“How you process patients who come here for emergency orthopedic care.” Alexis was starting to think it was going to take all day just to explain why they were there. The pretending part, that is.

“Oh.” Mabel did not sound the least bit interested.

“Where do you want to start?” Dennis asked.

Isabelle thought she was going to smack the three of them. “Let’s start with processing. We can skip the ambulance emergency arrival.”

“You mean ‘intake’?” Dennis offered.

“Exactly.” Alexis was trying to move this laborious process along.

“Someone sits at the desk and takes the information. The ER people figure out which doctor will see the patient. If they need emergency surgery, they go to the surgical unit. If not, they get assigned to a room.” Dennis seemed exasperated. “Not very complicated.”

Alexis casually put her hand into her jacket pocket and secretly buzzed Isabelle. Time to get that e-mail you can’t open.

“Excuse me.” Isabelle reached for her phone and then looked up at Dennis. “My apologies. I’ve been waiting for some information from our office, and I can’t download the e-mail. Do you have a terminal I could use to access the Internet? I’ll just be a minute. I am so sorry, but it’s very important.”

Dennis shrugged. “Yeah, sure. You can sit in that cubicle back there. Click on the Google Chrome icon.”

“Thank you so much.” Isabelle nodded at Alexis to keep the others occupied and made a beeline for the desk.

Isabelle pulled out a flash drive and inserted it into the computer. She typed in several numbers and gained access to the mainframe. She looked feverishly for anything that resembled patient information. Click. No. Click. No. Click. No. Click. No. She typed in a few more numbers and letters that Abner had taught her. Click. Double Click. Patient archive. Another click. Bingo. Scrolling through as quickly as she could, she found the following: Marjorie Brewster. Admitted 03 March to ER. EMT answered call. Suffered convulsions. Unconscious upon arrival. Irregular heartbeat. Given carbamazepine. Lapsed into coma. CT scan showed signs of brain function, but no response from patient. Isabelle skipped the rest of the details involving the day-to-day records and moved to the day Marjorie Brewster was released six weeks later. Patient released into care and custody of Mountain Hills.

Alexis had run out of small talk and gave a wave to Isabelle.

“My apologies. There always seems to be a fire drill at the home office.” Isabelle gave them a sheepish grin. “I’m sure you folks go through that all the time with the higher-ups, eh?”

Dennis and Mabel finally showed signs of being humans rather than androids. “You got that right,” Mabel said, taking the opportunity to complain. “Speaking of fires, they keep firing people and making the rest of us take on more responsibility.”