Sitting in the chapel, Sophie forced herself to take a deep
breath. Every day, she was growing angrier. Angry at Metro
Hospital, angry at life for dealing her this card, but, by far, angri
est at Mitch Wagner. She had to calm down. She was no good
to Danny if her blood pressure caused her to blow an aneurysm.
Sophie heard the chapel door open.
She couldn’t help herself. She turned to the chapel guy seat
ing himself behind her and asked, “Who are you?” Then, in an
accusatory voice, she added, “Why are you here every time I’m
here?”
“Don’t worry, I’m on your side. I know all about Danny and
Blu and everything you and Adam have gone through.”
Sophie’s eyes widened. “How do you know all this? Who are
you?” she repeated.
“I work for WMI. I’ve been investigating Dr. Wagner.”
Her jaw dropped.
“When they caught wind of his census scheme, they sent me
here to gather information on what he’s been doing.”
“That’s why I’ve been seeing you around—in the hospital, on
the street, at dinner with doctors.”
He nodded. “And you and your family just happened to be
caught in the middle of it. WMI had nothing to do with Dr. Wag
ner’s actions. At some point, he went rogue with Josh and Charlie,
and the three of them, with Rita’s help, started manipulating the
number of babies in the NICU purely for financial gain.”
255
THE VERY BEST OF CARE
Sophie shook her head. “I can’t even believe it. You mean
you and WMI already know about Dr. Wagner?”
He nodded again.
“Why didn’t you stop him?” Anger welled up in her. “You could
have prevented me, and others, from delivering prematurely.”
“Because we didn’t know the full scale of what he was doing
until just recently. We thought he was claiming many of the tri
age deliveries as his own to make his numbers look better than
the other obstetricians’. We didn’t realize he was actually causing
the early deliveries to happen.”
“I don’t know if I should even be sitting here talking to you.
Why should I believe that you are who you say you are? Right
now, I feel a lot more suspicious than trusting.”
“I understand. But just think about it. You’ve seen me with
Dr. Patel and other physicians of the hospital.”
Sophie studied her hands for a few moments. “Okay,” she
said. “Adam and I have been working to help one of Metro’s
administrators make her case against him. But it sounds like
you’ve already done all that.”
“The more proof we have against him, the better. We expect he
will be arrested and have his medical license permanently revoked.
WMI wants to use your family as an example of the damage he has
done to give to the FBI. That is, if you and your husband will agree.”
“I need to talk with Adam, and I need to be sure we can trust
you.”
“Of course. I understand your hesitation. Do whatever you
need to feel confident that I’m who I say I am. But once you do,
would you agree to help?”
“Yes. But Ms. Cross, the administrator I was talking about,
already has a meeting, kind of like a tribunal, planned for him.”
“I’ve talked with her. She’ll complete her investigation and
hold the meeting to let him know that he no longer works for
the hospital.”
256
JULIE HATCH
Sophie was quiet for a moment, then asked, “What do you
know about Danny’s contaminated blood transfusion? How in
the world was Mitch able to pull that one off?”
“That was an extremely serious offense and apparently even
lower than Mitch was willing to go. When we traced the blood
that Danny received back to the hospital blood bank, we found
that one of Mitch’s underlings had gotten himself into the blood
bank for the day, under the pretense of being a legitimate WMI
employee trained to work there. That guy, whose name is Tommy,
insists that Mitch is innocent of the contaminated blood. He had
nothing to do with it, and it was all Tommy’s idea.”
Sophie’s phone buzzed with an incoming text. She stood up
to leave. “I gotta go. I need to get upstairs to Danny.”
