Page 88 of Tasting Fire
She trusted Max. After all, he was the reason she’d aced her organ systems path course in med school. But something stopped her from sharing her concerns. “I’d like a hard copy of this report.”
“That one is yours.” Tap. Tap. Max drummed his thumbs on his desktop. “But you didn’t answer my question.”
“I can’t tell you because I don’t know for certain.”
“No illegals in his tox report,” Max said. “Died from a PPC. He was young and healthy, which makes cause of death a bit of a surprise. But any surgery is risky.”
Max wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t know. And he knew that, too.
“You’re absolutely right,” she agreed. “Has anyone else asked for a postmortem?”
“Not that I’m aware of.”
“Will you call me if anyone else comes sniffing around this?”
“I don’t even know what stinks—”
“I’m not sure anything does,” she said. “I just want to go over this report closely.”
“I heard what happened, Emmy. I’m sorry about the kid, but it wasn’t your fault.”
“So you can understand why I need a little while with this information. Can you bury it in the system just to make certain no one else stumbles across it? Just for a little while.”
Max focused on Cash. “She’s hard to say no to, isn’t she?”
Cash’s smile was grim. “I’ve never been successful at it.”
“Don’t get me fired, Emmy.”
Easier said than done when her own head was on the chopping block.
“I moved my truck to the back lot,” Cash said, leading her out the set of glass double doors to the area where hospital staff parked. “Figured we’d be less likely to run into any return protesters.”
“Good thinking.”
They were three steps away from Cash’s truck when his phone let out his incoming text tone. He checked the message. Talk about bad timing. “Shit.”
“What?”
“Callahan’s kid is sick and his wife is out of town for work. He wants me to cover the rest of his shift for him. I’ll try to get out of it.”
Cash thumbed in a quick message:In middle of something. Can u tag someone else?
Callahan:Middle of something? Lucky u. But ur it, dude.
“Damn, I can’t say no to him,” Cash told Emmy as he opened the passenger side door for her. Before everything had gone off the rails here at the hospital, he’d planned to take her back to his house and show her what he’d hoped would make a difference in their relationship. “I still owe him from the last time he covered for me.”
“I need some time to go through this report anyway,” Emmy told him.
“You were pretty close-lipped in the lab. Did anything pop for you?”
“Nothing blatant.” Inside the truck, she leaned an elbow against the door and stared out the window. Deep thought pose.
“I’ll be off shift at seven in the morning, but I feel uneasy about leaving you alone right now.”
Emmy turned to him. “Go in for Callahan. I need a few hours to sort through everything we know. And Jonah still owes us some information. I’ll go back to my place and lay all the pieces out, see if anything looks off.”
“Research and thinking only. No action,” he said. “After that crazy protester stuff, I’d feel better if you were at my house.”
