The Gamble and the Grave (Veronica Barry Book 4)

by Sophia Martin

  Daniel turned off the heat and moved the pan off the burner. “Yeah. Families can really get into messy, painful conflicts. I guess I’m worried about you getting stuck in the middle of this one.”

  Veronica smiled. “I appreciate that. I’ll be okay, though. I’ll just help Miguel find that deed, and then I’ll hightail it out of there. Let the chips fall where they may.”

  “Uh-oh, you’re mixing metaphors,” Daniel said. “Sure sign of low blood sugar. Let’s eat.”

  Veronica laughed and followed him to the dining table.

  ~~~

  The following morning Veronica drove over to Melanie’s. Harry panted in the backseat. They had plans to take the dog to Folsom for an hour or two. Melanie was trying to walk and do other sorts of exercise in anticipation of the birth, though lately that was getting harder for her. Veronica figured they would walk to the water’s edge and then she could throw sticks for Harry while Melanie sat in the sand. Veronica had brought a blanket so that she’d be more comfortable doing that.

  As Veronica walked up to the front door it swung open and Angie rushed out. She grabbed Veronica’s hand and pulled her into the house. “Whoa!” Veronica said. “What’s going on?”

  “Mom isn’t feeling good,” Angie said. “You have to take her to the doctor.”

  Veronica looked around wildly and then noticed Melanie lying on the sofa. Melanie rolled her eyes and hoisted herself into a sitting position. “Ange is being a drama queen,” she said. “I’m fine. Besides, it’s Sunday. My doctor’s office is closed.”

  Veronica looked from Melanie to Angie. “What happened?”

  “Nothing,” Melanie said.

  Angie glared at her. “That’s not true. She said she was seeing stars and she had to lie down.”

  “But I’m fine now. No abdominal pain. No blood. Nothing from your vision,” she told Veronica.

  Veronica put her hands on her hips. “And you don’t think maybe this is a warning sign?”

  Melanie groaned and collapsed back against the couch cushion.

  “Tell her, Veronica. Tell her she has to see a doctor.”

  “I’m with Angie on this one,” Veronica said. “Folsom can wait. Harry will understand. Let’s go to that clinic on K street.”

  “Oh no,” Melanie said in a whine. “That clinic is so sketchy.”

  Veronica shook her head. “It is not, you big baby. I went there when I needed stitches, you remember? The cut I got on that piece of metal in the backyard of the duplex?”

  “V, I can just wait and see my doctor tomorrow, okay? I’ll go in first thing if it makes you feel better.”

  Veronica shook her head. “We’re going to the clinic.”

  “Oh! And I think Emily Milligan’s mom is a nurse there!” Angie exclaimed.

  “Oh, well. If Emily Milligan’s mom is a nurse there, then…” Melanie said dryly.

  “Come on, Mom, don’t be a big baby, like Veronica said.”

  “Yeah, thanks for that, V.”

  Veronica sighed.

  “What about Harry?” Melanie asked. “If we end up waiting, the poor dog will be stuck in the car…”

  “I’ll get him,” Angie said. “He can stay in my room, right Veronica?”

  “Right,” Veronica said.

  Melanie huffed.

  “Come on,” Veronica told her. “Let’s get to the car and go over there. It’s not even ten yet, maybe we’ll be lucky and there won’t be too many people waiting.”

  ~~~

  But they weren’t lucky. There were five people ahead of them. One of them was even a pregnant woman, who looked to be even farther along than Melanie. She looked pale and tired, Veronica noted.

  Melanie wanted to leave when she saw the crowd.

  “No way,” Veronica said. “You’re sitting down in that seat right there.”

  “I’ll get you a magazine,” Angie said. “You want the People with Gwyneth Paltrow on the cover or Kelly Clarkson?

  Melanie waved her away. “No thanks,” she said as she sat. “Who knows how many sick and germy people have been handling those? I’ll pass.”

  Veronica signed Melanie in on the waiting list and took the paperwork the woman behind the counter handed her. She sat down next to Melanie and began filling it out for her friend.

  “You know, there’s nothing wrong with my hands,” Melanie said. “Or the rest of me, for that matter. I can do that myself.”

  Veronica shook her head. “I’ll do it. The mood you’re in, you’d probably lie on half of it.”

  “This is not a ‘mood,’” Melanie said.

  “Sure, Ms. Crankypants. You’re not in a mood,” Veronica said.

  Angie sat down on the other side of Melanie, opening a magazine on her lap.

  “No,” Melanie said to Veronica. “I’ll have you know that you, too, would be a little snappish if the people who profess to love you ignored you when you told them you were fine and insisted on taking you to some clinic where you can’t even see your own doctor.”

  “Melanie, after what I saw, we can’t be too careful.”

  Melanie rolled her eyes.

  ~~~

  As each of the five people ahead of them left when their names were called, more people came and took their places in the waiting room. Melanie tapped her fingers on the arm of the plastic chair she sat in, but Veronica chose to ignore her. Angie said nothing, alternating between flipping through the magazine she’d chosen and texting on her phone, which she also had ear-buds plugged into.

  The patients who’d been called ahead of them each emerged one by one. From what Veronica could tell, there must be at least three doctors on the other side of the doors, so she was optimistic that they wouldn’t have to wait too long. That was good, because Melanie was practically grinding her teeth in frustration. Veronica chalked her attitude up to a combination of pregnancy hormone induced irritability and anxiety she wasn’t going to admit to. Melanie wanted to be fine, but she had Veronica’s upsetting vision hanging over her head. She was choosing to deny anything was wrong rather than accept that the vision might come to pass.

  Veronica finished the last of the paperwork—which had been a joy to fill out especially when it came time for Melanie to tell her answers to the medical background questions—and stood up. She walked to the window and handed it over to the woman on the other side. As she made her way back to her seat, a child barreled in through the clinic’s door and nearly ran into her. She sidestepped just as the other pregnant woman exited the door from the back offices. Veronica tried to avoid running into her but failed. She threw her weight toward the wall so she wouldn’t knock the woman over, but she still ended up hitting her with a glancing blow.

  ~~~

  “I told you, Gerry. I’ve made up my mind.” It was a woman’s voice, but it was strangely far away.

  She couldn’t see anything. The words she heard floated in nothingness, a kind of liquidy darkness. Then a strange swirling made Veronica dizzy. After that, blurry images came into focus. She saw a woman and a man, sitting side by side. She was looking at their backs, and they were watching a sunset. That was the first thing she noticed. Then she saw that they were sitting on a sandy beach, with large, jagged rocks that looked black in the failing light. Off to the right a long pier stretched into the calm ocean.

  “You have not, Liz. You’re just saying that,” said the man.

  The woman, Liz, turned and looked at him, and Veronica could tell, though the light was golden and dimming, that she was the same woman from the clinic.

  “I am not ‘just saying it.’ You don’t ‘just say’ you’re getting an abortion, Gerry.”

  The man, Gerry, snorted. Then he shook his head. “You’re talking about killing my kid.”

  “I thought you understood about this. I don’t have—I’m not—I’m just not in a place to do the mom thing, you know that!”

  “It’s our kid, Liz. And I love you. You know I love you. I’m not going to ditch you or something.”
<
br />   Liz stared at the water without saying anything. For a few moments, Gerry was quiet, too. Then he started his assault again.

  “Liz, you’ve got to believe me. We could be a family. Isn’t that what you always told me you wanted? A real family?”

  He went on in that vein until Liz started rubbing her fingers against her forehead. “I haven’t done this the right way, Ger. I can’t go through with it now.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I mean like, women have to take vitamins when they’re pregnant—”

  “Vitamins? You’re worried about vitamins?”

  “And not drink, I’ve—”

  “The baby will be fine. You saw Katie’s kid. She was fine! Almost ten pounds. And Katie drank all through her pregnancy.”

  “She was lucky.”

  “You will be too. And you won’t drink anymore, right?”

  Liz shuddered a bit, wrapping her arms around herself. The light was fading, and so was the heat, but Veronica knew the gesture had more to do with the conversation than the cold.

  “I need this, Lizzie. You know I do. What have I got to live for? Fucking jerk-off Shawn fired me and you know no one else is going to hire me any time soon—”

  “I know, but that’s part of it, don’t you see?” Liz said. “With neither of us working…”

  “We’ll both be home for him.”

  Liz didn’t respond.

  “Look, I’m going to get that certificate at the college, baby. Now that Shawn fired me, I’ll have time. I’ll get it and then I can get a job as a real mechanic. I’ll turn it all around, you’ll see. We’ll have this baby together and we can get married if you want. We’ll be a real family. Maybe someday we can buy a house.”

  Liz looked at him then. “You really think so?”

  He had her, and he knew it. “Yeah,” he said. “A nice little house, in a nice neighborhood. We’ll have to look at the schools, right?”

  “I’d kill to get out of Mom’s old rental. A nice house,” she murmured. “Like, maybe with a porch? And a nice back yard?”

  “Hell yeah. Our kid is going to need a back yard to play in, right?”

  She smiled and then laughed a little. “Yeah. We’ll have a swing set.”

  “You bet,” Gerry said, slipping an arm around her waist. They sat quietly together, staring out at the ocean.

  “If it’s a boy,” Liz said, “I think we should call him Simeon.”

  “Simeon,” Gerry echoed.

  “You know, because it’s here, it’s this place. This is where we decided to keep him.”

  “At sunset,” Gerry said.

  “Let’s call him Simeon Sunset, then,” she said.

  Gerry nodded. “Simeon Sunset Wallace.”

  ~~~

  Veronica was leaning against the wall and people were looking at her with concern, but she must not have seemed too odd because no one was getting up to help and the woman behind the window seemed not to have noticed anything amiss at all. She straightened herself and smoothed her clothes a bit. With a look around she noticed that the pregnant woman—Liz—was gone.

  Melanie was eyeing her as she came over and when she sat down, her friend whispered, “What did you see?”

  Veronica felt strangely shaken by the vision, though she couldn’t think why. “I don’t know, it was weird,” she said.

  “Weird how?”

  “Have you heard of a beach called ‘Simeon’?”

  Melanie frowned. “Well there’s San Simeon Park. It’s on the coast between Santa Cruz and Santa Barbara.”

  “That must have been it.”

  “What happened there?”

  Veronica shrugged. “I don’t know why they wanted me to see that.”

  “What?” Melanie demanded.

  “I don’t know, you saw that woman, right?”

  “The one that looked as miserable as me?”

  “Yeah.” Veronica summed up what she’d witnessed. “If the baby’s a boy, they’re going to call him Simeon Sunset because they decided to keep him at that place and time.”

  Melanie grimaced. “Are you telling me those people have decided to name their child after the place and time when they chose not to abort him?”

  Veronica sighed. “I guess so.”

  “That’s nice. So he gets to live his whole life with a name that reminds him that his parents almost didn’t keep him.”

  Veronica sucked on her lips. Maybe Melanie was interpreting the name choice especially negatively due to her bad mood, but Veronica was inclined to admit she had a point. Still, why did the spirits show her that? “I just don’t get what I’m supposed to do about it.”

  “Maybe you’ll run into her again and you can tell her it’s a lousy name,” Melanie said.

  “Yeah, I’m sure that would go over really well.”

  The door to the offices opened and a blonde nurse in multicolored scrubs called, “Melanie Dukas.”

  Veronica felt relief. She didn’t want to talk about the vision anymore. Something about it really bothered her, and Melanie was in no mood to be sensitive about it.

  The three of them gathered their things and headed back. As they did, Veronica puzzled over the vision some more. Maybe what troubled her was knowing that Liz had such doubts about having a baby. She said she wasn’t prepared—no pre-natal vitamins, which, despite Gerry’s dismissal, could mean serious problems for the baby. And if she really had consumed a lot of alcohol, it could mean even more problems. It was just upsetting, Veronica decided, to see the origins of what might be a really troubled infancy and childhood for this baby. Since she couldn’t do anything about it, that made it even harder to have witnessed it. She still couldn’t figure out why they’d shown it to her.

  She’d just have to put the vision behind her, she decided as she watched Melanie do the weigh-in and then disappear into the bathroom to give a urine sample. She had to save her concern for Melanie and little not-Peeta.

  As they waited for Melanie to get done in the bathroom, Veronica resolved to lighten her own mood a bit. She turned to Angie. “So, your mom says you want to name your brother ‘Peeta’?”

  Angie shrugged. “It’s the name of a character in a book I really like.”

  “Yeah, I read The Hunger Games last year,” Veronica said. “You liked Peeta better than Gale?”

  “Oh yeah. Plus Gale is kind of a girl’s name in real life.”

  Veronica nodded. “Have you seen the movies?”

  “Yeah,” Angie nodded. “But I think the guy they got to play Peeta could have been cuter.”

  Veronica smiled. “I have no sense for these things anymore. It’s funny how you only really notice if someone’s cute if they’re around your own age.”

  Angie grinned. “I don’t know. I think Daniel’s kind of cute.”

  “Oh yeah? I’ll have to tell him you said so. He’ll be flattered.”

  “Aw, Veronica, do you have to? That’s like, kind of embarrassing.”

  Veronica chuckled. “Okay, maybe I won’t. How about I only tell him if he really needs an ego boost for some reason one day.”

  “Deal.”

  Melanie emerged, noticed that they were enjoying themselves, and scowled. The nurse paid no attention to any of this, however, and ushered everyone into room four.

  The nurse had Melanie sit on the examining table, which was covered in a white strip of paper. She took Melanie’s blood pressure without a word as Angie began showing Veronica her favorite app on her phone, which allowed her to turn photos black and white while keeping some details in color.

  “That is very cool,” Veronica agreed, though she was a bit distracted by the look on the nurse’s face as she jotted down the blood pressure in Melanie’s paperwork.

  “You should totally upgrade to a smart phone,” Angie said.

  “Can’t afford to pay an extra thirty dollars a month or whatever it is,” Veronica said. She turned to the nurse. “What was her blood pressure at?”

&nb
sp; The nurse glanced from Melanie to Veronica, but since Melanie didn’t say anything about not telling, she must have decided it was okay to say.

  “130 over 94.”

  Veronica frowned. “Is that high?”

  The nurse nodded. “It’s pretty high.” She finished writing and stood up. “I’ll just let the doctor know you’re ready for her.”

  When the door closed behind the nurse, Veronica turned to Melanie. “See?” she said. “You have high blood pressure.”

  Melanie glared at her. “I have high blood pressure because my friend and my daughter are driving me up the stupid wall.”

  After that no one said anything until the doctor, an African American woman with short gray hair and no make-up, entered the room. She wore a white lab coat over a blue blouse and black pants. Giving them all a big smile, she said, “Hi, I’m Doctor Nash.” She sat down on a wheeled stool. “How are you feeling, Melanie?”

  Melanie sighed and rolled her eyes. Veronica considered answering for her and decided against it.

  “A bit irritable?”

  Melanie shook her head. “I guess,” she said. “I’d be fine if everyone would stop fussing over me. I didn’t want to come here but they insisted and I guess I’m just a little annoyed.”

  “Well, it looks to me like it wasn’t a bad call,” Dr. Nash said. “It may turn out to be nothing, but I’m glad you came in.”

  “What?” Melanie said. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, your blood pressure is high. I’d like to have you go into the hospital for a nonstress test. We’ll check your BP again in an hour and do a blood test.”

  “You’re doing all this because my blood pressure’s a little high?”

  Dr. Nash smiled. “Melanie, it’s possible you have preeclampsia. It’s a serious condition. It can lead to some serious complications for you and your baby. The nurse tested your urine for high levels of protein and while the levels are a little bit above normal, I’m not ready to say for sure that there’s a problem. Nevertheless, I also don’t want to just send you home without getting a bit more information.”

  Melanie said nothing.

  Veronica considered putting a comforting hand on her arm, but decided not to push it.