Dead Certain

you learn not to judge, but I can tell you that for the husband the whole thing was incredibly hard.”
    “What about Farah Davies? What was her role in all of this?”
    “You mean besides starring in some rather hot photographs taken with a telephoto lens? Nothing.”
    “Are she and your client’s wife still together?”
    “I don’t know, It’s not as though Dr. Davies is an openly practicing homosexual. In fact, it’s just the opposite. She’s publicly dated a number of men, most recently Kyle Massius, the president of the hospital.”
    “I wonder if she and McDermott were ever an item,” I mused. “That would certainly explain his behavior toward her at the party the other night.”
    “You mean he might have had a reason? I thought it was just because he was a jerk. But any way you look at it, Dr. Davies has some pretty good reasons to not want some parts of her personal life made public.”
    “Meaning?”
    “It probably wouldn’t help her practice any if word got out that she was into women.”
    “Women go to male doctors all the time,” I said. “Still, I see your point. Dr. Davies has every reason in the world to want to avoid having her sexual preferences made public, but I don’t see how that could possibly have any bearing on the situation with HCC.”
    “They could be blackmailing her,” offered Elliott thoughtfully, lifting a forkful of cheesecake to his lips. “But actually I like her better for the HCC mole.”
    “Why’s that?”
    “Well, for one thing she’s ambitious. She made no secret of the fact that she wanted the chief of staff job and was furious when she was passed over for Carl Laffer. Not only that, but obstetrics is by far the biggest moneymaker for HCC. Whenever HCC moves into a new market, the first thing they do is go around cutting deals with the local obstetricians, trying to get them to send their patients to one of the company’s hospitals. If I were Gerald Packman, Farah Davies would be my first choice.”
    “Except for one small thing,” I interjected. “She’s not a trustee, which means that she doesn’t have a vote. She’s only a department head. She’s not privy to the kind of financial information that I’d want if I were in Packman’s position.”
    “But if she’s close to Massius, he might be passing her information. And she might be able to influence his vote.”
    “She wouldn’t have to,” I pointed out. “It would be so much simpler to just make a deal with Massius. He’s sick and tired of running a prestigious but otherwise impoverished institution. He’d love the idea of himself at HCC—a corner office, a seat on the corporate jet.... If I had to pick the person most likely to sell out to HCC, it would have to be him. Not only is he in the best position to help HCC with insider information, but he stands the most to gain from striking a deal with them up front. He gives them his vote and whatever information they ask for now in exchange for a big job with an even bigger salary once they take over.
    “Right now he’s just an underpaid administrator who has to not only suck up to everyone who might have fifty dollars to give, but bow and scrape in front of everyone from the medical staff to my mother. A deal with HCC would turn him into one of the most powerful corporate players in town. People would be standing in line to bow and scrape in front of him .”
    “Okay,” said Elliott, “we’ll put him on top of our list.”
    “The only problem is that if he does turn out to be the mole, it puts me in the weakest position.”
    “How so?”
    “Massius is an administrator, not a physician. Therefore he has the simplest relationship with the hospital and the least responsibility.”
    “I thought he runs the whole hospital.”
    “True. But he doesn’t treat patients. He doesn’t train physicians. He has no higher level of obligation than a VP for a department store. He has to answer to his boss and obey the law, period.”
    “But if he’s slipping HCC confidential information, that’s clearly in violation of SEC regulations—”
    “Absolutely. But like jaywalking, it happens all the time. I’m not saying that if it comes to that, I won’t try to make it sound like a hideous transgression, but in terms of blocking the sale I’d be much happier if the mole turned out to be McDermott.”
    “What about Laffer?”
    “I’d say if he’s willing to change his vote, that pretty much rules him out.”
    “Even so, he’s