The green frosted glass of the light-table clicked under Elena Rostova’s fingernails.
She laid out the seven yellowed cards in two precise rows of three, placing Dr. Beatrice Hahn’s master file directly at the top. The fluorescent backlighting illuminated the watermarks pressed into the heavy rag stock--an embossed caduceus entangled with a coiled measuring tape, the 1996 municipal hospital crest.
Elena adjusted the cold silver bell of her Littmann Cardiology IV stethoscope where it hung around her neck.
Charts don’t lie, Elena thought, staring at the clinical intake notes. *Administrators lie.
Ward directors forge signatures. But an intake chart always leaves an autopsy trail if you know where the blood was billed.*
“Look at the physician’s signature block on the bottom left,” Elena said, her voice brisk and level. “That isn’t a medical license number.
That’s an actuarial stamp: AUDITOR-GENERAL V. STERLING -- DIVISION OF UNSETTLED LIABILITIES.”
Julian leaned over the illuminated glass, his fingers resting on the wooden rim of the table. “Uncle Vance signed the committal orders himself.”
