Chương 3
Raymond’s eyes flicked toward the rearview mirror.
Victor leaned back. “Those photographers are unkind.”
For half a second, Anna seemed unsure whether he had made a joke. Then a breath left her that might have been a laugh if it had not ended in a cough.
The emergency department did not transform because Victor Russo entered it. A security officer recognized him and touched his radio. A clerk looked at Leo’s suit, then at the bulge under it, and asked all weapons to be removed from the building. Leo waited for Victor’s answer.
“Car,” Victor said.
Raymond took the guns outside.
Anna was placed in a wheelchair. She tried to stand when a nurse approached, embarrassed by the attention.
The nurse put a hand on her shoulder. “Sit down before gravity wins.”
“My brother is upstairs.”
“Your brother will still be upstairs after we keep you from passing out.”
Victor accompanied her to triage until the nurse turned and said, “Family only.”
Anna looked at him.
“He’s not family.”
The sentence should not have bothered him. It did.
Victor stepped back.
A billing supervisor met him near the vending machines. Her name was Patrice Coleman, and she had the careful expression of someone who had been told an important man wished to speak with her but had not been told whether the importance was legal, financial, or dangerous.
Victor gave her the bill.
“This balance gets paid tonight.”
She looked at the amount. “We can accept payment through the patient portal or financial services during business hours.”
“Tonight.”
“Mr. Russo, the patient is receiving treatment regardless of the balance. His clinical team decides discharge based on medical condition, not whether this invoice is paid.”
Victor absorbed the correction without reacting.
“Then pay it when financial services opens.”
“You’ll need authorization from the patient if you want information about the account.”
“I don’t want information.”
“You’re holding his bill.”
“I want the number reduced to zero.”
Patrice studied him. “That can be arranged without you receiving protected information. But I should tell you that paying an old balance won’t guarantee future coverage or change transplant eligibility.”
Victor glanced toward the elevators.
“What does?”
“His medical team can explain that to him. Financial counselors can discuss insurance, assistance programs, medication support, transportation, all of it. None of those things are solved by one dramatic payment.”
Her tone was not disrespectful. That made it harder to dismiss.
Victor folded the paper. “Solve the payment.”
“I can process a deposit with your card and have the account reviewed in the morning.”
Leo looked at Victor. He had never seen him hand a personal credit card to anyone.
Victor removed a black metal card from his wallet.
Patrice took it and did not look impressed.
“Five minutes,” she said.
Thomas Bennett occupied a semiprivate room on the seventh floor. He was nineteen, narrow-shouldered, and paler than his sister. A dialysis catheter had been taped beneath the collar of his T-shirt. His hair was flattened on one side from sleep, and he seemed offended by the hospital gown folded on the chair.
Anna’s tests took three hours. Influenza, dehydration, and the beginning of pneumonia, Dr. Levin reported after speaking with the emergency physician. She would be admitted overnight, perhaps longer.
Thomas called her six times from upstairs.
On the seventh call, Victor answered.
“She’s asleep.”
“Put the phone near her.”
“She’s asleep.”
“I just want to hear.”
Victor looked through the glass partition. Anna lay beneath a thin hospital blanket, an IV line taped to her hand. Her breathing had eased after fluids and medication. A nurse adjusted the monitor, noticed Victor watching, and pulled the curtain halfway closed.
Victor put the phone near the opening.
For several seconds, Thomas listened to his sister breathe.
Then he said, “You pointed a gun at her, didn’t you?”
Victor straightened.
“Why would you say that?”
“She said you found her in your room. I searched your name.”
“You hadn’t before?”
“I have kidney failure. I don’t have time to memorize gangsters.”
Leo turned away to hide a reaction.
Victor lowered his voice. “She was in my bed.”
“So you pointed a gun at her.”
“Yes.”
Thomas was quiet.
Victor expected outrage. Instead the young man said, “Was the safety on?”
“No.”
“Jesus.”
“She’s alive.”
“That doesn’t make it normal.”
“No.”
The admission came more easily than Victor expected.
Thomas breathed into the phone. “Why was she in your bed?”
“She said she needed a minute.”
“That means she was about to faint. She says that when she’s about to faint.”
Victor looked at Anna’s still shape.
“Why did she go to work sick?”
“Because Lakeshore said they’d fire her if she missed another shift.”
“Another?”
“She missed Tuesday when my access clotted. She sat here all day because they couldn’t get me into dialysis until evening.”
“Who called her?”
“I don’t know. Some woman.”
“Name.”
“I don’t know.”
“Phone number.”
Thomas recited it.
Leo wrote it down.
Victor asked, “Does your sister have health insurance?”
“She pays for it.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Thomas went silent.
Victor’s attention sharpened. “What happened?”
“She thought she had insurance through work. The pharmacy said it was inactive. Then she called the number on her pay stub, and somebody said enrollment takes ninety days. She’s been there six months.”
“When was this?”
“Last week.”
“Did she tell anyone?”
“She tells people things. They stop calling back.”
Victor watched the monitor beside Anna’s bed. The green line climbed and fell.
At midnight, Dominic sent eleven pages of payroll summaries and a message saying the rest would take until morning.
Victor read the pages on his phone in the hospital cafeteria. The coffee machine had been cleaned but still produced something hot and bitter. He drank it anyway.
The summaries listed Anna’s hourly wage, overtime, taxes, and a deduction marked LSDS FAMILY HEALTH. She had paid one hundred eighty-four dollars every two weeks for six months.
Victor called Dominic.
May you like
“You sent summaries.”
“It’s what I could access.”
