Then, he remembered something else odd about Van Fleet, though it did not seem connected to Sasha. Van Fleet had finished medical school but had been rejected during his internship as “unsuited for a medical career.” That was the statement Dino had read to him, something one of the investigative teams had turned up, a statement from somebody at Physicians & Surgeons Hospital, where Van Fleet had served his abortive internship.

When the carpet layers had finished, Stone retrieved his badge from a dresser drawer and caught a cab uptown. Dino was still on his honeymoon, he reasoned, and there was nobody he could turn to for the original record of the investigation, so he would have to do this himself. Anyway, it kept his mind off Cary.

The hospital was the most prestigious of its kind in the city, having treated the great and near great for more than a century. There was as much cachet attached to checking into Physicians & Surgeons as there was to moving into a Fifth Avenue apartment.

“Can you tell me who is in charge of interns?” he asked at the front desk.

“The chief resident,” a young woman replied.

No good. The chief resident would not have been at the hospital long enough. “And who does he report to, ultimately?”

“The chief of medicine,” the young woman replied. “His name is Garfield. Did you wish to see an intern, sir?”

“No, I just need some information, and I think the chief of medicine is the person I should see.”

“Well, his office is on the fifth floor, but I shouldn’t think he’d see you without an appointment.”

“Thanks, I’ll just have a word with his secretary. By the way, how long has Dr. Garfield been chief of medicine?”

The woman shrugged. “I’ve been here for twelve years, and he had the job when I arrived. Since Adam, I guess.”

Stone took the elevator to the fifth floor and followed the signs. The chief of medicine occupied a spacious corner suite, and two secretaries guarded his door. Stone showed the badge to one of them. “My name is Barrington. I’d like to see Dr. Garfield.”

“I’m afraid he’s in a staff meeting at the moment, and he has another appointment immediately after that,” the woman replied, unimpressed.

“Would you please take him a note saying that I’m here and that I would like to see him? This is a serious matter.”

The woman seemed uncertain, but she disappeared through a door for a minute, then returned. “Dr. Garfield will be finished with his staff meeting in just a few minutes. He asked that you wait.”

Stone took a seat and picked up a magazine.

Shortly, a tall, elderly man dressed in a long white coat appeared in the reception room. “I’m Garfield. What can I do for you?”

“I wonder if we could talk privately?” Stone asked, glancing at the two secretaries.