Dead Certain

me.”
    “Who’s ‘they’?”
    “I’m not supposed to tell you anything about it, not even who was there. All M&M proceedings are supposed to be secret.”
    “Not between lawyer and client,” I pointed out.
    “And not when the people who are supposed to be educating you decide it’s in their best interests to destroy you.” Hearing this, I felt my heart drop. Massius hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said that Claudia was expendable.
    “So who was there?” I asked.
    “Carl Laffer, of course. As chief of staff he heads the panel. Raj Banerji, Cameron Strand, and Yoash Wiener were the other physicians. Then there was Sharon Ringle, the hospital’s head of nursing services.”
    “What about McDermott?”
    “Oh, McDermott was there all right. He was wriggling like hell trying to get off the hook, but he was there.“
    “Why? What was he saying?”
    “Right off the bat he demanded to know why he’d been asked to appear before the panel. How could he be responsible if he never went anywhere near the patient? „
    “I thought he was the one who was supposed to take out her gallbladder.”
    “Yes, but his decision was based on faked test results. He only examined her once, and that was only for thirty seconds.”
    “So what did the panel have to say about that?”
    “Carl Laffer seemed determined not to let him off so easily. I’ve actually never seen him so mad.”
    “What was he mad about?”
    “For one thing, the fact that McDermott left me to do the case. Laffer wanted to know why he didn’t send me in to assist Farah Davies with her bleeder. He said I was a highly skilled surgeon who could handle anything. Then he threw the book at him for letting me do the procedure without supervision, as if that made any sense.”
    “And how did McDermott respond?”
    “Oh, you know Gavin. He hemmed and hawed and acted injured. He knows that the hospital needs him more than he needs the hospital. In the end he just said he was sorry and it was never going to happen again. I mean, what are they going to do? Revoke his privileges? It doesn’t matter how furious Laffer is. They both know there’s nothing he can do except yell.”
    “What about the other members of the panel?”
    “Oh, I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed watching McDermott getting reamed. Who wouldn’t want to see him forced to gag down his own medicine?”
    “I mean what did they think about what happened? „
    “The only thing anyone seemed able to agree on was that it had to have been my fault. They raked me over the coals for more than an hour asking me questions about the procedure. What kind of symptoms did she present with? What tests did we run? What kind of incision did I make? What kind of clamps did I use? On and on. Their questions took longer than the actual procedure. But it still doesn’t change anything. Mrs. Estrada’s dead and somehow it has to be because of something I did wrong.”
    “What about the other patients who died? McDermott’s patients?”
    “If I brought them up, it would be professional suicide,” replied Claudia. “I could just imagine what they’d think if I told them about our theory about someone going around killing McDermott’s patients. They’d slap me into a straitjacket and take me down to County. Face it, we have absolutely no evidence that anything of the kind is actually going on. It would just make me look like I was so desperate to cover up my mistakes that I’d stoop to saying anything.”
    “Did they tell you that her family has filed suit?” I asked.
    Apparently they hadn’t, because Claudia stopped her pacing and sank into the nearest chair and buried her face in her hands.
    “I wouldn’t get too comfortable if I were you,” I said. “You and I have someone we need to see.”
     
    Joan Bornstein’s office was ideally located for a medical-malpractice defense attorney. In the heart of the Gold Coast, it was a couple of blocks from the Northwestern medical center in a building that catered to physicians. Joan’s firm had their office on the eleventh floor. Inside, the waiting room was decorated like a tasteful gynecologist’s office in shades of peach and beige. There were comfortable chairs, an assortment of magazines, and classical music played through hidden speakers.
    Having been tipped off by Cheryl about our imminent arrival, Joan was waiting for us at the door.
    “You must be Dr. Stein,” declared Joan, taking Claudia by the hand and drawing her past