Chapter 3 - THE DOCTOR WHO CALLED HER CRAZY
Dr. Nathan Vance walked into Roman’s underground clinic wearing a six-thousand-dollar suit and the expression of a man who believed consequences were for poorer people.
Maeve watched him through the glass wall of the supply room.
Fourteen months earlier, she had stood across from Vance in a hospital conference room while he calmly explained to administrators why she should be investigated.
His voice had been gentle.
Concerned.
Almost paternal.
Maeve is under enormous financial pressure.
Maeve has become increasingly erratic.
Maeve may not realize how her behavior appears.
He had destroyed her without raising his voice.
Now he stood sixty feet underground looking irritated because Roman had summoned him.
Roman entered the room beside Maeve.
“You’re shaking.”
“I’m not.”
“You are.”
Maeve looked down.
Her fingers trembled.
She curled them into fists.
“Happy?”
“No.”
Roman stood beside her.
Not touching.
Never touching without invitation.
That was another thing she had noticed.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
“We let him talk.”
“That’s your plan?”
“Men like Vance hate silence.”
Roman looked through the glass.
“I prefer pressure.”
“I know.”
“You dislike my methods.”
“I dislike prison.”
Roman almost smiled.
The security chief escorted Vance into the office.
Maeve entered two minutes later.
Vance saw her.
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But Maeve knew him.
“Nurse Sullivan.”
She hated how easily the old title still hurt.
“Doctor.”
Vance turned toward Roman.
“You brought me here for her?”
Roman sat behind the desk.
“I brought you here because some of my medical inventory came from St. Jude’s.”
Vance laughed.
“Then speak to your supplier.”
“I did.”
Maeve placed the vial on the table.
Vance glanced at it.
Too quickly.
Then away.
Maeve noticed.
“You recognize the lot.”
“I recognize hospital packaging.”
“You approved the transfer.”
Vance smiled.
There it was.
The same smile from the disciplinary hearings.
“Maeve, I realize you’ve had a difficult year, but building another paranoid theory will not restore your license.”
Roman’s fingers stopped moving.
Maeve glanced at him once.
Stay out of it.
He understood.
Maeve sat across from Vance.
“You used my credentials.”
Vance sighed.
“Here we go.”
“You altered dispensary records.”
“You were investigated by an independent board.”
“A board you fed evidence.”
“Evidence showed what evidence showed.”
Maeve leaned back.
“You know what’s funny?”
Vance said nothing.
“For a year, I imagined confronting you.”
“Did you?”
“I thought I’d scream.”
Roman watched quietly.
“I thought I’d throw something. Maybe break your nose.”
Vance gave Roman a nervous glance.
Maeve smiled.
“But now you’re sitting here and I don’t feel angry.”
“That’s healthy.”
“No.”
Her smile vanished.
“I feel embarrassed for you.”
Vance’s expression hardened.
Maeve slid one invoice across the desk.
Then another.
Then another.
“These shell companies all route through Vance Medical Consulting.”
Vance did not touch them.
“You have no idea what those documents mean.”
“I know exactly what they mean.”
“You’re not an accountant.”
“No. I’m the nurse who caught you stealing fourteen months ago.”
Vance’s jaw tightened.
There.
The first crack.
Maeve continued.
“You panicked.”
“You’re delusional.”
“You changed inventory access.”
“Stop.”
“You blamed the woman with medical debt.”
“I said stop.”
Roman leaned back.
Maeve’s pulse hammered.
Vance was losing control.
She had never seen that before.
At St. Jude’s, he had always owned the room.
Not here.
“You thought nobody would defend me.”
Vance stood.
“This conversation is over.”
Roman spoke for the first time.
“Sit down.”
Vance looked at him.
Roman did not raise his voice.
Vance sat.
Maeve felt something viciously satisfying settle inside her chest.
“You made one mistake,” she said.
Vance laughed bitterly.
“Only one?”
“You kept doing it.”
“What?”
“After I was gone.”
Maeve slid the hospital-exclusive vial toward him.
“You got greedy.”
Vance stared at it.
Maeve lowered her voice.
“How much did you make?”
He said nothing.
“Enough to justify destroying my career?”
“Your career was already hanging by a thread.”
The words came too fast.
Maeve froze.
Roman’s gaze sharpened.
Vance realized it.
Maeve whispered, “What did you say?”
Vance’s face tightened.
“You were exhausted. Financially unstable. Everybody knew it.”
“So you chose me.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You just did.”
Vance stood again.
Roman remained perfectly still.
Vance pointed at Maeve.
“You think these people care about you? Look where you are. Underground. Working for a criminal because no legitimate hospital will touch you.”
That one landed.
Maeve felt it.
Vance saw it and smiled.
“You’re still exactly what the board decided you were.”
Roman started to rise.
Maeve raised one hand.
“No.”
Roman stopped.
Maeve looked at Vance.
“You’re right about one thing.”
Vance waited.
“This place is underground.”
She reached beneath the desk.
“And that means the walls are very thick.”
Vance’s smile disappeared.
Maeve placed a digital recorder on the table.
The red light blinked.
“You’ve been recording me?”
“From the second you entered.”
Vance looked at Roman.
“You can’t use that.”
Roman shrugged.
“I don’t need to.”
Maeve pulled another folder forward.
“Because the invoices are enough for subpoenas.”
Vance stared at her.
“The recording is for me.”
Maeve leaned closer.
“I wanted to hear what you sounded like when you weren’t protected by a hospital board.”
Vance’s face became ugly.
“You little bitch.”
Roman stood.
This time Maeve did not stop him.
Roman walked around the desk slowly.
Vance backed away.
Roman stopped several feet from him.
“Nobody speaks to her that way in my building.”
Vance swallowed.
Maeve hated the small pulse of warmth the words created.
She buried it.
“I already sent copies to the state medical investigator,” Maeve said.
That part was true.
She had done it that morning.
Vance stared at her.
“You’ll implicate yourself.”
“I know.”
“You’ve been practicing here without a license.”
“I manage operations. Licensed physicians provide treatment.”
“You think they’ll believe you?”
Maeve smiled.
“No.”
Vance blinked.
“I think they’ll investigate.”
She stood.
“And investigation is exactly what you taught me to survive.”
Roman’s security chief opened the office door.
Vance looked between them.
For the first time, the man who had dismantled Maeve’s life looked genuinely frightened.
“You’re making a mistake.”
Maeve shook her head.
“I made my mistake fourteen months ago.”
“What?”
“I trusted you.”
The security chief escorted Vance away.
The door closed.
Maeve stayed standing.
Her body suddenly felt weak.
Roman poured two glasses of whiskey.
She looked at his.
“I don’t drink during shifts.”
“The second one is mine too.”
Maeve laughed.
It surprised both of them.
Roman handed her water instead.
She took it.
“You could have killed him,” she said.
“Yes.”
“But you didn’t.”
“You asked me not to.”
Maeve studied him.
Men had ignored her wishes in kinder rooms.
Hospital boardrooms.
Banks.
Family meetings.
Roman Hayes, who frightened half the city, had listened.
That was dangerous.
Not because she feared him.
Because she was beginning not to.
Her phone rang.
Unknown number.
Maeve answered.
“Maeve Sullivan?”
“Yes.”
“This is the State Board of Nursing.”
Roman’s expression changed.
Maeve stopped breathing.
“We’ve received newly submitted evidence regarding your suspension.”
Maeve gripped the phone.
“We are reopening your case.”
She closed her eyes.
Roman watched her.
May you like
For the first time in fourteen months, the door she thought had been welded shut moved one inch.
And somewhere above the city, Dr. Vance was about to learn what happened when the woman he buried started digging herself out.
