glanced over at me and then quickly back at Amy.

“We need to talk about something,” she began, taking off her glasses and carefully placing them on the desk. “And this is awkward for me, Amy. In fact, I can’t believe we have to have this conversation. But there are a few things you need to know.”

She cleared her throat and looked over at me. Amy turned her head and also looked at me, her eyes searching mine, the smile now gone from her face.

“You two are spookin’ me,” she said. “Why so serious? Have I done somethin’ wrong? Or has somethin’ happened to Charlie or the…”

She grabbed the arms of her chair and was about to stand up when Virginia said, “No, no, Amy. Nothing like that. Charlie and your children are fine. This has nothing to do with them.”

Amy slowly sat back down in her chair, relieved, but still confused. “Then what is this about?” she asked.

The head nurse took a deep breath and began. “I’m sure you’ve heard that we’ve had some medications missing in the department. First some noncontrolled drugs, and now narcotics.”

Amy nodded her head and said, “Yeah, I’ve heard a little about that. A couple of the nurses were talkin’ about it the other day, but what does that have to do with me? I don’t have any idea about where that stuff might have gone or who might have gotten it. I don’t know how I can help you with it.”

Virginia picked up her glasses and started cleaning them with some Kleenex.

Amy looked over at me again. When I looked away, I saw her stiffen a little.

The head nurse put her glasses back on and looked at Amy. Before she could say anything Amy exclaimed, “Wait a minute! Do you think I know somethin’ about this? I just told you I barely heard about it the other day. Nobody has told me anything!”

“Amy, it’s not that,” Virginia explained quietly, trying to calm the young secretary. “I’m afraid it’s much worse.”

The secretary slumped in her chair and stared at her.

“Worse? What do you mean ‘worse’?” she asked, stunned.

Virginia told her about our conversation with Walter Stevens, and about his being convinced that not only did our secretary know about the missing drugs, but that she was the one stealing them. I was struck once again by the absurdity of this whole idea, and yet here we were, telling Amy and confronting her with what the administration was determined to do.

When Virginia finished, Amy stood up and headed for the door.

“Amy!” I said, turning quickly. “Where are you going?”

She stopped and spun around, fixing us with a look of anger and hurt.

“I’m going right to Mr. Chalmers and set things straight!” she told us defiantly. “This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, and I’m not goin’ to stand for it! Dr. Lesslie, Ms. Granger, you know I’m not involved with this! How could they even begin to think I would do somethin’ like this?”

She was silent, and looked first at Virginia and then at me. Suddenly her shoulders slumped and there was a look of confusion on her face, and then there was that same hurt.

“You guys don’t…” she muttered.

Virginia jumped up from her chair and hurried over to Amy. She put an arm around her and led her back to her seat.

“Of course we don’t think you have anything to do with this,” she told her. “This came out of the clear blue at us, and we haven’t had time to think about the best way to deal with it. But we wanted to talk with you and let you know what was happening.”

“We didn’t want you to be blindsided,” I said, turning in my chair so I was facing her directly. “We’re going to figure this out, and knock some sense into Walter Stevens if we can.”

“If Charlie finds out about this, he’ll be knockin’ more than the
sense
out of that little jerk,” she said, trying to force a smile.