The residents were standing around the anesthetized patient, their gloved hands resting within the sterile field. The scene did not look auspicious.
“What’s the …” began Thomas, his voice hoarse. He hadn’t spoken since awakening except for the few words to the nurse. He cleared his throat. “What’s the problem?”
“You were right about the hemopericardium,” said Peter with respect. “The knife penetrated the pericardium and cut the surface of the heart. There’s no bleeding, but we wondered if we should close the laceration.”
Thomas had the circulation nurse locate a stool and put it behind Peter.
From that vantage point, he could see into the incision. Peter pointed to the laceration and bent to the side.
Thomas was relieved. The laceration was inconsequential, having missed any significant coronary vessels.
“Just leave it as is,” said Thomas. “The marginal benefits of suturing it aren’t worth the possible problems the suture might cause.”
“Good enough,” said Peter.
“Leave the pericardium open, too,” warned Thomas. “It will reduce the chances of running into a problem with tamponade in the postoperative course. It will serve as a drainage point if there is any bleeding.”
An hour later Thomas crossed from the hospital to the Professional Building. When he entered his office he felt unpleasantly wired from the Dexedrine. Over and over he kept worrying about Ballantine and Sherman’s presence in the hospital that night. It was obvious they were having some kind of secret meeting, and, as he wondered what they were plotting, he felt his anxiety mount. Now he knew he would be unable to sleep unless he took something.
He rarely got such a surge from a single Dexedrine but decided it was probably due to his general exhaustion. Going over to his desk, he gobbled another Percodan. Then, fearful that he might have trouble waking up in the morning, Thomas called Doris. He had to let the phone ring a long time. Mentally he retraced the complicated route from her bed to the phone by the bay window. He wondered why she didn’t get an extension.
“Listen,” said Thomas when she answered. “You’ve got to come into the office at six-thirty.”
“That’s only a couple hours from now,” protested Doris.
“Jesus Christ,” shouted Thomas angrily. “You don’t have to tell me what time it is. Don’t you think I know? But I have three bypasses starting at seven-thirty. I want you over here to make sure I’m up.”
Thomas slammed the phone down in its cradle, seething. “Goddamn selfish bitch,” he said out loud as he punched his pillow into submission.
CHAPTER 7
* * *
CASSI’S EYES BLINKED OPEN. It was a little after five in the morning and was not yet light outside. The alarm wasn’t scheduled to go off for another two hours.
For a while she lay still, listening. She thought perhaps some sound had awakened her but as the minutes passed, she realized that the disturbance had come from within her head. It was the classical symptom of depression.
At first Cassi tried turning over and drawing the covers up over her head, but she soon recognized it was useless. She couldn’t go back to sleep. She got out of bed, knowing full well that she would be exhausted that day, especially since Thomas had made her accept an invitation to go to the Ballantines that evening.
The house was frigid, and she was shivering before she got on her bathrobe.
In the bathroom she turned on the quartz heater and started the shower.
Stepping under the water, Cassi reluctantly allowed herself to remember the reason for her depression—the discovery of the Percodan and the Talwin in Thomas’s desk. And Patricia was undoubtedly going to inform her son that Cassi had again been snooping in his study. Thomas would guess that she’d been looking for drugs.
Getting out of the shower, Cassi tried to decide what to do. Should she admit she’d found the drugs and confront him? Was the presence of the drugs sufficiently incriminating? Could there be another explanation for their presence in Thomas’s desk? Cassi doubted it, considering the additional fact of Thomas’s frequently pinpointed pupils.
As much as Cassi did not want to believe it, Thomas was most likely taking the Percodan and Talwin. How much, Cassi had no idea. Nor did she have any idea how much she was to blame.