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Yao smiled. “Go on.”
“Anyway, I usually assist and do what almost-a-nurse does. My attending, Dr. Cromwell, had his
brother come in.” Yao nodded at her to keep going. “Of course, Dr. Cromwell gets him straight back.
Cromwell, seeing me, orders me to come help. Until his brother whispers something into Cromwell’s
ear telling him what’s wrong.”
Yao leaned a hip against his desk while Frankie started to pace.
“Anyway, Cromwell asks me to leave. So I do. Go back to my other patients. I’m working on one
in particular, which is right next to the same room that is next to Cromwell and his brother.” She
pauses. “Long story short, I’m in there with this patient when I hear Cromwell’s brother, who I don’t have a name on, say that he was shot by someone. And per hospital regulations, all shootings, no
matter who does it and how they got it, has to be reported to the police.” She winced. “And, during which, a hospital goes into lockdown. No patients in or out.”
Yao’s eyes were now clearly focused on Frankie, worried now.
“I couldn’t tell my supervisor, because that’s Cromwell,” she continued. “I couldn’t tell the ER
supervisor because she’s Cromwell’s wife.” She stared at Yao intently. “I didn’t know who to tell.
And by the time I realized I needed to say something, Cromwell’s brother is gone. And I thought,
‘okay. I won’t say anything.’ But then another shooting victim came in today an hour later, and
Cromwell loses his shit. Everything goes into lockdown. The ER is in it for four hours. Police were called, as you know since you were there on the scene.”
I’d heard about the hospital lockdown.
I’d actually been at the scene of the shooting handling traffic control with Lock.
“Okay,” Yao said. “Anything else?”
Frankie shook her head.
“I really, really don’t want to lose my job,” she said. “I’m in my second year of residency. I can’t get into trouble for this. Cromwell’s a dick, and he’s pretty freakin’ big in the medical community. He owns two of the freestanding emergency rooms in town, and he’s head of the school board. Plus, I’ve already had a few problems with him this year, and I can’t add this to it.” She looked imploringly at Yao. “And this is the only hospital within two hundred miles that does this. I can’t leave… I just
can’t.”
I felt like there was something more to this story than what she was saying, some big reason that
she couldn’t leave, but before I could listen in on more of their conversation, my name was called.
Frankie’s head jerked up in surprise, her eyes searching the room.
“Yo, Malachi!”
It was only after Frankie’s head snapped up and turned in my direction that I realized that Malachi was supposed to be me.
Turning, I found Captain Morgan standing there, staring at me with an odd expression on his face.
“You okay?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Malachi is something that doesn’t catch my attention anymore,” I said. “It doesn’t
