Mother's Milk Read Online Free Page A

angles.
    â€˜This isn’t therapy, and you know it.’
    â€˜Whatever it is, George, and I don’t tell you enough, but it helps. Ever since I became the director and not just another staff psychiatrist, everything changed here. People watch what they say around me. It’s just different.’
    â€˜It has to be,’ he said. ‘That’s the downside of being the boss – lonely at the top.’
    â€˜Yeah, and what’s quickly become my least favorite part of this is that all the yearly evaluations are due at the end of the month.’
    â€˜Horrible stuff,’ George agreed.
    â€˜It’s worse than just that, George. I’ve got three “hostile workplace” grievances filed against me with the union, all because some of the docs that my predecessor hired are unhappy with their evaluations. I think it’s a record. The craziest part is that none of the evaluations are bad; I just didn’t give them the very top score – they don’t deserve it. Which reminds me,’ Barrett said, ‘going through my rendition of “These are a few of my least-favorite things,” I’ve got a bullshit meeting with two commissioners in a few minutes.’
    â€˜Is Janice one of them?’
    â€˜Of course.’
    â€˜Be careful,’ George said.
    â€˜I know,’ Barrett said, ‘she’s made it very clear that I was not her first choice for this job.’
    â€˜True, she was gunning for Hugh Osborn. She’d brought him over from DFYS, I’m pretty sure she promised him rapid advancement. I thought he was completely unqualified and made that clear to the selection committee; she wasn’t at all happy. The politics of that place can drive you crazy. It’s this constant tension because of the dual reporting structure, where it’s both part of a state agency and attached to the medical school as a training site. Both want control and so whenever it’s time to pick a director there’s this huge pissing match over which candidate gets selected, someone from the university or someone from the state system.’
    â€˜OK, but based on that you’d think I’d have been her choice; I’ve always turned down faculty positions, not because I have anything against the medical school, but they pay crap.’
    â€˜It’s not that, Barrett. You’re too high profile for someone like Janice, who just wants to keep her agency out of the headlines. You write books, have articles published, and occasionally … how do I put it?’
    â€˜Get abducted by sociopaths who want to end civilization as we know it.’
    â€˜Pretty much. When you chased down Richard Glash last year,’ he said, referring to an escaped convict who had nearly introduced a lethal plague into the Manhattan water supply, ‘you and the forensic center were front-page. Janice has survived three governors and been commissioner of two agencies. And like all political appointees she lives in constant fear. At any point she can be terminated, which often happens after something bad hits the papers. You make her nervous. And while I don’t want to add to your worries, I’ve heard rumblings.’
    â€˜Give me the details,’ she said, feeling a knot tighten in her belly. She needed this job, too many people depended on her and even with Ralph’s life-insurance settlement there wasn’t much of a cushion.
    â€˜The deal with the two months you were on maternity leave when she had Osborn fill in as the acting.’
    â€˜Hey, he wasn’t my pick. In fact, I’d never have hired him in the first place. He’s not the brightest bulb in the box, and if you don’t keep on him his reports don’t get done on time. I’ve had to field angry calls from half a dozen AGs, needing psychiatric evaluations.’
    â€˜So he’s broken the cardinal rule of medicine,’ George said dryly.
    â€˜Which