Harvest

Obediently Mary sat up and lifted her hospital gown.

Her breath sounds were muffled. By tapping down Mary's back, Abby could hear the change between liquid and air, could tell that more fluid had accumulated in the chest since the last time she'd examined her.

Abby straightened. 'How's your breathing?'

'It's fine.'

'We may need to drain some more fluid pretty soon. Or insert another chest tube.'

'Why?'

'To make your breathing easier. To keep you comfortable.'

'Is that the only reason?'

'Comfort is a very important reason, Mrs Allen.'

Mary sank back on the pillows. 'Then I'll let you know when I need it,' she whispered.

When Abby emerged from the room, she found Brenda Hainey waiting right outside the door. 'Your aunt would like to sleep for a while,' said Abby. 'Maybe you could come back some other time.' 'There's a matter I need to discuss with you, Doctor.'

'Yes?'

'I was just checking with the nurse. About that morphine. Is it really necessary?'

'I think your aunt would say so.'

'It's making her drowsy. All she does is sleep.'

'We're trying to keep her as pain-free as possible. The cancer's spread everywhere. Her bones, her brain. It's the worst kind of pain imaginable. The kindest thing we can do for her is to help her go with a minimum of discomfort.'

'What do you mean, help her go?'

'She's dying. There's nothing we can do to change that.'

'You used those words. Help her go. Is that what the morphine's for?'

'It's what she wants and needs right now.'

'I've confronted this sort of issue before, Doctor. With other relatives. I happen to know for a fact it's not legal to medically assist a suicide.'

Abby felt her face flush with anger. Fighting to control it, she said as calmly as she could manage: 'You misunderstand me. All we're trying to do is keep your aunt comfortable.'

'There are other ways to do it.'

'Such as?'

'Calling on higher sources of help.'

'Are you referring to prayer?'

'Why not? It's helped me through difficult times.'

'You're certainly welcome to pray for your aunt. But if I recall, there's nothing against morphine in the Bible.'

Brenda's face went rigid. Her retort was cut off by the sound of Abby's beeper.

'Excuse me,' said Abby coolly, and she walked away, leaving the conversation unfinished. A good thing, too; she'd been on the verge of saying something really sarcastic. Something like: While you're praying to your God, why don't you ask Him for a cure? That would surely have pissed off Brenda. With Joe Terrio's lawsuit lurking on the horizon, and Victor Voss determined to get her fired, the last thing she needed was another complaint lodged against her.

She picked up a phone in the nurses' station and dialled the number on her beeper readout.

A woman's voice answered: 'Information Desk.'

'This is Dr. DiMatteo. You paged me?'

'Yes, Doctor. There's a Bernard Katzka standing here at the desk. He's wondering if you could meet him here in the lobby.'

'I don't know anyone by that name. I'm sort of busy up here. Could you ask him what his business is?'

There was a background murmur of conversation. When the woman came back on, her voice sounded oddly reticent. 'Dr. DiMatteo?'

'Yes.'

'He's a policeman.'

The man in the lobby looked vaguely familiar. He was in his mid forties, medium height, medium build, with the sort of face that was neither handsome nor homely and not particularly memorable.

His hair, a dark brown, was starting to thin at the top, a fact he made no effort to conceal the way some men did with a sideways combing of camouflaging strands. As she approached him, she had the impression that he recognized her as well. His gaze had, in fact, singled her out the moment she stepped off the elevator.

'Dr. DiMatteo,' he said. 'I'm Detective Bernard Katzka. Homicide.'

Just hearing that word startled her.what was this all about?They shook hands. Only then, as she met his gaze, did she remember where she'd seen him. The cemetery. Aaron Levi's funeral. He'd been standing slightly apart from everyone, a silent figure in a dark suit. During the service, their gazes had intersected. She'd understood none of the Hebrew being recited, and her attention had wandered to the other mourners. That's when she'd become aware that someone else was scanning the gathering. They had looked at each other, only for a second, and then he'd looked away. At the time, she'd registered almost no impression of the man. Looking up at his face now, she found herself focusing on his eyes, which were a calm, unflinching grey. If not for the intelligence of those eyes, one might never notice Bernard Katzka. She said, 'Are you a friend of the Levi family?'

'No.'

'I saw you at the cemetery. Or am I mistaken?'

'I was there.'

She paused, waiting for an explanation, but all he said was, 'Is there somewhere we can talk?'

'Can I ask what this is all about?'

'Dr. Levi's death.'

She glanced at the lobby doors. The sun was shining and she had not been outside all day.

'There's a little courtyard with a few benches,' she said. 'why don't we go out there?'

It was warm outside, a perfect October afternoon. The courtyard garden was in its chrysanthemum phase, the circular bed planted with blooms of rust orange and yellow. At the centre a fountain poured out a quietly comforting trickle of water. They sat down on one of the wooden benches. A pair of nurses occupying the other bench rose and walked back towards the building, leaving Abby and the detective alone. For a moment nothing was said. The silence made Abby uneasy, but it did not appear to disturb her companion in the least. He seemed accustomed to long silences.

'Elaine Levi gave me your name,' he said. 'She suggested I talk to you.'

'Why?'

'You spoke to Dr. Levi early Saturday morning. Is that correct?'

'Yes. On the phone.'

'Do you remember what time that was?'

'Around 2 a.m., I guess. I was in the hospital.'

'He made the call?'

'Well, he called the SICU and asked to speak to the upper level resident. I happened to be it that night.'

'Why was he calling?'

'About a patient. She was running a post-op fever, and Aaron wanted to discuss a plan of action. Which labs we should order, which x-rays. Do you mind telling me what this is all about?'

'I'm trying to establish the chronology of events. So Dr. Levi called the SICU at 2 a.m. and you came on the line.'

'That's right.'

'Did you talk to him again? After that 2 a.m. call?'

'No.'

'Did you try to call him?'