Page 123 of Precise Justice

“Is she armed?” Carvelli asked backing away.

“Come on, you coward. But thanks for the reminder. I’ll make an appointment today,” Connie said.

They found chairs in Marc’s office then Maddy asked, “Okay, what now?”

“I want you to go after Dr. Miller’s head nurse. His surgical nurse. Interview her about the complaints he has received. Just the ones we know were from trans patients.

“Do the same with Friedman’s administrative assistant,” Marc said.

“Do we have their names?” Maddy asked.

“Robbie will know them,” Marc said. “At least he should.”

“Okay, anything else?”

“Yeah, Robbie has this, I suppose it’s a support group. Ask him about it. Any in there that regret it. Maybe go with Robbie to a meeting. Sit with them. Talk to them about it. How do they feel about it? Were they okay doing this as children? Are they angry about that?

“What are you doing? What are you looking for?” Connie asked.

“I’m gonna try to put this transgender affirming children on trial. Is it driving them to suicide, homicide?

“It’s a horrible thing to do to children. It’s one thing to have them dress and act like the opposite of how they were born. But to push them into surgery…”

“Or even let them agree to it while they are underage,” Maddy said.

“That’s a huge, irreversible step. For adults, okay. But kids, no. In fact, anyone involved in permanently mutilating children for this should do serious time in a serious prison. It needs to stop,” Marc said.

“Tony, Robbie had a mentor, a trans woman who counseled him. I don’t remember her name…”

“Joan, something,” Maddy said. “She got married then moved to Chicago to go to grad school at Northwestern. Robbie will probably know her married name.”

“Great, you’re sending me back to Chicago,” Carvelli said.

“You don’t have to look up Paxton,” Marc said. “See if you can find Joan.”

“I’ll call Robbie now and see if I can get the names,” Maddy said.

FORTY-SIX

Robbie had been quite helpful by remembering Joan’s name. Her old name, pre-marriage name, was Olson. Robbie had asked Joan if she was going to take her husband’s name, Stevens, and she did. Unfortunately, Robbie had not kept in touch with Joan. He did not have an address or phone number.

Carvelli used his connections with the Chicago PD to come up with an address. In fact, there had been two calls to the CPD to that address for domestic disturbances. No arrests were made and the information about the calls was minimal.

Using his rental car’s GPS, Carvelli had little trouble finding the address. It was in a fourplex less than a mile from the campus of Northwestern. Hoping to catch Joan at home, Carvelli found the place then decided to come back at dinner time.

At precisely 6:00P.M.Carvelli rang the buzzer for their apartment. A few seconds later a semi-male voice answered him.

“Yeah, who’s this?”

“My name is Tony Carvelli. I’m an investigator working for a former client of hers.”

“The mass murderer in Minnesota? Joan is not here and she wants nothing to do with this. Go back to Minnesota,” the voice said, presumably Joan’s husband, Paul.

“Wow. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?” Carvelli said.

“Go away. I don’t know when she’ll be home and she wants nothing to do with this. Get lost, asshole.”

At that moment, the door from outside opened and a woman walked into the entryway. Robbie had a picture of himself and Joan he gave to Carvelli. The woman was Joan Stevens.