Lee visited the ICU to instruct Susie’s doctors and nurses not to allow her any visitors. While he doubted the repairman would return, Lee knew there was a chance he could. It was a risk trusting the staff to keep a vigilant watch, given how patients on this floor were in constant crisis. A discomforting image of the repairman slipping into Susie’s ICU cubicle with the stealth of a serpent made him shiver. Maybe he’d return as an orderly, or a doctor, or even a hospital security guard. Lee believed anything was possible.
When he returned to the medical unit, Lee counted six members of the MDC security team roaming the floor. These were not rent-a-cops. They wore light blue shirts with shiny badges pinned to their breast pockets, dark neckties, and dark slacks. Most were armed like patrol officers.
Joining the investigation were two police officers from the MPD—D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department. They were fit-looking young guys, early thirties, who were treating this as a straightforward case of assault and battery. Depending on what the tox screen revealed, the police might have to upgrade the alleged crime to attempted murder.
As it was, these two cops were taking statements and making every effort to gather evidence. Forensics was coming to get fingerprints, even though Lee told the police the man had been wearing gloves. In the description Lee gave, he made sure to call out the tattoo of a skull wearing a spiked helmet on the man’s forearm. He offered to work with a sketch artist, and was told it might be arranged.
“What about security cameras?” Lee asked.
“We’re looking into it,” the shorter of the MPD cops said.
Lee understood. It was going to take time to scrutinize the security footage, speak to all potential witnesses, and do whatever was required to track down the repairman. All the while, Lee believed Susie’s mystery illness would continue to confound her doctors.
The more Lee pondered, the more Susie’s rapid spike in creatinine levels puzzled him. A jump like hers should have taken days, weeks, or even months, not hours. These MPD officers were not the ones to confide in regarding a possible connection to the Stewart twins’ suspicious car accident, Susie’s equally suspicious CO exposure, and potential links to the TPI and Cam Hilliard. They were too low-level and it was all too nebulous, too much conjecture.
What Lee needed was hard evidence. Looking in Cam’s eyes using an ophthalmoscope was the new priority. Cam’s body could be a ticking bomb as well.
Having found an empty chair behind the nurses’ station, a respite from all the commotion, Lee sipped at a ginger ale on ice while awaiting Karen’s arrival. With his adrenaline rush subsiding, he became acutely aware of how much his body ached. His chest where he took the punch, legs, lungs, everything hurt.
Lee called the ICU, forgetting his last check-in was fifteen minutes ago. With luck the IVs would flush out most of the toxin, allowing Susie to come off the ventilator. He was eager to find out what had made her see spiders, naturally, and footsteps down the hall told him the answer was on the way.
Dr. Rajit approached in lockstep with the intensivist, Dr. Sears, a woman Lee had met only recently. Her sallow skin tone and tangle of hair escaping a loosely held bun hinted at too many hours spent in the hospital. Lee rose from his seat and greeted them in the hallway.
“We got the results from the tox screen,” Dr. Rajit said.
“And?”
“And Susie Banks suffered from massive methamphetamine toxicity. It certainly would explain her hallucinations. There was enough drug in her system to kill a horse. I have no idea how you managed to save that girl.”
Lee had no idea either. All he did was follow established procedures, nothing special. He wondered if the unexplainable spike in Susie’s creatinine levels had somehow acted as a buffer against the narcotic. Did it also help her to survive the CO exposure that killed her parents?
“Has security made any progress tracking down this mysterious repairman?” Dr. Sears asked.
“No, but I suspect detectives will be brought in now,” Lee said. “Please, make sure you get this report to them ASAP. And Dr. Rajit—”
“Yes?”
“I want to thank you for letting me help with Susie Banks. Dr. Sears, you should know it was a most unusual situation and Dr. Rajit handled himself admirably and professionally. I’m sure the police will be eager to talk with you both. If you’ll excuse me, I have to go.”
Lee shook their hands, making a fast exit, because behind them he saw Karen, still in her wall jumper outfit, flashing a badge to the security team guarding the entrance to the medical floor. Tension seared her face.
Lee led Karen to the waiting room, where they could speak in private. He went into details about his confrontation with the repairman and Susie’s crazed hallucinations.
“She was injected with what should have been a fatal dose of methamphetamine,” Lee said. “This repairman tried to kill her. No doubt about it.”
“How’s she doing now?” Karen asked.
“Stable,” said Lee. “They moved her to the ICU. I’ve told the staff no other visitors.”
“Good call,” Karen said.
“I’m just glad my emergency medicine training came back to me. Otherwise I might not have been able to save her.”
Karen’s expression became strained. “You’re sure there’s a connection between Susie and Cam?”
“I think a lot of evidence points that way.”
“And these Stewart twins, their deaths no longer seem accidental to you, do they?”
“No, they don’t,” Lee said. “Where are you going with this?”
“If Cam’s connected to Susie, and Susie to the twins, doesn’t it stand to reason that Cam could be a target, as well?”
Lee returned a grim nod of agreement. “You have those brain pills?” he asked.
“Getting them wasn’t the best moment of my day, but yes, I’ve got them.”
“Good. Let’s get to the White House. Now.”
“Why?”
“Because I want to shine a light into Cam’s eyes. If there’s a red spot on his macula, like there is on Susie’s, it might as well be a laser pointer from a sniper rifle.”