Cathy left Josh's office and navigated through Fort Worth's downtown traffic. By the time she reached the highway, she was more than ready to trade the relative hustle and bustle of the city for the slower pace of life in Dainger. That is, if only someone there weren't out to drive her out of town or kill her. Or were they?
She'd barely cleared the city limits when a sudden, driving rain hit her windshield like bullets. Texas rain. Cathy had seen it every spring and fall since she was a child. It was the kind of rain that had killed her parents. She eased her foot offthe accelerator.
On the drive back from Josh's office, Cathy finally let down her guard long enough to think about what she'd dismissed during her session. She was sure she wasn't imagining her problems. The rumors circulating around town. Her request for hospital privileges that encountered a roadblock at every turn. The black SUV intent on her destruction.
But did they represent some kind of plot? Or could they be unconnected, random events? Was what she felt a simple case of paranoia? Was she sliding into the same mental illness that had consumed her mother and threatened to tear her parents' marriage apart? Paranoid schizophrenia. She remembered a line that had made her laugh during medical school. It didn't seem so funny now. Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
If this wasn't paranoia, was there a single driving force behind everything that was happening? If so, who or what was it? Could it be Robert? Was it all some sort of sick joke? Cathy figured that calling offthe engagement had caused more damage to Robert's pride than his heart. But would he go this far to get even? And how would he do it? Maybe he hired someone. That would be his style, all right. Pay to have his dirty work done.
Might it be one of the local doctors? Sure, they weren't anxious to share their patients with a newcomer-certainly not with a woman doctor. And especially not with a female family practice specialist who had the nerve to ask for privileges far beyond what these men had always doled out to the general practitioners in town. But would one of them go this far? Maybe she'd get a clue at the credentials committee meeting tonight. Meanwhile, it did no good to worry about it. That's the advice she always gave her patients.
Cathy squinted past the flashing wipers and gripped the wheel a bit tighter. Josh said she'd be okay, and she had to trust him. Meanwhile, she determined to put her mental state out of her mind. She chuckled at the irony of that statement. Snap out of it. Think productively; don't worry aimlessly. There was certainly enough to occupy her thoughts. Her practice. Hospital privileges. Finances.
She squared her shoulders and sat up straighter in the cramped driver's seat of the little rental car. She'd handle these problems. She'd handle them the way she'd been taught to approach any diagnostic problem: examine the possible causes, make the right diagnosis, call up the proper treatment from her memory bank, implement it, and move on to the next. It had always worked in her medical practice. Unfortunately, it wasn't so simple when it was her life she struggled to put back together.
Cathy decided to start with finances. Her floundering practice barely made enough to pay her monthly bills. If she expected to remedy that, her patient base had to grow, and this required hospital privileges. She'd asked for extended privileges, but so far the credentials committee hadn't even granted her the standard ones given to family practitioners. For years the doctors who controlled the hospital had made it an article of faith that general practice meant taking care of sniffles and bellyaches. But Cathy's training in family practice was excellent. She proudly displayed her certification by the American Board of Family Physicians on her office wall. She could do so much more if only they'd let her.
Why did her request for privileges keep hitting snags? Was this part of the plot against her? Was a doctor behind all this? It would be easy enough for a member of the credentials committee to arrange for repeated delays in considering her request. For that matter, any physician on the hospital staffcould put in a word here and there, encouraging the committee to drag out the process.
Then Cathy had another thought. Were the two bankers who turned down her loan request under pressure from one of the doctors in town-maybe their own physician? Or could one of those bankers have something against her and be taking his dislike of Cathy a step further than simply cutting offher access to finances?
The driver behind her tapped his horn. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw a string of five or six cars behind her. The double yellow line stretched ahead of her down the two-lane highway and out of sight. She waved her apology and clicked her right blinker, then carefully steered the car onto the shoulder and rolled along until the caravan behind her had passed. Texas friendly. Sometimes it was good to be back home in a smaller town. Sometimes. Not always.
The rain had stopped and the sun peeked out of a cloudbank in the east. She lowered her window and took a deep breath of the rain-washed air. Let your mind go blank, she thought. Try to relax. She'd be at the office in another five minutes. There would be plenty of time to worry then.
Jane dropped a message slip on the desk in front of Cathy. "Your insurance agent called. He said it was important."
Cathy pulled the phone toward her and dialed. She felt certain this was more bad news. It took only a few moments to determine that she was right.
"I'm sorry, Dr. Sewell. I'm not getting anywhere with the company about paying for the damage to your car. I got all the way up to a senior manager in claims adjustment, but I can't get him to budge. It's that NSF check. They ran it through twice and by the time it bounced the second time, the grace period had expired. There's a letter somewhere in the system informing you that the policy has lapsed."
"I can't believe this," Cathy said.
"I know how you must feel. I'll call a friend of mine in the business and see if there are any stones I've left unturned."
She took a deep breath, but it didn't change the sinking feeling in her stomach. "I've had that policy since I left home for college over ten years ago. Never missed a quarterly payment."
"That's what I told them. But there's no doubt that the company refused the last check you sent because of insuf- ficient funds."
"After I got the loan for my practice I transferred my account to Mr. Nix's bank. I don't know how they managed to bounce the check. I'm sure there were funds in my account to cover it. There must have been a mix-up at the bank."
"Then you might see if the bank will contact the company," Steve said. "I'll do what I can, but-and I hate to say this about one of the companies I represent-you may wind up having to sue them before they'll pay for the damages to your car."
Okay, if that was what it took, so be it. Cathy hung up and pulled the wrinkled card from the edge of her desk blotter. She stared at it for a moment. Don't think; just do it. She punched in the numbers and felt a slight quickening of her pulse as she waited for the call to be answered.
"Yes, this is Dr. Cathy Sewell. Is Will Kennedy available?"
"Will he know what it's about?" his secretary asked.
"Just tell him who it is. He'll know."
The strains of a soft-rock song filled the silence, then Cathy heard a click and Will's voice. "I thought you'd never call. Have you recovered from your cuts and bruises? Can we schedule that dinner now?"
Cathy's gut tightened. "I'm sorry I haven't called. I apologize. I appreciate the dinner invitation, but I'm too overwhelmed to think about a social life. But physically, I'm doing okay. Thanks for asking. The reason I called is that I've got some legal issues. Are you available?"
The silence on the other end of the line gave Cathy serious second thoughts. Had she hurt his feelings because she called him for professional help, not dinner? Or did the hurt run deeper? Was it about their past? She was about to tell him to forget she'd asked when he said, "I'll help you in any way I can. When would you like to sit down and tell me about the problem? I'd suggest we do it over dinner, but I get the sense you're not ready for that."
Cathy's heart urged, Yes. Let's have dinner out. Let's pick up where we left off. But her head intervened. "No, I'm not ready for that. I'm sorry."
"Tell you what. I'm in court most of the day. Can you come by my office at five this afternoon?"
"That sounds fine." She hung up, still wondering when-if ever-she could let herself care for a man again. With a sigh, she pulled a yellow pad toward her and made a list of all the questions she wanted to ask Will. By the time Jane called to tell her the day's first patient had been shown to the treatment room, the list filled half the page.
The man perched on the edge of Cathy's examining table was dressed for success. The label of an exclusive tailor peeked from inside the suit coat hanging on the back of the exam room door. Gold links closed the cuffs of a crisp dress shirt as white as a first snowfall.
The effect was spoiled by the gaps between the shirt's buttons and the roll of fat spilling over the edge of the man's collar. His florid complexion screamed high blood pressure. The network of fine blood vessels tracing across his nose told Cathy more about his drinking habits than the history sheet clipped to the chart in her hand.
"Doc, I don't want to hurry you," he said, "but I've got to get back to work. My wife made me come. Says she's tired of me chewing Tums and gulping Mylanta all day. But I know it's just heartburn."
"Why do you say that?" Cathy asked.
"Hey, my schedule would give anybody heartburn. Out of the house in the morning with a can of Red Bull to get me as far as the Starbucks for my double espresso. Grab a burger and fries for lunch, unless I'm taking a client out. The only real meal I get in a day is dinner with the wife, assuming I get home in time. It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. I made the Million Dollar Roundtable the last three years, but insurance doesn't sell itself. I've got to keep pushing if I want to send Junior to college."
"Mr. Phillips, why don't you slip offyour shirt? I need to check you over."
Instead of complying, Phillips gave her a hard look. "I don't have time for that." He pulled back his cuffand consulted a watch that looked to Cathy like a Rolex. "Got an appointment in fifteen minutes. Just give me some of that stufflike I see advertised on TV, would you?"
Cathy looked at the vital signs Jane had recorded on Phillips's chart. She tried to keep the urgency she felt out of her voice.
"Mr. Phillips, your blood pressure is through the roof. The pains you've described are probably angina-signs of an impending heart attack. If you'll excuse an overused expression, you're a ticking time bomb. I want to get an electrocardiogram, have Jane draw some blood for studies, including your cholesterol and lipids. You'd better cancel that appointment."
The man eased his ample bottom offthe table and reached the door in two strides, snagging his coat on the way. "You doctors are all alike. Do some tests. Run up a big bill. Well, I don't have time for this. I thought I'd throw some business your way. Maybe get you to buy some insurance from me in return. But I'll just call my regular doctor. He won't ask for a bunch of tests. I won't even have to go to his office. No sir, he'll call in a prescription for me." The last words trailed down the hall as the man made his exit.
Jane stuck her head in the door. "Mr. Phillips didn't stop at the desk on the way out. What are the charges? Does he need a follow-up appointment?"
Cathy shrugged her shoulders before returning them to the slumped position they'd assumed. "No charge. And follow-up? I suspect the next time I or any doctor sees him will be in the emergency room or the morgue."
The first thing that struck Cathy was the comfortable feel of Will's office. The framed diplomas and certificates on the wall were balanced by paintings with a Western theme, one of which she recognized as a reproduction Remington. Stacks of files and a jumble of law books, most with yellow Post-it notes, fluttering from the pages like the plumage of some rare bird, covered the surface of a round table in the corner. Will's desk, made of an oak door sanded and varnished to a glowing patina, held a phone, a computer, a handheld cassette recorder, and a leather-bound Bible. The only picture on the desk was of Will with his parents. She hadn't seen Pastor and Mrs. Kennedy for years, but they didn't appear to have changed. A little frisson of pleasure-a faint, warm shiver-ran through Cathy as she noticed the absence of any woman's picture in the room.
Will waved Cathy to a couch and pulled over a client chair so he faced her, their feet almost touching. He balanced a yellow legal pad on his knee, pulled a fountain pen from his shirt pocket and uncapped it, and gave a gesture that he was ready to hear her story.
"I guess I should start by apologizing for not calling you earlier," she said. "I… I don't have a good excuse. My life's been sort of topsy-turvy since I came back here, and I suppose I didn't want to add another complication."
Will waved away both the apology and the excuse. His expression stayed neutral.
Cathy opened her purse and pulled out her list. "I think I need to engage your professional services. Can we talk about your rates? I can probably handle them, but I want to be sure. Finances are sort of tight right now, until my practice takes hold."
"Tell you what," Will said. "Let's put any discussion of fees aside for the time being. If necessary, we can engage in some good, old-fashioned bartering. You need legal services. I'll probably need medical attention sometime. Why don't you tell me what's troubling you?"
She'd rehearsed it a dozen times on the way over, but somehow the words of her ordered presentation eluded her. Hesitantly at first, then speaking faster and with more force as she thought about the injustice of it all, she described her problems with the insurance company.
When she finally ran out of steam, Will asked his first question. Soon, with no recollection of how the segue occurred, she found herself venting about her frustration with the hospital credentials committee. She confessed her worries about running through the money she'd borrowed from the bank to get her practice started, without being able to repay it. She admitted she was afraid someone wanted to drive her out of town. When it was over, Cathy felt as though she'd just completed a three-hour emergency operation.
"Would you like a glass of water… a soft drink?" he asked.
"Water, please." She gulped greedily from the bottle Will handed her. "Wow, I'd hate to have you cross-examine me. I usually don't even open up this much to my- I mean, I think you did a great job of getting the information you need and a lot more. I hope you'll forgive me for dumping like that."
He ignored her comment and scanned his notes. Cathy counted the pages as he flipped through them: twenty-four. She wondered why she'd been so comfortable confiding in Will. She'd felt secure, the way she'd felt in his arms back when- Never mind. Bad idea to even think about the past.
"So, what would you advise?"
"About the insurance company? Since that was where you started, I presume that's the situation where you need my help. Right?"
She nodded.
He took in a deep breath through his nose and let it out through pursed lips. "Did you receive any kind of notice from the insurance company that your policy was about to lapse for nonpayment?"
"It went to my old address. It eventually got forwarded, but I didn't get it until after the accident."
"Had you notified the insurance company of your address change?"
"Yes. I know I did. I still have the list of all my notifications."
He closed his eyes, steepled his fingers, and leaned back in his chair. "We might eventually get the insurance company to pay, but there may be a better way. This whole thing started with the bank's error. Let me try there first."
"What can we expect from them?"
"If the bank contacts the insurance company and admits it was at fault in failing to honor the check, maybe we can get the company to reinstate the policy. Of course, since that would result in their being liable for several thousand dollars in damage to your car, there likely would be something of a fight. If the insurance company refuses to pay, we could always sue the bank."
Cathy made a conscious effort to unclench her teeth. "No. You can't imagine how hard it was for me to get Nix and the bank to loan me enough to start my practice."
"How much?" Will asked.
It made her a little sick at her stomach to say the words."Seventy thousand dollars. Due in a year-actually, nine months from now. I don't want to do anything to put that in jeopardy."
"So-"
"Look," Cathy said, "I can't call up Nix and say, 'Oh, by the way, it's your fault my car insurance wasn't in effect when I ran offthe road, so if you don't pony up five or six thousand dollars for the damages, I'll sue you.' I just can't do that."
"What's so special about Nix? So he loaned you money. That's his business. But how do you know he's not the one who made sure the check bounced? There might be a reason he'd want to hurt you."
Cathy couldn't believe she hadn't thought of this before. Wasn't Robert's father on the board of a bank in Dallas? Could there be a connection between him and Nix? What if Nix took steps to assure that Cathy's insurance lapsed, then arranged an accident that totaled her car? So what if she defaulted on her loan? In a bank that size, the loss would be almost insignificant. Still, she couldn't imagine Milton Nix doing something so underhanded. In her mind, she'd always considered bankers to be trustworthy. Anyone responsible for such large sums of money had to be honest and dependable. Maybe she had been naive.
She shook her head. "All I know is that he loaned me money when no one else would, and now he's a patient of mine. If there's anyway to avoid it, I don't want to involve him in this mess."
Will leaned forward and gently touched her hand. "And that's why I'll help."
"I'm still worried about paying for all this."
"Do you have a dollar?"
Automatically, Cathy pulled her wallet from her purse. Then she looked up and frowned. "Why?"
"Just give it to me."
She handed it over.
Will stowed the bill in his wallet. "Okay, that was mostly symbolic, but it makes most people feel better. Now you've officially engaged my services. We've established an attorneyclient relationship. I can act on your behalf in legal matters, and the first thing I intend to do is talk with Ella Mae Mercer."
"Who?"
"You probably don't remember her. Her maiden name was Ella Mae Becker. Married Ken Mercer right out of high school. Eventually, she figured the wife of a mechanic wasn't about to climb very high in the social ladder in Dainger, especially when he spent most of his nights working on cars in his backyard and all his weekends drinking beer."
"And what does-?"
Will held up his hand. "Patience. It gets better. Ella Mae divorced Ken, got a job at the bank as a teller, and worked her way up to Vice President. Nix may be the President of the bank, but Ella Mae Mercer carries a lot of weight. Let me have a talk with her. We'll see if she'll contact the insurance company and talk sweet reason with them."
"Will Mr. Nix go along with her?"
"If you believe the rumors around town, she's either the one who runs the bank or the one who runs Nix. Opinions are divided." Will's grin carried as much information as his words.
Cathy's cheeks warmed. "Oh." She cleared her throat. "I hope you can get her to help."
"I'll let you know." He scanned his notes. "Now, what about getting your privileges approved at the hospital?"
"Sorry that came out. Guess I needed to vent." She squared her shoulders. "I'm a big girl. I need to fight my own fights, but I don't have any leverage with the insurance company. I'm glad to hear that you may be able to help there." She pulled out her checkbook. "You wouldn't tell me your fee schedule, but I'm sure you want more than a dollar for a retainer. How much?"
"If you don't want to barter-a thousand dollars."
Cathy's heart jumped into her throat. "I… I can't… I mean…"
"Or we can make a trade. Have lunch with me on Sunday."
A dozen responses rushed through her head, but the one that won the day came from her heart. "I guess this is why you always were the best debater in school. I hope you're this good when you talk with Ella Mae. What time and where?"
"I'll pick you up at ten-thirty."
"Why so early?"
"We don't want to be late for church. We'll be going there first." He grinned. "But it will be worth it. Mom's fried chicken is the best you've ever tasted. She and Dad will be so glad to see you. You've been gone too long."