Page 79 of The Devil You Know
He’s quiet for a moment, then he finally says, “You know that new surgeon, Dr. Reilly? Well, he did Katz’s surgery, and he specifically asked me not to call you.”
I grip the phone tighter. “He did?”
“Yeah.” Adam sighs. “And he’s such a dick that I didn’t want to argue with him about it. But I figured you’d probably want to know, considering Katz’s entire medical record is like a zillion notes from you.”
“Right,” I mumble. “Yeah, you did the right thing. Thanks for telling me.”
After I hang up with Adam, I feel numb. Ben starts rubbing my shoulder and asking me what’s wrong, but I don’t even know where to begin. After all, Ben doesn’tknow about Ryan and I’m not going to open that can of worms.
The thing is, whatever else was true, I’ve always thought of Ryan as a really great surgeon. Everyone knew how good he was. A lot of surgeons are arrogant for no reason, but he actually deserved to be arrogant. He was amazing at what he did.
Except now I’m worried he nearly killed my patient.
Chapter 30
Ben agrees to take Leah to preschool the next morning so that I can get to work early and visit Herman Katz in the neuro ICU, a place I’ve always found eerily quiet and clinical. I’m glad to find Adam Wiseman at the nursing station, documenting at a computer. Adam is a slim guy with nerdy black glasses that accentuates his image as a brainy neurologist. He smiles grimly when he looks up and sees me standing before him.
“Jane,” he says. “Thanks for coming by.”
“How’s Mr. Katz doing?” I ask.
Adam rises from his chair and stretches out his back. “Stable. We’ll probably transfer him to the floor soon.”
“And by stable, you mean…?”
He shakes his head. “His deficits haven’t improved at all.”
I suck in a breath. “He’s got a daughter. Did you call her?”
“Yeah, before I talked to you,” he says. “She’s got childcare issues, but she told me she was going to try to get a flight in.”
I push away the sick feeling in my stomach. “Can I go see him?”
Adam nods. “I think it might be good for him to see a familiar face.”
Yeah. If he even recognizes me.
“Adam,” I say softly. I glance around to make sure none of the nurses are nearby. “Can I ask you a weird question?”
“Sure.” He frowns at me. “What’s up?”
I hesitate. Just asking the question that’s been running through my mind would be potentially damning. But I have to know.
“Do you think something went wrong during the surgery?” I ask. “I mean, do you think that… that maybe it wasn’t done properly?”
I can see the answer all over Adam’s face. “I don’t know,” he quickly hedges. “I don’t really know Dr. Reilly. I’ve heard good things about him though. But of course, I can’t help but wonder…”
We stand there staring at each other for a minute. Finally, Adam says, “Why do you ask, Jane?”
“Just wondering,” I mumble.
After all, I’ve kept Ryan’s secret for this long.
Adam directs me down the hall to Mr. Katz’s room. The ICU smells like betadine, the odor permeating my nostrils and making me feel vaguely woozy. I steady myself and walk down to the third room on the left, the one with KATZ printed in magic market on a removable sign next to the door. I knock gently on the partially ajar door, but don’t hear a response.
Okay, I’m going in.
It’s funny because I had never realized that Mr. Katz was actually always in quite good shape for his age. Of course, seventy is the new sixty, but Mr. Katz just never looked like a man in his seventies. He looked sixty tops.
