“Very soon, there are going to be five new patients at your hospital—”
“They’ve been found?”
“I can’t disclose anything other than what I’m about to tell you. Assemblyman Taylor wasn’t on the missing boat—”
Her throat scratched with a swallow. “He wasn’t? But I thought they reported that he—”
“He was on one of thesearchboats that found the men.”
Something wasn’t sitting right with this information. Why would a politician be out searching the waters for missing sailors? Maybe as some sort of political stunt, but it still didn’t fall anywhere near the realm of plausibility. “Mark, are you telling me the full truth, or the way your political mouthpieces are planning to spin it?”
“I’m telling you what the public needs to know,” he said, voice low and firm. Authoritative with an edge of threat. “I trust you understand why we’re wanting to control how the media receives this information.”
“That’s not up to me. The hospital’s PR team will deal with that.”
“Then I need you to make sure your PR team is in agreement with how to disseminate this sensitive information to the public.”
Tabitha’s molars met, clenching so hard she feared they’d crack. “Again, that’s not up to me.”
“You’re telling me that as Chief of Surgery you don’t have some sway?”
“I’mnotthe Chief of Surgery. I declined the position.”
The line went quiet for a beat, and then Tabitha heard the low murmur of voices conversing in the background. More of Mark’s political peons, she figured. Several seconds later, Mark spoke again. “Are you close with the new Chief?”
“Yes. Quite close.” They’d done their residency together many years ago. Tom was a friend.
“So you might be able to effectively get him on the same page?” Mark asked boldly.
“Mark, you and I aren’t even on the same page.” She cleared her throat. “We will treat anyone who comes through our hospital’s doors. That’s what we do. And we will relay whatever information the public needs, but we have things in place like HIPAA that protect our patient’s privacy. The media, well, that is a whole different animal. They will say what they want. I don’t control that aspect of things,” she said. “And neither do you.”
Just then, the pager her hospital still used to alert its doctors pulsed on her hip. “Listen, I have to go.”
“Do what you can, Tabitha,” Mark cut in. “I’m counting on it.”
“I will absolutely do what I can to help my patients. But you, Mark? Not so much.” Cellphones couldn’t hang up on someone as dramatically as a landline used to back in the day, but she still jammed her finger onto the screen even though Mark wouldn’t know.
She let out a frustrated grumble that bordered on a growl.
That man. True to his nature, he continued to be the lying cheat he was back when he was married to Camille. Some things never changed. Some things—somepeople—only got worse.
Tabitha hurried back into the hospital, the sounds of wailing ambulances typically a constant white noise, but at this particular moment, sounding even louder than usual. And the growing throng of journalists, cameras, and television reporters was a presence that made Tabitha uneasy.
As she rushed back into the hospital, she couldn’t help but overhear one young journalist speak into her microphone, “We’re getting word that the missing fishing boat has been recovered, along with two life rafts with all five fishermen onboard.”
Tabitha inhaled sharply as she shoved past the doors, steeling herself for what she might find on the other side.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Millie! Millie! Come quick!”
Camille thundered down the stairs, bounding two at a time. It was pure luck that she didn’t twist or break an ankle as she skipped over the last few and rounded the corner into the reading room.
“Skip?” She feared what she might find when she burst through the doorway. The sheer panic in and volume of Skip’s voice was enough to scare her senseless. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
“They’ve found them!” He flipped his laptop around, the words that headlined the article reiterating his declaration. “All five fisherman. Just this afternoon.”
“Who found them?”
