Team Destiny and Archie's Apparition (Team Destiny Paranormal Cozy Mystery Book 2)

by Belinda White

  I really, really wanted to know how our Voodoo practitioner was feeding that darn thing with a link to Martha. They would need a fresh link every single day or it would be weakening by now.

  Something just wasn’t adding up.

  How could they be getting a link to the woman when she wasn’t leaving her bed, and no one was coming in to see her?

  Karen rose and walked over to Martha. She took a small packet from her pocket. “I’m going to check her blood sugar level before I refill her insulin pump. I told the day nurse that I’d handle Martha for her today.”

  She made a face. “Not sure I really trust the situation to anyone other than myself at this point. Not that I don’t trust my staff...”

  “But we can’t take any chances. Besides, anyone within reach of Martha is in a bit of danger,” Mom said.

  Karen nodded. “Exactly. Knowing what I know, I can’t ask a member of my staff to do this. Especially as they would be in the dark on the whole thing.” She gave a rueful smile. “I hate that part of all this, but I really like my job and want to keep it. If I start spouting off about Voodoo gods and black magic vortexes in a resident, I don’t think I’d be here all that long.”

  She was probably right on that one.

  As I watched Karen prick Martha’s finger and test the small droplet of blood, I remembered an earlier thought I’d had. They tested her blood sugar at least twice every single day. Fresh DNA!

  When Karen turned to leave, I was right behind her, pointing at the little ball of cotton she was still holding.

  “What do you do with those?”

  She frowned at me, then looked down at the small white ball. I could tell when the thought hit her too. “Oh, my Goddess. Is this how...?”

  Mom reached out and grimly took the small cotton ball from Karen’s hand. “If it was, it isn’t any longer. Anything, and I do mean anything with a drop of blood or any other bodily fluid from Martha needs to be immediately destroyed. Starting now.”

  Crapsnackles. Other bodily fluid. Mom was onto something. There was plenty of Martha’s DNA leaving this room every single day. In blood-spotted cotton balls, test strips, and shoot, even the used diapers that she wore.

  I truly thought we had solved at least a part of the mystery. Of course, that feeling didn’t last all that long. It seemed that happened a lot with my family.

  Thwarted at every turn.

  Karen handed over everything that had a single spot of blood on it to Mom and left to retrieve the insulin.

  We were trying to work out our schedule on how to work the next few days guarding Martha—and Mom, as she was determined to not leave the woman’s side—and still get on with our own respective jobs.

  The conversation and planning were still deep in progress when Karen returned with a vial of insulin. I noted her return out of the corner of my eye but didn’t really think anything of it.

  At least, that was the case before the protection circle activated.

  Chapter 20

  If I’d thought the circle was beautiful at rest, to see the thing in full activation was absolutely stunning.

  In more than one way.

  The colors were glorious, and every vibrant shade of the rainbow seemed to be involved. Waves upon waves of magical streams snapped into life, and Karen was frozen in the very heart of all of them.

  Her panicked eyes met mine. “What do I do?” she cried. “I can’t move!”

  I took a close look at the situation. Her feet were on the border of the circle, but the hand holding the tiny vial of insulin was still on our side of the border.

  Stepping forward, I took the insulin from her hand and then stepped back, far outside the circle’s domain. Instantly, the magic retreated back to the confines of the crafted runes. Karen stumbled, and Mom rushed forward to help the woman get stabilized.

  Me? I was too busy staring in horror at the tiny bottle I held in my hand. Well, at least one question had been answered.

  I was fairly certain that the how of Martha’s current situation was contained within the liquid inside. Holding it at arm’s length, I peered into the container. Nothing at all that looked suspect. For all the world, it looked like any other bottle of insulin.

  But now we knew differently, didn’t we?

  The others gathered around me, and all of us were staring at that blasted unholy vial.

  “Well, that pretty much answers that, huh?” Arc echoed my feeling on the matter.

  I nodded. “It does to me.”

  Mom finally tore her eyes off the bottle to look at Karen. “Who has access to that insulin?”

  Karen swallowed, her gaze still on the vial. “Any one of the staff here. We have a central medicine cabinet outside the lounge area.”

  “I would assume it is locked?” I asked.

  “Of course.” Karen finally looked over at me. “This is real, isn’t it? All of it. Something in that insulin is keeping Martha’s soul from her body.” She stumbled and the Shaman quickly pulled over a chair for her to sit.

  I looked at Mom. “We need to check that cabinet. But we’ll probably need some kind of spell to check for contamination. Do you have anything handy?”

  Mom thought for a minute, then nodded. “I think I have something that will do in a pinch.” Then she knelt in front of the woman still struggling to come to grips with the reality of what we were facing.

  Yeah. Welcome to our world, Karen. Seeing may be the start of believing. But being caught and frozen in a magical protection circle? Yup. No doubts in her mind at this point.

  Not if she was at least half as smart as I thought she was.

  “Do you have any other residents here that are on insulin?” Mom asked gently.

  Karen nodded. “Frank Riddle.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, Goddess! Is he... infected too?”

  Mom’s eyes met mine. We didn’t know enough to answer that one yet.

  “We’re about to find out, I think,” Mom said. “Karen, we need a vial from the supply for each of them.” She hesitated. “I would assume the supplies are separated by patient?”

  Karen nodded, then took a deep breath and stood. Even if she was still a bit unsteady. Part of me had to wonder what being trapped within that circle’s border had felt like. Not enough to make me want to try it, mind you. But from Karen’s reaction to it, I was thinking it hadn’t been a walk in the park.

  The Shaman and Arc opted to stay with Martha, and Mom and I walked with Karen downstairs to the medicine cabinet. Well, she called it a cabinet. It was actually more of a pantry. Lots of supplies in that tiny room. More than just medicine.

  I frowned at her. “More than just your nurses have a key to this room, don’t they?”

  She hesitated. “Only the nurses have a dedicated key.”

  “Why am I thinking there’s a but to that statement?” Mom asked.

  Karen’s shoulders slumped. “Probably because there is. A huge one, I’m afraid. When we took to storing more than just medicine in here, the room became a bit more frequented. So we keep a spare key at the main nurses' station. But just having access to the room doesn’t give them access to the actual medications.” She looked around her. “Although, if someone had contaminated the feeding and fluid supplies, well, those they could access. The chest is only so big.”

  The chest she spoke of was more like a locking metal footlocker with a numerical key code. The inside of the thing was broken down into eight sections. One for each resident. Within the section for Martha were three additional vials of insulin. Nothing else.

  I stared at the chest for a few seconds, then back at the stacks of fluid and feeding bags. If they were so much easier to access, why taint the medication? Why not taint the food or water?

  Mom must have been thinking along the same lines as I was. “The medications are separated because of prescriptions. What about the food and water bags?”

  Karen shook her head. “No prescription for them. They are shared by all the residents. People in comas can’t real
ly eat and drink. It’s a staple kind of thing.”

  I shared a gaze with Mom. Yup. Definitely thinking the same thing here. Insulin was a personal thing just for Martha. It was looking good for Frank Riddle.

  Then I noticed that Karen was pulling a board off the wall with a stack of papers attached to it. I didn’t much care for the frown on her face.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  Karen looked from the clipboard to the chest and back again, her frown still tightly in place. “This isn’t right. MacCallister’s pharmacy just delivered Martha’s insulin. She should have four vials left, not three.”

  My eyes flew to the section of the chest that should have held Frank Riddle’s vials. “How many is Frank supposed to have?”

  I could tell from Karen’s faster breathing that I would not like the answer any more than I liked the empty space staring back at me.

  “None. He was to have a delivery this morning, but it doesn’t look like that happened.” She took a deep breath. “I need to get on the phone right now. His pump is due to be filled tonight too...”

  Her words were cut off by a shrill whistle. The color fled from her face.

  “Oh, Goddess, no!”

  And she was running. So were we.

  WHEN WE ALL FLEW INTO the room, it was to find Betina bent over Frank Riddle administering CPR. Her panicked eyes flew up to Karen as she paused just long enough to shout, “Help me!”

  Mom had her phone out dialing even as Karen crossed the room at a dead run to help with the CPR. A two-person process was much less demanding than a single person trying to do both parts of it.

  Knowing that Mom was getting professional help to us, I did a quick glance around the room. My gaze lit on the vial on the floor by the bed. An insulin vial.

  I was pretty sure by that point exactly what had happened. Unknowingly, Betina had just injected tainted insulin into an unsuspecting Frank Riddle. As Frank’s soul was still in place, as far as we knew, the reaction to that must have been both instant and dramatic.

  My hair started floating as I sent out magical feelers. Just maybe, if it came down to a tug and war kind of thing, I could pull him back. Like we’d done for Mom.

  It was worth a shot.

  I didn’t get close enough to touch the body. The nurses were doing necessary work, and there was no guarantee that I’d be of any help at all. I couldn’t afford to get in their way.

  Plus, I didn’t really need to. It didn’t take long for my feelers to stumble upon the blackness that lay in the body that had once housed Frank Riddle. I pulled back quickly, but unfortunately, not quickly enough.

  My eyes were closed as I was in close to a trance state. That’s probably why I saw him when no one else did.

  The blackness rose slowly from the body and took shape to stand over him. I could tell it seemed a bit confused. It was even more confused when it looked around the room and saw me looking directly into its... well, somehow the word eyes didn’t really cut it to describe his black soul-less voids, but it was the closest word I could come to it.

  The blackness solidified even further, and I had a terrible feeling that I was staring into the gaze of Kalfu himself.

  For what it was worth, his expression didn’t seem to be one of hatred or even anger. It was... almost an amusement.

  I found myself swallowing. A lot. It’s amazing the amount of saliva a terrified person can produce.

  He smiled at me. “May I ask the name of this one?” He motioned toward the bed.

  It took me a couple of tries, but I finally got it out. “Frank Riddle.”

  “Ah.” He glanced back at the body the two nurses were still hard at work on. “I’m afraid their efforts will be unrewarded.”

  “I know.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. His expression went from amusement to curiosity. “You do, don’t you?” He shook his head. “No matter. Although I would have you know this should not have happened. This is not in my contract.”

  I swallowed, but I had to know. “Did you take his soul?”

  His laughter was dark. “His soul, unfortunately, was not mine to take. He belonged to another. We tend to respect that kind of thing.”

  That was very, very good to know.

  Kalfu’s eyes drifted to a space beside me as his eyebrow arched yet again. “As much as I think I would enjoy conversing with you, I do believe our time is at an end.”

  “Wait!” He stopped, looking at me. The amusement was firmly back in place.

  “Yes?”

  “Is there anything we can do to get you to release your hold on Martha Donaldson?”

  I mentioned his laughter was dark. I should also have mentioned that the sound of it was beyond terrifying.

  “I’m afraid not, Goddess Child. That one’s soul is up for grabs at the moment, and I find myself a bit hungry. Besides, I don’t break contracts. They are binding for a reason, you know.”

  Magic started pulling at me. Hard. No matter. I was more than ready to end the trance. I’d heard all I needed to know.

  Shoot. No, I hadn't, had I? I shouldn’t have asked if we could free his hold. I should have known the answer to that would have been no. What I should have asked was who held the other end of that bloody devil’s contract.

  That would have been so much more useful. I started fighting the magical pull. Maybe it wasn’t too late for one last question.

  But it was. Mom was scared, and she wasn’t about to let me go.

  I stopped fighting it and opened my eyes to stare into hers.

  “Are you all right?” She put a hand to either side of my face and turned my head left and right. “You were talking with him, weren’t you? Kalfu?”

  I nodded, then looked toward the bed. “Frank’s not coming back. For what it’s worth, according to Kalfu, this was an accident. Not meant to happen.”

  “Did he say anything else, dear?”

  I nodded, but my tongue seemed very, very dry in my mouth. My words when I said them didn’t sound like my voice at all.

  “Martha Donaldson is in so much trouble.”

  Chapter 21

  There really wasn’t anything we could do for poor Frank Riddle. It was just the man’s bad luck that he happened to run out of insulin at just the absolute wrong time.

  That did, however, leave us with more than a bit of a problem.

  The paramedics had come and gone, taking the body we all knew to be dead and gone with them. Now we were all just standing out in the hallway looking at each other. Well, that wasn’t quite right. We were all looking at Betina.

  In my mind, this accident cleared her from any and all suspicion as to being the devout follower of Kalfu. If she was the one responsible for that, she would have known better than to switch to Martha’s insulin as a replacement for Frank.

  That part at least was good. What wasn’t so good was where that left us now.

  The girl’s wild eyes were on her boss, Karen. “It was the insulin, wasn’t it? And if it was the insulin, then I killed him!”

  Karen laid a hand on either of Betina’s shoulders. “First and foremost, I have to say that you know the rules here, right? No sharing of medication. Ever.”

  Betina nodded, and the tears started flowing. At least she was a quiet crier.

  “All right, with that out of the way, I can tell you that you are not the one responsible for Frank’s death. At least not in a purposeful way.”

  Yeah. She couldn’t really let the girl off the hook entirely, now could she? That insulin was what killed the man, all right. Insulin he never should have received. Of course, on the other hand, the insulin vials were supposed to be the identical medication. Betina had no way of knowing otherwise, had she?

  Karen glanced down the hall. We were alone, but we were still pretty much out in the open. Anyone upstairs or downstairs could overhear us. She took Betina’s elbow and led us all into Martha’s room.

  Then she looked at me and Mom with raised eyebrows. I knew exactly what she was
asking. So did Mom. Just how much did we tell Betina?

  “I don’t think we have much choice here,” Mom said. I had to admit that I agreed with her. Not to mention the fact that it would be purely heartless to make the girl continue to think this was entirely her fault. It wasn’t. Not entirely.

  Karen nodded. “Good. That was my thinking too.”

  Betina looked at all of us and then back to Karen. “All these people... what is going on here?”

  I took a deep breath. “Martha’s coma isn’t a natural one. It’s been induced by someone. We’ve been trying to figure out who and why.”

  Her eyes widened. “You thought I did this, didn't you? That's why you were asking me all those questions? Because of Mom and the whole CEO thing?”

  “You have to admit, it was a possibility. We thought that whoever was keeping her in this state had to have almost daily contact with her. You were a likely candidate for that, yes.”

  She swallowed and blinked at me, her eyes going to Trevor. Even out of uniform, the man looked all sheriff. Something in the way he stood with his shoulders squared all the time.

  Sheriffs didn’t slouch. Not in Wind’s Crossing, anyway. Not that we were in Wind’s Crossing, mind you, but still.

  “Am I going to be arrested?”

  “Did you have anything to do with Martha’s condition?” Trevor asked gently. After all, it was he that she directed her question to. Only right he should be the one to answer.

  “No! But poor Frank...”

  Trevor glanced at Karen. “I can’t speak to the repercussions of that action, Betina. That will be handled by Karen here. But you didn’t have malicious intent with Frank, so I don’t think there will be any serious charges leveled at you, if any at all.”

  “No charges as far as I’m concerned,” Karen said. “But I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep you on after this.”

  Betina gave a miserable nod. “I can understand that. I’m really, really sorry. It’s just that...”

  My ears perked up. “It’s just that, what?”

  She took a deep breath. “I have a friend that works at MacCallister’s pharmacy. She was supposed to put the order for Frank’s insulin in with Martha’s to be delivered the other day. But then they didn’t send it by the normal courier, and it got left behind. She offered to run it over, but then she had a family emergency and couldn’t. It didn’t seem like any big deal, you know? The insulin was the exact same kind. I checked and double-checked. It was.”