Die Before Your Time (Elia Christie / Luis Echevarria medical mysteries)

by Polonus Mucha, Susan

  Raf stared at Luis.

  “See if she's okay.”

  Raf punched in the number. “She was fine a minute ago. What's the problem?”

  Luis raced through a yellow light at Maybank Highway, and slowed behind a dawdling pick-up truck. He waited for his chance, swung into the left lane, and bolted forward around the truck.

  “What? Is it ringing?” Luis asked.

  Raf stared at the phone with a puzzled look on his face. “For a minute, then it stopped, like she answered then disconnected. I'll try again.” He hit the redial button and listened. He shook his head. “Went to her Voice Mail.” He looked at Luis who was trying his best to barrel down the road behind law-abiding drivers. “What's the matter?”

  “Two women.”

  Lorraine Fegan reached out and snatched the cell phone from Elia's hand. When it rang, she flipped it open, slammed it shut, and threw it into the dunes.

  Harry Millen stood at a window in the bar watching.

  Chapter 101

  EElia watched her phone fly through the air; her lifeline snapped in two.

  Fegan's expression was as evil as a Halloween mask. Bonnie looked from Elia to Fegan; Fegan took the lead.

  “Move.” She motioned toward the beach with her head.

  Elia looked back at the hotel and thought about running. Fegan blocked her way.

  “Nope. Not going to work.” She had her hand in her pocket.

  “What's going on?” Elia tried to keep her tone calm. She jerked her head toward the dunes when she heard her cell phone ring.

  Fegan looked in the direction of the ringing phone. “That won't help you.” She poked Elia in the side with her pocketed hand.

  Elia hadn't seen a weapon, but after the explosion, she couldn't be sure of anything. “Luis knows. He's on his way.”

  “Good.”

  They walked down the stairs onto the hard sand and had gone no more than thirty steps when Elia dropped to the ground.

  Luis squealed to a stop at the security gate, raced down Kiawah Island parkway to The Sanctuary, jumped out of the car and yelled to the valet as he ran through the hotel door, “Call the police. Send them to the beach.”

  “Get the hell up and walk.”

  “No.” Elia extended her neck to see the face of the woman looming over her like a vulture. “You're going to kill me.”

  Fegan said nothing.

  “I want to get ready.”

  “Ready?” It was a sneer.

  “Right. You know. Get ready to die. Pray. Isn't that what you learned at Seton Hill?” She didn't wait for an answer. “Isn't that what you learned in a Catholic school? To pray? To ask for forgiveness? To ask Jesus to carry you home?” She tried to keep talking; she knew Luis was on his way. And she hoped she sounded unafraid. In reality, she knew she was rambling. Anything but dying. Sorry, Jesus, but I really don't want to go home yet.

  “Shut the hell up!” She kicked Elia in the leg. “Move.”

  “No. Why'd you kill Vicente? Why Aaron?” She looked at Bonnie. “Why Jake and Frank?”

  Bonnie turned to Lorraine. She threw her shoulders back and stared at Lorraine. “Jake? Frank?” Her voice rose on the scale. “Frank was part of this. Jake's my husband! Why?”

  “Shut up.”

  “For money.” She looked at Elia. “For money.”

  “Shut up.”

  “God, what did we do?”

  Elis was getting a stiff neck looking up from the sand watching the scene like a tennis match. The ball was in Lorraine's court, if that was a gun in her pocket.

  “If you're going to kill her, let her know why.” Bonnie sounded weary.

  Fegan glared at Bonnie. “Me? If I'm going to kill her? Puhleeze, how many times did you try? Right here.”

  Elia's mouth fell open. “I thought it was Jake.”

  “Jake wouldn't have the guts,” Lorraine said as she jerked Elia to her feet.

  Elia faced the women and tried to look relaxed. An Academy Award performance. Her heart was racing, as fast as she hoped Luis was driving.

  “Walk.” Lorraine pulled her gun from her pocket.

  Bonnie started talking. “It was Lorraine. She wanted to save money for the company, so she sent Cyptolis to China for production. But the conditions there are shitty. It got contaminated by the heparin that is produced there.” She spit out the words.

  “And heparin is an anticoagulant. So, bleeding,” Elia said.

  “You wanted to save Pavnor money, so you had the China thing going. But what is so important about Pavnor that you couldn't just take the drug off the market? So the company loses some money. It happens. Lots of problems in drug companies. Look at Pfizer. It's still here.” She sounded incredulous.

  Lorraine shook her head as if Elia were in left field. “Did you happen to check their stock report?” Lorraine said, as if she were talking to a slacking high school student.

  “Whose stock report? Pfizer's? Pavnor's?” Elia asked.

  “Walk.” She pushed Elia in front of her.

  “That's where Frank came in,” Bonnie said. “Lorraine kept the problems quiet.”

  “Why? You don't own Pavnor. It's not your baby. Why care so much?”

  “Investors. Frank talked up the new drug, had clients clamoring to get on board.”

  “And you were investors.” Again Elia stopped walking. “Vicente. Who killed him?” She looked from Bonnie to Lorraine.

  “Doesn't matter. I was able to get my hands on something that would help him along. He was sick anyway.” Lorraine was flippant.

  “But why? His report from the meeting didn't even mention China.”

  Lorraine shook her head in dismissal. “China is just one piece.”

  “Harry Millen?” Elia looked from one to the other.

  “Millen?” Lorraine forced a laugh. “I don't know when he discovered problems.”

  “He's an investor.” Elia could have called him a pedophile and it wouldn't have sounded nastier.

  “Hardly.” She frowned. “I don't know where his head is.”

  “Lorraine, his wife is dying,” Bonnie said.

  Lorraine shook her head and again frowned. “Something is strange. He should want this kept quiet, but he's been asking people a lot of questions.” Her frown deepened. She waved a hand as if shooing a fly. “I'll think about it later.”

  Elia had enough of their musings. “So it's about the same drug from years ago having the same side effects. You put it back on the market with another name. You knew patients would have liver involvement. People died. Why?”

  “Cyptolis is a good drug for spasticity.”

  “Lorraine,” Elia said, her voice rising, “Didn't you hear me? People died! And a lot of them are our soldiers.”

  Elia turned her attention to Bonnie. “Jake was a doctor. How could he be involved?”

  “He wasn't. He didn't know anything until just lately.”

  “But Bermuda. The boat. My hose was slashed; I know it was. And the motorcycle chasing us, and the night we were in the pool.” She looked from Bonnie and Lorraine. “And at the spa.”

  Lorraine pointed at Bonnie.

  “I just wanted to scare you with the hose and the spa. That was Frank at the pool.”

  “And the beach?”

  They were walking. Bonnie was silent.

  “You were going to kill me?”

  “I really don't know.”

  “And the motorcycle?”

  Bonnie looked at Lorraine.

  “You? In Bermuda? In Connecticut, too? Elia frowned as if disbelieving. Then her eyes opened wide. Cape Cod?”

  “What does it matter? Move!” Lorraine poked her with the gun.

  “I'm not moving.” Elia tried to dig her feet into the hard sand. “What about Aaron and Angel?”

  “I liked them,” Bonnie said. “But Aaron asked a lot of questions. Angel didn't know much; she just knew Vicente had questions. She didn't have to die. That part was an accident.”

  “We
ll good news, Bonnie. She's recovering. But why kill Jake and Frank?”

  Bonnie again looked at Lorraine.

  “Frank sent me an e-mail saying he was getting out, and he was going to talk with Jake. And both of them were going to talk to you,” she waved the gun at Elia, “and your husband.”

  “Lorraine, it's over. Put the gun away; let's go back.” Bonnie put her hand out. “Give it to me,” she demanded.

  “Hell, no!” Her face contorted into an insane–looking mask. “It's done when this one is gone.”

  “No. There are others,” Bonnie yelled. Lorraine, her husband! It's over.”

  “It's over after him.”

  “No! Now! It's over now!

  “You can rot in the ocean with this one, but I'm finishing this.”

  She raised her gun and pointed it at Elia, then at Bonnie, then back at Elia. She waved the gun from one to the other, back and forth, back and forth. She pulled the trigger.

  Millen pushed open the door and walked quickly toward the women. He descended the steps and looked down the beach. Clouds blocked the moon, but he heard the shot and the scream. He ran toward the sound, his gun in his hand.

  The gunshot and scream competed with the sounds of the ocean. Both Elia and Bonnie dropped to the ground. Bonnie clutched her belly.

  Fegan fixed on Elia. Elia rolled and swiped her legs at Fegan's feet, intent on knocking her down. Fegan dodged and again took aim.

  Elia curled into a fetal position, holding her head with her arms. She heard the shot and waited for the impact.

  She peeked out from under her arms and saw a man racing toward them. She glanced at her body, confused, then looked at Lorraine. She was on the ground. Still, very still.

  She crawled to Bonnie and pressed her hand on her belly trying to stop spurting blood. She whispered her name.

  Bonnie looked at her, her breathing coming fast. “I'm sorry.”

  “Help is coming.” Blood pulsed through her fingers. She put her lips to Bonnie's ear and whispered her mother's long ago message: “You're not alone; you're never alone.” Then she prayed the Lord's Prayer.

  Harry Millen reached them with his gun drawn. He stood over Fegan's body.

  “No!” came as a huge roar from a man flying though the air. Millen was hurtled to the ground, tackled by a man in black — tackled by a priest.

  Luis rushed to Elia. He put his hands on her cheeks and stared into her eyes and scanned her body; he saw the blood on her hands and clothes. “Where are you hurt?”

  “It's not mine.” She looked over at Bonnie.

  Luis pivoted and leaned over Bonnie. He ripped off his shirt and tried to stem the bleeding.

  “Raf, she needs you,” Elia said.

  Raf handed Millen's gun to Elia. “Watch him.”

  She pointed the gun to the ground. “You have it wrong.” She motioned to Bonnie. “Raf, her name's Bonnie.

  He nodded and knelt in the sand beside his brother-in-law; Luis's eyes said it all.

  “I'm a priest,” he said gently. With one hand he stroked her face, with the other he blessed her and gave her absolution.

  She looked up into his eyes and moved her lips. “Thank you, Father.” She died lying on the wet sand of the most beautiful beach in the world.

  Chapter 102

  Elia sipped hot tea at a table in The Sanctuary bar. Luis and Raf were with her. The police were still milling around, doing what crime fighters do. She had told her story to the police, starting from the beginning in Bermuda.

  When she got to the final pages, to the final moments of Bonnie and Lorraine's lives, the fog over the past weeks lifted.

  “What's going to happen to Harry Millen?” Elia asked the investigator taking her statement. Millen was across the room, talking with another cop. “We thought he was the one behind all the deaths, but he saved my life.”

  “Can we talk to him?” Luis asked.

  “We have his statement, go on.”

  “Sis, I'll be outside. I already told him I was sorry for tackling him.” He kissed Elia on the cheek and patted Luis on the shoulder. “I'll see you later.”

  Luis and Elia approached Millen. He had his head in his hands and looked nothing like the high-powered executive from Pavnor Pharmaceuticals. When they sat across the table from him, he raised his head. His eyes were red-rimmed, his skin gray.

  “Why are you here, Harry? Why come back to Kiawah?” Luis asked gently.

  “So many things didn't fit, but then they started falling into place.” He looked from one to the other. He fell silent.

  “But why are you here? Elia repeated Luis's question.

  “I found out Lorraine was on her way here; I knew you were here. I knew about all the close calls you had.” He shrugged.

  “Harry, you knew about Cyptolis. You knew it had been on the market before.”

  “The problems started on my watch, so I had to fix them.”

  “You saved my wife's life, and for that I'll be eternally grateful.” Luis paused. “I know your wife is ill. I'm sorry.”

  Millen nodded. “Thanks.” He pushed back from the table. “It's any time now.” He took a deep breath and let it out in a puff of air.

  “Are you going home now?” Elia asked. She looked at her watch. “I mean soon. No flights tonight. Or do the police still have questions?”

  “I think they're finished with me for the time being. I could go tonight; I flew in on a company plane.” He shook his head. “Long day. I'll leave tomorrow.”

  He left them sitting at the table.

  Elia had her chin in her hands and pondered Millen's words.

  Raf walked down the steps onto the sand. He turned his back on the bright lights the police had set up to gather evidence. They were still working the site, working against the clock, against the tide, trying to finish up before the ocean cleansed the area.

  Environmentalists had hurried to the beach worried about the loggerhead turtle population confused by the lights. If it had been later in the season, it would have been disastrous for newly-hatched turtles who head to the ocean following the light of the moon over the water, but when they detect light from elsewhere, they move toward it; toward the opposite direction. But this early, they hadn't hatched yet.

  During the summer season, residents facing the ocean are asked to close curtains or turn off ocean-facing lights, so as not to confuse and entice the hatchlings into running into the dunes and into the clutches of predators like raccoons, instead of running into the ocean. Loggerheads can live to be a hundred, but first the babies have to get to the water. Already so many loggerheads have died in the Gulf of Mexico due to the oil spill. No way do environmentalists want to lose even one of their babies.

  Raf walked slowly. He kept his eyes on the water, seemingly mesmerized by the undulating waves. He walked for at least thirty minutes. When he turned to go back, he could no longer see the lights from the investigators.

  He saw no one else on the beach. Clouds drifted over the moon and the beach turned black — black and empty. But he didn't feel alone.

  He felt his mother and father's presence. He could hear his father saying he was proud of him. But more, he felt his heavenly Father beside him. He felt a warmth enfold him, a warmth he was familiar with.

  He dropped to his knees and then, just as he had done on his ordination day, he prostrated himself before God. He rested his head on his arms. He thought of sitting with Bonnie Riser minutes before her death giving her absolution and the look of gratitude in her eyes — not just gratitude — but peace. He had helped her die with a peaceful heart.

  He knew with all his being in those last minutes of that woman's life that he was in the right place, doing what he should be doing.

  He thought of Lorraine Fegan, whom he had blessed in death and prayed that God would forgive her.

  Words from the Letter to the Hebrews entered his thoughts. “You are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.”

  With his head on
his arms, and stretched out on his stomach on the beach, he let the tears flow.

  Chapter 103

  Elia had a hard time sleeping and was out of bed early. Luis rolled over and stretched out his arm. He rose on an elbow to look at Elia's side of the bed when he didn't feel her beside him. He found her in the sitting room.

  She was pacing around the room, a frown wrinkling her forehead. “Luis, if I were dying of cancer, and the time was — well — ‘any time now,’ would you leave me and fly away to make sure an acquaintance wouldn't be hurt by someone?”

  He sat down on the sofa and watched her pace. “What are you thinking?”

  “It's Millen. Why would he do that?” She stopped in front of him. “I mean, if he suspected Lorraine, why didn't he do something about it.”

  “I'd say he did.”

  “I mean earlier. I don't mean now.” She raised her hands in question. “Why wouldn't he just call the police?”

  “Maybe the same reason we didn't. Do you think they'd listen to him?”

  “What do you mean?” Her voice went up a pitch. “Two men had just died in an explosion. He had his suspicions. Don't you think if he had told the police, they would have looked into it?”

  Luis nodded slowly.

  “Why did he come here? His wife is dying. And why didn't he go home last night? He has a private plane, for crying out loud!”

  Luis stood and put his arms around her. “Calmete.”

  She took some deep breaths, forcing herself to listen to her husband, forcing herself to calm down. She looked up into his dark eyes. “He didn't come here to protect us. He came here to kill Lorraine.”

  Chapter 104

  Harry Millen ate breakfast at the Jasmine Porch and considered what to do. He and Jeannie had planned this so well, but they hadn't planned for so many innocent people to be hurt, to be killed.

  They just wanted Pavnor Pharmaceuticals to perish. It was Pavnor's fault that Jeannie was perishing.

  Jeannie had lived with cancer for seven years. The first six were okay years, if living with cancer can be called okay. Between chemo and radiation treatments, they lived a normal enough life. Jeannie played tennis twice a week, they golfed together, and they traveled. But a year ago, when cancer popped up again, Pavnor had a new drug in the final stages of trials. It looked good, sounded good, hell, it sounded like a miracle drug. Jeannie signed up for the trials, and she got in. But a strange thing happened. Instead of slowing the cancer — they knew the cancer would never go away — she got worse. Her life was hell; his life was hell. Ulcers all over her body, excruciating joint pains, a hacking cough that left her exhausted, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea.