by Katie Penryn
Everyone looked up at me when I opened the door to the kitchen and went back and sat down with them.
“It’s not good news, I’m afraid. They don’t know what’s wrong with him. Vomiting and diarrhea leading to severe dehydration. They’re waiting to see if he will come round once his fluid levels are stable.”
The front door clicked to, and the dogs left their baskets to greet Felix back from his shopping trip.
“Hey, got my boots,” he said holding them aloft. “All ready for the fray.”
He plonked them down on the floor and moved to pour himself a coffee.
When he turned around he said, “What’s got into you all? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
I couldn’t answer. Felix had told us what had happened at the hotel on Monday night. Hostility characterized Felix’s view of Jonny Sauvage whose very existence he deemed an insult to life and truth. Only legal repercussions had prevented him from ripping Jonny’s head off with his powerful claws, whereas ambivalence clouded mine. In spite of all Jonny Sauvage had done: attempting to seduce Emmanuelle, using me as a gull while he lured Emmanuelle into his net and the reports we’d heard about him, he was a likeable rogue, a classic bad boy. A tear slipped from my eye. I brushed it away, but it didn’t escape Felix.
He put down his coffee and hurried round to me. He grabbed me in a shoulder hug.
“What is it? Tell me what’s happened.”
Gwinny spoke up for me. “It’s Jonny Sauvage, Felix. He’s in a coma … in the hospital. Penzi’s upset because she likes him.”
Felix snatched his arm away, spun round and threw his hands up in the air. “What is the matter with you? The guy’s an A1 no-good. Why do you girls always fall for the scoundrels?”
“Don’t let’s go there, Felix,” I said. “Whatever he’s done or not done, he doesn’t deserve to be in a coma at the age of thirty.”
Felix ran his hands through his mane and sat down opposite me. “I’ll give you that, but I can’t say my heart’s bleeding. A touch of karma is what I say. And Monsieur Bonhomie will be doing handstands when he hears the news.”
That image raised a chuckle around the table and relieved the tension between Felix and me.
“I’d like to visit the hospital to find out more about his condition; what the prognosis is. If the idea of friendship sticks in your craw, Felix, think of it as my civic duty.”
Felix made a noise between a sigh and a harrumph. “If you must.”
“What about Sam?” asked Gwinny. “Should I wake him up and tell him? Emmanuelle might need support, and it could bring them together again.”
“Good thinking Gwinny. I’ll leave you to sort that out. For now Felix and I are off to the hospital.”
*
Only a couple of weeks before, I had spent the night in the local hospital. The planners had built it on a promontory outside the town walls so that the sea breezes could blow through the building and cleanse it and at the same keep any future epidemics out of the town.
The receptionist told us no one but family could visit. I explained that Jonny Sauvage was American. Even if his family had been informed I told her, they couldn’t possibly be here for another twelve hours. He needed friendly faces around him even if he couldn’t see them. Moreover, the ward sister had briefed me on his condition only minutes ago. As I member of his band I wanted to see him to check on his progress personally.
She let us through, telling us he was in Ward 3:10 on the third floor. The elevator opened onto the nurses’ station and we had to talk our way through again. No voices reached us. No chatter. Only the clunking, beeping and pinging of monitors and life support machines. The nurses we passed conversed in whispers.
Felix pushed open the door to Room 10 for me and I entered. Despite being forewarned, the sight of the vibrant and sexy Jonny Sauvage lying there in his high hospital bed with lines and tubes snaking in and out of his body hit me a body blow. I recoiled and bent double holding my stomach. I crossed over to the far side of his bed where a visitor’s chair stood ready, fell into it and dropped my head on my knees.
This was about Jonny. I didn’t want to pass out and turn the attention onto me. Felix held my head while I took several deep breaths.
When I had steadied, I looked up at Jonny stretched out on that white bed like an offering to some heathen god. The coma had smoothed out his face. I stood up and stroked his cheek with my palm. Of course, he didn’t react but the heat of his skin surprised me. Only that and the gentle rise and fall of his chest showed he was unconscious rather than already dead.
I turned away from him and took the two steps to the window to get a hold on myself. His room looked out over the Atlantic Ocean. A sea mist billowed on shore blurring the view through the salt-rimed windows and pushing the waves rolling into shore out of focus. Would Jonny ever wake up to appreciate the view?
Felix came up behind me and wrapped me in his arms. “Boss, I’m so sorry. This is painful for you, I know. But there is little we can do.”
I spun round. “Felix, I want to talk to the doctor in charge. A young man in the prime of life doesn’t go into a coma for no reason.”
“Some things are medical mysteries. The doctor may not know the reason.”
I kissed Jonny Sauvage on the forehead and hope that somewhere deep down he knew I had done so.
We left his room and went in search of the doctor not that we learned anything more when we found him. All the usual tests had been performed and checks made for all the common poisons including salmonella.
As I drove away I said to Felix, “I’m calling in on the house he was living in with Zack and Petey to see if they can add anything to explain his condition.”
Felix sighed but let me have my way.
*
Zack was out but Petey let us in.
“He’s gone for provisions. We have to buy everything from the little shop on the corner because he lets us buy on tick. We still haven’t been paid. Trust Jonny to leave us in a mess like this.”
“What can you tell us?” I asked.
“Jonny woke us both up in the early hours. He vomited all over his room, down the hall and in the bathroom. He was barely coherent when we asked him whether he’d had anything odd to eat. You know, like bad shellfish. It’s so easy to get food poisoning from a rotten oyster or a stale plate of mussels.”
“What did he say?”
“He was out all day on his bike on his own. He stopped at several places for snacks and for lunch. We couldn’t get the names of the restaurants out of him. Some must have been shacks near the beach. We didn’t have a show last night, so he’d gone to dinner at Kiki’s. We weren’t invited.”
“Have you phoned Kiki?”
“Of course, first thing. He and Marie are fine, and they didn’t have seafood for dinner.”
“Have you cancelled tonight’s show and the rest?”
“Zack cancelled tonight. It’s not good, heck man, we really need the money. But Jonny was the front man, the singer. Zack and I are good for backing vocals but not for the lead. We’re really down and out now.”
“I’ll see if the mayor can organize some financial help for you, or at least get you a couple of Red Cross parcels to see you through.”
“Thanks, Penzi. Is there anything else?”
“I’d like to see Jonny’s room if that’s all right.”
“Sure,” he said waving vaguely towards the room at the end of the short hall.
The stench of stale vomit hit me as I opened the door, and I reeled back treading on Felix’s toes.
“They haven’t even cleaned his room up,” I said with disgust.
Felix pushed past me. He high stepped over the messes on the floor and threw the windows open. At least we could now breathe without gagging. I carried out a quick inspection but didn’t find anything untoward: no half eaten burgers, no bottles of pills apart from a headache compound and no strange drinks. The two glasses on his nightstand held the dregs of wat
er in the one and red wine in the other.
“See if you can get a freezer bag, or failing that, a plastic shopping bag off Petey,” I asked Felix.
I pulled open the drawers and the wardrobe using the hem of my T-shirt as a glove. Nothing.
I stuck my head out of the door and called out to Felix, “Bring a knife as well, please.”
I checked under the bed. I wasn’t looking for anything specific. My intuition told me to look out for anything out of place. As far as I could see the only thing that qualified was the vomit.
When Felix returned, I put the two glasses in the shopping bag and using the knife scooped up some of the vomit into a smaller bag Felix had brought back.
“Ugh,” said Felix. “Is that really necessary?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But better safe than sorry. I’ll stick it at the back of the freezer in case it becomes necessary later on.”
As we left, I suggested to Petey he take the motor bike back to the hire company to save further charges and to let us know if they needed more help.
Chapter 14
Next morning Felix and I visited the hospital again to check on Jonny Sauvage’s progress. As I parked the car a black crow landed on the bonnet and cawed at me. By the time I was out of the car it had flown off. Would I have been able to understand it if I’d been closer? I didn’t know. My experience as a witch hadn’t been long enough for me to learn all the ins and outs of conversation with other creatures. If a witch could hear all the animals and birds talking all the time, she would go mad, but what triggered understanding was a mystery to me. The crow’s exact words may have gone unheard, but his message hit me a wallop in the solar plexus.
Felix took his time getting out of the car.
“Come on, Felix,” I shouted at him. “It doesn’t look good. Icy fingers of foreboding are running up and down my spine.”
He cast an anxious look my way then watched as the bird flew to its perch on a chestnut tree at the rim of the car park.
“Sure thing, boss,” he said closing his door as fast as he could so I could beep the car locked.
He snatched at my hand and pulled me up the steps to the front door.
We ignored the protestations of the receptionist and made straight for the elevator. The doors opened as we reached it, we dived in and Felix hit the button for the third floor.
We poured out on the right floor and came up short against the nurses’ station.
The ward sister stepped forward blocking our path.
“Where do you two think you’re going?” she asked in a low whisper her hands on her hips to bar our way. “There are sick people here. Show some consideration.”
“Sister,” I gasped. “What about Jonny Sauvage? Is he all right?”
The sister looked me over. “You were here yesterday?”
I nodded.
“He’s fine. No change. Now calm down before I let you through.”
I slowed my breathing and checked out the bank of monitors surrounding the circular control desk. Green and red lines pulsed along the screens.
Felix touched my arm and pointed at the one on the far right. “Jonny’s,” he said.
The sight of his life signs blipping steadily past calmed me down even further. I glanced at the ward sister who was sorting papers with one eye on each of us.
“All right,” she said. “Quietly now. You may visit him.”
As we walked round the control desk to start down the corridor to Jonny’s room, a shrill beeping broke out behind us.
“Code Blue,” shouted the sister at the top of her voice.
I turned to see Jonny’s monitor flat lining.
The sister pushed an emergency button. White coats flew in from all directions shoving past us. A crash cart erupted from the room at the end of the corridor. Half a dozen doctors and nurses converged on Jonny’s room.
I gripped Felix’s arm.
“I have a horrible feeling the crow was right,” I whispered. “Come on.”
I tugged him along behind me and we quick marched to the doorway to Jonny’s room.
All was a flurry of white and barked commands. I dug my nails into Felix’s arm.
“There’s still hope,” I whispered.
Felix shook his head slowly as the medical team took a pace back from the bed and we saw Jonny for the first time.
Someone called out, “Time of death — 10.27 a.m.”
A nurse pulled the sheet up over Jonny’s face.
Jonny Sauvage, a golden lad for all his sins, had left us for another world.
But why? I clutched at the sister as the medical team left Jonny’s room. She shook me off saying, “You shouldn’t be down here. Go back behind the station. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
I craned my head around her in an attempt to see further into the room but she blocked me and walking forwards, pushed us back in front of her. When we reached her control desk, she summoned an orderly to take Jonny’s body away.
“Why are you doing that?” I asked her. “I want to see him one last time. He was my friend.”
“You heard the doctor in charge.”
I hadn’t heard anything any of them had said. It had been a muddle of sound and frantic action.
“Felix?” I asked.
He shook his head.
The sister sighed. “He said he couldn’t sign off on the death. It’s been categorized as unexplained. That means an autopsy. It’s a legal requirement in a case like this. And the sooner the better. Now, I’m busy. You can wait over there until I have the time to speak to you further,” she said pointing to a couple of chairs in front of the French windows.
“What does unexplained mean?” I asked her.
“Just that,” she said. “We didn’t know why he was in a coma and now we don’t know why he died. All we know is he stopped breathing and we couldn’t resuscitate him.”
Felix and I watched as an orderly wheeled Jonny’s body out on a gurney and took him down to the hospital basement.
“Come,” I said grabbing hold of Felix’s arm and hurrying him over to the nurses’ station.
“Sister, I want to see Jonny Sauvage’s room. Now, before anything more is done in there.”
“We can’t allow that,” she said.
I took out my phone. “I’ll call the mayor.”
“And you can’t use a mobile in here. You’ll upset the machines.”
Felix grabbed my arm and pushed me through the French windows onto the balcony.
I called Monsieur Bonhomie. “Monsieur, Jonny Sauvage has just died.”
Silence greeted me.
“Monsieur, are you there?”
“Yes, I’m here. I’m trying to summon up some human fellowship to feel sorry for the man.”
“Yes, yes,” I said. “Monsieur, please will you speak to the ward sister and authorize her to allow me into his room? I am not happy about this situation. Il y a quelquechose qui cloche. Something doesn’t ring true, but I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I trust your instincts, Penzi. Put her on.”
I sent Felix to fetch the sister and when she arrived, I handed her my phone.
“Monsieur le Maire, bonjour. Yes, of course, I will. D’accord. Certainement.”
She passed the phone back to me and I closed the call.
The sister was all co-operation now and led us down to Jonny’s room.
It was unfortunate that his body had been removed. All the tubes and lines hung loose. Not that they would have told me much. I was as ignorant or knowledgeable about medicine as the next man in the street. I had only my common sense to rely on. I examined everything from that point of view but couldn’t pinpoint the cause of my unease. Furthermore, while we’d been negotiating access someone had stripped the bed and removed the bedding.
“Felix, what do you think? Do you sense anything in here?”
“I can smell death. That’s always unsettling. But nothing more.”
It was so hopeless. I wo
uld have to wait for the results of the autopsy and butter up Dubois so he’d share them with me.
But what on earth was I doing?
Getting involved in a death again?
I walked across to the window, drawn by the bright sunshine sparkling through the pristine windows. Far out to sea a tanker sailed across the Bay of Biscay halfway to the horizon. Closer into shore flocks of seagulls soared on the heat spirals before peeling off and diving to feed in the rock pools hidden from our sight by the cliffs.
Jonny Sauvage was dead, but life would go on in Beaucoup-sur-mer.
Felix put his arm around me. “Loose ends, Penzi. I hate them.”
“We have to be patient,” I said. “But we shall find out why Jonny died. Now, we have people to tell, and the mayor will need my help. All we know for now is that Jonny died while we were arguing with the sister to be allowed to see him. If we’d been a few minutes earlier, he wouldn’t have died alone.”
*
On the way home we stopped off at the chalet rented by Jonny Sauvage’s band.
“I need to find Jonny’s passport,” I told Felix.
“Why are you getting involved?” he asked me. “You said you would keep out of cases like this and return to your normal life.”
“This isn’t a murder. I’m not going to be caught up in solving a crime this time. As a lawyer, I know the mayor now has a bureaucratic and political muddle to sort out. Jonny was a US citizen, far from home and penniless as far as I can judge. I can help the mayor. He doesn’t speak English. You can help by Googling the formalities surrounding the death of an American here in France.”
“Very well then. Anything to get this unpleasant business over and done with. From my perspective Jonny Sauvage is not worth crying over.”
“Who’s crying?” I asked, not far from tears.
I pulled up outside the dilapidated building.
“The bike’s gone,” said Felix. “I wonder if there’s anyone at home.”
We knocked on the front door. No answer. We tried the back. Still no answer. I tried the door and it opened. Of course, I could have used magic but I don’t like to unless it’s necessary. Even then I use it only to enable me to do things and get information the police can find out with their legal powers of investigation. Magic evens the playing field for me.
