Chapter 7 – The Not-So-Good Doctor
"I just can't believe Kelly would be involved in something like this," Nathan muttered for what must have been the seventh time. Audrey rolled her eyes but didn't bother answering. It wasn't like he'd listened to her the last few times she'd said anything. She just let Nathan sulk in his disbelief as he drove the truck toward the hospital. This was one of those times that Audrey was grateful that she was the outsider in town, because she didn't have to deal with the problem of knowing all of their victims and suspects the way that Nathan seemed to.
Nathan was still looking tense when he parked the truck in the lot outside the hospital building. They both climbed out onto the asphalt, Audrey clutching a fistful of tissues since her nose had started dripping during the afternoon and it was driving her mad, and began the walk toward the hospital doors. The kindly old lady behind the front counter gave them directions up to Dr. Marlow's office and they climbed into the elevator.
"So how do you know this doctor anyway?" Audrey asked curiously as they waited during the upward trip in the silent elevator.
"He used to be a paediatrician," Nathan confessed. "He was my doctor when I was a kid. He's the one who helped me out the first time this whole no feeling thing started up. I spent a lot of time in his clinic when I was little. He changed specialties when I was a teenager, so I didn't see him when this all came back. I haven't actually seen him in a while."
Audrey nodded, storing away that information for another time. She was using all of these little bits of information she was getting to piece together her partner's past, and each time she learned something new like this she would work it into the vague outline she already had. Despite it all, she felt quite certain there were things about Nathan Wournos that would always remain a mystery.
Not that she had a whole lot of room to talk, logically. She probably knew as much about his past as she did hers at the moment.
The elevator pinged and the doors glided open, and the detectives walked out into a long white corridor. There was a large waiting room around the reception area and doors lined the tiled halls. Nathan did a quick glance at the directional signs on the wall and then set off down the left side hallway, checking door numbers as they passed.
"Here it is," he murmured, stopping short in front of one of the identical doors set in the wall. The plaque next to the doorframe read 'Dr. Kelly Marlow – Otolaryngologist.'
"Wow that's a mouthful of a title," Audrey remarked with a smirk. Nathan's lips quirked just slightly before he knocked on the door.
"Come on in, it's unlocked," was shouted back through the door. The pair exchanged short glances before Nathan twisted the doorknob and they stepped inside.
Dr. Kelly Marlow was sitting in an office chair in front of a computer desk, and he quickly swivelled to face the doorway. He was an elderly man, with closely cropped gray hair and a lifetime of wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, but something about him still gave the impression of great energy. He swept off his reading glasses and stood when they entered.
"Well my word, little Nathan Wournos," he greeted with a smile. "My God you've grown, haven't you? I haven't seen you in ages."
"Hey Kelly," Nathan said. "This is my partner, Agent Parker."
"Ah yes, I've heard about you around the town," Dr. Marlow said. "Vince was right, you look just like Lucy." Audrey felt her heart stutter in her chest and she tried not to gape at the doctor.
"You knew Lucy?" she asked uncertainly.
"Everyone who lived here did," Dr. Marlow answered with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Now what brings you two down here today? I'm going to assume it's not for my medical expertise, although I must say, Agent Parker, you look like you've come down with a bit of a head cold by the looks of it."
"We're actually here about this," Nathan said, drawing the evidence bag that contained Angelina Waters' pill bottle from his pocket. "You ordered this prescription, right?"
Dr. Marlow took the bag and examined the label. "Oh yes, for Nurse Waters," he said with a nod of recollection. "She works here at the hospital, and came to see me on her way home from work yesterday. Had developed a pretty nasty ear infection so I prescribed some of this to clear it out. Why?"
"You also prescribed this same drug to Jeffery Halter, didn't you?" Audrey asked, ignoring his question.
"Halter… The insurance man?" Dr. Marlow asked in surprise. "Why yes I did. A few days ago. His ears were giving him trouble, too. Said that they itched, deep inside, and then that his ears kept ringing. The poor man let it go so long the sinus pressure build-up actually affected his hearing. We had to hold our entire conversation through writing because he couldn't hear a word I was saying to him."
"And Ms. Waters, were her symptoms the same?" Audrey pressed.
"Well yes, just about," Dr. Marlow agreed. "Ear infections usually have about the same symptoms in everyone. The pain inside the ears, the ringing, the inflammation of the inner ear, a bit of pain through the sinuses, and if ignored for long enough temporary deafness. They both showed all the same classic symptoms." His eyes narrowed slightly and he repeated, "Why do you ask?"
Nathan shifted his weight and said, "Because both of them are dead."
Dr. Marlow's eyes widened and the evidence bag slipped from his hand, landing on the floor with a muffled clack. He shook his head, looking horrified, and then finally sagged into his chair. "Why that's terrible," he said grimly. "Those poor people. I mean, no one much understood Mr. Halter, but he was a good man at heart. And Nurse Waters, why she was the best nurse in this place. She was always so sweet, but fair. Always fair and honest. The patients all loved and respected her for that." He rubbed the bridge of his nose, and then looked up at them sadly. "How did it happen?"
"Halter was hit by a car," Nathan explained and Audrey could tell that his tough cop behaviour was starting to wear thin as he stared at his old doctor. "And Waters fell down her stairs."
"Oh God," Dr. Marlow murmured, rubbing at his forehead. "So why have you come to me about this? You – surely you don't think I did something to them?"
"Both of these victims came to you right before they died," Audrey said, picking up the slack since Nathan had locked his jaw. "Both of them were prescribed the exact same medicine, by you. And then they died. You have to see why that makes us a little suspicious."
"I didn't do anything to either of them," Dr. Marlow said firmly. "They were sick, I gave them medicine. That's the end of it."
"You didn't administer any other sort of medicine here, did you? Maybe a special booster shot or something?" Audrey prodded.
"Absolutely not," the doctor said. He stood up again, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. "I would never do anything that would harm a patient. I am a doctor, I help people. Hurting them would go against everything that I stand for. Nathan, you know this."
"I know, Kelly," Nathan said, shrugging and then burying his hands in his pockets. "But it's our job, we have to ask. To be sure."
"Well it's a waste of your time and energy accusing me of poisoning my patients," Dr. Marlow said gruffly. "I've told you, I didn't do anything but my job."
"Alright," Audrey said, backing off that line of questioning, if only because she could tell it was making Nathan uncomfortable. "Well did you notice anything else peculiar about either of them when you saw them? Anything that seemed out of the ordinary, maybe?"
"Besides the sudden onset of their infections, no," Dr. Marlow said, his posture relaxing slightly as the topic changed. "Both of them complained of symptoms that normally would've taken weeks to appear, although both said they had only been experiencing them for a day or in Halter's case, two. And there was a bit of wax build-up in their ear canals as well. Fairly normal in this sort of thing, the pressure moves it all up there, but there did seem to be an excessive amount of it, and it seemed almost – dry, I suppose would be the word. Small, crystallized."
"Like sand," Nathan said and the doctor nodded.
"Yes, rather like it, I think," he agreed. "I only hope it's not some new epidemic that will be spreading around. We already seem to have so many of those nowadays."
"Did either of them mention someone to you? Someone that they might have had an argument with or someone that might have had it out for them?" Audrey asked hopefully.
"No, no one says much to me except about their illnesses," Dr. Marlow said simply. "I'm not a therapist, after all. Although Nurse Waters was rather agitated when she was in here. The poor girl had just finished doing a rotation through several different wards and those are always so stressful, dealing with so many unfamiliar patients and unfamiliar diseases. I think she spent most of yesterday up in the cancer ward. Seeing all of those people, most of them headed for an early grave, why that's enough to make anyone feel awful."
Audrey glanced up interestedly, something in that statement sticking out to her. "Alright, well I think that's all we have for now," she said, looking over at her partner. "Nathan, any other questions?"
"Nope, I think that's it," he said, sensing that she'd obviously caught on to something that he'd missed. "I guess we'll be heading out then. Thanks for your time, Kelly."
They turned to head for the door, but the doctor stopped them. "Nathan," he said and both looked back at him. "Your condition, it came back, didn't it?"
"Yes, a couple years ago," he said with that hardened, closed off look that Audrey recognized so well.
"I'm sorry to hear that, m'boy," Dr. Marlow said, shaking his head sadly. "They found any cures, anything that might make it go away again?"
For some reason, Nathan shot a guarded look at his partner before turning back to the doctor. "No, nothing yet," he said flatly.
"Well I hope they do," the doctor said and sank into his desk chair. "You're a good man, and you don't deserve that weight God put on your shoulders."
Nathan looked awkward, and finally he simply settled for a short nod and then walked out of the office. Audrey made to follow when the doctor said, "Oh and Agent Parker, some over-the-counter decongestants and some of Annabeth's herbal tea, and you'll be over that cold in three days tops."
"Thanks," Audrey said uncertainly and then stepped into the hall, shutting the door behind her. Nathan was waiting for her and they walked back out of the hospital without speaking, not wanting to talk while surrounded by so many people as there always seemed to be in the hospital corridors. The silence held until they were safely shut up inside the old Bronco again.
"Nathan, you alright?" Audrey asked cautiously, twisting sideways in the passenger seat to face her partner.
Nathan looked over at her for a second, his brooding eyes thoughtful, and then he nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine," he said and even managed a small smirk. "So what was your epiphany?"
Audrey's smile faded into an uneasy frown. "Dr. Marlow said that right before she got sick, Nurse Waters had been on rotation in the cancer ward," she said and Nathan nodded slowly. "Well who have we talked to already who would have been up in the cancer ward?"
Nathan's eyebrows furrowed, and then lifted with comprehension. "Marion Yardley."
"Maybe Nurse Waters was just trying to be honest with her, tell her the chances of her husband's recovery, and Marion didn't like it," Audrey speculated. "Or maybe she went about a treatment wrong. There are a million things a nurse in unfamiliar territory could do to upset an already upset woman." She paused to dab at her nose with the wrinkled tissue in her hand, making an annoyed face. "We should go question her again. Maybe even her husband this time, he might know something."
"Tomorrow," Nathan said, switching on the truck's ignition. "Right now we've got other things to do."
"Like what?" Audrey asked, wondering what on earth was more important than solving a murder case, especially one involving what she was positive had to be a Troubled person. And if he says pancakes, I swear I'm going to kill him.
"We have a few stops to make and then we're clocking out early," he informed her as he shifted the truck into reverse and pulled out of the parking stall. "First stop is the pharmacy to pick up some decongestants so you stop sniffling." He smirked a little at the indignant look she shot him at that comment. "And then we're going to Annabeth's for tea. I think I'll have some too, just in case. I must have caught your cold because I can't smell a thing."
"That's the only way you can tell you have a cold?" she asked in awe. Of course, with his inability to feel, he wouldn't feel the pressure inside his skull or the itching in his throat or the aching in his chest. All of the most horrible parts of a cold would go completely unnoticed by him. Although she would never admit it out loud for fear of offending him, in that moment as Audrey huddled inside his coat and tried to not think about the growing tickle in her throat, she was kind of jealous of Nathan and his condition.
As if he could tell what she was thinking, his lips lifted in a lopsided grin. "I have to admit, this condition has a few benefits," he said wryly. "For instance, I don't even remember what a hangover is supposed to feel like."
Audrey didn't even bother trying to hide her envy at that. She was still grousing about it when he dropped her off at the Bed and Breakfast with a box of decongestants in her pocket and a large to-go mug of her third helping of Annabeth's herbal tea – she'd never been much of a tea drinker, but Audrey had to admit, if only to herself, that the tea tasted fantastic and already her sinuses felt clearer – and explicit directions to be lazy and get a lot of sleep or he'd send her straight back home in the morning.
Never one to like being told what to do, or being coddled for something as silly as a cold, Audrey had shot him an irritated look as she'd climbed out of his truck. But once she was curled up on her couch in her pyjamas, she had to say, it felt rather nice to be taken care of for once in her life.