by Neil Mcmahon
Monks walked out of the cubicle and went to the ER physicians’ room to wash.
They had come close to saving her. The Heparin had started to dissolve the clotting, and her circulation had started flowing properly again—but by then it was just too late. Weakened by the long lack of blood and God knew what else, her heart had stopped. Presumably, the coroner’s report would help them fill in the blanks.
Monks hated to lose a patient, and hated like hell to lose one who was essentially healthy—hated the terrible helpless anger at not being certain what was wrong. It was like being sniped at by an enemy you could not see.
What had come in from lab and X-ray so far had confirmed what he already knew or guessed. Her hemoglobin was very, very low, at 3.7 grams per deciliter. Normal ran at about 15. The platelet count was 2,880, with normal upwards of 150,000. The coagulation panel showed prolonged PT and PTT. All of which meant that she had almost no blood, and what she did have wasn’t clotting. Her urine was dark orange, 4+ for blood, negative for white cells. That was a reasonably sure indication that she did not have a urinary tract infection as the source of the DIC.
The X-rays showed nothing unusual except the two whitish circles of the breast implants. That linked to one more criterion that would make Eden Hale a city coroner’s case—she had had a recent surgery. Monks had not seen anything that obviously connected that to the death, but the possibility of surgical infection existed.
He looked again at the material the paramedics had found in her purse, from the clinic of Dr. D. Welles D’Anton—a discharge form from the surgery, and a glossy informational pamphlet. Its cover featured a stunningly beautiful woman, smiling in invitation to the world of glamor. Several pages of text, with drawings, briefly described available procedures. The back flap showed a photo of D’Anton himself. He had a handsome patrician head and a confident stare.
D’Anton—pronounced Dan-ton, and heaven help the fool who said it wrong in his presence—had spent some fifteen years developing a reputation as a miracle
worker for models, actresses, socialites. They came from all over the globe to his luxury San Francisco clinic, to be transformed by him. And D’Anton had graced Mercy Hospital by making it his venue of choice for more extensive procedures. He contributed generously to the hospital, and had helped to fit out a top-flight reconstructive surgery unit that brought in a lot of money and prestige.
Apparently, Eden Hale had been one of his devotees.
Monks lingered in the physicians’ room a minute longer, wishing to Christ he could pack it up and go home. But his shift was not over until 7 A.M. He walked back out to the triage desk to take the next case in line, acutely aware of the closed curtain of the trauma cubicle where Eden’s body would lie until the morgue attendants came to get her.
NEIL McMAHON
is the author of Twice Dying and his newest Carroll Monks novel, To the Bone. Mr. McMahon is married and lives in Missoula, Montana.
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Praise for
NEIL McMAHON
“Neil McMahon’s thrillers have the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.”
Michael Connelly
“A first-rate writer.”
Robert B. Parker
“A cross between Raymond Chandler and Thomas Harris.”
Chicago Tribune
BLOOD DOUBLE
“McMahon writes a tight tale, with enough red herrings to satisfy any mystery fan and keep them guessing about what’s going to happen clear to the end of the book. And Carroll Monks is a fictional detective readers will want to meet again.”
Great Falls Tribune
“A terrific book by a writer you’re going to be hearing a lot about… McMahon finds the perfect balance between pace and depth—which makes this a book you can’t put down, and one that sticks with you long after you’re finished.”
Chuck Logan, author of Absolute Zero
“A doozy of a medical/technological thriller.”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
“A fast-paced, hi-tech read that will keep you awake well into the small hours. Carroll Monks is a character to watch, and Neil McMahon is an author to remember.”
Peter Robinson, author of Close to Home and Aftermath
“Lots of action and a variety of subplots … [Blood Double] combines suspense with current complex medical ethical issues [and] a clever conspiracy dealing with cutting-edge human genome technology.”
Lansing Journal
“Like John Grisham and James Patterson, McMahon excels at moving his plot along; there are no wasted actions, no unnecessary red herrings, [and] the characters are believable. Blood Double is all about movement—the only thing stationary is the reader, likely for the entire length of the book.”
BookPage
“FOUR STARS. Great characters and fast-paced action make Blood Double a noteworthy read.”
Romantic Times
And resounding praise for
NEIL McMAHON’s debut thriller
TWICE DYING
“Devastating … A genuinely frightening and suspenseful thriller that demands to be read in one sitting. Neil McMahon surely has a future of prestige and honor ahead of him.”
The Missoulian
“Neil McMahon raises the bar with Twice Dying, an intelligently constructed, beautifully written novel of suspense and revelation. I can guarantee the ending will knock your socks off—I’m still looking for mine.”
James Welch, author of Fools Crow
“A fast-paced, intelligent medical thriller that gives Michael Palmer … a run for [his] money and catapults McMahon miles ahead of Robin Cook.”
Booklist
“Twice Dying is a triumph of character, plot, and passion.”
Boston Teran, author of God Is a Bullet
“More … please, Mr. McMahon.”
Chicago Tribune
Also by Neil McMahon
TWICE DYING
Available in hardcover
To THE BONE
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
HARPERTORCH
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New York, New York 10022-5299
Copyright © 2002 by Neil McMahon
Excerpt from To the Bone copyright © 2003 by Neil McMahon
ISBN: 0-06-103090-2
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-03001-6
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