Doctored Death

by P. D. Workman

  They could hear Pat grumbling in the background, obviously not wanting to take the trip.

  “I talked to Kenzie, and we have to go. Get ready.” Lorne spoke back into the phone. “I’ll let you know when we’re there.”

  “Okay. Remember what I said and only open the doors for someone with proper protection. I’m going to light a fire under someone now.”

  72

  Neither of them could look at the other. Zachary took his phone back after Kenzie hung up, but he didn’t look at it like he normally would, diving into his email or messaging apps to see what else he had missed. He just held it in his hand, looking blankly in front of him.

  Kenzie hit the emergency call button, which brought a couple of nurses hustling into the room within seconds, unlike in a regular hospital ward where they usually didn’t show up for a while.

  “The emergency button is not for—”

  “This is an emergency. We just got word that a family member is showing symptoms,” Kenzie snapped. “That means I am a carrier, because I’m the only vector between him and the outbreak. And if he’s showing symptoms already, he needs aggressive treatment or he might not survive.”

  The nurse looked at Kenzie for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll get the doctor.”

  The two of them retreated.

  The beds were close together. Kenzie reached and took Zachary’s hands, holding them out in front of her, the two of them sitting facing each other with their clasped hands in the center.

  “It’s going to be okay, Zachary. We caught it before the symptoms got too bad, and we’ll throw everything at it that we can. He’s going to recover. It’s going to be okay.”

  “If anything happens to them...” Zachary’s voice was rough. “They are... the only family I had for years. I can’t lose them.”

  “It’s going to be okay.”

  73

  From the chair beside his bed, Kenzie watched Zachary sleep. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm.

  He slept so little when he was well that she’d rarely had the opportunity to watch him sleep. Or she hadn’t taken the opportunity when she’d had it.

  He looked younger. The lines on his face and bags under his eyes were less pronounced. She could imagine what he had looked like as a little boy. She’d seen a few pictures that Lorne had taken over the years, but she’d had a hard time reconciling the young Zachary’s face with the one she knew, all angular and frequently unshaven, a man who had been through a lot in his life that no one should ever have to.

  He stirred and opened his eyes. He lay there for a moment, eyes glazed and unseeing before he focused on her face and smiled.

  “Kenz.”

  “Hey, Zach. How are you feeling?”

  “Ugh.”

  That was pretty much how he felt all the time, and Kenzie was glad they were nearly at the end of the treatment protocol and they would be able to get back to their lives soon.

  “Do you think you could eat something?”

  “I’ll try.”

  Kenzie raised the head of the bed. Any time he was awake, they tried to get him to eat. Zachary was already thin and nauseated from his depression and medications, and the side effects of the Acyclovir and the chemo drugs that they were using to fight the virus off made it hard to keep anything down. They didn’t want him to lose more weight.

  Kenzie reached for the snacks on the bedside counter. “Jell-O?”

  “Yeah.”

  She tore the sealed top off a new Jell-O cup and handed it to him with a spoon. He took a couple of bites and closed his eyes. Kenzie nudged him. “Hey. Stay awake. Have some more.”

  He focused on the gelatin again and had another bite.

  “Heard from Lorne today,” Kenzie said. “He’s back home.”

  Zachary’s lips twitched. “He is? That’s good. He didn’t get any symptoms?”

  “Nope. And he handled the protocol like a champ. No trouble.”

  “We’ll be done soon.”

  “Yep,” Kenzie agreed. “And then back to work. Dr. Wiltshire says that he’s tired of me lazing around on vacation when everyone else in the office tested negative and is hard at work. And your family has all been calling. Heather says she’s running out of work and needs you to send some more files her way.”

  “Yeah.” Zachary nodded. “Be good to be home again.”

  Kenzie didn’t tell him that she’d already finished her protocol. Zachary’s viral load had been much higher, so he was on higher doses and had not yet completely cleared the virus, though they figured he would be done in another day or two.

  “Let’s see if we can get Lorne on the tablet,” Kenzie suggested. Zachary’s eyelids were starting to droop, but she knew that if he could talk to Lorne, he would make an effort to stay awake longer.

  “Yeah, okay.”

  Kenzie pulled the wheeled table across Zachary’s lap and set the tablet on it, propped at an angle. She tapped the buttons on the screen until a call started to ring through to Lorne Peterson’s account, and then they both watched to see if he would answer.

  After a few rings, Lorne’s round face fringed with white hair appeared on the screen as he bent down to answer the call. He smiled tiredly, happy to see his former foster son, and sat down.

  “Zachary! How are you managing?”

  “Good,” Zachary proclaimed, though he obviously wasn’t well. “Going to be done here soon. Then I can go home and get back to work.”

  “You might need to take it easy for the first little while,” Lorne warned. “I thought I would be back to normal when I finished, but I can still barely walk from one room to another without getting out of breath.”

  Kenzie made sympathetic noises. The chemical cocktail that they had been on had left her tired too. A couple of days off it and she was starting to feel more normal, but not quite ready to go back to her usual routine yet.

  “And it’s so quiet around here,” Lorne said.

  Zachary’s head was starting to nod. Kenzie nudged him and tried to keep him awake for a few minutes longer. Another bite or two of Jell-O to keep up his strength.

  Pat’s head appeared over Lorne’s shoulder. “The reason it’s so quiet around here is that whenever I put on the music, you say your head hurts and you want a nap, old man,” he teased.

  Lorne turned his head to smile at his partner. Pat put his hand on Lorne’s shoulder, and Lorne put his hand over it and gave it a squeeze.

  “Well, that might be true,” Lorne admitted. “Don’t ask me how he’s so full of energy and bouncing around here when he was the one who had symptoms,” he complained. “Weren’t so bouncy a couple of weeks ago, were you?”

  “It’s those green drinks,” Pat said. “If you want me to whip you up some wheatgrass shots...”

  “No!” Lorne made a face. “You don’t need to go to all of that bother. I’ll just lie down for a nap when we’re done talking. If you’ll keep your music down.”

  Zachary’s head sank into his pillow and Kenzie couldn’t shake him awake again. She took the Jell-O cup and spoon out of his hands.

  “I guess that’s it,” Kenzie said softly to Lorne and Pat on the tablet. “We’ll call again tomorrow. Take care of yourselves.”

  “We will,” they both agreed.

  “Look after that boy,” Lorne said.

  “Sure will.” Kenzie gave a little wave to the camera and ended the call. She rested her head on Zachary’s pillow, just touching her forehead to his head. “Sweet dreams, Zachary.”

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  Preview of Dosed to Death

  Chapter 1

  How’s it going?” Kenzie asked Zachary, poking her head into the bedroom to see whether he had finished packing.

  Zachary was sitting on the bed looking at his duffel bag. It didn’t look as if he had made much progress since the last time she had seen him. She cocked her head to the side.

  “Tired?” she asked sympathetically.

  Zachary raised his head to look at her. His face was painfully thin, eyes dark hollows. He attempted to hide how sunken his cheeks were with the dark stubble, but she could still tell. The antiviral protocol that the two of them had been through had been much harder on him. Kenzie was feeling pretty much her old self. She just tired a little faster than usual. But Zachary had already been sinking into his annual depression and didn’t sleep or eat well, so it had really taken its toll on him.

  But better thin and tired than dead.

  “I just don’t know if I can do this,” Zachary said.

  Kenzie had already taken care of everything else. The only thing left for Zachary to do was to pick out the clothes he wanted to wear for the holiday and throw anything else he wanted to take along into the bag. Once they were at the resort, he could rest and sleep as much as he needed to. They had a cabin to retreat to that was separate from anyone else, so they didn’t have to worry about thin walls or people being aware of their comings and goings. They would have both the privacy they needed and socialization activities to boost their spirits.

  Rather than criticizing him or telling him to just focus and get it done, Kenzie entered the bedroom to see if there was anything she could do to help.

  “Do you know what you want to wear?”

  He looked at his flat bag listlessly. “No.”

  “Does that mean you don’t care? Can I just pick some stuff out for you?”

  Zachary rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah. Sure.”

  Kenzie went through Zachary’s drawers and his side of the closet to pick out a few outfits, folded them neatly, and set the piles into his bag. “There. What else? Do you have your meds?”

  “Yes.”

  Kenzie opened the toiletries case to see what was in it. Comb, toothbrush, razor, and a few bottles of pills. She checked the names on the sides of each, and didn’t think he had everything he needed. She left the bedroom and went down the hall to the main bathroom, which was the one that Zachary usually used, leaving the ensuite bathroom to Kenzie. She opened up the medicine cabinet and looked through the remaining pill bottles, picking out a couple more that Zachary probably couldn’t go without for a week. She grabbed his deodorant and toothpaste and glanced over his toiletries for anything else he might need that the resort wouldn’t have on hand.

  She returned to the bathroom and added the items she had picked out to his toiletries bag. Zachary watched her and didn’t comment.

  “What else are you taking? Your computer and phone? Anything else?”

  “Computer,” Zachary echoed.

  “It’s in the living room? Let’s go grab it and you can tell me if there is anything else you need.”

  She picked up the duffel bag. Zachary took a few extra seconds to consider this, then pushed himself to his feet. He took the bag from her as they walked to the doorway, and Kenzie let him. She didn’t know whether he was being chivalrous or just didn’t want someone else touching his stuff, but it didn’t matter. It was good he was taking some part in the preparations, however small.

  In the living room, he put his bag down on the couch and picked up his laptop computer, which was sitting closed on his mobile desk and put it into his soft-sided briefcase beside the couch. He picked up the cord, unplugged it from the wall, and carefully coiled it up to add to his gear. Kenzie stayed back and watched him gather the peripherals he wanted. An external drive and mouse. A couple of notepads. He stood there looking at his desk, again grinding to a stop.

  “Is that it?” Kenzie prompted.

  “I don’t know if I can do this,” Zachary said again.

  “Do what?” Kenzie had assumed that he meant he couldn’t do the packing on his own, but since he was now packed, she wasn’t sure what he meant.

  “Just... this whole thing. Going to this place. Being around other people. Leaving my business behind when I’ve already been neglecting it because of this virus protocol...”

  “You wouldn’t be able to do it if you were here anyway. You still need more time to recover. Just because you’re out of the hospital, that doesn’t mean that you are on hundred percent better. What about after your car accident? You couldn’t go right back to work a couple of weeks after that, could you?”

  “No. But that was different. I had a lot of rehab to do... I couldn’t physically do the work.”

  “And how is that different from now? You’re not being weak or lazy. You’re recovering from a virus and treatment protocol that could have killed you. Just like that car accident. Your clients will understand that you can’t service them right now. They will wait, or go to another private investigator, or Heather will help them out with what they need. And when you’re feeling better, you can get back to it.”

  “Heather can’t do everything. She’s not trained. She doesn’t do field work.”

  “I know. I said that they could go to another PI if they need to. If they just need backgrounds or skip tracing or other computer stuff, Heather can do that.”

  He scratched his head. “Yeah.”

  “You can’t work like this. And if you’re out of town, people will get that. Everyone takes vacation now and then. It’s not healthy to work all the time. Most jobs will wait a couple more weeks, until you’re ready.”

  “I thought this vacation was only a week.”

  “Yes, the vacation is only a week. But I don’t think that’s going to be enough time for you to recover enough to work cases again.”

  “I can do some. Maybe not everything, but I can start doing some work, can’t I?”

  “I’m not the one dictating it. That will depend on your body.”

  Zachary started to sit down on the couch. Kenzie stepped forward and picked up the duffel bag. “Don’t get comfortable. Let’s get the car loaded up.”

  He took the bag away from her firmly, then bent down and picked up the laptop bag as well. “Which car are we taking?”

  It was always a fight to see who got to drive. Zachary enjoyed driving, especially on the highway, where he was able to zone out and let go of his usual anxieties. Kenzie loved getting out in her baby, a sporty red convertible. But she had decided they would take Zachary’s nondescript white compact instead. It was better in the fall weather in Vermont, which was supposed to be taking a turn for the worse in the next few days. And she wanted to give Zachary that time to drive, to get out of himself and be in the zone for a while. It would help him as much as any vacation. She also preferred not to have her baby sitting outside unprotected when they were at the resort. It as safer in her garage.

  “Yours. But you have to watch the speed limit.”

  Which meant that he’d better not go more than ten miles or so above the speed limit. Zachary preferred to way too fast for Kenzie’s comfort. At least, when they weren’t racing against time to stop a viral outbreak.

  Zachary brightened a little at this news. He hefted his bags higher and headed to the front door. Kenzie grabbed the food bags from the kitchen and her suitcase from the hall and followed him out to his car.

  Zachary had the trunk open and carefully stowed his bags, then took Kenzie’s from her and fit them in.

  “You aren’t taking a computer?” he noted.

  “I’m on vacation. I’ve got my phone and tablet for simple emails or looking things up, I’ve got some books I intend to read, and I’m going to participate in some of the group activities and spend time with you. No work.”

  He considered this. “They do have
Wi-Fi, right?”

  “Yes, they have Wi-Fi. I don’t know how fast their internet service is, being up in the mountains like they are, but there is internet. And you could always hotspot to your phone.”

  “Maybe I should have bought some extra data...”

  “You can do that later if you need to. You don’t have to be home to do that. Now, is there anything else? Last chance.”

  Zachary gazed back at the house, but his eyes were far away. She didn’t know what he was seeing or remembering. “Yeah. I’m fine. Got everything.”

  Chapter 2

  Kenzie kept an eye on Zachary as he drove out of the city and settled into highway driving. He gradually became more relaxed, the lines in his face softening and his hands loosening on the steering wheel. Kenzie gave him a while to enjoy the drive before trying to start a conversation.

  “Now are you happy to get out of town?”

  Zachary nodded. “Yeah. You’re right. Some time away from work will be a good thing, even if I have already been off for a couple of weeks. There’s money in the bank and I don’t think I would be able to do much in the shape that I’m in right now.”

  “I think you’ll feel a lot better once you’ve been able to relax for a while. Lorne says this resort is really nice.”

  “Did Pat take him there?”

  Kenzie grinned. Patrick Parker had previously taken his partner, Lorne Peterson, to a day spa as a Christmas gift. While Lorne had said that he enjoyed it, it really wasn’t his type of thing. Pat was far more concerned about healthy living and taking care of his body. Lorne was more of a pizza and beer guy. Zachary was clearly trying to set his expectations of the resort based on which of the men had first suggested it.

  “No. It’s run by an old friend of Lorne’s.”