The Cradle Robbers by Ayelet Waldman

Author:Ayelet Waldman [Waldman, Ayelet]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101664612
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2006-07-04T16:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

I pulled on to the freeway, intending to head back to the Oakland Airport, but at the last minute I changed my mind and went south, toward Dartmore.

“Is this okay with you?” I asked Al.

“I suppose so,” he said. “Don’t have much else to do. Are we going to the prison?”

“No, the hospital.”

He shrugged noncommittally and settled back in his chair for a snooze. Al prefers to sleep when I drive. He says that otherwise he wears out his brake foot. His complaints are just payback for my own. I’m always bitching and moaning about how he still drives like he’s got a siren on his roof and a badge in his wallet.

The county hospital outside of Dartmore was small, what you’d expect from a rural hospital in a depressed area where by far the largest employers are the prison and a few factory farms. I couldn’t help but wonder about the quality of the medicine practiced inside. What kind of physician chooses exile to such a place? Is this really where you’d want to be treated if you were crushed under the wheels of a combine or stabbed in the back with a knife carved from a toothbrush? Not that either population has any choice in the matter.

The hospital comprised two squat buildings linked by a covered walkway. One building was covered in pebbled stucco, the kind sprayed from a hose, and the other building was wrapped in some kind of pale blue rubberized siding. Neither had an obvious main entrance, so I parked more or less in the middle of the lot.

“Do me a favor,” I said to Al. “Wander around or something. Kill time in the cafeteria. I’m going to chat up the labor and delivery nurses.”

He nodded. Regular folks, especially women, are always my turf. Al’s a terrific investigator, but his interrogation techniques are those taught by the LAPD, and cops are getting busted for that kind of thing nowadays. Our partnership works well if he and his naturally suspicious self do other kinds of legwork. That is, unless confrontation is specifically called for. He’s terrific at that. It’s funny, because Al’s great undercover. It’s just that when he’s not pretending, he becomes far too gruff and intimidating.

I found my way to Labor and Delivery. It was an entirely different world from the one in which I had my babies. At Cedars-Sinai, the unit was always busy, the private rooms full of laboring and recovering women, nurses bustling about, patients in wheelchairs being whisked to and fro, women walking the halls trailing IV poles, doctors rushing from room to room to catch the last few minutes of drama. If there was someone in labor on this floor, she was having a very quiet delivery. Three women were at the semicircular nurses’ station, two wearing pale pink scrubs. A third, in scrubs of traditional green, sat up on the counter, one white-clogged foot resting on a chair.

“Hi,” I said.

They greeted me politely.

“I was hoping one of you might be able to help me out with something.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.