I Was Never One of Them novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Lobby
On Monday I went to the hospital to hand in my badge, because the email said I had to do it in person.
Two news vans were parked at the curb.
A reporter with a microphone stepped in front of the revolving door.
"Hazel Kendrick? Is it true you're living with a convicted killer?"
Three cameras swung toward me.
I stopped on the top step with my badge in my fist.
"Did you leave your fiancé for the man who killed your brother?"
"Is it true the Lockridge Foundation paid for your mother's care?"
"Did he threaten you?"
Every question came from the same article.
I could hear Constance in each of them.
"I'm not answering questions about a man you got from a press release," I said.
"So you deny the relationship?"
"I deny that you have the right to ask."
I pushed through the revolving door, and the cameras followed me into the lobby until a security guard held up one hand.
The lobby was full.
I had expected the board's lawyer and a box for my things.
Instead the whole pediatric floor was standing in a half circle around the front desk.
The charge nurse stood at the front with her arms crossed.
Next to her were the respiratory therapists, the night aides, the man who ran the playroom, and a row of parents in coats, some still holding their children.
"Hazel," the charge nurse said. "We've been here since six."
I did not know what to say.
"Constance Lockridge sent a memo Friday," a respiratory therapist said. "It said staff should not discuss you with the press. It said you were a risk to our patients."
"I'm not."
"We know."
A father I had met twice stepped forward.
His daughter had been on our floor for five weeks with a bad kidney.
"My girl asks for you every shift," he said. "She asked for you again last night. They told her you were sick."
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