MULTIPLE MOTIVES (The Kate Huntington mystery series Book 1) (30 page)

“Adult Intensive Care, second floor, turn right when you get off the elevator.”

Impatiently they all waited for the elevator, Kate and Liz squeezing each other’s hands. Kate’s stomach was tied in knots. Intensive care did not sound good.

 On the second floor they followed the signs and surged into the ICU waiting room. Different hospital, but Kate still had an uncomfortable moment of
deja vu.

Liz hobbled quickly to the nurse’s window, which was being slid open by a large African-American nurse. “Robert Franklin. How is he?” Liz demanded. “I’m his wife.”

“And these people are?” the nurse asked in a tone that said she wasn’t giving out any information until she knew who was who.

Kate jumped in. “All family or close friends. I’m his sister.”

“Is he okay?” Liz yelled at the nurse.

A tall, thin woman in a white coat, with a cap of short gray hair, came through the door into the waiting area. There were laugh lines around her brown eyes, but at the moment they had a no-nonsense glint in them. She strode briskly across the room.

~~~~~~~~

“Dr. Amy Walters.” She offered her hand to the woman yelling at the nurse. “Mrs. Franklin, I presume.”

The woman grabbed her hand and hung on. “Doctor, how is he?”

“He’s not out of the woods yet, but I think he’ll be okay. Everybody sit.” She wasn’t hung up on who heard what. These people cared about this man or they wouldn’t be here, relief and anxiety in equal portions on their faces.

They all quickly found chairs clustered around her. “He’s very dehydrated but he doesn’t seem to have any serious injuries, other than some scrapes on his shoulder and side and an infected thumb. Which was why we were anxious to make sure he wasn’t allergic to antibiotics. But we’ve got those into his system now, and we’ve given him a tetanus shot.

“Mrs. Franklin, I need you to give the nurse his medical history and then you can go in to see him. Don’t be frightened by his appearance. He looks pretty rough, but other than a few concerns about repercussions from the dehydration, I’m relatively confident he’ll be okay. And if he opens his eyes and doesn’t seem to recognize you or speaks and you can’t understand him, don’t worry. Dehydration can cause delirium, but once we get enough fluids into him, his head should clear.” She wasn’t quite as confident as she sounded but no point in scaring these folks any more than necessary.

As Mrs. Franklin hobbled back to the nurse’s window, the doctor eyed the leg brace, crutch and walking cast.

“Car accident,” one of the other women said.

“And you are?”

“Kate Huntington. Actually I lied to the nurse and said I was Rob’s sister, to get her to tell us how he was. We’re not related.” Tears pooled in the woman’s eyes. “He’s just a very close friend.”

“No
just
about it, young lady. I’ve got several friends I’m closer to than my siblings.”

Ms. Huntington blinked away the tears. “Please be honest, doctor. How confident are you that the delirium will be temporary?”

Amy Walters leaned back in her seat and took a deep breath. Some people dealt better with the truth; others would prefer you lie, even when they asked you to be honest. She looked into this woman’s eyes and saw anxiety but also strength. Softening her voice a bit, she said, “On a scale of 1 to10, about a 7. We don’t know how long he’s been without fluids. When did he go missing?”

“Tuesday evening. He was working late and never came home.”

“Would he have had dinner or at least something to drink during the evening?”

“Maybe, but probably not.” The woman’s eyes shifted. She wasn’t telling her the whole story.

The doctor went fishing. “Where could he have been all this time that he wouldn’t have had access to water? When he came into the ER, he didn’t have any signs of exposure other than the dehydration.”

Ms. Huntington countered with a question of her own. “How did he get here?”

“He was brought in by ambulance. He’d been mistaken for a homeless drunk and spent the night in jail. When he didn’t wake up this morning, the guard called for the paramedics.”

“What precinct, ma’am?” the young Hispanic woman spoke up for the first time.

Odd question.

The doctor shook her head. “Don’t know, but it’ll be in his chart.”

Ms. Huntington asked, “What other complications of dehydration are you concerned about?”

“Main concern is whether his kidneys will start functioning again on their own once he has enough fluid in him. He’s catheterized and the nurses will be watching carefully for those first critical drops of urine.”

“What happens if the lad’s kidneys don’t start up on their own?” The older man had a slight Irish brogue.

“Dialysis to get the toxins out of his blood.” She was hoping no one would ask what came after that. Mr. Franklin could end up needing a kidney transplant.

She eyed the big, buff guy. He gave her a slight nod. Something was up with this crew. She was curious but she also needed to know anything that might be relevant to her patient’s care. Again she asked, “Do you have any idea what happened to him?”

Ms. Huntington said nothing for a long moment, then she took a deep breath. “Someone has made several attempts on Mr. Franklin’s life and my own, and against some of our family members. He was kidnapped by this person, who was going to use him as bait to lure me away from my friends and bodyguard.”

Ah, buff guy.

The doctor started to push up from her chair. “Then I should be calling the police.”

Ms. Huntington’s eyes went wide. “No need!” She gestured toward the Hispanic woman. “This is Officer Hernandez. She’s… uh, working undercover to try to catch the perpetrator.”

The officer pulled out her badge.

Dr. Walters examined it, then gave the young woman’s rumpled clothing a skeptical look. She still wasn’t getting the whole story, but she had other patients to see to.

“Okay, Officer.” She stood up and moved briskly towards the door. “We’ll let you know when he’s awake and coherent.”

~~~~~~~~

Kate thanked the departing doctor’s back. Realizing her cell phone had been left behind at the house, she borrowed Rose’s phone to call John Bennett and let him know his partner had been found.

“Hallelujah!” he shouted, then said he would spread the good news. Kate held back the information about potential repercussions from dehydration. Soon enough to share those grim possibilities if they became reality.

Returning the phone to Rose, Kate flopped back in her seat. The adrenaline, that had been drenching her system for the past five days, was now draining away. She leaned her head back against the waiting room wall and closed her eyes. Her father, sitting beside her, took her hand in his and followed suit.

An hour later, Liz was shaking her awake. A big smile split her tear-stained face. “Kate, you can go in to see your
brother
now. The nurse just told me there’s a little urine in his bag, and it looks normal.”

Dan grinned. “Now isn’t that the best news we’ve been hearin’ in a long time?”

Kate followed the plump nurse down the corridor in the ICU. The nurse gestured toward one of the small rooms. As Kate went past her, she put a big hand on her shoulder and said, “Talk to him, honey. It’ll help bring him ’round.”

Kate resisted the temptation to tell her she was an old pro at talking to unconscious people.

She sat in the chair next to the bed and wrapped her two hands around Rob’s big, inert paw. “Rob, dear heart, please come back to us….” Her throat closed. Tears broke loose and rolled down her cheeks. The thought that he might not make it, or that he might be permanently brain-damaged, was unbearable.

She swallowed hard and tried again. “Rob, you’re safe now. You’re at St. Agnes Hospital. Liz is here. Actually everybody’s here. But we need our fearless leader back.”

She paused trying to think of something else to say. “Come on now, you’re scaring Lizzie and she’s already been through enough.”

She looked down at the big hand she was holding–the hand that had reached out for hers so many times in the last few weeks, to comfort his grieving friend.

When she looked up at his face again, she jumped. Big, beautiful, brown eyes were looking back at her. He mumbled something. It sounded like he had marbles in his mouth, but there was intelligence in those eyes.

“Don’t try to talk until your mouth gets re-lubricated,” Kate said, smiling and choking a little again, this time on tears of relief. “You’re safe now and there’s a very competent lady doc taking care of you. I know how you like strong women.”

A faint smile. He closed his eyes again.

She sat there for a few more minutes, holding his hand and saying a silent prayer of thanksgiving.

She told the nurse on her way out that Rob had opened his eyes.

The woman said, “That’s a good sign, honey. You go tell Miz Franklin her man’s trying real hard to make his way back to her.”

In the waiting room, Kate told the others that Rob seemed to be coming around. Liz’s face lit up, and she rushed back to sit with him again.

When the others’ cheers subsided, Kate asked Rose to help her get coffee for everyone. They found some vending machines down the hall in a small lounge area.

“Come sit for a minute,” Kate said. “We need to sort something out.” They sat down on the not-very-comfortable chairs. “We really should be calling Phillips at this point, but I’m afraid he’ll come storming in here and stress Rob out before he’s strong enough to deal with the jerk–”

“And you might just kill him if he did that.”

Kate smiled at her. “I’m confident you’d stop me.”

“Don’t be. Might help you at this point.” Rose paused, her expression thoughtful. Then she said, “Best bet’s to wait. See what Rob can tell us about his kidnapper.”

“But I can’t think of a way you can justify to Phillips why you didn’t call him right away.”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can stretch the I’m-trying-to-convince-them-I’m-on-their-side routine quite that far. Can’t say I’m too worked up about it though. Not sure I want to work for a department that gives a gold badge to someone like him.”

“He probably puts on a good show for his superiors,” Kate said, “and maybe he was a good cop
until
he got promoted to detective. Now he thinks he’s got enough power, he can do whatever he wants. But sometimes that’s the very thing that brings men like him down. They get so arrogant they make mistakes, or piss off the wrong people.”

“He’s certainly made mistakes but so far he hasn’t pissed off the brass. He kisses up to them.”

“Come on, let’s get some bad coffee to take back to the troops.” Kate stood up. “Wait, I’ve got it!” She turned back toward Rose. “If Phillips tries to get you fired, I’ll threaten to sue the department for harassment, which would definitely piss off his superiors and bring his mistakes to their attention.”

“Might work.”

Kate grinned. “Heck, I might even lie and tell him Rob is friends with the police chief, just to see the expression on his face.”

Rose grinned back at her. “It’s
acting
, Kate, not lying.”

Several hours later, Rob was awake enough to take some water by mouth. Doctor Walters came out to the waiting area. “Okay, folks, here’s where we are,” she said in her brisk tone. “He’s awake and reasonably coherent, knows who he is and gets it that he’s in the hospital. His kidneys don’t seem to need a jumpstart. All excellent progress.”

Both Kate and Liz blew out air at the same time. Liz gave her a lopsided smile, then reached over and squeezed her hand.

The doctor was looking at Rose. “As a matter of fact, he’s in good enough shape to move him out of the ICU, but I want a guard on his door, Officer. I do not take kindly to my patients being attacked.”

Rose nodded. “I’ll take care of it.”

Once Rob was settled in his new room–a private one since putting him in with someone else would put that other patient at risk–Rose asked to speak to Kate and Liz in the hall. Her chocolate brown eyes moved from one to the other of them. “I need to question Rob about what happened, and I’m thinking he’s gonna need some support to get through it. But I’m concerned he’ll leave things out that he thinks might upset you, Liz, if you’re in the room.”

Liz narrowed her eyes. “He might not tell the whole truth in front of Kate either.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Kate said. “He tries to look out for me but he feels responsible for you, because you’re his wife.”

Liz snorted and started to shake her head, then stopped.

Kate met her gaze. “I know, but he can’t help it. It’s how men were raised in our generation.”

“Actually for once I can relate,” Liz said, “ because I’m feeling pretty protective of him at the moment.”

Kate nodded, realizing she felt the same way. It was only natural, when you believed someone you loved was physically or emotionally vulnerable. In that light, men being protective of women didn’t seem quite so unreasonable. She tucked that thought away to mull over later.

“Look, let’s both sit in while Rose talks to him. We’ll point out that he needs to tell us everything, and probe some if we think he’s holding back.”

Rose asked questions at first, taking notes in her pad, but after awhile Rob just told the story, with only occasional prompting. His speech was a bit garbled. Kate or Liz had to translate some of his answers for Rose, like parents with a toddler whom no one can understand except those who know the child well.

Forty minutes later they had the gist of it and Rob kept drifting off. Rose nodded, and Liz gave his hand one last squeeze.

Kate leaned over and kissed his forehead. “You rest now, dear heart.”

Keeping their voices low out in the hall, they summarized for the others what Rob had told them.

“Do you think he left anything out?” Skip asked.

“Probably,” Kate said, “but I think more about what he was feeling rather than what happened.”

“So the lad thinks Cheryl was who took him?” Dan asked.

“He does, Dad, but his thinking may have been clouded, by those feelings as well as by hunger and thirst.”