Sea Stars: A Fin Fleming Scuba Diving Mystery (Fin Fleming Scuba Diving Mystery Series Book 6), page 18
I nodded and hopped aboard the water ambulance for the short journey to Georgetown where they would transfer Liam to Cayman Islands Hospital.
Dane met us at the dock. He and I stood together while the EMTs transferred Liam to the ambulance, which took off with a roar as soon as Doc and her patient were aboard.
He put an arm over my shoulder. “Come with me. I’ll take you to the hospital. Maybe I’ll be able to get a little more information than you would on your own.”
I looked at him through zombie eyes but followed him slowly to his unmarked police car. He flipped on the siren and headed to the hospital.
We didn’t speak during the short ride. Dane walked me into the emergency room and led me to a seat. Then he talked to the person at the desk to find out where Liam was. I was barely aware of anything until he sat beside me and pressed a cup of hot black coffee into my hand.
“Drink this. You’ll feel better,” he said.
I took a sip. It tasted like dirt, but I swallowed it anyway. By the time I’d finished half the cup, I realized Dane was right. I did feel more like myself. Except terror still had me frozen inside.
He patted my hand. “The ER doctor will be out in a few minutes. Don’t worry. Doc’s in there with him too, and she’ll make sure he gets the best possible care.”
I just sat, huddled in misery. I’d been only a few hundred feet away while Liam was fighting for his life on the cold, hard deck of his boat.
I don’t know how long Dane and I sat there without speaking. He slipped out without a word to start the investigation when Newton joined us, bringing fresh coffee and lemonade, and with his leather Prada briefcase slung over his shoulder. He put the cups on the table and sat beside me. He gathered me to him, and I put my head on his shoulder and sobbed.
“Shh, shh, honey. It will be okay. The doctors are doing everything they can to make sure Liam comes through this as good as new. You have to think positive thoughts. I promise he’ll feel them, and those good thoughts will help him find his way back to us.”
But despite Newton’s assurances, I was still sniffling and sobbing softly when Doc and the much despised Dr. Henry came out to talk to us.
He stood ramrod straight in front of us and focused his eyes over our heads. “Mr. Lawton is still unconscious, and we are admitting him. He sustained several heavy blows to the head, and to quite a few other parts of his body. Despite the severity of his injuries, we have every hope he’ll recover.”
Dr. Henry’s bedside manner had not improved since he had cared for Mimi. He still spoke like a robot while standing stiffly in front of us.
“When?” I asked. “When will he wake up?”
“That I don’t know. It’s in the hands of mother nature and Mr. Lawton himself. Doctor Warren has requested to take over his care, if that’s ok with his next of kin.” He looked at each of us in turn.
“He doesn’t have one. I’m his fiancée though, and I’m fine with Doc caring for him. She’s the best.”
He nodded. “She is the best, but unfortunately, a fiancée doesn’t have legal standing to make those decisions. Do you have a power of attorney?”
I shook my head. “No, but…”
Newton stood. “She doesn’t have it yet, but I do. I’m Mr. Lawton’s personal attorney, Newton Fleming.” He turned to the briefcase he’d placed on the floor near his feet. After opening the flap, he handed Dr. Henry some papers. “They’re all in order. You can keep those copies for your records. Please transfer the patient’s care to Doc Warren as soon as possible.”
Dr. Henry took a moment to scan the papers, then he turned to Doc. “He’s now your patient. I’ll make the arrangements.” He walked away without a word.
Doc sat in the chair Newton had vacated. “I want to keep Liam here at least overnight. They have some equipment here I don’t have at RIO’s infirmary, and I don’t want to take any chances with him. Are you okay with that?”
I nodded. I’d trust Doc with my life. In fact, I frequently did.
“Would you like to see him now? You can only stay for a few minutes, but I think it will help you both.” She took my hand and pulled me to my feet. “Ready?”
She led me to Liam’s room, and I tiptoed inside. The nurse had drawn the shades, and the room was dim, but I could see him lying under a light blanket. They’d wrapped a huge white bandage around his head above his battered and bruised face. A plaster cast encased one of his hands. His fingers on his other hand were swollen, the nails broken. He’d obviously fought back as hard as he could, but as strong as he is, the head injuries must have been too much even for him.
He was so still he didn’t even seem to be breathing, and I cried out and put my hand to my mouth. “Is he…?” I couldn’t finish the thought.
Doc put her arm across my shoulders and drew me close to her. “He’s unconscious, but we have no reason to believe he won’t wake up when he’s ready. And if you’re ever worried, you can always just look at the patient monitor and see that he’s okay.” She led me over to the rack of machines near his bed and showed me where to look to check that his breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure were all still functioning normally.
I already knew all that. I was so scared that I hadn’t been thinking clearly, so I took a deep breath and tried to settle down. The important point was that Liam was alive. I sat in the chair beside the bed and put a hand on his shoulder. I murmured in his ear, telling him how much I loved him and begging him to come back to me. He never moved.
After a while, Doc came over to tell me she was leaving to pack some things. She planned to spend the night here with him. I nodded, and she slipped out while I was fluffing his pillow.
Eventually, the room grew even darker, and the nurse came in to tell me visiting hours had ended.
“I can’t leave him,” I said.
“He needs his rest. He’ll heal faster if he sleeps undisturbed, and I promise to call you if he wakes up.”
“You mean when he wakes up, don’t you?” I said.
“Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. And you don’t need to worry about him. He’s in good hands. Doc just called. She’s on her way back, so he won’t be alone for long. In fact, if you like, I’ll stay here with him until she arrives.”
I nodded, grateful for her kindness.
She smiled with sympathy. “Good. Then it’s settled. Now say goodnight. Your brother is here to take you home.”
I nodded and kissed Liam’s forehead. “I’ll be back in the morning. Oliver’s waiting to take me home so you can rest.” The nurse started fussing with the tubes connecting Liam to his monitors, so I walked out alone, expecting to see Oliver.
But it was Rafe waiting for me near the nurse’s station, wearing dark glasses and a baseball cap pulled low over his forehead. He wore fake teeth that made his lips bulge out like he’d ODed on Botox. His face was lined, his skin sagged, and his chin was covered with stubble. Despite my worry over Liam, I smiled at the disguise. He always looked like a movie star no matter what he did.
“How is he?” he said when I reached him.
“Same,” I said. “They say we’ll know more in the morning.”
“Did you have dinner?” he asked. “We can stop to get you something on the way.”
I shook my head. “That’s okay. I’ll raid the café fridge. Marianna won’t mind, and my car’s at RIO anyway.”
“Where will you sleep?” he asked.
“On the Tranquility, of course. I spend about half my nights on the boat anyway.” I thought with longing of my beloved boat. It was better than being alone at home.
“Well, eat your dinner and then you go right to bed. You need plenty of sleep if you’re going to take care of Liam and do everything else on your plate. Remember, filming starts tomorrow.”
“Thanks for the reminder,” I said. “I’ll see you then.” I’d completely forgotten about the first day of filming. I knew I couldn’t be in two places at once, and I wasn’t about to leave Liam lying in a hospital bed alone all day. I’d have to beg T-8 for a delay. Or if it came to that, I’d resign.
I sent a text to Benjamin and Chaun, who lived near me, and asked them to drop by my house to feed Henrietta and Chico. We had a pet sitter who fed them when Liam was out of town, but the sitter wouldn’t know that Liam was incapacitated. I got a thumbs up emoji from my friends as a response, so I was good for the night.
Rafe pulled up at RIO’s main entrance. “You sure you’ll be okay?”
I nodded. “I’ll be fine.” Then I walked to the door and used my keycard to get in and hurried to the shuttered café. I went into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich and filled a mug with lemonade. I put the sandwich in my tote bag and left through the pool house door that led to the back where the movie company parked their trailers. I wanted to talk to T-8 about Liam’s condition and explain that it would affect my availability for filming until I was sure he was out of the woods. It was late, but I hoped T-8 would still be up.
Chapter 40
Eavesdropping
T-8’s trailer was the closest one to the locker room entries to the pool house. Dim light was spilling through the trailer’s windows, barely lighting my path for the few steps it took to reach it. I’d just raised my hand to knock on the door when I heard raised voices from inside.
“All I’m asking for is a different name tag. One with my real name on it. He doesn’t…Family is all a bunch of crap. He didn’t even…garbled, garbled…recognize….”
The voice was angry but sounded vaguely familiar.
“Or maybe he just didn’t want to recognize me. He’s such a big star now.” There was a sound like a fist slamming into a wall, and the trailer shook. “And you! After all I did for you.”
T-8’s voice, “C’mon, Doug. I did the best I could for you. I gave you a job, didn’t I?”
“But not a good job. Couldn’t you have found something else?” said the unknown voice. “Something better? Or just…I don’t know…maybe a part in the movie, Mr. Big Shot Director?” There was a pause. “Or at least let me use my own name. It’s just a name tag.”
T-8 shouted. “No, throw that thing away. I need to protect Rafe. He can’t afford to have his name linked with…”
There was a loud crash, like something hard breaking against something even more solid. I heard a scuffle, so I stepped back into a nearby pergola shrouded in flowers and vines as the trailer door banged open. A figure raced out across the lawn toward the pool house, but it was too dark for me to see who it was.
T-8 stood in the door of his trailer, shaking his fist. “Don’t come back unless you’re ready to play this my way,” he yelled. “And I’m warning you. Stay away from Rafe. He’s been through enough. He doesn’t need your aggravation.”
He slammed the door and pulled down the shades in all the windows. A few minutes later, the lights went out, one by one, so I knew he’d gone to bed. I’d have to wait until morning to talk to him.
I stayed in the shadowy pergola for a long time before I walked away. It was late, but the bar at Ray’s Place was still open. I didn’t want anyone to see me, so I skirted around behind the dive shop. I didn’t have the strength to make small talk tonight, and I couldn’t bear it if Theresa or one of my other friends felt like they had to stick around to comfort me.
I didn’t need comfort. I only needed Liam to be okay.
I stepped onto the Tranquility and walked along the gunwales to the bow. I stared at the moon while I ate a few bites of my sandwich. I wasn’t really hungry, but I knew I had to eat. When I’d drained the last of the lemonade, I went below to the daybed, where I fell into a troubled sleep.
When I awoke just before sunrise, there was a steaming hot mug of coffee and a warm blueberry muffin on the galley table. Still half asleep, I said “Liam?”
He brought me coffee and a muffin almost every morning, so it took me a second to realize he couldn’t have brought it. I bit back a sob.
Since I hadn’t heard from the hospital overnight, I figured that was a good sign. But if it hadn’t been Liam, who would have brought me the food? From the deck, I didn’t see a soul around, although the lights were on in the dive shop. Must have been Stewie, I thought.
I went back to the galley and ate the muffin and drained the coffee. Then I rinsed out the mug to return it to Stewie when I walked past the dive shop on my way to the locker room. I gathered up the clothes I’d need for my day and stuffed them into my tote bag. When I had dawdled as long as I could, I headed down the pier.
Chapter 41
Arrested
The top half of the dive shop’s Dutch door was open, and I could hear Stewie belting out an old Neil Young song as I approached. I called out “Good morning,” and Stewie abruptly stopped singing. I giggled.
His face turned beet red when he saw me in the doorway. “I don’t usually sing in public,” he said, obviously embarrassed.
“And the public thanks you for that courtesy,” I said, and we both burst out laughing.
I placed the mug on the small shelf on the bottom half of the door. “Thank you for breakfast. I brought your mug back. Or should I bring it back to the café?”
Stewie stared at me. “I’ll return the mug for you,” he said, “but I didn’t bring you any breakfast.”
I was puzzled. “Then who did?” I asked.
Stewie looked at the ceiling before he spoke. “I don’t know for sure, but maybe it wasn’t meant for you at all. That movie star was hanging around the dock when I got here this morning. Maybe it was his breakfast.”
“Rafe? Where is he now?”
Stewie seemed startled. “I’m surprised all the hubbub didn’t wake you up. Dane and Morey arrested him earlier. They thought you might be next on his hit list, although he said he was guarding you. Happened about an hour ago. I expect he’s at the police station by now.”
“What? Why?” I couldn’t believe I had slept through all that. I guess Rafe had been right last night when he said I needed sleep.
Stewie shrugged. “Dunno. I thought you’d know. You two have been spending a lot of time together. What do you suppose he’s gotten into?”
“Nothing that I’m aware of. Although we’re not together ALL the time,” I said, giving him a pointed look. I was steaming at Stewie’s implication and the unfair arrest of a man I knew it my heart hadn’t done anything wrong, but I didn’t want to waste time on a pointless argument, especially when I was sure Dane would let Rafe go later today.
“As soon as he arrived, bad things started happening. First someone murders that photographer fellow, then attacks your poor sweet grandmother. Someone steals a valuable artifact, and then poor Liam—Liam!—gets attacked and left for dead. Makes me wonder what the connection is.”
I glared at him. “You don’t think I had anything to do with all the bad stuff, do you?”
He looked startled. “Of course not. I’ve known you your whole life, and I know you’re straight as an arrow. Just…just, things are changing here.”
“I’ll admit a lot of bad things happened lately. But good things happened too. And when the movie comes out, we’ll be in a much more stable position financially. Meanwhile, the cast and crew are spending a lot of money at the dive shop, the café, and at Ray’s Place, and that will help keep us going. We’ve got a couple of new businesses about to open up, and that will help the finances too. Liam and Mimi will recover, and we’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise.”
“Sure,” he said. “I didn’t mean to be unfairly critical. Overall, you’re doing a great job. Everybody thinks so.”
I snorted. “No, they don’t. But they will, I promise. And you can always tell me what you think, Stewie. You’ve earned that right.”
I looked at the dive watch on my wrist. “I’m going to stop in to check on Liam at the hospital first, but after that my next stop will be police headquarters to talk to Dane. I trust him, but he jumped the gun on the arrest. I know Rafe’s innocent. Call me if anything comes up.”
Hoping that spending a few minutes with the man I love might help calm me down for the confrontation with Dane and his team, I went to see Liam first. It was too early for visiting hours, so I thought I’d have to sneak into his room. Luckily, I bumped into Doc in the hall, and she and I walked in together like I belonged there. Which in my opinion, I did.
The room was dim, but Doc immediately went to the windows and opened the blackout drapes. “Research has shown that exposure to sunlight might help in certain health issues. And it can’t hurt him.”
“Good idea,” I said. “I want him to have every possible advantage.”
She smiled. “Of course you do.”
Doc busied herself checking Liam’s vitals and looking at his wounds to make sure there was no incipient infection, while I sat with one hand on his arm and using the other to brush his hair back from his forehead. He looked so frail it broke my heart.
After a while, I asked Doc. “What’s your schedule look like for today?”
She thought for a moment. “I have to check in at the infirmary later. If there’s anyone waiting to see me, I’ll head over there for a while. But I have a lot of friends at this hospital, so I’ll make sure someone is in here with Liam anytime I have to go.”
“Should I get him private nurses? Mimi has them, and I feel better knowing she’s never alone.” I worried about both of them, but the thought of Liam being unconscious, alone, and at the mercy of whoever had hurt him made me feel awful.
Doc thought out loud. “Mimi’s been in the coma for a while, and because of her age and the nature of her injury, each day makes it a little more unlikely that she’ll wake up. She needs a private duty nurse. But Liam’s in a completely different situation. He’s young and strong, and he has you to come back to. Let’s wait a few days before we decide. In the meantime, he’ll have plenty of company. I’ll make sure of it.”
