Love Immortal (20 page)

“Well,” Jewell started

“Did you kiss him?”

“Yeah…”

“Is he a good kisser?”

“Are you going to let me tell you, or are you
going to just keep interrupting?”

Ashley pushed her lips shut and mimed locking
them and throwing away the key. When Jewell was satisfied, she
started again. “Yes, he’s a good kisser. What did we do? Well, on
Monday, he took me shopping…” She explained her three days with
Collin, filling in as many details as she could. By the time she
finished, they were near the end of the Lake Pontchartrain
Causeway.

“Oh…my…God!” Ashley sighed. “He is so
romantic. Just the fact that he always opens the door for you is so
cool. I don’t think I’ve ever met a guy besides my dad that still
believes in opening a door for a woman.” She sighed again,
wistfully. “How good a kisser?”

“REALLY good! I mean, when he kisses me on
the cheek or the hand…oh, he does this really cool thing. He brings
my hand up and kisses right inside my wrist.” She shuddered as she
imagined the sensation of his lips on her wrist. “When he does
that, it’s like…well, you know how when your hands are really cold,
and you put them around a warm cup of coffee?” Ashley nodded. “It’s
kind of like that. Just a really, pleasant warmth that gradually
moves through me. You know that song…’it starts in my toes, makes
me crinkle my nose…’ It’s like that. It’s just a really good kind
of tingly feeling all over. But when he kisses me on the lips…”
Jewell’s tone had totally changed. She could feel the heat
radiating through her, and she almost choked on the words.

“What?” Ashley half shouted.

“It’s like a forest fire when it hits an area
of dry brush. It’s entirely unstoppable. I don’t even know how to
describe it because it’s so wonderful, but it’s so scary all at the
same time. It’s like I’m afraid I can’t stop. I mean, Ash, what am
I going to do if this doesn’t work out?”

“Why wouldn’t it work out? It sounds like he
likes you as much as you like him.”

“Ash…did you forget about…well, about the
fact that he was in a serious accident that killed him, quite
literally, only three weeks ago, but he’s taking me on field trips
of New Orleans? You can’t tell me that’s normal.”

“Well, no, but…well, so what? The fact is he
is taking you on very romantic field trips.”

“I just don’t know Ash. Somehow, I know that
something’s not right. I know that I should be running away from
this as fast as I can, but I can’t make my feet move.”

Ashley didn’t know what to say to make Jewell
feel better. The fact was that she had a point. Something was
weird, and not in a good way, but Ashley didn’t have the heart to
tell Jewell what she thought. Collin was good for Jewell, she knew
that too.

* * *

Jewell met Ashley for ‘lunch’ just after
midnight. “You know,” Jewell said to her, carrying on their
conversation from earlier as if it had never stopped, “his uncle
knows something too, and Collin thinks Dr. Babineaux is
involved.”

“Really?” Ashley was suddenly much more
interested in Jewell’s personal life than what was being served in
the cafeteria. “Do you think it’s related to the accident?”

“Either that, or maybe something they found
out because of the accident. They were awfully quick to get him out
of here. I think they knew something then.”

“Have you looked at his file?”

“No,” Jewell looked at Ashley. “Do you think
you can help me with that?”

“Sure. Whatever you need Jewell, I’m here for
you.”

“You know I can’t get to the file room. Do
you think you could get in there?”

“Sure, they send me in there all the
time.”

“Can you copy the file?”

Ashley sighed. She took a long time to
answer. “I’ll be honest; people are in and out of there all the
time. If the wrong person catches me…”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s cool. This isn’t
worth your job. I’ll see what I can do.”

“Give me tonight. I promise I won’t take any
chances.” Ashley smiled at Jewell and reached across the table to
give her hand a squeeze.

Jewell smiled. “Don’t get yourself in trouble
Ash. This is my deal; I’ll take care of it. I just need to figure
it out.”

They finished their lunch talking about how
each other’s day was going. When they got up to leave, Ashley
grabbed Jewell’s arm, “don’t try anything tonight. Promise me
that.”

Jewell looked into Ashley’s face. Ashley was
her best friend. Ashley would do anything for her, even risk
getting fired. She couldn’t let Ashley take the chance. “I promise,
if you promise too.”

“Sure, whatever.” Ashley walked toward the
elevators to go back to obstetrics, while Jewell turned the other
way toward the ER.

Fortunately, Jewell didn’t have a lot of time
to think about anything other than work. The ER was crowded with
everything from sniffles to strokes that kept her mind occupied.
She also couldn’t find any time to sneak away to the file room to
investigate Collin. When she was finally released to go home,
Ashley had already changed and was waiting for her in the locker
room. Jewell walked in and changed as quickly as she could. As they
walked out the doors to the hospital, Ashley reached into her bag
and pulled out a folder which she handed to Jewell.

“What’s this?” Jewell asked, her mind still
on duty, thinking of procedures and dosages.

“What do you think it is – it’s Collin’s
file. A photocopy of course, but everything’s in there.”

“Ashley – I told you not to.” Jewell was
thrilled, but also disappointed that Ashley had broken a
promise.

“I didn’t.” Ashley smiled smugly. “I have a
friend who’s an intern. His name’s Ray. He’s way cute, and I think
he likes me. I told him I needed a copy of a patient’s file and
when he asked me why, well, I sort of helped him think of something
else.”

Jewell turned to stare at her friend.
“Ashley! What did you…never mind; I don’t even want to know.”

She opened the file and started looking
through it when she suddenly walked right into something solid. Her
mind registered his smell first. Then the warmth radiating from his
body, and then his warm arms wrapped around her. She looked up and
saw the most beautiful storm gray eyes laughing at her.
“Interesting reading?”

“As a matter of fact, it is. It’s your
medical file.”

All of a sudden, she saw Ashley’s hand, open,
palm up between them. Jewell looked at Ashley and then dug in her
pocket for her car keys. As Jewell dropped her keys in Ashley’s
hand, Ashley commented to Collin, “Can you just drop her at my
place. It’s easier than doing the car swap, and she lives in the
wrong direction for me to pick her up for work.”

Collin nodded as he looked over Jewell’s
shoulder at the file. They heard Ashley’s hasty retreat as they
turned to walk towards Collin’s car.

While Collin drove towards the French
Quarter, Jewell read through the file. “Anything interesting?”

“Not really so far, just the usual. Wow, I
had forgotten how bad it was when you came in. There are pictures
in here.” She kept flipping through the pages. “Notes about
procedures, tests, I don’t really see anything. I’ll look at it
more closely when we stop. I think I’m getting car sick.”

“You do look a little green,” he chuckled,
pulling on to Decatur St. He found a place to park, and they walked
to Café du Monde.

Sitting at a table, Jewell started looking
through the file again, carefully reading all of the notes. She
handed the pages with the pictures across to Collin. “Wow. Did I
really look that bad?”

“Are you kidding, those pictures don’t do you
justice. I wrote you off the minute they brought you in.”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“Well, you didn’t look that great. And you
did die, sort of.”

He handed the pictures back. “Is there
anything else?”

Jewell kept leafing through the file. “X-ray
results, lab results. It looks like they did the standard tests for
an MVA, drugs, alcohol…wait. Now this is interesting.”

“What? What’s interesting?”

“Somebody ordered a DNA profile. Why would
they order a DNA profile for a trauma victim?” She started flipping
through the pages, looking for more information.

“Is that unusual?”

“Well, that’s definitely not standard…oh
wait. Aha…you’ll never guess who ordered the test.”

“Babineaux.” It was more of a statement than
a question.

“You guessed it. It’s got the name of the
lab, but no number. I’ll see what I can find out today.” She downed
the rest of her coffee and stood up.

“Do you want me to help?”

“No, you can drop me at Ashley’s. She’ll
help. I’ve got to work tonight too. Meet me there at about five
thirty and I’ll tell you what I can before work.” She gathered up
all of the papers and shoved them back in the envelope.

“So, you think this DNA stuff is the answer?”
Collin asked when they started back toward the car.

“I don’t know, but it’s the only thing in the
file that doesn’t make sense. Another thing I noticed, they took
out the information regarding your death and…resurrection.”

“For heaven’s sake Jewell, I’m not
Jesus.”

“Oh really, then what are you?”

Collin didn’t answer. “So, that’s unusual
that that information isn’t in the file?”

“Very. Everything is documented and the
hospital keeps very accurate records. There’s something going on
here.” Jewell was already thinking about the ramifications of what
she had found. Not only was this unusual, there was a cover up, and
Dr. Babineaux and Collin’s uncle were at the center of it.

When Collin dropped Jewell at Ashley’s
apartment, rather than just getting her keys and driving home,
Jewell asked Ashley for help in her investigation.

“What do you need me for?” Ashley asked,
flipping through the file on the table in front of her.

Jewell leaned over her shoulder and flipped
up a couple of pages. When she found what she was looking for, she
placed her finger on the questionable tests that were run on Collin
while he was at the hospital.

Ashley looked up at Jewell. “A DNA test? Why
would they run a DNA test?”

“That’s what I’m saying!” Jewell was
frustrated. She had been thinking about this for well over an hour
and it wasn’t making any sense.

“Well they sent it to Dyna Labs. Why don’t
you just call them?”

“And say what? Why were you running a DNA
test on a trauma victim?” Jewell asked sarcastically.

“I can call. We send stuff to them all the
time. Amnio samples and what not. All you need to do is give them
the patient number. They don’t know who the patient is, just what
tests were run.”

“Really? You can do that?” Jewell hadn’t
handled anything but drug and alcohol testing and that was all done
in house.

“Sure. Give me a minute.” She walked over to
the phone and dialed. “Hey Abby. I’ve got a patient file here that
says we sent some stuff over to you for some tests but I don’t have
any results, can you help me out?” She paused, listening to the
person on the other end. “Sure, it’s 1-8-3-Alpha, Delta,
4-4–Victor.” She paused again. “Is there any way you can pull it
now? I’m trying to close out this file and it should’ve been done
yesterday. If my boss finds out I’ve been slacking…Thanks, Abby, I
owe you big time!”

“What? What’s going on?” Jewell
whispered.

Ashley put her hand over the phone’s
mouthpiece and whispered, “She’s going to pull the file. It’ll
probably take a minute.” Ashley put the phone on speaker and set it
on the table. While she was waiting, she idly leafed through the
file. “Hey, didn’t you say that doctor Sandstrom was the one that
called it?”

“Yeah,” Jewell answered. “So?”

“He’s not listed in the file. It says that
Dr. Armstrong called it.”

“What?” Jewell grabbed the file from Ashley
and started looking through it again. “Sandstrom’s name isn’t in
here anywhere!”

“Didn’t he just accept a job in New York or
California or something too?”

“Yeah, Dr. Sandstrom was offered a job at
Sinai in Baltimore. It was a step up so he took it. He left a
little over a week ago.”

“Interesting. Do you think it’s just
coincidence?” Just then, they heard Abby on the other end of the
phone interrupting their conversation.

“Ashley, I have the file. It looks like the
only test we ran was Dr. Babineaux’s research profile.”

Ashley flipped the phone off speaker and
picked it up. “Thanks Abby. That explains why there are no results
in the file.” Another pause. “Nope. Thanks again Abby.” She hung up
the phone.

“Research profile?” Jewell asked.

“Yeah. Every now and then Dr. Babineaux asks
us to run his research profile on a sample. We always get the
results of the other tests, but the results from the research
profile are sent directly to him.”

“What type of research?”

“I don’t know; I never paid much attention.
We could look it up though.” Ashley got up to walk into the office
where she had her computer. “So do you think there’s anything to
this Sandstrom/Armstrong switch?”

“I don’t know. I was there too, and there
were two other nurses. None of us were offered great jobs or
anything.”

“Yeah, but none of your names are in the file
either. Besides, wasn’t someone in the next day talking to
Sandstrom; someone from the press or something?”

“Yeah, now that you mention it, there was. He
never had a chance to talk to Sandstrom though. Babineaux talked to
him instead.”

“Babineaux again. Curiouser and
curiouser.”

“Curiouser indeed.” Jewell replied as Ashley
typed Dr. Babineaux’s name into Google. There were well over a
thousand hits. Ashley clicked on one that looked promising.

“Here’s one of his articles. ‘The Effect of
Telomerase on the Hayflick Limit in DNA Reproduction and
Prolongation of Lifespan.’” Ashley clicked on the article. Jewell
read over her shoulder as they scanned the information.