“How could they not?”
She smiled. “Wait here.”
Sixty seconds later, Vida walked in with some threadbare pants, a polyester work shirt, and a green John Deere cap.
“Where’d you get those?” he asked.
“Mr. Chaney. He’s lying on the X-ray table in a paper gown. I think he’s getting a good trade myself, and so will he. Your pants and button-down together probably cost three hundred bucks.” She tossed the clothes into Auster’s lap. “I doubt they’d take these rags at the Goodwill.”
A reek of BO rose from his lap. “They stink!”
“Life’s rough. Get changed, Doc.”
“Do I take my own car?”
“Sure you do, chunkhead.” Vida dug into her jeans and brought out a jingling key ring. “Mr. Chaney drives a black Chevy pickup. It’ll be in the front lot. If we’re lucky, Biegler’s spy will be watching your Jag in the employees’ lot. Change clothes, damn it!”
Auster removed his butter-soft Charles Tyrwhitt pinpoint and folded it carefully on his desk. Then he raised the stained work shirt and slid an arm into it.
Vida gave him a blue steel stare. “You’d better believe it.”
“Don’t you dare give Chaney the keys to my Jag.”
“Forget the Jag, and forget your cell phone. Don’t use it for anything, unless I tell you to. That’s why I didn’t answer your call before.”
Auster’s mind filled with images of his office burning, a black column of smoke bringing all the doctors and nurses out of the hospital three blocks away.
“I’ll tell you one thing, buster,” Vida said. “You’re gonna owe me after this. For a very long time.”
Auster nodded in surrender, but he knew Vida wouldn’t buy it. Her father had been a pathological liar, and she saw all men as reflections of him. Sometimes he wondered if she was far wrong.
Chapter 12
Nell sat at the reception desk and tried to look like a normal person, but inside she was a wreck. In the last few minutes the office had gone crazy. Vida was acting like some sort of secret agent, and a few minutes ago a strange man had shambled past in the hall, coming from the direction of Dr. Auster’s office. Then an old man in X- ray had started yelling that someone had stolen his clothes. JaNel was looking for Dr. Auster and couldn’t find him, and Vida had told Nell to hold down the front while she took care of some necessities. When Nell asked what was going on, Vida had leaned close and whispered, “Give me five minutes, hon. Then I’ll tell you what to do.” That was five minutes longer than Nell could stand, but she’d gritted her teeth and tried to look calm.
Then Dr. Shields called, and her legs turned to jelly. “I need to speak with Kyle,” he said in a stiff voice.
“I don’t think he’s here, Dr. Shields,” Nell said nervously.
“What kind of answer is that? Either he is or he isn’t.”
“Um…that’s all I know at this point.”
“Listen, if that son of a bitch is trying to avoid me, you tell him I said to get his ass on the phone.”
Nell sat blinking in the wake of Dr. Shields’s profanity. From Warren Shields, a curse word in the office was like an explosion. “Dr. Shields?” she ventured tentatively.
“Yes?”
“Can I tell you something?”
“What?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m the one who’s been e-mailing you.”
Silence.
Nell was suddenly sure she’d made a mistake, but then Dr. Shields said, “You e-mailed me to look in my safe room?”
“That’s right.”
“But…how did you know what was in there?”
“I didn’t. I still don’t. But I knew it was dangerous. My sister told me about it. I was trying to help you. I mean, I
“You did help me, Nell. Look, do you know anything about a letter? A love letter written in green ink?”
She thought back over all the papers she had seen in the past few days. “No, sir. Nothing like that.”
There was a long pause. “What’s going on up there today?”
Nell blinked away tears. Being able to talk to Dr. Shields directly was more relief than she could stand. “Things are out of control. I think some kind of agents from Jackson may be on their way here. Because of all the stuff Dr. Auster and my sister have been doing. You know what I’m talking about?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“I haven’t been a hundred percent perfect in my life,” Nell said, “but I never meant to hurt anybody. And I know
“I’m going to be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“I don’t know. You’re too trusting, and you sure can’t trust Dr. Auster. Not a lick. Listen, if I hang up all of a sudden, it’s because Vida’s come in. I’ll do whatever I can to help you, but you’d better not call back here. Not with those agents coming. You just do whatever you think is right. You can count on me to back you up.”
Dr. Shields didn’t speak for several seconds. Then he said, “Nell, I need to ask you something.”
“Hurry.”
“Is Kyle having an affair?”
“Well…yes, sir. With my sister.”
“I know that. I’m talking about with someone else.”
Nell wasn’t sure she should say more, but she didn’t want to hold anything back from Dr. Shields. It might hurt him in some way. “I did hear Dr. Auster on the phone with somebody two days ago. I think he’s planning to run off with somebody new.”
“Who?”
She sensed a sudden urgency in Dr. Shields’s voice. “I don’t know.”
“Are you sure? Don’t hold back to spare my feelings.”
This comment confused her. Why should Dr. Auster’s affair hurt his feelings? “I really don’t. But you’d better-” Vida’s cheap heels were clacking down the corridor. “Sorry, I have to go.” Nell set the phone in its cradle and began typing entries on a Blue Cross insurance claim.
“Patients still calling?” Vida asked, walking in with two stuffed Walgreens bags.
“What do you think? It’s like a tidal wave without Dr. Shields here.”
“You just keep blowing them off, honey. And it doesn’t matter what you tell them. Say we’re gone to the NASCAR races. This shop is closing for good.”
Nell stared openmouthed at her sister.
Vida gave back her “I meant what I said” look, then began opening the file cabinets against the back wall.
Laurel watched Warren’s face as he hung up the phone. He had looked puzzled while he was talking, but now he wore an expression she couldn’t begin to read.
“That was Nell Roberts?” she asked.
He didn’t answer.
“Nell is the one who’s been sending you e-mails?”
“Apparently. She’s worried about me.”
Laurel had met Nell a few times, but only in passing. A pretty girl in her late twenties, she looked as if she’d come from a different family than her putative older sister. “How could Nell possibly know anything about me?”
