What are you doing here so late? Riley asked, wheeling the pushcart in and emptying the smaller trashcan by the desk into it. You got a tricky one youre working on?

I guess you could say that.

Ill let you get back to it then. Gnight.

She trundled out of the room. Morgan waited a few seconds before switching the screen back on and got back to his search. What would lead someone to feel that they needed to take revenge in the form of actual murder? It would have to be bad. Really bad.

Even so, someone wouldnt go directly to murder. Theyd try other more common means first, wouldnt they? Lawsuits were the most common way people tried to get satisfaction after some kind of medical mishap. Maybe someone hadnt gotten satisfaction that way and had escalated.

America is a litigious society. People file law suits for all kinds of reasons, some legitimate, some not. Regardless, once a lawsuit was filed, it was public knowledge.

Morgan got back on the computer and began searching for lawsuits filed against Georgetown University Hospital in the past year. There were plenty. About half of them were settled out of court. Not surprising, really. If the hospital knew theyd done something wrong, it was a hell of a lot better to settle things quietly without a lot of fanfare. Patients or their families occasionally signed non-disclosure agreements as part of those settlements so the information would go no further. Other cases, they settled because the expense and hassle of going to court would be greater than the cost of handing over some cash.

Morgan hated those cases. Probably every doctor did. It felt like admitting wrong-doing when there wasnt any.

Of the half that was left, only a very small number went to trial. Most of those cases were dropped or dismissed before they got off the ground. Despite more and more people filing malpractice claims, they were very hard to prove. A lot of times the evidence is extremely technical and complex. Its hard for laypeople to follow the information and unfamiliar lingo. Juries get confused. Put the right expert witness on the stand and it didnt always matter if they were right or wrong. Plus, the plaintiff has to prove actual negligence. It was a high bar to reach.

Morgan looked down the list of suits that had been filed against the hospital that had never gotten off the ground. Most of them were for things that didnt rise to the level of a lawsuit much less revenge killings. A medication mishap that had triggered an allergic reaction, but had been quickly noticed and treated. A miscalculation on a radiation dosage that had caused a burn. Unpleasant, yes, but also quickly treated and resolved.