Pointer Club Cadaver (Mandy Bell DVM Series Book 3)

by Abby Deuel

“Heard you had a crazy day,” said Gerry.

  “We did. Noelle and Rhonda stepped up to make it much smoother than it could have been. Thanks for giving Rhonda the tip to come over and help us. She assisted in surgery so Gillian could watch our recovering patients. It was rapid-fire surgery,” said Mandy.

  “No problem-o. I was stuck at the office or I would have come over myself. Glad it all worked out. Are all the patients OK?” asked Gerry.

  “Yep. Gillian and I worked out a roster for tonight. Let’s get inside with that box. Is there anything else to carry in?” asked Mandy.

  “This is it,” said Gerry.

  “I thought we could have a frittata for dinner. I have so many eggs. I am learning how to use them up. Please take some if you need them. I have some French bread we can have with it,” said Mandy.

  “Sounds great,” said Mandy.

  “Why don’t you set up at the kitchen table. We can talk while I whip up dinner. Then, we can sort through that box while it’s cooking,” said Mandy. “You know to make yourself at home. There are drinks in the fridge.”

  “I’m good with water. I was drinking coffee all day to get through it. I’m caffeined out,” said Gerry.

  “I was drinking tea all day so I know how you feel. What we put our bodies through, eh?” said Mandy. She pulled out some goat cheese, sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, and basil for the frittata filling. Meanwhile, she whipped the eggs and milk. She pulled out her favorite iron skillet that could go right into the oven. In no time, she had the eggs and filling setting on the stove, ready for the oven next to the bread.

  “So, what do we know?” asked Mandy.

  “This box shows that Phil had made it a full time mission to find his family. He had been searching for more information about the adoption for years. He had figured out that since he needed specialists for his own health, his siblings or parents may be visiting the same specialists. It’s looking like he went to nursing school, specializing in cardiothoracic nursing mainly so that he would have access to the medical records of the places people with his disease might frequent. He was that devoted to finding any connection to a family. I can’t figure out whether it is to warn them of their genetic background or just to be able to meet them or what,” said Gerry.

  “My guess would be that it started off that he just wanted to meet them. He sounds like he was a lost soul. Then, the further he learned of his disease, he may also have wanted to track down family to share their story of having such a strange disease,” said Mandy.

  “Lucky for us, he kept several journals of his research. It may take both of us to peruse the stack for clues. I have seen serial killers less meticulous than Phil. These are like scientific logs from a crazy mad scientist,” said Gerry.

  “Wow. This puts a new spin on things. I wasn’t expecting this. Did he have a laboratory of mice too?” asked Mandy.

  “I haven’t read that edition yet if he did,” said Gerry.

  “We couldn’t ask for a better source of information than direct from the horse’s mouth.” She surveyed the stack of journals that filled her table and spilled onto the floor. “Anything of note so far in your reading?” asked Mandy.

  “I believe that he could have been a twin, separated at birth. I haven’t been able to verify that but some of his notes show that he starts tracking a person with his same date of birth,” said Gerry.

  “Oh wow, that could be a major finding. Hand me a stack. I will start looking through them with you,” said Mandy.

  “I think I have them in chronological order, not that it matters. I’m not even sure what we are looking for until we find it. Take your pick. I am still on the first few volumes. He is so thorough. It is as if we are looking for a needle in a haystack,” said Gerry.

  Mandy fossicked through the box until she found a few that grabbed her attention. They were thicker than the others and had graph paper interspersed with the lined paper. Mandy figured that made them more official somehow and might contain something rather important.

  “What else came with his personal effects?” asked Mandy.

  “He had a vapor cigarette. He must have been a smoker despite all of his health problems. That one that was found at the scene was definitely his. He had to have given up smoking as we found no lighters or cigarettes on this person. He mustn’t have been able to shake the habit in full. He didn’t have any family photo albums or keepsakes. It was like his youth didn’t exist. He didn’t appear to have any hobbies. His main way of passing time was all of this record-keeping on his quest to find kin,” said Gerry.

  “He sounds pretty sad. Oh, that’s the oven. I hope you’re hungry,” said Mandy. She split the frittata in half, dishing out one side of the egg-based pie to each plate she had laid out. She put a crusty, toasted piece of bread onto the plates. She brought the meals to the table with a butter dish and some salt and pepper. “Bon apetit.”

  “This looks great. Farm fresh eggs are something truly special,” said Gerry.

  “You are absolutely right. If you ever need any, please come and get some. I have far more than I can eat myself,” said Mandy. They each ate as if they had worked up an appetite in their respective busy days. Mandy had the news on mute on the TV in the kitchen. The weather popped up and Mandy turned up the sound. “Sorry, I need to hear what they are predicting for us.”

  “By all means. The last that I saw, they didn’t think we’d get the snow until the end of the week. I haven’t checked it recently,” said Gerry.

  The weather reporter zoomed in on the county where Crestview was located, though they could hardly make out the outlines through all of the snowflake clip art on the screen.

  “Twelve to fourteen inches,” said Mandy. “That seems a little harsh for our first snow of the year, doesn’t it?”

  “They say that climate patterns are changing. I guess this is proof of it,” said Gerry. “At least the major part of it doesn’t hit us for a few more days. We should only get the odd flurry here and there while the storm moves our way. If there’s anything I can do to help prepare your farm, let me know.”

  “That’s very kind of you,” said Mandy. “I am pretty well set up. I might grab a few more things from the grocery store in case the roads are closed,” said Mandy.

  There was an audible knock at the door that made Gerry jump.

  “That’d be the dogs. They have learned how to sound just like a person knocking. It’s pretty strange,” said Mandy, getting up to let them in. The phone started to ring while Mandy was up so she grabbed it in the foyer. When she returned, Gerry was trying to coax Lyle into letting him pet her. “We can’t seem to catch a break today. Dr. Neptune is headed into the clinic with a puppy he thinks may have parvo. I just need to let him in and show him where things are. May as well check the patients again while I’m there. Let’s split up the journals so we each take half,” said Mandy.

  “If you’re sure,” said Gerry.

  “We have no other leads right now so let’s pool our efforts to get through these as soon as possible,” said Mandy.

  “Ok. Take the ones I’ve already looked at. You may see something that I didn’t see,” said Gerry.

  “Two eyes are always better than one, eh?”

  “Definitely. Thanks for dinner. Let’s try for a meeting tomorrow lunchtime,” said Gerry.

  “Perfect,” said Mandy. “I suspect a little insomnia tonight. I should plow through some of these in no time.”

  “Don’t put yourself over the edge. Take it easy,” said Gerry, nudging Mandy on the shoulder.

  Chapter 30

  The jaunt into the clinic didn’t take very long. Dr. Neptune had become rather adept at finding what he needed in the clinic. Mandy was back at home ready to curl up in bed before the night frost had a chance to settle in on her Jeep windshield. The dogs were as excited to see her as if she had been away for weeks on end. Anna managed to knock over a picture that was on the buffet in the hall. She had quickly grown into a larger version of the puppy
that Mandy had bottle-fed just a few short months before. She was increasingly becoming the same height as much of the furniture. Soon she would be able to wipe the surface of the furniture with her tail as she walked by. Luckily, that would still be a few months off.

  “Note to self: start relocating fragile knick-knacks above tail height,” said Mandy out-loud to an attentive, but not altogether comprehending Pyrenees. The dogs finished their nightly rituals of one last drink of water from the kitchen and one final check of the perimeter while Mandy brushed her teeth and changed into pajamas.

  The stack of journals might be intimidating to some, but Mandy couldn’t wait to get started. She fluffed up her pillows, rearranged her blankets, got a fresh cup of hot cocoa, and waited for the dogs to take their places in bed. She knew there was no point getting settled in until the dogs had finished their evening ballet. Lyle was a creature of habit who needed everything to be just so before she would exhale her deep sigh of content before drifting off to sleep. Anna, on the other hand, was not educated in the fine arts of routine and order. She would thump around, snuffling the blankets, using up every last bit of energy before she could finally settle down. Whereas Lyle slept with her head on a pillow in the exact same place on the bed each night, Anna would experiment with novel locations and different positions each night, much to Lyle’s dissatisfaction. Tonight, Anna seemed to be working on an angle that would result in the consumption of the most square footage.

  “Are we about settled?” asked Mandy. Lyle sighed again while Anna once again did another circle around the bed. “I suppose not.” Anna shook the whole bed with every change in position. She might be a puppy still, but she was growing fast and was already showing that she was going to be a Great Pyrenees indeed.

  Mandy had an antique reading lamp by her bedside table. It had three different settings, depending on how far you turned the key-like switch. It provided a surprising amount of light for something that looked like it should still be run by oil. The light was just right and the cocoa was now at a drinkable temperature. Mandy pulled the first journal down off the stack. It chronologued the time period when Phil was first diagnosed with Loeys-Dietz Syndrome. He was both shocked to have a potentially fatal condition and glad that it had finally been identified. It was during this time that he overwhelmed himself with information about LDS. He began to make the connection that it may help locate his long lost blood relatives since it was such a rare disease. She found where he had obtained as much information about his adoption as possible. He had somehow, no doubt illegally, managed to retrieve official intake forms from his adoption agency. It did show that on the very same day that he was admitted, another child with his same date of birth was taken in. It must have been as far as he could take the information because his focus shifted in the journal.

  The next few entries in the journal depicted his struggle to get medical expenses covered for the inevitable surgeries he would need. In the end, he had found that the easiest way to answer all of his prayers was to become a nurse. He would have better insurance, access to records, and would likely be treated better for his condition. He enrolled in the closest and most prestigious school he could find. He had no trouble getting accepted as he scored a near-perfect mark on the pre-nursing assessment exam. He seemed to have a knack for test-taking.

  The saga of trying to get his health under control was a harrowing experience for Phil. He underwent numerous invasive tests to determine whether he had any vessels that were in danger of hemorrhaging. Once they located the vessels, stents were put in surgically to support the vessels so as to prevent a potentially deadly aneurysm. He was also on a raft of medicines to regulate his blood pressure until they had his vessels under control. It would be a life-long battle to keep ahead of the disease. Mandy was impressed by Phil’s dedication to keep his momentum in life despite Loeys-Dietz Syndrome. She admired his outlook on life.

  The phone was ringing in the main room of the house. Mandy ignored it, thinking it must be a wrong number. When the ringing stopped, it started up again a minute later. Whoever it was who was calling was not going to go away. Mandy got up to catch the second call on the last ring.

  “Hello?” asked Mandy. “I see. OK. I’ll meet you at the clinic.” Mandy put the phone down and turned back toward her room to put some warmer clothes on. Anna and Lyle were sitting in the hall, waiting for an explanation. “It seems that Dr. Neptune had to leave suddenly. It was some kind of family emergency. So, we are on call. And apparently there is another dog headed in. Since no one can leave the compound until the police give the all clear, there are lots of dogs in a small area all sharing germs and getting into predicaments. Gillian will meet me there. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to.”

  The dogs ran to the door, sliding the last few feet as they lost their footing on the slippery hardwood floor. They knocked each other down like bowling pins in a strike. It didn’t seem to phase them. They were up and ready to bolt out the door before Mandy had even put her winter coat on. She turned the light on to highlight the porch area. In the time she had been reading until now, it had started to snow. She didn’t feel like it had been that long but she checked the grandfather clock in the hall and it was three in the morning.

  “It’s going to be a long night, kids. We probably won’t get any sleep. And now it’s drizzling as well,” said Mandy to the two dogs. “I, for one, am going to bring some stuff to do in case we don’t make it home until tomorrow night, or I suppose tonight now, really.” She gathered the journals and packed them in a bag, as well as some snacks, a change of clothes, and a flashlight. The predictions were that this storm could get nasty. The radar showed that it was a slow-moving giant cell of a wintry mix. It had come a little sooner than originally forecasted but winter storms were not something that Mandy wanted to tempt. People had been telling her stories all week of blizzards that appeared out of nowhere. She figured at least some of the people were exaggerating. She had not been through a heavy snow before and was not going to learn the hard way if at all possible.

  Chapter 31

  The roads were still safe to drive but the visibility was poor. Snow was coming down hard enough to make Mandy wish she had traded her Jeep in for a pickup with a snow plow on the front of it. The windshield wipers were on full throttle and still not keeping up with the falling flakes. The temperature was low enough so that the flakes were forming a fluffy layer instead of a slippery ice sheet. Mandy turned on the radio to see if she could catch any weather forecasts on the way in. The cell had picked up speed and was predicted to sit right over Crestview, sharing all of its snowy glory.

  No one else was on the roads. Every one else had the good sense to be inside in this weather, thought Mandy. Mandy drove carefully and slowly. It took her twice as long to reach the clinic that it normally did but she was safe and sound. She had arrived before the person bringing the second puppy. All of the patients from earlier were looking food. The first parvo pup was improving steadily. The main power was still on in the clinic. A back-up generator would come on if the power went off. Anna had installed that after a terrible storm left the clinic without power for several days. At the clinic, Mandy got the dogs inside and then checked the thermostat in the clinic.

  “Now wouldn’t be a good time to lose power or freeze the pipes, but it could happen. Anything can happen,” said Mandy. She opened the cabinets under the sink in each room to expose the pipes to as much heat as possible. She filled several buckets with water to have on hand in case. She located all of the flashlights in the building and put them on the front counter for safe keeping. “I can’t think of anything else I can do,” said Mandy, taking a seat at her desk to resume reading the journals until her patient arrived.

  Lyle and Anna snuggled up on their beds in the corner. They were perplexed by the break in the action. Their soft snores was all that could be heard in the quiet of the winter’s night. Mandy dozed off while reading the next in line of the journals. She awoke to the sound
of the front doorbell. Temporarily, she lost her bearings, not knowing where she was or why. It all came back to her as she arrived at the door to greet a rather sick little puppy and a dejected looking owner.

  “Who’s this little fella?” asked Mandy.

  “This is the only pup I got out of my best bitch. His name is Gander. Poor guy, seems to have caught something,” said the gentleman.

  “Come in out of the cold and let’s figure out what we can do for him,” said Mandy. She escorted the man and pup into the exam room where she proceeded to have a thorough look at the pup. “What symptoms are you seeing?”

  “He started vomiting and having diarrhea this morning. I have had to hand raise him myself as the mother passed away during whelping. We never quite figured out what happened. Normally, we see ten or eleven pups in a litter. It was strange to see only one pup. Anyway, in all the panic to get someone to survive out of this, I’m a little late getting his first puppy shots into him. I didn’t want to take a chance in case it’s parvo,” said the man.

  “I understand. I have a pup of my own who came from a similar situation. Her mom died from a poisoning and she too was the only pup in the litter. In her case, I think it was her age that made for a small litter. The point is though, that it’s sure hard to see a pup get sick that you’ve had to get up every two hours through the night to feed since birth. So, how old is the pup now?” asked Mandy.

  “Seven weeks,” said the man.

  “OK. Have you seen any blood in the stool or vomit?”

  “No ma’am.”

  “Will he keep anything down?” Mandy asked as she took his temperature, which was normal.

  “Even water was coming back up so I knew he needed to be seen,” said the man.

  “You made the right choice. I’d say we should keep him here for the night. I’ve got another case here from the pointer meet that I suspect has parvo. It is entirely possible that this one has it too since it can be so easily transferred. I’ll try some fluids and anti-emetics. There’s no way we will get the results for a parvo test in this weather so we will treat it as if that’s what it is and then go from there. Sound good?” asked Mandy.