2. Can you call up your sister’s file?
3. Who got her organs?
Graciela hiked her shoulders and mouthed the words I don’t know to him. She then turned to the computer and went to work. First she printed out the list of type AB donors. Thankfully, the computer was attached to a laser printer which did the job almost silently and Patrice paid no notice. McCaleb quickly folded the list lengthwise and put it in his inside coat pocket. Next, Graciela went back to the original welcome screen and pulled down a window of commands. She clicked the mouse on an icon that showed a red heart. A screen that saidORGAN PRO -CUREMENT SERVICES appeared and there was another template seeking an access code. Graciela hiked her shoulders, looked up at the code taped above the screen and typed it in again.
Nothing.
The arrow switched to an hourglass and nothing happened. McCaleb looked at his watch. It was 12:15, the end of the window of opportunity they had agreed upon. Patty Kirk would be back any moment and they would be discovered. When she had planned all of this out, Graciela hadn’t said anything about how they would explain what they were doing if they were caught.
“I think the computer’s freezing,” Graciela said.
Out of frustration she whacked the side of the monitor with an open hand. McCaleb always considered it amazing how many people thought this might help a computer. He was about to tell her not to bother when he heard the wheels of Patrice’s chair move. He turned to see her getting up. Maybe she was going to take a shot at the computer also.
“There it goes,” Graciela said.
McCaleb kept his body between Patrice’s view and the computer.
“Damned thing,” Patrice said. “It’s always doing that. I’m going to go upstairs to the porch for a Coke and a smoke. See you later, Graciela.”
She smiled at McCaleb.
“And nice to meet you,” she added.
McCaleb smiled.
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
“See you later, Patrice,” Graciela added.
Patrice walked around the counter and out into the hallway. She never looked at the computer screen as she passed. When she was gone, McCaleb looked down at the screen. There was a flashing message across it.
LEVEL 1 ACCESS ONLY
TRY AGAIN
“What’s that mean?”
“It means I don’t have the code to get into that file. What time is it?”
“Time to go. Sign off.”
She clicked on the disconnect button and McCaleb heard the chick-chick sound of the telephone connection being broken.
“What were you doing?” Graciela asked. “What did you want?”
“I’ll tell you later. Let’s get out of here.”
She got up, moved the chair back the way she had found it and they hurried around the counter. Out in the hallway they took the first right and headed back toward the elevators. They walked quickly, as if they were thieves. There was a woman coming toward them, carrying a can of Coke and a Styrofoam sandwich box. She was about eighty feet away and she was smiling at Graciela.
“Oh, shit,” McCaleb whispered. “Is that-”
“Yes. We’re cool.”
“No, stall her.”
“Why? We’re fine.”
He raised his hand to rub his nose and block his words from traveling to the approaching woman.
“The screen saver. They don’t usually come on for at least a minute. She’ll know.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’re not stealing government secrets.”
As it turned out, Graciela didn’t have to stall. Patty Kirk stalled herself.
“Graciela, what are you doing here?” she said as they approached. “I just saw Jane Tompkins in the cafeteria and she was bitchin’ about you not coming in again.”
They stopped and Patty Kirk stopped.
“Don’t tell her I was here!” Graciela urged.
“Well, what are you doing?”
She raised her hand to signal Graciela’s uniform.
“This is my friend, Terry. He’s pre-med. UCLA. I told him I would show him around today ’cause he might transfer his residency here. I thought with the pinks on, it would be a lot easier to get around. Terry, this is Patty Kirk.”
They shook hands and smiled. McCaleb asked how she was doing and she said fine. He had visions of those flying toasters finally returning to her computer screen.
Patty Kirk looked back at Graciela and shook her head.
“Janie’s going to kill you if she finds out. She thought it was something with Raymond again. You owe me big time for this, girl.”
“I know, I know. Just don’t tell her, okay? Everybody is mad at me down there. She’s the only friend I’ve got left.”
They said their good-byes and McCaleb and Graciela moved on to the elevator. When Patty Kirk was out of earshot, Graciela asked if the stall was long enough.
“Depends on what the screensaver is set on. But it’s probably okay. Let’s get out of here.”
Back in the Rabbit, Graciela drove out of the hospital lot and headed to the 405 freeway to go south.
“Where to now?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. We have to get into BOPRA somehow. We need the list of recipients. But I doubt we could just drive up and they’d give them to us. Where is BOPRA anyway?”
“ West L.A., near the airport. But you are right, you’re not going to just go in there and be given a list. The whole system is built on confidentiality. I only found you because somebody told me about that newspaper story.”
“Right,” he said.
He was already past that. His mind was racing and it finally snagged on an idea. They were coming up to the freeway entrance.
“Let’s go over the hill. To Cedars. I think I know somebody who will help us.”
30
THEY FIRST WENT to Bonnie Fox’s office in the Cedars west tower. The waiting room was empty and Fox’s receptionist, a woman named Gladys who never smiled, confirmed that the doctor was not in.
“She’s up in north and I don’t expect her back here today,” Gladys said, maintaining her frown. “Are you here for your records?”
“No, not quite yet.”
McCaleb thanked her and they left. He knew the translation of what Gladys had told them was that Fox was making her rounds on the sixth floor of the north tower, the hospital. They took the third floor bridge across to north and then the elevator up to the sixth floor cardiology and transplant ward. McCaleb was growing tired of lugging the heavy leather bag with him.
McCaleb had been on six often enough not to seem out of place. Graciela, still in her nursing uniform, fit in even better. McCaleb led the way down the hall to the left of the elevators to where the transplant waiting and recovery rooms were located as well as the transplant nursing station. There was a good chance he would find Fox somewhere in the area.
As they made their way down the long hallway, McCaleb looked through the doors that were open. He didn’t see Fox but he saw the frail forms of mostly older men on beds. These were the rooms for those who waited, hooked to machines, their time getting close and their chances dimming like the quieting of their hearts. As they passed one room, McCaleb saw the young boy he had seen before. The boy was sitting up on a bed, watching television. He appeared to be alone in the room. The wires and tubes snaked out of the sleeve of his hospital gown and ran to the machines and monitors. After he discerned that Fox was not in the room, McCaleb quickly looked away. The young ones were the hardest to take, to even acknowledge. Their organs so new yet inexplicably failing them, a terrible and sometimes fatal life lesson learned for nothing that they had done. For a moment, McCaleb’s mind flashed on the Everglades, the gathering of investigators on airboats at Devil’s Keep, the black hole into which disappeared his belief that there is a good and valid reason for everything.
They were in luck. As they made the turn to the nurses’ station, McCaleb saw Bonnie Fox leaning over the counter and sliding a patient file out of a vertical rack. As she straightened up, she turned and saw them.