Chapter Sixteen: Unraveling the Evidence

Jesse wandered out of the examination room and made his way toward the intake desk. Though, he was technically off duty, it had become second nature and he did it almost without thought. By the time he caught himself, he was nearly there and decided to continue on anyway. It wasn't as if he would be leaving the hospital any time soon anyway, not until they were absolutely certain that Steve was out of the woods.

If nothing else, being a doctor should have taught him how quickly things could change and just how fragile life could be. And how precious. He looked back toward the examination room door and thought of the three people he was closest to on the other side of it.

A sister, a brother and father. Like a family.

"Dr Travis?" A gentle voice at his side drew him from his thoughts and he turned toward the dark-haired nurse. "Are you on?"

"What have you got?" he asked.

"There's a little boy and his mom in two, skateboard accident."

Jesse took the chart and headed for the room.

-- --

Mark completed a final order on Steve's chart before placing it on the gurney and watching him rolled out of the examination room. He'd seen his son transported by gurney more times than he wanted to count, but this time felt different. This time along with the worry and anxiety there was a feeling of guilt.

"Mark, he's going to be fine." Amanda rested a comforting hand on his arm. "They're going to get him settled in the cardiac unit and then you'll be able to go up and see him. By then more of results will be back as well. Steve is a pretty tough guy. He'll pull through this. You'll see."

Mark turned toward her and shook his head sadly. How could he explain to her that this time was different than all of the other times where he had been called and informed that his son had been injured due to an accident or in the line of duty? This time he had been right there by his side and he hadn't caught the signs soon enough. If they hadn't been at Clear Skies, or near some type of a facility with a defibrillator he did not want to even think what the outcome might have been.

A sudden thought occurred to him. Amanda had been at the beach house, not in the hospital. There hadn't been time for any of the staff to contact her and for her to arrive when she did. "How did you know?" he asked her.

"Cheryl paged me. Said she had some evidence she wanted me to examine. She didn't say what kind."

Mark nodded, his curiosity satisfied. "It's my fault that it went this far," he said gruffly.

"No, no it isn't. But you did save him."

"Oh but it is," Mark disagreed with her. "You see, Amber warned me. That day when we brought him home. She was out on the beach. She said that he broke her heart. It's clear as day now what she meant. She was going to break his too. I should have seen it back then. If I had I might have noticed the signs earlier. It might not have come to this."

"You didn't tell us that you spoke with Amber." Amanda looked at him curiously.

Mark shrugged. "I was trying to keep Steve away from her. I thought if he knew that she was there, he'd go after her. I thought I was protecting him. Turns out I was wrong."

"Regardless, even if you figured out some mad woman's code, there's no way you could have known how she was going to do it. Or even when she was going to try. You can't put that kind of burden on yourself. All we can do is make sure that she gets what she deserves."

"You're right," Mark agreed. "We do need to make sure that she gets what she deserves. So now the question is, just how did she get to him?"

Amanda nodded. "We find that out we're on our way to catching our killer."

-- --

Jesse came out of the examination room, a smile on his face, and again headed toward the desk. The little boy and his mother were going to be fine.

"Dr. Travis!"

He spun as his name was called. Seeing Cheryl with a supportive hand on the arm of Jonathan Bright as she handed him over Dr. Ross Carson was more than a bit of a surprise. Bright's skin had a slightly green cast to it, and he was half-stooped, an arm wrapped protectively about his middle. Jesse dropped the chart on the desk and hurried over to assist.

"What happened?" he asked.

His question was ignored as Cheryl shot back a question of her own. "Steve. How is he?"

Jesse looked up at her, noticing the anxiety that he wasn't used to seeing on the normally composed woman's face. Bright backed up the question, though his voice was considerably weaker.

"He's stable," Jesse assured the both of them. "We ran--" His explanation was cut off as Bright doubled over with a groan of pain.

"We need to get you checked out," Jesse said, then looked toward Ross. "Can you?"

"Certainly." The other doctor led Jonathan Bright off toward and examination room, calling for a nurse as he went.

"Steve." Cheryl refocused his attention, her tone slightly less urgent than it had previously been. "You said that you ran some tests."

"Yeah," Jesse nodded. "He was definitely poisoned. There is no way Steve would have gotten that particular combination of drugs in his body otherwise. The only question that remains is how."

"How about a when?" Cheryl asked. "There's been an officer on him ever since the assault pretty much. He called it off himself this morning. Any time when there wasn't an officer, Mark was there with him."

Jesse thought about that. Cheryl was right. Steve really hadn't been alone since the assault until that morning when Mark had been called in. He scratched his head. "Well, the two drugs that led to his arrest usually take about an hour maybe two after ingestion to cause the type of reaction that Steve had. So, I would say that he would have had to have received the poison at some point within the last maybe. . . two hours or so. We'd need to do more tests to be more specific. But those are being run right now."

Cheryl frowned. "Two hours ago. That's about the time Mark was looking for him. Where was he then?"

"Mark said he stopped at a Burger King. He got sick right after that. Do you think someone poisoned the food he picked up at a random fast food restaurant?" Jesse didn't think that was very likely.

"That would be pretty hard to do," Cheryl agreed with him. "But stranger things have happened. Are you sure he didn't stop anyplace else besides Clear Skies?"

"He was home." Mark's voice sounded from behind them.

Both Jesse and Cheryl turned as Mark approached with Amanda alongside him. His expression was solemn. "Two hours ago, Steve was at home."

"The keys," Cheryl spoke up. "She must have put the drugs into something that he ate at home."

"Well that's going to be a problem," Jesse said, remembering the way Steve had looked at the toast and tea Mark had made, not to mention his special breakfast burrito.

"Why's that?" Amanda asked.

"Cause he didn't eat anything while he was there," Jesse replied. "Mark tried to get him to do it, but I'm pretty sure he didn't."

"If he didn't eat anything, then how did he get the drugs in his system?" Cheryl wanted to know.

Mark's eyes widened with sudden realization and all eyes turned toward him. Jesse knew that look. Mark had made an intuitive leap that led him to a conclusion that usually helped in solving a case.

"He did eat something," Mark said. "Or rather, he swallowed something."

Everyone waited expectantly.

"The mouthwash! I came into the bathroom and frightened him and he swallowed a whole mouth full of it. We need to get that bottle and have it tested."

"The crime scene team was still at your house when I left," Amanda told Mark.

"I'll call them, get them to bring it and anything else they find in Steve's bathroom." Cheryl said, already removing her phone and moving slightly away from the group.

Jesse turned toward Mark and Amanda. "We might have another problem. Cheryl just brought in Jonathan Bright. He was pretty sick. Looked like gastroenteritis."

"Food poisoning?" Mark asked doubtfully. "That's far too much of a coincidence, Jess."

Jesse nodded his agreement.

Cheryl rejoined the group and handed a white plastic sack to Amanda. "This is one of the reasons I paged. I picked up Joseph Stoner - he's the man who we think was Steve's other assailant. He was working at Carlo's Restaurant."

"That's the pizza place!" Jesse exclaimed.

"There's more," Cheryl added. "As I was pulling in, guess who I saw pulling out?"

"Amber."

Cheryl nodded. "I tried to call you to warn you, but . . . " She allowed the words to trail off, then continued, "I went out to Clear Skies myself and found Bright looking pretty ill. I decided it better to be safe than sorry."

"You did the right thing," Mark assured her, and Jesse nodded to back him up.

"I'll get right on this," Amanda said, and headed toward the elevators.

"And I need to get that package to the crime lab, have it checked out," Cheryl said. "I'll let you know what we find."

"Thanks Cheryl." Mark said, watching her go. He then turned to Jesse.

"I want to go up and check on Steve. See if maybe any more tests have come back. Would you look in on Bright, check for something besides food poisoning?"

"Sure thing." Jesse nodded and made his way toward the examination room.

-- --

He felt the soreness first, in a tight band around his chest. It made each breath in and out come with its own little spark of pain. But as the memories came rushing back, it reminded him that he was alive. Alive and surrounded by the sounds of hospital equipment and softly arguing voices. They seemed to be coming from a great distance.

"You really . . . get . . . rest," Jesse sounded as if he was trying to convince Mark. "I'll stay . . . him."

". . . can't leave yet," Mark was saying. "Not . . . wakes up."

"You saw . . . results, Mark. . . potassium levels . . . back . . . normal. . . . going . . . be fine. Besides you've . . . up all . . . watching over him. At least let us bring in a cot." That from Amanda.

"Before. . . rest. . . just want to hear his voice," Mark said, his tone softer than before.

Steve felt himself reacting on a level other than the physical. The struggle to come fully awake intensified as he fought to lift heavy lids. The battle raged for what seemed like minutes, but must have been only seconds because he caught the sensation of movement and he thought he heard his father calling his name. A gentle grunt escaped, so strong was his urge to relieve his father's anguish, to let him hear his voice

"Dad. . . " He managed to get the whispered word out and his eyes mostly open. The three people before his blurred for several seconds and then coalesced into his father and his friends. He would have tried to sit up further, to get a better look around himself, but no part of his body aside from his facial muscles seemed to have any inclination at all in moving. The soreness in his chest weighed on him and he felt utterly exhausted.

"How are you feeling?" his dad asked, concern showing in his drawn features.

Steve nearly drew in a deep breath but stopped himself in time. "Like. . . like I've been hit in the chest by a freight train." He found it easier to speak in a low voice.

Mark offered a small sad smile. "That's pretty much the size of it," he said. "The defibrillator and CPR on top of already bruised ribs is going to make you more than a little uncomfortable for a while."

"What happened?" Steve asked, needing to know. He had somewhat of an idea. He remembered going to Clear Skies and the way the pain had suddenly blossomed in Bright's office. After that things got a little hazy. Knowing that CPR was involved fairly well clinched the fact that his heart must have stopped.

There was a moment of strained silence before Mark answered. "Your mouthwash and your toothpaste were spiked with a combination of drugs that caused you to go into cardiac arrest."

Steve's mouth dropped open in surprise. "How. . . . " Realization set in. "The keys. She used the keys. Tried to kill me."

"I've been thinking about that. Shortly after we got you here, Jonathan Bright was brought in. It presented as food poisoning, but thanks to quick thinking on Cheryl's part, we got the Greek salad that he had been eating. The feta cheese was sprinkled liberally with Sodium Chlorate."

"Is he going to be all right?" Steve asked.

Mark nodded. "He's in ICU, but I think he'll make it. We caught the poisoning pretty early, and fortunately, he didn't have time to ingest as much as he could have if we hadn't arrived when we did yesterday."

"So if things had gone according to plan she would have nailed us both at the same time."

"Not the way you think," Mark said. "She was trying to kill Bright yesterday. I'll grant you that. But I think she had something more in mind for you."

Steve frowned. "What?"

"Disgrace, and then death."

"Huh?" Steve was confused.

"She's trying to frame you." Cheryl's voice came from the general direction of the door. All eyes turned in her direction. Mark was the only one who didn't seem surprised.