Eighteen

Louisa lay on her bed, one arm flung out and hanging off the side. She had thrown the comforter on the floor. Loki sat near her arm, whining.

“Louisa!” I rushed at the bed.

She was flushed and sweaty. Tiny beads of perspiration oozed on her face. Her eyes were open. I checked her pulse. It was racing. “She’s alive. But something is very wrong.”

I stepped back, pulled out my cell phone, and dialed Dr. Engelknecht’s number. He didn’t answer. I left a message and called 911. Oma was working in the office, so I let her know where to send the emergency medical technicians when they arrived.

When I ended the call, Oriana was holding Louisa’s hand. “She’s burning up!”

I rushed to the bathroom and wet a washcloth with cold water.

“No, no, no, Louisa! No! Holly!”

I folded the washcloth and ran back in time to see Louisa’s body tense and contort. “Is she having a seizure?”

“I don’t know. It’s horrible. Louisa! Can you hear me?”

We watched as Louisa’s body relaxed and slowly laid back.

I pressed the cold cloth across Louisa’s brow.

“Louisa, can you hear me?” asked Oriana again.

“Tom?” murmured Louisa, “Can you take Loki out?”

My eyes met Oriana’s in horror.

“Louisa,” she said in a soft sweet voice, “it’s me. Oriana.”

“Oriana? It’s okay. I promise I won’t tell anyone your secret.”

Oriana was looking at Louisa, but I could see her stiffen again. “I think she’s delirious.”

Someone knocked on the door, and it swung open. “Have I got the right room?” Dr. Engelknecht walked in.

Oriana left Louisa’s side to make room for him.

“Who have we here?” he asked.

“Louisa Twomey. We found her like this, and we think she just had a seizure.”

He took her temperature. “One hundred four. Have you called the ambulance?”

“Yes. Right after I phoned you.”

He continued to examine her. “Has she eaten anything today?”

Oriana responded, “Not that I know of. She didn’t come down to breakfast.”

I noticed a glass of a clear liquid, probably water, on the nightstand, but I didn’t see signs of anything else. I peered in the trash. No empty chip bags, cookie boxes, or the like. I wandered into the bathroom, and found one medicine bottle by the sink. I picked it up and carried it into the bedroom. “I found a prescription bottle of Levocetirizine.”

Dr. Engelknecht reached for it. “That’s an antihistamine for allergies. It shouldn’t be causing a problem.”

“She told me she has severe allergies to almost everything. Plants, trees, all sorts of things.” I thought for a moment. “Allergic rhinitis and asthma syndrome?”

Dr. Engelknecht nodded. “Thank you, Holly.”

The emergency medical technicians arrived, their gear clanking as they entered the room. Loki, who had been fine with Dr. Engelknecht, growled at them as they neared.

The one in the lead stopped. “Can someone remove the dog, please?”

It was an understandable request. I located Loki’s halter. He didn’t object when I slid it over his head and fastened it, but he clearly didn’t want to leave Louisa. With Oriana’s assistance and a handful of bison treats she happened to have in her pocket, we managed to coax him out of the room. I led him toward the stairwell, where he readily followed Trixie down to the lobby. I figured he hadn’t been out that morning, so we headed for the dog potty area near the registration entrance where the ambulance was parked.

Trixie was not particularly happy about Loki’s presence. She glared at him as though she was annoyed. I was wondering what to do with Loki when the EMTs brought Louisa out on a gurney and loaded her into the ambulance. Dr. Engelknecht followed them. I heard him say, “I’ll meet you there.”

The ambulance pulled out of the driveway, and Dr. Engelknecht walked toward me.

“Any idea what’s wrong with her?” I asked.

“Nothing that’s immediately obvious. A lot of things can cause seizures, but I can’t discuss a patient’s condition with you anyway.” He smiled at me when he said that.

“Okay. Have you ever had a patient display similar symptoms?”

He was thoughtful. “Not exactly. Holly, I don’t have a handle on it yet. It could be any number of things. I’d better get over to the hospital.”

“Thanks for coming so quickly when I called.”

He waved and took off across the green at a good jog, and I went in search of Oriana. I found her in the Dogwood Room, filling in the rest of the WAG Ladies.

“Loki!” Addi scooted forward in her chair and held her arms out to him. “I forgot all about you!”

Loki readily went to her. I handed over his leash. “Can you take him while Louisa is in the hospital?”

Before Addi could respond, Brenda said, “I’ll take him. I have enough room in the car and plenty of fenced-in space for him at home.”

Addi gasped. “Surely you’re not planning to leave without Louisa?”

Oriana sighed. “Tomorrow is Sunday. I’ve been away from the business all week.”

I wondered if the others noticed that Joanne seemed particularly uncomfortable. “Yes. There are matters I should tend to as well.”

“That settles it,” said Brenda. “Our vacation ends tomorrow. Oriana isn’t able to tell us much about Louisa’s condition. What do you think, Holly?”

“She was confused and very hot. I don’t know what that means.”

“We should visit her in the afternoon,” said Joanne. “Perhaps the doctors will have a better idea of what’s wrong with her then.”

I left them to their musings, noting that Trixie had a spring to her step again when we left Loki behind. We were walking into the reception lobby just as Rose arrived.

She seized my arm and propelled me to the corner. “I can’t believe this. I was going to bring a picnic lunch to Grant today that we could eat in his backyard, but this morning I received an email from him saying that he had other plans and not to phone him. He claimed that last night was hard on him and made him think of Theona too much and that he had to call everything off. He would contact me if he ever wanted to see me again. Isn’t that peculiar?”

My initial thought was that Rose might have pushed too hard. Everyone knew how easy it was to scare away men. And the judge probably wasn’t used to being pursued. “I’m sorry, Rose.”

“Sorry? Can’t you see that something isn’t right?”

It broke my heart. She was such a dear. She deserved to have someone special in her life. “Rose, give him a little time. Everyone was talking about Theona last night. It probably brought back a lot of memories. He might need a little time to himself to think of her and mourn her passing.”

Holmes walked through the door.

Rose scowled at me and hissed, “Not a word, please!” She changed her tone and said, “It’s almost lunchtime. Would you like a turkey and brie sandwich? Or how about egg salad? Holmes loves egg salad.”

I wanted to do about a dozen other things, but I would probably stop for lunch at some point. I might as well do it now when Holmes was going to join us. “Sounds lovely, Rose.”

At that moment, my phone chirped, indicating a text had come in.

Congratulations on your silent auction win last night. Please pick up your certificate for “A Day of Sailing on Dogwood Lake” at Tall Tails Bookstore no later than noon tomorrow.

I had been so concerned about Louisa last night, that it didn’t occur to me to see if I had won anything.

I walked to the inn office. Oma was thrilled with the idea of a picnic lunch. While she oohed and aahed over Rose’s picnic basket, I threw open the French doors so we could eat outside overlooking the lake. It was a perfect day with a bright sun and low humidity.

Oma and Rose added a nip of vodka to the lemonade Rose had brought. I tried to be cheerful, but Louisa weighed heavily on my mind. I passed on the alcohol, worried about what had happened to her.

I bit into a turkey and brie sandwich. It was a heavenly combination. Rose had softened the brie and added a dollop of apricot preserves for a delectable sweet and salty contrast. The three of them chattered about the success of the There’s No Place Like Home Gala, but I noticed that Rose never once mentioned the judge. What was the deal there? She was Oma’s best friend, yet she’d confided in me?

When my cell phone rang, I nearly jumped out of my seat. As I’d hoped, it was Dave.

“Still at the hospital, but we’ve got a problem,” he said. “Doc Engelknecht was suspicious about the pills Louisa was taking.”

“The allergy pills,” I said to be clear.

“Right. Turns out they’re thyroid pills. They’re meant to boost a low thyroid, but since Louisa apparently has no issue with her thyroid, it was like an overdose. That’s why she’s so hot and a little delirious. She’s probably been taking them for days. We’re lucky she didn’t have heart failure.”

“Is she still having seizures?”

“I don’t know. All Doc will say is that he expects her to improve and that it appears someone swapped her meds on purpose. Seems the two pills look very much alike.”

“I know pharmacists are well trained, but couldn’t that have been an error in the pharmacy?”

“We don’t think so. The bottle held a thirty-day supply, and she was near the end. If she had taken the wrong thing for that long, she’d likely have been dead already. Listen, Holly, I need you to block off her room. Oh! And don’t let any of those WAG Ladies check out. Got it?”

I hung up. I hadn’t bothered telling him I couldn’t keep them here against their will. He knew that better than I did. Besides, unless they had changed their plans, they were intending to stay until the following day anyway.

“Holly?” Oma placed her soft hand on my arm. “Is it about Louisa?”

I took a big sip of lemonade before telling them what little I knew.

Holmes put down his sandwich and sat back. “Louisa is the pretty redhead? Why would anyone want to harm her?”

“There’s one person who might want to, but he’s dead.” I told them the story about Seth driving the car that killed the judge’s daughter but claiming it was Wallace, Brenda’s brother, who drove.

Rose gasped and slapped a hand against her chest. “Poor Bobbie! What terrible young men they were.”

“Seems pretty straightforward to me.” Holmes brushed sandy hair off his forehead with one hand. “It’s either the judge, Brenda, or her brother. Do we know if he’s in town? Could he be staying here under another name?”

“It’s possible, I guess, but wouldn’t the WAG Ladies recognize him? It sounds like he’s not very nice, so he would surely have made a fuss about something by now.”

“But that doesn’t mean he’s not staying elsewhere in Wagtail,” Oma pointed out.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “I have trouble imagining that Brenda or Wallace would want to harm Louisa. She might be the only person who knows the truth, namely that it wasn’t Wallace who was driving the car that night. Why would either of them want to get rid of her? I would want to keep her around to tell everyone else the truth.”

“Then it must be one of the other WAG Ladies,” said Oma. “That should not be so difficult to uncover. Is it Oriana, Joanne, or Addi?”

“Clearly we can eliminate Addi,” said Rose. “We’ve all known her since she was a child. She’s very kind.”

“Oriana,” I said. “Louisa was definitely confused. She thought her dead husband was in the room. And then she told Oriana not to worry, that Louisa would keep Oriana’s secret.”

Oma clapped her hands. “There you have it. Oriana has a secret and feared Louisa would tell, so she attempted to kill her.”

Holmes asked, “Could Oriana have murdered Seth?”