Free Double Blind by Carrie Bedford Page A

buzzed, she put her empty salad container on the tray. “That’s Dr. Schwartz. I’m sitting in on a consultation with him in ten minutes. I should go.”
    She stood up. “Are you coming to the campaign office tonight?”
    “Yes,” I said. “I’ll see you there.”
    She left without our customary hug, striding off in her starched white coat, looking the picture of health and energy.
    It seemed obvious to me that her aura and Reid’s were linked in some way. If I could find out more about a potential threat to Reid, perhaps I could pinpoint the danger to Anita too. Checking my watch, I leaned back in the chair and waited for ten minutes. Then I went up to the pediatric floor. Although it was a long shot, I wanted to find Dr. Reid while Anita was out of the way. I wasn’t sure what I could learn from talking to him, but anything was worth a try.
    When the lift hissed to a stop, I stepped into the hallway and looked up and down. There was no sign of Anita. Two nurses I didn’t recognize were talking with a man in a suit near the reception desk, the man young and good-looking with dark brown hair and a dimpled chin. The nurses were laughing at something he’d said. Hoping they’d be too preoccupied to notice me, I walked past the desk towards Dr. Reid’s office, which was just a few doors up from Anita’s.
    “Can I help you?” one of the nurses called out.
    “I have an appointment with Dr. Reid,” I said, turning around. Reluctantly, I made my way back to the reception desk. “At one o clock. The name is…” I hesitated. These nurses didn’t know me. “Sophie Harrison.”
    “Let me find you on the schedule,” the younger nurse said, typing on her keyboard. Trying to appear relaxed, I flashed a smile at the man in the suit. He was wearing a name tag on a lanyard. Audley Macintyre, followed by a company name, LB Pharmaceuticals. So he was probably a drug rep like the oleaginous Eric, the one Anita didn’t like.
    “Busy day?” I asked.
    He nodded, returning my smile with a multi-watt one of his own. “Always, but I love what I do, so time goes quickly.”
    “Ms. Harrison, I can’t find your name here. Are you sure your appointment was for today?”
    “I’m positive,” I said. “There must have been a mix up? If Dr. Reid is free, could he see me just for a couple of minutes? I’ve traveled quite a long way to get here. It’s about my son.”
    I cringed as I rolled out the lies, one after another. Perhaps I should have just waited near the lift and hoped for Dr. Reid to make an appearance.
    “Well, he has an appointment in five minutes,” said the nurse. “And I’m busy…” she glanced at Macintyre.
    “Don’t worry. No rush,” said Macintyre. “You sort this out. I’ll go grab a cup of coffee if that’s okay.”
    “Thank you so much,” I said to him.
    After he’d walked off, the nurse escorted me in silence to Dr. Reid’s office. The tempo of her footsteps on the lino floor was a staccato echo of her annoyance. When she opened his door and introduced me, he looked a bit confused, but invited me to sit down. The aura was moving around his head very quickly, the rippling air blurring the picture of a Provence landscape hanging on the wall behind him, rendering the lavender fields and golden sunflowers indistinct and formless.
    Seeing Reid close up for the first time, I was struck by his eyes, which were brown and soft. I imagined that they had often comforted the parents of sick children.
    “Ms. Harrison? I’m afraid I don’t recall your case?” he said, glancing at his computer screen.
    “Dr. Reid, I’m actually a journalist doing a story on surgeons and stress. You’re a leading surgeon here and you work with children and young adults. I imagine you experience stress every day. Would you be willing to talk to me about it?”
    “I really don’t have time,” he said with a quick look at his watch. “Which publication did you say you work for?”
    “I’m a freelancer. I’m