now he couldn’t afford to be self-destructive. His family needed him.
He couldn’t get depressed. Bingham was right; it was a mess.
Bingham noisily took in a deep breath and blew it out through pursed lips. He looked up at Calvin, who still glared down at Jack. “What do you think, Calvin?” Bingham asked.
His voice had calmed to near normal.
“What do I think about what?” Calvin demanded. “Whether we put this asshole on administrative leave or beat him to a bloody pulp?”
“You met with the general counsel, not I,” Bingham said. “What was her opinion about the indemnity issue? Is she confident our insurance will cover this episode whether the suit settles or goes to trial?”
“She thought it should. After all, it’s not a criminal suit.”
“What about the possibility of Stapleton’s actions being considered purposefully malicious?”
“She was less sure about that possibility.”
Jack looked from Bingham to Calvin and back. For the moment they were ignoring him, as if he wasn’t even there. After several more exchanges between the two men, Bingham switched his attention to Jack. “What we’re talking about here is whether you’re going to be covered by insurance. According to your contract, the OCME indemnifies you for malpractice, except if the malpractice involves criminality or is considered malicious, meaning you were doing it on purpose instead of by accident.”
“I didn’t go to the chiropractor’s office to injure anybody, if that’s what you mean,” Jack said contritely. He had the sense that the situation was spiraling out of control.
“That’s reassuring,” Bingham said. “We have to decide if we are going to defend you or not. Of course, it has some bearing whether or not our insurance will cover a judgment against you. If it won’t, then you’ll probably have to defend yourself, which could be expensive, I’m afraid.”
“My motives were definitely not malicious,” Jack said, as his heart skipped a beat at the prospect of having to defend himself. With Laurie on leave and the extra expenses of JJ’s illness, he didn’t have money for a lawyer. “I didn’t go to the chiropractor’s office with any other intent except to find out if he had seen my patient professionally, and whether or not he had manipulated her cervical spine.”
“What was the cause of death again?” Bingham asked.
“Bilateral vertebral artery dissection,” Jack said.
“Really!” Bingham commented, as if he’d heard it for the first time. Immediately, his eyes glazed over. It was a physiological reflex for him whenever his brain sifted through the thousands of forensic cases in which he’d been involved over his extensive career.
Although Bingham could struggle at times with remembering recent events, like the cause of death of Keara Abelard, which Jack had mentioned only moments earlier, his distant recall was encyclopedic. A moment later he blinked and roused himself, as if waking from a trance. “I’ve had three cases of VAC,” he reported.
“Were they caused by chiropractic manipulation?” Jack asked hopefully. Still, it was becoming clear to him that he wasn’t going to be able to keep his private life separate from his professional life if he wanted to avoid being put on administrative leave or worse. He was going to have to admit to JJ’s illness and his difficulty dealing with it.
Only then might Bingham and Calvin excuse his unthinking behavior the day before.
“Two of them were associated with chiropractic care,” Bingham said. “The other was idiopathic, meaning we never did find out. Now, let me tell you . . .” For the next few minutes, Jack and Calvin had to listen to Bingham retell the stories of his three VAD
cases. Although it was always impressive to hear the level of detail Bingham could remember, at the moment Jack found it tedious at best, yet common sense told him not to interrupt. Having decided to reveal John Junior’s cancer, he was eager to do it and get it over with.
At the moment Bingham finished his detailed remembrance, Jack began his mea culpa of sorts. “A few moments ago I said I didn’t want to explain how my behavior at the chiropractor’s office was personal. I’d like to amend that.”
“I’m not sure I want to know if you were acquainted with your VAD patient personally,” Calvin growled.
“No, no!” Jack assured them. It had never occurred to him that Calvin might think such a thing. “I had no association whatsoever with the patient. I had never seen her, met her, or knew anything about her. The origin of this mess is my new baby boy.” Jack hesitated a moment to let his statement sink in. Immediately, he could see a softening in the expressions of both men, particularly with Calvin, whose concern instantly replaced his anger.
“I’d like to ask one thing before I reveal what I’m about to,” Jack said. “I would ask that it doesn’t leave this room. It is a highly personal matter.”
“At this point I believe you will have to let us decide,” Bingham said. “If this suit goes forward, we could easily be deposed. If that were to happen, you can understand that we might not be able to honor a promise we make to you.”
“That I understand,” Jack said. “Short of being deposed, I would trust that you could keep Laurie’s and my secret.”
Bingham looked at Calvin. Calvin nodded in agreement.
“Is the baby okay?” Calvin demanded hastily.
“Unfortunately, no,” Jack admitted, and the moment he did, there was a catch in his voice. “I know you are aware Laurie has not returned from maternity leave as originally planned.”
“Of course we’re aware,” Calvin said impatiently, as if Jack was deliberately extending his story.
“Our child is gravely ill,” Jack managed. He’d not told anyone about JJ, for fear that the mere telling would somehow make the situation more real. Jack had been using a kind of denial as a way of dealing with the shock since JJ’s diagnosis.
Jack hesitated while he took a few deep breaths. Bingham and Calvin waited. They could see Jack’s jaw quiver and knew he was fighting back tears. They wanted to hear more details but were willing to give him time to collect himself.
“I know I haven’t been myself work-wise over the last three months or so,” Jack managed.
“We had no idea,” Bingham interrupted, suddenly feeling guilty about coming down so hard on Jack.
“Of course you didn’t,” Jack said. “We’ve told no one other than Laurie’s parents.”
“Do you mind telling us the diagnosis?” Calvin asked. “I suppose it’s none of our business, but I’d like to know. You know my feelings about Laurie. She’s like family.”
“Neuroblastoma,” Jack said. He had to take another deep breath to continue. “High-risk neuroblastoma.”
A hush fell while Bingham and Calvin digested this revelation.
“Where is he being treated?” Calvin asked gently, breaking the silence.
“At Memorial. He’s in a treatment program, but as luck would have it, they had to put it on hold once he developed an anti-mouse antibody. After he finished his chemo, his treatment has been based on a mouse monoclonal antibody. Unfortunately, he is not being treated at the moment. As you might expect, Laurie and I are having trouble dealing with the delay.”
“Well,” Bingham said after another short, uncomfortable silence. “This does put a different spin on the current situation. Perhaps you need a leave of absence, but a paid leave of absence. Perhaps you need to be home with your wife and child.”
“No!” Jack said forcefully. “I need to work! Seriously, the last thing I need is a leave of absence. You cannot believe how frustrating it is to watch your child suffer and not be able to do anything about it. Threatening me with a leave of absence is what pushed me to tell you about this in the first place.”
“Okay,” Bingham said. “No leave, but in return you must promise me you will refrain from making site visits, particularly to chiropractors.”
“I’ll promise that,” Jack said. From his perspective, that was hardly a concession.
“I still don’t quite understand your behavior at the chiropractor’s office,” Bingham said.
“Was it something specific or just your general dislike for the field? It’s pretty obvious from what you said when you first came in here that you do not have a high regard for chiropractic therapy. Have you had a bad experience with a chiropractor yourself?”
“Absolutely not,” Jack said. “I’ve never been to one, nor did I really know much about them, but because of my VAD patient yesterday, I decided to look into chiropractic and alternative medicine in general to occupy my
