“From what I understand, the cops are still investigating,” Lauren answered him.
“Let’s wait for the autopsy and proceed from there,” Roy declared. “It’s a pity because the patient had showed tremendous improvement since he started taking ‘cancerase.’”
“The deceased patient was part of the clinical trials?” she asked, shaken.
“Yes, he was.”
The autopsy came the following day. The patient died of myocardial infarction, or heart attack in common lingo, and significant concentrations of potassium chloride were, indeed, found in his blood sample.
The findings were reported to Roy, who had perused the results with knitted brows. He shook his head sadly and set aside the papers in his drawer.
During the meeting, Roy explained to his team the steps that the patients would undergo under the clinical trial for ‘cancerase’.
“Shouldn’t we post guards for the safety of our patients?” Lauren asked Roy. “Two patients have suffered already.”
Two guards were stationed at the door, round the clock, where the patients were housed.
The following morning, the police interrogated Lauren again.
“Can we do this some other time? I haven’t slept yet,” she complained.
“It won’t take ten minutes.”
“So, what do you want to know?” she asked patiently.
“You really don’t remember anything about the suspect? Clothes, marks, tattoos, rings, hair, anything at all?”
Lauren closed her eyes, trying to recall. “He was wearing a white gown. His hair was black and gelled. He was wearing gloves. . . ,” She tried hard to visualize his hands holding the syringe. “He had a big mole on his upper arm!” The image flashed in her mind. The mole was exposed when she attempted to wrestle the syringe from his hands.
“What arm?”
“I can’t remember,” she replied, frustrated.
“Okay, that’s all for now. We’ll contact you again, if we have more questions.”
Chapter 4
Lauren was just leaving work when David’s car screeched to a halt beside her. “Want a ride?” he called out. “I’m willing to take you home because you’ve done a superb job dealing with our patients.” He winked.
“Thank god,” Lauren uttered with exhaustion. “Yes, please take me home.”
After thirty minutes they arrived at Lauren’s apartment.
Lauren knew she had to invite him for a cup of coffee. “Black?”
“Yes, please,” David answered, examining Lauren’s collection of angel figurines.
The next thing that happened was unexpected. When she handed him his coffee, their hands met and an instant spark emanated from their fingers traversing into their bodies. Lauren was in David’s arms in the blink of an eye, trading hungry kisses with him and groping him like a ravenous nymph. His gelled black hair glistened under the lights as he stooped to meet her lips in a passionate kiss.
David picked her up in his arms and croaked, “Where’s your bedroom?”
Lauren pointed with her index finger, while clinging to his neck and kissing him with the fervor of an 18-year-old. David, his mouth on hers, carried her to the bedroom, and they stumbled in a heap on the comfy bed.
They kissed for a while, savoring each other’s mouths, making soft, suckling noises, their fingers meandering to forbidden places that held promises of exquisite pleasures.
Lauren realized that she didn’t feel the same resistance she had felt with Bryan.
“Let’s take it easy,” David pushed her back gently, the bulge in his pants palpable. “Have you done this before?”
Lauren nodded hesitantly. How did he know? “What’s being a virgin got to do with what we’re doing now?”
“I want you to have a wonderful experience your first time,” he stated, his eyes afire with longing.
She clung to him though, and her hands went straight to his erection, desperately caressing it.
“Then, let me do this for you,” he firmly removed her grasp from his dick and knelt before her. He slid her panties down her legs, and then slowly, tantalizingly he licked her thighs, going from one to the other. Simultaneously, his fingers toyed with the folds of her wet honey pot.
Lauren grabbed his hair and urged him on, as his tongue finally found her clit and licked it repeatedly, taking time to suck it after several licks. In no time she was moaning wildly and thrusting her hips against his face, yearning for his tongue to enter her moist slit.
“You like that?” he teased her.
“Oh holy Jesus, yes, yes, please go on,” she begged madly.
David slid her to the edge of the bed, knelt, and then slung her legs on each of his shoulders. She was wide opened for his onslaught. He dug his tongue into her pussy. She grasped the bed sheets in jubilation as the sweetest of sensations coursed from her love pocket to every nerve fiber in her body. She felt she was floating on air, buoyed up by the shooting stars of delicious vibrations that assailed her entire body.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah,” she whimpered in delight as David finger-fucked her, while sucking her clit with his tongue. He did it repeatedly until her clit became engorged and she was squirming helplessly in bed, muttering senseless words. Then she shuddered and shrieked, “I’m cumming …, oh, fuck, eat me!” she hollered grinding her pussy into David’s mouth. She juddered, over and over, until her body had absorbed all the millions of pleasures provided by her orgasm.
She closed her eyes, her sexual yearnings satiated, and nodded her head contentedly when David bade her goodbye. “Sleep well, my dear virgin.” he caressed her hair and kissed her forehead.
Chapter 5
When she came to it was 5 p.m. Memories of her time with David flashed back into her mind, and she stretched and sighed happily. Abruptly she sat up. The vision of his gelled black hair diving between her thighs startled her. It looked familiar. She pondered for a moment. Her pupils dilated when she realized it was like the hair of the criminal she had encountered in the cancer ward. Trembling, she sat down and calmed herself. It couldn’t be him, NO! She protested. NO!
At 6:30 p.m. she drove to work and saw David going over the patients’ charts. She couldn’t return his gaze.
“Hi, Ms. Richards,” David greeted Lauren.
“Hello, Dr. White.” Lauren was acutely aware of their sexual encounter the night before, and her body prickled anew. But – if he was the killer . . . , the hair on her neck prickled. He couldn’t be a murderer, she tried to pacify herself.
Later that night, Lauren was on her way to the ward when she ran into Bryan.
“Hello sunbeam, what’s up?” he planted a careless arm around her, as he usually did.
Lauren playfully slipped out of his arms, “I’m doing fine, Doctor, but people are staring at us,” she grinned. She couldn’t help feeling she was being disloyal to David standing so close. Turning to leave, she gave Bryan a little wave.
“What about dinner tomorrow before your night duty?” Bryan asked Lauren.
“I’ll be busy with research, Dr. Anderson. I’m afraid I can’t make it,” she replied firmly.
As the night progressed, Lauren visited the ward where the research volunteers for the cancer drug were housed. There were two security guards by the door, who checked the ID of every person that entered the ward.
“Did Dr. Barnes make the rounds today?” Lauren asked the guard.
“Yes, I saw him this morning.”
“He hasn’t come yet for his evening rounds?”
“Not yet.”
Lauren had planned to speak to Roy later; after their morning meeting the next day. She was about to turn away, when she heard yelling.
“Nurse, nurse, my mother’s twitching, help, help!” a young woman was pressing the buzzer frantically.
Lauren raced back to the ward. It seemed the patient had stopped breathing. The head nurse in charge of the ward was resuscitating her and Code Blue was announced. It was bedlam! Out of the corner o
f her eye Lauren saw a man in a doctor’s coat in the corridor just outside the room. He had black hair plastered neatly on his scalp. That hairstyle! A bell jangled in her mind, and she ran after him. She caught a glimpse of his back heading towards the staircase in an easy and relaxed manner. There was no one else in the corridor. She knew that if she cried for help, she would alert him. She followed discreetly, hiding behind the corners every now and then. If only I had my cell, she thought to herself. I’d call the police.
The man was already on the ground floor. Lauren ran all the way down to the ground floor and saw him going towards the garage. She was about to follow him, when he turned and looked around. Still, he was too far away. She could not see his face! Lauren hid behind one of the pillars, not wanting to be discovered. She recalled the sharp blade he had carried before. Her heart pounded. Her body felt frozen. Fright was making her immobile. After what seemed an eternity, Lauren peeked around the pillar. The man was nowhere to be seen.
He was not in the parking lot. Nor in the hospital grounds. Frustrated, she waited for the elevator to return to the ward. When it finally landed on the ground floor she stepped in quickly, almost colliding with someone.
It was Bryan. “Sunbeam! What are you doing here?”
“Bryan!” she wanted to tell him about the man she was chasing, but something held her back. He’d think I was crazy; imagining things! “I just went out for some fresh air,” she lied.
Bryan gave her a peck and strolled out toward the parking lot. “I’m off duty now. See you tomorrow!” He waved his hand.
Lauren returned to the research cancer ward and Dr. Roy Barnes was there, his face was shrouded with sorrow.
“Nurse Richards, where have you been?” Roy called out to Lauren. “I think we need you on a full time basis in this ward. Not just as a researcher but as a nurse on-duty. What do you think?”
“I don’t want to leave the pediatric ward, Doc.” In her mind, she was thinking, I don’t want to leave Dr. David White.
“Then, can we reduce your duty hours at the pedia, so you can spend two or three hours a day here?” Roy was pleading.
“Yes, I think that would be better,” she agreed. “I’ll talk to Dr. White.”
They had a conference with the research team after an hour, and Roy was nearing his wit’s end. Why would anyone want to harm his research subjects? What was the motive?
The police had tried to answer the same questions when they conducted their investigation.
“Based on the latest events, there were no intruders,” the officer revealed.
“Are you implying that these are inside jobs?” Roy asked incr
edulously.
“Yes, most likely the masked man is from the hospital staff.”
“Then for chrissake, identify him,” Roy bellowed, red in the face.
“This is ruining all I have worked for.”
“We’ll go over the CCTVs then interrogate the hospital staff involved,” the police officer reassured him.
“Do what you must do, but bring me some answers,” Roy admonished the cops.
After the police left, Roy and Lauren regarded each other in disbelief. That meant the man she had seen earlier was really a doctor? But he could also be disguised as a doctor!
Lauren ran to the log-in chart of the ward and scanned the names, Dr. Roy Barnes, Dr. John Hope, the two head nurses, the two staff nurses, the two nursing aides, Dr. David White. Lauren’s eyes rested on David’s name. Why was he there? There was a stab of pain in her chest. She scanned the rest of the names. Dr. Bryan Anderson, the cleaning women, the janitors and the security guards.
The security guards! In no time at all, Lauren was doing her own investigation. “How many shifts are on duty on this ward?”
“Three shifts, with eight hours each,” the guard replied.
That would be six security guards to contend with. It was difficult to pin down someone and accuse him of murder without evidence. Another question that boggled her mind was the presence of Dr. White and Dr. Anderson’s names on the list. Lauren sat down dejectedly.
After a few minutes, she went back to the nurse on duty and asked the question she most dreaded the answer to., “Why did Dr. White and Dr. Anderson visit the research ward?”
“They have pedia patients, who volunteered for the clinical trials,” the nurse disclosed.
Whew! Lauren felt like a deflated balloon, collapsing into a heap, after the air was released. So, they had a valid reason to be there.
“Next time, don’t act on your own. It’s dangerous,” the police officer warned Lauren.
The constable escorted her home and advised her to lock her doors. After being home only a few minutes, Bryan called, asking her if she had arrived home safely. She received another call from David of the same nature - her two knights in shining armor. Was one of them the killer? She shook her head, trying to erase the horrendous suspicion from her mind.
Chapter 6
In the comfort and security of her own bed, Lauren fell into a dreamless sleep, and when consciousness came, it was 5 p.m.; time to get ready for work.
She learned from Roy that the investigation had narrowed down the suspect list to three persons, but he wasn’t allowed to reveal the names until the real culprit was caught. Three persons? Who might they be? Lauren’s head was spinning. Was her suspicion correct? David?
Her train of thought was interrupted when Bryan materialized, out of the blue, in front of her. “It’s my sunbeam! Hello sweetheart,” he smiled at her.
“Oh, hi, Bryan.”
“We’re on duty today.” He smiled down at her, discreetly skimming his hand against her hip.
“I see that,” she replied half-heartedly.
“Shall we do the rounds now?” His hand brushed the small of her back.
“Right away, Doctor.” She agreed, falling into step beside him as his hand brushed the small of her back.
There were no special cases, except the two pediatric patients, who had volunteered for the clinical trials of the new cancer drug.
“What’s happening with the investigation?” Bryan asked Lauren when they were finished their rounds. “Were there any clues?”
“Nothing much.” She looked at the floor.
Bryan stared at her, “You seem to be holding back information. Tell me.”
“It’s confidential,” she declared.
“I’m not anyone. I’m Dr. Anderson, remember?” He took her chin in his hand, gently tilting her head back to look at him.
Lauren thought, you may be one of the three suspects. Come to think of it, she had met him at the elevator when she was pursuing the suspect. Why was she always nearby when the killer struck?
“Tell me,” he held her face between his two palms.
Lauren could feel his body heat permeating her skin. He was going to kiss her.
“Alright,” catching her breath, she turned away. “The investigators have narrowed down the suspects to three people.”
Did she imagine the frozen expression on his face? He recovered instantly.
“Who are the three suspects?” he prodded on.
“Dr. Barnes didn’t say.”
“Well, let’s not worry ourselves.” He grabbed her hand and led her to the doctor’s quarters.
It was empty. He closed the door and kissed her ardently, licking her lower lip and then her full mouth. “Don’t worry. There are no cameras here. It’s forbidden territory.” His hand went to her tits, rubbing them gently.
Lauren’s body responded in an instant. She wanted to be fucked badly. It seemed years since she’d had her orgasm with David. David! Her memory of David splashed ice cold water into her flames of arousal.
“Don’t,” Lauren freed herself and swiftly escaped from Bryan’s clutches. “We’re supposed to be working!” she reminded him and stormed out of the room.
She met Roy after her night duty. “They’ll start investigating the three remaining suspects tomorrow,” he informed her
. “But it will be a confidential inquiry. Don’t let your guard down.”
Lauren learned that she and David would be stationed for two hours that night at the research cancer ward. Her heart was singing as she went to sleep after a warm shower.
It was 2 p.m. when her phone rang. “Let’s eat!” It was David. Her heart leapt in jubilation. “I missed you,” he crooned into the phone.
Annabelle's Angst: NEW ADULT CONTEMPORARY SUSPENSE ROMANCE Page 23