An Affair Of Sorcerers

He thought about it for a few moments. 'A faith healer is fine for someone whose illness is psychosomatic,' he said seriously. 'That's assuming, of course, that the sufferer is a believer.'

'What about a psychic healer who's supposed to be able to heal in a way that has nothing to do with religion?'

'Nonsense,' Greene said evenly.

'That's straight enough,' I said, and almost doubled over with a spasm. I waited, and after a few moments the twitching stopped.

'I'll have the nurse bring you some coffee,' Greene said. 'Then you should get something to eat. After that, you may want to go home and sleep. You're going to be very tired.'

'Thanks,' I said, getting down off the table and starting to dress. 'Tell me: do you know Dr. Jordon?'

When I didn't get an answer, I looked up at him. 'Eric Jordon?' he asked guardedly.

'That's him.'

'Is he your regular doctor?' 'No.'

'A friend?'

'An acquaintance. He's affiliated with the Medical Center, isn't he?'

Greene looked uncomfortable. 'I. . uh, I don't believe he's been affiliated here for five or six months.'

'Oh? What hospital is he affiliated with now?'

Greene looked nervously at his watch and cleared his throat. 'I'm not sure he's affiliated with any hospital at the moment,' he said quietly.

'Isn't that odd? I'd think it would be tough going for a doctor who didn't have hospital privileges somewhere.'

Greene put his hands in his pockets and lowered his head. 'These sound like the kind of questions a private detective might ask. Are they?'

'Yes,' I said quietly. I liked Greene and wanted to be up-front with him. Besides, I didn't have time to be clever; I'd tried that with Krowl, and had probably lost an important source of information as a result.

'Malpractice suit?'

'No, Joshua. I can't go into detail, but it involves a case I've been working on simultaneously with the Kathy Marlowe matter. Believe me, I wouldn't be asking you about Dr. Jordon if this other case, in its own way, wasn't just as important. It involves a woman's life and a man's freedom. Dr Jordon has access to information that might answer some important questions, but he's being very uncooperative. I'm trying to find out why. That's all I can say, except to assure you that anything you tell me will be held in strict confidence.'

'Is Dr. Jordon being. . charged with anything?'

'No. I'm just trying to understand his behavior.'

Greene shook his head and shoved his hands deeper into his pockets. 'Look … I appreciate your frankness, but you have to understand that professional ethics prevent me from discussing a colleague.'

'Sure, Doctor,' I said with a sigh. 'I understand perfectly.' I finished dressing and started toward the door.

'Wait a second,' Greene said tensely.

He disappeared out into the corridor, and I waited impatiently, in a hurry to be on my way. Greene returned five minutes later with coffee in brown plastic cups. He motioned for me to follow him into a small office just off the emergency room. He closed the door after us, then offered me a cigarette. It tasted like chalk. I ground it out and sat down in a straight-backed chair.

'How's your stomach feeling?' Greene asked casually as he sat down on a leather divan across from me.

'It hurts.'

He nodded. 'You're the first private detective I've met,' he said easily, stirring his coffee with his little finger. 'It must be interesting work.'

'Sometimes,' I said curtly, putting down the cup and starting to rise. 'I'd love to chat with you, Joshua, but-'

'For example,' Greene said forcefully, still stirring his coffee. 'I imagine you have procedures for finding out things about, say, a doctor you are interested in.'

'Sure,' I said softly, slowly settling myself back down into the chair. 'We clever, real-life private detectives have procedures for finding out absolutely anything. But some procedures are more time-consuming than others.'

'I thought so,' Greene said, refusing to meet my questioning gaze. 'And of course, almost all your time at present is being used to try to find out what's been done to Kathy.' He covered his mouth with a long, tapering hand, coughed drily. 'Assuming you did have the time, how would you go about checking on a physician?'

I stared hard at the doctor, but he refused to look up from his coffee. By then the liquid had to have grown stone cold, but he kept right on stirring. 'I'd start by asking questions of his patients and colleagues-if they'd talk to me. After that, I'd use my contacts in the various Court Clerks' offices to see if there'd been any malpractice suits filed against the doctor; how many, if any, and what their disposition had been. That's exactly what I will do-when I get the time.'

Greene lighted a cigarette, took two quick, deep drags, then ground it out. 'I see,' he said, carefully wiping an ash smudge off his index finger. 'After a lot of digging, you might very well discover that this particular doctor had had a number of malpractice suits filed against him; enough, in fact, to eventually cost him his hospital affiliation. Then you'd investigate further and find that he hadn't been able to get another one. Of course, it would probably be helpful if you could find out about the relationship this particular doctor had with his partner.' He cleared his throat. 'Assuming, of course, that the doctor you were investigating had a partner.'

'It would be helpful,' I said tightly. 'Also very time-consuming. Doctors don't like to talk about each other.'

'Oh, I know all about that. But, if you persisted, you just might discover that the senior partner was dissatisfied with the relationship and was taking steps to dissolve this partnership. I'm not sure what any of this would have to do with your investigation, but it certainly might answer a few of your questions about the doctor.'

'It certainly might,' I said, fairly springing up out of the chair. 'You've got my number; you'll let me know right away if there's any change in Kathy's condition, right?'

For the first time since we'd entered the room, Greene lifted his eyes to meet my gaze, smiled easily. 'Right.'

'In the meantime, I'm going back to work on finding out what's been done to Kathy.'

Greene raised his eyebrows. 'I told you: you're going to find that you're very tired and sore. And you must rest.'

'Yeah. Well, I'm just going to have to put it on remote control. I'll walk and talk very slowly.'

Joshua sighed. 'Any leads at all?'

'My cup runneth over with weirdos, but I can't say for sure that any one of them qualifies as a lead. You still don't think there's any possibility Kathy could be suffering from some psychological trauma?'

He shook his head. 'Forget that notion. There's no witchcraft involved in Kathy's condition, Mongo. Whatever's wrong with her has a physical cause. I'm sure we'll have the answer as soon as we learn what the question is.'

On the way out, I raised my bandaged thumb in the air. 'Thanks for the tender loving care, Joshua. And thanks for the discussion on private detectives.'

Joshua Greene had been absolutely right: I was exhausted, and it felt as if I had a permanent cramp in my stomach. I tried to eat some breakfast, but I couldn't even get started on it. I went back to my apartment and lay down, but I couldn't find anything even remotely resembling a comfortable position. I got up and took three aspirins, then sat on the edge of the bed and idly rummaged around in my emotions.

Despite Greene's assurances, I was still very much afraid of the deadly germs that were loose in my system. I was more than a little angry, and I was beginning to feel sorry for myself. That wouldn't do at all. If I couldn't sleep, I had to do something. I picked up the phone and dialed Bill Younger's private number. The Senator answered on the first ring.