Nothing Lasts Forever (18 page)

“We don’t want anything to happen to him.”

“Neither do I,” Kat said. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m tired and—”

“Is there a chance he’ll die?” the Shadow asked.

Kat hesitated. “In brain surgery there’s always a risk of—”

“You better not let it happen.”

“Believe me, I—”

“Don’t let it happen.” He looked at Rhino. “Let’s go.”

Kat watched them start to leave.

At the door, the Shadow turned and said, “Say hello to Mike for us.”

Kat was suddenly very still. “Is…is this some kind of threat?”

“We don’t threaten people, doc. We’re telling you. If Mr. Dinetto dies, you and your fucking family are gonna be wiped out.”

I
n the doctors’ dressing room, half a dozen doctors were waiting for Ken Mallory to appear.

When he walked in, Grundy said, “Hail the conquering hero! We want to hear all the lurid details.” He grinned. “But the catch is, buddy, we want to hear them from
her.
”

“I ran into a little bad luck.” Mallory smiled. “But you can all start getting your money ready.”

Kat and Paige were getting into scrubs.

“Have you ever done a procedure on a doctor?” Kat asked.

“No.”

“You’re lucky. They’re the worst patients in the world. They know too much.”

“Who are you operating on?”

“Dr. Mervyn ‘Don’t Hurt Me’ Franklin.”

“Good luck.”

“I’ll need it.”

Dr. Mervyn Franklin was a man in his sixties, thin, bald, and irascible.

When Kat walked into his room, he snapped, “It’s about time you got here. Did the damned electrolyte reports come back?”

“Yes,” Kat said. “They’re normal.”

“Who says so? I don’t trust the damn lab. Half the time they don’t know what they’re doing. And make sure there’s no mix-up on the blood transfusion.”

“I’ll make sure,” Kat said patiently.

“Who’s doing the operation?”

“Dr. Jurgenson and I. Dr. Franklin, I promise you, there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Whose brain are they operating on, yours or mine? All operations are risky. You know why? Because half of the damned surgeons are in the wrong profession. They should have been butchers.”

“Dr. Jurgenson is very capable.”

“I know he is, or I wouldn’t let him touch me. Who’s the anesthesiologist?”

“I believe it’s Dr. Miller.”

“That quack? I don’t want him. Get me someone else.”

“Dr. Franklin…”

“Get me someone else. See if Haliburton is available.”

“All right.”

“And get me the names of the nurses in the OR. I want to check them out.”

Kat looked him in the eye. “Would you prefer to do the operation yourself?”

“What?” He stared at her a moment, then smiled sheepishly. “I guess not.”

Kat said gently, “Then why don’t you let us handle it?”

“Okay. You know something? I like you.”

“I like you, too. Did the nurse give you a sedative?”

“Yes.”

“All right. We’ll be ready in a few minutes. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Yeah. Teach my stupid nurse where my veins are located.”

In OR Four, the brain surgery on Dr. Mervyn Franklin was going perfectly. He had complained every step of the way from his room to the operating theater.

“Now mind you,” he said, “minimal anesthetic. The brain has no feeling, so once you get in there, you won’t need much.”

“I’m aware of that,” Kat said patiently.

“And see that the temperature is kept down to forty degrees. That’s maximum.”

“Right.”

“Let’s have some fast music on during the operation. Keep you all on your toes.”

“Right.”

“And make sure you have a top scrub nurse in there.”

“Right.”

And on and on it went.

When the opening in Dr. Franklin’s skull was drilled, Kat said, “I see the clot. It doesn’t look too bad.” She went to work.

Three hours later as they were beginning to close the incision, George Englund, the chief of surgery, came into the operating room and went up to Kat.

“Kat, are you almost through here?”

“We’re just wrapping it up.”

“Let Dr. Jurgenson take over. We need you fast. There’s an emergency.”

Kat nodded. “Coming.” She turned to Jurgenson. “Will you finish up here?”

“No problem.”

Kat walked out with George Englund. “What’s happening?”

“You were scheduled to do an operation later, but your patient has started to hemorrhage. They’re taking him to OR Three now. It doesn’t look as though he’s going to make it. You’ll have to operate right away.”

“Who?”

“A Mr. Dinetto.”

Kat looked at him aghast.
“Dinetto?” If Mr. Dinetto dies, you and your fucking family are gonna be wiped out.

Kat hurried down the corridor that led to OR Three. Approaching her were Rhino and the Shadow.

“What’s going on?” Rhino demanded.

Kat’s mouth was so dry that it was difficult to speak. “Mr. Dinetto started hemorrhaging. We must operate right away.”

The Shadow grabbed her arm. “Then do it! But remember what we told you. Keep him alive.”

Kat pulled away and hurried into the operating room.

Because of the change in schedule, Dr. Vance was doing the operation with Kat. He was a good surgeon. Kat began the ritual scrub: a half minute on each arm first, then a half minute on each hand. She repeated it and then scrubbed her nails.

Dr. Vance stepped in beside her and started his scrub. “How are you feeling?”

“Fine,” Kat lied.

Lou Dinetto was wheeled into the operating room on a gurney, semiconscious, and carefully transferred to the operating table. His shaven head was scrubbed and painted with Merthiolate solution that gleamed a bright orange under the operating lights. He was as pale as death.

The team was in place: Dr. Vance, another resident, an anesthesiologist, two scrub nurses, and a circulating nurse. Kat checked to make sure that everything they might require was there. She glanced at the wall monitors—oxygen saturation, carbon dioxide, temperature, muscle stimulators, precordial stethoscope, EKG, automatic blood pressure, and disconnect alarms. Everything was in order.

The anesthesiologist strapped a blood pressure cuff on Dinetto’s right arm, then placed a rubber mask over the patient’s face. “All right, now. Breathe deeply. Take three big breaths.”

Dinetto was asleep before the third breath.

The procedure began.

Kat was reporting aloud. “There’s an area of damage in the middle of the brain, caused by a clot that’s broken off the aorta valve. It’s blocking a small blood vessel on the right side of the brain and extending slightly into the left half.” She probed deeper. “It’s at the lower edge of the aqueduct of Sylvius. Scalpel.”

A tiny burr hole about the size of a dime was made
by an electric drill to expose the dura mater. Next, Kat cut open the dura to expose a segment of the cerebral cortex that lay underneath. “Forceps!”

The scrub nurse handed her the electric forceps.

The incision was held open by a small retractor which maintained itself in place.

“There’s a hell of a lot of bleeding,” Vance said.

Kat picked up the bovie and started to cauterize the bleeders. “We’re going to control it.”

Dr. Vance started suction on soft cotton patties that were placed on the dura. The oozing veins on the surface of the dura were identified and coagulated.

“It looks good,” Vance said. “He’s going to make it.”

Kat breathed a sigh of relief.

And at that instant, Lou Dinetto stiffened and his body went into spasm. The anesthesiologist called out, “Blood pressure’s dropping!”

Kat said, “Get some more blood into him!”

They were all looking at the monitor. The curve was rapidly flattening out. There were two quick heartbeats followed by ventricular fibrillation.

“Shock him!” Kat snapped. She quickly attached the electric pads to his body and turned on the machine.

Dinetto’s chest heaved up once and then fell.

“Inject him with epinephrine! Quick!”

“No heartbeat!” the anesthesiologist called out a moment later.

Kat tried again, raising the dial.

Once again, there was a quick convulsive movement.

“No heartbeat!” the anesthesiologist cried. “Asystole. No rhythm at all.”

Desperately, Kat tried one last time. The body rose higher this time, then fell again. Nothing.

“He’s dead,” Dr. Vance said.

C
ode Red is an alert that immediately brings all-out medical assistance to try to save the life of a patient. When Lou Dinetto’s heart stopped in the middle of his operation, the operating room Code Red team rushed to give aid.

Over the public address system Kat could hear, “Code Red, OR Three…Code Red…”
Red rhymes with dead.

Kat was in a panic. She applied the electroshock again. It was not only his life she was trying to save—it was Mike’s and her own. Dinetto’s body leaped into the air, then fell back, inert.

“Try once more!” Dr. Vance urged.

We don’t threaten people, doc. We’re telling you. If Mr. Dinetto dies, you and your fucking family are gonna be wiped out.

Kat turned on the switch and applied the machine to Dinetto’s chest again. Once more his body rose a few inches into the air and then fell back.

“Again!”

It’s not going to happen,
Kat thought despairingly.
I’m going to die with him.

The operating room was suddenly filled with doctors and nurses.

“What are you waiting for?” someone asked.

Kat took a deep breath and pressed down once again. For an instant, nothing happened. Then a faint blip appeared on the monitor. It faltered a moment, then appeared again and faltered, and then began to grow stronger and stronger, until it became a steady, stabilized rhythm.

Kat stared at it unbelievingly.

There was a cheer from the crowded room. “He’s going to make it!” someone yelled.

“Jesus, that was close!”

They have no idea how close,
Kat thought.

Two hours later, Lou Dinetto was off the table and on a gurney, on his way back to intensive care. Kat was at his side. Rhino and the Shadow were waiting in the corridor.

“The operation was successful,” Kat said. “He’s going to be fine.”

Ken Mallory was in deep trouble. It was the last day to make good on his bet. The problem had been growing so gradually that he had hardly been aware of it. From almost the first night, he had been positive that he would have no trouble getting Kat into bed.
Trouble? She’s eager for it!
Now his time was up, and he was facing disaster.

Mallory thought about all the things that had gone wrong—Kat’s roommates coming in just as she was about to go to bed with him, the difficulty of getting together for a date, Kat’s being called away by her beeper and leaving
him standing naked, her cousin coming to town, her over-sleeping, her period. He stopped suddenly and thought,
Wait a minute! They couldn’t have all been coincidences!
Kat was doing this to him deliberately! She had somehow gotten wind of the bet, and had decided to make a fool of him, to play a joke on him, a joke that was going to cost him ten thousand dollars that he didn’t have.
The bitch!
He was no closer to winning than he had been at the beginning. She had deliberately led him on.
How the hell did I let myself get into this?
He knew there was no way he could come up with the money.

When Mallory walked into the doctors’ dressing room, they were waiting for him.

“Payoff day!” Grundy sang out.

Mallory forced a smile. “I have until midnight, right? Believe me, she’s ready, fellows.”

There was a snicker. “Sure. We’ll believe you when we hear it from the lady herself. Just have the cash ready in the morning.”

Mallory laughed. “You’d better have
yours
ready!”

He
had
to find a way. And suddenly he had the answer.

Ken Mallory found Kat in the lounge. He sat down opposite her. “I hear you saved a patient’s life.”

“And my own.”

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“How would you like to save my life?”

Kat looked at him quizzically.

“Have dinner with me tonight.”

“I’m too tired, Ken.” She was weary of the game she was playing with him.
I’ve had enough,
Kat thought.
It’s
time to stop. It’s over. I’ve fallen into my own trap.
She wished he were a different kind of man. If only he had been honest with her.
I really could have cared for him,
Kat thought.

There was no way Mallory was going to let Kat get away. “We’ll make it an early night,” he coaxed. “You have to have dinner somewhere.”

Reluctantly, Kat nodded. She knew it was going to be the last time. She was going to tell him she knew about the bet. She was going to end the game. “All right.”

Honey finished her shift at 4:00
P.M.
She looked at her watch and decided that she had just enough time to do some quick shopping. She went to the Candelier to buy some candles for the apartment, then to the San Francisco Tea and Coffee Company so there would be some drinkable coffee for breakfast, and on to Chris Kelly for linens.

Loaded down with packages, Honey headed for the apartment.
I’ll fix myself some dinner at home,
Honey decided. She knew that Kat had a date with Mallory, and that Paige was on call.

Fumbling with her packages, Honey entered the apartment and closed the door behind her. She switched on the light. A huge black man was coming out of the bathroom, dripping blood on the white carpet. He was pointing a gun at her.

“Make one sound, and I’ll blow your fucking head off!”

Honey screamed.

M
allory was seated across from Kat at Schroeder’s restaurant on Front Street.

It’s the bottom of the ninth,
he thought,
and so far it’s a shutout.
What was going to happen when he couldn’t pay the ten thousand dollars? Word would spread quickly around the hospital, and he would become known as a welcher, a sick joke.

Kat was chatting about one of her patients, and Mallory was looking into her eyes, not hearing a word she said. He had more important things on his mind.

Dinner was almost over, and the waiter was serving coffee. Kat looked at her watch. “I have an early call, Ken. I think we’d better go.”

He sat there, staring down at the table. “Kat…” He looked up. “There’s something I have to tell you.”

“Yes?”

“I have a confession to make.” He took a deep breath. “This isn’t easy for me.”

She watched him, puzzled. “What is it?”

“I’m embarrassed to tell you.” He was fumbling for
words. “I…I made a stupid bet with some of the doctors that…that I could take you to bed.”

Kat was staring at him. “You…”

“Please don’t say anything yet. I’m so ashamed of what I did. It started out as a kind of joke, but the joke is on me. Something happened that I didn’t count on. I fell in love with you.”

“Ken…”

“I’ve never been in love before, Kat. I’ve known a lot of women, but never felt anything like this. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.” He took a shaky breath. “I want to marry you.”

Kat’s mind was spinning. Everything was being turned topsy-turvy. “I…I don’t know what to…”

“You’re the only woman I’ve ever proposed to. Please say yes. Will you marry me, Kat?”

So he had really meant all the lovely things he had said to her! Her heart was pounding. It was like a wonderful dream suddenly come true. All she had wanted from him was honesty. And now he was being honest with her. All this time he had been feeling guilty about what he had done. He was not like other men. He was genuine, and sensitive.

When Kat looked at him, her eyes were glowing. “Yes, Ken. Oh, yes!”

His grin lit up the room. “Kat…” He leaned over and kissed her. “I’m so sorry about that stupid bet.” He shook his head in self-derision. “Ten thousand dollars. We could have used that money for our honeymoon. But it’s worth losing it to have you.”

Kat was thinking,
Ten thousand dollars.

“I was such a fool.”

“When is your deadline up?”

“At midnight tonight, but that’s not important anymore.
The important thing is us. That we’re going to be married. We—”

“Ken?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Let’s go to your place.” There was a mischievous glint in Kat’s eyes. “You still have time to win your bet.”

Kat was a tigress in bed.

My God! This was worth waiting for,
Mallory thought. All the feelings that Kat had kept bottled up over the years suddenly exploded. She was the most passionate woman Ken Mallory had ever known. At the end of two hours, he was exhausted. He held Kat in his arms. “You’re incredible,” he said.

She lifted herself up on her elbows and looked down at him. “So are you, darling. I’m so happy.”

Mallory grinned. “So am I.”
Ten thousand dollars’ worth!
he thought.
And great sex.

“Promise me it will always be like this, Ken.”

“I promise,” Mallory said in his sincerest voice.

Kat looked at her watch. “I’d better get dressed.”

“Can’t you spend the night here?”

“No, I’m riding to the hospital with Paige in the morning.” She gave him a warm kiss. “Don’t worry. We’ll have all our lives to spend together.”

He watched her get dressed.

“I can’t wait to collect on that bet. It will buy us a great honeymoon.” He frowned. “But what if the boys don’t believe me? They aren’t going to take my word for it.”

Kat was thoughtful for a moment. Finally, she said, “Don’t worry. I’ll let them know.”

Mallory grinned. “Come on back to bed.”