permitted tospeak after each witness, but only to respond to questions from his lawyer, notto address any of the witnesses directly. When the hearing was concluded, thejoint hospital and medical staff executive committees would vote by secretballot whether to suspend Harry's admitting privileges or not.
'Before you begin, Mr. Rennick,' DougAtwater said, 'I would like it to go on record that the Manhattan HealthCooperative will abide by the ruling of this hearing.' He looked over at Harry.'Dr. Corbett's status as a physician provider for MHC will remain intact solong as he has admitting privileges at this hospital.'
Considering that the health plan was boundonly by its own laws in picking and removing physician providers, Atwater'sstatement amounted to an endorsement. His company could have made the resultsof this hearing essentially moot by simply cutting Harry from its rolls. It wasa move Harry had feared they might make. He was doubly glad, now, that he hadheld his temper with Doug.
The head nurse from Alexander 9 startedthings off by reading affidavits from both of the nurses who had been on dutythe night of Evie's death. There was no question in either of their minds that,except for Maura Hughes, Harry was the last one to see his wife before thelethal rupture of her aneurysm. Sue Jilson recounted in some detail Harry'srequest to leave the floor for a milk shake and then return. The hospitalattorney used his questions to pin down the nurse about the security setup onthe floor. Then he homed in on the clinical condition of Maura Hughes.
'She was about the most classic case ofthe DTs I've ever seen,' the woman said. 'She was restless and combative,sweating profusely, and disoriented most of the time. When she wasn't accusingthe staff of ignoring her, she was swatting at insects that weren't there. Shewas medicated almost the entire time she was on our service, and despite that,she was still one of the most disruptive patients we've had in a long time.'
Harry and Mel Wetstone exchanged glances.The hospital attorney knew Maura's sketch was about to be presented, and waseffectively destroying its credibility by painting such an unappealing pictureof her. It was the reason Harry had argued against having Maura attend thehearing to present her drawing herself. Mel had warned him what she might hear.
Wetstone cleared his throat, took a slowswallow of water, and favored the nurse with an icy smile.
'I'm sorry Ms. Hughes was so disruptive toyour neurosurgical floor,' he said.
'Thank you,' the nurse replied, completelymissing Wetstone's sarcasm.
'You don't have very warm feelings towardalcoholics, do you?'
'Does anyone?'
Wetstone allowed half a minute for theresponse to sink in around the room.
'As a matter of fact, yes. Some peopledo,' he said softly. 'The American Medical Association has formally classifiedalcoholism as a disease. The American Psychiatric Association has also. I hopeyou're not prejudiced against too many
The head nurse, beet red, folded her notesand stared off at a spot that would keep her from eye contact with anyone. Ifthe impact of her testimony hadn't been neutralized entirely, it had certainlybeen diminished. Wetstone turned to Harry.
'Dr. Corbett, have you been in touch withMaura Hughes since her discharge?'
'I have.'
'And how's she doing?'
'Quite well, actually. She hasn't had adrink since her surgery, and she's started back on her painting.'
The white lie was one they had agreed uponthe previous day.
'Oh, yes, she's an accomplished andwell-regarded artist, isn't she? You have a drawing of hers here with you?'
'A copy of it, yes. Miss Hughes hadtrouble recalling some of the details of the man's face, so we went to see ahypnotist.'
'That would be Dr. Pavel Nemec?'
The murmur around the room suggested thatThe Hungarian was known to most of those present.
'I'm not sure he's a doctor,' Harry said.'But yes. He had no trouble helping her reconnect with her memories. Onesession, about fifteen or twenty minutes, was all it took.'
'Mr. Rennick,' Wetstone said. 'Here is anotarized affidavit from Pavel Nemec attesting to his certainty that thedrawing you are about to see represents the face remembered by Maura Hughes — the man who came into room nine twenty-eight after Dr. Corbett left to get hiswife a milk shake.' He waited until everyone that mattered had a copy before hecontinued. 'Dr. Corbett, have you ever seen the man depicted in Ms. Hughesdrawing?'
'I have. He was dressed as a hospitalmaintenance man, buffing the floors outside room nine twenty-eight when Iarrived. When I left for the milk shakes, he was still there. When I came backwith them he was gone.'
'You're sure of this?'
'Positive. It's an extremely good likenessof him. Maura Hughes has an incredible eye for detail. She says she suspectsthat the tie was a clip-on because the knot was just too perfect.'
Several people laughed out loud.
'This is ridiculous,' Caspar Sidonismuttered, though loudly enough for everyone to hear.
'So what you're telling us, Dr. Corbett,'Wetstone said, 'is that this man-' He waved the drawing for emphasis. 'This manwaited for an opportune moment, put on a doctor's clinic coat taken from withinthe casing of his floor buffer, walked boldly into room nine twenty-eight, andinjected your wife with a killing dose of Aramine.'
'I believe that is exactly what he did.'
Many of the faces around the room wereexpressionless. But Harry's unofficial visual poll said that the majority stillhad strong doubts about him.
Without comment, Wetstone motioned that hewas done. Since the burden of proof was, in theory at least, on the hospital,Harry would not be cross-examined by the hospital attorney. It was one ofseveral procedural points Wetstone had won.
Sam Rennick next introduced the man in theill-fitting blue suit, Willard McDevitt, the head of maintenance for thehospital. McDevitt, in his fifties with a ruddy complexion and a nose thatappeared to have been broken more than once or twice, spoke with the force ofone convinced he was incapable of being wrong about anything. He reminded Harryof Bumpy Giannetti, the hulking bully who had stalked him after school andbeaten him up with biological regularity from grades seven through ten. Hewondered in passing if Bumpy would respect him now that he was the chiefsuspect in two murders.
'Mr. McDevitt, is the man in that drawinganyone you recognize?' Rennick asked, after establishing the man's credentials.
'Absolutely not. I never saw him before inmy life.' He looked haughtily over at Harry.
'And what about that industrial floorbuffer — the one Dr. Corbett claims the killer used that night?'
'Well, first of all let me say that ifthere was a buffer on Alexander Nine that night, it was one of mine. And if itwas one of mine, one of my men was runnin' it.'
'Could someone have brought one into thehospital?'
'Anything's possible. But those babiesweigh close to a quarter ton and are bigger 'n a clothes dryer. It's hard toimagine someone sneakin' one into the hospital without being noticed.'
'Could they have stolen one from yourdepartment?'
'Not unless it was at gunpoint. We have asign-out system I designed myself to prevent any unauthorized person from usin'any of our equipment. Even a wrench has to be accounted for. I don't think we'dexactly misplace a five-hundred-pound buffer.'
'Thank you, Mr. McDevitt.'
Rennick nodded toward Wetstone withoutactually looking at him. Harry saw the gesture and reflected cynically on thefoolishness of a profession in which sub-rosa byplay was an accepted, evenrehearsed, part of the practice. Then he noticed Caspar Sidonis exchangingwhispered comments with the trustee seated next to him, motioning towards Harryat the same time. The byplay in medicine might be more subtle than in law, butit was no less nasty.
'Mr. McDevitt,' Mel began, 'where are thefloor buffers kept?'
'Locked in a room in the subbasement — double-locked as a matter of fact. Only me an' Gus Gustavson, my head of floormaintenance, have the key. Every one of them buffers that's taken from thatroom has to be signed out by him or me.'
'I understand, Mr. McDevitt, I'd like toask you again whether you believe there is any way a man who was
