a hospital. Earlier, when a nurse had been asking me for insurance information, she mentioned that I was at Charity Campus or something of that sort. My brain had still been a bit muddled at the time, so I hadn’t really registered much. Not that I would have really known where it was to begin with. All I knew was that it seemed like I spent a lot of time in places like this whenever I got involved in an investigation. It was a wonder my insurance carrier hadn’t dropped me yet. If they didn’t this time, I was sure they would be raising my premiums. That was something they always did without fail.
“Yeah, that,” I muttered, reaching up and brushing my fingers against the gauze bandage now covering the wounds. I felt a tug on the back of my hand and gave it a glance. I had pretty much forgotten about the IV line taped securely to it. I gave it a half-hearted wiggle to reposition the tubing then laid my hand back across my chest. “Teeth too.”
“How is the arm, by the way?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the other appendage which was now wrapped in its own windings of sterile dressing.
“Not bad right now. But, I can already tell the local is wearing off.”
I had lost track of how long I had been here. I’d been drifting in and out for a while although I had officially regained consciousness at right about the moment they were preparing to slide me onto the treatment table upon arriving in the emergency room. Since my most recent memory at that point-other than the disembodied voice-had been that of chasing after Annalise, my body seemed to think it was something I needed to continue doing. I was told that it had taken both paramedics and a nurse to keep me from coming off the gurney at a dead run.
“Do you know if they’ve found her yet?”
“Not that I’ve heard, but I’m not really in the loop.”
I shook my head as best I could since it was resting against the pillow, and with a full load of sarcasm muttered, “Fucking wonderful.”
“Tough little bitch, isn’t she?” she stated as much as asked.
“Reminds me of my wife,” I replied but didn’t expand further.
“That’s some wife.”
“You have no idea.” I sighed then tried to reposition myself a bit so that I wasn’t talking at the ceiling. “So, where did you go back at the cemetery? I looked up and you were just gone.”
“I left my cell in my car. I ran back to call the police like you said.”
“Oh.”
“Feeling abandoned, were you?”
“Maybe a little,” I admitted. “It’s not like we know each other all that well. A lot of folks wouldn’t have wanted to get involved…especially after listening to my outlandish story and then hearing her scream ‘rape.’”
“I was already involved,” she told me. “I took you there, remember? Besides, I’m not like a lot of folks.”
“I’m getting that impression… And, believe me, right now I appreciate that more than you know.”
It grew quiet in the room except for the noises of the staff out in the hall. I rested my head back against the pillow and stared at the ceiling for a long while, contemplating the acoustic tiles as I tried to ignore the various aches that hadn’t benefited from a hypodermic full of local anesthetic. After a minute or two, a curious thought flitted through my brain, and I rolled my head to face Velvet once again.
“How did you get in here anyway?” I asked. “I seem to recall a cop standing outside the door when the doctor left earlier. It looked like he was guarding it or something.”
“I told him I was your wife,” she replied.
“You did what?”
She smiled. “Calm down, I’m only kidding.”
“Okay…I just didn’t figure you for that sort of levity.”
“I have my moments,” she replied. Then, she shrugged and continued, “Actually, it didn’t seem to be a problem. I just asked if I could check on you, and they let me right in. Maybe it was because I already gave a statement and…”
She was interrupted by a quick knock then the door swinging open. A petite, dark-haired woman clad in scrubs came in then shut the barrier behind her.
“Oh, hello,” she said, noticing Velvet. “I’m Doctor Miller… You are?”
“Doctor Rieth,” Velvet replied, shaking her hand.
Doctor Miller canted her head to the side and furrowed her brow.
Before she could say anything else, Velvet offered, “I’m a different kind of doctor.” She nodded in my direction and added, “Actually, I’m only here because I’m a friend of Rowan’s. I was just keeping him company.”
Doctor Miller gave her a quick smile, “I see. Well, I need to go over a few things with Mister Gant, so…”
“Say no more,” she told her before she could finish the spiel. “I need to go get a cup of coffee anyway.” Glancing in my direction, she added. “I’ll see you in a little while.”
“Yeah,” I returned. “Do me a favor and have a cup for me while you’re at it.”
“Will do.”
After Velvet left, the doctor turned her attention back to me.
“So, how are you feeling, Mister Gant?”
“Pretty much like I was run over by a truck,” I replied.
“The way I understand it, you almost were.”
“Yeah, there is that.”
She opened a chart and scanned the papers inside. “I wanted to ask you something. You mentioned earlier that the only medication you had been taking lately is aspirin?”
“That’s right.”
“How often?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “A few times a day I guess.”
“How many is a few?”
“I don’t know… Six… Maybe eight.”
She frowned. “What dosage?”
“Just a handful.”
She looked at me and frowned even harder, “Seriously?”
“Well, not a big handful. I guess maybe six or seven. Or ten or twelve. Depends on when I was taking it and how bad I hurt.”
“At a time?”
“Yeah.”
“Eighty-one or three hundred twenty-five milligram?”
“Whatever regular old aspirin is. Three twenty-five I guess.”
“Why?”
“Chronic headache.”
“Have you seen a doctor about it?”
“Trust me, it’s not that kind of headache.”
“Really. What kind of headache is it then?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” I sighed.
“So, you haven’t been taking the aspirin on doctor’s orders?”
“Not unless I’m now a doctor.”
“Honestly, I had you pegged as more intelligent than this, Mister Gant. You do realize that OTC meds are still drugs, don’t you? Self-medicating is extremely dangerous. Especially the way you were doing it.” She huffed out a disgusted breath before continuing, “Did you even bother to read the directions on the bottle?”
“Of course. Take two, yadda, yadda…”
“Mister Gant,” her tone remained serious. “Do I have to spell this out for you? The reason you collapsed is that you are severely dehydrated and have dangerously low blood pressure; both of which are symptoms of severe salicylate poisoning.”
“So, what you’re saying is I overdosed on aspirin?”
“To put it simply, yes. Given the amount you said you were taking, I’m surprised you aren’t in much worse shape.”
I let my head fall back on the pillow. “Doc, you have no idea.”
