Fatal Impulse: A Widow's Web Novel (18 page)

I
t took a lot of self-control to keep her eyes focused on the rocks underfoot. She sucked in a deep breath of salt air before answering. “Of course it was an accident.”

He dipped his head towards hers. “I mean, it wasn’t a wreck – a car accident? Was it?”

Relief swept over her like the frothy waves rolling over the rough rocks below them, “Oh, no, it wasn’t a wreck. But it was an accident. Of course, it was a horrible, horrible accident. He just stepped back and went over the guardrail-“ She clapped her hand over her mouth, feeling the horror all over again.

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories. Tell me what your brochures and maps say about these cliffs.”

The exchange dampened her mood the rest of the day, and she couldn't shake the unease that settled in the pit of her stomach. Something had changed, and she wasn’t sure if it was her or him. She'd convinced herself that he was the one, the one she'd live happily ever after with. He filled her dreams, but now she was unsure. She focused on taking pictures during the trip, and kept the discussion on safe topics. Neither of them made any effort to touch the other as they explored the shoreline.

As they walked the concrete path towards Thunder Hole, she glanced down and felt her head spin. Heights usually didn't bother her, but this did. She wrapped her hand around the handrail and held on tight, then asked, "Did you know I was fired this week?" It came out more confrontational than she'd intended.

"What?" He grabbed her arm and turned her towards him, then leaned back against the steel support. "I'm sorry. I didn't know."

She glanced at a couple of tourists that stepped around them. "They accused me of stealing."

He jerked his head back and lowered his eyebrows. "What? That's crazy."

No offer to check into the situation for her. She laughed, sharp and humorless. "I'll be fine. Just have to find a new job." And soon. She either had to buy the house she lived in - an absurd situation - or find another place to live. Laughter bubbled up, unbidden. She clapped her hand over her mouth to stop the giggles.

What was wrong with her?

He slipped his arm around her waist and guided her down the narrow steps. She gripped the handrail with her right hand and took in the awesome sight of Thunder Hole. The roar of the water rolling in and crashing into the narrow cleft in the massive rock did indeed remind her of thunder. Wave after wave rolled in, sending up a spray of salt water each time. The rolling motion made her feel queasy. She blinked and swayed as if she'd been drinking. Her side struck the support and she pressed against it in an effort to stop the steps from pitching from side to side. She looked out to the east and focused on the horizon.

He shouted over the roar, "This is pretty good for summer. It's usually pretty calm!"

She swallowed hard. "It's awesome!" she shouted back.

They were standing just above the end platform when the first stab of pain struck. She straightened, thinking she might've pulled a muscle on the walk. It hit again, this time nearly blinding in its intensity. Paul was a step below her, facing the roiling sea, when she fell to her knees. Waves of nausea passed over her, and she lost her lunch. She spat. He turned to look at her, and she retched again.

It hurt so bad, it didn’t even bother her to have him see her like that. The massive boulders tilted around her, and the edges of her vision clouded. The pain doubled her over. Just before she lost consciousness, she saw Paul leaning casually against the guardrail as two people she didn't know hovered over her. Their faces blurred and then everything closed in around her.

Andi woke up in the emergency room, barely covered by a dreadful cotton gown, with a plastic tube snaking from her right arm up to an IV bag. Hospitals have a buzz about them no matter the time of day, but the lights in the cubicle were dimmed. All around her voices competed with the beeping and chiming of machines. A nurse swept the curtain open and strode in, then took Andi's vital signs without so much as an introduction. The woman's heavy gray brows pushed together and she tipped her head back to peer through the bottom half of her glasses at her watch as she pressed her fingers against Andi's wrist.

“Excuse me, but what’s wrong with me?” Andi remembered the horrendous pain she'd felt while at Thunder Hole but was blissfully pain free at the moment. She raised her head, but the room tilted dangerously, so she dropped back down.

The nurse tucked a loose strand of gray hair back into her bun and mumbled, “Kidneys.”

Andi blinked in surprise. She’d never had any problems with her kidneys before. “Am I going to be okay?” Everything was delightfully foggy.

“Remains to be seen.” The older woman wrapped the blood pressure sleeve around Andi's arm and nodded towards the IV bag, “Pumping you full of fluids to try to flush the alcohol out of your system.”

The sleeve tightened around her arm until it felt like it would explode. “Wait. What?” She tried to pull her arm away from the pressure, but her muscles didn't respond.

"You were really out of it when the bus brought you in." The nurse tugged the pressure sleeve from Andi's arm and tapped the results into the laptop mounted on the wall. “Looks like you really tied one on.”

"I didn't have anything to drink." Andi struggled to keep her eyes open and glanced around the room. “Was anyone--did my--is my -- friend still here?”

"Not that I've seen and I've been on duty since you got here." The nurse shook her head and examined the clear plastic bag hanging on the silver pole at the side of the bed.

The door burst open and a white-coated doctor pushed through. "Calcium oxalate crystals in the urine!"

"Dr. Cavanaugh. I was on duty when you were brought into the ER." The tall doctor strode over to the bed and squinted at Andi. "What did you have to drink earlier today?"

"That's what I been trying to tell her." Andi shook her head when she heard the slur in her words. "Nothing."

The nurse snorted and the doctor frowned at her, then turned his attention back to his patient. "I'm not talking alcohol. I mean anything liquid. What did you drink before you were brought in?"

She laid her head back against the pillow and closed her eyes, "A glass of water first thing in the morning. I had a cup of coffee in the morning." Her eyes popped open. "I had an orange soda."

The doctor said, "Did it taste funny?"

She ran her tongue over her teeth as she recalled the sugary sweetness in her mouth. "It was really sweet."

"When did you drink it?" The young doctor looked up at the clock on the wall.

Andi blinked as she tried to remember. It was after they left Buccaneer Bay, but before they got to Thunder Hole. They'd already turned off of Highway 3. "Late morning, maybe 11 or so."

Dr. Cavanaugh nodded. He and the nurse exchanged a knowing glance, then the nurse shook her head, "You're thinking antifreeze poisoning?"

Andi blinked. The sweet orange soda? "But that's not possible. How could antifreeze have gotten into a can of soda?"

Twin lines formed in the young doctor's forehead. "There haven't been any other cases, but we need to make sure this is an isolated event. Where did you get the drink?"

Andi's arms shook as she tried to push herself up. The nurse gently put her hand on her patient's shoulder. Andi dropped back. "I don't know where he got it."

The doctor asked quickly, "Who?"

An image of Paul and his piercing blue eyes flitted through Andi's mind. "My boyfriend. I don't know where he got it. Maybe Caddy's Quick Shop when he stopped to get gas."

Suddenly her room was abuzz with activity. He picked up his pad and scribbled with the stylus. "I want to push fluids, then start a course of Antizol. 15 mg over the next 30 minutes. I'm going to alert the police."

The nurse sprang into action, immediately checking the IV bag. She darted out the door and returned shortly with a vial and syringe. Andi watched as the woman held up the glass vial, inserted the needle and withdrew the clear fluid. After she cleared the air bubbles, she inserted the syringe into a small tube in the IV. A tiny air bubble formed in the tubing and slowly traveled through the clear plastic, snaking its way towards Andi's hand.

Her head rolled to the side as she wiggled her fingers. "Is that a problem?"

The nurse dropped the used syringe in the bright red sharps container. "What?"

"There's an air bubble in my IV tube."

"It's OK. Not like it is on TV."

Andi giggled nervously, and looked around the room. The blinds were closed and the sliver of window around them was dark. “What time is it now?”

“Almost 7." The nurse pulled the blanket up and tucked Andi in.

She could almost picture it. Paul dropped her off at the emergency room, but made no effort to stick around and make sure she was going to be okay.

The nurse tapped more information into the laptop at the station next to the bed. Andi's side began to ache and the pain wrapped all the way around from the front to the back. She moaned and shifted in the bed. The older woman glanced up, “Feeling pain?”

Andi nodded and bit back a moan.

“I’ll get you something for it.”

The rest of the night was spent in a dreamless sleep, for which Andi was thankful. The next morning, she picked up the telephone to call Mildred at the Chamber office to let her know she'd need to find someone else to work, but stopped in mid-dial. She didn't have a job anymore. She thought about calling her mother, but didn't want to worry her. She couldn't call Paul because his wife might answer. Finally, she called Dana.

"Oh, my God! Are you okay?"

Andi pressed the button to raise the head of the bed. "I'll be fine. They said it was antifreeze poisoning."

"Antifreeze poisoning? I didn't think that was even a thing anymore. Manufacturers are required to make it taste bitter, because so many pets died."

"I think I remember that." Andi scrunched her face at that horrible thought. Something niggled at her memory, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"When will they discharge you?"

The doctor hadn't really said anything about her prognosis. "Not sure yet." She glanced at the IV bag. Nearly empty. The nurse had returned several times overnight to inject more antidote to be pumped into her veins.

"I'll come by after work. If they discharge you before that, call me."

At least Andi wouldn’t have to take a cab home if they let her go. She had just placed the handset in the cradle when Paul stuck his head in the door. His forehead wrinkled with a frown as his piercing blue eyes swept around the room, then settled on her.

“Hey, there. How’re you feeling?”

She lit up at the sight of him, “Better than yesterday.”

He stepped in and pushed the door shut behind him. As he dragged the chair closer to her hospital bed, he said, “I was pretty worried about you, but you seemed to be in good hands. I figured it was better just to get out of the way and let the doctors do their thing.”

She nodded, and told him about her night. "Hey, where'd you get that soda? They think it was antifreeze poisoning."

"Really?" His dark eyebrows pinched together and his left eye twitched. "What makes them think that?"

An image of Paul leaning against the guardrail floated through her memory. Other faces crowded close to her while they were at Thunder Hole. Other voices asked if she was okay, but he hadn't. Had she been that out of it?

He pulled a plastic bottle of chocolate milk from his pocket opened it, then handed it to her. He shrugged, “Thought a little chocolate might make you feel better.”

She took a sip of the sweet liquid and sighed. “Thanks. All they’ve given me so far is ice chips.”

He glanced around the Spartan room. The news was just coming on the television as he reached over and pushed the off button.

“You need rest and quiet, so you can get all better and get out of here.” He jumped up and continued, “Let me get you another pillow.”

“Really, I’m--"

“Not a problem,” he interrupted, as he opened the narrow closet at the foot of the bed.

She heard something metallic jangle, and cocked her head. His back was to her, and he dug around in the closet. “Did you drop something?”

He straightened and glanced over his shoulder at her, then pulled a pillow from the top shelf of the closet. He fluffed it and said, “No. Not-- I just dropped your keys in your purse. I had a friend go out with me to get your Jeep from Jewels by the Sea and take it home.”

He held her arm and helped her lean forward as he arranged the pillow behind her. It took her a moment to catch her breath after the exertion. “Oh, well, thanks. You didn’t have to do that, but thanks.”

"Not a problem." He nodded and smiled, hands stuffed deep in his pockets. “No problem at all. Any idea when you’re going to get out of here?”

“Not yet. Haven’t seen the doctor today, but I’m sure he’ll be in soon.”

“Right." He pointed to the closet. "Want me to keep your keys and check your mail or anything?”