Chapter 2.
"Has anyone seen Hawkins?" Irving Feldman scouted through the ER.
"He has promised to be back by three at the latest."
"Probably there was still caviar in the head office, and that has a best-before-date!" Ellen at the ER-desk joked.
Nic smiled, then targeted her colleagues with her eyes.
"It´s not Conrads fault that his dad pushed him to this appointment," she defended him without much enthusiasm.
"I can assure you he probably suffers more than Mr. Grossman in bed no. four."
"Uh, big man with the bacterial gastrointestinal flu. Good comparison, Nic. Chapeau." Feldman replied.
Nic smiled and implied a mocking bow.
"I can call upstairs to ask how much longer the meeting will take," Ellen, the emergency room nurse, offered.
"Can say Dr. Hawkins is baaaadly needed down here." She looked around the rather quiet emergency room with a mischievous smile and laid her big hand gently on Nic´s arm. The young nurse practitioner smiled:
"You´d probably do him a big favour with that, Ellen."
The two women clasped their hands warmly in friendship and smiled.
"Dr. Hawkins? Dr. Conrad Hawkins?"
Just as Nurse Ellen was picking up the phone to call the executive suite, a taxi driver turned the corner and headed for the ER-reception desk.
"Dr. Hawkins is not here," Nic replied. "Why are you looking for him?"
"Lady, my taxi is waiting for him since 20 minutes at the main entrance.
"I´m supposed to pick him up."
Nic furled her eyebrows.
"And who ordered you?" she asked.
"Well, the board room. Said I should wait for Dr. Hawkins and drive him home."
"Why should Conrad order a taxi?" Concern and confusion were clearly written across Nic´s face.
"You ask me too much, lady. I only drive the taxi," the driver replied.
Ellen, in turn, reached for the phone and dialed a number.
"Shall I continue to wait or not? The taximeter is running, lady."
Nic waved her hand impatiently towards the driver, motioning him to be quiet while Ellen spoke to Elaine.
"Hm, ok, I´ll pass it on. Yes. Alright."
The emergency-nurse ended the call and looked up to Nic and Feldman with concern.
"I´m afraid Conrad was rather unwell upstairs after the meeting. Bell send him home and instructed Elaine to call a taxi."
"Not feeling well, what does that mean? What´s wrong with him?"
Feldman had lost any joke in his voice and looked worriedly from Ellen to Nic.
"The secretary could not tell. Except that he was very pale and left the office rather hastily."
"And Bell? And his father? Did they not say anything?" Nic was getting upset now, too.
"Mr. Winthrop is on his way to the airport and Dr. Bell is in the next meeting already and does not want to be disturbed."
Nic stared at Ellen for a moment in disbelief, then started picking her phone out of her bag.
"I´ll call him." Energetically she dialed Conrad´s number, but after the sixth time ringing his mailbox-announcement declared snippy:
"Here Conrad Hawkins. Leave a message." Beep.
"Conrad, it´s me. We´re wondering where you are, please call me."
Nic tried to keep her voice calm, it was´nt unusual that Conrad dissappeard for a short period of time, and was probably just wandering around the clinic somewhere. She hung up and looked around. Irving must have seen her disturbance:
"He´ll be alright," he said. "Probably the meeting with Bell and his father was too much for his little heart, and he just had to get some fresh air." He smiled encouragingly.
"You´re right, Irv. Still I´ll try to reach him over his beeper."
"And if he has not answered in a few minutes we can still go and search for him. The ER is a snoozefest anyway at the moment."
Irving showed a theatrical yawn and made a `very unsuspicious´ approach towards the coffee machine in the callroom.
