“Oh, it’s very correct. She cancelled it. Cancelled it before she hired you.” Val’s thoughts quickly fired. How could he not have known this?

Bradley got up from his chair, walked over to a filing cabinet and began thumbing through the folders. He pulled one out. “I have a copy of her policy right here.”

“I can also show you a copy of the cancellation notice for that,” Val said. “If you thought Julia had a policy, didn’t you find it was strange that she would hire you privately? The insurance carrier would have assigned a lawyer to her. It would have been covered under that policy.”

“She told me she didn’t like the lawyer they picked for her. In fact, Julia said she couldn’t stand her.” Bradley sat back down. “Look, she never said anything to me about not having malpractice insurance. Not once. In fact, at every meeting we had she led me to believe that she had it. Jesus, the day she died, I advised her to settle the case. She had no chance of winning. Julia did this procedure as a favor to Lauren and probably should have waited until the office opened. It really was her downfall.”

“Excuse me? This was done in an office that wasn’t even opened yet?” Val asked.

“Yes, it was still being built. All of the equipment was in. I think all that was left to do was place some fixtures in the bathrooms, hang wallpaper and lay a rug in the waiting room. So basically, it was close, but there was no staff to witness the event. Julia hadn’t hired anyone because she wasn’t treating patients yet. She was alone with Lauren when she removed the mole and alone with her when she did the follow-up visit. There was no one to support her story.”

“Why would Julia do this?” Val said more to herself than to those in the room.

Bradley Underwood said, “In Julia’s defense, she thought Lauren was her friend. I’ve seen many doctors screw themselves because they take care of so-called friends after hours in less-than-ideal settings.”

“Where was Julia practicing before this incident?” asked Val.

“Julia used to belong to an organization that performed medical services in developing countries. It was tough work. She got burned-out and decided to go back to the US and set up her own office. So, she had no prior practice.”

“And she never opened this office?”