She Was at Risk
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“He seems that way,” MacKenzie agreed. She focused on looking out the window on the opposite side of the room. She didn’t want to blush and have Lisa detect it. MacKenzie smiled and raised her eyebrows as if she weren’t thinking immoral thoughts about Liam Jackson.
“How is Daddy?”
“You know your father. Always occupied with very important meetings with very important people.”
MacKenzie nodded, smiling. Lisa hadn’t said it in a way that was sarcastic or critical, but with a little bit of humor, as other women might talk about their husbands’ interest in cars or collectibles. Boys and their toys. Was that how her mother saw Walter’s lobbying? As a hobby that occupied her husband and kept him out from underfoot?
“Does he have anything interesting going on right now?”
“I’m not sure what he’s working on. I don’t really pay much attention, unless it is something that could have an impact on one of my causes.”
Lisa always had plenty of causes on her agenda. There were an infinite number of foundations, societies, and fundraisers that needed her attention and support. Lobbying kept her father busy and fundraising kept her mother happy. MacKenzie just didn’t know what it was that kept her happy. When was she going to find her way in life? She didn’t want to be a lawyer, lobbyist, or politician. But she didn’t want to be a socialite or drum-beater either. She had done well enough in school and had taken enough classes in college to get herself a degree, but that hadn’t helped her to find her place in the world. She wasn’t passionate about anything.
Lisa’s eyes were quick and perhaps took in more than MacKenzie had expected. She reached over and patted MacKenzie’s hand. “You’ll find something,” she said. “You’re just a late bloomer. You need to be patient and give yourself some time.”
“When you were a kid, what did you think you would be when you grew up? Did you have any dreams?”
Lisa shrugged and looked away from MacKenzie. “I don’t know. I wanted to be a wife and mother. I was never really interested in a job. I felt like children were my avocation.” She shrugged. “I know that’s not a very popular answer these days. We’re supposed to think big and take the bull by the horns, to make our mark on the world. But I can’t help but think… that the marks being made on the world wouldn’t amount to very much if it weren’t for the mothers.”
MacKenzie gave her a smile. “The hand that rocks the cradle, and all that?”
“Yes. Exactly. Mothers shape the thinkers and the soldiers. The scientists and the astronauts and the Nobel laureates. They all had mothers. They all had people to help them along the way and give them support at various parts of their lives, like a mother would, even if they didn’t have a mother. I happen to think that’s a very important position.”
“Of course,” MacKenzie agreed. “I never thought that you should be required to give up your family and have a high-power job.”
“I could have, you know,” Lisa said. She obviously didn’t want MacKenzie thinking that she had only stayed home to be a mother because she couldn’t do anything else. She had chosen to be there and not to hire a nanny to raise them. That had been her choice, not a fallback position.
“I know, Mother. You have a brain. You’re very organized and I’m always amazed at what you can accomplish. I know you could have chosen to do other things.”
Lisa nodded, satisfied.
MacKenzie looked back at Amanda. They had been lucky to have a mother who stayed home to look after them. Amanda probably wouldn’t have survived without a strong, proactive mother watching over her. How many times had Lisa been the one to take her to the hospital and insist to the doctors that something was wrong, and she wasn’t taking Amanda home until they had figured out what it was? She had insisted that Amanda wasn’t just a whiner or a hypochondriac, but that she was really ill. She could have died if they hadn’t been forced to dig deeper for the answers.
* * *
MacKenzie and Amanda hadn’t really been playmates. MacKenzie had been too much older than Amanda to consider her a real friend and peer. Instead, Amanda had been MacKenzie’s baby as much as she had been Lisa’s. MacKenzie had been fascinated with her care and had happily fed and changed her. It was like having a living doll. MacKenzie had never even liked dolls. But she liked having stewardship over the tiny new person in their home. Lisa had encouraged her interest rather than shooing her off to go play or insisting that she diaper her dolls instead of her sister.
At first, no one had known that anything was wrong. Amanda got sick a lot, but children picked up viruses everywhere, it wasn’t really that unusual. As she got older, she didn’t outgrow it, and MacKenzie realized that she was sick a lot more often than MacKenzie or her friends, or little Amanda’s other friends. She remembered the day when she had been out at the playground with Amanda, about nine years old by then, and MacKenzie a teen. Amanda had been playing tag or grounders or some other schoolyard game on the climbing equipment with her friends, but she had to sit down at the edge of one of the platforms, her face white, trying to catch her breath and get up the energy to go back to the game. The other girls teased her for calling timeout too often and told her that she couldn’t be safe, but there wasn’t any point in tagging her while she sat out, because she wouldn’t run after the rest of them and the game would grind to a halt.
MacKenzie walked over to Amanda.
“Mandy-Candy,” she singsonged, “what’s wrong? Don’t you want to play anymore?”
Amanda was breathing shallowly, too fast. “I want to play,” she protested, her arms folded across her stomach, “I’m just too tired. I need a break.”
“Do you want to go home?”
Amanda looked at the other girls still playing and having a fun time on the playground equipment around her. She looked sad. Not just sad, but desolate, as if they had all run away and left her behind where she could not follow.
“I guess so,” she said finally. “I can read, I guess.”
“Do you really want to?” MacKenzie pressed. “I’m not saying you have to. If you want to stay and play…”
Amanda shook her head. “I can’t,” she said hopelessly. “I don’t know how they can run around all day.”
MacKenzie sat looking at her as the seconds ticked by, a knot growing in her stomach. She walked home slowly with Amanda, back to the big house on the hill. It was a long way for a child who didn’t have any energy left. Partway there, MacKenzie boosted Amanda up onto her back and carried her piggy-back to the house. Amanda lay against her, body limp, arms around MacKenzie’s neck.
When they got home and MacKenzie settled Amanda in bed with a book, she went looking for Lisa. Lisa was, luckily, home for the evening and not on her way out to some fundraiser.
“Mother… I think something’s wrong with Amanda. I mean… really wrong.”
Lisa looked at her for a long time, then finally nodded. “I do too. And I think it’s time we found out what.”
So many doctors had said that Amanda was just a girly girl, that she didn’t want to participate in activities and was overly sensitive to every little ache and pain that came along with growing up and roughhousing with friends. There wasn’t really anything wrong.
But when they had insisted that it was time to figure out what was really wrong with Amanda and that they weren’t going away until they got some answers, everything changed.
And it would never be the same again.
Unlawful Harvest, Book 1 in A Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thriller by P.D. Workman takes you back to before Zachary and Kenzie met. It can be purchased at pdworkman.com
Also by P.D. Workman
MYSTERY/SUSPENSE:
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Zachary Goldman Mysteries
She Wore Mourning
His Hands Were Quiet
She Was Dying Anyway
He Was Walking Alone
They Thought He was Safe
He Was Not There
Her Work Was Everything
She Told a Lie
He Never Forgot
She Was At Risk
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Kenzie Kirsch Medical Thrillers
Unlawful Harvest
Doctored Death (Coming soon)
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Auntie Clem’s Bakery
Gluten-Free Murder
Dairy-Free Death
Allergen-Free Assignation
Witch-Free Halloween (Halloween Short)
Dog-Free Dinner (Christmas Short)
Stirring Up Murder
Brewing Death
Coup de Glace
Sour Cherry Turnover
Apple-achian Treasure
Vegan Baked Alaska
Muffins Masks Murder
Tai Chi and Chai Tea
Santa Shortbread
Cold as Ice Cream (Coming soon)
Changing Fortune Cookies (Coming soon)
Hot on the Trail Mix (Coming soon)
Recipes from Auntie Clem's Bakery
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Reg Rawlins, Psychic Detective
What the Cat Knew
A Psychic with Catitude
A Catastrophic Theft
Night of Nine Tails
Telepathy of Gardens
Delusions of the Past
Fairy Blade Unmade
Web of Nightmares
A Whisker's Breadth
Skunk Man Swamp (Coming Soon)
Magic Ain't A Game (Coming Soon)
Without Foresight (Coming Soon)
* * *
Parks Pat Mysteries
Out with the Sunset (Coming Soon)
Long Climb to the Top (Coming Soon)
Dark Water Under the Bridge (Coming Soon)
* * *
High-Tech Crime Solvers Series
Virtually Harmless
* * *
Cowritten with D. D. VanDyke
California Corwin P. I. Mystery Series
The Girl in the Morgue
* * *
Stand Alone Suspense Novels
Looking Over Your Shoulder
Lion Within
Pursued by the Past
In the Tick of Time
Loose the Dogs
* * *
YOUNG ADULT FICTION:
* * *
Medical Kidnap Files:
Mito
EDS
Proxy
Toxo
Pain
* * *
Between the Cracks:
Ruby
June and Justin
Michelle
Chloe
Ronnie
June, Into the Light
* * *
Tamara’s Teardrops:
Tattooed Teardrops
Two Teardrops
Tortured Teardrops
Vanishing Teardrops
* * *
Breaking the Pattern:
Deviation
Diversion
By-Pass
* * *
Stand Alone YA novels
Stand Alone
Don’t Forget Steven
Those Who Believe
Cynthia has a Secret
Questing for a Dream
Once Brothers
Intersexion
Making Her Mark
Endless Change
Gem, Himself, Alone
* * *
AND MORE AT PDWORKMAN.COM
About the Author
Award-winning and USA Today bestselling author P.D. (Pamela) Workman writes riveting mystery/suspense and young adult books dealing with mental illness, addiction, abuse, and other real-life issues. For as long as she can remember, the blank page has held an incredible allure and from a very young age she was trying to write her own books.
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Workman wrote her first complete novel at the age of twelve and continued to write as a hobby for many years. She started publishing in 2013. She has won several literary awards from Library Services for Youth in Custody for her young adult fiction. She currently has over 60 published titles and can be found at pdworkman.com.
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Born and raised in Alberta, Workman has been married for over 25 years and has one son.
Please visit P.D. Workman at pdworkman.com to see what else she is working on, to join her mailing list, and to link to her social networks.
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