Chapter 12 - The Doctor's Other Job
Dr. Shore smiled when I arrived for a required medical check. She had no idea how badly I wanted to throw her clipboard across the room.
"You seem calmer," she said.
"Am I going to Brightwater?"
Her pen stopped. "Why would you think that?"
"Your name is on the lease of the warehouse."
Then she pressed a button beneath the counter.
"I'm ending this appointment."
Brooks appeared outside the door. Instead of taking me to segregation, she walked me back toward the tier. "Don't confront her again without counsel," she whispered. "You're giving her time to destroy things."
"How do you know?"
"Because I went through the charting system. Gloria's vitals were copied into three different women's records on the same night. I submitted a protected report."
"You could lose your job."
"I thought that was the worst thing that could happen. Then I read the charts."
Later, Brandi found me at the sinks. She looked different without an audience. "My sister lives in a group home. Fitch knows the address. He made me sign the lie about you."
"You could tell investigators."
"And leave her open to him?"
"Rae can ask for a protected interview. Nobody can promise it's risk-free. But hiding the truth hasn't kept her safe either."
Brandi stared into the basin. "Morgane knows where the original transfer list is. They haven't broken her yet."
That night guards searched our tier, lifting mattresses and shaking shoes. They took my legal notes until I demanded a property receipt. Near midnight, Fitch stood outside my cell with my disciplinary file.
"Your lawyer's been busy," he said. "You should've left your sister's ghosts alone."
May you like
He slid a yellow notice through the slot. At the top was a familiar phrase: OUTSIDE SERVICES.
At the bottom, beneath my own name, was tomorrow's date.
