Nick Storie; Deadly Operation

By CD Moulton

Serena, who Nick met in Morality Play, calls to say there are deaths in the hospital where she is head IC nurse. They are suspicious. The one she called about just happened.
Nick goes to investigate. The chart that had been changed to cause anaphylactic shock that killed the woman has been substituted.
Nick investigates a number of deaths from such causes to find there is a doctor there who is involved in offshore investments. The only connection among the victims is investment in that company.
Then some of the gangsters Nick has met in the past become involved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CD Moulton
• Release date: Aug 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452375885

CD Moulton

Born in Florida, travelled the world as a rock guitarist with some big names in the late sixties, early seventies. Been everything from a high steel worker to longshoreman, from musician to bar owner, and much more. Educated in botany and genetics. Now living in paradise (Panamá!)

Book preview

Nick Storie

Book 8

Deadly Operation

© 1993 by C. D. Moulton

Smashwords Edition

© 2011 & 2013

all rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder/publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances to persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental unless otherwise stated.

Serena Lovell, who Nick met in Morality Play, calls to tell him there have been some disturbing deaths in the ICU at Mercy, where she is head nurse. Is a doctor killing off patients who have invested in a business he runs?

Critic comment

The Nick Storie books have grown into a very readable series. The characters have become very likeable and distinctive, and Nick is not, as the naming of some of them would suggest, a Mickey Spillane - type. He is a problem solver. Another one I give high marks. – JMD ***½

Contents

Prologue

Chapter one

Chapter two

Chapter three

Chapter four

Chapter five

Chapter six

Chapter seven

Chapter eight

Chapter nine

Epilogue

About the author

CD was born in Lakeland, Florida. His education is in genetics and botany. He has traveled over much of the world, particularly when he was in music as a rock rhythm guitarist with some well-known bands in the late sixties and early seventies. He has worked as a high steel worker and as a longshoreman, clerk, orchidist, bar owner, salvage yard manager and landscaper – among other things.

CD began writing fiction in 1984 and has more than 115 books published as of this time in SciFi, murder, orchid culture and various other fields.

He now resides in Bocas del Toro and David, Panamá, where he continues research into epiphytic plants. He loves the culture of the indigenous people and counts a majority of his closer friends among that group. Several have adopted him as their father. He funds those he can afford through the universities where they have all excelled. The Indios are very intelligent people, they are simply too poor (in material things and money. Culturally, they are very wealthy) to pursue higher education.

CD loves Panamá and the people. He plans to spend the rest of his life in the paradise that is Panamá

- Estrelita Suarez V.

Deadly Operation

Prologue

Dr. Harrison to IC. Dr. Harrison to IC. Nurse Lovell to IC. Nurse Lovell to IC. Dr. Norris, call your office.

Serena grimaced at the speaker and sighed. "Mrs. Ford, try to relax and let us worry about the tests. We won't know until the lab gives us the results, but I can tell you from vast personal experience that it isn't cancer. Ovarian cancer causes excessive fluid buildup before any other symptoms, in almost all cases.

"I think you have a fibrous cyst. It's not terribly serious.

I have to report to intensive care. You relax and wait for the results. There's no sense in anticipating the worst when there's no evidence it will happen. Quite the contrary. Worrying will make you sicker than most diseases. Particularly when all you're doing is borrowing trouble.

You're lying! the pinched-faced middle-aged woman spat back at her. "You'll say anything at all to lull a sick old woman into dying peacefully!

Well, let me tell you! THIS one won't go easy! You don't fool me!

Then lay there and worry yourself into getting really sick, Serena replied. "I have patients who really need me.

Excuse me!

She walked out before the woman could continue railing at her.

Why were so many people like that? A sour, NOT old, excuse the expression, BITCH like her would waste time while people like Mr. Joliere died telling jokes and thinking about others.

It wasn't expected that Mr. Joliere would die, but those kinds of things did happen. He knew it was serious.

She quickly went into the IC unit to find Dr. John Harrison, Dr. Ed Collins and Dr. Morris Fellstein working over Mrs. Winton. She moved rapidly to the systems monitor as Fellstein called Again! and Mrs. Winton jerked.

Serena looked at the monitor. Flat-line.

What? she demanded, stepping in to quickly check the skin surface electro-resistance meter. She grabbed the IV chart and did a quick read.

Anaphylactic rejection, Harrison replied.

What? she asked.

Who the hell knows?! Collins snapped. She's in anaphylactic shock and we're losing her!

My god! Who put A-two ten and glucose on this chart? Serena demanded. Dr. Fellstein! Two ten is penicillin! She's stage one allergic!

She yanked the tube from the needle and grabbed an IV number PX-411, but knew it was too late. The flat line had stayed flat too long.

I don't see what...? Dr. Fellstein said, puzzled. "There's a green box! The chart has a green box, yet it says A-two ten?

Who prescribed it? Who would...? This is terrible! Whoever prescribed two ten KILLED that patient! This is terrible!

Collins grabbed the chart, stared at it in shocked disbelief and threw it across the room, swearing viciously.

This was one too many! Serena had been more than a little suspicious of several recent deaths. Four people, now five, had been recovering well, then had suddenly died. This one, the reason was plain.

The doctors in the room and she were the only ones who could have made that substitution on the chart – and she knew damned well she hadn't done it.

Unless someone else had come in when no one was there? There were always nurses and orderlies in the IC unit.

One thing was certain.

Serena picked up the chart board and slipped out to the nurses station. Two minutes later the doctors, two IC duty nurses and two IC duty orderlies joined her.

We have to get to the bottom of this, and fast! Fellstein announced. "That patient died because of someone’s gross incompetence and negligence! This is inexcusable! It's criminal! I will not have it! I will NOT!

WHO changed that chart? I want to know, and I mean RIGHT NOW! We can NOT tolerate this, this ... criminal incompetence!

I really don't think incompetence is involved, Serena said, coldly. I think deliberate MURDER is!

Chapter one

I made it through one where I don't have to stay here half the night! As of right now it's all yours, Nick, Lt. Jim Hill, day-shift homicide, said to Lt. Nathaniel Nick Storie, night-shift homicide. You and Jan (Nick's wife, Janet) coming out day after tomorrow?

Jim had a home on a barrier island. The group often spent time there on weekends. The homicide unit was like a close family.

Uh-huh, Nick answered. Marsh and Hank will be there, but I don't suppose Paddy and Joan can make it?

Sgt. Marsha Blevins, aide (and the actual power in the office) to Det. Capt. James Paddy James, grinned and said, Paddy and Joan WILL be there, believe it or not!

Hank was Marsha's husband. He was always being kidded because he was a black who made the best barbecued chicken and ribs in the country. Paddy was a mountain of a man and was terrified of water. By boat was the only way to Jim's place.

How did you manage that one? Lt. Ed Goins, graveyard shift homicide asked. I'll be on duty, so Millie and I can't be there. Bill (Jenks, detective) is on, too, so he won't be out there, either. C'est la vie!

Joan's brother, Larry, rented a big pontoon boat, Paddy said, seriously. "Joan insisted I go out in the bay with them and it wasn't too bad, so she says now I have to go because she's borrowing the thing.

"We're coming out at eleven. It'll be low tide, so I can see bottom most or the way. We'll go back after dark.

"I suppose I'll have to put up with fifty or sixty spoiled screaming brats and wailing infants?

What a way to spend your Sundays!

Mine aren't all that spoiled and are both teenagers, Marsha replied. "Jim's is only a year old and Nick's is just four months an a couple of days.

They don't wail more than half the time.

Teenagers! Oh my god! How time flies! Paddy cried. That's even WORSE! What I have to put up with!

Nick grinned. Paddy's own son was nineteen and attending Stanford University, while his daughter was seventeen and was going to Florida State in September. Paddy loved kids and babies.

The phone on Nick's desk binged. Sgt. Shirley Kiser's voice (She was the desk sgt. tonight) came on the intercom. "Line one, Nick! She asked for you specifically.

You've been on duty almost three minutes! Stop wasting time with mindless chit-chat at the tax-payers' expense!!

Nick picked up the phone and said, Storie. Homicide.

"This is Serena Lovell. We met when Dale Jordan was killed?

A patient here at Mercy General has just been murdered. I think there were four others, but this is the first one I can prove was murder.

Nick remembered Serena very well. She hadn't changed, but the Jordan murder was a mere two months ago. She was a stunning natural mahogany-redhead with a figure most women would kill for, about twenty six years old, about 5' 8" without heels and had startling green eyes Nick had first thought to be contacts, but he'd learned they were natural.

She was also far more intelligent than she let on and had an enviable record as head IC nurse. The blue and white uniform, not the best shades, couldn't detract from her natural beauty. She had a good sense of humor and spoke her mind.

Serena hadn't forgotten Nick, either. He stood about three inches taller than she and had the build of a slender athlete. His thick hair was a dirty blond and he had a strong squarish face. Sort of boyish, but not that phony Oh gee-whiz golly-gosh type.

Strong and boyish at the same time. Not exactly handsome, but definitely very attractive. His voice was pleasant to hear and he had a wonderful sense of humor, in a subtle way.

She had automatically liked and trusted him. He was open and honest.

They were standing at the IC unit nurse's station desk/counter. Serena introduced Dr. Fellstein, a small, dark, nervous man, wearing gold-rimmed glasses. He was curt and went to another doctor, who was talking earnestly to a nurse.

That's Dr. Harrison (Tall, very distinguished, dark, about 45 years old, graying at the temples) and Nurse Lloyd, Serena said. Nurse Lloyd was a short, slightly plump woman in her mid-thirties. She looked motherly and efficient at the same time.

Serena pointed to two men and a woman just inside the IC unit door and said they were Bill Tedd (Brown hair, 5' 10" and a bit heavy. Baby-faced) and Mike Sorensen (Very blond with dark skin, body builder type, six or six-one), the orderlies who assisted in IC.

The woman was Nurse Toni Vosted, a tall, thin woman with a stern look and her hair pulled into a bun under the net. She wore heavy horn-rimmed glasses with a red band around her neck that was attached to the earpieces.

Serena grinned and said that Toni never quite seemed to fit the way she looked.

Nick, I caused quite a big stir I'm afraid, but they couldn't do anything about it, she began. "Dr. Klein is competent to find anything that may be in the RR. I've met him and even worked with him once before he joined the county coroner's staff. He still practices internal surgery and is brilliant – and I don't say that about many outside our team here. I'm more likely to say they're fifty percent hacks.

This is the first time I've ever seen Dr. Menthorne. He's certainly one to make an impact!

Dr. David Klein was first assistant to Dr. Tiny Menthorne, coroner. They had the forensics crew, including Frog Forest, ace photographer, in the IC room with Mrs. Winton's body.

Klein was a small intense man with curly salt and pepper hair. Tiny was a mobile mountain, standing six six and weighing, at the moment, three hundred forty pounds. He went from a low of three thirty five to a high of three eighty or so.

Frog enjoyed playing the stoned-out hippie, but was brilliant and missed nothing with his pictures. He went to great lengths to look like a sixties/ Woodstock flower child.

Another doctor came from the IC room, went to the end of the station counter to look through the V-racks of charts hanging there, took one and went along the hall. He was about 5' 10 and of a more athletic build, had very black hair and moved in a purposeful" manner – something learned in bedside manner class 101, no doubt. He looked more like the college buddy type.

That's Dr. Collins. He was really awfully upset about this, Serena said. All of us are. We can't figure it.

You said this wasn't the first death you've been suspicious of? Nick asked. "Start with the first one. I'll consider it common gossip if, as you say, you can't prove anything.

Who was first victim? The circumstances? Why you even became suspicious? When? The attending physician? Everything.

Let me check with Dr. Klein and Dr. Menthorne, then we can go back into my office, she said. I have something there to show you and it's one of the few truly private places here.

She went to explain something to Tiny, then led him along the hall to her office, which was on the left of the entrance doors to the IC unit. A short hall went along just inside the doors to another door on the right. X-ray developing, Serena explained when Nick looked at it.

The door across from it was the side door to her office and the door at the end of the hall was the IC doctors' offices. There were six smaller offices in there. Dr. Harrison, Dr. Yee, Dr. Billings, Dr. Collins, Dr. Fellstein and Dr. Norris.

They went into the head nurse's private office, a comfortable room with good carpeting, a large desk, loads of files, a library, a very comfortable divan and chair and subdued lighting.

All the nurses here use this office, though it's supposed to be mine, Serena said. It's comfortable and quiet, two things the lounge manages to barely miss.

Now! When did this start and who were the patients? Nick asked.

"I suppose they should be called victims instead of patients, shouldn't they?

The first ones didn't arouse any suspicion – until the third one, then he and the second one made a three-cornered coincidence that I couldn't dismiss, she replied. "I heard you say how three stretches coincidence and four just AIN'T no coincidence when Dale was murdered.

"The third one was a man named Louis Helton. He died about three months ago. He was about forty five years old and was in for a heart attack, but not