Chương 14
“Probably nothing,” Elena said.
“That’s wasteful.”
“You can have it.”
Mave looked up from sewing Bear’s ear. “No.”
Finn grinned.
The surgery approached slowly and then all at once.
Two days before admission, the hospital called to say the insurer had requested additional authorization for a portion of the procedure. Mave spent four hours moving between departments. One representative placed her on hold long enough for an entire recorded piano album to repeat.
At the end of the call, authorization remained pending.
She hung up and threw the phone across the kitchen.
It struck the couch and fell harmlessly onto a cushion.
Finn watched from the doorway.
“That was dramatic,” he said.
“I’m trying new coping methods.”
“Did it work?”
“No.”
She sat on the floor because the couch suddenly seemed too far away. Finn sat beside her.
After a minute, he asked, “Can Rafe make them do it?”
Mave looked at the phone.
“Probably.”
“Are you going to call him?”
“No.”
“Because of debt?”
“Yes.”
Finn picked at a loose thread on his sleeve. “What if I want the debt?”
Her first response rose quickly and felt righteous.
She did not say it.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I want the surgery. I don’t care if he thinks we owe him.”
“He won’t think that.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
Mave looked around the apartment. The coupon over the wall hole had begun to curl at one corner.
“The problem is I’m scared that needing powerful people will become normal.”
Finn considered this. “We need doctors.”
“That’s different.”
“They’re powerful.”
“They have rules.”
“So does Rafe.”
“Rafe has preferences.”
Finn leaned his head against the couch. “Dad needed money and did something bad. You need help and won’t ask anybody. Those aren’t the only choices.”
Mave stared at him.
“Did Elena tell you that?”
“No. She uses longer words.”
Mave called the nonprofit patient advocate instead of Rafe. The advocate contacted the insurer’s medical review team, corrected a coding error, and obtained authorization the next morning.
It was not cinematic. Nobody threatened anyone. A clerk had entered the wrong procedural modifier.
Mave cried in the bathroom after the call, quietly and with considerable irritation.
Finn’s surgery lasted five hours.
Mave sat in the waiting room with Mrs. Keating, Elena, and Rafe. Detective Ortiz arrived during the third hour carrying bad coffee and a crossword puzzle. She claimed she had been nearby.
Nobody believed her.
Rafe read the same page of a book for forty minutes. Elena walked to the vending machines and returned with crackers nobody ate. Mrs. Keating complained about the television volume, then fell asleep beneath it.
Mave held Bear in her lap. Hospital staff had placed a clean wristband around the toy before taking Finn into surgery. The gesture was for children. Mave had needed it more than he had.
At one point Rafe said, “You can hate me if something goes wrong.”
Mave looked at him. “Why would that help?”
“It may give you somewhere to place it.”
“I have insurance companies.”
His mouth moved slightly.
She rested her head against the wall. “Did you ever find out whether your father knew about Jamie?”
“Yes.”
The answer tightened the room.
Rafe closed the book. “Carlo recovered an audio file from an old phone. Domenic told my father Jamie had stolen weapons and planned to sell them independently. My father approved bringing him in.”
“Bringing him in.”
“For questioning.”
“What would that have meant?”
Rafe looked toward the operating-room doors. “I don’t know.”
“You do.”
He did not deny it.
“Did your father order the crash?”
“There is no evidence he knew about it before Jamie died.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No. He did not order it.”
Mave rubbed her thumb over Bear’s plastic button eye. “Does that make you feel better?”
“No.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because you asked.”
“I’ve asked before.”
“I wasn’t ready to answer before.”
“That isn’t a noble reason.”
“I know.”
The surgeon entered before she could say more.
The operation had gone well.
Finn’s heart rhythm was stable. The procedure had reduced the obstruction that caused his shortness of breath and chest pain. He would remain in intensive care overnight, then move to the cardiac floor if recovery continued.
Mave stood too quickly.
The room tilted.
Rafe caught her left elbow, avoiding the shoulder.
She allowed it for three seconds.
Then she stepped away and followed the surgeon.
Finn looked impossibly small beneath the hospital blankets. Tubes ran from his chest and arms. His face was pale, his lips dry. The monitor traced each heartbeat in green light.
Mave sat beside him and placed Bear near his hand.
Hours later, Finn opened his eyes.
“Did it work?” he whispered.
“The doctor says yes.”
“Did Bear behave?”
“No. He threatened a cardiologist.”
Finn’s eyes closed again. “Good.”
Mave remained there until dawn.
Rafe did not enter the room. He stood once beyond the glass, saw Finn sleeping, and left.
The federal case moved forward in winter.
Domenic eventually accepted a plea that would keep him in prison for the remainder of his likely life. The agreement required admission of the weapons conspiracy, the attack on Elena, the attempt to obtain Jamie’s evidence, and obstruction related to the delayed ambulance.
He never admitted remorse.
Carlo pleaded guilty and received a reduced sentence for cooperation. At sentencing, he asked permission to address Mave.
She attended because Finn wanted to know whether Carlo would apologize.
Carlo stood in a navy prison uniform, thinner than he had been at The Salt Line. He looked toward Mave but not directly at her.
“I told myself I helped you after,” he said. “The job. The insurance. I thought those things mattered.”
Mave waited.
“They mattered to me,” he continued. “That was the problem.”
His lawyer touched his arm, perhaps to stop him from saying more.
Carlo swallowed. “Jamie was alive when I left the road. I knew. I left anyway.”
May you like
There was no perfect apology.
Mave was grateful for that.
