Reluctant Witness by Barton Sara M

Author:Barton, Sara M.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: coffee
Publisher: Sara M. Barton

Chapter Thirty One

“What it means is I found a physician who takes private patients who pay in cash when their out-of-network doctor visit isn’t covered. You let me do the talking. Don’t volunteer any information on the injury. Got it?”

“Got it.”

We sat in the waiting room of a walk-in clinic for twenty minutes, the first appointment after the staff returned from lunch. Nancy made a big point of fussing over me, the worried mother hen, peppering the physician with questions about whether I would need future surgery on my ear.

“Let me take a look,” the young physician replied. Examining my ear, she clucked a few times before deciding that I was stitched up by a very experienced plastic surgeon.

“Considering the amount of tissue damage, it’s actually quite amazing that it has healed so well. You must have been very careful not to get the stitches wet.”

“I’ve never gone that long without washing my hair before,” I admitted with a smile.

“I’m so proud of my little girl,” Nancy gushed. “Darla’s been such a trooper!”

“How did it happen?” the doctor wanted to know. Before I could even open my mouth, Nancy gave a dramatic rendition of my horrible car accident, right down to the frightful phone call she and my fake father received when they were out to dinner with friends. Nancy was so persuasive, I almost found myself believing the concocted tale. It was obvious that my doctor did.

“Sounds like you were lucky to get to the hospital so quickly.”

“Darla was!” Nancy was at it again, describing the shock of finding out her daughter had been in such a frightening car accident. “I can’t tell you how scared we were when we first set eyes on her lying on that gurney!”

“What other injuries did you suffer?” asked the woman in the white coat, examining me. I saw Dr. Magrib’s assistant ready to type the information into my chart. “I’ll just have a look.”

“Actually, there’s no need. She has an appointment in two weeks with her own doctor back home. He’s the one who recommended we get the stitches out now, said she’d feel better. He thought this trip to Florida would do a lot to bolster her spirits and get her back on the road to recovery. My husband couldn’t say no, not when he found out about the great golf....”

Nancy repeatedly and skillfully steered the conversation away from me and onto the subject of parenthood, adept at pretending to be my mother. “Do you have children, Doctor?”

“I do. I have a twenty-eight-month-old girl. What an active child she’s proven herself to be!” the proud physician told us.

“So you know how worrisome it can be when your children are in danger,” Nancy declared. “Why, I remember when my son was that age. We took him to the beach with us one day, and while we were setting up the cabana tent, he wandered down to the water....”

Twenty minutes later, after she carefully picked out every stitch, gently tugging at the stubborn ones, Dr.

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