At that point all had looked to Durell. It was common knowledge he was intimate with one of the nurses, Samira Patel. Although this affair had been looked upon with disapproval by Petra and Santana, suddenly it became useful. Since Samira had been Veena’s roommate as well as her best friend, they believed that if Veena had confided in anyone, it would have been Samira. Consequently Durell had been tasked to find out, which he did by convincing Samira that Nurses International needed to help Veena, and if they weren’t able to do so out of ignorance of what was troubling her, the whole program, including helping the nurses to emigrate to the United States, would be in peril.

Samira clearly believed every word and, despite having been sworn to secrecy, related Veena’s painful family history. Armed with this information, Cal had approached Veena the previous afternoon with his offer to stop the abuse once and for all in return for her cooperation and leadership in regard to the new strategy. Veena had initially demurred but then had changed her mind, because of the promise of eliminating the threats to her sisters and mother. That had always been the biggest concern standing in the way of her being able to emigrate.

Cal Morgan Sighed. Having rehashed this history, he realized the whole program of discouraging Americans to come to India for surgery had hardly been the walk in the park that he’d initially assumed it would be. He shook his head and wondered what else was going to happen. Recognizing there was no way to anticipate the unexpected, he decided he needed an exit strategy. If worse came to worse, he needed to have a plan and resources to get out of India, at least for himself and the other three principals. He promised himself he’d bring it up that morning at the eight-o’clock meeting he’d scheduled.

Rolling over, Cal looked at the face of his alarm clock. At six-forty-five it was time to get up if he wanted to get in a run before breakfast, and he could check on Veena to make sure she was up and planning to go to work. Although the doctors had cleaned her out the night before in the emergency department and thought she’d absorbed a minimum of the Ambien because of Cal’s rapid efforts, he had to be certain. Her not showing up for work the very next day after Mrs. Hernandez’s passing might attract some attention if there was any reason for someone to doubt the patient’s death was natural. There was also the concern that Veena had been noticed at the hospital well after her shift had been over.

With his jogging gear on, Cal headed in the direction of the guest wing. Rounding the last turn, he saw Veena’s door was ajar, which he thought encouraging. Once at the entrance he knocked on the jamb, said hello, and leaned into the room all at the same time. Veena was sitting on her bed in a robe. Except for the slight reddish color of the whites of her eyes, she appeared normal and as gorgeous as ever. She wasn’t alone. Santana was sitting on Samira’s bed opposite Veena.