Page 31 of The Library on Plum Island
“Oh.” Daniella nodded. “It’s good that he’s stepped back from all the pressure of running a company such as Blackwell Productions.”
“That’s what my mother keeps telling me.” Ethan sighed. “So that would mean you used to work at Beverly Hills Surgical Center!” He looked impressed.
“I did,” Daniella confirmed. “I’d been working there for fourteen years before I had to leave.”
“But not because of Stanley Wells?” Ethan asked.
“No.” Daniella shook her head. “There is always a risk of something like that happening in the medical profession.”
“If we let her talk…” Jennifer leaned forward to say to Ethan. “Daniella will be able to tell us the story.”
“Sorry.” Ethan held up his hands. “I’m just trying to get a clear picture.” He turned to Daniella. “The new neurosurgeon joined Beverly Hills Surgical Center…”
“As I was up for the medical director position that was coming up the following year, I was given the task of making sure Doctor Jackson fit in,” Daniella continued her story. “I didn’t volunteer for the babysitting sitting task as I had enough on my plate as it was, but I wanted to make a good impression, so I took on the task.” She shook her head. “Doctor Jackson was the full package. Intelligent, charming, good-looking, and always quick to lend a helping hand or shoulder to cry on. The staff loved him, and he has an excellent bedside manner.”
“Most narcissists and sociopaths exhibit what I believe is called superficial charm,” Jennifer pointed out. “One of my non-fiction authors at my old company in New York wrote a book, ‘The Narcissistic Sociopath.’ It was all about antisocial personality disorder or APD. The book describes the superficial charm they display when it suits their purpose, and it’s a manipulative tactic they use.”
“I was still grieving the loss of Tom and trying to help my daughter cope with her new normal,” Daniella explained. “I wasn’t looking for a relationship, and Inevergave any indication of the contrary. I kept Doctor Jackson at arm’s length but still offered him the common courtesy and working relationship I had with all the employees at the hospital.”
“I can vouch for that,” Carly backed her cousin. “At first, Doctor Jackson made Dani feel uncomfortable because of the way she would catch him staring at her.”
“I’m not being vain, so please don’t take my words the wrong way,” Daniella expressed. “But like most women, I’m used to the odd admiring look or even stare. I just fob it off or ignore it.” She couldn’t suppress the shudder remembering how he’d stare at her until Doctor Jackson saw she’d noticed.
“Daniella said Doctor Jackson sometimes creeped her out as he stared at her in a way she imagined a python measured its prey in order to successfully subdue and digest it.” Carly also shuddered.
“I fobbed it off and, after a while, stopped noticing.” Daniella’s mind started tumbling back to the past. “To be honest, I had so much going on in my life that Doctor Jackson’s leery looks were the least of my worries. And the man was really helpful and sweet. At least he was up until I blatantly rejected him.”
“Uh-oh!” Jennifer whispered, intently listening to Daniella’s story. “How did that come about?”
“Doctor Jackson had been working for the hospital for a little over a year when the annual black-tie dinner fundraiser came around,” Daniella answered. “I had already bought my ticket as I did every year, but after Tom Died, I stopped going to it.” She snorted. “It’s not that I didn’t like going anywhere on my own; I just didn’t need the constant reminders that Tom was no longer there to attend them with me.”
“I understand that,” Ethan said with a warm smile. “Not only are you surrounded by the haunting memory of them, but also by all the sympathetic stares and the people with good intentions reminding you of your loss.”
“Exactly,” Daniella gestured with her hand. “So, I stayed away from events like that. This particular event is held in early November. I wasn’t going to go, but Doctor Jackson’s date was canceled at the last minute, and he didn’t want to go to the event alone. He’s originally from New York and didn’t know a lot of people.”
“How convenient for him,” Jennifer snarled, getting pulled into the story and backing Daniella.
“Emily, Carly, and a good friend, Gail, who is the head of the nursing department, convinced me to use my own ticket and go to the dinner,” Daniella remembered that night as if it were yesterday. “I couldn’t remember when I’d last been out, so I decided to go. I saw no harm in it as Gail assured me that we’d all sit together that way. It wouldn’t be awkward or seem like a date with Doctor Jackson.”
“Gail didn’t make it to the dinner,” Harley picked up the story. “She was crossing the road on the way home on the afternoon of the dinner and was hit by a motorbike.”
“No!” Ethan and Jennifer said in disbelief.
“At the time, I just thought it was bad luck,” Daniella admitted. “I was going to cancel, but once I found out that Gail was alright except for a bruised leg, she convinced me to still go.”
“Now you have doubts that Gail’s accident was anything but,” Ethan guessed.
“Yes.” Daniella nodded. “When I realized I was being manipulated and stalked, there were too many other things that happened to be a mere coincidence.”
“Harley was also nearly run over by a motorbike when he came to stay with me for a few days when he was on leave from the military,” Daniella told them. “By a red motorbike that sounded like a similar one to the motorbike that hit Gail.”
“Does Doctor Jackson own a motorbike?” Jennifer asked.
“No, but Howard Cooper does,” Daniella answered. “Howard Cooper is the owner of Howard Cooper Investigations. His firm does a lot of investigations for the attorneys who represent hospitals in Los Angeles. But I’ll get to that part.”
“Daniella called me after she heard that Gail was okay.” Carly’s eyes darkened with emotion. “I couldn’t go with her.”
Images of that night flashed through Daniella’s mind, making her feel like her chest was in a vice.
