by Laura Scott
He gave an almost imperceptible nod. He wished he knew what was in the syringe and tried to squeeze some of the contents out without attracting attention. Duke weighed 95 pounds, and Jesse was obviously closer to two hundred. Surely a half dose wouldn’t be as lethal?
“Let her go, Jesse. Katy, I want you to go over to the opposite side of the room, understand?”
“Yes,” Katy agreed softly.
Reese tensed and sent up a silent prayer for strength as he prepared to jump. He watched for the moment when Jesse released Katy, then lunged forward and stabbed the syringe into Jesse’s thigh.
“No,” Katy shouted but he pressed on the plunger at the same time Ian grabbed Jesse’s gun. The big blond man let out an animal-like howl as he dropped to his knees.
“Get back. He needs medical attention,” Katy shouted. “Call a code blue!”
Reese flipped on the lights. Ian used his radio to call for help. Less than sixty seconds later, the room was flooded with people, mostly deputies.
“Lift him onto the bed,” Katy snapped from where she knelt on the floor next to Jesse. “Then I want everyone out of here except medical personnel. I need room to work.”
Reese snagged Ian’s arm. “Get one of the nurses in here to help her.”
Ian left the room and returned with several nurses. A few minutes later, Gabe Allen joined them. Katy pretty much ignored him, barking orders like a drill sergeant.
“I want a full set of labs drawn, including heavy metals. I want an IV going wide open to flush out his system. I want an intubation tray in case we lose his airway. Amy, see if there’s any way to get a dialysis unit called in.”
Reese was impressed at how quickly the nursing staff jumped to do her bidding.
“He’s not breathing,” one of the nurses announced.
“Where’s that intubation tray?”
“Right here.” One of the nurses thrust the tray onto the bedside table.
“He could have used a paralytic combined with a sedative,” Gabe said as Katy grabbed equipment from the bin. “That’s the most painless way to kill someone.”
“Let’s hope so,” Katy mumbled. “At least I know how to treat that.”
With deft skill, she placed the breathing tube with Gabe’s assistance.
“We need to get him to the ICU,” Gabe said. “We can continue to treat him for the unknown substance better with monitoring equipment.”
“Dialysis would be his best option,” Katy said with a sigh. “Especially since we don’t know what he had in that syringe.”
“There’s two more syringes in his pocket,” Amy said, holding them up. “We could ask the lab to test the contents.”
“Good job,” Katy said with a grim smile. “The only problem is that getting them tested will take time.”
Reese glanced at Ian, who looked sick to his stomach with the news.
Time was one thing Jesse didn’t have.
Katy wanted to follow Jesse up to the ICU, but Gabe refused to let her. “You’re still a patient, and it’s not even dawn yet. Go back to bed and get some sleep.”
She watched as they left, wheeling Jesse on a stretcher. She lingered in Reese’s room, waiting for the nurses to finish putting everything back in order. It didn’t take long, and soon they were alone.
“I can’t believe it’s finally over,” Reese said, sitting on the edge of his bed with a sigh. “And now I understand why Kramer was trying to pin this on me. He didn’t want to face the fact that his brother was the guilty one.”
“I feel bad for Jesse,” Katy admitted. She sat down in the empty chair located near the bed. “It’s obvious he’s been traumatized.”
“Yeah, I know. I feel bad for him, too. But at the same time, I know he would have made good on his threat to kill us.”
She suppressed a shiver. “You’re right. I’ve never been so scared in my entire life.”
Duke made a high-pitched sound in the back of his throat, grabbing Reese’s attention. “I think he needs to go outside.”
“I understand.” Katy reluctantly rose to her feet. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
“Sure.” Reese surprised her by reaching over and embracing her in a big hug. “I’m glad you’re okay,” he whispered.
“I’m glad you’re okay, too,” she whispered back.
She relished his embrace, but of course, it was over too soon. He released her and stepped back. “We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
Hope filtered into her heart. “Sounds good.”
She waited as Reese disconnected himself from the oxygen tubing and the IV so he could take Duke outside to relieve himself.
She headed back into her room and put her oxygen back on before climbing into bed. She hadn’t even noticed her breathing while she’d been held captive by Jesse Kramer.
But now that she had her oxygen back on, she could tell her breathing was a little easier. She closed her eyes and somehow managed to fall asleep.
Bright sunlight streamed in through the window, waking her up bright and early. She peered at the clock, thankful to realize she’d slept at least for a few hours.
She slid out of bed, freshened up in the bathroom and then poked her head out of her room. Reese’s door was closed, so rather than bothering him, she flagged down a nurse.
“Would you please get me a fresh oxygen tank so I can walk up to the ICU?” she asked. “I want to check on my patient.”
The nurse lifted a brow, as if questioning the use of the pronoun. Hmm. Could she have a patient when she was a patient herself? Probably not.
“I’m friends with his brother,” she clarified, although it was a bit of a stretch. “Please?”
“I’ll get you the oxygen, but you should know that the guy is a prisoner patient, so they might not let you up to see him.”
Katy nodded. “Okay, thanks for the warning.”
The nurse returned a few minutes later with a fresh oxygen tank in a wheeled carrier. She hooked herself up and then walked down the hall to the elevators. Normally she preferred the stairs, but the oxygen tank took that decision out of her hands.
The ICU was located one floor up. She walked in and immediately saw the deputy sitting outside one of the rooms. No doubt, Jesse’s room.
She recognized Deputy Thomas and gave him a nod. “Hi there. How is he doing?”
“About the same,” Deputy Thomas said. “Still not conscious.”
She gestured to the door. “Do you mind if I go in to see him? I promise I won’t stay long.”
The deputy grimaced and shook his head. “Prisoner patients aren’t allowed visitors. I’ve already bent the rule for his brother.”
Katy smiled. “Yes, but I’m not a visitor, I’m a doctor. I’m the one who put in the breathing tube. I just want to check on his condition.”
“Okay, fine, you get five minutes.”
“Thanks.” She went into the room and noticed that Ian was sitting beside the bed, asleep in the chair, despite the no-visitor rule. She tiptoed farther into the room, trying not to disturb him.
She glanced up at the monitoring equipment, relieved to notice that his vital signs appeared stable. What had been in that syringe? What if he never woke up?
“I’m sorry, Dr. Katy,” Ian said in a low voice.
She glanced at him in surprise. “I think you need to apologize to Reese more than to me.”
“I know.” Ian scrubbed his hands over his face. “If I had known how bad Jesse was…”
She nodded, understanding his dilemma. “Has he shown any signs of waking up?” she asked.
“Not yet.” Ian stared at his brother. “I’m not sure which is worse, having him stay like this or being arrested and sent to jail.”
She wasn’t sure what to say to that. She sensed that for Jesse, jail would be the worse option.
Ian knew that, too.
“I’ll check back later,” she assured him. She left the room and walked down the hall, anxious to talk to the nurse caring for Jes
se. She wanted to know how his kidneys were doing and if any of the lab work had come back abnormal.
She stood in front of the nurse’s desk, waiting for the unit clerk to get off the phone, when a harried woman came rushing toward her.
“You! This is all your fault!” the woman accused harshly. “My son is brain-dead, and it’s all your fault!”
Katy froze, staring at the woman in horror. What on earth was she talking about? She’d never seen this woman before in her life.
“I’m sorry to hear about your son, but I think you must have me confused with someone else,” Katy said gently.
The woman’s face twisted into a mask of pure hatred. “I know exactly who you are,” she spat. “You’re the doctor who killed my Danny. Danny Truitt was your patient, and you sent him home too soon. Now he’s dead! They’re taking him off life support!”
The blood drained from her face as she remembered taking care of Danny Truitt, the young man who’d been extremely intoxicated and stabbed with a knife. She’d gotten sidetracked when the gunshot victims had been brought in, but she knew she’d given orders to discharge Danny only when he’d been awake and his vitals had been stable.
Was it possible she was responsible for discharging him too early? Just like she’d discharged Steffie too soon, when she’d been back in Baltimore?
Was she really responsible for the death of another patient?
Chapter Fourteen
No. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. Please, Lord, not again!
Katy reached out for the wall as the room spun around her. In the deepest portion of her mind, she noticed one of the nurses had ushered Danny’s mother away.
Is it true? Dear Lord, are her accusations true? Did I fail another one of my patients?
“Katy, sit down.” Reese came over and put his arm around her shoulders, but she shrank away from his touch.
The fact that Reese had heard everything only made matters worse. He’d run in the other direction if he knew the truth. And she wouldn’t blame him.
“I—can’t. Leave me alone. I need to go.” Somehow she managed to slide away from him. She grabbed the handle of her oxygen tank and forced her legs to carry her toward the door.
She stumbled down the hallway to the elevator. Leaning heavily against the wall, she waited for the doors to open. She rode back down to the nursing unit where her room was located but headed into the nurse’s station and sank down at the closest computer station.
With trembling fingers, she entered her password and opened Danny Truitt’s electronic medical record. Tears burned in her eyes, blurring the words on the screen. She swiped them away with the back of her hand and tried to focus on reading the most recent progress notes.
Her heart sank when she realized that at least part of the woman’s accusations were true. Danny had been readmitted twelve hours after Katy had discharged him from the ER right at the end of her shift. She reviewed the discharge information. The nurses had documented well. She remembered Danny had been awake and belligerent, demanding to go home. He’d also been demanding pain medication. Not entirely unreasonable, since he had been stabbed. She remembered, now, telling the nurses to go ahead and discharge him.
He’d seemed well enough to leave, and since he was an adult, they couldn’t keep him against his will. They’d given enough fluids to help bring down his alcohol level. So what had happened over the next twelve hours? Why had he been brought back to the hospital?
A sick sense of dread enveloped her as she read through Danny’s subsequent ER note. He’d been found down and completely unresponsive by his roommates. They’d started CPR and gotten him to the hospital but too late.
He’d suffered severe brain damage.
She slumped forward, burying her face in her hands. Danny’s case was different from Steffie’s, but the end result was the same.
Only this time, she didn’t have a high patient load and understaffing to blame for the mistake.
The blame was hers alone.
Reese didn’t understand what was going on in Katy’s mind, but it was obvious the woman’s wild accusations had caused Katy to withdraw into herself. He’d followed her back down to the nursing unit and watched her from the hallway as she peered at one of the computer screens.
Surely she didn’t believe the kid’s medical issues were her fault? From what the nurse in the ICU had said, it sounded more like the kid had overdosed on his pain meds. That couldn’t be Katy’s fault.
He watched her collapse in front of the computer and decided this had gone on long enough. Ignoring the openly curious expressions on the staff members’ faces, he strode behind the desk and went over to Katy.
“Come on, Katy. Let’s go. You can’t stay here like this.”
She didn’t acknowledge him verbally or meet his gaze but must have heard him since she rose to her feet. He wanted to put his arm around her but didn’t dare, not after the way she’d recoiled from him in the ICU. Careful not to get too close, he stayed behind her as she made her way down the hall toward her room. He wracked his brain for a way to break through the wall she’d built between them.
She walked into her room and sat down on the edge of her bed, staring down at her feet, despair etched on her features.
“Katy, please don’t do this to yourself,” he urged, sitting in the chair across from her. “That boy’s mother is lashing out in her grief. It’s not your fault he overdosed on his pain medications.”
She swallowed hard and raised her tortured gaze to his. “He came in highly intoxicated. Maybe I shouldn’t have given him any pain meds.”
“Would you have given any other stab wound patient pain meds?” he pressed. “How many stitches did you put in, anyway?”
“Fourteen,” she whispered. “And don’t you understand? I have to take each patient’s individual history into account before making a medical decision. Knowing that he tended to abuse alcohol means it’s not a stretch that he might do the same with pain meds.”
He couldn’t pretend to understand what the right medical decision would have been, but he still didn’t see how she could feel responsible for the kid’s overdose.
“Katy, you’re a good doctor. You’ve saved countless patients’ lives, including Boyle’s. Remember how you saved Jacob from drowning? You were the one who encouraged me to believe in God’s plan, remember?”
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
“I turned my back on God until you showed me the way back to my faith. While we were stuck on the trail in the woods, I realized that if Suzanne hadn’t left me and cleaned out our bank account, I wouldn’t have Duke. I wouldn’t be a DNR game warden, a job I love. And I wouldn’t have met you. I understand that, right now, it’s hard to understand why Danny ended up back here, but I have to believe that there’s a reason.”
Katy’s eyes filled with tears. “What if the reason is to tell me I’m not fit to be a doctor? That maybe I should do something else with my life?”
He reached over and took both of her hands in his. “You don’t really believe that. Not after all the lives you’ve saved. You told me that you helped take care of Devon Armbruster last year when he was injured. Don’t you think that Danny’s situation is more likely a message to other kids his age?”
She drew in a choppy breath. “The reason I left Baltimore General to come here was because of another patient death. Her name was Steffie Moore, and she was only eighteen years old. She came in with belly pain but got better with fluids, so I discharged her. But she actually had a burst appendix. She died because of me. And now Danny is dead, too. All because of me.”
He wasn’t sure what to say to that, other than he didn’t believe either of the patients’ outcomes were her fault. “Did the hospital blame you for Steffie’s death?”
“No.”
“Was there a lawsuit filed against you?”
“Not yet. But there’s still time. I dread opening my mail every day, thinking that I’ll find the summons and complain
t.”
“Katy, even good doctors get sued sometimes. I wish I could help you believe this isn’t your fault.”
“It’s not her fault,” Gabe said from the doorway. He strode into Katy’s room, scowling at her. “Listen to me. Danny’s roommates confessed that they saw Danny taking pills and drinking alcohol. They admitted he passed out on the sofa and they thought he’d sleep it off. It wasn’t until one of the kids went over to wake him up that they realized he wasn’t breathing. Danny’s mother is just looking for someone to blame.”
“Really?” Katy looked up at Gabe with hope shimmering in her eyes. “You don’t think it’s my fault for discharging him with pain meds?”
Gabe snorted. “Yeah, like you wouldn’t be in worse trouble if you’d refused to give pain meds to a patient with a stab wound. It’s not your fault the kid had a huge drinking problem. And I’m sure his mother knows that.”
“Maybe, but I still have Steffie’s death on my conscience,” Katy murmured.
“Don’t you think I feel guilty over stabbing Jesse with that syringe?” Reese spoke up. “Especially when he’s up there fighting for his life? We’re only human. We all make mistakes. God forgives us our sins. Why can’t you?”
“Reese is right,” Gabe added.
Katy nodded slowly. “I know you’re both right. It’s just easier said than done.”
“Having faith, believing in God’s will, handling the ups and downs of life—all of that is easier said than done,” Reese reminded her.
A glimmer of a smile toyed with her mouth. “I’ll try,” she said softly.
“Good. The reason I came up here is to let you know that I’ve covered your shift, so you have the day off,” Gabe announced.
“Thank you. I’ll make it up to you sometime soon,” Katy said.
“The doctor came by while you were upstairs,” Reese added. “He’s planning to discharge us both, although he said he needed to examine you first. He should be back any minute.”
“That’s good, even if we can’t go home yet,” Katy said.