Page 48 of Mountain Freedom
“Call me Greg,” he said warmly. “I’m actually here—” He stopped, glancing at Beverly and Danny, who were both hanging close by, pretending to work so they could overhear our conversation. “Could we talk in your office?”
“Of course,” I said, ignoring the glare Beverly shot me. I led him down the hallway and opened my office door, gesturing for him to enter. “Have a seat.”
“Thanks.” He slowly walked into the room, taking a look around as he did. “Nice office. I see Doc left his furniture.”
“Did he? I wondered who had furnished it.” I walked to my desk and sat with what I hoped was calm elegance, despite my anxiety about why Greg was here. I wanted him to get to the point already, not make small talk about my office.
“Yeah,” Greg said before finally taking a seat. “Looks almost the same as when he was practicing. But I see you’ve added some touches of your own.” He pointed at the succulents I’d placed in the window and the photographs on my desk.
“So,” I said, still wanting to skip past the pleasantries. “What can I do for you?”
“Jackson told me about the trouble at your place last night,” he said, interlacing his fingers in his lap and tapping his thumbs together. “I’m here to follow up on that and to see if you’ve noticed anything out of place here today. One of our theories is that a disgruntled patient may have been looking for narcotics. Jackson told me about the incident he witnessed with Frank Cross yesterday.”
I tilted my head. “Is it typical for a sheriff to investigate? I thought that was Jackson’s job.”
Greg’s mouth lifted in a smile he appeared to be fighting. “Jackson’s got a conflict of interest, seeing as you two are close. And I’m the only one he’d trust with someone who’s important to him.”
“I see,” I said as my heart soared. If I was important enough to Jackson that Greg wouldn’t assign him to my case, well, that meant something.
“So have you noticed anything out of place today? Any sign that someone was here who shouldn’t have been?”
“Not a thing,” I said, shaking my head. “We aren’t a pharmacy, though. It’s not like we have narcotics on site.”
“No samples or anything?”
“Not currently. When I inventoried what we have here, it was just the basic stuff you’d keep on hand for emergencies and some expired samples of migraine medications and beta blockers. Nothing like what Mr. Cross was looking for.” I rapped my pen on my desk and mentally reviewed my day, trying to remember if anything at all had felt odd. It hadn’t, but would I have even noticed? I had practically floated through my day with thoughts of Jackson on my mind. My patients still got one hundred percent of my focus when I was in the room with them, but otherwise, I hadn’t been the most observant version of myself.
“Mind if I look around?” Greg asked. “See if I notice anything you might have missed?”
“Please, be my guest. Do you want me to walk with you?”
“Not yet,” he said, standing. “I’ll holler for you if I need to ask you any questions. No more problems with Frank or anyone else today, right?”
“None,” I said, feeling fresh relief over it. “I haven’t heard from him.”
“Good deal. I don’t want to scare you, but Frank has a tendency for violence,” Greg warned. “I’m not here to tell you what to do, but my recommendation would be that if you’re going to stick to your guns and not prescribe what he wants, you should send him somewhere else. Because he’s not going to back down.”
“I understand,” I said, nodding. “I plan to call him first, talking to him over the phone for safety, and offer him the protocol I think would help. If that conversation goes as badly as the office visit, then I agree with you and will be firing him as a patient.”
“Good,” Greg said, nodding. He headed toward my doorway, but I stopped him.
“Can I ask you something?” I said tentatively.
“Of course.”
“I haven’t heard from Jackson today. I texted him and he never wrote back, which isn’t like him.” I took a deep breath, suddenly feeling very silly to be asking the sheriff about this and not knowing how to begin to explain. “Things were a little weird after last night and I was just wondering…”
Greg gave me a sympathetic look. “He got a tough case this morning. Child abuse. Pretty awful situation. You know about his childhood, right?”
“I do,” I said.
Greg’s eyes were still kind, but his face had turned dark. “Then you know Jackson’s going to give everything he has to this case. But this kind of thing eats at him more than anyone knows. He’ll probably be a mess for a few days.”
My heart sank. Not for myself, but for Jackson. I hadn’t even thought about how his job could trigger the past like that for him. It made me realize how selfless he was, that he would continue causing himself pain and bringing up those terrible memories just to make things right for someone else.
“He might try to shut you out,” Greg warned. “Jackson comes across as the sunniest, happiest person in my office. But don’t let it fool you. He still carries a heavy burden. He just refuses to let anyone else close enough to see it.”
“I won’t let him shut me out,” I said, willing it to be true.
