by Jeulia Hesse
Christina was thankful for the elder couple and their presence at the inn. They did a respectable job keeping things in hand. She knew they both were interested in her decision, as the property was home to them. Their well-being was a top consideration; Christina wanted to make certain they were well taken care of if she did decide to sell.
She zipped up her suitcase and lugged it to the car, down the two flights of stairs and through the quiet lobby. Jeremy had not been back, and she had not heard from him since their last conversation. Victor had not been in touch to provide any further detail on the old accounts, and she made a note to follow-up with him. She wanted him to disclose what was behind the frozen accounts and was certain there was more to that story than what Victor was letting on.
She put her bag in the trunk of her car. The broken window had been repaired by a local car dealer. The missing computer had not been returned nor were there any leads for the Sheriff to follow. It was an odd occurrence, but they had attributed the break-in to the recent rash of petty crimes likely driven by the need for drugs. Not unlike many parts of the country.
Gina was leaning into the passenger side of the car, riffling through her handbag. “Dammit Christina, I can’t find my phone. I had it earlier, but I can’t find it now. You didn’t happen to see it, did you?”
Christina shook her head. “No, the last time I saw you with it was this morning, when you were taking pictures. Did you leave it in the kitchen?”
Both women entered through the main door into the lobby. Jim was at the desk, looking over what appeared to be a broken box. Gina went into the kitchen to search for her phone. Upon further examination, Christina realized the broken box was actually one of the game cameras Jim continued to have issues with. With this one, it appeared that the outside casing was smashed. “What happened there?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Seems like I just can’t keep these things workin’ where I put ‘em,” Jim replied, flipping the broken box over on the desk. He seemed pitifully sad about the broken camera. “This is the last one of the bunch. Now, all of them are broken. Useless.”
Christina felt bad for him. She had always been fond of Jim. These broken cameras were really disturbing him. There was something mysterious about what had been happening to his game cameras, because each one had been dislodged, or fallen from the trees, and broken beyond repair. It was a puzzle. He liked to use them to capture pictures of animals that were in the area. That way, he could locate any that were causing disturbances in his gardens.
Gina walked past them and up the stairs on her way from the kitchen. They could hear voices upstairs as she encountered Maude making the beds in the rooms in which they had stayed. She was likely searching upstairs for her phone.
Christina sat with Jim for a bit, discussing the game cameras and whether he would replace them. They were a gift from their son, who lived somewhere out in Arizona. She realized it was unlikely that he would replace them, and she felt bad for him that his gift had been ruined. He evidently enjoyed looking at the animals he photographed.
They conversed further as they heard Gina’s footsteps overhead, moving to the second floor in her search for the phone. “You know how to reach me?” Christina asked Jim. “You can go ahead and use that credit card I gave you for expenses, but make sure that you save your receipts. I think I’ve got everything covered.”
“Still not sure what you are doing with the place?” Jim asked.
Christina shook her head.
Jim reached out and patted her hand. “You’ll be back.”
The dog sauntered into the lobby, perfectly at home. He approached the desk and flopped himself on the floor at their feet, dropping his toy on the floor with a clunk.
Puzzled, Christina looked down at the dog. She had not bought him any toys, but had snuck him a few dog bones, which he seemed very satisfied with. What Christina had thought was a toy was actually Gina’s phone. The dog had retrieved it from somewhere.
“Gina,” she called, “I found your phone.”
She and Jim laughed together.
“Are you sure you are all right to keep this monster?” she asked him. “We still haven’t heard that the owner has been located.”
Jim nodded his head. “He’s no trouble at all. Reminds me of the dog that Annie had when she was a little girl.”
Christina nodded. She wondered to herself if she should warn them off Jeremy. She didn’t trust that he wouldn’t be around in her absence. Then again, the older couple had been around him forever, so forbidding their interaction just seemed like it would cause more problems.
Footsteps came down the stairs and Gina appeared. “I looked everywhere! Where did you find it?”
Christina handed her friend her cell phone. “You may want to wipe it off really well,” she said, nodding her head toward the dog laying at her feet.
“Oh, you animal!” Gina exclaimed. She reached down to scratch his ears and she pressed a few buttons on her phone. “Still works fine.”
The three of them laughed lightheartedly. “Guess it’s time for us to hit the road,” said Christina.
They heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs. Maude reached the lobby; she was sweating profusely even though the day was not overly warm. Big damp circles of perspiration darkened her dress under her arms and in the middle of her back. Jim’s smile slowly faded to concern as he observed his wife’s approach. “Ya all right? You’re lookin’ winded.”
Maude approached the group. She went to say something, but her speech was all garbled. She clutched her chest with both hands, dropping the bundle of sheets in her arms. She collapsed onto the floor as the three all grabbed for her to stop her fall.
“Maude, Maude!” Jim cried. “What’s going on?”
She clearly lost consciousness as she lay on the floor with the three of them gathered around her, shocked at what was happening. Christina immediately thought she was having a stroke or a heart attack. “Call 911,” she directed Gina. She felt for a pulse. It was there and she was breathing. Christina desperately tried to recall her training in first aide.
“Oh no, no...” Jim cried holding her hand. “Don’t leave me, Maudie...”
Christina realized that the paramedics would be far away, as they would have to come from town. They needed to do whatever they could to help Maude. “Jim, is there anything we should know. Does Maude have a heart condition or high blood pressure? Has she started any new medicine?”
He looked as if he was struggling to remember. “No.... nothing new really. Recently, her sugar’s been really high and really low, on and off. She has to take shots now and then when its high.”
She and Gina exchanged a look. She was on the phone with 911. Gina repeated what Jim had just said. She listened, and then looked up at Jim. “They are asking if she had to take any insulin today?”
“I .... I think she did.” Jim stuttered, trying to calm himself. Maude seemed to be getting worse. Her breaths were coming faster, and she seemed to be uncomfortable.
Gina relayed this information. “What? A blood sugar level? Glucagon? But how...”
Christina immediately knew what that was. A school mate had had a testing kit and glucagon injections in case of emergency. “Jim,” she said, “does Maude have any test strips or shots for emergencies?”
His face went blank for a minute as her stomach fell, they needed to do something quickly if Maude’s blood sugar wasn’t controlled. “Oh, yes, yes. She has a kit in the medicine chest.”
“I’ll get it!” Christina bolted from the floor and ran out the back to the caretaker cabin. She would retrieve it faster than Jim could. She bolted into their cabin and into the bathroom. On the small counter she observed finger sticks for blood sugar monitoring and a machine as well as a vial of insulin. She grabbed the insulin bottle, the monitor and the red emergency shot of glucagon.
She ran back to the lobby as fast as she could move. Gina told the 911 operator that they had the monitor and the injection. Sh
e placed the operator on speakerphone, and they walked through a few steps to get a blood sugar reading and then gave Christina instructions how to give the injection to Maude quickly. Jim jumped in to take the reading, as he had been taught recently as well. It read “low”. The operator instructed them to give the emergency injection. Christina’s hands were shaking as she tried to hurry. She injected the medicine into Maude’s thigh.
After a beat, she noticed that Maude had bright pink icing on her lips. She looked questioningly at Gina. “That’s icing from the cupcakes we made yesterday,” Gina explained. “They thought it would help.”
Maude seemed to be calming down, her breathing seemed easier. Outside they heard sirens as the ambulance made its way up the mountain. Christina exhaled; help was here! She was hopeful that they acted fast enough for Maude to be all right.
She went to hold the door for them and direct the paramedics to Maude. The squad was just pulling in the driveway followed closely by the Sheriff’s vehicle. Shawn barreled out of his cruiser and joined Christina. “What’s happened?”
“It’s Maude. She passed right out. She’s in the lobby on the floor. Jim and Gina are with her.”
The paramedics entered the lobby and quickly began working on Maude, taking her vitals, and examining her. One took a fingerstick blood sample. They were on their radios to the local hospital, relaying information and reporting their findings. One of the paramedics started an IV and waved Christina over.
“When did you give her the glucagon?”
Christina relayed the information and showed him the insulin vial from Maude’s bathroom. The paramedic took it from her and examined the vial. “Why does this have Ada Stone’s name on it?” he asked, puzzled.
“Oh, that’s nothing. Maude was just using it after she passed away since they have the same prescription. I thought it was okay.”
The paramedic frowned and looked more closely at the vial. He peeled up the prescription label and examined the label underneath. Christina observed as he carefully peeled a second label back on the vial. A stunned expression crossed over his face as he double checked what he was looking at. “Shit,” he stated quietly heading back on the radio.
He turned away from the rest of the group and spoke urgently to the hospital. He had a brief and serious exchange with his colleague. Apparently, the hospital was giving them further orders, as they both rapidly responded and injected medication into the IV they had started. They worked quickly and moved Maude onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. “Her blood sugar is dangerously low. We have given her medicine to bring it up, she is stabilizing, but we need to get her to the hospital. He put the insulin vial back in Christina’s hands. “Bring this with you to the hospital. The ER doctor wants to see it.”
Christina stuck the vial in her pocket, realizing it could have been so much worse. Maude could have been home alone when this happened. She could have had the same fate as Ada. Her hand touched the vial in her pocket that was originally Ada’s medicine. Something reared up in her mind, but she couldn’t get her brain to focus on it due to the current emergency situation.
Something wasn’t right.
Chapter 20
The small group sat closely together in the fluorescent lights of the hospital waiting room. Their posture was tight as they sat in the uncomfortable chairs. Anxiety filled the air as they waited. Christina tried to nonchalantly check the time on her watch.
Gina caught her eye, and they exchanged a worried gaze. Jim had remained latched to her side throughout the ride to the hospital and throughout the lengthy period that they’d been waiting to hear word on Maude.
Kevin joined them after running into Shawn and hearing what had happened. Kevin had been in and out of the group, taking some time to talk at length with Shawn, who had arrived after them and was elsewhere in the building. Shawn had attempted to have a conversation with Gina alone, but Jim would have none of it. Christina was apparently a poor substitute for the kindness of her friend, who had been a stranger only a few days ago. She tried to not take it personally.
There was another small family that had been waiting in the lounge prior to them, but they recently left after hearing the good news for their loved one. Anxiety flared in Christina’s chest as she thought of the ramifications of what could have happened. The insulin vial rattled against the keys in her pocket, reminding her of what the paramedic had said about the labels.
She pulled it out of her pocket to have a look. The bottle was small and more than half full. The label on top was a normal prescription label, beneath that was a label that said regular insulin U 100. Underneath that label, that the paramedic had peeled off, it read regular insulin U-500. She didn’t fully understand what she was looking at and pulled out her phone to Google it.
She did some quick research, and her stomach dropped. The original label on the vial had a higher concentration of insulin than the second that had covered it. The prescription matched the lower concentration.
The doctor came out to speak to Jim and did so quietly. Jim responded with smiles and was eager to go and see Maude. The doctor guided him back and Gina went with him. After they had disappeared through the double doors, the doctor turned back to address her. At that moment, Kevin joined by her side. “Christina?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” Christina nodded.
“Do you have something the paramedic asked you to bring?” he asked. She showed him the vial. He took it from her and closely examined it. “The paramedics reported that Maude was using your aunt’s insulin. Typical frugal Vermonters,” he said, shaking his head and handing her back the vial. “This is mislabeled, as I am sure you have seen. The vial is a high concentration insulin. I believe that is what caused the low blood sugar reaction. It was a good thing that she was not alone.”
The realization of what might have happened to Ada started to form in Christina’s mind. “If Maude had been alone, and no one was there to help, what could have happened?” Christina asked the doctor.
“She would have died.”
The doctor took in her shocked expression. “Look, I am not telling you what to do, but this is clearly mislabeled. The fact that Maude was taking someone else’s medication may be a factor here, but I was working the morning that your aunt was brought in. Now, I have a very strong suspicion about what happened to her.”
He hesitated. “I really can’t say more except that the mislabeling of that vial means that the patient will get five times the dose of insulin they are expecting. You have just seen what it can do to a person.”
“Is Maude going to be okay?” Christina asked.
“We’re going to keep her to be sure. But she was lucky you were all there and knew what to do.” He pushed the vial back into her hands and walked away.
Christina sat down heavily in the waiting room chair and looked closely at the vial. Kevin sat next to her and studied her. “Can I see that?” he asked. He carefully reviewed what she had already seen. “It was filled at the local pharmacy. I have heard of pharmacies making mistakes before, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Here, the drug is clearly mislabeled, like the lower concentration label is covering the higher concentration label.”
They sat side by side, staring at the vial, each trying to piece together the scenario. A deep foreboding came over Christina. It could have been an error, but it also could have been intentional. It appeared to her that someone could have popped off a label from a lower concentration insulin and placed it over the higher one. An unsuspecting person could use it, thinking it was the lower concentration, and their blood sugar would decline much lower than intended – just as Maude’s had done. If they were alone, that person would be dangerously low, just like Ada had been – except she did not recover.
A chill climbed up her spine. Did someone do this intentionally? Was Ada murdered? What would have been the reasons for it? Who would want her dead?
Christina deftly slid the vial into her purse. Later, she would take the time
to figure out what to do next. Her gut was guiding her to say nothing more. Everyone except Gina and herself had been involved with Ada closely over the past years. Christina would figure out a way to dig deeper and find out what happened. She and Gina would need to call work, because there was no way that either of them would be there in the morning. They were needed here in Vermont.
Kevin took her hand easily in his, seemingly oblivious of what she was thinking. It was as though they had not been apart for years, she reflected. She appreciated the ease with which he offered his comfort to her. He was so solid and comforting. She took reassurance in his presence and was wordlessly grateful for his attention as her mind turned over all her worries.
Two additional figures appeared in the doorway to the waiting area: Shawn and Jeff. Christina looked questioningly at the latter. “Jeff?”
“Just wanted to check in to see how things were going,” he said, acknowledging her question. “I was up here, checking in on Layla.”
It took her a moment to recall who he was referring to, as she had momentarily forgotten that their trail ride from that morning. It felt like a week had passed, not less than six hours.
“How is Layla doing?” she asked.
“Going to be okay,” he replied. “She was incredibly lucky that Kevin came along when he did.”
The doors opened to the ER and Jim and Gina reappeared. Both were smiling. “She’s gonna be okay. They’ll keep her tonight anyway, and maybe a couple days.” Jim took a seat next to Kevin and Jeff sat next to him, engaging him in conversation about the events of the afternoon.
Gina grabbed her arm and led her down the hallway to the ladies room, leaving Shawn in their dust. “We need to call in. We can’t possibly make it to work tomorrow,” Gina said in a rush to get into a stall. “They are all going to freak since we’ve already been away for two weeks. The place has got to be a mess.”
