“Oh, no,” said Pia, “I’ll get a cab. Really!”
“No, I insist. I’m part of a large group of ER docs contracted to run the Memorial’s ER. I called one of my colleagues to come in early. I’m off at three anyway, but I was going to go up to see the president, Noakes, and tell him what a spineless buffoon I think he is. The way he handled that situation was inappropriate, to say the very least.”
“That doesn’t sound like a good idea,” said Pia.
“No, it isn’t, so you’d be doing me a favor by saving me from my foolish self.”
Paul slid a business card across the table to Pia. “I want to stay in touch in case you find out anything about the Chinese runner. And I’ll let you know if there is any fallout here at the hospital. Do you have a card? I suppose you don’t, given that you were out for a jog. Give me your cell number, and I’ll put it straight in my phone.”
Pia stood up and took the card. “It’s okay, Paul, I know where to reach you.”
Paul winced inwardly. He knew Pia thought he was being pushy, and he was, a little, but not for the reasons she probably thought. He liked Pia’s detached calm, and he sensed they shared a lot of the same interests, which he couldn’t say for a lot of people. And she was so damned gorgeous. At least Pia had taken the card.
“So are you going to save me from making a fool of myself, getting myself fired, even? My car’s right outside the ER entrance. One of the perks is my own parking slot.”
Pia eyed Paul. She debated. One of the realities was that she didn’t know if twenty dollars would be enough for a cab all the way to Nano, and even though Paul was socially aggressive, there was something about his nature that suggested it wasn’t the boringly typical male sexual come-on. “Okay,” Pia said suddenly. “To save you from yourself, I’ll accept a ride.” She smiled. “But let me tell you a little secret. I’m black belt in tae kwon do.” Now she laughed.
“You’re joking?”
“I’m not joking at all. I learned it at school, starting when I was fourteen.” What she didn’t say was that the school was essentially a reform school, and she had used martial arts to protect herself.
A broad smile spread across Paul’s face. To him, she was getting more and more interesting. “Fabulous!” he said, and meant it.
They walked in silence to the car park and found his Subaru with combination ski and bike racks. A dark blue Trek Madone bike was locked into the rack. In the back of the station wagon were loops of climbing robe. As Paul unlocked the car he looked over the top at Pia.
“Pia, you aren’t going to need tae kwon do when you’re with me.”
“I know,” Pia said. “That’s why I told you about it. If I thought I’d need it, I wouldn’t have said anything.”
They both climbed into the car, which was as clean and ordered as Paul’s person. Paul turned the ignition and looked across at Pia. “The reason I asked for your cell number is that I’d like to call you, and not just about this runner guy. Perhaps we could go for a drink and talk about medicine, or whatever floats your boat.”
“That’s a possibility,” said Pia. She wasn’t used to people being so disarmingly frank. Pia also felt safe with Paul. She could usually tell that a man thought she was attractive because he would check her out and leer. Here was a man who just said he liked her. It made a nice change.
They drove out of the hospital parking lot, and Pia directed him to Nano. When they got to the gate, Pia showed the security guard her ID and said that Paul was just dropping her off. Paul pulled up to the front of the main building. He was clearly impressed.
“This place is huge. And that landscaping is to die for. The whole effect is intimidating, I have to say.”
“It is,” said Pia, who was seeing Nano from a new perspective after the strange episode with the Chinese runner. She didn’t like the feeling. She got out of the car, and Paul did, too.
“So stay in touch,” he said, leaning on the car’s roof. “No pressure, remember.”
“I have your card,” said Pia. She remembered she was wearing a Boulder Memorial lab coat, and slipped it off. Folding it over, she held it out to Paul. “This is yours,” she added.
“Not mine personally. I’d say it belongs to Mr. Noakes, in which case, you can keep it. Seriously, keep it as a souvenir of your visit to Memorial.”
“I have plenty of lab coats. I really don’t need it. It’s going to go to waste.”
Pia continued to hold out the coat, but Paul refused to take it. Instead he just smiled and raised his arms as if in surrender.
Pia relented and unfolded the coat to put it back on. As she did so, something fell out and landed on the tarmac of the parking lot. It was the first blood-collecting vacuum tube used on the runner. Pia had forgotten she had jammed it in her pocket. The tube bounced on its rubber stopper. Responding by reflex, Pia reached down and snatched up the tube before it could bounce again and break. She held it up, and both Paul and Pia could see that the tube was intact.
Paul walked around and Pia offered him the tube.
“Hey, clever you! I never knew you kept back a blood sample.”
“I didn’t. I mean, I didn’t do it deliberately. I stuck it in my pocket to keep it out of the way when I was drawing the second and third samples.”
“Great to have this, since they confiscated the other two. I’ll keep it, if you don’t mind. It will be interesting to see if it’s normal, which is what I suspect, since he was acting so normal himself.”
“Please,” said Pia. She thought about checking out the blood herself, but she knew there was a chance it could get confiscated on her way into Nano. She thought it would be in safe hands with Paul.
“Just don’t use it all up,” she said. “I might want to look at it, too.”
“I won’t,” he said.
“You want my mobile number?” she said.
“Absolutely,” Paul said. He got out his own phone to add it directly into his contacts.
Pia told Paul her cell phone number. She had yet to change from a New York plan. Paul took it down and put the sample of blood in his own lab coat. He gave Pia a salute of sorts and a friendly smile before climbing back into his car to drive out of the parking lot.
When Paul stopped at the security gate to be let out onto the state road, he glanced in his rearview mirror. He could still see Pia standing where he’d left her. Once the security gate had been raised, Paul accelerated toward Boulder.
A few minutes later he found himself whistling. He was happy despite the run-in with Noakes over the Chinese runner. Paul was not currently in a serious relationship, thanks to a recent breakup, and he thought that meeting Pia was just what the doctor ordered to take his mind off negative thoughts. He was definitely looking forward to getting to know her. She was the most interesting and intelligent woman he’d met in a long time. He was also looking forward to seeing what the Chinese runner’s blood chemistries might show, if anything.
CHAPTER 15
After watching Paul’s Subaru until it disappeared from sight, Pia stood in the parking lot for a few moments, taking in the expanse of the Nano, LLC, buildings and grounds. The sensation of unease she’d felt when she and Paul had driven into the complex a few minutes earlier had only increased, and Pia’s analytical mind clicked into gear. What did she know about Nano now that she hadn’t known less than two hours previously? She knew that there was a Chinese man somewhere in one of the many buildings who had a strange medical condition, and that Nano security was very protective of him. She also knew that Nano had its own medical staff and operated its own medical infirmary on-site. And she knew that there was a lot she didn’t know about her immediate boss, Mariel Spallek.