Read FLASHBACK for Free Online Page A

frowning. “How did you do that?”
    Christ! She was turning it on her. “Well, I’m not sure I did.”
    Suddenly Alice checked her watch. “Oops. Mr. Martinetti needs his meds.”
    “Alice, I double-checked my computer, and there are no entries for Clara Devine since February. And I didn’t delete anything because they’re not on my backup disks.”
    “Beats me.”
    René felt a blister of anger rise as Alice tried to shake her off. “Also, I don’t remember seeing her name, which makes me wonder if her name was on the monthly patient census lists I’d been given.”
    Alice looked at her without expression. “What can I tell you?”
    Just then, Bonnie came back down the hall with the drug cart. She looked at Alice, who held her glance long enough for René to sense something pass between them. Then she continued down the hall. Alice was useless, so René caught up to Bonnie. “Wait a second.” Bonnie stopped and René opened the file drawer containing each patient’s meds and files. René started going through them until she found Clara Devine’s name.
    “Look, I’ve gotta go,” Bonnie said, and tried to move away.
    Alice came over. “Is there a problem?”
    René let Bonnie go but not before she caught the name of Clara’s physician. “Well, I’m really not sure. But according to my records Clara’s primary
care doc is Barry Colette, but those med sheets were signed by a Dr. Jordan Carr.”
    Alice’s face clouded over. “Well, he’s taken over for Dr. Colette.” She started away.
    But before she did, René asked, “So who’s this Dr. Jordan Carr?”
    Alice nodded toward the exit. “He just left.”
    CARTER LUTZ’S OFFICE WAS ON THE first floor near the reception desk. Just as René rounded the corner, she spotted him leaving his office. “Dr. Lutz, can I speak with you for a moment?”
    He looked at her, trying to place her face.
    “René Ballard, with CommCare.”
    “Oh, yes, of course. The new girl.”
    “Yes.” The new girl . And in his tone she heard: The girl who doesn’t know any better.
    Lutz sneered down at her for an explanation for why she was holding him up. He was a partridge-shaped man in his sixties with an ill-fitting toupee, a slick chocolate brown thing that hung on his brow in oily spikes but which barely covered the fuzzy gray growing around his ears. “Not right now.”
    “Well, I’m very sorry, but it’s kind of important.”
    His nostrils flared at her like a horse’s. “I’m in the middle of this police thing, which I’m sure you heard about.”
    “Well, it’s about the police thing that I’d like to talk to you. Please, it’ll only take a minute.” He glared at her, then headed back into his office and closed the door. He checked his watch, then looked at her with sour impatience. Don’t let him rattle you, she told herself. Your job is on the line here , kiddo. “I believe that the medical records for Clara Devine are with you.”
    “Is that a problem?”
    “Well, as you know, my job is to check the record of each patient in the home, and I don’t have entries for Clara Devine.”
    “Sounds more like your problem than ours.”
    “Maybe, which is why I’d like to see her records.”
    “I can assure you that nothing’s amiss.”
    “But I don’t know that unless I see her folder.” And she forced a pleasant new-girl smile, hoping to soften his resolve.
    “Miss Ballard, you’re an employee of the pharmacy, not this home or its corporation. I will not stand you interrogating me.”

    “I’m sorry, Dr. Lutz, but I’m bound by federal regulations.” She tried to maintain a tone of politeness, but his dismissal of her was irritating. It was also unprofessional. And she wondered if he’d dismiss one of the older staffers or male doctors like this.
    “Maybe you just neglected to copy them properly.”
    “That’s entirely possible, but I won’t know that until I see her charts.”
    He made a move to usher her out the door, but she