Chapter 10: The Hospital Board

I did not answer Warner's text.

I turned the phone over on the workbench and let it buzz until it stopped.

Four days later I walked into the hospital boardroom in a borrowed blazer, to hear a list of the things I had supposedly done.

Constance sat at the far end of the long table.

She held a seat there on the hospital foundation board.

A folder lay in front of her.

The chair of the board sat beside her, the same man who had read my suspension off a sheet in the waiting room.

He would not look at me.

"The complaint," he said, "alleges that Ms. Kinsale used hospital premises to harass a member of a donor family."

"It alleges she disrupted a waiting room and endangered patients."

"I'll add," said Constance, "that she has been seen in public with a former Lowry employee who left on bad terms."

"Which employee?" I asked.

"Tiernan Kenmare."

"He built your husband's company."

"He built a piece of it," she said, "and was well paid for it."

The hospital's lawyer, a nervous young man, shuffled his papers.

"Ms. Kinsale, you may respond."

I stood.

"I'd like to call a witness," I said instead.

"This isn't a trial," said the chair.

"Then it won't take long."

I looked at the door.

Hattie opened it from the outside.

The caterer came in first, in the borrowed tie, holding his phone against his chest.

Behind him came a man with his wrist in a cast.

Behind him came the mother of the feverish boy, with the boy.

And behind them, filling the doorway and the hall, came the night shift of Beacon General.

They wore scrubs and cardigans and sneakers with gel insoles.

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