The Good Nurse: A True Story of Medicine, Madness, and Murder by Charles Graeber Page A

the others,” Mary said.
    “This was in regards to one of the patient incidents—the Reverend?”
    “Reverend Gall. Yes.”
    “And this nurse, Charles Cullen—he was the reverend’s nurse?”
    “Well, yes and no,” Mary said. “They rotate.”
    “I’m sorry…?”
    “Rotate patients,” Mary said. “The nurses get different room assignments each night they come in. Over the course of his care here at Somerset Medical Center, Reverend Gall was attended by many different CCU nurses.”
    “And Nurse Cullen was Gall’s nurse?”
    “No,” Mary said. “Charles Cullen wasn’t Reverend Gall’s nurse on the night he expired.”
    “Okay, okay,” Danny said. “So—who was?”
    “I don’t have that information handy,” Lund said. “I’d have to get back to you with that.”
    “Yes, please. And that nurse, Gall’s nurse, do you have a memo about that interview, or—”
    “I’m afraid I don’t have anything like that,” Mary Lund said. “I’ll have to look into it and get back to you.”
    “All right,” Danny said. “I’d appreciate that.” He wasn’t getting anywhere, but knew better than to let his frustration show. “Another question, about this, um, ‘pixies,’ or…” Danny held up the memo, the word circled with a question mark.
    “Pyxis, uh-huh,” Mary said.
    “Those are the medicine requests?”
    “The Pyxis computer keeps track of each drug withdrawal,” Mary said. “It also bills the patient and alerts the pharmacy when to restock.”
    “And you checked these records?”
    “Yes,” Mary said.
    “And, says here there was nothing unusual, is that right?”
    “Nothing out of the ordinary,” Mary said.
    “If I could, I’d like to get a photocopy of those records,” Danny said. “Look at the periods surrounding the, uh, unusual occurrences with the patients—”
    “Well, that’s not possible, I’m afraid,” Mary said. “Unfortunately, Pyxis only stores records for thirty days.”
    “So…”
    “Yeah,” Mary said. “I know.”
    “Okay,” Danny said. “So this nurse wasn’t the focus of your investigation then.”
    “No no no,” Mary said. “We interviewed all the nurses on the unit. But there is one person you might want to look into.”

    D anny gave Tim the rundown over lunch at the Thai place across from the courthouse. Tim watched the waitress come and go with the menus before he started in. “So, Lund,” he said. “She setting us up or what?”
    “She gave us a name,” Danny said. “Name of Allatt, Edward.”
    “That the male nurse?”
    “Another guy. He worked on the same floor as the vics sometimes, and had access. She thought we’d want to look at him.”
    “What’s he do?” Tim said.
    “He’s one of those guys who comes and takes your blood…” Danny flicked down to his notes.
    “Yeah, phlebotomist,” Tim said, surprising himself.
    “Oh, you know that one, right?”
    “Hey, I was a hospital rent-a-cop,” Tim said. “High school.”
    “Yeah, well, Lund said they like this phlebotomist guy.”
    “He a suspect?” Tim said. “I thought they didn’t have anyone.”
    “Mary Lund told me, ‘Allatt is one you’ll want to look at.’ What she said.”
    “She say why?”
    “Guess this guy has a beef with the hospital. Local guy, some issue with the expansion plans, maybe union stuff.”
    “He a suspect?” Tim said.
    “Just said he was suspicious, and had a beef,” Danny said. He read from the notebook. “Her words: ‘Allatt might be the one responsible for these unusual occurrences.’ ”
    “Hey, okay, good,” Tim said, writing it down. “They don’t have anyone, then they give us somebody. I’ll take it. Anything else?”
    “Not yet,” Danny said. “I asked her about the thing they sent, the nurse from the memo.”
    “Yeah, the leaflet they sent?”
    “The investigation,” Danny said. “All four pages of it.” Danny flipped again, fingered the page. “The male nurse they talked to. Charles