Page 50 of Gone Before Goodbye
“No one ‘dabbles’”—she imitates his finger gestures—“in cardiothoracic surgery.”
“Fair enough. I don’t say this with false modesty, but next to your husband? Yes, I dabble. Marc seemed a good man, maybe even a great man, I don’t know. But he was the greatest surgeon I’d ever seen.”
Maggie feels her throat start to close. She pushes on. “So what brings you to Russia, Doctor Lockwood?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
“Yeah, but I asked first.”
“Probably the same reason you’re here,” he says.
“Hey, Charles, there you are!”
Two giggling women, both young and blonde and straight out of an influencer’s social media page, call out to him in Russian and approach on either side. One takes one arm. One takes the other. Both look at him adoringly. Charles replies to them in Russian. Both women pout, let their grips slip, and sulk away.
Charles turns back to Maggie and gives her a what-are-you-gonna-do shrug of the shoulders, palms up.
“Yeah, I don’t think we’re here for the same thing,” Maggie says.
He chuckles. “Sorry about that,” he says.
“Don’t let me keep you from your friends.”
“They’ll be around later.”
“I bet. You speak Russian?”
“I dabble.”
“Dabbling seems to be your modus operandi.”
Charles Lockwood gives her what he is sure must be the most winning smile. “I spend a lot of time here. I enjoy the lifestyle.”
“That lifestyle being?”
“A tad hedonistic. Nothing wrong with fun, Doctor McCabe, is there?”
She tries not to frown. “None at all.”
“Perhaps you and I can get together during your visit.”
“Yeah, no, I don’t think so.”
“Come now, Doctor McCabe, there is always time for a little fun along with our fundraising. Where are you staying?”
She ignores his question. “What’s that about fundraising?”
His expression says he knows that she’s dodging. “That’s not why you’re here?”
“No, are you?”
“As a matter of fact, I am.”
“For?”
“A medical startup specializing in cutting-edge longevity treatments.”
Again with the cutting edge, Maggie thinks.
