Soundbyte (-byte series Book 5)

by Cat Connor

  Something else must’ve been going on. The more I thought about it the angrier I became. There was a chance my anger wasn’t anything to do with coffee or Rowan but even knowing that didn’t help. I shoved the photographs back in the envelope.

  I opened the door to find Sam waiting.

  “What’s going on, Chicky?”

  “I’ll tell you later.”

  Sam went into the room.

  Carla was still lying in the bed, beeping, hissing, and not responding.

  “Rowan, can we talk?”

  I dropped the envelope on a chair and waited for Rowan to follow me out.

  Steam was pouring from my ears. All control was ebbing away. I made him follow me to the elevators before I spoke because I needed to count to twenty and regain control.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I said, mustering as much calm as I could. I didn’t want to raise my voice. Not here, not now.

  “Tell you what?”

  “Tell me about Julia,” I said, my voice harsh and low.

  His eyes widened. “There’s nothing to tell. It was nothing.”

  “I don’t think she sees it that way. She asked you out for coffee … and now she thinks you’re getting married. What the fuck?”

  “She seemed normal.”

  “Really?”

  “I didn’t have coffee with her.”

  “So she decided you two are a thing, all by herself?”

  Rowan took my hand.

  “Ellie, I didn’t do anything. I am not that stupid.”

  I didn’t think he was stupid but damn, now another crazy person had entered our lives because of him. The dumbest thing was I knew he didn’t do anything wrong. I knew he didn’t.

  “The crazy people you meet impact on me, and Carla too. A heads up would be good.”

  I walked away. I walked back to the ICU and to Carla’s room with Rowan following me. He caught up to me, grabbed my arm, and spun me around.

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “No.”

  “Are you angry because you got messages from this Julia woman?”

  “No.”

  “This is about Carla?”

  I clenched and unclenched my jaw. “Why the hell did she do this? What the fuck was she thinking? I get that teenagers are selfish creatures but this is the fucking ultimate in selfish bullshit.”

  “Lower your voice,” Rowan said.

  “Why, because she’ll hear me?”

  “El …”

  I leveled a stare at him. “She did this on purpose!”

  “If you are going to stand here yelling, you may as well get it all out …”

  My right hand balled into a fist. As I swung at Rowan, someone intercepted the punch. My eyes darted right. Kurt held my fist in his hand.

  “You are not mad at Rowan,” he said. Each word was calm and measured. “Don’t take this out on him.”

  My body angled toward Kurt, my left hand swung. He blocked.

  His hands held mine.

  “We’ve danced this dance before,” Kurt whispered. “Don’t make me sedate you.”

  For a split second that seemed like a good idea. Sedation. Feel nothing. Remember nothing. I shook my head. The crazy thoughts about sedation slipped sideways and fell to the floor. Encased in a shimmering bubble they rose and floated just below the ceiling.

  “Ellie?” Rowan was behind me.

  Kurt’s eyes never left mine. “If I let you go, can you control yourself?”

  I nodded. The anger melted into the floor under my feet. Kurt let go my hands and slipped back into Carla’s room.

  Rowan tapped me on the shoulder. “All right?”

  “I think so.”

  “Let’s go back in.”

  We entered Carla’s room. The envelope of photos was where I’d left it on the chair, I saw the other envelope underneath it. I picked them up and sat down.

  “Any change?” I asked Kurt, who was leaning over Carla’s bed checking one of the drips.

  “No.”

  No worse, no better. Status quo. I couldn’t decide if that meant she was holding her own or couldn’t get any worse. I leaned forward and dropped the manila envelopes onto Lee’s knee.

  “Can you look after these?”

  He nodded. “Sure, anything important?”

  “Confirmation of everything we discovered regarding Bleich and photos of Rowan with some audio files. The woman in the pictures has been leaving me threatening phone messages. We’ll deal with her sometime.”

  Rowan’s notebook was in my pocket. I pulled it out along with his pen.

  I handed the notebook to Rowan. If he wanted to, he could read it and make of it whatever he desired. He opened the notebook and flipped to my poem.

  Moments later, he closed the notebook. “Dark,” he said.

  It’s a dark day.

  I rested my head on Rowan’s shoulder and closed my eyes. Listening to the hum of machinery and the rhythm of voices. Dozing. Drifting in and out of the present but never wandering too far.

  A sudden sharp beeping made me jump. My heart pounded.

  “It’s okay,” Rowan said. “They’re changing the fluids, it’s just the IV pump.”

  My eyes focused on the room, my heart rate slowed to normal.

  “I need some air.”

  “You want company?” Rowan said.

  “No, stay with Carla, please.”

  “Of course.”

  Outside the door, I saw Caine, Sam, Cait, Sean, hell, almost everyone I cared about and who cared about us. Us. Oh the irony.

  The one person I wanted to see wasn’t there.

  The one person I wanted to see died in this very hospital. And then last Thursday night I thought I shot him in the head.

  Yep, I’m about as normal as it gets.

  I nodded to everyone as I walked by. Then walked back to Sean. “Got a minute?”

  He nodded. We stepped away from everyone else.

  “I heard your message,” I said.

  “You want to do this now?”

  “Yes.” What the hell. How much worse could this day get?

  “DNA came back as Mac.”

  I felt a wave of holy hell wash over me. “Excuse me, what?”

  “Tell me again how you got the blood sample?”

  “From the man who called himself Chad. Direct contact. His body to my hands.” My head spun. Grey fog rolled around the edges of my brain.

  “No chance of contamination?”

  “Zero.”

  “Walk with me, you don’t look so hot,” Sean said, indicating we should walk to some chairs. “Sit. You okay?”

  “Not really. One second.” I fumbled for the Synergy bottle in my jeans pocket, unscrewed the top, and breathed in the vapors. No migraine, not now.

  “All right?”

  “Yep.” I screwed the top on the bottle and dropped it into the pocket of the jacket I was wearing.

  “What is that?”

  “It’s an essential oil blend for prevention and early treatment of migraines,” I said.

  “Where were we?”

  “You were telling me Mac’s alive?”

  “You know that’s not possible,” Sean replied.

  “His DNA …”

  “I have a theory. My people are working on it. It’s not Mac, Ellie.”

  “DNA says otherwise. I told you when Tierney is involved things get screwy.”

  “Concentrate on Carla. I will figure this out.”

  I stood up and headed for the exit. The last place I saw Mac was the ambulance bay. Maybe he’d come back and I could ask him. Kurt blocked my way. I thought he was still with Carla.

  “I got this, Kurt.”

  “You’re sure?”

  “Uh huh, I just need air. I’ll be in the ambulance bay.”

  See? I even told him where I’d be.

  “Are you all right?”

  The unguarded truth slipped out. “No, not at all.”

  “I’ll come with you.”<
br />
  My eyes searched his for hope. I didn’t find it. “No. I just need some air.”

  I got this. It’s familiar territory, however much I don’t want it to be, it is. Cold tendrils of grief curled through the air like smoke. I moved so the smoky grief couldn’t suffocate me.

  “Don’t be long.”

  I thrust my hands into the jacket pockets as I walked down the brightly lit corridor. The fingers on my left hand hit something hard. It seemed safest to stop walking and investigate. I closed my fingers around the square object and took it from my pocket. A jeweler’s box. I recognized the emblem on the top. It came from Bleich’s shop.

  I held the box in my hand unsure if I should open it or not. I decided not and pushed it deep into the pocket it came from.

  People passed me as I carried on walking. I wasn’t sure how I felt about a jewelry case being in Rowan’s jacket but I wasn’t surprised, not after Kurt told me what he thought Rowan was planning.

  I wished I hadn’t asked Sean about the DNA.

  Life as I knew it was over. I was looking for a miracle. I plunged my right hand into the other pocket and pulled out the migraine Synergy. I took several deep breaths drawing the aroma of the oil blend deep into my lungs.

  Yeah, there’s the miracle … it’s a miracle I’m not a drooling wreck.

  When I turned back to the hospital, Kurt was standing five feet from me.

  “You ready to come back in?” Kurt didn’t wait for my answer. He placed his hand in the small of my back and steered me back into the hospital.

  Rowan was sitting next to Carla, writing and humming. A few times he sang a few lines, then went back to humming and writing.

  People came and went, and nothing changed.

  One day someone would write a short film and Grange would do the sound track. Or maybe what Rowan was now writing would be the foundation for the short film. Welcome to my version of Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Destination Anywhere.’

  Dark, ain’t it?

  I just hoped Whoopi Goldberg would be my cabby and dispense sage advice that made this all make sense before I ended up like Demi Moore.

  Although I didn’t see me stealing a baby from a neonatal unit anytime soon.

  Down the hall from Carla’s room was a family room. Somewhere relatives could rest. I wandered in through the open door and found a couch that looked comfortable.

  My head fell back as soon as I sat down. Eyelids heavy, mind full of fog. If I closed my eyes, I could pretend I was at home.

  Home in my bullet-holed living room, not here.

  Not here.

  The smell of coffee hung in the air. A thick blanket of institutional coffee floated just above the sterility. No blossoms sprinkled like pink snow on the grass. No tulips nodding in the warm breeze. Institutional coffee and disinfectant were the new smells of my life. Death toyed with the living. Taunting, reminding. One day it gets us all. One peaceful day this will all end.

  One day death will come for me.

  But not today. Today death sidestepped me and latched onto the young, vulnerable, and undeserving. There was no sense in it. Or at least none that I could see.

  I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling before growling, “Hey, God – looks like you fucked up again. The kid wants to die and Mac’s DNA came from a live person, clearly you have fucked up.”

  My eyes closed. There was no answer. Not even a well-placed lightning bolt. God wasn’t feeling chatty.

  Footsteps approached the room. They paused before entering.

  “You awake?”

  My eyes flickered open. “Yes.”

  Kurt loosened his collar and dropped into a chair. He looked beat. He looked like I imagine I looked.

  Absolutely fucked and not in a good way.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  “You already have.”

  A smile flicked across his lips. “There’s no change …”

  I didn’t expect much change. “You should go home,” I said.

  “I’ll leave when you do.” He closed his eyes. “I’ll leave when Delta leaves.”

  “I’ll leave when her lights go out.”

  Silence blew over us as the finality of my words hit the wall above Kurt and dripped down.

  “At least get some sleep.”

  “I will, if you will,” I replied.

  When my eyes agreed to open again there was daylight streaming in on me from the windows. A blanket covered me. Kurt was asleep under a blanket.

  Coffee.

  Fresh coffee. Not institutional cooked-to-death coffee.

  “Hey,” Lee said, holding a Styrofoam cup out to me.

  “Thanks,” I replied taking the coffee. “Don’t wake him.”

  “Too late,” Kurt mumbled. “Got more coffee?”

  Lee pressed a cup into his outstretched hand.

  “Any news?” I asked Lee.

  “No. Your dad is still with her.”

  Sam poked his head into the room.

  “Mornin’, Chicky. I added the information from Campbell to our case files.”

  “Thanks. Was there anything we’d missed?”

  “He did have the proof that Sutherland hired Maguire to kill her husband. He hammered that nail right on in for us.”

  “Excellent.”

  I sipped the coffee. It was good.

  Sam waited. I sensed there was something else he wanted to say but he waited until my coffee was half-gone.

  “Rowan left about an hour ago. He said he’ll be back and that he has his cell if you need to reach him.”

  I nodded. “Did Grange show?”

  Sam grinned.

  “Yeah. They’ve all gone with Rowan. Your father is asleep in Carla’s room. Your brother and his wife went home for a few hours. They’ll be back later. Tierney came by and said Campbell was readmitted. He’d like to see you.”

  “Let’s go talk to Campbell. You know what room he’s in?” I stood up and stretched.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Okay. Time to say good morning to Carla, and then I’ll talk to Campbell and see what he wants.”

  Dad was still asleep when I crept into Carla’s room. The ventilator hissed. She remained as she was last night. Comatose. No change. Neither good nor bad.

  I kissed her cool head. Kurt read the chart hanging in the end of her bed.

  “Anything good in there?” I said.

  “Nothing’s changed.”

  That’s what I thought as soon as I saw her. “Will anything change?”

  “I don’t know.” He hung the chart back on the hook and joined me next to Carla. “Come on kid, don’t keep us in suspense. Wake up.”

  Nothing happened.

  “Let’s go see Campbell,” I said. I bent down to Carla’s ear, “I’ll be back soon and then you have to wake up. You have to, Carla.”

  Dad opened an eye. “Bring the old man coffee when you come back, will you?”

  “Sure, Dad.”

  Something jostled around in my brain, something I’d seen on television or read in the newspaper. Something about a sleeping pill. I sat down on some chairs not far from Carla’s intensive care room and Googled from my phone. Sam sat down next to me.

  “What are you doing?”

  “Google. You got a laptop, might be faster.”

  “Yeah, come on.”

  We headed back to the family room. Sam turned on his laptop and watched as I surfed, trying to find the information I once heard and hoped it wasn’t a dream.

  “This!” I showed him the screen. “Zolpidem. It wakes up people in comas. Look.”

  “Ellie, it’s not even a clinical trial, it’s a few isolated cases across the world.”

  “Yeah, but one of the people they tried it on, had tried to commit suicide and it worked on her.”

  “Grabbing at straws, Chicky Babe. It’s dangerous.”

  Kurt walked in. “What’s dangerous?”

  “This …” I spun the laptop on my knee. “She has nothing to lose.”r />
  He read in silence, then took the laptop and left. We followed.

  We followed Kurt to Leon’s office. He knocked once and walked in, he started to shut the door, but I held it open.

  “Ellie, I’m doing this,” he said. “Doctor to doctor.”

  I dropped my hand.

  “We’ll be with Campbell.”

  Sam and I walked away as the door closed.

  Thirty-Five

  Blinded by Rainbows

  I knocked on the door to the room the nurse on the ward sent us to, and then opened the door.

  “Iain, you feeling better?” I said, pulling up a chair next to his hospital bed. I noted a drain running from him to a bag.

  “Just a little hiccup. I’ll be fine. You got the information?”

  “Yes, thank you.”

  “I’m sorry about the photographs, but it looked like he was getting himself in trouble.”

  I shrugged.

  “He kinda was. You did me a favor, now I know why I was the target of a crazy woman who has been leaving me messages.”

  He nodded. “At least he’s smart enough to know not to encourage the nuts too much.” Iain moved a little. He didn’t look comfortable.

  “You sure you’re all right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Explain to me why you were having an affair with Marika Bleich?”

  He smiled but it faded fast. “I needed to be close. Maguire was making like Zachary’s best friend and I wanted to be close.” He paused. “I liked Marika. She was a nice person. We never did anything. We were taking it slow. Her marriage was almost over and I was okay with waiting.”

  He was settling in for the long haul. I could tell by his tone and his manner that he really did like Marika Bleich.

  “You didn’t kill her?”

  “No. I suspected the Sutherland woman of that, could’ve also been Maguire,” Iain said.

  “There was a lot of rage.”

  “Sutherland then.” There were reports of a man in a suit hanging around. Wouldn’t be the first time a woman dressed like a man to throw everyone off.

  “I’m picking.”

  “Why did you never divorce Maria Doyle?”

  “Just one of those things, we never got around to it. I still love her. The usual reasons.”

  “You going to give another go?”

  “I’d like to, but this time I need to tell her the truth. The whole truth.”