بخش 01 - فصل 03

3

Dr. Stamos’s eight-forty-five patient finally reappears from the exam area at the back. Mr. Hodges’s appointment was for nine, and it’s now nine thirty. The poor guy is probably impatient to do his business here and get rolling with the rest of his day. She looks out in the hall and sees Hodges talking on his cell.

Marlee rises and peeks into Stamos’s office. He’s sitting behind his desk with a folder open in front of him. KERMIT WILLIAM HODGES is computer-printed on the tab. The doctor is studying something in the folder and rubbing his temple, as though he has a headache.

“Dr. Stamos? Shall I call Mr. Hodges in?”

He looks up at her, startled, then at his desk clock. “Oh God, yes. Mondays suck, huh?”

“Can’t trust that day,” she says, and turns to go.

“I love my job, but I hate this part of it,” Stamos says.

It’s Marlee’s turn to be startled. She turns to look at him.

“Never mind. Talking to myself. Send him in. Let’s get this over with.”

Marlee looks out into the hall just in time to see the elevator door closing at the far end.