Matteo straightened his tie
and adjusted his shirt collar before running a hand through his neatly styled,
dark brown hair.
Need to look my best for my
first television appearance of the day, he thought arrogantly as he flashed
a pearly white smile into the hallway mirror.
Picking up his suit-jacket from a nearby table and moving towards
the door, he pulled his cell phone out of his jacket pocket and read the missed
text messages. Five texts had been received from Michelle.
The woman was clearly upset, even as he had been sleeping
peacefully. He knew he should message her back—not to be polite, he could care
less about propriety at this point—but in foresight, keeping up the facade that
he actually might care about her may go a long way towards keeping her from
talking to the press. He wasn't too worried, though. He had quite easily
seduced her into bed and successfully bribed her into playing along with his schemes. Not
to mention the fact that he all but spelled out how detrimental it would be to
her career and her reputation should she decide to tell the truth.
One more brief glance at the
cell phone and he swiftly placed it back into his pocket.
She was dumb enough to trust me, but she's smart enough to keep
her mouth shut, he smirked to himself and left his suite.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Natalia let out a deep breath
with an exaggerated effort and shook her head. "Don't get me wrong, I'm
grateful that you got us to the hospital, but I'm just as equally thankful to
whatever Deity allowed us to make it here via the parking garage and not
through the emergency room doors on two stretchers."
"I'm sure a time may come
when your little digs about my driving will become endearing. Today, however,
is not that day. I feel I should remind you that I'm not from this
city." Olivia undid her seat belt and let it recoil quickly in an audible
display of her dejection at the insult.
They walked in silence towards
the doors to the main reception area of the hospital and Olivia flung herself
into the closest empty seat in a waiting area nearby as Natalia introduced
herself to the receptionists and alerted them of their need to speak with
'someone in charge'.
"I could have driven the
car," Natalia mumbled when she came
back to sit in a chair beside the disgruntled older woman.
"Let it go, Natalia," Olivia pleaded, wanting to change
the subject before the rest of her good mood abandoned her completely. She
wrestled her emotions between the knowledge that Natalia was on edge, and the irritation that her best efforts
to help seemed to be unappreciated.
"I'm just saying, if you weren't comfortable with big-city
driving, why didn't you just let me take over?"
"Because the coolest head always prevails."
Natalia sat back in her chair and huffed. "Damn near prevailed us into the back of a dump-truck at 4-way stop."
Olivia rolled her eyes.
"Ever the gracious benefactor of the good deeds of others, aren't
you?"
Natalia didn't immediately
respond. She knew that Olivia had a point; that the other woman was just trying
to help, and she should apologise for being needlessly critical. She was about to
try and smooth the waters when she saw someone coming directly towards them.
"The doctor is coming our
way."
"Thank God!" Olivia
reluctantly rose to her feet and followed Natalia towards a tall, distinguished
looking man in a long white lab coat who was carrying what looked like a stack
of papers equivalent to an entire year of The Beacon's business reports.
"Ms. Rivera," I'm
Doctor Aldridge O'Keefe, head of neurosurgery. I'm sorry that our chief of
staff can't meet with you right now, but as I was heading up the team that
worked on your father, it's safe to say I'm the best one to answer your
questions anyhow."
Natalia shook the hand that
was awkwardly offered her from under the bundle of files. "I appreciate
you taking the time to meet with me. This is Ms. Spencer." She turned briefly towards Olivia and suddenly
flashed a confusion expression.
"She is a, um... a business associate from Illinois?" Her
introduction sounded more like a question.
Olivia simple waved her hand
slightly, not wanting to cause the man to scatter his cargo all over the
walkway floor.
"In all honesty I can't
take too much time, I'm in the middle of rounds here, but if you wouldn't mind
walking with me to the other wing, I can surely talk with you for a few
minutes," the doctor said as he re-organised
the large group of file folders in his crowded arms and began handing a few off
to seemingly random nurses as they walked by.
"Lead the way,"
Natalia agreed, and the three of them headed towards the emergency triage unit.
"Before I get into the
details of what I know for sure," Dr. O'Keefe began, "I would like to
extend my sincerest condolences for your loss. I know that perhaps someone here
at this hospital has caused a lot of added stress and upset to you and I want
to assure you that every faculty member here has committed to being entirely
cooperative with the authorities in this matter."
Natalia nodded in acceptance.
"I know you've probably already told Agent What's-His-Name everything you
know, but I was wondering if you'd mind recounting that information to me
personally, seeing as I'm not being told anything at this point."
"Of course. Well, from
what I understand the Medical Examiner received a call, the day after we sent
your father's body there, from someone claiming to be the Lab Technician in
charge of examining your father's blood tests. I guess this individual made up
some problems with the blood work and that caused the M.E. to need to do
further analysis of the body. "
Natalia waved a dismissive
hand at the information. "Yeah, I know everything about that side of the
issue. What I was wondering was whether or not you, or anyone else here, has
any idea who might have been the one behind the bogus phone call?"
"That, I do not know,"
the doctor said as he accepted a thick file folder from a nurse in front of a
curtained triage unit. "Wish I did, though. It's unnerving to think that
someone I'm working with can be capable of purposefully causing unnecessary
issues for our whole team, not to mention what they've put you through."
"Well, whoever contacted
the media is responsible for that," Natalia sighed.
"If it is any help, we
know the perpetrator of this mischief sounded like a younger woman—most likely
either a new staff member here or just a regular nurse or orderly, low-ranking
on the chain of command."
"Why do you think
that?" Natalia asked.
"Well the person that
made the call to the M.E. was a woman claiming to be our Lab Technician, Stacey
March. Thing is, Stacey is actually a man. He is fairly new to our lab team but
all of the surgeons, clinical doctors, head nurses and so on have had dealings
with him already. So I'm guessing the woman who called must be just a regular
nurse or candy-striper, someone who would have been able to find out the name
of the technician in charge, but not have had to speak with him personally in
their everyday line of work here."
Natalia pondered the new information for a moment before
responding. "Interesting. Thanks so much for your help Doctor."
"My pleasure," Dr
O'Keefe offered a much less encumbered hand this time. "Again, I'm sorry
for the inconvenience. If there is anything else you need from any of the staff
here, let me know."
Natalia nodded once again and
turned to depart the congested walkway.
"Well," Olivia
finally spoke as she walked alongside Natalia back down they corridor they had
been traveling. "That was a bit more insightful than anything you've heard
so far."
"Yes," Natalia
answered absent-mindedly, obviously deep in thought. "Still doesn't point
directly to the person responsible, but I guess it's a start."
"So let's try and break
it down a bit further. It would have to be someone who has quite the ax to
grind with you personally."
"I'm now in charge of the
leading franchise in the entire North American hotel industry. The list of
people who want me out of the picture grows daily." The anxious
younger woman rubbed her forehead to try and ease the growing tension of an
oncoming headache. "Besides, Detective Columbo, you'd technically be high
up there on that list, wouldn't you?"
Olivia vehemently shook her
head. "Not necessarily. I've almost completely forgiven you for being an
incredibly cruel and heartless bitch to me over the past few weeks. And,
I scratched my bid to merge with your company, therefore I'm completely in the
clear."
"Almost completely
forgiven, huh? What would I have to do to gain a full pardon?"
"Pfft, as if you don't
already know." The other woman winked, teasingly.
Natalia rolled her eyes.
"Second thought, never mind. I can live without it."
"So you see, since I'm
off the hook, it would have to be someone who dislikes you even more than I
do—which I can imagine must be a very long list," she smirked. "But
honestly, how many other lives have you ruined adequately enough to spawn this
type of revenge? And like you said before, who would gain something by ruining
your standing in the company."
Natalia all of a sudden went
stopped in her tracks causing Olivia to falter in her forward momentum when she
realized the brunette was no longer beside her. She turned to see the shocked,
and eerily cold but angry, expression that had washed over Natalia's face.
"I know who would," Natalia hissed as she turned
suddenly and pushed her way quickly through a small crowd of people lined up to
see the receptionist. "I know exactly who would!"
Just then a newsflash appeared
on the flat-screen television in the corner of the waiting room that Olivia was
left standing in. On the screen was the male version of Natalia's gorgeous
eyes. She could barely hear what Mateo of saying to the news reporter outside
of the South Beach Empire but one flash of the devilish grin and the glint of
those dark, deceivingly handsome eyes and her gaze immediately lowered to back
to the woman who was racing away from her towards the nurse's station.
