county psychological association wanting to know if I was going to
attend the next monthly meeting and, if so, did I want chicken or
fish.
The last, from Lou Cestare, letting me know he’d found nothing new on
George Plumb’s former employers but would keep trying.
I tried Milo again, on the off chance he’d returned from the deputy
chief’s office. Charles Flannery’s voice came on and I hung up.
What was Stephanie up to, meeting with Huenengarth?
Just malignant careerism or had someone leaned on her, too-the old
drunk-driving arrest.
Or maybe her drinking wasn’t ancient history. What if the drinking was
still out of control and they were exploiting that?
Exploiting while grooming her for division head?
It didn’t make sense-but maybe it did.
If I was right about Chuck Jones wanting to dissolve the hospital,
hiring an impaired division head would fit beautifully.
Rat climbing aboard a sinking ship.
I thought of someone who’d jumped off.
What had made Melendez-Lynch finally leave?
I didn’t know if he’d talk to me. Our last contact, years ago, had been
tainted by his humiliation-a case gone very bad, a lapse of ethics on
his part that I’d learned about without wanting to.
But what was there to lose?
Miami Information had one listing for him. Our Lady of Mercy
Hospital.
It was eight-thirty in Florida. His secretary would be gone, but
unless Raoul had undergone a personality transplant, he’d still be
working.
I dialed. A recorded voice, female and cultured, informed me I’d
reached the chief physician’s office, which was now closed, and
enunciated a series of touch-tone codes for reaching Dr.
MelendezLynch’s voice mail.
I pressed the Instant Page code and waited for a callback, wondering
when machines were going to start calling one another and eliminating
the messiness of the human factor.
A still-familiar voice said, “Dr. Melendez-Lynch.”
“Raoul? It’s Alex Delaware.”
“Ahleex? No keeding. How are you?”
ø”Fine, Raoul. And you?”
“Much too fat and much too busy, but otherwise superb..
What a surprise. Are you here in Miami?”
“No, still in L.A.”
Ahh. . . So tell me, how have you been spending the last few years?”
“Same as before.”
“Back in practice?”
“Short-term consults.”
“Short term . . still retired, eh?”
“Not exactly. How about you?”
Also more of the same, Alex. We are doing some very exciting
things-advanced cell-wall permeability studies in the carcinogenesis
lab, several pilot grants on experimental drugs. So tell me, to what
do I owe the honor of this call?”
“I’ve got a question for you,” I said, “but it’s personal, not
professional, so if you don’t want to answer it, just say so.
“Personal?”
About your leaving.”
“What do you want to know about it?”
“Why you did it.”
And why, may I ask, are you suddenly so curious about my motivation?”
“Because I’m back at Western Peds, consulting on a case. And the place
looks really sad, Raoul. Low morale, people quittingpeople I never
thought would leave. You’re the one I know best, so I’m calling
you.”
“Yes, that is personal,” he said. “But I don’t mind answering.”
He laughed. “The answer is very simple, Alex. I left because I was
unwanted.”
“By the new administration?”
“Yes. The Visigoths. The choice they gave me was simple.
Leave, or die professionally. It was a matter of survival. Despite
what anyone will tell you, money had nothing to do with it. No one
ever worked at Western Peds for the money-you know that. Though the
money got worse, too, when the Visigoths took control. Wage freezes,
hiring freezes, eating away at our secretarial staff, a totally
arrogant attitude toward the physicians-as if we were their servants.
They even stuck us out on the street in trailers. Like derelicts. I
could tolerate all of that because of the work. The research. But
when that ended, there was simply no reason to stay on.”
“They cut off your research?”
“Not explicitly. However, at the beginning of the last academic year
the board announced a new policy: Because of financial difficulties,
the hospital would no longer chip in for overhead on research grants.
You know how the government works-on so many grants, any money they