Poison

by Jordyn Redwood

  “When did that standard treatment change?”

  “In Gavin’s notes, there came a time when Raven began to question the larger picture, which is very therapeutic for the patient to see beyond themselves. Why did these terrible things happen to her? Was there some reason for it?”

  “Why is this notable?” Nathan asked.

  “It’s notable for two reasons. One, Raven was actually improving under Gavin’s therapy at this point.”

  “And the other reason?” Lee pressed.

  “Gavin doesn’t seem to like it.”

  “How can you tell?” Lee followed.

  “It’s more in the tone of his notes. Something to the effect that though Raven is seeing things in a healthy way, Gavin suggests he’s failing in his mission.”

  Nathan flipped a page in his notebook. “But he doesn’t spell out what that might be.”

  “Any psychiatrist wants his patients to be mentally healthy and self-sufficient. That’s our ultimate goal. Much like a parent wants to produce a healthy, functioning adult. We should always be trying to work ourselves out of a job.”

  “But he doesn’t do that,” Nathan added.

  “No, a far cry from ‘Do no harm.’ This is when he begins to use hypnosis. It’s his process that’s very suspect. It’s very important we don’t project our personal beliefs onto the patient as far as religion and values might be concerned. We should work within their framework to allow them to maintain autonomy.”

  “When did this begin to happen?” Lee asked.

  Vanhise leafed through a couple pages of penciled notes. “It seems a few months before Raven began to volunteer at the church.”

  Lee thought through the tenets of his faith. Would he be able, under mental duress, to protect his belief in Christ as his Savior if someone in a position of trust tried to undo it? Was his faith strong enough? “He has something against religion?”

  Vanhise tapped his tablet. “What I know is, he tried to remove these ideals from Raven. During hypnosis—there’s a thing called hypnoscript. It’s generally agreed upon by the patient and the therapist as to what will be said while the patient is under.”

  “Then Raven must have been on board,” Nathan said.

  Vanhise shook his head. “I don’t think there’s any patient who would have agreed to have something said to them like this. I’m actually shocked he wrote down what he was doing.”

  “Sociopaths are like that,” Lee chimed in.

  “What I see as I read through his notes on his hypnosis sessions with Raven is a process akin to brainwashing. When attempting to insert your own ideology, there are several points you hit upon. First, assault their identity. Make them feel guilty. You want to get them to a breaking point and then grant them leniency. Now, you’re the only one who can help them out of the horrible situation you actually created. At this point, you can attempt to instill what you want them to believe into their fractured minds.”

  It amazed Lee how a person could allow a false savior as substitution for the real one. “Okay, let’s say I buy all this. Raven was brainwashed during hypnosis. I’m not sure I’m even on board with this theory. But what belief was he trying to instill in her?”

  “Ever hear the name Lucent?”

  Lee looked to Nathan. “You gave him the items from Lucy Freeman’s mother, right?”

  Nathan nodded. “Of course.”

  Vanhise shuffled notes. “I haven’t gotten to them yet.”

  “Samuals claimed Lucent was the one who egged him on into killing his whole family,” Lee said.

  “Interesting. Keep in mind, anything resembling brainwashing is completely unethical, and at the very least, your Dr. Donnely should be investigated by the Board of Healing Arts. I’ll be placing a call myself on Monday.”

  Lee leaned forward. “Derrick, you’re driving me a little nuts here.”

  “Okay. He begins to tear down her belief in Christianity.” He flipped back a few sections. “According to his notes, this was around the time of her church involvement. It was something she was finding comfort in.”

  “What’s next?” Lee prompted.

  “Well, it’s the hypnoscript that’s problematic. Basically, it’s a mantra: The God she believes in is dead. The pain she feels is a result of all the people who have abandoned her. The police failed her when they didn’t stop her father. Keelyn failed her when she didn’t provide a home. Then he begins to, for ease of terms, plant the idea this persona, Lucent, can aid her in seeking revenge. And that revenge is the best way to get past her trouble.”

  Lee absorbed the implications of Vanhise’s assessment. “Seriously? It’s that blatant?”

  “Of course not. That would open him up to even greater liability. Gavin’s first issue of liability is, without substantial medical basis, changing Raven from a course of treatment that was working to one where she worsened. Unfortunately, it’s the language of the hypnoscript he will hide under. It talks a lot about empowerment. Righting the wrongs in her life. Having this empowerment, where she has corrected all the wrongdoings, will ease her depression.”

  “That doesn’t sound all bad,” Lee said.

  “The language is subtle. I’ll grant you that. It’s certainly possible he chose to exclude more overt prompts from his notes. But he does slip a few times. For instance, saying the responsible parties must be eliminated.”

  “But murdered?” Nathan asked.

  “My guess is, were he ever to be questioned about this, he would say he meant from her mind. Really, he’s set up the perfect crime. He could simply say he was attempting to empower her. Get her to move forward from a stagnant position. Raven, actually murdering someone, would be her misunderstanding of what he’d said. In which case, it would be the word of a respected psychiatrist versus a mentally ill patient.”

  “So you think it’s possible she could murder someone?”

  “She and Lucent have been set up as a team. Lucent is someone she could rely on for strength.”

  “But really they are a killing team,” Nathan posed.

  “Yes, you could say that.”

  Lee nearly doubled over in pain. How could his brother have gotten so mixed up in this?

  “Were you aware my brother, Conner, is likely this person she terms Lucent?”

  “Yes.” He bowed his head toward Nathan. “We talked about that.”

  “Any idea how Conner and Raven could have met?” Lee asked.

  Vanhise closed the folder and interlaced his fingers on top. “I think they likely met innocently enough through her work with the church. He was a homeless drug addict. Gavin speaks of an attraction between them. Raven convinces Conner to get into treatment.”

  “That’s a good thing,” Lee said.

  “Not under Gavin’s care. My guess is Gavin thought he’d be the perfect scapegoat. It would be better to have a real person as the fall guy, someone who could assume the identity. Then Donnely could just say these two mentally ill individuals teamed up on a murderous spree, and he was only trying to help them.”

  Lee’s mind spun with the motivation for Conner to do such things. Did Gavin supply him with drugs as incentive?

  “Do you know who the father of Raven’s child is?” Vanhise asked.

  Lee and Nathan glanced at one another. Lee’s throat was too tight to speak.

  Nathan took the lead. “You think Conner is the father?”

  Vanhise leaned back into his chair. “Doubtful.”

  “Then who?”

  Vanhise tapped at his folder. “What I see here is a doctor running amok. For some reason, he is bent on destroying this girl’s life. To do that, he instills this character, Lucent, into her mind as the way to solve her problems—if the two of them can get rid of every person in her life that’s let her down.”

  “But what does this have to do with Conner?” Lee asked.

  “Once Gavin sees a budding romance between the two of them, he knows he needs to annihilate Conner as well because he is becoming a gl
immer of light in Raven’s life. What would be better than to set him up for murder?”

  Lee straightened in his chair. “You can prove that?”

  “That’s not my job; it’s yours.”

  Nathan continued. “If the father isn’t Conner, then who?”

  “When you read through Gavin’s notes there are moments of infatuation with Raven. I think you need to consider the possibility that Gavin Donnely is the father of her child.”

  “She would have been . . . what? Under the age of seventeen at the time she conceived?”

  “Exactly.”

  “He could go to jail,” Nathan followed.

  “That’s something I don’t think he’s considered as a possibility. He believes himself to be above the law.”

  Lee’s phone vibrated against his hip. His checked the number. “It’s the hospital. Excuse me,” he said, as he took the call.

  He listened and shook his head, closing his eyes against what he was hearing. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.” He ended the call.

  “What’s going on?” Nathan asked.

  “Keelyn and Sophia are in the hospital.”

  Nathan stood up. “What’s wrong?”

  “They said Keelyn is in critical condition. Sophia’s sick as well. Something about an attack.”

  Lee fisted his hand tight around his cell.

  His secret really could kill Keelyn.

  Chapter 33

  THINGS NEVER SEEMED TO go well when Lilly was going off duty. At first she was unconcerned with the EMS reports from the field. The child was apparently stable, though obviously still in distress. The other victim, a young woman, was more critical, but her injuries were nothing the current pace of the emergency department couldn’t handle.

  The story could easily capture the evening news. Supposedly, a mother jumped from the roof of her home to get help for an ill child. Why jumping from the roof was necessary remained a mystery. Reports were fuzzy. There’d probably be something on the ten o’clock news by the time she got home.

  It was the woman passing her in the hall on the gurney that caused her to stop, return to the workroom to set her bag down, and pull her stethoscope from it.

  Dr. Tucker was at Keelyn’s side. Her oxygen level was low. She was in C-spine precautions and the rad techs were quickly snapping films to detect her injuries. He glanced Lilly’s way.

  “Hey, do me a favor! Take this dang sippy cup.” He chucked it at her chest and in her surprise she deflected it to the floor. “She keeps saying it’s why the little girl is sick. I can’t make sense out of it and I need to stay here with her. Look into it for me?”

  Lilly picked the cup up and unscrewed the lid and then jumped as if it were loaded with a half-dozen springy snakes.

  Unfortunately, these were not a prank.

  Inside, were four shiny black spiders. Three had met their demise but one struggled at the bottom of the plastic, swimming in a shallow pool of spoiled milk. She screwed the top back in place.

  From the hall, she could hear the child’s screaming. She stepped inside as two nurses attempted to settle her. There wasn’t any consoling to be had. She writhed, and the agonizing nature of her shrills pierced Lilly’s eardrums. Her small body was bathed in a fine sheath of sweat, her lips pale. At one point, she arched her back so violently she almost slipped from the nurse’s grasp.

  “Unwrap her. I need to look at her skin.”

  Through the screaming and fighting, they wrestled her out of the blanket. Lilly counted at least six raised, reddened mounds of angry flesh. In at least three, she could make out the characteristic pale center with two small marks.

  “We’re going to need an IV placed.”

  “I’ll stay with her.” Jen motioned to her partner. “Go get the tray.”

  Lilly grabbed a few paper towels from the dispenser. Jen sat with the child in the recliner and swaddled her back into the blanket to get her to calm. “What do you think it is?”

  After Lilly unscrewed the top of the lid, she tapped out the three dead arachnids. She noted the shiny black bodies and large, globular thoraxes. Using her hemostats, she turned one over on its backside.

  The characteristic red hourglass was there but faded, like the eyes turned gray after death made its claim.

  Lee burst through the door and couldn’t help pulling his hands up to his ears at Sophia’s cries.

  Lilly looked to the nurse. “She’s been bitten by this lot of black widow spiders.”

  Lee stopped short. “What?”

  Lilly turned to Lee. “I think Sophia is suffering from the effects of the venom. I’m going to give her the antidote. It will cure her pain—better than any narcotic we could give her. We’ll have to watch her closely, but she’s going to be okay. Have you checked on Keelyn?”

  He shook his head at the scene before him. “She’s stabilized. Tucker said one of her lungs collapsed and pushed everything over. She almost . . .” Two more steps and he pulled the child from the nurse and clutched her tightly, rocking her from side to side.

  Lilly stepped closer. The nurse eased from the recliner and Lilly nudged Lee into it.

  His eyes glistened as his voice cracked. “What’s happening?”

  Lilly kneeled next to him. “They’re going to be all right.”

  “Who would do this?”

  “Is Nathan here?”

  “He’s talking to fire. They think it’s arson.”

  Tears fled down his cheeks. He clutched Sophia tighter as she whimpered. “How did she come into contact with so many?”

  “That’s the question, isn’t it?”

  “I couldn’t bear it, to lose either one of them. What’s happening to her?”

  The effects of venom on a human body had always been an area of fascination for Lilly. In some species, a single, almost invisible drop of a natural defense mechanism could incapacitate, possibly kill something infinitely larger in a matter of minutes.

  Lilly turned back to the young girl. “There’s a lot of venom in her system.”

  The ear-piercing screams and severe pain were out of the bounds of what was normally seen.

  “She’s acting just like Ryan did,” Lee said.

  Lilly’s mind faltered as she remembered the two other patients who presented similarly. This tiny spider could hold the medical answer, not only for Sophia, but for a few other patients as well. The poison brewing in the young child’s body initiated a nasty chemical cascade within her. Currently, the venom was causing a massive release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which caused all of her muscles to painfully contract.

  Hence, the explanation for the pain.

  Lilly slowed Lee from rocking Sophia so vigorously. “The venom is making all of her muscles spasm.”

  This systemic effect targeted large muscle groups like the legs, abdomen, and back. It could mimic a surgical abdomen.

  Like Ryan Zurcher.

  There wouldn’t be any explanation warranted from a drug tox screen.

  Like Conner Watson.

  Could it be that simple? Could one tiny insect cause such deadly illness?

  Understandably, it wouldn’t be hard to conceptualize why the little girl was so sick. With the number of bites and her relative size, the dose of venom coursing through her could induce a dramatic effect.

  Lilly turned to the nurse who stood watch by the door. “Make contact with the pharmacy and tell them we’re going to need enough anti-venom for one child and two adults.”

  The issue at hand was how could two adults without evidence of multiple spider bites become so violently ill?

  Lilly turned to Lee. “How do you think Ryan and Conner came into contact with the spiders?”

  “I don’t think they came into contact with the spiders. Just the venom. Those marks were injection sites.”

  It was a probable explanation for their symptoms if they’d been inoculated with a massive amount of the venom directly into their tissues.

  Or veins.

&nb
sp; “But who gave it to them? Venom in that amount has to be harvested.”

  Lee closed his eyes and shook his head as if unwilling to speak his thoughts out loud. As if saying them would expose a truth he didn’t want to face.

  “I found syringes in Raven’s home. I think she’s doing this. Keelyn’s sister. I think Raven is trying to kill everyone who failed to save her family.”

  “But could she want Keelyn dead?”

  Lee turned his head away from her.

  “Lee, where do you think she got venom in this amount? Enough to make a large male seriously ill.”

  He held Sophia tighter as she battled against him. “I know where she’s getting it.”

  Chapter 34

  INTENSE PAIN IN HER LEFT side woke Keelyn up. The stench of fire lingered in her nostrils. She opened her eyes and brought her hand up against the bright lights. There was an annoying beep to her right. A firm hand brought her arm down gently. Soft lips placed a kiss on her cheek.

  Lee.

  She pulled her hand from his and shifted her body away. The frown on his face tore at her heart. His eyes pleaded for something she couldn’t quite discern. Questions piled in her mind. She was about to begin her interrogation, but upon taking a deep breath to ask her first question, her side lit up in pain. A cry escaped her lips.

  Lee stood and jostled her bed. She bit her lip against the motion. “Can’t you get her something?”

  Lilly Reeves came into her view and sweetly nudged Lee to the side and took his seat. “Keelyn, do you remember what happened?”

  Keelyn surveyed the room. Why was there a police officer she didn’t know standing in the corner? And a fire captain?

  She jolted up in bed. Something tugged at her side like she’d been hooked by an industrial size fishing lure. She groped with a shaky hand to her left and felt the garden hose that fed into her chest.

  “Sophia?”

  Lilly eased her shoulders back into the cushion of pillows. “She’s doing okay. We gave her antivenom, and she had a little reaction. We’re helping her. Let’s talk about you.” Lilly motioned to Keelyn’s side. “When you jumped off the roof, you fractured a rib and it punctured your lung. That thing in your side is a chest tube. It’s going to reinflate your lung.” She pulled up a cord with a button. “This is your pain medication. It’s giving you some right now, but when you feel you need more, you need to press it. Try it.”