Ruby (5 page)

So she does have a
family?
Diamond told Ruby that she
did
. I’m glad. When we started operating
on her, I had a feeling that she wasn’t homeless. Whoever did the
surgery on her before did a good job, but we’ve come a long way in
procedures since then.

How did your interviews
go?
Diamond, like the rest of them, didn’t
want her to move away. They were family and pack, and the two of
them went together hand-in-hand as far as she was concerned. And
Grandmother was upset too. As was Allen.

I have a second interview
in the morning with the bigger hospital here in town. I’m not sure
I’ll take it if they offer. The head of administration is a prick.
Not as bad as Cochran, but almost.
Diamond
hoped that someone would come in and fire Cochran, and was
surprised that no one seemed to be asking questions about why the
hospital was turning away clients
. Also,
there are four doctors’ offices here that are looking for a
partner. I’ve never thought of going out on my own much. I’m more
into the operating part, not so much the one on one stuff. Not that
it matters, I don’t have the money for that anyway. I’m dead broke
as of this trip.

Do you want me to wire you
some money? I will. Just tell me where you are. And you’re going to
be good at anything. They really miss you around here.
Her sister didn’t say anything for a while, and
Diamond continued.
Sapphire and Allen have
been making plans for you to work in the clinic when it’s opened.
Allen seems to think that it might happen sooner rather than
later.

Not soon enough. And as
much as I love you guys, I really need a surgeon’s pay right now. I
have student loans to pay back and they won’t care if I have no
job. And the longer I wait to get one, the harder it’s going to be
to get one.
Diamond heard her sister’s
depression
. I have to get to sleep. Let me
know what happens tomorrow. I would love to see him tear Cochran a
new ass.

Diamond pulled into the drive of her
new home. She and Thad had been doing some renovating since they
moved in and she was a little overwhelmed by it all. But it was
theirs and with the help of their magic, it was coming along a good
deal faster than she’d thought.

~~~

Josh watched his sister rest
throughout the night. She didn’t stir once, and even when the nurse
came in and took her vitals she simply lay there. The machines
around her beeped and made their noises, but not anything that
brought the staff running.

At a little after seven, he moved into
the hall. Bart was sleeping on the extra bed that had been brought
in, and Josh needed to make some phone calls. There was no one else
he had to notify family-wise, but he did call her place of work.
Her boss wasn’t in as yet, but the service took the information and
asked how she was doing.

“
We’d been worried about
her. She’s never missed a day of work since I’ve been here, and
there just didn’t seem to be any reason for her being gone now.”
Josh told her that he had yet to call the police to see what they
knew. “Let me know if I can do anything for you, Mr. Ewing. And if
it will help, I’ll get her personal things from her desk for her.
Those sort of things come up missing when a person is gone for a
while.”

“
Thanks.” He did wonder
briefly why someone would take another person’s things, but let it
go. “I just wanted to let someone know where she is. And to make
sure that…I don’t know, if she had a few friends that might be
worried, they’d know where she is.”

“
She’s well-loved here by
the staff.” Josh almost asked her about the management, but she
answered him before he could. “The management staff is all about
numbers and rules. Not that it’s a bad thing, but well, it doesn’t
usually make for good relationships with their staff.”

Again Josh wondered about the place,
but hung up after letting her know where his sister was. The next
call he made was to his friend and old secretary, Lila
Pearce.

“
You going to set up a
business that has me coming to work for you?” He told her he had no
idea at the moment. “You hire you some young woman to chase around
the desk, but you have me there for the work. I’m too experienced
for you anyway. Your heart would never take it.”

“
Probably not. But if I
do, I’d very much like for you to come work for me. Will you come
out of retirement for me?” She told him in a heartbeat. “Good. But
for now, I need some information. It’s about this hospital where my
sister is a patient.”

He told her all he knew and how he was
headed to the police after someone came in to see her. Josh did
wonder if someone would eventually, and decided to have his doctor
see what he could do for her as well.

“
You want me to find out
about the board members? I can do that. It won’t take all that
long. They have to post that stuff quarterly. You thinking this
jackass that’s running the show, you think he’s not telling them
what is going on?” Josh told her he had no idea, but the place was
running without a doctor in house. “I don’t think they can do that
either. Someone has to be in charge there. I’ll get back with
you.”

“
Oh. And there’s a doctor.
I need for you to find everything you can about her. She’s the one
that saved my sister’s life at the cost of her job.” Lila asked him
what her name was. “Erickson…I think her sister said it was
Ruby.”

“
Ruby Erickson of the
Gems?” He told her he had no idea. “Sure you do. The whole bunch of
them is named for gems. Six girls I think. Anyway, one of them
married Quentin, that buddy of yours from college.”

He barely remembered Quentin getting
married. He did know that he’d been invited, but something had come
up. Something was always coming up back then. Josh wasn’t sure how
much life he’d missed while trying to get his business working and
then after that, how much more had happened when he should have
been on easy street.

“
Was I an ass to work
for?” Lila laughed, and he sat down. “I mean, this place where Bri
works, they’re going to clean out her desk so that no one steals
her things. Would that have happened working for me?”

“
No. Never. And if one of
your employees were out, I told you about it and you did something
about it. I even knew you to take food to the house to help out.
What’s this all about? Dwight and that bitch bothering you?” He
told her it was everything. “You let me come on down there and
straighten things out for you. I’ll have things set up before you
know it.”

Josh told her to come. He needed a
hardnosed woman to keep him in line, and if she was willing, he’d
see about opening a business with her as his secretary again. Also,
without Bri to talk to, he was sort of lonely.

At a little after eight, breakfast was
brought to him and Bart. The older gentleman flirted with the young
woman and Josh laughed at him, but when she left, Josh noted that
the food wasn’t hospital food. The nurse that came in a few minutes
later confirmed it.

“
Diamond had it brought in
for you. She said that you might need it after sleeping in a chair
all night.” The nurse took his sister’s vitals and told him there
was little change. She also told him that Mr. Cochran was due in at
nine, but that Harlan was in and that the man was clueless about
what the hell was going on.

At ten minutes till nine, Lila called
him back. “Your doctor has been filing applications like it’s her
job. More than likely is. I’ve done some research on her, and she
graduated at the top of her class at Brown and was sought after by
some really big names. But she stayed local to be with her family.
Hell of a doctor, too. Named physician of the year for the past two
years, and when she was a nurse, working her way through med
school, she did some pretty extraordinary things. She has some
pretty substantial student loans out there too.” He asked her how
much. “Nearly eighty grand, not counting the ones she’s worked to
pay off. Her loan at the bookstore is more than I make in a year.
But she does make payments monthly to get them down.”

“
Pay them off.” She told
him she thought he’d say that. “Bookstore and everything else too.
Whatever she has. It’s the least I can do for someone who willingly
lost their job in order to save my sister.”

“
And what am I supposed to
tell her when she comes knocking at my door? I have a feeling, if
everything I’ve been reading about her is true, she’s not one to
take things lightly. It’s small wonder that she’s not been jailed
for some of her more famous arguments with this Cochran guy…who, by
the way, is a real bastard. Did you know he’s dumping patients?
It’s not public knowledge, but he’s doing it all the same.” He told
her that he knew. “I thought you might. This is right up your alley
when it comes to getting the shit to have his
comeuppance.”

“
Yes. It’s what was going
to happen with Bri had the Erickson woman not stepped in. She coded
on the way to surgery. I nearly lost her. But this woman operated,
did her job despite knowing she was going to lose her livelihood.”
Lila told him he was lucky. “We both were.”

“
The board is not saying
much. I’ve pulled a few strings and have gotten one of them to come
there to see you. They’re supposed to show up around nine-thirty.
That’s when this bastard is supposed to be there. Anyway, he said
that the hospital is the most profitable it’s ever been, and I
asked him if it was because they had no doctor’s salaries to pay.
He said that was impossible. I told him to go and see you.” She
laughed. “Well, well, well. You’re not going to believe who’s
trying to contact me right now. Your old partner. Just emailed me
asking me to come in for a little talk. What do you suppose he
wants?”

“
I have no idea. Are you
going?” She told him when hell froze over. “Thanks. But it might be
fun to see what he wants. He might want you to go work for
him.”

“
Not for all the money in
the fucking world. But you’re right. We could use a good laugh.”
She laughed again. “My ticket is bought—you paid for it—to come to
see you. And the good doctor’s loans are paid off as of right now.
Also, you put something in her checking account. She’s overdrawn by
nearly fifty dollars. Want to know where she’s staying right now?
The Jimmy Dandy’s. It’s a dive. Poor girl.”

A man came rushing down the hall
toward him, and all Josh could think of as he listened to the list
of things that Lila was going to do before she left was that the
man was fucking pissed. He looked like he might explode. As soon as
he entered Bri’s room, Josh told Lila that he’d see her in a few
days, if not sooner. He walked into the room just as the man—and he
assumed it was Cochran—was screaming at Bart. Bart only stared at
him.

“
She was to be transported
out of here, not to have meals brought in for every bum she knew.
Who the hell let you in here anyway? If it was that Witt woman, I
will have her job as well. I’m sick to death of no one following
the rules that I set forth.” He turned to look at Josh. “And just
who the hell are you, her pimp?”

He was tired or he might not have done
it. Then again, Josh thought that he might have done it anyway even
with a full night’s sleep. But his fist was out and plowing into
the little shit’s face before he could stop himself. As Cochran
tumbled over his ass and fell down, Josh took a step to him, only
to have Bart stepping in front of him.

“
You kill him, what good
would that do? You just set yourself down over there and let me see
if’n I can get one of them there pretty girls to help him out.”
Josh looked at Bart and nodded. “Good. I’d feel a mite better if’n
you sat down like I said. That man might not be getting up, but if
he do, then you’ll just put him there again.”

“
He insulted her.” Bart
nodded, but still stood in front of him. “Go and get a nurse, but I
won
’
t sit. If he
goes for her again, I’m going to put him down.”

“
All right then, but you
don’t kill him. Lilywhite ain’t going to be none too happy if she
wakes and you’re in prison.” Josh didn’t move and eventually Bart
moved out of the room. When he returned, not only did he have a
nurse with him, but another man and Diamond. She was having a
battle not to laugh out loud. Josh felt like weeping. Christ, could
this morning suck anymore?

“
I’m Peter Lobby, part of
the board for this place. Did you do this?” Josh told him he had
and why. “I see. I don’t know the young woman here, but I’m
assuming you do. And the woman who called me this morning. A woman
by the name of Lila Pierce. ”

“
Lila works for me and I
had her contact you. This is my sister, Brianna Gamble. And she’s
not a whore. Nor is she homeless. And that’s the reason that he was
shipping her out. Did you know that there is not a doctor on staff
here? That if anything happened right now, no one could help her
out? Or the other patients in this place? What the hell kind of
hospital is this?” Peter assured him he had no idea what was going
on. “You’re dumping patients, as my secretary told you. And not
only that, I have it on good authority that this man here is firing
your doctors if they treat them without insurance.”