Judy smiled and thanked Callie as she left, but the look the nurse gave her suggested that she didn’t think it likely that Anna would be back the following week, and certainly not with her diary filled out. Callie thought she was probably right.
Once she got to her consulting room, Callie checked the girl’s notes for something that told her about the family situation. A brief search on her address showed that there were six other patients registered there. Mother, grandmother and four children other than Anna, all younger than her. Callie could picture the houses at the address given and knew there couldn’t be more than three or four bedrooms so it was bound to be a bit cramped with three generations living there. None of them were regular attenders apart from Anna and her grandmother who had high blood pressure and a heart condition.
As Anna was over sixteen, Callie couldn’t enlist her family’s help without her permission, and she wouldn’t want to do that even if she could. Somehow, she had to make sure the girl was using her treatment properly and that she didn’t need further help or stronger medication. If she was really using as much salbutamol as the prescribing history had recorded, there was a good chance she would end up in hospital in an acute attack, and also that the medicines the hospital would need to use would no longer work, because of the resistance to bronchodilators she must be building up.
* * *
Once she had finished morning surgery, Callie sat at her desk and procrastinated. She had shed-loads of paperwork to catch up on, but, having managed to put everything but her patients and their problems to the back of her mind for the duration of her surgery, she now couldn’t stop thinking about seeing Lisa at the rally, and just what the subsequent fight between Morris and Claybourne was all about.
If she was ever going to get through all her work, she needed to try and find out what was going on so that she could concentrate.
First things first, she picked up the phone and called the lab, asking to speak to Lisa Furnow.
“She’s not in today,” the receptionist told her.
“Do you know when you are expecting her back? Only I have a query about one of the crime scenes.” Callie pressed for more information.
“I can put you through to her supervisor if you like? I’m not sure when Lisa will be back, she phoned off sick this morning.”
Callie declined the offer to be put through to Lisa’s manager, as she really didn’t know what she would say to them. She wondered if Lisa was really ill, or if it was something to do with having been seen by Callie at the FNM rally. Maybe the crime scene photographer was worried that she would be reported for it, but that was ridiculous, because she could report Callie for exactly the same thing and attending the rally wasn’t illegal. It might not win them many friends, but she couldn’t see that it would be a sackable offence.
Callie picked up a prescription request and tried to forget about the rally but before she could settle back down to her paperwork, her phone rang.
“Hello, Dr Hughes speaking.”
“It’s me,” Billy said. “Not sure if I should be telling you this under the circumstances, but body nine’s routine blood tests came back. The tox screen is positive for cannabis, MDMA and ketamine. Oh, and a small amount of cocaine.”
“What? That really is quite a mix.”
“I know. And not exactly drugs you’d expect to find in an illegal immigrant, although some of the others have tested positive for cannabis, but not the others. Oh, and alcohol. He was over the legal limit for driving for that, too. Does that apply to driving boats?”
“Yes, being unfit to drive through drink or drugs applies to all modes of transport.”
“I’m sending off some hair samples for analysis that might tell us if he was a long-term drug user.”
“Surely Miller will have to realise that he doesn’t fit with the others now.”
“Yes, but look… I don’t want you to go rushing in and−” He struggled to find the right words.
“Don’t worry, I won’t drop you in it with Miller.” Callie was cross that he seriously thought she would get him into trouble.
“It’s not that. I’m perfectly entitled to tell you the results and he probably knows I will. It’s more that I worry about you going off and investigating things yourself.”
Callie paused. It was nice that he was worried about her, she told herself, although a little bit of her resented it.
“I’m not going to go and investigate this, Billy. The only thing I’m going to do is go and give Miller a piece of my mind.”
She could hear Billy giving a slight groan as she put down the phone, as if he wasn’t sure that that was any better.
* * *
In an almost exact repeat of the reaction she got from Billy, Callie was sure that Miller groaned when he saw her walk into the incident room. The expression on his face certainly suggested that he had.
“Good afternoon,” she said brightly.
“Doc,” Jeffries acknowledged as she walked past him towards Miller’s office. Everyone else seemed to look studiously at their computer screens.
“How can I help you, Dr Hughes?” Miller managed to smile and be polite as she came into the room.
“The tox screen on body nine?”
“You know what was found, then?” Miller shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
“Yes. And you can’t tell me it was what you’d expect to find in the body of an illegal immigrant.”
He looked as if he was going to disagree but Callie held up her hand to stop him.
“I
