One thing that Noah was certain about was Dr. Mason’s role in the affair. His self-satisfied smile alone during the fateful meeting in the chief’s office had made that clear. Noah was certain it had been Dr. Mason who had gotten the bound copy of his Ph.D. thesis from MIT, apparently studied it as evidenced by the Post-it notes, found the discrepancy between the submitted hardcopies and the online version, and had sounded the alarm. Could Ava have been so low as to communicate to Dr. Mason to look for discrepancies in the thesis?
When this thought had occurred to Noah Friday night, he had dismissed it out of hand as he’d done other suspicions. Noah was absolutely confident that Ava detested Dr. Mason, so the idea that she would help him was ludicrous. Yet how did Dr. Mason know about the issue? Noah had no idea.
Arriving at the corner of Grove Street and Revere, Noah was about to turn right when he glanced over his shoulder down the hill. He started. Almost a block away was the African American. He was coming in Noah’s direction once again with his jacket still slung casually over his shoulder.
“Taking in the sights, my ass,” Noah said under his breath, his anger at Ava finding a convenient target even though he’d resigned himself to being under surveillance. He hurried down Revere Street to his front door and quickly entered. A moment later he was in his apartment and rushed to the front window. He was certain the man would appear, and when he did, Noah planned on opening his window and loudly embarrassing the man. Noah even briefly thought about calling 911 to complain about being harassed.
After ten minutes of watching, Noah gave up. He carried the bag of prepared food into the kitchen and pushed it into his refrigerator without opening it. Now he was less hungry than when he was at the store despite not having eaten since the previous night. It was a little after 3:00 in the afternoon.
Returning to the living room, Noah again looked out the window. There were a few pedestrians going in both directions as there had been before, but no athletic-appearing African American with white shirt and tie carrying a suit jacket over his shoulder. Just like on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, the person he thought had been following him just disappeared, making him question his sanity.
Sitting down on his couch and gazing at his blank walls, Noah felt adrift and intensely lonely. It was as if the weight of the world was pressing down on him. He needed some human warmth, and unfortunately, Ava was not coming through. The only person who came to mind was Leslie Brooks. He looked at his watch again as if he’d forgotten he’d just checked it. It was almost 4:00. He wondered if Leslie would be available. For the entire two-years-plus that they had been apart, it had always been Leslie who called, and it had always been on Saturday afternoon. Maybe she might be available. After all, it was Saturday afternoon.
In his depressed state, Noah found decision making difficult. Should he call, and if he should, should he use FaceTime or not? As a doctor he was always decisive, but in the social arena, he was not, especially now, under these extraordinary circumstances. After going back and forth several times, he heaved himself to his feet and went into the bathroom to get a look at himself in the medicine-cabinet mirror. He didn’t like what he saw. He hadn’t shaved since Tuesday, hadn’t slept well, and accordingly looked like death warmed over. No, he wouldn’t use FaceTime if he called. He didn’t want to scare Leslie, even though he craved sympathy.
After flip-flopping on whether to call or not, he impulsively clicked her number. He felt great relief when she picked up on the third ring. Noah had been counting.
“Will wonders never cease?” Leslie said. She was a little out of breath. “This is the first time you’ve called me since I don’t remember when. What’s up?”
“Can you talk, or is this an inconvenient time?”
“I’m on the street, walking back to my apartment,” Leslie said. “I’ll be home in five minutes. Can I call you back?”
“I suppose,” Noah said. Now that he had her on the line, he didn’t want to lose her.
“You don’t sound good. Is something wrong?”
“Call me back,” Noah said. “But don’t use FaceTime. I don’t want to scare you.” He disconnected without waiting for a response.
As Noah impatiently waited, he found himself imagining how her apartment looked. Undoubtedly, it was the opposite of his, with all sorts of decorative, feminine stuff, including colorful curtains and soft rugs. When he lived with it, he’d never appreciated it. Now he missed it.
True to her word, she called back. It was more like ten minutes than five, but Noah was happy to hear her voice.
“Okay,” Leslie said in a serious tone. “What’s wrong? Have you broken up with your new girlfriend?”
“Worse,” Noah said. “I was suspended from my residency position. In a week and a half I have to go before the Surgical Residency Advisory Board to see if it is going to be permanent. One of the ironies is that I sit on the board, so I need to recuse myself.”
“Good God!” Leslie exclaimed. “How? Why? This has to be a misunderstanding.”
Noah told her the whole story. It felt good for him to voice it all, especially to someone who knew him and whose opinion he trusted. Leslie was well aware of Dr. Mason, as she had been around during the Dr. Meg Green fiasco and the resulting fallout. Noah included that Ava, whose name he now used, had not so much as texted him since the event, which she surely would have learned about. He admitted she was justifiably angry with him and described why. As a final point, he mentioned that Ava had been the only person in years to whom he had mentioned anything about his Ph.D. thesis.
“First let me say how very sorry I am this has happened,” Leslie said when Noah fell silent. “Knowing you, I can understand how devastated you are. I’m sure it will be reversed at the advisory meeting. Clearly, from what you have told me, no one has put more of themselves into being a surgical resident than you.”
“I wish I could be so sure,” Noah said, his voice breaking.
“With your record and your level of commitment, it is an inexcusable reason to dismiss you. I’m sure of it. It has to be reversed. I think their motivation is merely to play along with Dr. Mason and make a statement about ethics.”
“I hope you’re right,” Noah said. “It’s possible it was done to humor Dr. Mason. Dr. Hernandez did specifically tell me a week ago that Dr. Mason had to be reckoned with. Well, we’ll have to see. Regardless, I appreciate your sympathy and thoughts.”
“Now for the rest of my response, which I assume you want because you made the effort to call, how honest do you want me to be? I know on our last conversation you weren’t too happy with what I had to say.”
“I need you to be honest,” Noah admitted. “I might not like it, but I need to hear it.”
“I think there is a very good chance that Miss Ava was the source of raising this thesis issue, especially after you telling me how angry she was catching you snooping in her computer.”