Read Nothing But Trouble Online
Authors: Erin Kern
Tags: #romance, #adult, #contemporary, #fiction romance humor, #chicklit romance
"Did you check
out
the dad in exam one? Gorgeous," Erica announced with a sly
smile.
Rebecca glanced up from her paperwork and
grinned at the P.A. "After yesterday I am perfectly content to stay
in my office." Even though she loathed paperwork, Rebecca welcomed
the break to her feet.
Erica adjusted the stethoscope around her
neck. "Can you believe Dr. Gross sat at that courthouse all day and
they didn't even call his name? What a waste of time."
"I know, that's why I always try to get out
of jury duty," Rebecca responded. "But it's good to have him back.
With my workload today, I don't know if I could have filled in for
him."
"I know, right? I don't know how he does
it."
Erica turned to leave, but Rebecca stopped
her. "Hey, wait a minute. Do you know if Dr. Gross has any ADHD
patients coming in for their checkups today?"
The younger woman thought for a minute. She
glanced up at the ceiling, then shook her head. "I don't think so.
Why do you ask?"
Rebecca leaned back in her chair and rolled
her pen between her palms. "No reason." At least none that Erica
needed to know about.
The P.A. walked away, leaving Rebecca to her
work. But she was too distracted to get anything done. It hadn't
been until she'd gone home last night that she'd realized how many
ADHD patients Dr. Gross had. Since he'd been out, she'd had to have
access to his patient files, which required a password. Just
yesterday alone, she saw six kids who'd been diagnosed with ADHD.
And every single one of them was on 30 mg of Adderall XR. The kids
ranged in age from thirteen to seven. That high of a dose of
Adderall XR was downright dangerous for a seven year old. Not only
that, but every single one of them checked out as normal. And none
of them had the ADD evaluation paperwork in their files.
The incident wasn't anything alarming, but it
did leave Rebecca with some unanswered questions. And a strange
feeling in the pit of her stomach. One possibility was that Dr.
Gross was misdiagnosing the kids and wasn't doing a thorough enough
job with the exams. These days a lot of kids were just distracted
in school, and that distraction was mistaken for ADD or ADHD.
Rebecca had always been extra careful when
diagnosing someone with that particular disorder. Mostly because
Adderall was so addictive and easily abused. In a lot of cases the
kids just needed a diet change or maybe a natural supplement like
an Omega3 and the medication wasn't necessary.
Could it be possible that Dr. Gross had been
swayed by some of these parents? One common thread they all had
with the doctor was personal acquaintance. They all had some kind
of personal relationship with Dr. Gross, whether it was a friend of
the family or a relative.
If that was the case, it would have been
easier for the doctor to give in to the parents' desires.
Either way, something didn't sit right with
Rebecca. She would never prescribe an unnecessary drug to a child
no matter who their parents were.
The man in question strolled by her office,
holding his laptop. "So, you survived yesterday, did you?" he said
with a kind smile.
She'd always like Dr. Gross. He had an easy
disposition and calm demeanor, which worked perfectly as a
pediatrician. At the age of forty-nine, he still looked good with a
full head of light brown hair and a relatively trim waist. He and
his wife, Heather, had been married for twenty-four years and had
three children, who were all grown and out of the house. His plan,
he'd told her was to turn the practice over to her after he
retired. Having her own practice had always been her life's dream,
and Patrick Gross had built a solid, reputable business over the
past ten years.
"It certainly was a challenge, but that's
what I thrive on. Do you have a heavy work load today?" she asked
him.
"Not too bad. My last appointment is at 4:15,
so I might cut out of here early. Maybe get in a little golf."
Dr. Gross could always been found in one of
two places: his practice or the golf course.
Rebecca stood from her desk, and walked
toward him. "There's just one thing I'm wondering."
"Shoot," he said.
"I saw quite a few of your patients yesterday
who are all on high doses of Adderall XR. Is that pretty normal for
you? I mean, I don't have that many kids who are on the medication,
but it seems like you have a lot." When he didn't respond. She
rushed on, "I'm not trying to question you, or anything. I just
thought it was a bit odd."
He rubbed a hand along the back of his neck.
"Can this wait until later? I have a patient waiting."
Great. Now she'd gone and offended him.
"Yeah, sure. It's not like it's a pressing issue…"
But Dr. Gross was already walking away,
effectively ending her inquiry.
She leaned against the doorframe of her
office, and sighed. Dammit, she should have kept her mouth shut.
Why in the world would she think her mentor would break a doctor's
code of ethics, not to mention the law, by passing out illegal
prescriptions? Her first thought was that Dr. Gross was writing
these prescriptions for the adults, and using the kids as an excuse
to hand out the medicine. But wasn't that preposterous? Why would
he risk everything he'd built to dope up some of his friends?
Unless…
No. That thought was too far-fetched. No way,
would Dr. Gross be accepting money under the table for illegal
prescriptions.
Good grief, she'd watched way too many true
crimes shows.
He wasn't that sort of man.
And yet…
There was a way for her to put her suspicions
to rest. She did have his password to access his patient files. She
could easily pull them up and see just how many ADHD patients he
had, compared to her. And she could see how many of the patients
had some sort of personal relationship with him.
What kind of person would that make her? To
go snooping through his patient files, trying to prove he was
committing prescription fraud? What kind of person did that?
On the other hand…
If there was something fishy going on, it was
her duty to find out the truth. The future of the entire practice
could be on the line.
Rebecca sat back down at her desk and pushed
away the papers she'd been working on. After pulling in a resolving
breath, she opened the program that held all the records and
started trolling through them.
She shouldn't be doing this. She shouldn't be
writing down names of the patients who'd been prescribed Adderall
by Dr. Gross. Shouldn't she trust his judgment? So what if almost
all the names on the list were acquainted with Dr. Gross in some
way. Did that mean the man was committing prescription fraud with
his close personal acquaintances? It was so unfathomable to
her.
And yet, something wasn't right. It all went
back to Danielle's behavior and the surprise, borderline panic, in
the woman's eyes when she saw Rebecca. As though she'd been
expecting Dr. Gross, which she had, and hadn't wanted Rebecca to
question Lindsey. But why? It was a routine checkup, and Danielle
had been fidgety and nervous. Lindsey had been fine. More than
fine, actually. She'd seemed like a normal ten year old girl. Her
mother, on the other hand, hadn't seemed normal.
Almost like…
Rebecca shook her head at the thought as she
perused more records. Danielle did not seem like the type of woman
to be addicted to Adderall. She was a professional woman who ran an
office. And office full of men, no less As much as Rebecca didn't
like her, she had to give the woman credit for what she did for a
living. That kind of work environment, surrounded by that much
testosterone, could not have been easy. She must work long hours
and be on her feet all day long. Actually, she was the perfect
candidate for a drug like Adderall. The medicine, when used
correctly, provided energy, discipline and a focused mind. Perhaps
Danielle needed that extra pick-me-up, but didn't have ADHD so she
couldn't get a prescription. Was she using her daughter to get the
medicine illegally from a friend?
But what Rebecca didn't know was the
connection between Danielle and Dr. Gross. Almost all Dr. Gross'
patients, who were on Adderall XR, knew the doctor on some kind of
personal level. That much Rebecca knew because Trouble was such a
small town, and almost everyone there either went to high school
together or were distant relatives. How was Danielle connected?
The even more disturbing thought was
Danielle's work at the shop. If in fact, Danielle was addicted to
the drug, then how was that affecting her job? Adderall was one of
the most dangerous drugs to abuse. It could cause loss of sleep,
headaches, anorexia and even heart attacks.
During medical school, Rebecca had excelled
in the drug and medicine curriculum. Because of that, she was
especially good at recognizing signs of withdraw and abuse. In just
the short amount of time she'd seen Danielle the other day, she'd
thought she'd picked up subtle signs of withdrawal. The only thing
was, Rebecca didn't put two and two together until hours later.
When she finally had her list made, Rebecca
sat back and stared at the names. Most of the patients were
middle-aged, and all had kids who saw Dr. Gross and had been
diagnosed with ADHD and were on 30 mg of Adderall XR. To sum things
up, Dr. Gross had three times as many patients on Adderall XR than
she had. In fact, Rebecca only had five patients on Adderall XR.
All her other patients were on the lowest dosage of Adderall.
The whole thing was so strange, and Rebecca
was kicking herself for not noticing this before.
The other question was, should she say
something to R.J? But how could she do that without violating the
patient confidentiality she was bound to? On the other hand,
shouldn't he know if his manager was having problems with drug
abuse? Maybe she could drop hints about Danielle's behavior without
actually talking to him about it and telling him things she wasn't
supposed to.
Rebecca leaned back in her chair and stared
at the ceiling. She shouldn't be doing this. Her worry over R.J.'s
manager was conflicting with her guilt for snooping through Dr.
Gross' records. She'd invaded his patients' privacy and that was
inexcusable. She wasn't that sort of doctor. Hell, she wasn't that
sort of person.
The low rumble in her stomach reminded her
she'd worked through lunch. The practice closed down for an hour so
they could grab something to eat. Without even realizing it,
Rebecca had sat in her office while everyone else had left for
their lunch break. But, instead of leaving, she decided to dig into
her tuna salad. If she finished up early enough, she could take off
for an early weekend. So she worked through lunch on the monotonous
things she hated doing. She'd much rather be tending to a newborn
or treating an eight year old for the flu. Paperwork always put her
to sleep, but it was a necessary evil.
Hours later, she was finally finished and had
seen Dr. Gross stroll by her office. Going on gut instinct, Rebecca
shot out of her chair and followed him down the hallway. She tried
to tell herself this was just to alleviate her own suspicions. Dr.
Gross would deny everything, tell her she was crazy for even
thinking that, and everything would be peachy keen.
In a perfect world…
When she came to Dr. Gross's office, the
older man had just sank down into his chair. He leaned back and dug
the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. Her mentor worked just
as many, if not more, hours than she did. Sometimes he even saw
patients on a Saturday morning. The man had to be exhausted.
"I bet you're ready to hit the sack," she
said from the doorway.
He arched a brow. "Are you kidding? I have a
5:30 tee time. My pounding head won't keep me from that."
Rebecca laughed at the man's dedication to
the old sport. Dr. Gross was nothing if not predictable. She
stepped farther into the office, then glanced back at the hallway.
She didn't want to start broadcasting her suspicions and have Erica
stroll by.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?"
He lifted a hand toward her. "Not at
all."
She crossed her arms under her breasts and
tried to figure the best way to word her question. No way would she
mention she'd spent the morning perusing his patients' files. She
cleared her throat and prayed for the strength not to put her foot
in her mouth.
"I just wanted to apologize for this morning.
I didn't mean to overstep my boundary." When Dr. Gross didn't say
anything, nor did he move, Rebecca forged on. "But I was thinking
maybe some of those kids are a little young for 30mg. When I was
examining them, they didn't seem to exhibit the normal behavior for
ADHD."
"That's because the medication's working,"
Dr. Gross joked.
Was it just her, or had his laugh been
strained?
Rebecca tried to laugh along with him, only
to make light of the situation. "Yes, that is true," she admitted
lamely. "But don't you think there are too many kids on the drug? I
mean, is it possible some of them were misdiagnosed?"
One of Dr. Gross' brows rose as though
surprised she would question him.
She
was surprised. But her
nagging suspicion wouldn't go away. Something wasn't right with
these diagnoses and she wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Otherwise, she'd start to lose sleep over it.
She shook her head. "I'm sorry, I'm not
trying to step on your toes or anything―"
The doc held up a hand. "It's all right.
You've always had a good eye for medication. But I've known most of
those kids since they were born. I know their parents really well.
I'm positive I'm not misdiagnosing them. It's probably because you
don't deal with as many ADD kids as I do, and not everyone has the
same symptoms."