I nodded.
'I can't exactly do that at this point, can I?' she said. 'Now that she's got witnesses to a bona fide seizure and I'm bringing in specialists. Who knows, maybe I'm totally off-base and there really is some kind of epilepsy, I don't know.... I received a letter from Rita this morning. Express mail from New York-she's touring the art galleries. How are things progressing on the case?' Am I making any headway' in my diagnosis?' I got the feeling someone went around me and called her.'
'Plumb?'
'Uh-huh. Remember that meeting he wanted? We had it yesterday and it turned out to be all sweetness and light. Him telling me how much he appreciates my commitment to the institution. Letting me know the financial situation is lousy and going to get lousier but implying that if I don't make waves, I can have a better job.'
'Rita's.'
'He didn't come out and say it but that was the message.
It would be just like him to then go and call her, set her against me.
... Anyway, none of that's important. What do I do about Cassie?'
'Why don't you wait to see what this Torgeson says? If he feels the
seizures have been manufactured, you'd have more ammunition for an eventual' 'Confrontation, huh? Can't wait.'
As we neared the waiting room I commented on how little impact Laurence Ashmore's murder seemed to have made.
'What do you mean?'
'No one's talking about it.'
'Yes. You're right-it's terrible, isn't it. How hardened we get.
Caught up in our own stuff.'
A few steps later she said, 'I didn't really know himAshmore. He kept to himself-kind of antisocial. Never attended a staff meeting, never RSVP'd to party invitations.'
'With those kinds of social skills, how'd he get any referrals?'
'He didn't want referrals-didn't do any clinical work. Pure research.'
'lab rat?'
'Beady eyes and all. But I heard he was smart knew his toxicology. So when Cassie started coming in with those respiratory things, I asked him to go over Chad's chart.'
'You tell him why?'
'You mean that I was suspicious? No. I wanted him to go in with an open mind. I just asked him to look for anything out of the ordinary.
He was very reluctant. Almost resentful-as if I was imposing. A couple of days later I got a phone message saying he hadn't found anything. As in, don't bug me again!'
'How'd he pay his way? Grants?'
'I assume.'
'I thought the hospital was discouraging them-didn't want to pay overhead.'
'I don't know,' she said. 'Maybe he brought in his own overhead.'
She frowned. 'No matter what his social skills, what happened to him is horrible. There was a time, no matter how ugly things got out on the street, if you wore a white coat, or a steth around your neck, you were safe. Now that's all broken down. Sometimes it feels as if everything's breaking down.'
We reached the clinic. The waiting room was overflowing and as noisy as a steam drill.
