Let Me Call You Sweetheart

66

Dr. Smith had left the office at 4:20, only a minute or so after his last patient-a post-tummy-tuck checkup, had departed. Kate Carpenter was glad to see him go. She found it disturbing just to be around him lately. She had noticed the tremor in his hand again today when he removed the skull stitches from Mrs. Pryce, who had had an eyebrow lift procedure. The nurse’s concern went beyond the physical, however; she was sure that mentally there was something radically wrong with the doctor as well.

The most frustrating thing for Kate, though, was that she didn’t know where to turn. Charles Smith was-or at least had been-a brilliant surgeon. She didn’t want to see him discredited, or drummed out of the profession. If circumstances were different, she would have talked to his wife or best friend. But in Dr. Smith’s case, she couldn’t do that-his wife was long gone, and he seemed to have no friends at all.

Kate’s sister Jean was a social worker. Jean probably would understand the problem and be able to advise her on where to turn to get Dr. Smith the help he obviously needed. But Jean was on vacation in Arizona, and Kate didn’t know how to reach her even if she wanted to.

At four-thirty Barbara Tompkins phoned. “Mrs. Carpenter, I’ve had it. Last night, Dr. Smith called and practically demanded that I have dinner with him. But then he kept calling me Suzanne. And he wants me to call him Charles. He asked if I had a serious boyfriend. I’m sorry, I know I owe him a lot, but I think he is really creepy, and this is getting to me. I find that even at work I’m looking over my shoulder, expecting to see him lurking somewhere. I can’t stand it. This can’t go on.”

Kate Carpenter knew she couldn’t stall any longer. The one possible person who came to her mind in whom she might confide was Robin Kinellen’s mother, Kerry McGrath.

Kate knew she was a lawyer, an assistant prosecutor in New Jersey, but she was also a mother who was very grateful that Dr. Smith had treated her daughter in an emergency. She also realized that Kerry McGrath knew more about Dr. Smith’s personal background than did she or anyone else on his staff. She wasn’t sure why Kerry had been checking on the doctor, but Kate didn’t feel that it was for any harmful purpose. Kerry had shared with her the information that Smith had been not only divorced but also was the father of a woman who was murdered.

Feeling like Judas Iscariot, Mrs. Kate Carpenter gave Barbara Tompkins the home phone number of Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Kerry McGrath.