Nothing Lasts Forever (25 page)

T
he headline in the
San Francisco Chronicle
read,
DOCTOR ARRESTED IN LOVE TRIANGLE MURDER
. The story beneath it went on at length to detail the lurid facts of the case.

Mallory read the newspaper in his cell. He slammed it down.

His cellmate said, “Looks like they got you cold, pal.”

“Don’t you believe it,” Mallory said confidently. “I’ve got connections, and they’re going to get me the best goddam lawyer in the world. I’ll be out of here in twenty-four hours. All I have to do is make one phone call.”

The Harrisons were reading the newspaper at breakfast.

“My God!” Lauren said. “Ken! I can’t believe it!”

A butler approached the breakfast table. “Excuse me, Miss Harrison. Dr. Mallory is on the telephone for you. I believe he’s calling from jail.”

“I’ll take it.” Lauren started to get up from the table.

“You’ll stay here and finish your breakfast,” Alex Harrison said firmly. He turned to the butler. “We don’t know any Dr. Mallory.”

Paige read the newspaper as she was getting dressed. Mallory was going to be punished for the terrible thing he had done, but it gave Paige no satisfaction. Nothing they did to him could ever bring Kat back.

The doorbell rang, and Paige went to open it. A stranger stood there. He was wearing a dark suit and carried a briefcase.

“Dr. Taylor?”

“Yes…”

“My name is Roderick Pelham. I’m an attorney with Rothman & Rothman. May I come in?”

Paige studied him, puzzled. “Yes.”

He entered the apartment.

“What did you want to see me about?”

She watched him open the briefcase and take out some papers.

“You are aware, of course, that you are the principal beneficiary of John Cronin’s will?”

Paige looked at him blankly. “What are you talking about? There must be some mistake.”

“Oh, there’s no mistake. Mr. Cronin has left you the sum of one million dollars.”

Paige sank into a chair, overwhelmed, remembering.

You have to go to Europe. Do me a favor. Go to Paris…stay at the Crillon, have dinner at Maxim’s, order a big, thick steak and a bottle of champagne, and when you eat that steak and drink that champagne, I want you to think of me.

“If you’ll just sign here, we’ll take care of all the necessary paperwork.”

Paige looked up. “I…I don’t know what to say. I…he had a family.”

“According to the terms of his will, they get only the remainder of his estate, not a large amount.”

“I can’t accept this,” Paige told him.

Pelham looked at her in surprise. “Why not?”

She had no answer. John Cronin had wanted her to have this money. “I don’t know. It…it seems unethical, somehow. He was my patient.”

“Well, I’ll leave the check here with you. You can decide what you want to do with it. Just sign here.”

Paige signed the paper in a daze.

“Goodbye, doctor.”

She watched him leave and sat there thinking of John Cronin.

The news of Paige’s inheritance was the talk of the hospital. Somehow, Paige had hoped it could be kept quiet. She still had not made up her mind about what to do with the money.
It doesn’t belong to me,
Paige thought.
He has a family.

Paige was not emotionally ready to go back to work, but her patients had to be taken care of. An operation was scheduled for that morning. Arthur Kane was waiting for Paige in the corridor. They had not spoken to each other since the incident of the reversed X-rays. Although Paige had no proof it was Kane, the tire-slashing episode had scared her.

“Hello, Paige. Let’s let bygones be bygones. What do you say?”

Paige shrugged. “Fine.”

“Wasn’t that a terrible thing about Ken Mallory?” he asked.

“Yes,” Paige said.

Kane was looking at her slyly. “Can you imagine a doctor deliberately killing a human being? It’s horrible, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“By the way,” he said, “congratulations. I hear that you’re a millionairess.”

“I can’t see…”

“I have tickets for the theater tonight, Paige. I thought that the two of us could go.”

“Thanks,” Paige said. “I’m engaged to someone.”

“Then I suggest you get unengaged.”

She looked at him, surprised. “I beg your pardon?”

Kane moved closer to her. “I ordered an autopsy on John Cronin.”

Paige found her heart beginning to beat faster. “Yes?”

“He didn’t die of heart failure. Someone gave him an overdose of insulin. I guess that particular someone never figured on an autopsy.”

Paige’s mouth was suddenly dry.

“You were with him when he died, weren’t you?”

She hesitated. “Yes.”

“I’m the only one who knows that, and I’m the only one who has the report.” He patted her arm. “And my lips are sealed. Now, about those tickets tonight…”

Paige pulled away from him. “No!”

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

She took a deep breath. “Yes. Now, if you’ll excuse me…

And she walked away. Kane looked after her, and his face hardened. He turned and headed toward Dr. Benjamin Wallace’s office.

The telephone awakened her at 1:00
A.M.
at her apartment.

“You have been a naughty girl again.”

It was the same raspy voice disguised in a breathy whisper, but this time Paige recognized it.
My God,
she thought,
I was right to be scared.

The following morning, when Paige arrived at the hospital, two men were waiting for her.

“Dr. Paige Taylor?”

“Yes.”

‘You’ll have to come with us. You’re under arrest for the murder of John Cronin.”

I
t was the final day of the trial. Alan Penn, the defense attorney, was making his summation to the jury.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you have heard a lot of testimony about Dr. Taylor’s competence or incompetence. Well, Judge Young will instruct you that that’s not what this trial is about. I’m sure that for every doctor who did not approve of her work, we could produce a dozen doctors who did. But that is not the issue.

“Paige Taylor is on trial for the death of John Cronin. She has admitted helping him die. She did so because he was in great pain, and he asked her to do so. That is euthanasia, and it’s being accepted more and more throughout the world. In the past year, the California Supreme Court has upheld the right of a mentally competent adult to refuse or demand the withdrawal of medical treatment of any form. It is the individual who must live or die with the course of treatment chosen or rejected.”

He looked into the faces of the jurors. “Euthanasia is a crime of compassion, of mercy, and I daresay it takes
place in some form or another in hospitals all over the world. The prosecuting attorney is asking for a death sentence. Don’t let him confuse the issue. There has never been a death sentence for euthanasia. Sixty-three percent of Americans believe euthanasia should be legal, and in eighteen states in this country, it
is
legal. The question is, do we have the right to compel helpless patients to live in pain, to force them to stay alive and suffer? The question has become complicated because of the great strides we’ve made in medical technology. We’ve turned the care of patients over to machines. Machines have no mercy. If a horse breaks a leg, we put it out of its misery by shooting it. With a human being, we condemn him or her to a half life that is hell.

“Dr. Taylor didn’t decide when John Cronin would die. John Cronin decided. Make no mistake about it, what Dr. Taylor did was an act of mercy. She has taken full responsibility for that. But you can rest assured that she knew nothing about the money that was left to her. What she did, she did in a spirit of compassion. John Cronin was a man with a failing heart and an untreatable, fatal cancer that had spread through his body, causing him agony. Just ask yourself one question. Under those circumstances, would you like to go on living? Thank you.” He turned, walked back to the table, and sat next to Paige.

Gus Venable rose and stood before the jury.
“Compassion? Mercy?”
He looked over at Paige, shook his head, then turned back to the jury. “Ladies and gentlemen, I have been practicing law in courtrooms for more than twenty years, and I must tell you that in all those years.
I have never—never—seen a more clear-cut case of cold-blooded, deliberate murder for profit.”

Paige was hanging on every word, tense and pale.

“The defense talked about euthanasia. Did Dr. Taylor do what she did out of a feeling of compassion? I don’t think so. Dr. Taylor and others have testified that Mr. Cronin had only a few more days to live. Why didn’t she let him live those few days? Perhaps it was because Dr. Taylor was afraid Mrs. Cronin might learn about her husband changing his will, and put a stop to it.

“It’s a most remarkable coincidence that immediately after Mr. Cronin changed his will and left Dr. Taylor the sum of one million dollars, she gave him an overdose of insulin and murdered him.

“Again and again, the defendant has convicted herself with her own words. She said that she was on friendly terms with John Cronin, that he liked and respected her. But you have heard witnesses testify that he hated Dr. Paige Taylor, that he called her ‘that bitch,’ and told her to keep her fucking hands off him.”

Gus Venable glanced at the defendant again. There was a look of despair on Paige’s face. He turned back to the jury. “An attorney has testified that Dr. Taylor said, about the million dollars that was left to her, ‘It’s unethical. He was my patient.’ But she grabbed the money. She needed it. She had a drawer full of travel brochures at home—Paris, London, the Riviera. And bear in mind that she didn’t go to the travel agency
after
she got the money. Oh, no. She planned those trips earlier. All she needed was the money and the opportunity, and John Cronin supplied both. A helpless, dying man she could control. She had at her mercy a man who she admitted was in enormous pain—agony, in fact, according to her own admission.
When you’re in that kind of pain, you can imagine how difficult it must be to think clearly. We don’t know
how
Dr. Taylor persuaded John Cronin to change his will, to cut out the family he loved and to make her his main beneficiary. What we
do
know is that he summoned her to his bedside on that fatal night. What did they talk about? Could he have offered her a million dollars to put him out of his misery? It’s a possibility we must face. In either case, it was cold-blooded murder.

“Ladies and gentlemen, during this trial, do you know who was the most damaging witness of all?” He pointed a dramatic finger at Paige. “The defendant herself! We’ve heard testimony that she gave an illegal blood transfusion and then falsified the record. She has not denied that fact. She said that she never killed a patient except John Cronin, but we’ve heard testimony that Dr. Barker, a physician respected by everybody, accused her of killing his patient.

“Unfortunately, ladies and gentlemen, Lawrence Barker suffered a stroke and can’t be here with us today to testify against the defendant. But let me remind you of Dr. Barker’s opinion of the defendant. This is Dr. Peterson, testifying about a patient Dr. Taylor was operating on.”

He read from the transcript.

“ ‘Dr. Barker came into the operating room during the operation?’

“‘Yes.’

“‘And did Dr. Barker say anything?’

“Answer: ‘He turned to Dr. Taylor and said, “You killed him.”’

“This is from Nurse Berry. ‘Tell me some specific things you heard Dr. Barker say to Dr. Taylor.’

“Answer: ‘He said she was incompetent…Another
time he said he wouldn’t let her operate on his dog.’ ”

Gus Venable looked up. “Either there is some kind of conspiracy going on, where all these reputable doctors and nurses are lying about the defendant, or Dr. Taylor is a liar. Not
just
a liar, but a pathological…”

The rear door of the courtroom had opened and an aide hurried in. He paused in the doorway a moment, trying to make a decision. Then he moved down the aisle toward Gus Venable.

“Sir…”

Gus Venable turned, furious. “Can’t you see I’m…?”

The aide whispered in his ear.

Gus Venable looked at him, stunned. “
What?
That’s wonderful!”

Judge Young leaned forward, her voice ominously quiet. “Forgive me for interrupting you two, but what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Gus Venable turned to the judge excitedly. “Your honor, I’ve just been informed that Dr. Lawrence Barker is outside this courtroom. He’s in a wheelchair, but he’s able to testify. I’d like to call him to the stand.”

There was a loud buzz in the courtroom.

Alan Penn was on his feet. “Objection!” he yelled. “The prosecuting attorney is in the middle of his summation. There’s no precedent for calling a new witness at this late hour. I—”

Judge Young slammed her gavel down. “Would counsel please approach the bench.”

Penn and Venable moved up to the bench.

“This is highly irregular, your honor. I object…”

Judge Young said, “You’re right about its being irregular, Mr. Penn, but you’re wrong about its being without precedent. I can cite a dozen cases around the country
where material witnesses were allowed to testify under special circumstances. In fact, if you’re so interested in precedent, you might look up a case that took place in this courtroom five years ago. I happened to be the judge.”

Alan Penn swallowed. “Does this mean you’re going to allow him to testify?”

Judge Young was thoughtful. “Since Dr. Barker is a material witness to this case, and was physically unable to testify earlier, in the interest of justice, I’m going to rule that he be allowed to take the stand.”

“Exception! There is no proof that the witness is competent to testify. I demand a battery of psychiatrists—”

“Mr. Penn, in this courtroom, we don’t demand. We request.” She turned to Gus Venable. “You may bring in your witness.”

Alan Penn stood there, deflated.
It’s all over,
he thought.
Our case is down the drain.

Gus Venable turned to his aide. “Bring Dr. Barker in.”

The door opened slowly, and Dr. Lawrence Barker entered the courtroom. He was in a wheelchair. His head was tilted, and one side of his face was drawn up in a slight rictus.

Everyone watched the pale and fragile figure being wheeled to the front of the courtroom. As he moved past Paige, he looked over at her.

There was no friendliness in his eyes, and Paige remembered his last words:
Who the hell do you think you…?

When Lawrence Barker was in front of the bench, Judge Young leaned forward and said gently, “Dr. Barker, are you able to testify here today?”

When Barker spoke, his words were slurred. “I am, your honor.”

“Are you fully aware of what is going on in this courtroom?”

“Yes, your honor.” He looked over to where Paige was seated. “That woman is being tried for the murder of a patient.”

Paige winced.
That woman!

Judge Young made her decision. She turned to the bailiff. “Would you swear the witness in, please?”

When Dr. Barker had been sworn in, Judge Young said, “You may stay in the chair, Dr. Barker. The prosecutor will proceed, and I will allow the defense to crossexamine.”

Gus Venable smiled. “Thank you, your honor.” He strolled over to the wheelchair. “We won’t keep you very long, doctor, and the court deeply appreciates your coming in to testify under these trying circumstances. Are you familiar with any of the testimony that has been given here over the past month?”

Dr. Barker nodded. “I’ve been following it on television and in the newspapers, and it made me sick to my stomach.”

Paige buried her head in her hands.

It was all Gus Venable could do to hide his feeling of triumph. “I’m sure a lot of us feel the same way, doctor,” the prosecutor said piously.

“I came here because I want to see justice done.”

Venable smiled. “Exactly. So do we.”

Lawrence Barker took a deep breath, and when he spoke, his voice was filled with outrage. “Then how the hell could you bring Dr. Taylor to trial?”

Venable thought he had misunderstood him. “I beg your pardon?”

“This trial is a farce!”

Paige and Alan Penn exchanged a stunned look.

Gus Venable turned pale. “Dr. Barker…”

“Don’t interrupt me,” Barker snapped. “You’ve used the testimony of a lot of biased, jealous people to attack a brilliant surgeon. She—”

“Just a minute!” Venable was beginning to panic. “Isn’t it true that you criticized Dr. Taylor’s ability so severely that she was finally ready to quit Embarcadero Hospital?”

“Yes.”

Gus Venable was starting to feel better. “Well, then,” he said patronizingly, “how can you say that Paige Taylor is a brilliant doctor?”

“Because it happens to be the truth.” Barker turned to look at Paige, and when he spoke again, he was talking to her as though they were the only two people in the courtroom: “Some people are born to be doctors. You were one of those rare ones. I knew from the beginning how capable you were. I was hard on you—maybe too hard—because you were good. I was tough on you because I wanted you to be tougher on yourself. I wanted you to be perfect, because in our profession, there’s no room for error. None.”

Paige was staring at him, mesmerized, her mind spinning. It was all happening too fast.

The courtroom was hushed.

“I wasn’t about to let you quit.”

Gus Venable could feel his victory slipping away. His prize witness had become his worst nightmare. “Dr. Barker—it has been testified that you accused Dr. Taylor of killing your patient Lance Kelly. How…?”

“I told her that because she was the surgeon in charge. It was her ultimate responsibility. In fact, the anesthetist caused Mr. Kelly’s death.”

By now the court was in an uproar.

Paige sat there, stunned.

Dr. Barker went on speaking slowly, with an effort. “And as for John Cronin leaving her that money, Dr. Taylor knew nothing about it. I talked to Mr. Cronin myself. He told me that he was going to leave Dr. Taylor that money because he hated his family, and he said he was going to ask Dr. Taylor to release him from his misery. I agreed.”

There was an uproar from the spectators. Gus Venable was standing there, a look of total bewilderment on his face.

Alan Penn leaped to his feet. “Your honor, I move for a dismissal!”

Judge Young was slamming her gavel down. “Quiet!” she yelled. She looked at the two attorneys. “Into my chambers.”

Judge Young, Alan Penn, and Gus Venable were seated in Judge Young’s chambers.

Gus Venable was in a state of shock. “I…I don’t know what to say. He’s obviously a sick man, your honor. He’s confused. I want a battery of psychiatrists to examine him and—”

“You can’t have it both ways, Gus. It looks like your case just went up in smoke. Let’s save you any further embarrassment, shall we? I’m going to grant a dismissal on the murder charge. Any objection?”

There was a long silence. Finally, Venable nodded. “I guess not.”

Judge Young said, “Good decision. I’m going to give you some advice. Never,
never
call a witness unless you know what he’s going to say.”

The court was in session again. Judge Young said, “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, thank you for your time and your patience. The court is going to grant a dismissal on all charges. The defendant is free.”

Paige turned to blow Jason a kiss, then hurried over to where Dr. Barker was seated. She slid down to her knees and hugged him.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” she whispered.

“You never should have gotten into this mess in the first place,” he growled. “Damned fool thing to do. Let’s get out of here and go somewhere where we can talk.”