Maddy's Floor (11 page)

She studied the drugs listed. The cocktail was daunting, particularly considering that nothing was working. Her radiation treatments had been discontinued and the traditional way forward appeared to be the only option – help her make peace with the future.

After her rounds this morning, Maddy planned to go into her office and do a full energy scan on her youngest patient – something Maddy needed peace and quiet to do. She'd like to do one here at Felicia's bedside while she slept. However, until the place returned to normal from the repairs and new arrivals, she'd do her scans remotely. Switching her vision, she checked Felicia's energy. It pulsed slowly and was snug against the tiny body. White with soft lavender ripples, but the pulses had a tenacity to them that gave Maddy hope. Still, the energy was low and fainter than Maddy would like.

There was no time to lose.

"Felicia, I have to go and run a bunch of tests. When I'm done, we'll talk again." With a bright smile, and a brief touch of her hand to Felicia's cheek, Maddy left and strode down to her office. At the nurses' station she stopped for her messages and told the staff she'd be working and not to disturb her.

They understood, at least to some degree.

Few understood the world of a medical intuitive. For Maddy, her special awareness was a natural complement to her medicine and as instinctive as breathing.

She closed her office door, drew the heavy curtains together and turned off her phones. She walked over to the wall beside her door, pushed the visitor's chair back and away and cleared a space where she could sit on the floor. She could do this standing or sitting; however, as yoga was her preferred method to unwind, she usually chose to relax into one of the many poses her body loved so well.

After unbuttoning her jacket and kicking off her heels, Maddy gracefully sank to the floor to sit cross-legged. She sighed deeply, rotating her neck and releasing the tension in her system. Tension was resistance. She knew that, and slowly eased her body into a state of relaxation and self-awareness.

Feeling a familiar calming detachment, Maddy went to work.

Using a technique called remote viewing, Maddy focused on Felicia until her awareness was right at her bedside where she 'saw' Felicia's body. It was almost as good as being there in person. She shifted her focus to Felicia's energy systems. Every physical body had a road map of energy like highways rippling across it, servicing all the main body systems. Maddy saw the energy flows and drains, as they moved to address worry, stress, past events or even joy.

Most people in The Haven had little energy dedicated to the good things in life. If they had, they wouldn't be as sick. The human body created and tapped into so much more energy than people understood. Instead of reaching for the energy so readily available, people 'used up' their stock of this resource with the little irritating things in life, leaving their systems short for healing. They could get more anytime, but rarely did. Most people, if asked, would say they didn't know where or how to get more energy.

Maddy had perfected another technique for use on her terminal patients. She moved from one end of the body to the other, seeing thin slices of the body similar to a CT scan, which allowed Maddy to flick through one area to another.

Starting at the toes, Maddy studied Felicia, making note of any issues on the way through the layers of the child's body. Energy buzzed or slugged its way through Felicia's circulatory system, shining with light, and in some areas, with a dark, purplish slow energy.

Working steadily, she familiarized herself with the ebb and flow of Felicia's life force, her health, her condition and her illness. The back of the child's neck and the lower portion of her head had a dead black pulsating look to it. This was the problem. She'd known that much already though. The question was, what fed this tumor's insatiable growth? Usually a growth of this type came when blockages prevented the normal spread of energy, causing new pathways to form around it.

Distancing herself slightly, Maddy studied the meridian lines tracing movement of energy the length of the child's body. Several blockages existed: one below her right knee, one on the left side of her chest. Slicing the layers lengthwise, Maddy scanned the holograph, studying the images from top to bottom. One definite problem centered in the large intestine, with a complete energy blockage in the forefront of her spine. Interesting.

Maddy didn't know what to do with this information yet, but she now had an idea of the severity of Felicia's condition. Complete blockages caused energy pathways to rework, regrow and reform. In Felicia's case, they spread out in tiny webs searching for other pathways to take care of the problem. Felicia's body was a spider web of tiny networks.

All illnesses and diseases affected the body's nervous systems and developed tension. As she had used one method to read the energy, Maddy used a companion method to soothe the ruffled energy of Felicia's aura, easing the tension rippling through the child's body into a smoothly flowing stream. Then Maddy went to work on one meridian, the one running up the front of Felicia's leg and chest where a minor blockage was forming.

The blockage disappeared under Maddy's ministration, surprising her with the speed of its disappearance. She knew better than to do too much at one time. Pulling back, she smiled as the clean meridian energy glowed brighter.

Maddy's energy levels dropped. She checked the hallway clock. Two hours already. No wonder, her reserves were long gone, her body dehydrated. Time to pull back.

The progress she'd made wasn't much, yet it was a start.

***

Drew walked into the pathology rooms at The Haven. Dr. Miko's odd tone of voice had made him drop everything to race over.

"Dr. Miko?" He scanned the gleaming stainless steel room. The joys of a private hospital – they got the best of everything. At the far end of the room, an assistant washed down an autopsy table, the hose forcing the bloody water down the gleaming drain.

"Over here." The strident voice came from behind him, to the left. He spun around. The tiny dynamo in green scrubs strode toward him, her close-cut peppered hair snug against her skull. A frown marred her face. "You didn't gown up," she snapped and led the way through to the offices. "I don't like people in my rooms."

Chastised, and with good reason, Drew remembered her rules too late. "Sorry, I couldn't find you and thought—"

"And thought I might be working and so you'd take a quick glance around. Like that changes anything." She pushed her thick-rimmed, black glasses up her nose and narrowed her gaze at him. "Do I know you?"

Drew hastily shoved his hand forward. "Detective Drew McNeil."

"McNeil? John McNeil's nephew?" She ignored his hand.

Drew tucked his hand back into his pocket. "Yes, that's correct."

"Right. He's a tough man. It must have been hard growing up with him. You don't have to be like him, you know."

Surprised at the personal comment, Drew stalled with a response, finally saying, "He's a good man."

"I didn't say he wasn't. What are you doing here?"

"You called me about a possible connection to an old case?"

Her face instantly sobered. "Right, no way to forget that nightmare." She took a deep breath before reciting, "I was new in the profession back then. That case is one I've never forgotten. Six children, all with no apparent cause of death. A small bruise was found at the base of their spines. No other marks, no DNA, no sign of violence – no proof of anything one way or another."

"What? You know the case?" Excitement jolted his gut. Did she have something helpful to offer? He'd love to make headway on this case. "It's one of our most mysterious cold cases."

Finely etched pain lined her face, and she nodded. "Those poor children. It was a terrible time back then – for all of us. I'd only been out of school a couple years and had seen nothing like it. I'm not sure if what I called you about today helps or hinders, or if it is even related to that investigation." Dr. Miko stared down at the floor, her brow creased in concentration.

When she raised her eyes she stared directly at him. "One of the recently deceased residents from Dr. Maddy's floor has a weird bruise at the base of his spine similar to those of the children who died years ago." Her gaze went to the double doors leading to the drawers holding the deceased. "I don't have any measurements to compare," she muttered in a soft voice to herself.

"Similar? How?"

"It's small, about the size of a quarter at the base of the spine. The bruising is different in appearance. I'm working from memory here. But from my recollection, it's not as tight or as neat a circle, and it's darker, I think. Maybe you can find the pictures so we can compare."

She showed him the photos she'd taken of Jansen Svaar's body, pointing to the second one. "See here. The edges are not clearly defined. The surface was not raised either. There was no rippling in the skin, as if a weapon had been forced against the skin. In fact, the bruising is light colored and soft, not harsh or deep. It doesn't penetrate the muscle layer below."

"Anything else?" Hope and fear kept his voice tight, controlled.

"Just that although he was sick, he was in remission. He just up and died. That's very common for his age and health group. This man
was
seventy-eight years old."

Drew sat back as she fired the facts at him. He sifted through what she'd said and what she hadn't. "I'm presuming you never found what caused the bruise?"

"No, I'm sorry. This may not be related at all since there's nothing else that's similar about them. If I remember correctly, those children were in their prime and healthy – very healthy." She leaned back, studying his face. "But that bruise…each had one…I just don't know."

Drew nodded, adding, "They all had families and were well-loved, all were found alone and there was no visible trauma to their bodies."

She stood up, giving her head a shake. "Until Dr. Maddy called, I hadn't thought about those kids for years. Then I found the one odd mark and she asked me to check for the second one – a matching, fainter bruise at the top of his head. It's hard to see because of the patient's full head of hair. However, it's there, nonetheless."

Drew didn't remember seeing anything about two bruises on these kids in the report. "And these kids, did they have the same bruising at the top of the head?" He held his breath. Waited for the answer.

"I don't know," she admitted softly. "If they did, I didn't see them. The bruise on this patient's spine is darker and more pronounced. The one on his head is softer and much harder to see. I wouldn't have noticed if Dr. Maddy hadn't asked me to search for it. The bruises on the kids' spines were already pale. If they had lighter, matching ones on the crowns of their heads, they would have been difficult, if not impossible to see."

"So it's possible that they did. Why did Dr. Maddy ask you about the second bruise?"

"I don't know." Dr. Miko's brow knitted in concentration. "She wasn't happy with my answer, either." She glanced at her phone. "Maybe she should come down so we can ask her."

***

Maddy strode down the hallway toward Dr. Lenning. He lay huddled under his blankets. Maddy approached warily. He'd had two bad nights in a row. If he'd managed to go to sleep, she didn't want to wake him. The reno workers had been in and out but only to finish the little things. The area wasn't done, per se, however, it was coming along nicely.

Still, Dr. Lenning's area seemed lonely, lost in the bigger room without more patients to fill it with bustle and cheer. He was only fifteen-odd feet from the next patient, yet because of the open bareness, it appeared to be much farther.

As she approached his bed, he snuffled slightly. Maddy paused and shifted position to see if his eyes were open. No. He slept.

She frowned. He looked like hell. His color matched the white sheet he lay on; worse was the flaccidity of his face, as if he'd aged a decade overnight. Bad nights often made people appear older. Only in this case, he looked ancient. She'd have to check his file to see if Dr. Cunningham had changed his medications, but she'd didn't think he had. She decided to come back and visit with him later, when he was awake. See what, if anything, had changed in his life.

As much as she hadn't wanted it, he was here, and he needed care. It was her job to make him as comfortable as possible.

Checking her watch, she walked toward her next patient. Her cell phone went off. Dr. Miko.

Answering it, Maddy changed direction back to the privacy of her office.

"Hi, what's up?"

"Can you pop down for a moment?" Dr. Miko's voice, while always serious, had a stern overtone.

Maddy frowned. "I'll be there in a few minutes." Maddy walked back to the nurses' station, told them where she was heading then walked over to the stairwell. That's exactly what she needed – a run.

The stairwell was empty as usual. Maddy stood at the top and looked down, considering. Making a quick decision, Maddy slipped off her blue heels. As her bare feet hit the cement, chills of anticipation raced up her legs.

Grinning, and her heels hanging on two fingers, Maddy broke into a flat-out sprint and raced down the stairwell. The second floor landing, the first floor landing, all the way to the first of the lower levels. Hitting the brakes at the bottom, Maddy paused to gather her breath.