by Lyle, D. P.
“Give me your addresses, and I’ll send each of you a signed photo.”
The girls laughed, Katy jumping up and down. “That would be radically awesome.”
“Speaking of radically awesome,” I said, “what have you girls taken today?”
“Who said we took anything?” Gloria said. She glanced at her sister and again they both giggled.
“I didn’t say that,” Katy said.
“Me either,” Gloria agreed.
More laughter.
I stared at them, waiting. Finally the giggling died.
“Okay, okay,” Katy said. “It’s no biggie. We took some magic pills.” She laughed. “Way magic.”
“How old are you?” I asked.
“Seventeen,” Katy said. “My sister is sixteen.”
“What did you take?”
“I told you,” Katy said. “Magic pink pills.”
There was that feeling I hate again. The one where the hair on your neck snaps to attention and a cold feeling slides down your spine.
“What kind of pink pills?” I asked.
Katy looked at me as if I was crazy. “Little round pink pills, dude.”
I smiled. “I meant what was in them?”
“I don’t know.”
“We didn’t do well in chemistry class,” Gloria said.
“Like totally bad,” Katy agreed.
They both laughed hysterically.
“Didn’t do a CSI analysis either,” Gloria said.
“We just took them,” Katy said.
“Just like that?” I asked. “Someone gives you a pill and you swallow it?”
They stared at me as if I was from another planet.
“Well, duh,” Katy said. “That’s what you do with pills.”
“And they didn’t give them to us,” Gloria said. “We had to like buy them. Five bucks each.”
“They who?”
They stared at me, and then Katy said, “They what?”
“They. The people you bought the pills from.”
“Oh. This cool couple.”
The hair on my neck stiffened a bit more. “Where’d you see them?”
“In the parking lot.”
“When?”
“Dude, what’s with all the questions?” Katy asked.
“If you want some, we can hook you up,” Gloria added.
“With this couple?”
“True story,” Katy said. She staggered a step, caught herself, and laughed.
Divya handed each of them a bottle of mineral water. “This might help.”
Katy held up the bottle and stared at the pinkish liquid inside. “This is so neat. Look at the color.” She twisted off the cap. No easy task for her, but she managed. She took a gulp. “Whoa. This is rich.”
Gloria took a sip of hers. “Way rich, dude.” Then she giggled. “Maybe we could make this stuff into pills?”
“Radical,” Katy said. “We could call it Raspberry Quick.”
“Raspberry Quick?” I asked.
Katy looked at me. “Yeah. The ones we took were Strawberry Quick. Raspberry ones would be like the ultimate.”
“Not only make you feel good, but they’re good for you,” Gloria said.
“How so?” I asked.
Gloria gave me a quizzical look. I was now officially from another planet. “Dude? Are you serious? Strawberry? Fruit group? The food pyramid?”
At first I thought she was joking. Or maybe I hoped she was. But the seriousness on her face revealed that she wasn’t.
“Somehow I don’t think this is what they had in mind when they developed the food groups.”
“Maybe they should have,” Katy said.
“True story,” added Gloria.
“Tell me about this couple,” I said. “The ones that sold you the Strawberry Quick.”
“What about them?” Gloria asked.
“Do you know their names?”
Gloria shook her head, but Katy said, “Pete something. And her name was . . . I can’t remember.”
I glanced at Divya and then back to the girls. “Erin?”
“Yeah. I think that’s right.” Katy now focused on me. “Do you know them?”
“No. What did they look like?”
“She’s cool,” Gloria said. “Skinny and hot. I wish I was that skinny.”
“And she always has the coolest jeans,” Katy added.
“She has long hair,” Gloria said. “Dark. Nearly to her waist.”
“The dude’s hair is long, too,” Katy said. “He has like this totally stoked ponytail.”
“That sounds like the couple we saw at the beach,” Danielle said.
“It does,” Evan agreed.
“What couple?” I asked.
Evan told the story of the three stoned boys who had harassed him at the beach. “I saw them a little later talking to a couple that sounds like these two. It looked like they bought something from them.”
“The beach?” Katy said. “That’s probably them. We hook up with them there sometimes.”
“And I saw them again yesterday,” Evan said. “Also at the beach. But they sped off before I could get their license plate number.”
Probably a good thing. I’m not sure Evan should get involved with this.
“Is the doctor here?”
I looked up. A woman stood at the entrance to the tent, her hand firmly clamped on the upper arm of a young girl.
“I’m Dr. Lawson,” I said.
“Can you take a look at my daughter?”
“What’s the matter?”
“This.” She extended a plastic baggie toward me. It held two pink pills.
“That’s them,” Katy said. “They’re so much fun.”
I suppose I should have been shocked by Katy’s openness. As if taking illegal drugs was no big deal. As if it was almost expected. A big difference from when I was in school. Back then those things were hidden and denied. A little water could mask the theft of alcohol from a parent’s liquor cabinet. Beer drinking and marijuana smoking took place in private.
That’s all changed.
As Principal Hyatt told me, the students now sit in their cars in the school parking lot and get stoned. They come to class intoxicated. They don’t seem to respect or fear any type of authority. Like Katy and Gloria. They seemed oblivious to the fact that what they had done was illegal. Not to mention dangerous.
The woman glared at Katy and then looked back to me. “She’s acting weird. Out of it. And I found these in her purse.”
“Where you had no right to look.”
See what I mean?
“You’re fifteen, young lady,” the woman said, giving her daughter a shake. “You don’t get to make the rules yet.”
Fifteen, I thought. So young. She looked more mature, but she was still only a child.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Rapunzel.”
“Really? You don’t look like a Rapunzel.” I can play this game, too.
“Whatever. What difference does it make?”
The woman rolled her eyes and sighed. “Meghan. Her name is Meghan. I’m Millie Samuels. Her mother.”
“Okay, Meghan or Rapunzel,” I said. “Why don’t you sit here on the exam table?”
“I’m fine. Just leave me alone.”
Millie glared at her. “Get up there now. Do what he says or you’ll be grounded for a year. You hear me?”
“How could I not?” Meghan yanked her arm free and climbed up on the table. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Okay, I’m here.”
My exam showed that her blood pressure and heart rate were elevated slightly, pupils dilated a
nd poorly reactive, and reflexes hyperactive. The signs of amphetamine use.
“When did you take the pills?”
She looked toward the floor.
“It’s important,” I said. “You’re showing signs of amphetamine intoxication and I need to know if you’re coming down or still heading up.”
“I don’t remember.”
“Then I’ll have to send you over to Hamptons Heritage’s ER for blood testing.”
“You can’t do that.”
“I can,” Millie said. “And I will.”
“Actually your mother can, but she doesn’t have to,” I said. “I simply make a call and sign a document and I can hold you in the hospital for up to three days.”
She looked at me. “No.”
Gloria chimed in. “That’s so Nazi, dude.”
“Totally,” Katy said.
“And the same goes for you two,” I said to Gloria and Katy. “I can hold all three of you if I think it’s in your best interest.”
“That’s too radical for words,” Katy said.
“Not to mention totally random and mean,” Gloria added. She locked her arms across her chest, her chin jutting toward me.
I looked back at Meghan/Rapunzel. “You see, we physicians have an obligation to take care of sick folks even when they refuse to listen to reason. What that means to you is that if I feel your life or health is in danger from drugs or from some psychiatric condition I can hold you against your will until it’s all straightened out.”
“Mom?”
Millie held up her hands. “Don’t look to me, young lady. You always want to be treated like an adult, so act like one and answer his questions.”
“Three hours. I took one pill three hours ago.”
“Where did you get them?”
She glanced at her mother and then down. “I don’t remember.”
“I see. Excuse me a second.”
As I walked out toward the HankMed van to be out of earshot, I flipped open my phone and made a call. Ten minutes later, a patrol car pulled up next to the booth and Sergeant Willard McCutcheon and Officer Tommy Griffin stepped out. I introduced them and they flashed their badges. Now Meghan, Katy, and Gloria seemed nervous. I was glad something had finally grabbed their attention.
McCutcheon listened attentively to Gloria, Katy, Meghan, Evan, and Danielle, each telling their story about the mysterious couple. Griffin scribbled notes while McCutcheon asked questions. Each of the kids seemed to answer without hesitation. Fear is a great motivator. Finally he straightened his shoulders and hooked his thumbs in his belt.
“Okay, here’s the deal. Meghan, you can go with your mother. If it’s okay with Dr. Lawson.” I nodded. “Gloria and Katy, I want you to call your parents to come pick you up.” Katy started to protest, but he waved her away. “No way you’re going to leave here by yourselves. So either you call your parents or I will. You choose.”
“Or you can ride home in the back of our squad car,” Griffin added.
“That might work,” McCutcheon said. “We could pull right up to your house. Let the entire neighborhood see you in the backseat. Caged in like a criminal. We can arrange that if that’s what you want.”
All their drug-induced joy was gone. Their shoulders drooped in resignation.
“Okay,” Katy mumbled. She pulled her cell phone from the back pocket of her jeans.
“Hank,” McCutcheon said. “A word?”
We walked out behind the booth, near the van.
“We’ll snoop around the area, but I doubt we’ll find much since all our guys are in uniform. Tomorrow I’ll have some undercover guys sniffing around. Hopefully we’ll find these clowns.”
“Sounds good.”
“Wish we had more to go on, but at least the descriptions I just heard match what Kevin Moxley told us. It helps that everyone saw the same couple.” He looked back toward the booth where Gloria stood close to Katy, whose head was down, phone pressed to one ear. “This world is all sideways.”
True story, as Katy and Gloria would say.
McCutcheon and Griffin waited until Jillian Weber, the girls’ mother, arrived and then had a no-nonsense talk with her. The sisters cowered as their mother fumed. She listened attentively to McCutcheon, casting an occasional scowl at her daughters. I then explained the drug, or rather drugs, that they were taking in those innocent-looking pink pills.
Jillian spun toward her daughters. Her anger, peppered with a healthy dose of fear, I imagine, erupted. “How could you be so stupid? Put some chemical you bought from some lowlife in your bodies? Why not simply shoot yourselves?” Her lips quivered. “You weren’t raised that way.”
“But, Mom—,” Katy began
“Don’t you dare try to make an excuse. Wait until your father hears about this.”
“Please,” Gloria said, “don’t tell him. We won’t do it again. We promise.”
“I’m not going to tell him,” Jillian said. “You are. He’s going to be so hurt and disappointed.” A sob caught in her throat. “He works hard. Gives you girls everything. And this is how you thank him? Thank me?”
“Mom—”
She held up a hand. “Not another word. You hear me?”
Jillian thanked me for taking care of her daughters and for explaining everything to her, and McCutcheon for not arresting them, adding that “a night in jail might do them some good.” She then herded them toward the parking lot.
I wouldn’t want to be one of the Weber girls. Looked like they were in for a rough evening.
Chapter 19
“You both look delightful,” Angela said. “You’ll be the hit of the party.”
Evan and Danielle each did a three-sixty spin, the capes of their spy costumes flaring around them. Danielle was a little more graceful than Evan, but at least this time he didn’t knock anything over.
After leaving the health fair, Evan and Danielle stopped by the costume shop to pick out a matching outfit for Danielle. Divya and I brought Angela to Shadow Pond with us, and while she and Divya chatted I began dinner. Yes, me. Nothing fancy. Not an Evan dinner for sure. I opted for Caesar salad, spaghetti with marinara sauce, and garlic toast.
The sauce, which came from a jar, though I added some ground beef, sausage, and extra garlic, simmered on the stove, its aroma pulling a growl from my stomach. I had somehow missed lunch and Wiggins Water, no matter how good it is, will carry you only so far.
I glanced at my watch. Jill was running late. Again. She’s usually the most punctual person I know, but the health fair had knocked her schedule off track for months. After the fair closed this afternoon, she’d had a vendors’ meeting followed by a meeting with the security personnel who would watch over the booths tonight.
Danielle did another turn and glided over to where Angela sat in a wingback chair, sipping wine.
“Grandma, I wish you would come to the party,” Danielle said.
Angela waved a hand toward her. “I’d be a drag. Parties are for youngsters.”
“But I don’t want you sitting home alone on the Fourth of July.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“You know you’re welcome to come with us,” I said. “We’d love it if you did.”
“You’re just saying that.”
“I mean it. It would be fun. If for no other reason than the fireworks. I understand Nathan Zimmer is planning a huge display. Out over the ocean.”
“Really?” Angela said. “That must be costing him a bundle.”
“He can afford it,” Evan said.
“It’s pocket change to him,” Divya said.
“I do love fireworks,” Angela said.
“Then come,” I said. “You’ll enjoy it.”
“I’ll think about it.”
&nb
sp; “Don’t think, just do,” Danielle said.
“But I don’t have a costume.”
“That’s easy to fix,” Evan said. “We’ll go back by the shop on Monday.”
“I won’t be a spy,” Angela said. “Or one of those highway robbers you talked about.”
Danielle laughed. “Actually, Grandma, I think you’d have been an excellent spy. Highway robber, too.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“That you’re clever and witty and can do just about anything.”
“Not that I’m a larcenous old fool?”
“I would never say that. Especially the fool part.”
“They have some wonderful colonial ball gowns,” Divya said. “You would look marvelous in one of them.”
“You think?”
“Absolutely. But maybe I should take you. I’m not sure you want Evan picking your costume for you.”
“He picked mine,” Danielle said.
“But that was easy. You’d look good in anything.”
“That’s not true.”
“Really?” Divya asked. “Let’s see a show of hands.”
We all raised a hand.
Jill walked in. She stopped in midstride and looked at us. “What’s this about?”
I explained.
She raised her hand. “Then I’ll make it unanimous.”
I popped the garlic toast into the oven and dropped the pasta into the pot of boiling water and twenty minutes later we all gathered at the dinner table. Everyone said the spaghetti was excellent. I think they were just being nice. But then again, it wasn’t bad.
The conversation returned to Nathan’s party.
“I think you should come,” Jill said to Angela. “It’ll be fun. A true Hamptons event.”
“I know. I just don’t want to be in the way.”
“You won’t be,” I said. “And if you get tired and want to leave, we’ll take you home.”
“I wouldn’t want to spoil your evening, dear.”
Jill laughed. “Are you kidding? Knowing Hank, he’ll be looking for an exit after half an hour.”
“Funny,” I said.
“No, true.”
“And Evan and I will be your bodyguards,” Danielle said.