Page 27 of Goodnight, Sinners

The other woman stood and extended her hand, smiling. Relief was palpable on her face. Shaun suspected she was nervous about visiting a known mafia stronghold.

“I’m fluent in English.”

Shaun was relieved to make the switch. She was slowly learning both Czech and Russian, but she found them difficult to get a handle on.

Shaun was intrigued by the other doctor. She’d overcome her natural fear of a potentially dangerous place, inhabited by dangerous people, to speak to Shaun. She looked to be in her mid to late fifties. She had sharp blue eyes and thin lips. Her blond hair was pinned back away from her face and her nails were short and unpainted. She wore chic but practical clothes.

Shaun would bet her newly acquired mansion the woman was a surgeon.

“Thank you so much for seeing me. Please, call me Elisa.”

Shaun waved her hand back toward the couch that Elisa had just vacated. “Please sit down, I’ll ring for coffee. Or would you prefer tea?”

Elisa shook her head. “Neither, thank you. I can’t stay long.”

“Are you on shift?” Shaun asked bluntly.

Elisa smiled and confirmed Shaun’s suspicions about her. “Yes, it’s a one-hour round trip to get out here, so I’ll have to hurry back. I have surgery this afternoon.”

“Then you’re here for a reason, rather than a social visit.”

“Both, actually.” Elisa looked down at the file in her lap, but instead of opening it, she scanned Shaun from head to toe. “We met you last year. I was covering emergency for a colleague when you were brought in. I had the privilege of working on you after the poisoning.”

Shaun stared at the woman, trying to place her, but she couldn’t. She shook her head, but before she could speak, Elisa continued, “You were unconscious, and it was a fluke that I was in emergency that night. I’m usually in neurology. By the time you woke up, I had moved back to my department. I’d intended to drop by your room to introduce myself, but you’d already been moved and surrounded with enough security to make an airport blush.”

Shaun sorted through her memories of that week spent in the Prague hospital. Between the hospital staff, security and the local police, she’d been constantly surrounded by people determined to keep her safe.

“Thank you,” Shaun said, meaning it. She reached out to take Elisa’s hand and, when the other woman gave it to her, squeezed it with feeling. “You saved my life.”

Elisa nodded, her eyes serious. “When you were taken from Luhansk, it rocked all of us. Any of us could have been you. I’ve had friends and colleagues transfer to Ukraine to relieve the hospitals and clinics on the front lines.”

The two women stared at each other for a moment, silently sharing in the hazards of their mutual profession. Though their jobs weren’t inherently dangerous, every day they dealt with loss, life-altering decisions, unpredictable patients, grieving families.

“What brings you here today?” Shaun finally asked, her gaze dropping to the file clutched in Elisa’s hands.

Elisa glanced down. “A patient,” she admitted. “I want a second opinion on treatment. The tumour is complex, and you’re well known for unorthodox methods that can increase survivability.”

“You don’t have any colleagues in neuro to bounce ideas off?” Shaun asked, intrigued. She desperately wanted to see the images in the file, to delve into a case once again. But surgeons were notoriously competitive.

“Sadly, no,” Elisa admitted. “I have several excellent surgical nurses on my staff and a general surgeon who is only beginning to specialize in neurology. When I need another opinion, I often connect with colleagues in Moscow and Warsaw.”

“And they weren’t available today?” Shaun asked with a raised brow.

Elisa’s lips thinned as Shaun forced her to explain herself. Finally, she shrugged, “You’re one of the best in the world. Your theories and essays have elevated neurosurgery, and you’ve barely started your career. It’s a rare opportunity to have you in my city, at my fingertips. I won’t waste such an opportunity on an over-inflated ego. Better to make friends and learn from you.”

Shaun stared at the other woman shrewdly, suspecting there was more to her story, but Shaun decided she’d pushed enough.

She held out a hand. “Let me see.”

Elisa gave her the file and sat silently while Shaun looked over the images and read the patient's history. She picked out the glioblastoma right away. It took her less than a minute to understand what Elisa was doing in her sitting room.

“This is inoperable,” Shaun said, handing the file back.

Elisa sighed heavily and took the file. “I know.”

“Then why are you operating?”

Elisa looked down at her clasped hands and seemed to gather her thoughts before speaking. “The patient is high status. He knows that the tumour is inoperable, but he’s insisting on surgery anyway. The hospital director is backing the surgery.” She opened the file and pulled out an image, turning it toward Shaun, who leaned forward in her seat. She pointed at the shadow, then drew her finger to the left of the skull. “I will enter here, using laser tech, and manoeuvre around this section here.” She tapped the photo again. “I will cut here and here, then pull the sections through. I figure the patient has a ten percent chance of survival.”

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