Free Foreign Body by Robin Cook Page A

Maria. Not only was she sad about her grandmother, she was also mad. It hardly seemed fair that Maria had not confided in her about running off to India, having major surgery, and then getting herself killed.
    After terminating the call, Jennifer stood where she was, recognizing it was probably going to take her some time and effort to sort through her psychological issues. But then she realized what time it was and that she had to catch a flight whose departure was not that many hours away. With that in mind, she hustled back through the revolving door and headed for the emergency department.
    As per usual, the emergency room was bedlam. Jennifer was looking for Dr. Neil McCulgan, who had risen in rapid fashion from chief emergency-medicine resident to his current position as an assistant emergency-room director in charge of scheduling.
    Jennifer had met him during her first year, when he was still a resident. As a character unknown on the East Coast, he was entirely unique to her, and she found him intriguing.
    Neil was a stereotypical Southern California "surfer dude" sans blond hair, which, in his case, was nondescript brown. What Jennifer found so distinctive was his openly friendly laid-back attitude that was in total contrast to his being a closet intellectual and a compulsive studier with a near photographic memory. When she'd first met him she truly couldn't believe he'd been attracted to a tense, highly demanding medical specialty like emergency medicine.
    Although Jennifer was well aware she didn't share his social graces, she did share his general interest in knowledge for knowledge's sake and his study habits, and found him a fertile source of all sorts of information. Over a period of a year Neil became the first man with whom she felt she could truly converse, and not only about medicine. As a consequence, they became best friends. Actually, Neil had become her first real boyfriend. She thought she'd had boyfriends before, but after meeting Neil she realized that was not exactly true. Neil had been the first person to whom Jennifer had been willing to confide her most private secrets.
    "Excuse me!" Jennifer called out to one of the harried nurses at the chaotic central station. The nurse had just shouted something to a colleague who was leaning out a doorway several rooms down the main corridor. "Can you tell me where Dr. McCulgan is?"
    "I haven't the faintest," the man said. For some reason he had two, not one, stethoscopes draped around his neck. "Did you try his office?"
    Taking that suggestion, Jennifer hurried over to the triage area, where the office was located. Glancing in, she felt lucky. He was sitting at his desk with his back to her, dressed in a starched white coat over green scrubs. Jennifer plopped herself down in the chair squeezed between the desk and the wall. Startled, he looked up momentarily.
    "Busy?" Jennifer managed, with a catch in her voice. Her question only elicited a scoffing chuckle from the man, whose attention had returned to the massive ER schedule for the month of November that he was poring over.
    Neil had pleasant features, intelligent eyes, and a slight dusting of premature gray along his temples. He also had the broad shoulders and exceptionally narrow waist of a surfer.
    On his feet he wore white-leather wood-soled clogs. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"
    she questioned. As she spoke she had to choke back tears.
    "If you can make it quick," he said, but with a smile. "I have to have this schedule ready for the printer in one hour." He looked up again and only then became aware that she was struggling with her emotions. "What's wrong?" he said with sudden concern. He put down his pen and leaned toward her.
    "I had awful news this morning."
    "I'm so sorry," he said, reaching out and gripping her arm. He didn't ask what the news was about. He knew her well enough to know that she would tell him if she was inclined but wouldn't tell him if she wasn't, despite any amount of