Chapter 14: Rule Four

The chair of medicine was a gray-haired woman with a cardigan and no patience, and she had watched the clip.

She said so first, before anyone sat down.

"I watched it twice," she told Gabe. "The second time to make sure I'd seen the first."

Gabe stood in front of her desk with his hands at his sides.

Eli stood beside him, because nobody had told him not to.

"You examined a family friend in front of residents," she said. "You signed a form that said you had no conflict, and you did."

"Yes," Gabe said.

"Gabe," Eli said.

"Mr. Winslow, I'll get to you."

She turned back to Gabe.

"You're suspended with pay, effective now, pending review. No badge, no clinic, no teaching. Two weeks."

"Understood."

"That's it? You're not going to argue?"

"No."

The chair looked at him for a long moment.

Then she looked at Eli, and her face changed a little.

"Mr. Winslow. Someone recorded you without your consent. You can file a complaint, and I'd advise it."

"I want to," Eli said. "Today."

"Good. That's a separate matter, and it's going to be a hard one for somebody."

She did not say Kessling's name, and she did not need to.

By six that evening Gabe's brownstone was dark except for the kitchen light.

Gabe stood at the counter with a box of his things from the office, not unpacking it.

Eli shut the green door behind him.

"Rule four," Gabe said.

Eli stopped in the hallway.

"It ends the day it hurts someone. Forty residents saw you on that screen, Eli. Your job could be next. I did that."

"Kessling did that."

"I let him. I walked into a room with you and thought I could control it."

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