“No, I’ll take the cordless,” Raymond said. He couldn’t imagine who could be calling him on an emergency basis. Raymond had not been practicing medicine since he’d lost his medical license after having been convicted of a major Medicare scam he’d been carrying on for a dozen years.
“Hello?” Raymond said with a degree of trepidation.
“This is Taylor Cabot. There’s a problem.”
Raymond visibly stiffened and his brow furrowed.
Taylor quickly summarized the Carlo Franconi situation and his call to Kevin Marshall.
“This operation is your baby,” Taylor concluded irritably. “And let me warn you: it is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. If there is trouble, I’ll scrap the entire enterprise. I don’t want bad publicity, so handle it.”
“But what can I do?” Raymond blurted out.
“Frankly, I don’t know,” Taylor said. “But you’d better think of something, and you’d better do it fast.”
“Things couldn’t be going any better from my end,” Raymond interjected. “Just today I made positive contact with a physician in L.A. who treats a lot of movie stars and wealthy West Coast businessmen. She’s interested in setting up a branch in California.”
“Maybe you didn’t hear me,” Taylor said. “There isn’t going to be a branch anyplace if this Franconi problem isn’t resolved. So you’d better get busy. I’d say you have about twelve hours.”
The resounding click of the disconnection made Raymond’s head jerk. He looked at the phone as if it had been responsible for the precipitate termination of the conversation. The waiter, who’d retreated to an appropriate distance, stepped forward to retrieve the phone before disappearing.
“Trouble?” Darlene questioned.
“Oh, God!” Raymond voiced. Nervously he chewed the quick of his thumb. It was more than trouble. It was potential disaster. With his attempts at retrieving his medical license tied up in the quagmire of the judicial system, his current work situation was all he had, and things had only recently been clicking. It had taken him five years to get where he was. He couldn’t let it all go down the drain.