“Well, I trust my nurses.” Bella asked him why he’d not investigated the trouble. “I have better things to do than to look over every complaint that comes over my desk. Nurse Annabeth Handy would have been able to tell you more than I can.”
“Then why are you talking in the first place? I’m sure, like you, that I have better things to do than to listen to someone spout off information about someone that worked for him when he doesn’t have one bit of firsthand information about a good doctor.” Dr. Whit said again that he trusted his nurses. “I have an application here that I’d like you to hear. Graduated top of their class with a five-point seven GPA. Worked as a surgical doctor not only in their hospital but also was the on-call doctor for all the heads of state for their country. Treated patients not just at the hospital where they did their residency but also worked at the free clinic as a doctor, as well as an emergency surgeon when it was needed. Head of the nursing staff at Mercy General, and worked part-time as a pharmacologist when specialized drugs were needed to combat illnesses that were new to the world. Would you hire this person? Before you answer that, there are seventeen letters of recommendation from not just the other doctors where this person worked but also the nurses. Who, I might add, would clamor to work with this doctor when on shift.”
“Right away. That’s the kind of physician we need around here. Not one that thinks everything should be handed to them with bells on it.” He eyed her before speaking again. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that this is Doctor Walsh.”
“It is. Doctor Walsh came with a very good resume, as well as enough recommendations to make me think she should have been taking your place. Since you’ve made it perfectly clear that you don’t investigate problems you might have in your own hospital.” He didn’t bother answering her but sat down. “Nurse Handy. It’s my understanding that you were encouraging the nurses to make sure Doctor Walsh wasn’t happy here.”
“What a thing to say to me. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Instead of calling her a liar, Harris simply turned around and pushed play on the computer she’d had set up beforehand. They all listened to the nurse telling one of her staff members that they didn’t like foreigners in their hospital. She didn’t like to have them treat anyone that was pure like she and the nurses that she hand picked. She had also made sure that bonuses were handed out to each one of the nurses that could prove they’d made her cry. “Doctors don’t cry. That right there should tell you something about her. I did this place a favor by making sure she’s gone.”
The next program to play had two nurses in a cubical talking to three little boys. They were their mothers. That much was obvious. However, what wasn’t clear at first was who they were telling the boys to hurt—Rebel’s nephew and niece.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby, Wendell. Just knock him around enough that he goes to his aunt about it. Doctor Walsh has got to go, or we’ll all suffer. Then when he does, she’ll come and talk to me, and I’ll make sure you’re not in trouble. I want this kid to suffer like we have to when she works here.” One of the other kids, his name wasn’t mentioned, asked why they had to suffer. “Nurse Handy is coming down hard on all of us because that woman is still working here. Doctor Walsh isn’t as bad as Handy says, but I need this job more than I need a good doctor working with me. Just do what I tell you, and things will go better for the three of you.”
Harris let it sit there for several seconds before she asked Nurse Handy what she had to say now.
“Nothing. I know what I did. And if any of these doctors were to get up off their asses and look around for a little bit, they’d see that I’m keeping the riff-raff out of their business and running a tight ship here.”
“A tight ship that turns away good doctors and nurses.” Bella laid a file down in front of each of them at the meeting. “These are the resignations of seventy nurses and other staff members that have been bullied out of a job over the last ten years. Since, you’ll notice, Nurse Handy had been in charge of the nursing staff. Attached to each of them are their complaints about being bullied, as well as their resignations. Each of them will have been deemed fired by their paperwork that Nurse Handy has in her office.”
“You have no right to be going into my office. The things I have there are private. Not to mention, none of your business. You return all of it right now, and I won’t press charges against you.” Harris laid her badge on the table, along with her gun and other items that made her able to do anything according to the law. “I don’t care what sort of things you say you have. I’ll put out a smear campaign that will make you look worse than any criminal you say you’ve arrested.”
The doctors looked at the nurse. Some of them actually moved their chairs back from where she was sitting. Doctor Whit stood up and sat down twice before he finally got his mouth working. He was as appalled as they were at the tactics this woman had used and shocked to the point of not knowing where to start on it.
“Do you have any idea who this is? Not to mention how much money has been donated by her family. We’d not even have this hospital if not for the Marshall family. Which
