Zach scanned the wall of monitors looking for an image of the hall outside the daycare center. “There.” He pointed to the feed he wanted. “Rewind this feed.”
The guard—six-plus feet of solid muscle—blocked his view of the monitors. “You need to take it easy, sir. Tell me who you’re looking for.”
“A woman and her daughter are missing.”
The guard scrutinized Zach’s ID and a sick feeling balled in the pit of his stomach. The child-care worker must’ve alerted security about him.
Zach held up his hands in surrender. “Look, there’s no time for two-stepping around who you think I am. I am not the woman’s husband, boyfriend or any kind of significant other.” Man, it hurt to say that. “I just need to find her. She could be in danger.”
“Trust me, buddy, I’ve heard them all. If you think the child’s been kidnapped, I can lock—”
Zach spotted Tara and Suzie on another monitor. The label said: Fourth Floor. D Ward. “Never mind... I see her.” He hurried out.
Once upstairs, he headed Tara off outside the staff lounge. “What’s going on? I’ve been looking all over for you.” He gulped in air to try and catch his breath. “I thought something happened. Alice said the daycare called you.”
“I need to take Suzie home and I can’t get hold of Kelly.” Tara didn’t meet his eyes.
Suzie plugged her thumb into her mouth and burrowed her head deeper into Tara’s shoulder.
“Is she sick?”
“Just upset. A couple of boys pretended to shoot each other, and she suddenly became inconsolable. She said, ‘Dak shot,’ and the daycare director assumed she meant her dad.”
Zach’s heart crunched into his ribs. He stroked Suzie’s hair. “Hey, hon. I’m okay. You know that, right?”
She lifted her head and scrutinized him. Her teary eyes knocked the wind out of him all over again. How could he let Tara shut him out of their lives when their happiness was as important to him as his next breath?
Tara hoisted Suzie a little higher and rescued her falling backpack. “I’ve arranged for someone to cover the rest of my shift.” Tara’s gaze met his for only an instant. “But we don’t have a way home.”
“I’ll ask Rick to send someone.”
Her shoulders drooped. “That’d be good. Thanks.”
“Tara, I’d love to take you. Please don’t think otherwise.” He touched her arm, and her flinch hurt to the core. Somehow, some way, he needed to convince her to trust him, to believe his feelings for her were real and true. “I just can’t leave right now.”
“You don’t owe me an explanation.”
He steered her into the empty lounge. “Yes, I do.” He quickly texted Rick and then, pocketing his phone, returned his full attention to Tara. “We’re close to a breakthrough. In the meantime, I need to keep tabs on Whittaker.” He shot a glance at the door, knowing he should be out there tracking Whittaker right now. But he couldn’t leave Tara unguarded.
She moved toward the window, putting the table between them.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.” He stepped around the table. “And I realized something.”
Finally she looked at him, her exquisite eyes full of sadness.
“You were right that I still love my wife.” Tara’s head dipped, and Zach immediately reached for her hand. “I will always love Carole, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love you, too.” He rested his hand over hers on Suzie’s back, and his heart swelled. “You and Suzie.”
Tara blinked rapidly as she slowly lifted her gaze to his.
He ached at the uncertainty in her eyes. “I love you, Tara. Maybe I was afraid to believe it, afraid I might lose you, too. Then I did lose you, and it hurt more than I could stand.”
She burst into tears.
He pulled her and Suzie into his arms. Tara buried her beautiful face against his chest and sobbed her heart out.
Zach stroked her hair, hoping against hope that these were happy tears.
Suzie burrowed down to look at Tara’s face. “What wrong, Mommy?”
Zach’s breath stilled.
Tara lifted her head, wiped her eyes on her sleeve. She looked such a mess he couldn’t help but smile. When she smiled back, the air swooshed from his lungs.
“These are happy tears, sweetie.” She dabbed at his damp shirt. “I got you all wet.”
Zach rested his palm against her cheek. “I don’t mind at all.”
Her cheeks bloomed to an adorable shade of pink and she ducked her head.
“Soon this case will be over and we’ll have a long talk,” he said.
“You have enough evidence to make an arrest?”
“Almost. We’ve connected Whittaker to a biotech company that produces Coley’s Fluid.”
“What’s that?” she asked, intrigued.
“An alternative cancer treatment. It’s just a matter of time before we have enough evidence to prove he’s guilty.”
Whittaker stepped into the room with Alice at his side. “Who’s guilty of what?”
Zach stepped in front of Tara and Suzie, shielding them with his body. “Nothing important, sir. Just talking about—”
“My ex-husband,” Tara piped up.
“That’s right.” Zach latched on to her subterfuge. “He’s reneged on child-support payments. I was just saying—”
“No, I heard you say Coley’s Fluid. What is that? You said something about cancer.”
Zach scrutinized Whittaker for evidence of deception, but saw only eager interest. Not good. Attempting to catch him off guard, Zach said, “It’s an alternative treatment a friend of mine was looking into. Somehow it’s supposed to trigger the immune system to fight cancer.”
“Yes, I remember reading about that in medical school. It induces a high fever. Of course, why didn’t I think of that before? It explains everything.”
Alice turned from pouring a cup of coffee. “You mean Melanie’s sudden fever?”
“Melanie’s, Ellen’s, Debra Parker’s,” Whittaker said.
“But who would do that?” Alice took a seat at the table. “I can see trying it, maybe. But after one patient died, who would risk another’s life?”
“I don’t know. I can’t imagine any doctor jeopardizing his medical license to do anything so foolhardy. But it fits.”
“How so?” Zach asked, feigning a casual interest, given Whittaker’s unexpected candor.
“I have a number of patients who withdrew from my drug trials. Soon after, they inexplicably started to improve. I kept a list. I figured that if I could decipher what triggered the remission, it would put Memorial Hospital on the map.”
“You’re not taking credit for the improvements?”
“At first I thought it might be a latent effect of the drug we’re testing. But this makes more sense.”
Suzie fussed to be let down.
Tara shot Zach a questioning look. Zach nodded that she’d be okay, and Tara set Suzie at the table, then pulled a coloring book and crayons from her backpack.
Zach returned his focus to Whittaker. “So what will you do now?”
McCrae stepped into the room. “Hey, someone forget to tell me there was a staff meeting?”
“It’s him.” Alice pointed to McCrae. “That’s why he wouldn’t let me give Melanie Rivers something for her fever.”
McCrae turned to the door, but Whittaker stepped in his path and blocked his escape. “Is that true, Doctor?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Zach shifted sideways to shield Tara and Suzie. Then, taking a chance on his theory, he said, “The police know about Patricia Campbell.”
McCrae spun around, eyes blazing, and pinned his glare past Zach’s shoulder. “This is your fault. Y
ou couldn’t keep your mouth shut.”
Tara’s gasp squeezed Zach’s chest.
“That’s enough.” He made a grab for McCrae, but the man pulled out a needle and jabbed the air between them.
“Stay back.”
Zach raised his hands and took a single step back. “You don’t want to do this.”
“It beats the alternative.” He maneuvered sideways, but succeeded only in getting farther from the exit.
Zach mirrored his move, keeping himself squarely between McCrae and Tara and Suzie. “You’ll never get away,” he warned.
Suzie bolted toward her mom, sending her chair toppling into Zach’s leg.
As Zach caught the chair, McCrae lurched forward and snatched up Suzie, the needle still poised in his other hand. “Watch me.”
NINETEEN
Full-blown panic squeezed the breath from Tara’s lungs.
“Put Suzie down,” Zach ordered.
McCrae scowled at Tara. “This is your fault.”
Every motherly instinct in her wanted to lunge at him and claw out his eyes. But not knowing what was in the needle, and terrified he’d stab her daughter, Tara forced herself to stay back.
“David,” Dr. Whittaker said. “She’s just a child. Let her go.”
For a moment McCrae wavered, looking as though he might relent. “I can’t do that.”
“Tell me what you want me to do,” Tara begged. “I’ll do it. Just don’t hurt my daughter.”
“Those are mighty big promises for someone who’s out of options. You’re just like him.”
“Him?”
McCrae’s eyes twitched and seemed to go out of focus.
“Parker. He didn’t understand what was at stake. He knew there were risks going in. I told him. He said he understood. But he didn’t.” McCrae’s voice had a strained sound of reasonableness. “The treatment is helping people. But Parker threatened to expose my work. If I didn’t stop him, he would’ve cost them their lives.”
Zach inched toward McCrae’s side, but Tara forced her gaze to stay focused on McCrae.
“Did you hear me? I had to consider the greater good. I thought you understood.”
“Of course, the greater good,” Tara repeated inanely. He seemed to be in a trance. The man was playing God with people’s lives.
McCrae’s eyes pulled back into focus and narrowed in on her.
“Every patient who got the treatment knew the risks. I didn’t sugarcoat it. So you can see how I had no choice.” He raised the hand that held the needle. “To serve the greater good, sometimes one has to make sacrifices.”
Zach grabbed McCrae’s arm.
Tara pounced on his other arm, Alice, too, prying it from around Suzie, as Whittaker tried to grab the needle. For a few seconds McCrae resisted, but then he released his hold on Suzie, and turning, punched Zach in the kidney.
Zach lost his grip.
Tara pulled Suzie out of the way as Whittaker and Zach tried to corner McCrae. Alice jetted around them out the door, hopefully to get help.
“Put down the needle,” Zach said, his voice steely calm. “You don’t want to hurt anyone. You lost your brother like I lost my wife. You didn’t want to see others suffer the way we had to. I get that.”
“I was trying to help them.”
“You were. You gave them hope.” All the while Zach talked, he, Whittaker and McCrae danced around each other, no one’s eyes ever far from the syringe in McCrae’s raised hand.
A security guard appeared at the door. “What’s going on?”
Zach lunged at the momentarily distracted McCrae and caught one of his arms in an armlock.
McCrae steamed backward, driving Zach into the wall.
“No,” Tara screamed as McCrae levered his arm down, spearing the syringe into Zach’s chest.
Roaring, Zach shoved McCrae face-first to the floor.
The security guard snapped a handcuff on McCrae’s wrist. Zach snapped on the other, then hauled him to his feet.
“Zach?” Tara urged Suzie to go to Alice, who’d returned with the security guard.
Zach pushed McCrae into a chair. “Watch him until the cops get here. I don’t feel—” He staggered sideways.
Tara rushed to his side and eased him into a chair. She dropped to her knees in front of him. “How do you feel?”
He stroked her cheek. “Hey, hey, why the tears? You can’t...get rid...of me that...” His words came out garbled. He slumped into her arms.
Whittaker helped her ease Zach to the ground.
“Zach, can you hear me? Stay with me.”
“What was in the needle?” Whittaker demanded of McCrae.
The guard jostled McCrae, but he refused to answer.
“Make him talk. I need to know what was in that needle,” Whittaker ordered. To Alice he said, “Get us some help in here.”
Tara positioned Zach so his airway was clear, then counted his respirations. They were shallow and his heart rate too slow, considering the fight he’d just been through. She fought off a paralyzing surge of terror at the thought of him dying.
The guard slapped McCrae’s face. “What was in the needle?”
“Check his pockets,” Tara yelled.
Beth rushed in with a crash cart. “What do we have?”
“Ten-gauge hypodermic needle with unknown substance to the chest. Breathing suppressed, six breaths per minute. Pulse slow and thready.”
“Hook up a saline IV,” Whittaker barked. “We’ll dilute whatever was in that needle by pushing fluids.”
McCrae’s gaze lit on Tara and fury seethed in his eyes. “This is all your fault.”
Beth gasped at the handcuffed doctor.
The guard tightened his grip on McCrae’s shirt collar and gave him a hard shake. “You stabbed that man in front of four witnesses. If you don’t want to go down for his murder, I suggest you tell the lady what she wants to hear.”
“Insulin. It’s insulin.”
“Stop,” Tara screamed at Beth and grabbed a bag from the cart. “Switch the bag to glucose. Saline will drive his blood sugar even lower. We would have fried his brain within the hour!” Tara hooked the IV line to a bag of glucose and opened the drip full out. “C’mon, Zach. Can you hear me? Don’t you give up on me.”
“I had to do it,” McCrae muttered. “He threatened to expose me.” He rocked in the chair, his eyes unfocused. Blood was caked under his nose and splattered across his lab coat. “I was serving the greater good.”
Tara let out a disgusted snort.
Riled, McCrae sprang to his feet. But the guard yanked him back. “My treatments were helping people. Curing cancer.”
“You’re telling me you were peddling some cancer cure? Right here in the hospital?” the guard asked.
“Not peddling. It wasn’t about the money. It was never about the money.”
“Yeah, sure. Save it for the judge.”
Not wanting to deal with McCrae’s other atrocities on top of the one ripping her heart out in front of her, Tara pulled a gurney to Zach’s prone body, locked its wheels and lowered it to the floor. “Help me get him on this.”
Whittaker took Zach’s shoulders, and Beth helped Tara with his legs. “On three,” Whittaker said. “One, two, three.”
Once they’d moved him into a room, Tara checked his blood pressure again. A hundred over sixty. Still low, but climbing.
Beth hooked the heart-rate monitor to his chest. She squeezed Tara’s arm. “Alice has Suzie at the nurse’s station. Your friend Kelly is here, too.”
“Thank you.” Tara brushed the hair from Zach’s face. “You can’t die on me. Do you hear me? You saved my baby’s life. The least you can do is give me a chance to thank you properly.”
His blank expression didn’t change.
Feeling utterly helpless, she held her hand against his cheek.
Beth pushed a chair up to the bed. “Sit before you fall down.”
Suzie tugged Kelly into the room. “I’m sorry, Tara. She was desperate to see you.”
“It’s okay.”
“How is he?” Kelly asked anxiously.
“We don’t know yet.” Tara lifted Suzie onto her lap and clasped Zach’s hand. Her family. She couldn’t lose them. Lord, please, don’t let him die for saving our lives.
She bowed her head and let the truth wash over her. Zach had been trying to save her long before today. Saving her from her doubts about God. Saving her from blaming herself for everything that went wrong in her life. But instead of listening to him, she’d grasped at the first indication that he might not share her feelings and rejected him before he could reject her.
I love you, Tara.
Her mind clung to his words. He loved her. And it had sure sounded like he didn’t plan to leave her. Not without a fight, anyway. She wanted him in her life. She wanted him to help her raise Suzie, to share their joys and sorrows.
The heart monitor made a funny blip and then another.
Tara set Suzie on the chair and gave her full attention to Zach. She checked the connections. No sign of a problem there. The readout grew more erratic.
“Don’t you dare leave me. Do you hear me, Zach? I love you. Suzie loves you. She needs a daddy who’ll make sure she eats her veggies. I was just—” Droplets splashed on his bare chest. She swiped at her leaking eyes. “I was scared, Zach. Scared. Please don’t leave me.”
The beeping grew more erratic.
Beth listened to his respirations. “I’ll get Dr. Whittaker.”
“Mommy?” Suzie’s frightened voice cut through the panic, clouding Tara’s thinking.
“It’s okay, honey.” She hugged her daughter to her chest.
“I’ll take her out,” Kelly offered.
Suzie giggled and pointed to the bed.
Tara spun around to Zach’s smiling eyes looking up at her. “You’re awake.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled. “You prefer me sleeping?”
“No!”
Critical Condition Page 20