'About the money.'
'Oh. Well, she was pretty reasonable, all things considered. You see, I've been working on some deals-a second mortgage on the house, the sale of that lot on Winnipesaukee-and I can get together at least part of what I owe. She understands that I meant to repay the money and that I'm probably out of a job, so she's promised to put the matter to rest providing I can come up with the full amount in the next few weeks.'
'And can you?'
'I. I can try.'
'How short are you?'
Frank struggled to mask his excitement. 'I… Judge, I want to handle this myself.'
'And just how do you expect to do that with a wife and two children and no job?'
'I'll manage. We'll manage. I'll catch on somewhere. I may have made a stupid mistake, but I'm still a damn good administrator.'
'The best.'
'Thanks for saying that.'
'And Leigh Baron has promised that if you replace the money, she'll be off your back?'
'That's what she said.'
'How much?'
'Judge, please.'
'How much more do you need?'
'A-About a hundred thousand.'
'I see… 'Dad, it's my problem.'
'Nonsense. Frank, I'm very pleased with, the way you're dealing with all this. I was angry as hell at you, but now I understand. You made a mistake, you admitted it, and you're trying to make good. That's all I could ever ask of you. I'll see to it that you get the money as soon as I get out of here.'
'But…' Again, Frank stared down at his hands. First Mainwaring, then Leigh Baron, and now the Judge himself! 'No buts, ' the Judge went on.
'You can pay me back when things get better. Believe me, it will be worth it not to have to explain all of this to your mother.'
'Judge, I… I don't know what to say.'
'Well, for starters, you can stand up and promise me that as the administrator of Davis Regional Hospital, you'll never let anything like this happen again.'
Slowly, Frank straightened up, carefully monitoring every muscle of his face. Who says you can't have it all? he was thinking. no says you can't have it all, and more? 'You mean that? ' he asked, with just the right mix of incredulity and gratitude. 'Frank, I don't think there's a single member of the board who wouldn't vote to retain you-that is, provided you'd agree to stay on.'
Finally, Frank allowed himself a smile. 'I think I'll be able to manage that, ' he said. 'Now, I think it's time you got out of that chair and into a bed. You look a little pale. What room did they give you?'
'I asked for the third floor. They gave me 301.'
'Perfect. The best in the house. Come on. I'll wheel you up.'
Frank pushed his father toward the elevator. As they reached the corridor to the new wing, he stopped. 'Listen, Judge, ' he said.
'If you don't mind waiting here for just a moment, there's something I need to check on in my office.'
'No problem, ' the Judge said. 'Take your time.'
The door to Frank's outer office was less than, twenty feet away. Frank left the wheelchair against a wall, crossed to the door, and inserted the key. At the same moment he realized there was no music coming from within, Henry Flowers entered the corridor from the stairway. 'She's not there, Mr. Iverson, ' he said. 'What?'
Frank felt a sudden, vicious chill. 'Dr. Cole. She's not there.' Frank threw open the door, revealing the gaping hole to his inner office.
'She's in the intensive care unit with Dr. Mainwaring and your brother,
' the giant guard explained. 'And you ought to be ashamed of the way-'
'No!'
'— you tied her up and-' Frank shoved the man aside and bolted past him.
'Nooo! ' he bellowed again as he slammed through the stairway door. 'Two minutes.' Seated beside Toby Nelms's bed, Zack mouthed the words and held two fingers in the beam of his penlight for Jack Pearl to see.
Pearl nodded, and let up on the Serenyl infusion. They had kept Suzanne anesthe ized with the drug for nine minutes. Besides the cessation of all voluntary movement, the only sign of any change had been an almost immediate drop in her pulse rate from 120 to sixty. And although it was now more than twelve minutes since the anesthe ic had been stopped, she had not awakened. Rather than wait, Zack had decided to leave Bernice Rimmer in with her and to move on to Toby. The child, too, had responded to his anesthesia with a dramatic drop in pulse. Now, he lay in the eerie darkness, motionless except for the minute respiratory rise and fall of his chest beneath two thin blankets. As Zack monitored the surreal scene, he struggled against the mounting foreboding that it was already too late for the boy, and possibly for Suzanne as well.
Desperately, he tried reminding himself that he was too tired and in far too much pain to maintain any semblance of a positive, objective outlook. Perhaps it would take several hours to see any real change.
Perhaps several days. And perhaps, he acknowledged, it was better, anyhow, to expect the worst. 'One minute.'
He signaled with his flash, and glanced about the unit. Mainwaring…
Pearl… Suzanne… Toby It was all so bizarre, so sad. He had come back to Sterling with such high hopes, so many expectations. 'Thirty seconds Never, he vowed. No more expectations He heard the doors to the darkened ICU glide open. Then there were footsteps. 'Fifteen seconds.'
He turned and peered through the darkness, past Mainwaring, toward the doors. Just inside the glass, he could see the silhouette of a woman in a business suit. Barreling past her was Frank. 'Wake him up, Jack!'
Zack whispered urgently. 'Quick! Wake him up,9 'What in the hell is going on here? ' Frank bellowed. 'Turn these lights on!
Turn them on right now!'
Jack Pearl stepped back from Toby's bed. The plastic syringe slipped from his fingers and clattered to the floor just as the lights in the unit came on. Frank, his fists balled at his side, stood beside the nurses' station. 'You've been fired, ' he snapped at Zack. 'Get the fuck out of this hospital before I call the police.'
'No way, Frank.'
Frank turned to the unit secretary. 'Call security, and then call the police. Tell them that a physician who has been fired from this hospital is refusing to leave. 9' The woman did not move. 'Do it! ' Beneath his tan, Frank was livid. One nurse rushed to close the glass partitions to other patients' rooms. Zack stepped from Toby's cubicle to confront his brother. 'Frank, listen, ' he said. 'Shut up! ' Frank shouted, looking wildly about. Leigh Baron moved a few steps closer. Behind her, a wheelchair appeared. 'I tried to tell you, Frank, ' Jack Pearl whined.
'I tried to tell you we should have waited. 'Jack, shut up…'
'… We should have been doing a retrospective study. 'Goddamn you, Jack! '
'… But you wouldn't listen. You wouldn't give me a chance to fix my Serenyl.'
Frank stepped forward and punched the anesthesiologist squarely in the face. Pearl's head shot back. Blood sprayed across his face as he dropped to the floor. Frank's fine features were twisted and distorted with rage. 'Get out! ' he screamed. 'All of you. You're fired! This is my hospital, dammit! You're all fired!'
'Frank, stop, ' Zack said quietly. 'It's over. Stop and listen. You've done terrible things here-sad and very terrible things… Frank, don't you see?
Look around. Look at all these people. Don't you see that it's over for you now? It's over.'
'Damn you! ' Frank shrieked as he hurtled over a chair and leapt at his brother. 'I'll kill you! I swear, I'll fucking kill you!'
The force of his attack sent both men smashing through the plate glass partition of an empty cubicle. A nurse screamed. Zack's injured shoulder struck the floor, exploding with nauseating pain.
Dazed, he rolled to one side, over a mass of broken glass that cut into his arms and back. He stumbled to his feet, staggering drunkenly. Before his vision could clear, Frank was on him again, snarling like an animal, his hands
