"Son of a bitch."
"What is it?"
"I'll tell you later."
He hung up. He sat at the table for a full minute, staring at the files without seeing them. Then he picked up the phone again.
Cora pickedup on the third ring.
"Noah. Lovely to hear from you. Savannah isn't here right now."
"No, I was just checking in on you. How is the treatment going?"
"Oh, better than it was. I think it bought me more time. I'm not sure if it's helping or not but I'm still above ground." She laughed softly. She had made peace with not knowing, and it showed. "The doctors seem optimistic. Or they're good at pretending. Either way, I'll take it."
"You were lucky to find someone to fund the treatment. I heard it can get expensive for private care."
"Yeah. Savannah arranged it. Said it was all taken care of." There was warmth in her voice. Pride, even. The pride of a woman who believed her partner had moved mountains for her. "I didn't ask too many questions. I probably should have. But when someone offers you a chance to keep living, you don't interrogate the paperwork."
"I have a friend who's in a bad way too. You wouldn't know who funded it, would you? Maybe I could reach out to the same people."
"I have a receipt around here somewhere to show payment. One sec." She put him on hold. He could hear her moving through the house, opening a drawer, shuffling papers. "Ah, yes, here it is. Halcyon Medical Group. That's who handles everything. Billing, treatment coordination, the lot. You want the number?"
"Just the name is fine. Thank you, Cora."
"Of course. And Noah? Come visit sometime. Savannah misses you more than she lets on."
He thanked her again and hung up.
Halcyon Medical Group.
He wrote the name down and stared at it. Then he made one more call.
Rishi Gupta pickedup on the first ring.
"Hey, Noah. I heard the news. I'm sorry, man."
"Yeah. It is what it is. Look, Rishi. I know I shouldn't ask, but do you think you could do me one last favor? I want you to look into a company for me. Halcyon Medical Group. Who owns it. Who funds it. Where the money comes from. Phone me back when you find out."
"I could get in trouble for doing that."
"Until the paperwork goes through, I'm not officially fired. Besides, I still have an appeal process."
Rishi was quiet for a moment. Noah could picture him at his desk, running the calculation between loyalty and risk, the same calculation everyone in law enforcement runs when a friend asks for something that sits in the gray.
"All right," Rishi said. "I'll see what I can do. Give me a few hours."
"Thank you."
He hung up and sat at the kitchen table with the cold coffee and the files and the name written down. Halcyon Medical Group. It sounded like a wellness retreat. The kind of name that was designed to sound clean and caring and completely unconnected to anything that might show up in a financial investigation.
He waited.
Rishi called back at two-fifteen.
"Okay, so Halcyon Medical Group is a private health services company registered in Vermont. They specialize in advanced oncology treatments. Experimental protocols. High-end stuff. They don't take insurance. Everything is private pay."
"Who owns it?"
