Beverly Connor - Dead Secret

Korey, Andie and Kendel pulled in beside Neva. They all piled out of their vehicles and headed toward Diane.

“I thought I told you guys to go back to the museum.”

“We were going to, but decided we’d rather be here,” said Andie. “Heard anything?”

Diane shook her head. “No, but it hasn’t been that long.” She turned to Neva, who was looking at her with wide, tear-filled eyes. “He was conscious and very coherent the whole time. He even joked with the paramedics. He’s going to be all right,” Diane said with more conviction than she felt.

“If he’s joking, that’s good.” Neva tried to smile. “Mike’s really healthy.” She nodded as if agreeing with herself. “He’ll be fine.”

“David and Jin arrived before we left the cemetery,” said Andie. “They want us to call when we know something about Mike.”

“Let’s go sit down,” said Diane. She put an arm around Neva’s shoulders and led them all to the waiting room. With the excitement wearing down, Diane was starting to have more aches and pains. There was a dull throb in her foot as well as her tricep muscle, and her head was getting worse. She was glad to sit. She dug in her purse for a couple of aspirin, spotting a water fountain. The pills were hard going down. She took several more sips of water before she went back to the others.

“You okay, Neva?” Diane asked, sitting back down in her red chair.

Neva nodded. “This is just so weird-and scary. Makes me wonder if it’s some serial perp who’s going to start showing up in public places stabbing people.”

“If he does,” said Korey, “it shouldn’t be too hard to catch him. I mean, how often would he be able to get away with something like that?”

“None of us saw a thing,” said Andie.

“We weren’t looking,” said Korey.

All of them sat in the colorful chairs and did the magazine shuffle that Diane had finally given up on, opting to stare at the rainbow-colored carpet instead.

“Did you have a chance to look at your witch this morning?” asked Korey. They all looked toward Diane with anticipation.

“No, but she has had visitors.” Diane told Korey, Neva and Kendel about the Wiccan and the Druid. They all listened with rapt attention, as if glad for the least distraction. Andie added a description of Caitlin’s shades of purple.

“And they actually thought you’d give the bones to them?” asked Kendel.

“Apparently that was their hope,” said Diane.

They all lapsed into silence after that. Diane was lost in her thoughts when the waiting room’s double swinging doors opened and a doctor in scrubs emerged.

The doctor was a man about Diane’s age. He spoke to the nurse at the information station, and she pointed to Diane. She, Neva, Andie, Korey and Kendel all rose in one motion, as if connected, and walked over to him.

“We’re friends of Mike Seger. I’m Diane Fallon, his employer. We were with him when this happened. Can you tell us his condition?” asked Diane.

“I’m Dr. Nolan. The knife nicked a vessel and his colon, but he’s going to be all right. He lost a lot of blood, but I didn’t have to transfuse, and that’s good. He should be able to go home in a few days if he progresses as well as he is now. I understand this happened at a funeral?” The doctor looked at them as if expecting them to tell him he had been misinformed.

“Yes. We don’t know who or why. First thing we saw was Mike falling to his knees.”

Chief Garnett came through the waiting room doors and joined them, introducing himself to the doctor.

Diane had expected a detective to show up soon. She wasn’t surprised that the chief himself was taking the lead. It had become a high-profile case, not because of the victim, but because of where the crime had taken place. At least Mike would get their undivided attention.

“Can you tell us anything about the weapon?” he asked the doctor.

“It cut clean like a scalpel-very sharp. Given the depth of the wound, however, whatever kind of weapon did this, it was longer than a regular scalpel.”

“Has he said anything?” asked Garnett.

“No. He’s in recovery now, just coming out of the anesthesia.”

Chief Garnett took hold of Diane’s upper arm, and she yelped at the sudden pain. Garnett quickly withdrew his hand and looked down at his palm. He frowned at her.

Damn, that hurt, she thought. She must have torn the muscle.

“You’re bleeding.”

Diane shook her head. “It’s Mike’s. My arm is just sore because I pulled a muscle at the gym this morning.”

The doctor walked around her and looked at the back of her arm. “I don’t think so. That blood looks too fresh. Let’s get your jacket off and take a look.”

The doctor and Garnett slid the jacket off her shoulder. She heard Andie and Kendel gasp.

Diane felt his fingers on her upper arm just beneath the short sleeve of her blouse.

“You have a deep laceration in your arm.” He turned to the nurses’ station. “Nurse. We need to get Ms. Fallon into an examination room.”

Diane looked at the expressions of surprise on all their faces. She imagined it matched her own. She handed Andie her purse and asked her to give her insurance information to the receptionist. She tried to look at her arm.

“Let’s not move too much. You’re starting to bleed again,” said Dr. Nolan. “Chief Garnett, this looks like a scalpel wound. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was done by the same weapon.”

The nurse led her to the examination room, then helped her change into one of those embarrassing backless hospital gowns. She had Diane lie down on the examination table on her good side.

A few minutes later, the doctor came in, washed his hands, then slipped on a pair of latex gloves. He examined the wound. She flinched several times as he palpated the area on the back of her arm.

“Sorry,” he said. “I’m trying to be as gentle as I can.”

What the shit is this about? she wondered. Since hearing that Mike was out of danger, her fear had been replaced by anger. Dammit, who in the hell goes to a funeral and stabs people? She wondered if anyone else was stabbed.

The doctor stepped around the table and stood where she could see him.

“We need to irrigate the wound before I can sew it up. It’s going to be uncomfortable, but nothing you shouldn’t be able to handle.”

“I’m fine. I just want to get this over with and go home.” Diane suddenly remembered the pills she’d taken. “I just took a couple of aspirin.”

“That’s probably why it started bleeding again.”

“Why didn’t I feel anything?”

“You felt nothing?”

“A twinge when it happened. I just thought I had injured a tricep when I was rock climbing at the gym this morning. I often pull muscles when I’m climbing. But I didn’t feel like I had been stabbed.” Diane felt incredulous that this had happened to her. She could imagine how Mike must feel.

“Probably all the adrenaline in your system’s been giving you some pain protection. When did you first feel the twinge?”

“Just after I saw Mike fall to his knees at the cemetery. I was pushing through the crowd to get to him. I remember someone stepped on my foot, and right after that I felt a sharp pain in my arm. As I said, I thought it was a pulled muscle.”

Dr. Nolan moved to the end of the table and examined her feet.

“There’s no bruising. Flex your toes. Does that hurt?”

“Just minor soreness. It wasn’t that hard. It was just pinned to the ground for a moment.”

“Any other pains or sore spots anywhere that you didn’t have before?”

“No, nothing else. Just the arm and the foot.”