“Honest mistakes do happen in hospitals, Ms. Simmons. We all know that. According to what Annamarie told me, the young woman had been running when she was injured and was dehydrated when they brought her in to the hospital. Dr. Black gave her some kind of experimental drug instead of the normal saline solution, and she slipped into a vegetative state.”

“How awful!”

“It was Annamarie’s duty to report it, and she didn’t, having been asked not to by Dr. Lasch. But then a few days later, she overheard Dr. Black say to Dr. Lasch, ‘I gave it to the right person this time. It took her right out.’ ”

“You mean they were deliberately experimenting on patients?” Fran asked, shocked at this revelation.

“I can only tell you what I’ve put together from the little bit Annamarie told me. She wouldn’t talk about any of it much, and usually only if she had a couple of glasses of wine and needed to unburden herself.” Lucy paused and sat once more staring into her cup.

“Was there something else?” Fran asked gently, anxious to get the woman to talk, but not wanting to prod her too hard.

“Yes. Annamarie told me that the very next night after the young woman was given the wrong drug, an old lady who’d had a couple of heart attacks and had been in the hospital for a while, died. Annamarie told me she couldn’t be sure, but she suspected the old lady was given that experimental drug and apparently was the one who was ‘the right person’ she had heard Dr. Black refer to, because she was the only one who died in the hospital that week, and because Dr. Black was in and out of the room and didn’t mark the chart.”

“Wasn’t Annamarie even tempted to report that death?”

“She had absolutely no proof of anything being wrong in the second incident, and when tests were done on the young woman, the results indicated no trace of a suspicious substance. Annamarie did talk to Dr. Black, and she asked him why he hadn’t marked the old woman’s chart when he treated her. He told her she didn’t know what she was talking about and warned her that if she started spreading such unfounded rumors, she would be sued for slander. When she asked him about the young woman who was now in a coma, he said she’d gone into cardiac arrest in the ambulance.”

Lucy paused and once more filled her coffee cup. “Try to understand. Annamarie originally believed that the first incident was an honest mistake. She was in love with Gary Lasch and at that point even knew she was pregnant by him, although she hadn’t yet told him. She didn’t want to believe that he would have anything to do with hurting someone, and she didn’t want to cause him or the hospital any trouble. But then, while she was agonizing over what she should do, Jack Morrow was murdered, and suddenly she became frightened. She believed that he had begun to suspect something was going wrong at the hospital, but it was only a suspicion. He apparently had wanted to give her something to hold for him for safekeeping, a file or papers or something, but he never got the chance. He was murdered first. Then, two weeks later, Gary Lasch was murdered. By then, Annamarie was terrified.”

“Did Annamarie ever fall out of love with Gary Lasch?” Fran asked.

“At the end. He was avoiding her, and she had started to fear him. When she told him she was pregnant, he told her to get an abortion. If it weren’t for DNA testing, she was sure he would have sworn it wasn’t his child.

“Jack Morrow’s death was a terrible blow to Annamarie. Even though she had gone into an affair with Dr. Lasch, I think she always loved Jack. Afterwards, she showed me Dr. Lasch’s picture. She said, ‘I was obsessed with him. He does that to women. He uses people.’ ”

“Did Annamarie think that things at the hospital were still going wrong, even after Gary Lasch was killed?”

“I don’t think she had any way of knowing. And besides, her energies were soon focused on taking care of the child she was carrying. Ms. Simmons, we begged Annamarie to keep her baby. We would have helped her raise it. She gave it up because she didn’t think she was worthy of it. She said to me, ‘What do I tell my child-that I had an affair with his father, who was then murdered because of our affair? When he asks me to tell him what his father was like, do I tell him he was a danger to his patients and betrayed the people who trusted him?’ ”

“Annamarie told Molly that as both a doctor and a husband, Gary Lasch wasn’t worth going to prison for,” Fran said.

Lucy Bonaventure smiled. “That sounds like Annamarie,” she said.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am to you, Mrs. Bonaventure,” Fran said. “And I know how hard this is for you.”

“Yes, it is. But let me show you something before you go.” Lucy Bonaventure went into the bedroom and picked up the photographs she had placed on the dresser top. She showed them to Fran. “This is Annamarie with her baby. You can see how young she was. The adoptive family sent her a birthday picture of him for the first five years. This is the little boy she gave up. She paid such a terrible price for her mistakes. I hope, if Molly Lasch is innocent, that you can prove it. But tell her that in her own way, Annamarie was in prison too, a self-imposed one perhaps, but still one filled with pain and deprivation. And if you want to know who she was afraid of, you’re right, I don’t think it was Molly Lasch. I think the person she really feared was Dr. Peter Black.”

69

“ Cal, what is the matter with you? You’ve done nothing but bark at me, when the worst thing I seem to have done is suggest you get away from here for a few days and maybe get some golfing in.”

“Jenna, I should think that simply reading the daily papers with all the coverage about that nurse’s death and Molly’s arrest might help you understand why I’m on edge. You should realize, my dear, that a fortune will slip through our fingers if American National gets these HMOs and then proceeds with a hostile takeover of Remington. We both know you married me for what I could give you. Are you willing to scale back your lifestyle?”

“I’m willing to concede that I’m very sorry I took the day off,” Jenna snapped. She had followed Cal into his office, alarmed by the obvious tension he had displayed at the breakfast table.

“Why don’t you visit your friend, Molly?” he suggested. “I’m sure she will be delighted to be comforted by you.”

“It really is bad, isn’t it, Cal?” Jenna asked quietly. “But I’m going to tell you this, not as a wife, but as another fighter-I know you; no matter how bad it is, you’ll figure out how to make it pay off for you.”

Calvin Whitehall’s laugh was a short, mirthless bark. “Thank you, Jenna, I really needed that. However, I believe you’re right.”

“I am going to go over to see Molly. I was really concerned when I saw her Wednesday night. She was terribly down. Then when I spoke to her yesterday, after Mrs. Barry quit, she was positively reeling from the blow.”

“You told me about that.”

“I know. And I know you agree with Mrs. Barry. You wouldn’t want to be alone with Molly either, would you?”

“Precisely.”

“ Cal, Mrs. Barry brought Molly some twenty sleeping pills that were from a prescription for her son. I’m very worried about that. I’m afraid that as depressed as she is, she might be tempted to-”

“To commit suicide? What a perfectly wonderful idea. That would be just what the doctor ordered.” Cal looked past Jenna. “It’s all right, Rita, you can come in with the mail.”

As the maid entered, Jenna went around the desk and kissed the top of her husband’s head. “ Cal, don’t joke, please. I honestly think that Molly is considering suicide. You heard her the other night.”

“My opinion stands. She’d be doing herself a favor if she exercises that option. And she’d be doing a favor for a lot of other people too.”