Robin Cook – Harmful Intent
Robin Cook – Harmful Intent
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As with all my projects, I have benefited significantly from the experience and expertise of friends, colleagues, and friends of friends for the writing of Harmful Intent. Since the story bridges two professions, it is understandable that professionals have been the primary source. Those whom I would particularly like to acknowledge are:
Physicians.- Tom Cook Chuck Karpas Stan Kessler
Attorneys.- Joe Cox Victoria Ho Leslie McClellan
Judge.- Tom Trettis
School-based therapist. Jean Reeds
All of them generously donated many hours of their valuable time.
Once again for Audrey Cook, my wonderful mother
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” -Henry VI, Part II
PROLOGUE
SEPTEMBER 9, 1988
11:45 A.M.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
From the first twinges of cramps that began around nine-thirty that morning, Patty Owen was sure that this was it. She had been worried that when the time came she wouldn’t be able to distinguish between the contractions that signaled the onset of labor and the little kicks and general discomfort of the final trimester of her pregnancy. But her apprehension proved groundless; the twisting and grinding pain she was experiencing was entirely different from anything she had ever felt. It was familiar only in the sense that it was so classically textbook in its nature and regularity. Every twenty minutes, like clockwork, Patty felt a steady stab of pain in her lower back. In the intervals between, the pain vanished only to flare again.
Despite the increasingly acute agony she was only beginning to endure, Patty couldn’t repress a fleeting smile. She knew little Mark was on his way into the world.
Trying to remain calm, Patty searched through the scattered papers on the planning desk in the kitchen for the phone number of the hotel that Clark had given her the day before. He would have preferred to have skipped this business trip since Patty was so close to term, but the bank hadn’t given him much choice. His boss had insisted that he follow through with the final round of negotiations that would close a deal he’d been working on for three months. As a compromise, the two men had agreed that no matter the state of the negotiations, Clark would be gone for only two days. He’d still hated to leave, but at least he’d be back a full week before Patty was due to deliver…
Patty found the hotel’s number. She dialed and was put through to Clark’s room by a friendly hotel operator. When he didn’t pick up by the second ring, Patty knew Clark had already left for his meeting. Just to be sure, she let it ring five more times
in hopes that Clark was in the shower and would suddenly answer, out of breath. She was desperate to hear his reassuring voice.
While the phone rang, Patty shook her head, fighting back tears. For as happy as she’d been to be pregnant this, her first time, she had been troubled by a vague premonition from the start that something bad would happen. When Clark had come home with the news that he had to go out of town at such a critical juncture, Patty had seen her sense of foreboding confirmed. After all the Lamaze classes and exercises they’d done together, she would have to tough it out alone. Clark had assured her she was overly concerned, which was natural, and that he’d be back in plenty of time for the delivery.
The hotel operator came back on the line and asked if Patty wanted to leave a message. Patty told her that she wanted her husband to call her as soon as possible. She left the number for Boston Memorial Hospital. She knew that such a terse message was bound to upset Clark, but it served him right for going away at a time like this.
Next, Patty called Dr. Ralph Simarian’s office. The doctor’s booming, high-spirited voice momentarily quelled her fears. He told her to have
Clark take her over to the BM, as he humorously referred to the Boston
Memorial, and get her admitted. He’d see them there in a couple of hours.