Death Vetoes The Chairman (Lizzie Crenshaw Mysteries Book 7) (19 page)

Chapter 24

I’ve never been a patient person, especially when it comes to waiting. At one in the morning, I found myself pacing the floor in the waiting room of the emergency room, despite my soreness from the accident. Sheriff McDonald sat in a chair, talking quietly on his phone. For the third time, I walked over the admittance clerk to ask her for news. She held up her hand before I could say anything.

“I’m sorry, miss, I still don’t have any news. The doctors will come out to talk to you about your husband as soon as they can.”

The phone on her desk rang before I could tell her that Jake and I weren’t married. As I turned away, the sliding entrance doors opened, and Patricia rushing in, with Garth right behind her. She came over and gave me a gentle hug. “Lizzie, my goodness! Garth told me you weren’t seriously injured, but I’m not so sure. Have you been seen by a doctor yet?”

“No, ma’am,” I replied as Garth handing me a small overnight bag.

“Well, we’ll fix that little oversight right away. Any news on my son yet?”

I glanced over my shoulder at the clerk, who was staring at us. “I haven’t been able to find out anything.”

“Give me just a moment, dear,” she replied. She walked over to the clerk. “Carrie, what a pleasant surprise! How are you?”

“I’m just fine, Mrs. Mathias.”

“And how are those two darling angels of yours, Andrew and Angela? My goodness, they must be what, ten years old now?”

Carrie smiled. “Yes, ma’am, they are. Growing like weeds.”

“Children are wonderful, aren’t they?” Carrie nodded. “I was wondering if you could help me with something, Carrie.”

“If I can.”

“My son was brought in a little while ago. Ms. Crenshaw says she’s been unable to find out anything about his condition. Do you think you could go back there and see how he’s doing?”

Carrie hesitated for a moment, then got up and hurried away. I just shook my head, thinking how nice it must be to be so rich and powerful that people fell over themselves to please you. I walked over to Sheriff McDonald, who was having a quiet conversation with Garth. They stopped talking when I came over. “Are they going to be able to get any evidence off the SUV?”

“First, they have to get it back on the road. That’s not going to be easy. I’m amazed the two of you are still alive, quite frankly,” McDonald replied, shaking his head. “It looked like you bounced off several trees before finally coming to a stop. Just unbelieveable.”

I shuddered at his description. “So anything you could get might be compromised?”

He shrugged. “It’s possible, but this type of thing isn’t my area of expertise. I’ll get some crime scene techs from the state police. Hopefully, they’ll be able to find something. But even then, without a description of the truck, it will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“I figured as much,” I said. “I’m sorry I can’t give you what you need. The headlights blinded me.”

“How high off the ground were they?” Garth said. I gave him a puzzled look. “When a car gets too close to another car, usually the headlights are blocked by the back end of the car, which gives you a view across the hood. Do you follow me so far?” I nodded. “Good. Did that happen when the the other vehicle got close to the SUV?”

I thought about it for a moment. “No, they seemed to fill up the back window. All I could see was the headlights and the glint of the grill.”

“That’s good. So it was a truck. Did you see an emblem on the grill?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t focusing on it. I was too busy hoping we wouldn’t go over the edge.”

“Close your eyes and think about it for a minute,” Garth said.

Sighing, I did what he asked, but all I remembered seeing was bright lights. “Just lights. That’s all.”

“Keep trying…”

“I don’t want to keep trying,” I snapped. “I’ve had more than enough drama lately to last me a lifetime. Frankly, I wish I could forget everything that has happened this past month!”

Patricia came over. “Why are you two hounding this poor girl?” she admonished them. “Leave her be, or you’ll both answer to me, is that clear?” She led me to the other side of the room. “Why don’t you sit down and rest, Lizzie?”

“Not until we hear how Jake is doing. Does your husband know about Jake?”

“You’re going to wear yourself out. He’s in New York City on business. I called him; he said he’d fly home first thing in the morning.”

I sighed. “Jake wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for me.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He came here to get answers about Ethan’s past because of what happened to me.”

She held my hand. “Jake feels responsible for what happened, Lizzie. He’s worried that you haven’t been able to move past this. He’ll do whatever he can to make sure you have peace of mind. You wouldn’t have been able to stop him even if you tried to. He’s just as pigheaded and stubborn as you are.”

“Mrs. Mathias?” We turned to see Carrie standing next to a doctor in green hospital scrubs. “This is Dr. Morgan. He’s been taking care of Jake, and he’ll be able to answer your questions.”

“Thank you so much, Carrie,” Patricia said. “You give those two little angels a hug from me when you see them.”

“Yes, ma’am, I sure will.” She returned to her desk as our attention focused on the doctor in front of us.

“How is my son doing, Dr. Morgan?”

“I won’t lie to you, Mrs. Mathias. He’s not in good shape. He has a fractured clavicle…”

“A what?” I interrupted.

“His collarbone,” the doctor explained. “He also has four cracked ribs, a laceration on his cheek, bumps and bruises everywhere, and he’s still unconscious. We’re running some tests. Once we have the results, we’ll know how to proceed with his treatment. Do either of you know what happened to him?”

“A truck ran us off the road on Highway 16,” I said. “We were t-boned on Jake’s side of the SUV, and we ended up pinned against the trunk of a tree.”

Dr. Morgan looked at me from head to toe. “Did you come in by ambulance?”

“I rode in the back with Jake. One of the paramedics checked me out.”

“I’d like to do a physical examination, if that is all right with you, just to make sure you don’t have any broken bones.”

“I’m fine, really.” I moved closer to Patricia, who put her arm around me protectively.

“Dr. Morgan is right, Lizzie. I’ll be right there with you.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary, Mrs. Mathias,” Dr. Morgan replied.

She arched an eyebrow and gave him a stern look. “This young lady is a guest in my home, and that makes her welfare my responsibility. The only person she really knows is Jake. I believe it will put her at ease if I was with her.”

A nurse came up behind Dr. Morgan and whispered in his ear. “I’ll be right there,” he told her. “Very well, Mrs. Mathias. If you’ll follow me, I’ll have one of the nurses find a room for you.”

“Thank you very much. Why don’t you grab your overnight bag, Lizzie? Once they’re done, you can get cleaned up and changed. Oh wait, let me say something to Garth.” She hurried over and whispered something in his ear. He nodded. “All set?” she said as she came back. “After you, Dr. Morgan.”

I won’t bore you with the details of the exam. The end result was that I was battered and bruised, but I’d live to fight another day. The imprint of the seatbelt across my chest had left some deep bruises, and from the waist down, I was one giant bruise. Dr. Morgan gave me something for the pain, and a young nurse came in to clean and disinfect the scratches on my knees, hands, and the cut on my head. Once she was finished, Patricia stepped into the hallway so I could change. She had thoughtfully packed a pair of my favorite sweats, and a very soft shirt.

When I left the room, I saw her talking to Dr. Morgan, who had one hand on her left arm. He nodded at me as I approached them. “They’ll take him to the operating room in a few minutes. I can give you a couple of minutes to see him if you want.”

“Wait, why are you operating? I thought you said he just had broken bones and bruises,” I said.

“There’s some internal bleeding,” Dr. Morgan explained, “which is why he’s unconscious. It looks like he has a ruptured spleen.”

He led us to a bigger room, where Jake was lying on a gurney, hooked up to a heart monitor. IV lines ran from the needle in his arm to a bag that was hanging on a tall, cold, stainless steel pole. I heard a sharp intake of breath from Patricia, and I reached out to grab her hand. We walked over to the right side of the gurney. She took his hand in hers and squeezed. I put my left hand on his arm, and we stood there like that, lost in our own thoughts, until they came to take him to surgery. We followed them down the hall until we came to a pair of double doors. “I’m sorry, ladies,” the nurse who had taken care of me said to us, “this is as far as you can go.” She hit a large button on the wall, and the doors swung open. “We’ll take good care of him, I promise. The doctor will come see you when the surgery is over.”

We made our way to the surgery waiting room. The clock on the wall said it was after 3 a.m. There was an old black and white movie on the TV, and I sat down on one of the couches to watch it. Patricia pulled out her phone and made a call. I decided to call T.J. and let him know what was going on, but there was no answer. So I called Trixie instead. “Do you have any idea what time it is?” she groused when she answered.

“About 3:30 in the morning here.”

“What in the name of all that is holy are you doing up at this time of night?”

“There’s been an accident.”

“Wait, what?” I heard her moving around, and figured she was probably sitting up on her bed. “What’s going on out there?”

I told her what had happened since we had been here, ending with Jake going into surgery. “Right now, all we can do is wait.”

“What do you mean, Jake’s having surgery?! How serious is it? What do you need me to do? Do you want me to come out there?”

“Not right now. There’s really nothing that you can do. I think they’re going to remove his spleen.”

“Oh my God. Have you told T.J. yet?”

“I tried to call him, but there was no answer.”

“That’s odd,” she said, “I saw him at supper last night. He and Owen were talking about a case they were working on.”

“I’ll try him again later.”

“If I see him, I’ll tell him to get in touch with you.”

“Thanks.”

“Have you talked with your mother?”

“No. I have no idea where they’re at right now. Somewhere in Europe. I don’t want to bother her with this. She’d insist on coming home, and I don’t want to ruin her honeymoon.”

“She’s been on her honeymoon for what, three months now? She’d want to know.”

“I might call her when I get home. We’ll see.”

“When do you think that will be?”

“I don’t know,” I sighed. “Not until I know Jake is going to be okay.”

“If you need me, I’ll be there in a heartbeat.”

“How are the babies?” I said, changing the subject.

“Babe and Mittens are just fine,” she assured me. “I’m spoiling them rotten, of course.”

“Of course,” I laughed. “Give them a big hug from me.”

After making me promise to call her as soon as Jake was out of surgery, we hung up. Patricia was still on the phone, so I sat back on the couch and looked around the room. Plain beige walls stared back at me, and I wondered why they couldn’t make the room more cheerful. On one wall was a picture of Jesus, hands folded together, looking up at the sky. Another wall had a large painting of a floral arrangement. The TV was on the third wall, and the couch I was sitting on was against the fourth wall. The end table next to me held a dimly lit lamp and various magazines. My couch was dark brown, and Patricia was sitting on the matching loveseat.

I glanced at the TV again. The movie was an old Jimmy Stewart movie, although I couldn’t think of the name of it. A Cary Grant/Rosalind Russell movie followed that one, and a Hepburn/Tracy movie had started when Dr. Morgan finally came into the waiting room. Patricia had fallen asleep on the love seat, and I went over to wake her up.

“The surgery went well,” he told us. “We did have to remove his spleen, but there were no other complications. They’re moving him to a private room, and you’ll be able to see him in an hour or so. I strongly suggest the two of you go home, get some rest, and come back later. He’s going to be asleep for a while.”

“I’ll stay,” I said. “Why don’t you go home and get some rest, Patricia? When you come back this afternoon, I’ll go back to the house.”

“Are you sure? You’ve been through enough already today.”

“When a child is hurting, no matter how old they are, the one thing they want first is their mother. I’ll stay with him until you come back.”

She gave me a hug. “You are a sweet woman, Lizzie. I’ll be back in a few hours. Try to get a nap if you can.”

She stayed long enough to look in on him in his room. before she left. A nurse brought me a pillow and blanket. “That chair by his bed reclines if you want to get some rest,” she told me.

I thanked her and gently sat down. The aches and pains of the accident had caught up to me, and I took one of the painkillers Dr. Morgan had given me. Then I leaned back in the chair, put the blanket over me, and fell asleep.