CHAPTER FOUR
David looked up to his children. The hospital cafeteria was sterile despite the bright green tables and the art on the walls from various children who were staying in the hospital. They were eating dinner here, and while it looked like a restaurant-quality meal, the Read's knew they were in a place they didn't want to be. Kate had a hard time eating her food, and David had skipped dinner altogether.
David sighed, "So you told me you went on an important mission today in order to help your sister with her project. What happened?" he questioned, his eyes locked on Arthur.
"Well, I'll let her explain it to you," Arthur said, turning to Kate.
Without hesitation, Kate told him everything from the beginning, how she noticed more people were having strokes and began looking at the numbers. Now Brain, well, Dr. Powers, would be including her in the study his graduate-level class was doing in hopes of finding out more about the victims, pending David's permission.
David sat back with a stunned expression. His eyes turned to Arthur again, "I see my text was useful to you. Nigel got here around two or three, I think, looking worse than Mr. Crosswire and your mother combined. He too wasn't found for many hours, but they were able to remove several clots throughout his brain. They say he'd probably been having small strokes for months without even realizing it."
"How do you not know if you've had a stroke?!" a voice demanded. David turned, and as he did, Arthur saw another face from his past: Muffy Crosswire. Muffy repeated herself but a little more politely, "Sorry, but did I hear you right? Mr. Ratburn had strokes without even realizing it? He was a prophet. How could he not know?"
"He kept a diary that his sister found near him when she came to check on him. She told me about it in the vending room upstairs, and she said he'd been taking these health supplements that claimed to have side effects. He thought they were just working for him, then he didn't show up for work. They called her and asked her to check in, so she did," David explained. "What about your parents? Were they taking any supplements like that?"
Muffy scoffed, "My mother would hurl anything down her gullet to help herself stay young, so I wouldn't doubt it. She'd been pushing some miracle vitamin on the family for months before she had her stroke. Now she's about as useful as the celery she had every morning for breakfast."
Kate nodded, a twinkle in her eye, "And your father was taking the supplements, to please her?" she inquired.
"I doubt it," Muffy said, shaking her head, "No, no, maybe she did get to him. I'll text Bailey. He managed to resist her charms, but he's been able to get away with things like that for years," she said, using her thumb to send a quick text before looking up to the Read's with sad eyes, "Do you think something like a vitamin could give people strokes?"
"If it's tainted, then yes," Arthur replied in a low voice, "but they would know if it was tainted and recall it."
"Not if the FDA didn't approve it," Kate said with excitement in her voice, "Arthur, you need to call Brain and have them look into this. If a bunch of people were taking a drug the Food and Drug Administration didn't approve first, then that could be a huge problem."
"You're working with Brain too?" Muffy asked. "Hmm, they called me to ask about my dad, Brain did, but it was for his department. Do you think they can figure it out?"
"I think we just did," Arthur said, reaching down to his phone as it buzzed on the table. Brain had the same eureka moment that Kate had: Many of the victims were taking organic vitamins as part of their healthy lifestyle, and most of the families had turned over the supplements along with their other medication when they knew about it.
David paled, "I've been taking them too, and so has Jane. They said they were healthy on the label, but they did mention side effects if you read the side of the bottle. I knew it wasn't right for fingers to tingle like that—"
"Dad, you have to get help!" Kate cried, standing up so fast that she caught the attention of everyone else in the room. She demanded he go to the emergency department, and Arthur helped her. Together they got him into a wheelchair and went with an attendant to that side of their hospital, leaving their half-eaten dinner behind.