There was, however, no skirting around the kidney issue. A new machine was connected to her, and Susie wanted to know its purpose. Wisely, nobody told her that dialysis was a forever thing until she got a kidney transplant. One step at a time. The poor girl had suffered enough.
“What about family?” Lee asked. “Is there anybody we should notify?”
Susie gave a nearly imperceptible headshake while biting at her lower lip, presumably to stave off tears.
“I don’t have any extended family,” she said, speaking in the raspy, quiet voice of someone who moments ago had a tube down her throat. “My grandparents are gone and my parents didn’t have any siblings or cousins. It’s always been just the three of us.”
This time, there was no stopping the tears, which Lee helped wipe away with some tissues. After Susie calmed, she told Lee where they kept a key that would let him into the house. She also told him where they stored the nootropics she got from the TPI.
Lee spent an hour at the hospital, then drove to Susie’s house in Arlington. The home looked normal from the outside, except for a broken window on the second floor that somebody had boarded up with plywood. There were no police on the premises. No caution tape strewn across the front door. This was not a crime scene. It was the scene of a terrible tragedy. The inside of the home was as normal looking as the outside. The furniture was in place, not a single picture hung askew. While everything looked in order, it was still deeply unsettling to be there.
Death was ultimately painless; this Lee knew. For the living, however, it left a profound wound, one that would never heal completely. Being a doctor had not inured Lee to people’s suffering. If anything, it had made him more empathetic. Illness, accidents, those were facts of life, mostly cruel, often unjust, but an undeniable part of existence, something he could wrap his brain around. But murder was something entirely different. It was man-made. It required cognition, a willful desire to act, to inflict harm.
After Lee got samples of Susie’s nootropics from a kitchen cabinet, he headed upstairs to the girl’s silent bedroom. He packed a suitcase of clothes he thought she would need, gathered some books of hers he thought she might like, and, following a moment’s hesitation, decided to take her violin as well as some sheet music in a folder beside the case. Sick or not, he reasoned Susie would need something to occupy her time at camp.
Lee locked up the house, stood on the lawn, bowed his head, and had a moment of silence for Susie’s parents. He got back in his car and drove to XLR Labs, a privately run forensic testing facility in Falls Church, Virginia. XLR handled everything from DUI toxicology tests to forensic consulting and designer drug analysis. Because it was privately run, he had brought the samples he wanted tested directly to the facility. For an additional five hundred dollars, Lee got a rush put on his job.
There was nothing left to do except get Susie the hell out of there.
CHAPTER 33
Susie sat in the back of a roomy SUV, still in her hospital gown, wrapped in a warm blanket. A nurse named Valerie sat in the backseat next to her with a medical bag tucked at her feet. Positioned between them was a machine encased in white plastic, about the size of a printer, with a lighted digital panel on the front and clear tubes sticking out the sides. Some of those tubes were connected to Susie’s IV. The machine—a portable dialysis unit, she’d been told—buzzed and hummed and made various noises.
Everything had happened so quickly, Susie had not had time to process it all. She had met Dr. Blackwood’s son, Josh, only because he had been vigilantly keeping watch over her, though she did not know why exactly. But Karen and Valerie were new people to her. They’d come to her room with Dr. Blackwood, and it was a quite a scene with Dr. Rajit as they escorted Susie out of the hospital against his wishes. Now she was in a car with them, driving to who knows where.
“I don’t understand what’s happening,” Susie said shortly into the drive.
Her voice, cracking slightly, rang distant in her ears. She’d never been carsick, but now her stomach was roiling with nausea.
“We need to take things one step at a time,” Karen said from the driver’s seat. “Let’s get you to the camp.”
“Camp? What camp? Why are we going to a camp?”
Susie felt so incredibly tired, as though she had woken from the deepest sleep ever, but no matter how she tried, her head would not clear. Perhaps worst of all was how badly her skin itched. It was that all-over sensation of spiders again.
At that moment, Susie’s arms began to tingle. Without warning, both limbs flailed out in front of her. Her knuckles smacked the back of the front seat so hard Karen hit the brakes, confused. The next instant, Susie’s arms shot upward, slamming into the ceiling of the car. They went spastically in different directions: up, down, left, right, no order, and she had no control over her body.
As fast as the body jerks turned on, they ended. Susie’s arms fell limply to her lap and she could move them normally once again. Despite the violence of the episode, the tubes hooked to her had remained attached.
“Do we need to pull over?” Karen asked, alarm in her voice.
“No,” Valerie replied. “Her kidney issues have probably exacerbated her myoclonus. Lee has medication. I’ll text him. See if he wants us to stop.”
Susie’s heart sank. This latest episode was a reminder that she was still horribly broken, and in more ways than one.
Her thoughts turned to her mom and dad. She could not believe they were gone. She felt paralyzed with grief. It was impossible to bend her mind around it.
Gone.
They were just—gone.
The shock was overpowering, the loss incomprehensible. She knew bad things happened. People died every day. Accidents, illnesses, fires, anything could happen. An entire family she knew from the TPI had died in a car wreck a year ago. And now this horrible thing had happened to her.
Her parents were her best friends, her number-one fans, her only support in this world. A house was a house, but they were her home. And now, home was gone.
If she closed her eyes, Susie could still hear the sound of her mother’s voice. She could feel the coarseness of her dad’s stubbly cheek when he held her tight. For a moment, she allowed herself to believe that when she got to this camp—wherever camp was—her parents would be there, waiting.
In her heart, she knew her dad would never again go swimming every Tuesday and Thursday. Her mom would not take another Mandarin class, or try to teach her some words. They would never cook together again. They would never take drives to the country, like the one she was taking now. They would not be in the audience—third row just left of center, their usual seats—eagerly waiting to hear her play. Sadly, horribly, this was Susie’s new reality. And it hurt to think of them, to remember.
It hurt to breathe.
* * *
HOURS PASSED and wide roads became narrow ones. Houses and buildings gave way to trees. Other motorists appeared less frequently. To the west, the sun was a pale disc hovering low in the sky, leaving a wake of delicate yellows and vibrant pinks as it settled. Susie’s dialysis machine continued to churn and hum. Twice they had to stop for a bathroom break, but not Susie. She no longer had to go. The machine went for her. It put the liquids in and it took them out.
“Do you need anything to eat?” the nurse had asked.
Susie could not stomach the idea of food. Her nausea would not allow even a single bite. Valerie told her not to worry about eating. They could keep her nourished intravenously until her appetite returned.
More time passed. More miles were traveled. Susie had no idea where she was, or where they were headed, and that was fine with her. Everything was fine. Fine. The less she engaged, the better. The more she kept her feelings locked away, the better.
She sat quietly, watching trees zoom past her window, glancing up in time to catch an occasional glimpse of birds swirling against a darkening sky. Eventually they left the main road (which was hardly a main road) and tur
ned onto a dirt road that was quite bumpy and made her poor stomach feel even worse.
In front of them, the Honda set the pace, with Dr. Blackwood driving and Josh riding shotgun. He kept his speed down because the road was narrow, full of potholes, and lined with trees on both sides. It was hard for Susie to believe that not long ago she’d been having dinner with her parents, eating a nice meal, having fun, enjoying pleasant conversation. Now she was an orphan with a Secret Service agent and a nurse she hardly knew. Life was strange. Life was sad.
She was fine.
Eventually the hilly, windy road flattened out and opened into a clearing. Ahead, Susie could see a single building: a two-story log cabin with a wide covered porch and slanted metal roof. A few plantings grew out front, but nothing like her mother’s impressive gardens. The dirt road to the cabin branched left and right, but Dr. Blackwood drove onto the grass and parked his car parallel to the porch. Karen pulled in behind him. Valerie had finished dialyzing miles ago, freeing Susie to exit the car without any tubes attached.
She stepped onto the hard-packed dirt with slippers on her feet and the fuzzy blanket wrapped around her body. The air was clean and fresh. It overpowered the hospital smells she’d thought might never go away. She took a long inhale and gazed up at the stars just beginning to twinkle against a deep blue backdrop. She pulled the blanket around her shoulders and shook off a sudden chill.
“Go on inside,” Karen said. “It’s all set up for you.”
What’s all set up? Susie wondered.
Valerie raised the SUV’s rear hatch. “Lee packed a suitcase of your clothes from home,” she said. “I’ll lay them out so you can change into something more comfortable whenever you’re ready.”
What is this place? Susie asked herself. Why am I here? What’s going to happen to me?
Quick as those thoughts came, Susie pushed them aside.
I’m fine, she thought. Everything is fine.…
She walked gingerly up a rocky dirt path toward the cabin, clutching the blanket tightly in her hands. The forest was all around her; tall, dark trees encircled the cabin’s modest plot of land. The sounds of the night were symphonic. No more beeps or hospital alarms. Susie took in these new noises: the steady chirp of crickets, something higher pitched like a soft whistle, the lonesome hoot of a faraway owl.
Lee and Josh disappeared through the cabin’s creaky front door. Valerie collected bags from the trunk. Nearby, Karen was looking around cautiously, as if surveying the land.
What was she on the lookout for? Bears?
As Susie walked up the front steps, the cabin lights came on. Josh stepped onto the porch. She liked seeing him. Always a smile on his face, his eyes friendly and kind. He seemed indifferent to her sickness and fragility, as though he could look beyond all that at the person she remembered once being.
He took her hand to help her up the stairs. “Come on in,” he said. His skin felt warm against hers. His touch was soothing. “Everything is ready for you.”
Susie followed Josh into the cabin. A pair of portable lamps cast off plenty of light. Her mouth fell open as she took it all in.
Instead of rustic furniture, a gleaming hospital bed and stainless steel laboratory table took up a good portion of the room’s center. Solutions already hung from the branches of an IV stand. Susie loved chemistry and recognized the pipettes, beakers, and flasks all neatly arranged on a wooden dresser. Stacked beside the dresser were boxes of syringes, gloves, and masks. On another table Susie saw a centrifuge machine (she had used one in science class) and nearby was a hard red case she guessed held a defibrillator. There was additional equipment including blood pressure cuffs, instruments to check ears and eyes, and other machines she could not identify.
Dr. Blackwood stood near the bed, a kind expression on his face, but there was sadness in his eyes, Susie thought. Valerie came huffing up the stairs, pulling Susie’s luggage behind her. Josh and Karen leaned against a wall next to the door. Valerie walked the room, nodding her approval as she checked out all the equipment.
The rest of the cabin had an open floor plan that allowed Susie to see from the living room into a spacious galley kitchen containing older-looking appliances. Speckled pots and cast-iron pans dangled from a knotted support beam. The cabin walls were paneled with smooth logs shellacked to an amber finish. The floor was made of darker wood, with wide planks evenly spaced except where they had to accommodate a rear door and large stone fireplace just beyond a dining area.
The flickering fire warmed the room beyond what a wall-mounted heating unit would produce, but still a chill clutched at Susie and would not let go. The furniture had no real theme, no unifying design elements like her mother would have insisted on. It was a hodgepodge of fabrics and styles, a bit more to her father’s taste. Susie took it all in while standing inside the doorway, still as could be.
“My partner, Paul, set everything up so it would be ready for you when we got here,” Dr. Blackwood said. “You, Valerie, and Karen will sleep at the camp. There are two bedrooms upstairs, so plenty of room for all. Josh and I will be staying at another cabin down the road. There are four cabins total on the property, but none are occupied.”
“Okay,” Susie said in a quiet voice. “Thank you.”
“We’re going to take good care of you, I promise,” said Josh, and because of his confidence she believed him.
Dr. Blackwood joined them in the center of the room. “I know it’s not perfect, Susie,” he said. “But it has everything we need to keep you healthy and get you better. Tomorrow we can talk more about why it’s best you stay here for a while. There’s a beautiful lake down the path. Karen will show you. And when you’re feeling stronger, you can take the canoe out for a paddle. There are lots of walking trails, too; you don’t have to be bedridden. It’s not home, but hopefully you’ll be comfortable here.”
Home.
Home was gone and it was never coming back. Home was nowhere. She was here now. So be it.
“It’s fine,” Susie said.
CHAPTER 34
MONDAY, APRIL 24
Lee awoke with the sunrise, feeling invigorated. His energy surprised him, given how frantic the previous day had been. Getting “The Cabin Clinic” operational had been a herculean effort, and he owed Paul more than a fancy Starbucks drink for his contributions.
Stepping quietly onto the front porch, Lee stretched his limbs and felt his back lengthen. Morning dew clung to leaves and tall grasses. He inhaled deeply, taking in the fresh pine smell scenting the air. All around him, birds were calling to each other in melodious tweets, chirps, and warbles. Lee sipped coffee from his mug, savoring the taste.
The peace he felt here was profound. His joints felt looser, including that troublesome knee. Even with everything happening to Cam and Susie, Lee could still take a moment to appreciate the beauty of this special place. No wonder Karen was so reluctant to sell.
The cabins had everything that was needed to live comfortably—working plumbing (well water and septic), and electricity. Come the winter months these cabins were closed down, but propane used for heating and cooking kept the pipes from freezing and insulation allowed for year-round use if anyone so desired. Eventually, Josh emerged from his bedroom to join Lee on the porch, clutching a mug of steaming coffee in his hands. His hair was a tangled mess.
“How’d you sleep, champ?”
Josh stretched, yawned lazily, and took a sip of coffee. “Not enough,” he said. “The birds woke me.”
Josh had loved coming to the camp as a boy. When Lee’s work allowed, he and Josh would trek out here on weekends to dig for worms. Afterwards, they’d spend hours on the lake, fishing from the flat-bottom canoe, catching and releasing small bass along with the occasional trout. The time had gone in a blink, and while the idea of the days being long and the years being short was a cliché, that did not make it untrue.
Lee asked: “You sure you don’t mind sticking around here a while to help your mother out?”
“Nope. Not at all.”
Josh said this quickly—a little too quickly, actually—and Lee sent his son a knowing sideways glance.
“She’s a pretty girl,” Lee said.
“Who?”
Josh’s attempt at ignorance would have fooled nobody. Lee just smiled.
“How you feeling about Hannah?”
“Who?”
This time Lee laughed.
“Anyway, Mom lent me her SIG, not to mention all of Grandpa’s guns. Those are still in good working order. We’ll keep Susie safe. You have my word.”
Josh came with plenty of military training. Lee had no doubt about his ability.
“Once I figure out what’s going on with her, make the connection to Cam, maybe we can get the president to take over protection duties. A lot depends on what the toxicologist reports back to us.”
“Like I said, I’ll be fine here for a while. No problems.”
Lee put his arm around his boy, embraced the moment, and wished it could last longer.
When they finished their coffee, Lee headed to the kitchen, where he cooked up some scrambled eggs and wheat toast. They had brought enough groceries to last only a few days, but modern conveniences were reasonably close by. The supermarket was a twenty-minute drive and a major hospital was only thirty-five minutes from camp. If all went well, Susie would need dialysis and nothing more, but Lee was glad to have easy access to a hospital in case of emergency. He still did not understand what was causing Susie’s symptoms, which meant the possibility of new symptoms occurring.
He and Josh ate their breakfast at the dining room table. The cabin walls were decorated with flea market paintings, the rug beneath the table had gone threadbare, but the view out the window into a verdant and vast forest made this a five-star dining experience in Lee’s opinion.
The First Family Page 19