“That’s a ton of paperwork. Seems like a waste of time to me.”
“Well, I’m afraid it is necessary. Please gather the receipts and bring them to my office as soon as possible.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Roy looked away from Ruth and started rifling through drawers. Though he had never been the warmest man, today he was rude to the point of insubordination. Something was not right. She hoped she had just caught him off guard, but she worried there might be more.
Several hours later, with Susie long gone, Roy came to Ruth’s office with an update. She had gone in search of him twice, hoping to assuage her growing concerns, but both times he was nowhere to be found.
“Finally! Do you have the receipts for me?”
“I don’t.” Roy looked away from her, his lips set indignantly.
“I don’t understand.”
“I searched everywhere, even went down into the archives, and I couldn’t find anything. They must have been thrown away by accident. Honestly, I don’t understand why you need to see them anyway. If there were spending increases, it was because we needed items purchased. Heating vents, linens, there are many things that require frequent replenishment in the hospital, you know. I buy things all the time.”
“Of course, but that wouldn’t change dramatically from one year to the next, would it? We didn’t do any major capital improvements. It simply isn’t making sense. Are there other receipts missing as well? Or just these?”
“I’m not sure what you want me to say.” Roy was defensive as he looked Ruth in the eye with an aggressive scowl, challenging her to push him on this. She remained undeterred.
“I want you to track down the items that drove a twenty-five percent increase in our year-over-year budget. I need specifics to explain this kind of irresponsible spending to the board.”
“Are you calling me irresponsible?”
“You’re misconstruing me, Roy. I am not trying to place blame; I am simply saying that this is not an acceptable increase. I need an explanation for the board, and since this was under your purview, I expect you to provide one.”
“Well, I can’t do more than I already have. So that’ll have to be enough.” Roy turned away abruptly and slammed Ruth’s door behind him. She was stunned. He was acting like a petulant child. Once she got through this board meeting, she would have to put him on notice. This behavior was unacceptable, and if he couldn’t show her more respect, he would need to be replaced.
As it turned out, she never had another conversation with Roy. When Ruth arrived at the hospital the following morning, she found his office cleared of all personal items, as well as any paper trail that might have directly indicated him for his thievery. Ruth felt destroyed by his violation of her trust and, even more, by the fact that she had let such a thing happen. Her first major contribution as head of Emeraldine was an embezzlement scandal. How could she have been so blind?
One thing Ruth now knew for certain—while budgeting, requisitions, and financial planning were not her favorite parts of the job, they were critically important. She could never again lose sight of the administrative underpinnings of her hospital, even if that meant losing some of her day-to-day contact with her patients. This was her job now, and if she survived this scandal, she would never again risk failing at it, no matter what.
INTERLUDE
ROBERT: 1952
Robert placed his portable electroshock machine on the floor beside him and knocked forcefully on the door. As he looked around for signs of life, he noticed the trash lining the stairwell and the paint peeling from the doors. This single-room occupancy hotel was not the type of establishment he would stay in, that was certain, but then again, Robert would never be hiding out from a court-ordered lobotomy like this man was.
It wasn’t the first time that an involuntary case hadn’t shown up for a scheduled appointment. Robert could have left the man to another doctor, but he didn’t want any patient to miss an opportunity to have their procedure performed by him, if possible. And he would only be in Ohio for one more day. So, there he stood, at the man’s door. Robert knew a little dose of electroshock would likely be all the patient needed to assuage his jitters, and Midwestern Regional Hospital didn’t have a portable electroshock machine, so he made the trip to this awful place himself.