Interrogation 2

"I'm Mrs Freda Cotton, the chief executive officer of this establishment." The middle-aged woman introduced herself formally, a polite smile framing her slightly wrinkled face.

"Firstly, I would like to apologize on behalf of any of my employees that may have offended you. Secondly, I would implore you to please follow me to my office so that we can sort out the issues bothering you."

"Apology not accepted but let's go," Jamal replied in a deadpan tone. He gestured forward and Mrs Cotton led the way while others followed.

After a few minutes of settling down, Jamal briefly introduced himself and his female companions. Then he gave room for Lola to express her grievance about the falsified test result.

Lola took a few minutes to narrate her ugly ordeal at the clinic and how the false result ended up disrupting her peaceful and loving home.

"May I see both results from this clinic?" Mrs Cotton asked, her tone dripping with perplexity and horror.

"Sure." Lola handed both results to her and waited patiently as the old woman scrutinized them through her thick double-lens reading glass.

"This is impossible!" Mrs Cotton exclaimed, dropping both documents on her white table.

"Hmm..." Maureen scoffed"

"Story of my life." Jamal hissed.

"What exactly is impossible, madam?" Lola demanded in a slightly raised voice. "Is it the fact that your clinic is incompetent to carry out a simple HIV test? Or the fact that this whole HIV charade has destroyed my home...huh?"

"Calm down, Mrs Hart." Mrs Cotton pleaded. I'm very sorry for the error. I can assure you that we will get to the bottom of this."

"Good– because I'm not leaving here until I get satisfactory answers." Lola's face was expressionless as she watched the CEO pick up her intercom and start making some calls and instructing some people to report to her office instantly.

A few seconds later, the head lab scientist entered Mrs Cotton's office. He had a worried look on his face as he assessed the angry pairs of eyes staring icily at him.

"Good evening, ma'am."

"Who did you say processed the blood sample of Mrs Hart on the sixteenth of this month and today?" Mrs Cotton inquired impatiently, ignoring Chad's greetings.

"Mark processed today's sample while Betty precessed the given sample on the sixteenth," Chad replied.

"So...where is Betty?" Mrs Cotton's forehead furrowed. "I specifically told you to come down with the person who processed the blood sample for the sixteenth of this month."

"Yes, you did ma. But... Betty stepped out briefly to use the convenience. She will be with us..."

Knock! Knock!!

A gentle tap of the door interrupted Chad.

"Please, come in." Mrs Cotton called out.

The door knob turned and the door opened with a slight creak.

A smartly dressed chubby lady stepped into the office, wearing a confident look on her freckled-covered face.

"Is that the Betty?" Maureen pinched Jamal.

"I guess so." Jamal shrugged.

"Good evening ma'am." Betty smiled politely at her boss. I was told you sent for me."

"Yes, I did." Mrs Cotton adjusted the reading glasses on the bridge of her nose like an old college professor.

"Do you by any chance know this woman?" Mrs Cotton pointed at Lola.

"Yes, ma'am," Betty responded.

"Did you conduct some series of laboratory tests including HIV and pregnancy, on her blood samples?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Can you recall the result of her pregnancy and HIV test?"

"Yes, Ma. Both tests came out positive."

"Be explicit!" Mrs Cotton snapped her finger at Betty, causing the latter to shudder.

"Mrs Lola's pregnancy test was positive. Also, I confirmed that she was HIV positive."

"Hmmm..." Lola shook her head from side to side. She wasn't the violent kind of person but for a split second, she felt like standing up and giving Betty a dirty slap.

"Betty, I want to thank you for your honesty so far."

Mrs Cotton's smiling face slowly turned frosty. She picked up the results on her table and asked Betty to explain how a patient she certified HIV positive suddenly turned HIV negative."

"What!" Betty's jaws dropped. She collected the document from her boss with trembling hands and hurriedly scanned through it.

"T...this is impossible! I was so sure that I did the right thing."

"Then how do you explain the discrepancies?" Mrs Cotton lost her cool. "The same lady you certified HIV positive was confirmed negative by four different hospitals. Even when we redid the test here in our clinic, it was also negative. So tell me, how did you manufacture this result?"

"No Ma...I swear... I didn't manufacture any results." Betty pleaded.

"Then how do you explain this result?" Mr Chad's angry eyes shot fiery darts at his subordinate. He suddenly felt stupid as a supervisor.

"I...I...I don't know. It must have been an oversight. Please, pardon me." Betty went down on her knees.

"An oversight!" Lola flared up. "Did you just say an oversight? You had my HIV results cooked, sent it down to my home, destroyed my happy marriage and ruined my public image. And yet you have the effrontery to cough out nonsense!"

"Why are we wasting time with this wicked lady?" Jamal flared up, unable to stifle his rage anymore. "We should be calling the police and filing a lawsuit against this clinic."

"Exactly!" Maureen brought out her phone and started punching in some numbers

"Police! Lawsuits....ah! I'm finished!" Betty placed her two hands on top of her head.

"Mrs Hart, please I beg you in the name of God, do not allow this matter to escalate. Mrs Cotton begged. "Allow me to handle this matter internally. There is absolutely no need to get the police or the court involved in this."

"On the contrary, there is a need to involve them," Jamal spoke on behalf of Lola knowing how soft-hearted she could be at times.

"Please Ma, please sir, don't call the police. Betty cried out.

"Don't send me to jail." Betty broke down in tears. "I swear it was an honest mistake. I would never ever put someone's life at risk. Please, have mercy on me for the sake of my two children. I am a widow with no husband to fend for me. Please, have mercy."