“Okay, and then?”
“And then what?” she asked impatiently. What more did they need?
“Ma’am.” Officer Johnson smiled kindly with an expression that Ruth recognized all too well. She had smiled in the same way at frantic patients at the hospital. “We can see that you are very upset. And this is unfortunate. But—”
“But what? Do you not understand? My husband is not a surgeon. He has no surgical license. Still, he performed surgery multiple times on the same patient, and ultimately killed her. He is a killer!” She stood, pointing again at the final paragraph in the file.
“Mrs. Apter, you seem to be hysterical. I am not sure what you want us to do here.”
“Hysterical? How dare you, sir!”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. As I said before, this is all very unfortunate. But I don’t see the evidence of any wrongdoing. Unless—is the family looking to press charges?”
Ruth slowly shook her head no. She hadn’t spoken to the family but had seen correspondence in the file thanking Robert. She assumed he had found a way to invert the truth for them too.
“People sometimes die in surgery, right? I would think that, since you run a hospital yourself, you would know that a lot better than we do.” Officer Johnson stood up and put his arm patronizingly around Ruth’s shoulders. “I’m guessing you and your husband had a bad fight, right? And I can see that you’re real mad at him. But there is no evidence of any foul play here, ma’am. I’m afraid there isn’t anything we can do.”
“I see.” Ruth stared at the officers in disbelief as her face turned crimson. She hurriedly gathered her papers.
“Do you need an escort home? You do seem upset, ma’am.”
“No, thank you. I’m fine.” Ruth ducked her head, ashamed, and walked as quickly as possible back to her car. Sitting stiffly behind the wheel, she took slow, deep breaths to steady herself until she got home. She felt humiliated and confused. How was what Robert did not murder? How could the police not care?
She walked aimlessly through the house. There had to be another way, and she wouldn’t stop until she found it.
Chapter Forty-Three
Two days later, Ruth rubbed her watering eyes as she looked out her study window to the ocean. She felt as though she had been on the phone since she left the station.
“You know I will do whatever I can to help you, Ruth. But it’s been over a decade since I performed a lobotomy with Robert. Any of those patients would be too far in the past to matter.”
“I understand, Edward. I didn’t really think you would have anyone, but . . . I just don’t know where to turn. How can it be that Robert has performed thousands of lobotomies and I can’t find a single person willing to file a formal complaint?”
“Well, I’m more than happy to file a complaint. And support the allegations you bring to the medical review board. But, unfortunately, I think you’ll need more. It’ll take some time to build a proper case against him.”
“But I don’t have time!” she snapped. Estelle’s husband, Larry, had refused to come forward. None of the families from Mandrake’s report had been willing either. More than one had actually hung up on her. If she didn’t find something more, Robert would soon be in California. For all she knew, he had already left.
California. That’s it! She had been so busy focusing on his local patients, she hadn’t considered what might have happened on the road.
“Edward, I have an idea. I need to go. I need to get back into the carriage house while Robert’s still gone.”
“Do you know where he is? When he’s coming back? Maybe you should wait for me—I can shift my schedule around and be there tomorrow morning.”