The 5th Horseman - James Patterson [69]
She picked up the line, thinking, Great. Maybe we’ll grab a quick lunch.
“Cindy, what the hell?” Lindsay barked, almost shouted, over the phone. “I asked you please not to do a story on Garza and you agreed!”
“Linds, I had to do it,” Cindy said, keeping her voice low so that everyone in the world didn’t tune in. “My source at Municipal has told me that Garza is being questioned by the board —”
“That’s not proof of anything, Cindy.”
“Did you read the story? I wrote, and I quote, ‘Suspicion has fallen on ER chief Dr. Dennis Garza.’ Suspicion means speculation with foundation. Jeez, Lindsay. Last week the guy completely melted down in court. He warrants some ink of his own!”
“What if he’s guilty of more than malpractice? What if the spotlight you just threw on him drives him underground? What if he packs up and leaves San Francisco?”
“What do you mean ‘more than malpractice’?”
“I don’t know what I mean,” Lindsay said, her voice stiff with pique. “I’m working on it.”
“So am I,” Cindy said. “Look, you haven’t given me anything on this story. It’s mine. It’s been mine from the beginning. And it’s not right for you to come down on me for doing my job.”
A static, gray silence followed, Cindy feeling the seconds mount up, thinking a lot of things she didn’t want to say. But it all came down to this: Lindsay was leaning on her because of their friendship—and she was out of line, way out of line.
“Dozens of reporters are on this story, Lindsay! Whether I break the story or someone else does, Garza’s going to get press.”
Lindsay sighed in her ear, said, “I hoped I’d have more time.”
“Well, you were dreaming.”
Cool good-byes followed.
Cindy hung up the phone and looked down at her notepad. She read the words she’d just scribbled: guilty of more than malpractice.
Chapter 99
MY ALL-NIGHTER at Municipal Hospital had left me bone weary and frustrated beyond belief. I tossed the morning paper into the trash can under my desk, pretty sure that Cindy’s next story would be about how people were being murdered at Municipal—and how the SFPD was doing nothing about it.
The time had come to abandon my off-the-books investigation and make “the brass button case” official before a very large sinkhole opened under the Hall of Justice.
I picked up the phone and called the chief, said, “Tony, I have to see you. It’s urgent.”
The Flower Market Cafe on Brannan and Sixth is near the onramp to 280 south and a few blocks from the Hall. Any other day I would have appreciated the cozy ambience of the eatery, its pretty tiled floor, dark wainscoting, and view of the flower-market stalls down the alley.
But not today.
Tracchio and I took one of the small, round tables and ordered sandwiches.
“Start talking, Boxer,” he said.
I found that I was relieved to tell him every bit of it—about Yuki’s mom, the buttoned-up eyes of thirty-three dead patients, the rumors, the statistics, and the malpractice trial against Municipal Hospital to date.
I also told him about Garza’s stinking track record at various hospitals around the country, concluding with a report of Jacobi’s surveillance and our off-duty interrogations last night after a patient had died.
“Ruffio’s body was in the ICU waiting to be moved to the hospital morgue,” I said, “when someone put brass buttons on his eyes.”
“Humph,” the chief grunted.
“Garza left the hospital at six p.m. The patient died at just after eight,” I told him, “but I can’t say for sure that Garza wasn’t involved.”
“If Garza wasn’t there, how do you figure he had anything to do with it?”
“He has access to any place in the hospital. Maybe he overdosed the patient before he quit work for the day and it took a few hours for the medication to work.
“Maybe he has an accomplice, or maybe he’s not our guy at all,” I admitted. “But, Christ, Tony, Garza could be a world-class monster! I think he probably is. At the very least, we’ve got to play ‘beat the press.’ The Chronicle put him on page three this morning.”
The chief pushed his plate aside, ordered another round