“No, wait,” Richard said. “I’ve got it.” He spread his arms for dramatic effect. “ ‘There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.’ ”
10
“Water! Water!”
“He definitely likes you,” Vielle said when she called between patients the next morning. “Now aren’t you glad I invited him to Dish Night?”
“Vielle, I’m busy—” Joanna said.
“He’s handsome, smart, funny. But that means there’s going to be a lot of competition out there, so you’re going to have to really go after him. And the first thing you’ve got to do is stop him from hiring Tish.”
“It’s too late,” Joanna said. “He hired her this morning.”
“And you let him?” Vielle squealed. “She flirts with everything that moves. What were you thinking?”
That, unlike Karen Goebel, who had been the only other applicant, Tish wasn’t a spy for Mr. Mandrake. And that since Tish’s chief goal was pursuing Richard, she probably wouldn’t endanger her chances with him by blabbing to Mr. Mandrake. And she was a very good nurse.
“I can’t believe you let him hire her!” Vielle said.
“Did you call for some reason, Vielle?” Joanna asked. “Because if you didn’t, I have background checks to run, I’ve got to interview the rest of our volunteers, and Maisie’s been calling me all morning wanting me to come see her.” And I need to try to remember what triggered that feeling of knowing what “fifty-eight” meant last night.
“You just answered the question I called to ask you,” Vielle said. “You don’t have time.”
“For what? An NDE subject? Did somebody come into the ER?”
“Yes. A Mrs. Woollam. They’ve already taken her upstairs. I tried to page you, but you weren’t answering. I thought if I had you paged over the intercom, Mr. Mandrake would descend—”
“—‘like a wolf on the fold,’ ” Joanna said, and stopped. There was that sensation again, that feeling of knowing what Greg Menotti had been talking about. What was the rest of that quote? “Something something purple and gold.”
“Joanna?” Vielle said. “Are you still there?”
“Yes. Sorry. What did you say her name was?”
“Mrs. Woollam. And, listen, she’s not just an ordinary NDEer. She’s a sudden deather.”
“Sudden deather?”
“Her heart tends to fibrillate suddenly and stop pumping. Luckily it also tends to start up again with a shot of epi and one good shock from the paddles, but she’s coded eight times in the past year. We’re talking experienced.”
“Why haven’t I met her before?” Joanna said.
“The last time she was at Mercy General was before you came,” Vielle said. “They usually take her to Porter’s. Her doctor just switched HMOs, though, so now they’re bringing her here. She says she’s had an NDE all but one time she coded.”
Someone who’d had several NDEs and could compare and contrast them. It sounded perfect. “Where did they take her?”
“CICU,” Vielle said. “They took her up about ten minutes ago.” And it would be another fifteen before they got her settled and allowed visitors in. Joanna looked at her watch. Mr. Kelso would be here in ten minutes. She’d have to wait till after his interview, and the one after that, with Ms. Coffey, by which time Mr. Mandrake would have convinced her she’d seen an Angel of Light and had a life review, but it couldn’t be helped.
“I’ll go see her as soon as I can,” she promised Vielle. “I’m sorry about my pager, but Mr. Mandrake keeps calling me. He says he’s got something urgent to discuss with me. I’m afraid it means he’s found out about my working on the project.”
“He had to find out sooner or later. But maybe he’ll be so busy descending on you, he won’t find out about Mrs. Woollam,” she said and hung up.
Descending like a wolf on the fold. “And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold.” That was the line. But where on earth had it come from? And what did it have to do with anything, let alone Greg Menotti’s murmuring, “Fifty-eight”?
There wasn’t time to worry about it. She needed to look over Ronald Kelso’s file and get to the lab in case, unlike Amelia Tanaka, he was on time.
He was, and neatly dressed, in slacks, a shirt, and a tie. “I work at Hollywood Video,” he said when Joanna asked him to tell her a little about himself, “but I’m studying to be a computer programmer. I’m taking classes at Metro Technical College.”
“Can you tell me why you volunteered for this project?” Joanna asked.
“I want to know death.”
“Know death?” Richard said, turning faintly green.
“How did you know the project involved near-death experiences?” Joanna asked.
“One of the people in my chat room told me it did.”
“Who?” Richard asked.é
“I don’t know. His on-line name is Osiris.” He leaned forward eagerly. “People in our society don’t understand death. They won’t even talk about it. They just pretend it’s not there, that it’s not going to happen to them, and when you try to talk about it, they look at you like you’re crazy. Have you ever seen the movie Harold and Maude?”
“Yes,” Joanna said.
“It’s my favorite movie of all time. I’ve seen it probably a hundred times, especially the scene where he hangs himself.”
Joanna said, “And so you think this project…”
“Will give me the chance to experience death firsthand, to look it in the face and find out what it’s really like.”
“We haven’t finalized our participant list yet,” Joanna said, showing him to the door. “We’ll let you know.”
“I can’t believe it,” Richard said after she’d shut the door. “Another one! And he looked perfectly normal.”
“He probably is,” Joanna said. “Harold and Maude’s a really good movie, and he didn’t say anything that wasn’t true. People in our society don’t want to talk about death. They do pretend it’s not there and it’s not going to happen to them.”
“You’re not seriously suggesting we should accept him into the project?” Richard said.
“No,” Joanna said. “He’s a little too fascinated by the subject matter, and his comments about the hanging scene were rather disturbing. And we’ve got a rule about movies with death in them.” She grinned at him.
“This isn’t funny,” Richard said. “How many volunteers are left on the list? Three?”
“Four,” Joanna said. “Ms. Coffey’s next. She’ll be here at ten.”
“The data systems manager,” Richard said, cheering up. “Great. She’s got an MBA and works for Colotech.”
That isn’t any guarantee, Joanna thought, although she had to agree with Richard. MBAs weren’t usually the Harold and Maude type, and Ms. Coffey looked extremely promising when she arrived. She was dressed in a stylish black suit, and her sleek haircut, her makeup, were the image of Corporate Woman. When Joanna asked her to tell her a little bit about herself, she opened her Corporate Woman day planner and pulled out a folded sheet of cream-colored vellum. “I know you have my application,” she said, “but I thought a résumé might be useful, too.” She smiled and handed it to Richard.
“Why did you volunteer for the project?” Joanna asked.
“As you can see on my résumé—” Ms. Coffey said and pulled out another folded sheet. She smiled. “I brought an extra one, just in case. In my job, details really matter.” She handed the résumé to Joanna. “As you can see, under ‘Service,’ ” she pointed out the place, “I do a lot of work with the community. Last year I participated in a sleep study at University Hospital.” She smiled warmly at Richard. “And when Dr. Wright described the project, I thought it sounded interesting.”