Sacred Trust (17 page)

“So why is your hand bothering you? Have you had it checked out? Have you done any follow-up on the patient?”

“That has nothing to do with you!”

“Speaking of protocol…” Lukas heard his voice rising. He was weary and grumpy, and he paused to get control. “I followed it to the letter with Jane Conn's case, and I made excellent documentation. If Mrs. Richmond possesses the sweet and generous nature you describe, I'm sure she also has the common sense, once her grief has abated, to consider all circumstances surrounding her mother's death. I'm sure, also, that her daughter has the wisdom to help her see reason.”

“We'll see what Ivy has to say when we hear from Cunningham.”

“Also well documented and fully disclosed in detail to this hospital's administrator is my residency termination and subsequent trial to gain my permanent licensure and to reinstate my reputation in the medical profession. She has checked my references and read all the legal reports.” Lukas needed to leave, but anger held him there.

Jarvis's face reddened. “Administration has passed along
a patient complaint against you for the indiscreet attempt to use Narcan with morphine for the relief of headache pain.”

“That's within the FDA approved guidelines. There are no contraindications to using the two drugs together except with an addict.”

“In which case you could have killed him.”

“Are you admitting Dwayne Little is a drug addict?” Lukas demanded.

“Of course not.”

“Since you're doing such a thorough job checking my background, you will find that I have never used the two drugs together. I specifically listed the dangers the drugs presented for an addict, and I offered to help him into rehab if he needed it. Mr. Little got mad and left. Where's the medical error?”

“You'll find out when Dwayne's father contacts you. Don't forget Bailey's the president of the board of directors for this hospital.” Jarvis raised his hand to point at Lukas, but the hand shook and he lowered it. “That could put you out of the game.”

“Dwayne Little attempted to coerce me into giving him a narcotic, as he has done in several emergency departments in the area recently. I believe the law still states that the physician is the only one with the authority to decide which drugs to use with which cases, especially with controlled substances. If you are questioning my judgment, perhaps you should discuss it with the QA committee.” Lukas pivoted and stalked from the room.

By the time he reached the E.R entrance, he realized that he was shaking almost as badly as Jarvis had been. He marched out across the ambulance bay to the parking lot, breathing deeply, frustrated and furious. That man
was an obnoxious jerk! How had he lasted in practice this long, worked with staff this long, without being run out of the hospital, or out of town? One might even question the intelligence of a hospital administration that kept an irrational, verbally abusive, obstructionary person like that on medical staff.

Lukas took a brisk walk around the lot, his temper unrelenting as he continued the argument in his head. As he did so his thoughts churned deeper, grew darker, until a little warning system from the past alerted him.
Pray.
He needed to pray now, when he least felt like it. The warning came through his Dad's remembered voice, when Lukas was little and his brothers ganged up and picked on him unmercifully about his glasses or his size or his inability to carry a tune during hymns in church. Then he would lose his temper and attempt to punch one of his bigger, stronger brothers. He'd never succeeded, but Dad had seen it and chided him for it.
“Lukas, if you can't control your temper, let God do it for you. Just pray. Ask Him to take control of your emotions immediately. It's an SOS. You don't have to feel all pious and worshipy. Just open your mouth and tell Him how you feel. He's big. He can handle it.”

Lukas had used that method a lot when he was growing up, and he did so now. “God, help me! I'm so mad right now I could hit Jarvis George! I can't think straight, I can barely walk straight, and I don't know why this had to happen this morning when I'm sleep deprived. Did he plan it that way?” A thought occurred to him. “Did
You
plan it that way? Because if You did—” he broke off, then continued “—I don't appreciate it!”

Long ago he'd learned not to fear a sudden lightning bolt from the sky when he confronted his Lord like this.

What he'd learned to expect was an immediate answer to this particular type of prayer.

And he received it. Already he was concentrating on God instead of Jarvis George. God did not stay meekly in the background when He was addressed honestly and passionately at times of stress. There was always an answer of some kind, a way out of the temptation.

For a few more moments Lukas walked and prayed, until finally he realized that he had stopped shaking. His breathing came more normally. His heart felt better. He still felt singed and abused by the confrontation, but he wasn't mad at God anymore.

“Lord, forgive me,” he whispered. “And help me to forgive. Help me to remember that Jarvis George is—at least in my opinion—a lost soul who needs to see me serve as a loving Christian example to him.” He snorted at himself in derision as he turned for another round across the paved lot.
Oh, yeah, I'm some great example, all right.
“Control my actions, Lord, because I don't seem to be doing a good job of controlling them myself. And please, Lord, give me a chance for some sleep before I have to return to work tonight.”

“Dr. Bower?”

The voice startled him. He stopped walking and turned to find Lauren stepping up behind him, her purse slung over her shoulder, and her long, blond hair loose and ruffling in the breeze. She bit her lower lip and watched him with pensive eyes.
Oh, great. How long has she been standing there?
Did she think he was talking to himself?

“I was in picking up my paycheck today when I heard the…uh…raised voices.” She glanced toward the emergency room entrance, then looked back at Lukas. “Don't take Dr. George's words too personally.”

“I'm trying not to, but if you heard him, you probably realize that the words were pretty personalized.” His sudden openness with her surprised him. But then, her sudden appearance surprised him, too, especially after praying to God for help. Surely God wasn't using
her.

“He would find something to complain about no matter who the new doctor was.” She took a step closer and lowered her voice. “The problem is that he's buddies with Bailey Little, and everybody knows by now what happened between you and Dwayne. I've been praying for you, Dr. Bower. You're great and I hope you stay, but I don't know what those two will…” She stopped and rolled her eyes. “There I go again, gossiping. Sorry. Just be careful, okay?” She glanced around the parking lot. “Did you need a ride home? I don't see your Jeep. I'd be glad to clear out the junk in my passenger seat and squeeze you in.”

“I appreciate that, but I'm parked in the other lot, and besides—”

A car horn blared suddenly from a few yards away, and they both turned to find Mercy pulling up to the curb along the street in her ten-year-old Pontiac. She waved at Lukas and he waved back.

“My ride's here.”

Lauren glanced at the car, her face turning red. “Good. Have fun. See you at work, Dr. Bower.” She waved at Mercy, then turned and walked away.

T
edi lay on her bed with the curtains drawn, staring at the ceiling, her door locked. She wished she'd put a chair under the knob, but she'd been too scared to get up once she got into bed last night. The house had made scary sounds all night, and Tedi had cried so much her wet pillow still cooled her cheek. Even after morning light filtered through the curtain, highlighting tiny rays of floating dust, Tedi lay there, scared. Her eyelids drooped, and she forced them back open. She was still alone. It was so hard to stay awake after a whole night of crying. Her lids drooped again.

A slight sound reached her from the distance, and for a moment she froze. Was someone inside the house? Was it Dad?

When she strained to hear more, the sound of laughter reached her…a woman's laughter, coming from downstairs. Was Julie here?

Other voices joined in, men's voices. She lay listening. Was that Dad?

Still scared of the lingering dark shadows in the room,
she pushed her covers back and forced herself to get up. She cringed when her feet touched the floor; she expected something to grab her legs and drag her beneath the bed.

The voices grew louder now, several at once. Tedi couldn't hear what they said, but they were there. Nothing could reach her from the darkness with someone else in the house.

She crept across the room and pulled open her bedroom door. It made no noise, but the voices increased. She heard Dad's voice for sure now, and Julie's. She crept down the hallway to the balcony and looked down into the parlor. What she saw made her gasp.

Mom stood there by the flower arrangement, telling Julie to stay away from her daughter. Grandma Ivy stood over in the corner shouting at Dad about the way he'd been treating Tedi. Mrs. Watson sat on the love seat talking to Jarvis about how Tedi behaved in school.

Tedi started down the stairs toward them, but the steps were buried in shadow, dark and menacing. She froze on the top step and could not move.

“Mom?” she called. “Can you come up here and get me?”

Her mother did not look up.

“Mom! I'm scared! Come here!”

No reply.

“Grandma?” Tedi called more loudly, but Dad shouted at Grandma to mind her own business and not to interfere in his family's problems. No one heard Tedi.

She held tightly to the banister and felt with her foot for the second step. Her feet landed on solid support. She could do this. She could get down to everyone if she took one step at a time.

She took another step, then another. The darkness
grew deeper. She couldn't even see the banister, but she could still feel it. She held tightly and stepped down again.

Something grabbed her leg, and slithering tendrils wrapped around it. She screamed.

“Mom! Grandma!”

The voices grew louder, and she looked down to find Dad standing in front of Mom, shouting at her. Now Julie shouted at Grandma. Even Mrs. Watson and Jarvis shouted at each other. No one heard Tedi, but they were all arguing about her.

She tried to jerk free. “Dad!” she screamed.

The monster clung more tightly to her, inching up her leg. It reached her waist, coiling tightly around her torso. She tried to wrench free, but it just squeezed harder. She tried to take another step down, but it blocked her way. It was as if the darkness itself had taken form and held her as its prisoner.

“It's your fault!” Dad yelled at Mom. “You're the crazy person, and you're not making enough money.”

The darkness wrapped around Tedi's arm and tugged.

She pulled back, hitting at it.

It grabbed her other arm, too.

“Mom!” She screamed the word as loudly as she could, but her voice didn't carry. “Mom! Mommy!”

It hovered close, its blackness swallowing her into the deepening shadows. She screamed again, and the monster absorbed her scream, cutting her off from help. It came closer, inching up her shoulders. It shook her and opened its mouth as if it would take her completely.

It shook her again. “Tedi! Wake up!” Dad's voice shocked her awake.

She opened her eyes to find light streaming in through
her open curtains and Dad looking down at her from his perch on the side of her bed. He held her by the shoulders.

“Tedi? Wake up. It's okay. You were dreaming.”

Tedi hovered in that moment between nightmare and reality, letting the relief soak in. Fear still hovered over her, but it didn't cling to her like before. She wasn't alone.

“Dad?” Her face crumpled with tears.

Dad put his arms around her and held her tightly. “I'm sorry, Tedi.” He sounded awful, his voice all crackly and dry. “I really blew it last night. Didn't your grandmother come over to stay with you?”

Tedi stifled her sobs for a moment and pulled back. She looked up at Dad accusingly. “You know you told me not to call Grandma. You said I didn't need her. I was afraid you'd get mad if I had her come over, so I spent the night alone.” Tears regrouped in her eyes. “I was alone, Dad.”

He sighed, head lowered, the same expression he always used when he sobered up after a night of drinking. But Tedi wasn't going to let him get away with it so easily this time.

“I wish I'd called the police,” she muttered.

He stiffened, staring at her.

“I was scared.” She hesitated. Don't push him too far. “A ten-year-old kid shouldn't have to stay at home all by herself while her dad's out partying with his friends. A ten-year-old kid should be at home with her mother.”

His head shot up, and his eyes narrowed as his fingers dug into the flesh of her shoulders.

“Ow! Dad, stop it. Let go. That hurts.” She tried to pull free, but he wrenched her closer.

“Look,” he snapped, “I wasn't partying, I was working! I told you I was sorry. Can't you ever settle for that?”

Angry tears formed again in Tedi's eyes. He wasn't sorry for her. He was sorry for himself. She'd heard Mom tell Grandma that before.

With a more forceful jerk she pulled from his grasp and rubbed the sore spots on her shoulders. The pain made her madder. “I think I'm just in your way here. Why don't you send me back to live with Mom?”

He watched her in silence for a moment. “Your mother wants you to see a shrink.”

Her eyes widened. She felt as if she'd been punched. “What? Why?”

“Isn't it obvious? She thinks you're crazy just like she is.”

“I don't believe you!”

“She told me so this morning when I told her about your little run-in with your teacher.”

“That was over two weeks ago,” Tedi said between clenched teeth. “And I didn't have a run-in with my teacher. I fell asleep in class because of you and Julie. I bet you didn't tell Mom about that, did you?”

He held her angry gaze. “I told her you're having trouble in school and need a tutor for some of your classes. She's the one who wants you to see a shrink, not me.”

“I don't believe you.”

He shrugged and got up from his perch on the bed. “Fine. Wait and see. If I don't have an appointment for you by the end of the week, she's going to do it herself. That's what she told me this morning. Just ask her. Better get ready for school, or we'll both be in trouble again.”

 

Mercy had to struggle to hide her amazement as she stepped into Clarence Knight's bedroom behind Lukas and Darlene. The huge man made his standard, dilapi
dated double bed look like a doll's crib. The center of the mattress formed a deep well that strained beneath the weight of his enormous, sleeping bulk. The sound of snoring reached all along the length of the dimly lit hallway leading to the room. He slept propped up on shabby, worn pillows, with nothing but a huge pair of shorts to cover him.

Clarence had a full head of dark, nearly black hair that grew below his ears. A full beard and mustache disguised much of his face, but they did not hide the great slope of flesh that bulged from chin to chest. Without the fat, some women might have called him attractive. To Mercy he was just another man who didn't know how to handle his physical appetites.

Immediately she felt guilty for the tenor of her thoughts. What if it were a woman lying here encased in this prison of flesh instead of a man? What did it matter? Clarence was in trouble. Even in the dimness of the room, Mercy detected superficial ulcers on the man's grotesquely swollen legs. Why hadn't he been to the doctor long ago?

Darlene clicked on the bedside lamp and leaned over, her own wheezing drowned out by the sound of her brother's troubled sleep.

“Clarence,” she called softly, shaking his arm.

No reaction.

She glanced up at Lukas and Mercy with an apologetic shrug. “He's hard to wake. He doesn't sleep well at night because he stops breathing so many times. I'm always afraid he'll stop breathing for good.”

“You probably don't sleep too well, yourself,” Mercy said. She couldn't keep the cynical tone from her voice. Had it ever occurred to this man that his sister might be
sacrificing her life just to keep an eye on him? Her breathing sounded awful. Darlene was the one Mercy wanted to check out.

Lukas squeezed his way around Mercy in the crowded room. He leaned forward and grasped the giant by the arm. “Clarence,” he called loudly. “I'm Dr. Bower, the person your sister told you about. Clarence? Try to wake up now, please. Dr. Richmond and I need to talk to you.”

Clarence's eyes opened slightly, and he growled and shifted in the bed. The bedframe shook as if an earthquake had hit. His eyes came open more, and he glanced at his sister.

“You're wheezing again.” The deep, grating bass of his voice betrayed concern. “Where's your stuff?”

“I'll get more,” she said. “But first, I want you to talk to these doctors. They came here to help us.”

Clarence's chocolate-brown eyes came open wider. “Doctors?” He looked up at Lukas, then at Mercy standing slightly behind him. As if suddenly embarrassed by his state of undress, he reached and pulled a sheet over his bare torso. The sheet didn't quite fit across his huge abdomen. His attention focused back onto Mercy, and he frowned.

“Mr. Knight,” Lukas interjected, “I'm Dr. Bower, the emergency room physician Darlene told you about. This is Dr. Richmond, a friend of mine. We're here to help you.”

“Help me what?” Clarence growled. “Darlene needs the help. Can't you hear her? Take care of her and leave me alone.” He pulled the sheet up higher on his chest.

“That's exactly what I intend to do,” Mercy snapped. “But she wants you to be treated first. For once why don't you consider her feelings?”

Lukas shot her a warning glance, and she looked away. She shouldn't have come on this wild-goose chase. The
man wasn't going to accept their help anyway. She could see it in his eyes. And she certainly wasn't in the mood today to deal with the male species. They should exist on another planet. Maybe in another universe.

“I'm in good health,” Clarence Knight growled. “Can't you see how healthy I am? Get out. I can't afford your medicine.”

“I'm not after your money,” Mercy shot back.

He leaned back and grunted, studying her expression more closely. “You'd be the first doctor who wasn't.”

Mercy opened her mouth to argue, but Lukas reached out and gently squeezed her arm.

“When Clarence lost his insurance,” Darlene explained to Lukas and Mercy, “the family doctor refused to see him anymore.”

“I'm sorry you had so much trouble, Mr. Knight,” Lukas said. “We aren't charging you for the medication we brought you today, and we aren't charging you for our help.”

“I didn't ask for your help.”

“You told Darlene you would see me,” Lukas said. “But you wouldn't come to the emergency room.”

“Those places cost money,” Clarence said. “I know. I got hit with a bill from Knolls three years ago. Darlene had to help me pay it off.”

“You know I wanted to do it,” Darlene told him. “Clarence, please just talk to them for a little while.” She stopped and took several breaths. “You told me you would. They really care.”

“If they really care, they should know you're in trouble, sis.”

“More than you realize, and you're part of the reason,” Mercy snapped, ignoring Lukas and his warning glance. “We brought medicine for her.”

“Then help her and leave me alone.”

Mercy clamped her teeth down on her tongue to keep from making another angry retort. She raised a brow at Lukas, then looked at the sister, who continued to struggle with her breathing. “Come on, Darlene, let's leave these…gentlemen alone for a few minutes and see if we can get rid of that wheeze.”

Darlene hesitated, looking at her brother.

“Go on, sis. I'll be fine.”

Mercy led the way out of the room and waited for Darlene to follow. The only redeeming quality that man had, in her opinion at the moment, was the fact that he did seem to love his sister very much. That might save him in the end if he listened to Dr. Bower, which he was probably too bullheaded to do.