Page 96 of Her Only Hero

He ran a hand through his hair. “Damn it, June. I was worried sick. Why the hell didn’t you call me?”

Heat rose in my face. “Why would I have called you? To tell you the door hit me on the way out?”

“May I sit?” he said.

“If you want.”

He pulled a chair closer. “The other night, I never wanted you to leave.”

“Funny, your actions showed otherwise.”

There was a knock on the door. A slim, middle-aged man in a coffee-colored suit walked in. He looked at me with sympathetic brown eyes.

Patrick took my hand. “Are you up for a visitor?”

“I think so.”

“Hello,” the man said in a soothing voice.

“Hi.” I wondered who he could be.

“Hello, Officer.” The man shook hands with Patrick. “June, I’m Stan Fulthorpe.”

“Dr. Fulthorpe,” I said, stunned. The elusive Dr. Fulthorpe. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I, we, have so many questions.”

“I’ll do my best to answer them. I owe you that.”

“Please have a seat, Doctor,” Patrick said.

The doctor sat in Patrick’s vacated chair while Patrick stood.

“First,” Dr. Fulthorpe said. “I want to apologize for how you’ve become involved in these tragic circumstances. This whole situation went awry quickly.”

“How did this all happen?” I asked.

“It happened because I shouldn’t have trusted someone, a colleague, a friend. Or so I thought.” The man appeared distraught. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be vague. Long story short, my ex-partner jeopardized the health of patients and defrauded insurance companies.”

Few things angered me more than a person of power taking advantage of the vulnerable. “I’d like to hear the entire story, if that’s okay.”

Dr. Fulthorpe nodded. “As you know, Gideon Crawford and I run the hospital’s hematology clinic. We see our own regular patients and often cover for each other. About five years ago, I followed up with one of Gideon’s patients. After reading the case history, I was startled to see how Gideon had treated this patient.”

I shifted. “In what way?”

“I’d describe the treatment as unethical and risky.”

“You mean like inappropriate use of clinical trials?”

Dr. Fulthorpe raised his eyebrows. “Along with performing excessive, expensive procedures, that’s absolutely what I mean.”

It was exactly what Aram had surmised.

“Dr. Crawford didn’t follow treatment protocols. When I approached him about the matter, he agreed with mysentiments, but continued using unconventional methods. I decided then and there I wouldn’t co-treat patients with him. That’s when I started documenting cases.”

“And transferred the information onto the USB drive?” Patrick said.

“Yes, onto three USBs, actually. And onto the cloud,” Dr. Fulthorpe said. “I hid the USBs in the ceiling tiles of my office, my home, and rental house.”

“That’s why David hid the drive in the ceiling tile at my place,” I said. “But why did he choose my place?”

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