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  When Chelsea saw the nurses could no longer see her, she ran back to the elevator and headed for the main floor. She took her cell phone from her bag and dialed Herbert. For once the old guy picked up on the first ring.

  “I need to go home.” She closed the phone and stepped outside just as Herbert pulled up to the ambulance lane. Chelsea smiled.

  She’d bet her last nickel the old man thought his employer had just died.

  Soon, Chelsea thought. Very soon.

  Nick barely opened his eyes. He heard a continuous bleeping sound, followed by excited, yet hushed tones. He was in a strange room. As though he were looking through gauze, the images were fuzzy, undefined. He tried to speak but couldn’t seem to remember how.

  The voices around him continued. Someone raised his eyelids wide and shined a thin beam of light into his eyes. He felt his eyes burning, felt the liquid pooling down his cheeks.

  “Can you hear me, Mr. Pemberton?” a male voice asked.

  Gathering every ounce of strength he could, Nick nodded. Once.

  Twice.

  “Relax. You’re going to be fine,” the voice informed him.

  Nick closed his eyes because it took too much effort to keep them open. His head felt fuzzy, and he couldn’t focus on anything.

  It could have been a minute or ten, he wasn’t sure, but when he opened his eyes again, he saw Evan and another man standing at the foot of his bed. Sunlight brightened the room. He must’ve slept for a while, because it had been dark before.

  “Nick, can you hear me?” Evan asked.

  Nick nodded.

  “He’s coming around. Let’s allow him to sleep it off a while longer. I think that’s the safest treatment plan at this stage,” Evan said.

  Sleep it off? Have I been drinking? Nick tried to remember but came up empty again.

  The voices in the room were louder, or he was more aware, he wasn’t sure which, but he heard someone say, “Chelsea.” The monotonous bleep, bleep, bleep noise suddenly went bleepbleepbleepbleepbleep.

  “His heart rate is increasing,” Evan said.

  Nick heard quickened footsteps, then sharp voices issuing commands. Something squeezed his left arm for several seconds before the pressure released.

  A blood pressure cuff!

  He opened his eyes, blinking rapidly as he tried to clear the fog from his vision. He swallowed. His mouth felt dry as the Mojave Desert. Moving his thickened tongue from side to side took quite a bit of effort. He was thirsty. “Wa-ter,” he managed to say in a scratchy voice.

  “He’s asking for water,” the nurse said to Evan.

  “Go ahead. It’s fine. Just not too much,” said Evan.

  Nick felt like he’d died and gone to heaven when a flexible straw was placed between his lips. It took a few seconds, but he managed to drink enough to relieve the dryness. He licked his lips. They were cracked and raw.

  “Here, let me.” A woman rubbed a balm across his lips. “That should help.”

  Nick tried to smile, but it hurt his cracked lips too much. He offered up a grimace instead. “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  He must have drifted off again, because the next time he opened his eyes, the room was dark. A small light above his bed cast shadows on either side of him. He swallowed, wanting more water. He rubbed his lips together. Someone must have been caring for them, because they were almost back to normal.

  Opening his eyes completely, Nick managed to shift himself into a semisitting position. He saw the call button clipped onto the pillow. He pushed it.

  Images of a thousand aspirins and jugs of water made him push the button a second time. His head pounded, as though an orchestra were playing a Mahler symphony. He wasn’t sure exactly what Mahler symphonies sounded like, but remembered hearing some thing about how loud they were.

  “Wow, you’re sitting up. I’m impressed,” a nurse said.

  He managed a croaky “Why?”

  She took a plastic aqua pitcher and filled a paper cup with water.

  She put the straw in his mouth. He drank it all and asked for more.

  “Why am I so thirsty?” He could only whisper, but Nick knew it was the first full sentence he’d said since he’d been admitted to the hospital. He ran a hand up and down both arms, searching for the chemo line, but found nothing.

  “You’ve been asleep for a while. I’m going to get the doctor. I’ll be right back.”

  Evan returned with the nurse. “You’re awake. Good. How are you feeling?” He felt Nick’s pulse, wrote something on a chart, then handed it to the nurse.

  “Like I’ve been trampled by a herd of angry cattle.”

  “Well, that’s not good, but it’s what I expected. You still feeling groggy?”

  “Some, but not as bad as before.”

  “Do you know why you were brought to the hospital?” Evan asked, careful not to put words in his mouth.

  “No. It’s the leukemia, isn’t it?”

  “Actually, your blood count is still at a good level. Your white count is elevated a bit, but that’s to be expected under the circumstances.”

  Evan knew that one of Ambien’s side effects was temporary loss of memory. With the dose Nick had taken, he was lucky to be alive. Evan hoped that Nick would remember the events of the night before he was rendered unconscious and transported to the ER.

  “What circumstances? Don’t keep me in the dark, Dr. Reeves. I might be sick, but I haven’t taken leave of my senses yet.”

  That sounded more like the domineering man that Evan knew. He didn’t sound like a man who wanted to die, a man who’d just attempted to kill himself with a massive overdose of sleeping pills. Something wasn’t right.

  “Of course you haven’t. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. I want you to concentrate, think back to two nights ago, try to remember what you were doing.”

  Nick frowned in concentration. “Two nights ago? What night is it now? Wednesday? So two nights ago was Monday. I was at home.”

  “Anything else about that night you remember?”

  Nick rubbed his hand across his stubble. “I didn’t need a shave?” He laughed.

  “A sense of humor is good. Seriously, think back to that night. Did you go anywhere? Do anything unusual?”

  Nick had a flash of Chelsea’s naked body on top of his. “I had sex with my wife.” He grinned. “I remember now. Actually, she seduced me. I was surprised since Chels and I aren’t the most compatible couple in the world.”

  “Okay, sex is good.” Evan thought of Lin. He’d tried to call her several times over the past two days, and each time he’d gotten her voice mail. He planned on driving to her apartment tonight, as soon as he left the hospital.

  “It was especially good that night. Damn, I shouldn’t be discussing this with you.”

  “Yes, you should, Nick. I’m trying to figure out a few things. Just humor me a few more minutes. I don’t need details, just your recollection of Monday night.”

  “Okay. Chelsea brought me some tea. We drank it after we made love. She…she was adamant that I drink a second cup.” Nick paused. “Goddamn her! She put something in my tea, didn’t she? She’s behind this, isn’t she? That bitch. I swear I will kill her when I get my hands on her!”

  “Nick, try to calm down. And stop making threats. Someone is liable to hear you. The last thing you need is a visit from the police.”

  “Did you check…do whatever they do to check for drugs? Did you do that?” Nick asked. She poisoned me, didn’t she? Wait! If she did that, how the hell did I get here?”

  “A toxicology screen. Yes, we did. We found extremely high levels of Ambien and Ativan in your system. Enough to…Your wife called the paramedics, and we got you just in time.”

  “Kill someone? Is that what you were about to say?”

  “Yes,” Evan answered. Nick was his patient. His loyalty was to him, not his wife.

  “Where is she? Has she been here?”

  Evan hated to be th
e bearer of more bad news, but his patient had to hear it from somebody. “She was here the night you were admitted. She stayed for several hours. When you woke up, she was in the cafeteria. I had just told a couple of nurses to have her paged when she came up. I thought she’d be thrilled with the news. When she came upstairs, one of the nurses told her it looked like you were out of the woods, because you were awake. She said she needed to use the restroom. No one has seen her since.”

  “That conniving bitch! She laced the tea with drugs. That’s why she wanted me to drink the second cup. I’ve known for a while she wanted me to die. She’s been after my money since the day we met. She never made any secret of it, either. I guess the leukemia isn’t working fast enough for her. It’s…it’s not easy knowing…knowing someone hates you enough that she wants you dead. And then try to…Never mind, Doctor. That’s my problem, not yours. I’ll take care of it when I get out of here.”

  Nick had just voiced Evan’s own thoughts. A man doesn’t offer up ten million dollars if he’s about to off himself. No, something is definitely wrong with that picture, Evan had concluded.

  “The ER doctor called the police after the tox screen came back.”

  “Then where are they? Shouldn’t they be here questioning me? I guess they got tired of waiting for me to wake up,” Nick said wearily.

  Evan hated what he was about to say, but again it was better coming from him than someone else. “Mrs. Pemberton told the staff you took the pills yourself. When someone attempts to take their life, since it’s against the law, we have to call the police. A re port was filed, but that’s all I know at this point.”

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! No matter how bad it is or was, I’d never try to kill myself. That’s just something I would never do. My own mother…” Nick closed his eyes, unable to finish whatever he was going to say. Evan saw a lone tear escape his eye.

  “I agree, but it’s the law, and we have to abide by it, or we could lose our licenses to practice medicine. We don’t take risks, Nick.”

  Evan had eased into calling him by his first name. He seemed comfortable with it. Since Nick had been more than a bit formidable during his first office visit, Evan hadn’t cared for him as a man all that much, but now he felt like the guy was having more than a bad run of luck. His health was withering away, and his wife wanted him dead. That was enough to piss off a saint.

  “I took the Ambien you prescribed only a couple of times. With all the chemo, the last thing I wanted was more drugs floating through my bloodstream. Come to think of it, around the time you told me I could wait a month before my next treatment, I remember thinking I felt unusually tired. I bet she was lacing my tea with the stuff back then, and I was too stupid to know it.”

  Evan had no doubt that there was some truth in what Nick said.

  While it wasn’t up to him to prove a crime had been committed, it was up to him to be honest. If asked his medical opinion of Nick’s state of mind, he would have to conclude that his patient was perfectly sane. No one who’d gone to such great lengths to orchestrate such a large, not to mention expensive, bone-marrow drive was, in his professional opinion, the least bit suicidal.

  “I can’t offer you legal advice, but I can do whatever is in my power to keep you alive,” Evan said.

  “That’s good enough for me. Now, would you suggest I phone the authorities, or should you make the call?” Nick asked briskly.

  “As your doctor, I don’t want to see you upset. I’ll call them and explain your health situation. After that, it’s up to them to decide if Mrs. Pemberton’s a threat.”

  “The woman is beyond greedy! She wants my money and will stop at nothing to get her hands on it. Normally, when she wants large chunks of money, we negotiate. I’ve never really denied her anything. I just didn’t think…murder is…That’s so unbelievable, I just can’t wrap my mind around it.” Evan watched as Nick swiped at his eyes again.

  “Let me make a few phone calls, see what I can find out. I’ll order something for you to eat. Any special request?”

  “I don’t care as long as it’s not Jell-O or chicken broth.”

  “I think your system’s ready for something a little heartier. Just rest. I’ll be back to check on you before I leave for the night.”

  If Nick’s admission turned into an attempted-murder investigation, there was no way Evan would be able to get out of the hospital at a decent hour. He’d have to leave finding Lin to another night.

  Chapter 16

  When Jason had stopped by Lin’s apartment on Tuesday, she’d already decided to go back to Dalton. She’d forget about getting revenge on Nick. She also knew it was in her best interest to forget about the man whose mission it was to keep him alive.

  Jason Vinery’s visit had changed everything.

  “You’ll get to see the trees changing their colors. Well, maybe not. They’ve probably changed already. So you’ll see a bunch of naked trees,” Jason had said as a means of persuasion.

  Now here she was, in Jason Vinery’s SUV, on her way to Vermont.

  “I don’t mind telling you this entire story seems as hokey to me as the one about the tooth fairy. I can’t believe I let you talk me into this,” Lin said, but it was said happily.

  “If it were hokey, I wouldn’t be here, trust me. I believed the man. He’s dying, Lin. Why would he confess to something so bizarre?”

  “You just answered your own question. The man is dying. He’s got nothing to lose.”

  “Okay, I’ll give you that. But what’s the point? He has no family left. All his millions go to the institution when he dies. He has no reason to do this, other than to get it off his chest. If we make it in time, he’s agreed to let me videotape his confession. Said he had proof. That’s convincing enough to me.”

  Lin guessed Jason knew what he was talking about. In her desire to exact her revenge, she had joined forces with Jason, but she was afraid she would never be free of Nick again.

  “If you get a valid confession, what do you plan to do with it? Give it to your ‘source’ at the paper?”

  “I haven’t gotten that far in my thinking. Maybe I’ll just give it to you. You could use it more than me, anyway.”

  It would be one more secret to keep from Will. Speaking of Will, he hadn’t called her today. She took her cell phone out of her purse. Damn, she hadn’t bothered to turn it on since she’d turned it off after talking to Will Monday night. The poor kid was probably beside himself with worry.

  She had five calls from Will, three from Evan, and two from Sally.

  Damn! She listened to her messages.

  “Hey, Mom. Just checking in. It’s Tuesday. Missed the donor thing again. Guess I’ll try again tomorrow.”

  Four more messages from Will, the last one sounding more than a little worried. She dialed his cell phone number.

  “Mom! Damn, where have you been? I’ve been worried to death about you. I’ve been calling and calling.”

  “That’s my line. Honestly, I haven’t turned my phone on since we talked Monday night. Not a very responsible parent, huh?” Lin tried to make light of the matter but knew it was a major faux pas where her son was concerned.

  “Then why do you have the stupid thing if you’re not gonna use it! I was worried, especially after the way you acted the other night at the hospital. Speaking of which, have you heard from Evan? And where are you?”

  She’d been anticipating that last question. Not wanting to tell an other lie, she opted for the truth. “I’m on my way to Vermont.”

  “Mom! Have you lost your mind? Forget I said that. Sorry. But what’s going on with you? You’ve been acting weird ever since I started college. You’re not suffering with that empty-nest-syndrome thing, are you?”

  If only that were it. Lin could deal with that, because that was normal, something many parents experienced.

  “No, I’m not, though I miss having you around, Will.” She took a deep breath. Once the words were out, she
couldn’t take them back. “I have to talk to you when I get back from Vermont. Nothing life-threatening or anything, but it will…explain my behavior.” There, it was out! After more than eighteen years of lying to her son, she was going to tell him the truth about her past, his past.

  “Ohhh-kay.” He dragged the word out the way kids do when they think whatever a parent said was crazy.

  Despite the seriousness of the situation, Lin laughed. Will was her son, and nothing she said could take that away. “I’ll be back tomorrow, but I want you to promise me something.”

  “Sure. What is it?”

  “Whatever you do, don’t do that bone-marrow drive. Will, I’m very serious. This is important. You’ll understand why when we talk. Promise me?” she said, crossing her fingers.

  “Okay, okay! Geez, what? Do we have some defective gene or something?”

  “No, but promise me.”

  “I said I would.”

  “Humor me, Will, and say the words.” Lin knew she was about to push her son over the edge, but it couldn’t be helped.

  She heard his frustrated sigh over the phone. “I promise not to go to the bone-marrow drive until my mommy gives me her permission.”

  “Will, don’t make jokes right now. I have my reasons, and you’re going to have to trust me. I’ll call you tomorrow, okay?”

  “Sure, Mom, whatever you say. Just remember to keep your phone turned on. Sally was getting worried, too.”

  “I will. Promise.” Lin clicked off the phone before Will could ask more questions.

  Jason was looking at her as though he, too, thought she was losing her mind.

  “Something tells me you’re not going to be as easily put off as my son.”

  Jason kept shaking his head, like one of those bobbleheads on someone’s dashboard. “I had no idea you had a son, Lin. What the hell! I don’t understand why you felt you had to keep that from me.”

  “How long before we’re in Vermont?” Lin asked.

  “Three hours, four if we stop for gas. Why?”