ambulance van. 'Please?'
And they did all the way to St. Anthony's Hospital. I know. 1 rode with Jannie.
Longest ride of my life.
Chapter Nineteen
At the hospital, Jannie had an EEC, then she underwent as thorough a neurological exam as they could give her at that time of the day. Her cranial nerves were tested. She was asked to walk a straight line; then to hop on one foot, to determine the presence of any ataxia. She did as she was told, and seemed better now. Still, I watched her as if she might suddenly shatter.
Just as she was finishing the exam, Jannie had a second seizure. It lasted longer and was more violent than the first one. It couldn't have been any worse if it had happened to me. When the attack finally stopped, Jannie was given Valium IV. The hospital staff was right there for her, but their concern was also frightening. A nurse asked me if there had been any symptoms before the seizure, such as blurred vision, headaches, nausea, loss of coordination. I hadn't noticed anything unusual. Neither had Nana.
When she had finished her examination of Jannie, Dr. Bone from the emergency room took me aside. 'We'll keep her here overnight for observation, Detective Cross. We'd like to be extra careful.'
'Extra careful is good,” I said. I was still shaking a little. I could see it in my hands.
'She might be here longer than that,' Dr. Bone then added,' We need to do more tests on Jannie. I don't like the fact that there was a second seizure.'
'All right. Of course, Doctor. I don't like that there was a second seizure either.'
There was a bed available on the fourth floor and Nana and I went up there with Jannie. Hospital policy required that she be taken on a gurney, but I got to push it. She was groggy and unusually quiet in the elevator going up; she didn't ask me any questions until we were alone behind a curtain in the hospital room.
'Okay,' she said, then,' Tell me the truth, Daddy. You have to tell me everything. The truth.'
I took a deep breath. 'Well, you probably had what's called a grand mal seizure. Two of them. Sometimes they just happen, sweetheart. Out of the blue, like tonight. Damon's punch might have had something to do with it.'
She frowned. 'He barely touched me.' Jannie stared into my eyes, trying to read me. 'Okay,” she said. 'That's not so bad, is it? At least I'm still here on planet Earth for now.'
'Don't talk like that,' I told her. 'It isn't funny.'
'Okay. I won't scare you,' she whispered.
Jannie reached out and took my hand and we held on tight. In a few minutes, she was fast asleep, still holding on to my hand.
Book Two Hate Mail
Chapter Twenty
No one could figure out what was happening, or why. He just loved that. The feeling of superiority it bred. They were all such dithering fools.
On a numerical scale of 9.9999 out of 10, things were going very well. The Mastermind was certain that he hadn't made a meaningful mistake. He took particular satisfaction in the Falls Church robbery and especially the four puzzling murders.
He relived every moment of the bloody crime as if he had been there instead of lucky Messrs Red, White, Blue, and Ms Green. He visualized the scene at the manager's house, and then the murders at the bank, with such intense pleasure and satisfaction. He recreated it in his mind again and again and never tired of the scenario, especially the killings. The artistry and symbolism of them infused him with confidence in the cleverness of his thinking the rightness of it.
He found himself smiling at the thought of the phone call to the police: The tip that a robbery was in progress. He'd made the call. He'd wanted the First Union employees killed. That was the whole goddamn point. Didn't anybody see that yet?
He had another team to recruit now, the most important one, and the hardest to find. The final crew had to be extremely capable and self-sufficient, and, because of that self-sufficiency, they would pose a danger to him. He understood very well that clever people often had large and uncontrollable egos. He certainly did.
He brought up the names of potential candidates on his computer screen. He read lengthy profiles, and even criminal records, which he thought of as their resumes. Then suddenly that dreary, rainy afternoon, he came across a crew that was as different from the others as he was from the rest of humanity.
The proof? They had no criminal record. They had never been caught, never even been suspected. It was why they'd been so hard for him to find. They seemed perfect for his perfect job for his masterpiece.
No one could figure out what was about to happen.
Chapter Twenty-One
At 9:00 a.m. I met with a neurologist named Thomas Petito who patiently explained the tests Jannie would go through. He wanted first to eliminate some possible causes of the seizures. He told me that worrying would do no good, that Jannie was in excellent hands his -and that for the moment the best thing I could do was to go to work,' I don't want you worrying needlessly,' Petito said. 'And I don't want you in my way.'
I drove 1-95 South to Quantico that afternoon after I had lunch with Jannie. I needed to visit with the FBI's best technicians and profilers, and they were at Quantico. I didn't like leaving Jannie at St. Anthony's, but Nana was with her and there weren't any major tests scheduled until the following morning.
