Dead Certain

what you’re talking about,” I replied, settling into one of the leather club chairs opposite his desk and steeling myself for the inquisition.
    “You know very well what I mean, this business with Prescott Memorial Hospital. Do you know who I just got off the telephone with?”
    “I have no idea,” I said.
    “His Holiness Archbishop Greenville.”
    “How spiritually uplifting,” I said, doing my best to sound sincere.
    “Cut the crap, Kate. The archbishop is a very angry man.”
    “Is that allowed? I seem to remember something having to do with the meek inheriting the earth and turning the other cheek.”
    “It seems that the archdiocese has been negotiating with Health Care Corporation to contract out the administration of the church’s hospital operations.”
    “You’re kidding,” I said. The Catholic Church was the single largest provider of health care in the city of Chicago. Joan Bornstein had been right about HCC and their motives. Not that it gave me any satisfaction. Instead it sent a chill down my spine and made me wonder what else I didn’t know about HCC and their plans to take over the Chicago market.
    “Of course, after your mother’s stunt on Saturday night and now this frivolous lawsuit that you’ve filed, they’re being forced to back away from the deal because they’re afraid it will generate too much negative publicity.“
    “Good,” I said, secretly amused by the thought of God’s minions fretting over His PR.
    “What do you mean, ‘good’?” snapped Tillman. “Do I really need to remind you that this is a corporate law firm? Representing large companies like HCC is what we do. How do you think it makes us look when our clients turn on the television and see you and your mother pontificating against big business?”
    “I hope what they see is a Callahan Ross attorney living up to her obligation to represent her client zealously— even when the client is her mother.”
    “The law as it is practiced at Callahan Ross is about money, power, and the pursuit of private good,” Skip Tillman said, rising to his feet to signal that the interview was over. “If it’s crusades you’re interested in, I suggest you go to work for the ACLU.”
     
    When I got back to my office, I found Cheryl walking down the hall toward me.
    “How did it go?” she asked. “Would you like me to see if I can find you a tourniquet to help stop the bleeding?”
    “No thank you. I stand before you bloodied, but unbowed. Did you manage to get ahold of Claudia?”
    “Not exactly.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “It means that I never managed to reach her but she’s here anyway.”
    “Here?”
    “In your office. I was just on my way up to Tillman’s to get you.”
    “Hold my calls,” I said, the words feeling dry in my mouth.
    I found Claudia on her feet, looking out the window at the windows of the office building across the street. She was still dressed in her scrubs, as incongruous as a Girl Scout uniform in the dark-suit, white-shirt environs of Callahan Ross.
    “Hi, there,” I said warily. “What brings you downtown?”
    “I never thought I’d say this,” said Claudia, turning to face me, her eyes bewildered, her arms stiff with rage. “But I think I need a lawyer.”
     

CHAPTER 14
     
    There is an aspect of the confessional in the practice of law, of confidences accepted and secrets kept. Even so, it seemed strange to be listening to Claudia in the bright light of day. I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was a conversation better suited to our nighttime living room, not surrounded by the ramparts of files in the chill of my Callahan Ross office.
    “The minute I walked through the door, I knew I was walking into an ambush,” she said, pacing the floor, propelled by agitation and disbelief. “It was like I’d showed up at a lynching with a rope around my neck.”
    “What happened? Did they tell you about Mrs. Estrada?”
    “You mean that she was a phony?” she demanded, her voice soft from shock. “That her gallbladder was a setup and that she’d been hired by the hospital?” She gave me a hard look. “Am I the only person who didn’t know?”
    “I only found out this morning. Kyle Massius told me. That’s why I had Cheryl trying to page you. I wanted to warn you—”
    “I went straight from the OR to the morbidity and mortality conference. I didn’t have a chance to call and pick up my pages. I guess they just couldn’t wait to railroad