After entering his apartment and closing the door, Noah stood for a moment, surveying the room. In comparison with Ava’s place, it was a joke. The postage-stamp size, the lack of furnishings and decoration, and, most important of all, the lack of any personal touch were striking. He couldn’t help but remember all the framed pictures of Ava in her study, which he could still see in his mind’s eye, such as those in sporty venues such as ski areas and scuba-diving locales. There was even one of her about to skydive and another of her about to bungee-jump, activities that Noah thought were certifiably crazy. At the same time, he gave her credit for being adventuresome, since he certainly wouldn’t do either one. Most of the other photos were just smiling selfies Ava had taken at various tourist attractions such as the Coliseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Vaguely he wondered if she went on these trips solo, and if she didn’t, why a companion wasn’t in any of them.
Thinking about Ava’s mansion and the money it represented, Noah again wondered exactly what her business connections were that could support such a lifestyle, since he was certain, the more he thought about it, that her anesthesia salary would not be enough. Her explanation that her business involved “consulting” was unclear. He wondered if her outside work involved anesthesia in some way. If their friendship did blossom, he’d ask her. One of the qualities that he particularly liked about her was her apparent self-confidence and openness in who she was, something Noah felt he lacked except for his role of being a doctor.
Trying to tamp down his excitement of a potential new relationship with an attractive, sexy, and impressively intelligent woman with mutual interests and a similar value system, Noah sat down at his card table and booted up his HP laptop. Hungry for more information, he was eager to check out Ava’s Facebook page under the name of Gail Shafter. As the comparatively ancient machine labored through its routine, Noah had to smile at the difference between his computer and Ava’s setup. It was as stark as their living styles.
When Gail Shafter’s page came up, Noah was fascinated. There were lots of photos going back to Ava’s childhood. There were even some of the same selfies that Ava had on the wall of her study, as if Gail Shafter was a globetrotter as well. Looking at the “friends” category, he was duly impressed that she had 641, which made him laugh when he thought about his own page. He couldn’t remember exactly, but he thought he had about ten. Then Noah looked at the “about” information and saw that Gail Shafter had gone to high school in Lubbock, Texas, and now worked for a dentist in Iowa. What Noah found most interesting was trying to decide what was real and what wasn’t.
Something else caught his attention. There was a fan page listed over to the left on Gail Shafter’s homepage. When he clicked on it he found Gail Shafter’s Nutrition, Exercise, and Beauty page, where he found multiple videos of Ava significantly disguised, providing tips on all sorts of subjects involving makeup, exercise, and general health. But what surprised him the most was when he clicked on “likes,” he found that she had 122,363 followers! No wonder she spent so much time on social media. It was a command performance.
Next he pulled up her LinkedIn page. This was decidedly professional. He was interested to read that she had attended Brazos University in Lubbock, Texas, in a combined B.A./M.D. program with an undergraduate major in nutrition. She then went on to an anesthesia residency at the Brazos University Medical Center. Noah thought that nutrition was an interesting major for a premedical student, as nutrition was one of those subjects that medical school did a poor job teaching. He thought it was a smart choice and wondered if nutrition had anything to do with her consulting business.
Glancing over the rest of the material, Noah suddenly burst out laughing. In the skills and endorsement section, he noticed that Gail Shafter was one of the people who gave Ava a positive endorsement as to her anesthesia skills. “Why not?” Noah remarked out loud. He knew what he had found was an example of sockpuppetry, which some people looked down on, but in this instance he thought it was humorous.
After turning off his computer, Noah got to his feet and stretched. He then headed into the bedroom, knowing that 4:45 A.M. would come all too quickly.
10
SATURDAY, JULY 8, 10:52 A.M.
So far the morning had gone brilliantly, but Noah knew it was about to head south. He was on his way across the pedestrian bridge that connected the Stanhope Pavilion with the Young Clinic Building, where Dr. William Mason had an office. Noah was facing a semi-impromptu meeting with “Wild Bill” for 11:00 A.M. that had been arranged when Noah had run into the surgeon by happenstance on the general surgical floor less than an hour earlier. When Noah had asked if he could have a moment of his time, Mason had responded gruffly that he would be available around eleven in his clinic office for a short time. Noah didn’t know exactly what to expect, but the chances the interaction would turn out pleasant were essentially nil.
Noah had arrived at the hospital as per usual around five and gone straight to the surgical intensive-care unit. He was particularly interested to see how John Horton was getting on, even though he was a private patient under the moment-to-moment care of the critical-care people. It was comforting to see that he was doing reasonably well. The same was true with all the other SICU patients. It had also been nice to hear that Carol Jensen, as a unit supervisor, continued to be complimentary about the new residents.
Leaving the SICU, Noah had met up with the residents who had been on call overnight. No problems there. The Saturday-morning work rounds had gone smoothly, although with the new residents it had taken much longer than usual. When Noah had run into Dr. Mason around 10:00, work rounds were just ending, even though they had started at 7:30. As expected, the newbies had yet to master the technique of quick but thorough bedside presentations. That being said, all in all, Noah felt very good about how the first full week of his super chief residency had gone. He wasn’t surprised. He’d always been a fast learner. It was the coming second week that had him worried.
Saturday clinic was a mere shadow of its normal weekday self, and the Young Building was comparatively empty. Noah was the only one in the elevator as he rode up to the fifth floor, home of the General Surgery Clinic. Although he was certainly not looking forward to the next fifteen minutes or so, what bolstered his courage was a sense of secret camaraderie that Ava was now providing. It was reassuring to not be alone in regard to the looming M&M.
Noah walked directly back to where he knew Dr. Mason had a small office that also functioned as an exam room. The man’s real office was in the much plusher Franklin Building, which catered to the likes of Arab sheiks, billionaires, and heads of state and had been named after one of Mason’s former patients, who’d financed it.