J.M.J.

Thank you for continuing to read and especially to everyone who has taken the time to review! You're all pretty good at guessing what's going to happen, but I'm hoping none of you saw this twist coming! Enjoy and God bless!

Chapter 5

Nancy texted George that she and Ned were going back to the hospital for a little while and not to worry, but she didn't explain why. It was simultaneously one of George's great strengths and also a weakness that she tended to be fiercely protective of her friends, so much so that she sometimes charged in without knowing all the details of a situation. If Callie Shaw had turned up at the hospital, it was important to hear her out before jumping to any conclusions. After all, her break-up with Frank had been years ago, enough years that any bitter feelings could very well have dissipated by now.

Actually, as far as break-ups went, it had been a peaceable one. It was right after high school, and Frank and Callie were going to different colleges that were a long distance from one another. Callie had been doubtful that they would be able to keep up a relationship under the circumstances, even though Frank had been willing to was only later that things got worse. Before Callie finished college, her parents had been killed in a car accident. Nancy didn't know the full details of what had happened after that, but she did know that Callie had never come back to Bayport and had cut off most communications with anyone there. Nancy also knew that Frank didn't talk about it, and even Joe didn't seem to know everything. What Nancy didn't was why Callie would suddenly appear on the scene again. Maybe it meant that things weren't so bad as they looked to an outsider.

Even so, Nancy was apprehensive as she and Ned returned to the hospital. Griffon met them at the door and then walked to the waiting area with them. At this time of night, it was empty, except for a blonde young woman sitting in one of the hard-backed chairs with a little red-headed boy of about four leaning against her as he slept. The woman looked up when she heard the others enter the room, and her brown eyes met Nancy's blue ones. Surprise and uncertainty appeared in them, along with recognition. For her own part, Nancy was also taken off guard, and her eyes kept flicking back to the boy as she and Ned walked across the room.

"Hi, Callie," she said, not bothering to hide the questioning tone in her voice. Callie must know that her presence here was surprising, and she would also recognize any attempt to appear unsurprised as insincere.

"Hi, Nancy," Callie replied. Her voice was soft, but it made the boy stir and look up at the newcomers anyway.

Nancy took in a deep breath and then looked toward Ned. "Callie, did you ever meet Ned?"

"I don't think so, although I've heard a lot about you, Ned." Callie stood up, moving carefully so as not to disturb the boy too much. "It's nice to finally meet you."

Ned shook her proffered hand. "Same to you," he replied with forced politeness.

Callie looked behind her toward the boy, who was now fully awake, and she gestured for him to stand up. "This is my son, Martin." There was almost a defensiveness in her tone, but it softened as she added, "Martin, these are Nancy and Ned."

"It's nice to meet you," the boys said solemnly, holding out his hand.

Ned and Nancy both grinned as they shook his hand and acknowledged the introduction.

Callie took in a deep breath before she added, "Martin is a big fan of football."

Ned took the hint quickly and crouched down to talk to the boy more easily. "Is that so? You know, I used to play football when I was in college."

Martin's face lit up. "You did? When I grow up, I'm going to play football. That's what my daddy did."

Callie bit her lip for half a second, and then she took Nancy by the elbow and pulled her a couple of steps to the side. "Nancy, what is going on?" she asked quietly, but urgently.

"How much do you know?" Nancy countered. "For that matter, how do you know anything? I mean…"

"Oh, I know what you mean. No one back in Bayport would bother to let me know about this." Callie closed her eyes. "I'm living in a little town, just across the border from here. I got this in the mail today."

She reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope, which she handed to Nancy. She used her left hand, which gave Nancy a chance to see that she didn't have any ring on that hand, but the name on the front of the envelope was Callie Dalton. Nancy glanced up at Callie, who sighed.

"It's my married name," she said quietly. "I gave the officer my maiden name, since I thought he was going to tell Frank's parents or Joe that I was here, and I didn't want any confusion about who I was."

"That makes sense," Nancy told her as she opened the envelope. There was a picture of Callie and Frank inside, taken years ago when they were still a couple. Nancy turned it over. There was an address on the back, the same as the address on the envelope, but not written by the same hand. Nancy recognized that Frank had written this. There was also a sticky note with a brief message, written by the same person who had addressed the envelope, Nancy thought. It read: Frank Hardy is dying. If you want to say you're sorry, he's at Mercy Hospital, Vancouver, BC. A friend.

Nancy quickly glanced up at Callie. "It's an exaggeration, for one thing. He's in stable condition."

Callie relaxed. "I'm glad of that. But what happened?"

"An accident, maybe. He was hit by a car. He is pretty badly off, and he's unconscious."

That seemed to wipe away most of Callie's relief. "Is he going to be all right?"

"I don't know," Nancy admitted.

Callie blinked a few times and then nodded toward the envelope. "Who sent me that?"

"I don't know that either. You don't have any idea?"

Callie shrugged helplessly. "I don't know anything. Where's Joe? Or their parents?"

"That's the problem. I don't know that either. No one can get in touch with them. I'm afraid something's happened to them, too." When Callie didn't reply, Nancy added, "Why did you come?"

"Why wouldn't I come, after getting a message like that?" Callie countered. "I had to come and find out what was going on."

"An anonymous message like this could have been a trap."

"Who would want to trap me?"

"Why didn't you at least bring your husband?"

Callie looked at the floor. "I'm not married anymore." She took in a deep breath before she added, "He died a couple of years ago."

"I'm sorry," Nancy told her.

Callie nodded a few times. "Look, Nancy, I didn't handle things very well with Frank. This might be the only chance I'll have to have some kind of resolution over it all. But I don't want to hurt him even more. You'd know better than me. If you think it wouldn't be good for him for me to visit him, then I'll go."

"Honestly, I don't know," Nancy admitted "I suppose we should leave that up to his doctor."

After Nancy had assured them that Callie really was who she said she was, Griffon had no objection to her seeing Frank. It was after visiting hours, but Dr. Rogate was willing to make an exception, under the circumstances. That did nothing to reassure Nancy on Frank's condition, and she guessed from the look on Callie's face that she was thinking the same thing.

"Just a moment," Callie asked and went back to where Martin and Ned were still talking.

"Mommy!" Martin said, jumping up when he saw her coming toward him. "Ned knows a whole bunch of football players. Can we meet them? Please?"

"Maybe some other time," Callie told him. "I've got to go do something right now. I'll be gone for just a few minutes. Would you mind staying here with Ned and Nancy?"

"Sure. Can you teach me to play football, Ned?" Martin asked.

Ned grinned. "I can't do that in the hospital."

"We could go outside," Martin suggested.

"Just stay here with them, Martin," Callie told him. "I won't be very long."

Martin reluctantly agreed and sat back down while she walked away. "I wish my daddy could teach me to play football."

Ned glanced at Nancy questioningly, and Nancy sat down next to the small boy.

"Do you remember your daddy?" she asked.

Martin shook his head. "Mommy says he lives with Jesus now, and he'd come and visit, but it's too far. But Mommy says he would have played football with me, if he could have."

He said this with more disappointment than real sadness, and he was able to quickly to change to other topics. He was able to keep a conversation running practically by himself, and anything Nancy or Ned said could spur him onto long stories or descriptions. He seemed, on the whole, to be a happy, friendly boy.

As Callie had promised, she wasn't gone long. She came back with her eyes red-rimmed and she clutched at her purse as if she needed to hold onto something. As soon as she reached them, she held out her hand to Martin. "Are you ready to go?"

Martin jumped up, but then he looked at Ned. "Are you going to come see us sometime?"

Ned glanced at Callie, who gave a small, rueful smile. "I hope so. Thank you for watching Martin."

"Sure thing," Ned told her. "He's a great kid."

"Are you okay?" Nancy asked.

Callie nodded. "I think so. Will you let me know what happens?"

"Of course."

"Here. Let me give you my phone number."

Callie started rummaging through her purse. As she did, a small medicine bottle fell out and dropped to the floor. Nancy stooped to pick it up for her.

"Thanks," Callie said absently as she finally found a pad of paper and a pen. She wrote down a number and handed it to Nancy. Then she looked questioningly at the bottle in Nancy's hand. "What is that?"

"Isn't it yours?" Nancy asked. "It fell out of your purse."

"I know, but it's not mine." Callie took it from her and examined the bottle in confusion.

At the same moment, an alarm started to ring. There was a commotion as several doctors and nurses rushed toward one of the rooms. From their vantage point down the hall, Nancy couldn't see the numbers on the doors, but she knew which door it was without that help.

"That's Frank's room!" Callie said, taking a couple of steps forward before she stopped.

Griffon hurried to the small group. "I'm going to need all of you to stay here until we find out what's happening, eh?"

No one argued with that, as they wanted to know what was happening. Nancy noted that Callie slipped the mysterious bottle back into her purse while they waited. It was a long time before Dr. Rogate came back out of Frank's room. His expression was not pleased as he strode straight toward Callie.

"Ma'am, what did you do in there?" he demanded.

Callie shrank a little in fright. "I didn't do anything."

"Someone did, and you were the only one in that room," Dr. Rogate insisted.

"What happened?" Nancy asked quickly.

Dr. Rogate didn't take his eyes off Callie. "I can't go into details, considering none of you are family, but I suspect that someone slipped a particular drug into my patient's IV. If we hadn't caught it in time, it would have been fatal. You're the only one who was in the room recently enough to have done it."

Callie's face had blanched and the first thing she did was to glance quickly at Martin, who was staring with wide eyes.

"There's no need to start throwing accusations around, doctor," Griffon spoke up. "At least not until we know for sure what happened. Adding dangerous drugs to an IV is not an easy thing to do, at least for someone who doesn't have a medical background."

"Are you accusing someone on my staff?" Dr. Rogate retorted.

"I'm not accusing anyone, but it's possible," Griffon said coolly. "You've got a security camera trained on that door. I'm going to need to review it to see who's been in there on your staff. As for you, Mrs. Dalton…" Griffon looked toward Callie and paused. "You did admit that Hardy is an ex-boyfriend."

"Yes, but I would never…" Callie stopped herself and looked at Nancy. Then she pulled the medicine bottle from her purse. "Would this do what you're saying happened?"

"It most certainly would," Dr. Rogate replied. "What are you doing with it?"

"I don't know how it got in my purse. I've never seen it before." Callie sounded defeated. She must have known how weak this defense was.

Nancy debated whether she should mention seeing the bottle earlier. She realized it wouldn't help Callie's defense at all, but it also wouldn't hurt, and honesty was necessary. "She dropped it earlier, and I picked it up for her. I doubt she would have been so careless about it if she had just used it to try to kill Frank."

"Nerves can make a person make surprising mistakes," Dr. Rogate insisted.

"Someone is obviously trying to frame her," Nancy said. "That letter she got and now this…What else could it be, besides a frame?"

"I don't know that it's obvious," Griffon said reluctantly. "Mrs. Dalton, I'm going to have to have you come down to the precinct and answer some questions."

"I can't," Callie insisted, beginning to panic. "What about my son?"

Griffon glanced at the boy apologetically. "We'll make sure nothing happens to him."

Callie shook her head. "You can't put him in some foster home."

"It wouldn't come to that unless we have to arrest you," Griffon said. "You can call someone and have them pick him up, of course."

"I don't have anyone," Callie admitted softly.

Nancy glanced at Ned. Callie must have caught the glance, because she turned pleading eyes to Nancy.

"Would you watch him?" she asked. "I'd rather you than some stranger."

Nancy wasn't quite comfortable with that and having a small boy in tow would make investigating hard. But she knew how she would feel if she was in Callie's place. She glanced at Ned again, who nodded.

"All right," Nancy said. "And it'll be okay. We'll figure out what's going on. I know it wasn't you."

Callie nodded blankly. "Thank you." Then she looked at Dr. Rogate. "Is Frank going to be okay?"

"I don't know," the doctor replied grimly, "but if I were you, I'd be praying he will be."