“I can understand that you wouldn’t want to upset Julia.” Thomas purposely waited a moment before he asked, “Wasn’t she in charge of reviewing your cases?” Thomas knew he was stepping over the line with this question. Gavin shot him a look of warning.

“Yes,” Blythe said slowly.

“Yes?” Thomas raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t that make you a little annoyed?”

“I wasn’t happy with the situation but I had nothing personal against Julia.” He looked over at Gavin. The severe glare indicated that he’d better not let Thomas go any further.

“It wouldn’t be strange if you were annoyed. It would be normal to be irritated with the person who is… How should I say this? Looking over your shoulder.” Thomas pressed on, ignoring the eye contact between Blythe and Gavin. Gavin, though, remained silent and Thomas didn’t know why.

Phillip Blythe became visibly agitated but he took a second and composed himself. He tented his fingers together, inhaled deeply and answered, “Julia and I shared an amiable professional relationship. I respected her opinion. If I had done something wrong, I would have valued her judgment on the matter.”

“She agreed with many of your reports, especially about this dog attack on a two-year old boy.” Jack opened a folder and flipped through the files.

Blythe just shrugged his shoulders. “So?”

“Let’s discuss what she said in some of these other reports. The ones she handed in to your superiors.” Jack read from the documents in front of him. “It appears as if Dr. Phillip Blythe may be overworked. He has made several serious errors in judgment that are hard to overlook. I wouldn’t expect these types of mistakes from a medical resident let alone the chief medical examiner.” Jack glanced up from the folder and stared at Blythe, waiting for a response.

Phillip Blythe’s face went white, his eyes opened wide and it took a second before he said, “I never saw that report.”

“Now, sir, this is dated almost two months ago. Someone must have reviewed this with you since that time. I’m sure you have been privy to this. You must have known what she said about you.”

Blythe stared blankly. “I had no idea.” He sounded genuinely stunned.

“Okay, I think this line of questioning has gone far enough,” Gavin finally announced.

“Of course. I’m sorry, doctor, I didn’t mean to imply anything improper,” Jack said.

Gavin got up to leave, indicating they all should follow. Both Thomas and Jack rose, but after taking a few steps Thomas stopped. “You took Lauren to a pathology convention. Am I right?”

“Yes,” Blythe answered, his tone questioning.

“Did you continue your relationship with Lauren after it?”

“Not for very long.”

“Why was that?”