“It was Garnett next door, huh?” Anxiously, Judith
pleated the sheet between her fingers. “Let me get this
straight—Van Boeck is chief of staff, Mrs. Van Boeck
is queen of the world. Peter Garnett, chief of surgery,
is second in command to Van Boeck. Thus, Dr. Garnett
has a stake in all this.”
“You might say that,” Renie conceded, glancing
back into the hall.
“Any sign of Sister Jacqueline?” Judith inquired.
“Not that I can see,” Renie replied. “She’s tall, too.
I should be able to spot her.”
“Yoo-hoo,” called Mr. Mummy from across the hall.
“Don’t we have excitement around here today?”
“Yes, Mr. Mummy,” said Renie. “Have you heard
anything about what happened to Mr. Randall?”
Mr. Mummy lowered his voice, and Judith could
barely hear him. “I heard he took poison. Isn’t that
dreadful?”
“Yes,” Renie agreed with a sad shake of her head
and a rise in her own voice. “Taking poison is a bad
way to kill yourself.”
SUTURE SELF
95
“It may not be true,” Mr. Mummy said. “What do
you think?”
“I think,” Renie said slowly and clearly, “that too
many healthy people die in this hospital.”
“Exactly.” Again Mr. Mummy’s voice dropped,
forcing Judith to lean far over to the side of the bed. “I
don’t believe a word of it. The poison, I mean. Where
would he get it?”
“Where indeed?” Renie said a bit absently as she
tried to keep track of what was going on down the hall.
“Can you move just a little closer?” Judith asked in a
humble tone.
“Well . . . Dr. Garnett is wandering off toward the
media,” Renie said. “I’ll try to sneak up behind him.”
As her cousin disappeared, Judith propped herself
up on the pillows and considered patience as a virtue.
But there wasn’t time to practice it. A moment later,
Renie back-pedaled into the room with Heather Chinn
right behind her.
“
you to stay out of the way?”
“Sorry.” Renie trudged back to bed. “I was curious,
that’s all. You can’t blame me when the guy next door
kills himself, another guy gets run over outside my
window, and Mrs. Van Boeck holds a press conference
just down the hall.”
