Murders on the Edge

by Andie Alexander

  “Nope.” He helped me onto the metal table and repeated the movement of my ankle, taking pictures like crazy. After a little while, he slapped the X-rays onto the lit wall panel and stared at them. “Unbelievable. You’re healed.” He pulled X-rays out of a chart from the night before and compared them. “You grew new bone overnight. I can take that cast off, if you want.”

  “Good. It’s a drag and I need a shower.”

  He turned from the X-rays. “You don’t want help anymore?”

  “Sure. I just don’t want the cast to get in the way of me taking advantage of you.”

  He crossed his arms. “You know, I checked your blood for the ED drugs and they’re gone. This is all you, in case you’re wondering.”

  “It was always me,” I said, sitting up. “I find you desirable.”

  “Ever do it on a metal table?”

  I looked down, running my hand over it. “No, and your thugs are just outside. It doesn’t look comfortable to me.”

  He chuckled and patted my shoulder. “I’ll be back.” He turned and left. He seemed to be leaving me a lot, but usually for good reason.

  When he returned with the cart he’d used the night before, he removed something that looked like a small electric saw.

  “What are you doing with that?”

  “Taking off your cast.” He put on safety glasses and leaned down toward my leg.

  “Wait,” I said. “I just pulled off the last cast I’d worn when I was younger. Can’t I do that?”

  “Are you afraid?”

  “You could cut my leg off with that thing.”

  He chuckled. “No way. It won’t cut flesh, by design. Just relax and this’ll take no time.” He pushed me back to the table but I moved to see him work. He zipped through the cast, pulled it off, and studied my ankle. “Can you move it?”

  I did as requested. “Yep. No pain.”

  “Stand up.”

  I threw my legs over the side of the table and put my feet on the floor. He removed his safety glasses then helped me stand.

  “Anything?” he asked.

  “No pain. Nothing.” I took a few steps. “No pain at all.” My eyes met his. “How weird is that?”

  “Pretty weird. You’re back to normal, but I want to do an ultrasound of your internal organs, to make sure you don’t have anything else wrong with you. And I want to do an entire physical.”

  “Eww. I hate physicals.”

  His eyebrows danced. “Not the way I do them.”

  “Oh, kinky.”

  He laughed and took me into the examining room. While helping me undress, he gave me a few kisses…and kept on going. Once he had his fun, he ushered me onto the table and started the real physical. He joked and we laughed while he checked all my vitals and continued with the exam. He finally threw my clothes at me. “Get dressed. I want to do that ultrasound now and don’t need a distraction of you naked.”

  “Yes, master.”

  He headed toward the door. “You got that right.” He opened it and walked out, returning with a big machine while I was dressing.

  “Back on the table,” he ordered.

  I did as requested, just watching him. He turned on the machine, lifted my shirt, and put gobs of cold goo on my stomach.

  He ran the wand thing over the upper part of my stomach, pressing in at various points.

  “Do you think I’m pregnant?”

  “I can’t tell quite yet. But you’ve been saying that for two days, so I can’t rule it out.” He kept looking at the monitor, angling the wand toward my heart. “Everything looks like it should look so far.” He was silent for a moment. “Interesting.”

  “What?” I hated the suspense.

  “Nothing. It’s just fun to watch.”

  “I hate when you do that.”

  “I know. That’s why I do it.” He wiped off my stomach, grabbed the blood pressure cuff, and stuck it on my arm. “I want to see this again, because you’re not ready to attack me.”

  “I could be.”

  “Remind me to never give you ED drugs.” He put the stethoscope into his ears and pumped up the cuff. I watched the numbers, slowing down at various times. He shook his head and sighed, removing the stethoscope from his ears. “Your blood pressure is up.”

  “To what?”

  “150 over 90. That’s not normal for you.” He opened the door and wheeled the machine out part way. “Go get a shower and come back down here. I want to check the specimens I took from this exam.”

  “I’m a lab rat,” I muttered. “That’s all I am to you.”

  “Sweetheart, you’re much more than that.” He blew me a kiss. “You’re my own personal lab rat. That’s even better.”

  He was nuts. I chuckled and walked out to the guys.

  “You’re not on crutches and your cast is gone?” Chris said, pointing.

  I looked down. “That? Yeah. I’m better.” I sighed. “But I might have high blood pressure.”

  Jordan crossed his arms. “Could it be all the making out you two were doing?”

  “Huh?”

  “Don’t lie,” he said, as Jim walked up. “We heard it. It was pathetic. We went to the house and had a cup of coffee and donuts, just waiting until you guys were done.”

  Jim glanced at me. “She always acts like that with physicals. She loves needles.”

  He was such a bad liar. “I hate needles. What are you saying?”

  “Go get a shower. We’re going to see Pearl.” He had a quiet discussion with his men while I walked away slowly, still listening. “I’ve got some things to do here,” he said. “I want research done in town,” he said. “Go incognito and find out what everyone’s eating. But don’t eat anything in town, or you might be infected.”

  “How are we to do that?” Chris asked. “If I went into town and got a cup of coffee, that would be a great cover.”

  “Bottled water?” Jim asked. “And make sure it’s bottled from up north, somewhere, like Canada. I don’t want a repeat of what happened to Harley.”

  I stopped in the kitchen and poured myself a cup of coffee. Once I downed half of it, I ran up the stairs. I felt great. He was just blowing smoke with that high blood pressure diagnosis. However, by the time I got to the top of the stairs, I could feel my heart racing. I sat down and took a few deep breaths.

  Chris stared up at me from the bottom of the stairs. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m not sure. I only ran up the stairs and now my heart’s racing. I don’t think this is right.”

  He turned toward the kitchen. “Jim. It’s an emergency. It’s Harley.”

  Great. Now he’d worry and I’d probably be killed from all his poking and prodding.

  Chapter 17

  Jim came running and I lowered my head. He had his doctor bag in his hand, opening it before he reached the top of the stairs. With his stethoscope in his hand, he yanked it to his ears and stuck it on my chest, just listening. “What did you do? Are you making out in the examining room again?”

  “No and that’s not funny. I’m dying.”

  He pulled out the blood pressure cuff and wrapped it on my arm. “I don’t think you’re dying, but something’s not right.” He stared at my empty cup. “Coffee? That’s a stimulant.”

  “Am I allergic to coffee or something?”

  “I don’t know.” He took my blood pressure, just shaking his head. He moved the cuff to other arm and took it again. He laid me back on the carpet and leaned over my face. “It’s really high. Don’t move.”

  “Like I don’t already know that.”

  He turned toward Chris. “When you guys go out, see if anyone’s drinking coffee or anything with caffeine. I didn’t check for that with the sheriff, but I bet he had something to drink that contained caffeine.” He turned back to me. “Do you feel any better?”

  “You tell me.” My heart was still racing, but not nearly as badly.

  He pumped up the cuff again and took my blood pressure. “It’s a little bit bet
ter. I’m tempted to give you some sort of medication.”

  “I’d rather not take anything.”

  “I don’t think you have a choice.”

  “It didn’t hit me until I drank the coffee. Don’t you think it’ll just go away?”

  “High blood pressure doesn’t just go away, Harley. It’s treatable, but there is no cure.”

  “I didn’t have it yesterday. How can it just come on like that? Did I eat too much?”

  “Bacon is high in sodium,” Chris said, halfway up the stairs. “Could that be part of it?”

  “Unlikely.” Jim shook his head. “I wonder how many other people in the town have exactly these same symptoms.”

  “You have the medical charts,” Jordan said, standing at the bottom of the stairs. “Want me to find out?”

  “Yeah. That’s a great place to start. Right after Harley’s shower.”

  “Are we all helping with her shower?” Chris asked with a grin.

  “No.” I sat up. “Keep your stupid ideas to yourself.”

  “Darn. The drugs are gone,” Chris muttered. “She passed that test and we can’t play with her head anymore.”

  Jim helped me to my feet with a chuckle and directed me into the master bedroom. I undressed and hopped into a warm shower, started for me by my slave-husband. As soon as I turned off the water, he moved back the curtain, with a towel outstretched in his hands.

  “I have you trained already,” I said. “Good job.”

  “You love being pampered.”

  “You got that right.”

  He wrapped me in that towel, grabbed another towel, and dried my hair.

  “How’s your heart now?” he asked.

  “Beating just for you, because you stayed with me last night.”

  “I would’ve stayed with you anyway, because it was really obvious to me that you weren’t in control. That made it even more exciting.”

  With Jim’s help, I got dressed. He moved me onto the bed and kissed me. “Do you feel better now?”

  “Sure. What’s next?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.” He picked up his doctor bag and took my blood pressure, once again.

  “You know, some men, when asked ‘what next,’ actually think of something romantic.”

  “Uh-huh.” He kept listening, waited for a minute and took it again on my other arm. I kept quiet and thought happy thoughts.

  “It’s a lot better, but still high for you. I just don’t understand this. Stay away from caffeine and I’ll get you some high blood pressure medications.”

  “Nope. I don’t want them. Let’s see how it is in a day.”

  He shook his head. “You don’t get this. It could kill you.”

  “I doubt it.” I got off the bed and walked downstairs. Exercise wasn’t easy, but at least it was a little bit better. “So what’s up for the day?”

  “Pearl.” Jim checked his watch. “However, it’s close to dinnertime, so dinner first.”

  “I’m not really hungry. Can I do something else?”

  “Sure,” Jordan said. “Why don’t you start on those medical records next door? I was just headed there myself.”

  “Good idea.”

  “Something quick?” Chris asked, looking in the refrigerator. “I want to be in town in twenty minutes so I can see what’s going on tonight.”

  “Hey, did Archie come back yet?” Jim asked.

  “Nope.” Chris pulled out a few TV dinners, popping one in the microwave. “Want me to call him?”

  “Already on it.” Jim punched a number into his cell phone while I headed into the doctor’s office. It was a nice place, and if Jim was going to open shop, he’d need a receptionist. However, I figured not many people came to see the doctor, since my leg had healed itself. I’d have to stick with the dead people instead of the sick people.

  Chapter 18

  I moved toward the files behind the receptionist’s desk. When I opened the top drawer, I saw at least two hundred files barely filling half the drawer. I grabbed the first five and started going through them. Most were rather empty, other than one physical. For the ones that did have information, it was for high blood pressure medication or a pregnancy. I kept going through folders, and by the end of the first drawer, I started to see a pattern. People inside the city limits of the town didn’t get sick, at all. Even the kids didn’t get sick.

  “Jim, did Dr. Barr say when he opened shop?” I yelled. Since the kitchen was beside the doctor’s office and the door separating the two was open, I knew he could hear me.

  “About three years ago.”

  “You’re kidding? These files are practically empty.”

  Jordan entered the office while eating a sandwich. “See if you find one for Tilvin.”

  I went to the drawer with the last names starting with the letter ‘n,’ and rifled through. “Tilvin Nilly.” I removed the thing and opened it on the desk. “He used to get chronic bronchitis two to three years ago. Everything stopped suddenly on December 12. He was here on September 2, October 30, November 20, and December 12. That’s the last time Dr. Barr saw this kid. He prescribed the same medication each time, too, from what I see.”

  “So whatever happened, happened around December 12,” Jordan said. “That’s interesting. I wonder if other patients came in around that time.”

  “I didn’t see a pattern, but I’ve only gotten through the first drawer.” I turned and grabbed some more of the files near Tilvin’s. I started with Willie Nilly, because he was the mayor. “Willie was here, too, for diabetes, on December 15. He hasn’t been back. Now I know you can’t get rid of diabetes, so he couldn’t be cured, right?”

  “I don’t care what Kent said, I’m calling the CDC tomorrow,” Jim said, walking into the office. “Just to let them know what’s going on. It almost sounds like the whole town has no sickness.”

  “Almost all of them have high blood pressure.” I moved drawers and pulled out Pearl Johnson’s file. “Hey, check this out.” I opened the thick file, where many visits were listed. “She’s had everything.”

  Jim and Jordan read over my shoulder.

  “Colds, upset stomach, sore hip…” Jim paged through the folder. “Do you think she’s a hypochondriac?”

  “No,” I said. “If I lived here, I’d have some of these things, too. Chances are she’s older, if she’s anything like her sister, and they get sicker than younger people, right?”

  “It depends on the person.” Jim returned that file and pulled out another thick one. “Her husband Norman. He’s complained of a few things, too, more serious than Pearl’s. He has diabetes, prostate cancer, and suffered a stroke last spring. He was referred up to Deming, to find a specialist.”

  “Deming?” Jordan asked Jim.

  “That’s the closest hospital. It’s about fifty miles northeast of here.”

  I yawned. “I wouldn’t want to be bitten by a snake or have something serious happen in this town. That’s at least an hour’s drive.”

  Jim stared at my face. “Tired?”

  “Yeah.” I fell into a seat. “It’s been a busy day for me.”

  Jim walked away and returned with the nasty blood pressure cuff again. He took my blood pressure while I let my mind go blank. “130 over 85. You’re getting better—but why? You can’t just get better from high blood pressure. It’s incurable, but treatable with weight loss and medication.”

  “I don’t know. Could it be because I’m not in town? If you notice, the thick folders are for people who live outside town. I’ve been looking at addresses for the town.”

  “Something’s going on, starting at dusk,” Jim said. “At least it seems to be dusk.” He glanced out the front window. “That should be about an hour from now.”

  “Where’s Archie?” I asked.

  “He’s at the sheriff’s office, reading the files. Crime is rampant, and even though the sheriff tried to enforce a dusk curfew, no one listened. He’s reading a file on the sheriff’s computer, where h
e was writing a letter to the FBI about weird happenings to the people in the town. He thought he was onto something, but never said what it was.”

  “I wonder if he ever sent it?”

  “I doubt it. It wasn’t finished, according to Archie. It was dated two weeks ago.” Jim took my hand. “I’m done eating and called Pearl. I think we have a date with an old couple.”

  “You really know how to ‘woo’ me.”

  “I try.”

  We walked outside and took a car I hadn’t seen before. It was a four-door silver car.

  “Where did this come from?”

  “Our friends brought it to us.”

  “Friends. Which ones?”

  “Vic and Damon are staying in town tonight. We needed backup.”

  I didn’t really know them, but knew Vic was a medical doctor, by trade, and Damon was a psychologist. “That’s good to know. What’s their role?”

  “Detective work for now, but eventually, we’ll assign them.”

  We both got into the car and I saw the clouds hanging in the sky. “Is it supposed to rain?”

  He looked upward, following my gaze. “I didn’t hear about rain. But if it does, the party should be very interesting tonight.”

  He drove up to Pearl’s place, pulling down the long driveway. The property looked like it almost belonged in the 1950s, with every blade of grass manicured and a white picket fence surrounding the place. The one-story home was made of light-colored brick with a gray composite roof. A shed sat beside the driveway, looking almost brand new.

  Before he got out of the car, Jim leaned over and gave me a kiss. “We’re dating now, and you’re Jane.”

  “Yep.”

  “You’re also living at my house, along with the sheriff, until he gets a new place.”

  “What about the other guys?”

  “I’m kicking them out. They’re going to get places in town with Vic and Damon.”

  “Even your right-hand man, Chris?”

  “Yes, if there’s a room available. You and I are going to get married, fast. I want to employ you at the doctor’s office. I need a receptionist.”

  “No way. There’s no action out there. I want to stay at my current job.”