The departmental review process was at some level a matter of record, and her name would have come through the witness documentation. It was inevitable. She'd known it was coming. She just hadn't expected it in the middle of a shift on day one. She called Sandival from a break room and told him, "Don't speak to any reporters," he said immediately.
"The review board proceedings are confidential, but the filing itself isn't. Your name will get out. That's not preventable. But your statement is sealed until the hearing. Can he find out what I said?
His legal representation will get a summary. Not your verbatim statement, but enough. A beat, Savannah. He already knows what you saw. He was there.
That was true. She'd been cataloging the ways this situation could escalate, and she needed to stop treating it like a controlled environment when it wasn't. She went back to work. At 6:00 p. m., finishing her notes at a terminal near the nursurse's station, she looked up and saw Dr. Fitch standing across the desk from her.
"Walk with me," Fitch said. They walked to Fitch's office. Fitch closed the door and sat behind her desk and picked up a printed email. I got a call today from a representative of the Denton Police Officers Union. She said they expressed concerns about an employee of this hospital who they characterized as filing a false complaint against a decorated officer potentially motivated by a personal dispute.
She set the email down. They asked whether the hospital intended to take further action on the HR notation regarding your behavior. Savannah sat very still. I told them the notation had been flagged pending review and that hospital HR matters were not subject to external advocacy, Pitch continued, and that if they had legal concerns, they were welcome to pursue them through appropriate channels. She looked at Savannah over her reading glasses.
I then documented the call and forwarded it to our hospital legal department. Savannah exhaled slowly. The union rep also mentioned your name to the Tribune, I believe, Fitch said. I got a call from them about 30 minutes after the union reporter had gotten her name, not through court documents, through the union feeding it to the press as a counternarrative. Dr.
Fitch, Savannah started, I don't need an explanation, Fitch said. I have your IIA documentation. I have 6 years of performance reviews and I've been practicing medicine long enough to recognize when someone in a position of authority decides to use every available system against a person who challenged them. She paused. You have nothing to worry about from this institution.
That's what I'm telling you. Savannah looked at her. She hadn't expected that. Not that Fitch had done anything wrong. She hadn't.
But she hadn't expected it stated so plainly without qualification. Thank you, she said. Fitch picked up her pen. Don't thank me. Do your job.
Go home. Savannah went home. She called Quinn and gave him the full accounting, the reporter, the union call. Fitch's response. He listened without interrupting.
The union is going to try to run a parallel narrative, he said. Make it about a disgruntled member with a personal grudge rather than a pattern of misconduct. It's standard. It buys time and muddies the public record in case the review board decision gets appealed. It won't work.
Savannah said there there are three of us. I know, but they don't know about Cassandra Vale yet. When they find out there are three witnesses, the narrative shifts. That's why Sandival needs to move faster than they're expecting. Is he going to?
I talked to him this afternoon. He's moving the hearing timeline up. He got authorization today. A pause. Savannah, the gym.
What about it? Garrett called me tonight. Ror came in this afternoon after receiving the notice. He didn't train. He just came in, talked to a few people, left.
She understood the implication. He's working the room, shoring up support before the hearing. Yes, and Garrett's nervous. He doesn't have the spine Fitch has. Quinn's voice was careful, not critical.
A statement of operational fact. I think we need to go in together on Saturday. Open Matt, be visible. Let the room see that we're still there. She thought about it.
Her instinct was to agree. And her secondary instinct was to examine whether that was sound or whether she was just tired of being careful and patient. She examined it. She decided it was sound. Saturday, she said.