by L. R. Potter
It seemed to take forever before Lottie and the doctor on call came out of the room. She jumped to her feet. “How is he?” she asked frantically.
The doctor studied her coolly. “Do we have a medical release of information form on file which states we can release that information to you?” he asked.
Slowly, she shook her head.
“Then I’m afraid I can’t release any information to you. Are you an immediate family member?”
Again, she slowly shook her head.
“Lottie, can you tell me why she’s been allowed into the room?” he demanded hotly to the nurse.
Lottie spurted and scrambled to answer his question.
“I’m all he has,” Arabella said in a rush.
The doctor shook his head. “I’m sorry, but we have rules in place for a reason. Until he is assigned to a regular room, you will not be allowed to visit. What you did today could have hurt his progress severely.”
“But, I…” she began.
“No buts. I won’t have him upset. Do you understand?”
She swallowed hard in her misery. “Yes,” she finally whispered.
Feeling lost, and not knowing what else to do, Arabella made her way back down to the morgue. She found the same man as had been there the day before. She quietly pushed the swinging doors open. The same overpowering scent of death assailed her. She followed the alcove around until she reached the main area. The man at the desk turned, his glasses flashing as the light bounced off them.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Langston, I’m Arabella Marks. I was here yesterday. Do you remember?”
He pushed his glasses back up from where they’d slid down his nose. “Yes, I remember. What can I do for you?”
“I… I just…” with a shuddering sigh, she fanned her palms out in front of her.
“Would you like to sit in here for a little while?” he asked softly.
She exhaled. “Would you mind?”
His eyes, made larger by the severe magnification of his glasses, blinked slowly. “No,” he finally responded.
She moved back to the same metal chair she’d sat in the day before. Except now, instead of being placed in front of the window, it was set against the wall. The physical and mental sides of herself, were warring against each other. While her mind was numb, her body was on fire. She felt like a tricycle with one of its wheels missing, where every time she moved, she just went in continual circles. Which was ironic, as that was exactly what they were – she, Ian, and Drew. Except for right now, her tricycle was missing two of its wheels.
She rubbed her palms against her thighs as she struggled to pull herself together. Glancing around the room, she wondered why anyone would want to work in such a place, day after day. It was so depressing.
“I guess you find it very strange… me, being here,” she said quietly.
He’d turned back to his desk, typing away at a laptop. With his back still to her, he replied, “Not really. Your loved one is here. Where else would you be?”
She stared at the rows of stainless steel drawers, all neatly labeled. “I just wasn’t ready,” she said in a small voice.
He stretched and folded his arm behind his neck. “People never are.”
Her phone vibrated against her hip. Unclipping it, she saw Karmyl’s number. “Do you mind?” she asked her brother’s keeper.
“Nope.”
“Hi, Karmyl. I’m sorry I haven’t called,” she said as quietly as she could.
“Please don’t apologize. I’ve just been so worried. I’m so sorry about Ian.”
Tears sprang to Arabella’s eyes at the words, but she blinked them back. “Thank you.”
“Where are you?” Karmyl asked.
“At the hospital.”
“Where are you, specifically?” she reiterated.
She hesitated, as she didn’t think anyone else would understand her need to be here. With a shrug, she said, “In the morgue.”
“Oh, my God. Seriously? I’m in the lobby. Please come to me. I don’t want to come to you.”
Oddly, the longer she’d sat in the room, the less morbid it’d become. With a sigh, she knew she’d have to leave her small haven and deal with real life again. “Okay, I’ll meet you there. Give me five minutes,” she said.
Clicking her phone off, she rose from her chair. “Thank you… for watching over us,” she said solemnly to the man behind the desk.
He turned back toward her and his eyebrows scrunched together at her words. “You’re welcome.”
He pulled his glasses off as she approached him to shake his hand for allowing her to sit with her brother. As his bare eyes met hers, she felt the same calm she’d felt with Lynx. She smiled a beaming smile and slowly his lips curled up.
“I can’t thank you enough. I actually feel better,” she said when she reached him.
“I know,” he said as he reached out to place his hand in her outstretched one.
At the contact, a sudden glimpse of things rushing past her startled her and she tried to pull back, but he held her hand a little tighter. She saw him leaning over someone lying in a hospital bed and he seemed to be kissing their neck. She jerked back both her hand and her mind. She heard him gasp at the same time she felt the blood begin to tickle from her nose. Fear flooded her for some reason. It was weird and scary!
Stumbling backwards, she lifted a hand up and held it over the blood oozing from her nose. When he stepped toward her, she turned and fled from the room.
~X~
Karmyl Rogan sat with refined grace in the hard, plastic chairs in the lobby. Her red hair was swept in an elegant style and Arabella knew her shoes had probably cost more than her car. Karmyl came from money and it showed. Seeing Karmyl brought her brother to mind. He, also, had that same refined quality about him. Not that any woman would be drawn to him based solely for monetary gain. Perversely, she was disappointed he wasn’t with his sister.
Karmyl rolled to her feet smoothly. When Arabella reached her, she wrapped her cool arms around her and drew her against her. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay, except for this blasted bloody nose – stress, I guess. I’m not allowed to see Drew anymore, and that upsets me more than anything else right now. He got really upset when he saw me earlier. I think he knows about Ian… maybe Maggie. I’m not sure.”
“Why on earth were you in the morgue?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s where Ian is.”
“What can I do?” Karmyl asked.
“There’s nothing.”
“I’m here, whatever you need,” she said with emotion.
“One thing, while I’m thinking about it. Please find out how much I owe Lynx for getting my car repaired the other night. Tell him, thank you, for me.”
“He won’t take your money,” Karmyl replied.
Arabella sighed. “I can’t… I need to pay him. I don’t want to be indebted to him.”
“Don’t worry about it, for now. Just take care of this. We’ll deal with the other stuff later. How’s ole’ Drew doing?” Karmyl asked.
“He’s pretty banged up. But I think he’s getting better, barring any setbacks. I’m just scared to leave the hospital because they won’t call me if anything happens to him. Hipaa-laws and all.”
Karmyl studied for a long moment. “Let me try. You stay here and I’ll be right back.”
“I don’t think…”
“You sit here and I’ll be right back,” she said again.
Arabella sat for only five minutes before Karmyl returned, beaming from ear to ear. “There! That was easy as pie,” she said.
“What?”
The lovely doctor on call… Todd, I think his name was, is going to call your cell if there is a change with lover-boy.”
“Really?”
Karmyl’s eyebrow lifted in disbelief at the question. “You doubt me?”
Arabella gave the first smile she’d given in what felt like days. “Thanks.”
The smile made her think of Langston in the morgue and goosebumps rose up on her skin, making her shiver.
“Let’s get out of here. Hospitals give me the creeps,” Karmyl said linking her arm through Arabella’s.
They were seated at a cute, little bistro table, at an outside café. They’d both declined food, but had settled on Bloody-Marys. Karmyl was babbling to cover the silence. Arabella smiled and nodded her head, but wasn’t really listening.
“… and so I told Ramon that he’d better quit hitting on all the waitresses or he’d have to, not only make the drinks, but serve them as well…” When she realized Arabella wasn’t really listening, she waved her hand in front of her face. “Hello! Are you listening to me? If I wanted to be ignored, I’d have stayed at home.”
Arabella gave her a small smile. “I’m sorry. I know I’m not very good company.”
“No, I get it. I’m supposed to be making you feel better.”
Arabella gave her another small smile as she twirled the celery in the thick red drink, thoughtfully. “Why do you think Maggie was in the car with them?”
Karmyl blinked slowly as she considered the question. “Did you know her?”
She shook her head. “Not really. I’d just met her the other night at the Night Owl. Drew had invited her to come hear me sing… or so he said.”
“Could she have been with Ian?”
Arabella gave a small shrug of her shoulders. “Maybe. I just have a really bad feeling about it. It’s like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop.” She blinked rapidly before lifting her eyes once more to Karmyl’s, pain burning her chest. “He broke up with me,” she whispered.
Karmyl’s brows drew together. “What? Who? Drew?”
“Maybe to be with her?”
“Son-of-a-bitch! I told you…” Karmyl began before catching herself.
Arabella exhaled on a shuddering breath and lifted her sad eyes. “I should have protected Ian better. He was my baby brother. I had a feeling bad things were going to happen and I didn’t try to stop him.”
Karmyl laid a hand over one of Arabella’s clenched hands. “This wasn’t your fault. There’s nothing you could have done. Ian was a grown man and made his own decision… both good and bad. Don’t torture yourself like this. And while I may have always thought you could do better than Drew, I’ve always believed he loved you.”
Arabella stared intently down into the drink she’d barely touched, other than to stir it around. She gave a small nod to the other woman’s words. “I know he does. Even if it’s not the way I’d like it to be.” Lifting her blue eyes to meet dark ones, she said, “I’m worried about him.”
“Drew will be fine. Just give it time.”
“I think there are bad things that go on in that hospital,” Arabella said quietly.
Karmyl stilled immediately and her smooth brows drew together. “What do you mean? Bad things?”
“I think the guy that works in the morgue… hurts people,” she responded hesitantly.
“Hurts people? Hurts people, how?”
“I’m not sure. I… I just… got a bad feeling about him,” Arabella said with a nervous smile. There was no way she’d ever admit to anyone else about her glimpsings. Now that Ian was dead, there was only one other person who knew she had them, and that was Drew. She’d seen how people had responded to her mother’s visions. She wouldn’t live that way.
Karmyl threw back her head and laughed in such a way, that it reminded Arabella once more about the other woman’s connection to Lynx. That’s how he’d laughed. “Oh, sweetie! Of course, you got a bad feeling about him. He works in the morgue, for goodness’ sakes.”
Arabella jumped when her cellphone vibrated against the intricate, ironwork of their round table. She snatched it up immediately. “Hello?... Yes, it is… I don’t understand, why do you want to see me?... Umm, I can meet you there in about thirty minutes.” Glancing at her watch, she said, “Let’s say three o’clock?... Okay, I’ll see you then,” she said before she slowly clicked off the phone and with deliberate care, sat it back on the table.
“Who was that?”
“The police. They want to meet with me at Ian’s,” Arabella replied.
“Why?”
With a small shake of her head, she said, “I don’t know, unless they were in Ian’s car or something.”
“Could he have been driving?” Karmyl asked.
“No,” she said with a smirk. “Drew would never let Ian drive - ever… and especially if there’d been drinking involved.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
“No, you and Lynx have already done so much.”
With a wave to the waiter to get their tab, Karmyl said, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m coming with you and that’s final.”
With a sigh of relief, Arabella said, “Are you sure? I didn’t really want to go by myself, but I didn’t want to ask.”
Chapter 5
After meeting with the police at Ian’s apartment and arriving home, Arabella had just dumped her purse on the dining room table when her cellphone vibrated against her hip. Seeing the hospital’s number flash on the screen, she heaved an exhausted sigh. “Hello?”
“Ms. Marks?”
“Yes.”
“This is Lottie from the hospital. Dr. Marksman asked that I call and let you know Mr. Larkin has been upgraded and is currently being moved into a private room. He’s been asking for you.”
Arabella stood silently with the phone pressed against her ear. Finally, emotionlessly, she said, “I’m on my way.”
Drew was asleep when she slipped into his room. She walked to his bed and was relieved to see all the tubes finally removed from his body. However, without them, she could now see the full extent of his injuries. His face was cut, swollen, and bruised. She sat down heavily in the recliner positioned next to his bed.
Leaning back, she stared at the battered man she’d spent more than half her life with. The man, she thought she’d known. Now, she felt she’d not known him at all. She thought of the tricycle once again. She certainly did feel like she was coasting along alone, on one wheel now. She felt wobbly on the inside… wobbly, confused, and broken.
She must have drifted off, although she wasn’t sure how she could have ever relaxed enough to sleep. Stress was like that sometimes, she guessed. A terrible rasping woke her and she was disoriented for an instant. When the events of the past few hours slammed into her, she wished she could have stayed disoriented. It was an easier place to survive in.
“Ara,” came the soft, raspy sound again.
“How are you feeling, Drew?” she asked.
“Rough. How is… how is Ian?”
Her anger flitted away at how the news was going to devastate him. No matter what, they’d all been together a long time. “Drew… I… he….didn’t make it.”
She heard him inhale sharply. “Oh, God!” he rasped.
“I’m sorry,” she said, the hole in her chest widening as her losses began to add up.
Turning his eyes away from her, he whispered, “Maggie?”
Slowly, she shook her head, “No.”
“No,” he rasped on a heaving sob.
Anger, hurt, and disillusionment poured over her. She wanted to lash out at him. Wanted to hurt him… make him pay for her own pain. It took everything in her to rein it in and bite her tongue. She sat silently while he struggled to control his emotions. But when he shifted his wounded eyes back to hers, seeking… understanding, she guessed, she was done.
Pressing her fingertips against her stinging eyes, her own voice growing raspy, she said, “Tell me what happened. Tell me why you were in the backseat with another woman with my brother in the car. Tell me why you would let Ian drive, even knowing how drunk he was.”
Drew lifted his redden eyes to hers. Struggling to speak through his emotion-clogged voice, he said, “Ara, you have to believe me… it… she… it was nothing. I love you… I’ve always loved you.”
Hi
s words slid over her skin with the pain of a brillo-pad. Clearing her throat, she said, “Tell me what happened. That’s all I want to know. I want to know why my brother died… why you allowed him to be killed.”
Tears spurted from his eyes and he whimpered at her words. “God, Ara, please don’t say that! I loved Ian, like my own brother.”
“Then why would you let him drive? I told you to watch out for him. You know how he is. You knew he’d drink too much. What? Where you just too busy with the cute blonde that you were willing to let Ian kill himself? Kill all of you?” she said cruelly, as pain sliced through her.
“Ara! It wasn’t like that. I never intended… I never meant… he wasn’t supposed to be there… in the car,” he finished on a heaving sob.
She shook her head as she tried to absorb his words. “I don’t understand,” she whimpered.
Exhaling and looking away from her to stare up at the ceiling, he took several deep breaths to gather his control. “She just showed up. We were talking at work about our weekend plans.” He shifted his pleading eyes back to hers, “You have to believe me, I didn’t plan to meet her there. She just showed up… and we were drinking… and she was coming on to me… and it was easy… so very easy… to just, like, talk to her. She thought I was charming and wonderful.”
His words cut her deep. “I asked you! I asked you if it was just too much. You told me no!” With her chest heaving she railed at him, “Now, how do you go from being in the bar to being in the backseat with her while my brother is driving while drunk?”
His chest shook as he strove to contain his sob. He lifted his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh, God, Ara! I felt guilty, okay! I felt guilty because I knew I’d hurt you. I’ve never wanted to hurt you. Then Maggie showed up and she made me feel like I was something wonderful and I liked the attention. I knew I was wrong, I drank too much and before I knew it, I was in the backseat of the car with her. I didn’t even know at first that Ian had gotten into the car. I was just so hammered. Oh, God! You’re right. I killed them. They both died because of me. I’m so sorry. You have to believe me. I’m so sorry, Ara,” he sobbed.
