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Chapter 533 Santa Rosa

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Margaret was meeting once again in Carl Namid's home office. She knew he was going to give her bad news because he'd poured her a double of his fine expensive Scotch. She sighed inwardly wondering why he had to be such a dumbass. She was the brains of the operation, but she always had to pretend that he was the leader. She was sick to death of dealing with doctors and their egos strutting around thinking they were better than everyone else because they had been to med school.

"We had a little hiccup today," Carl began after taking a gulp of Scotch. "That dipshit Eric and I were talking when Knowles walked up and saw us together. He panicked. Stupid SOB."

"Why did he even care if Knowles saw you two together?" Margaret demanded.

"Exactly. It was just gross stupidity on his part," Carl said with a shrug. "It's hard to get good help these days."

"Let me guess. She's even more suspicious now," Margaret said.

"Yeah, she is. I told Eric that he needed to find a couple of guys to fake kidnapping Knowles and smash up her hand so she can't perform surgery. He's looking for a couple of guys."

"I hope they are more competent than he is," Margaret said drily.

"They had damned well better be. We're making too much money for this to end now. You need to find a training seminar to send Knowles to."

"Easier said than done. I can't just pull one out of my ass. If it's too far away, she'll fly and take a shuttle to the airport. It needs to be something that she'll have to drive to. The only thing coming up in the next month is the Neo-Natal conference in Santa Rosa, but it's too late to send her to that. The registration is full unless . . ."

"No. I've been looking forward to that for a year," Dr. Namid complained.

This year's annual conference was in Santa Rosa a town located in Northern California's wine country. It was a beautiful area of lush rolling hills and excellent wineries tucked in out of the way spots in the countryside. He was planning on going on several wine tasting tours and buying cases of delicious California wine.

As far as the actual conference was concerned, he would attend a session or two and the opening day lunch, but beyond that, he was more interested in drinking wine. The organizers know most participants were more interested in the fringe benefits of the conference's location than attending the conference.

"How bad do you want to be free of Knowles?"

"Shit, can't you come up with somewhere else to send her?"

"I wouldn't have suggested it if there was something I could send her to sooner. You are going to have an emergency and she will have to go with only a few days notice. I will just change all the arrangements to her name so it makes it look like she's really going. So, what's it going to be? Are you willing to give up your conference to get rid of Knowles?"

Dr. Namid loved nothing better than these conference junkets. He got to stay at high end hotels, eat gourmet meals and take a vacation that was paid for by the hospital. Sure, he could take a trip to Santa Rosa, but it wouldn't be as enjoyable because it wasn't free. Free upped the pleasure factor.

"Here's what I'm willing to do. You keep looking and if you can't find anything, I'll give up my conference or maybe I could still go. If she can't go, why should the hospital be out the money for the room, the registration and everything else."

"I can't send you if she's not available. I need one of the two of you here, but I will keep looking for something else. Santa Rosa is perfect though. It's a car trip. She'll be excited about going and then we'll destroy her career," Margaret said with a smile. She was thoroughly relaxed from that last sip of Scotch.

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Don't you just love it when someone blames someone else for his mistakes?