Chapter 28 Cosi #2
She wiped at her cheeks, sucking in a shaky breath.
“I saw her walking with him one morning and realized you were together. So I started following her. When I saw her in the bathroom and she didn’t know me, I thought maybe I could meet her.
And then today, she was walking alone and I decided it could be my chance.
I drove to the station to make sure your truck was there.
Then I went back to your house. I was going to introduce myself.
Explain why I was here. Tell her that I was sorry and trying to make amends. ”
Gwen was going to play on Ilsa’s heart to soften Spencer’s. And mine.
The hell of it was, it would have probably worked.
“I was just pulling up when I saw someone running away from the house with the purple briefcase Ilsa was carrying.”
“Who?”
“It’s been a long time, so I can’t be sure. But it looked like Trick.”
For the second time today, the world tilted beneath my feet.
Trick? No. Fuck no. He was one of my oldest friends. Why would he want to steal Ilsa’s briefcase?
Gwen had to be lying. She had to be wrong.
“I found Ilsa on the porch, unconscious. There were keys in her coat pocket, so I opened the door and called the hospital for an ambulance.”
Gwen had gone into my house. The last place I wanted her to be.
But it might have saved Ilsa’s life.
“Why did you come to the hospital?” Mom asked. “Why did you stay?”
Gwen sniffled. “I wanted to make sure she was okay.”
But Ilsa wasn’t okay. None of this was okay. I hadn’t done my job to keep her safe.
The pressure in my chest made it nearly impossible to breathe. That paralyzing fear returned tenfold.
I went to the closest chair and sat down before I fainted. Then I put my elbows to my knees, clasped my hands and prayed that Ilsa would survive this. That I’d get the chance to tell her how I felt. To make the rest of her life easy.
After an hour, Mom left to meet Spencer and take him to her place for the night. After two hours, Gwen slipped away, murmuring something about staying at the motel. And after three hours, Helena finally returned.
She wasn’t happy to find me in the lobby instead of the waiting room, but she waved for me to follow her into the hospital, past empty beds and open curtained walls.
We walked to a room with a glass wall where the most beautiful woman in the world was hooked up to too many tubes, too many wires, and too many machines.
Her skin was pale, her eyelids blue and her lips leached of their normal pink.
They’d changed her into a greenish-gray gown and covered her torso and legs with a thin white blanket.
She lay utterly still, and the only reason I knew she was still alive was because of the beeping machine monitoring her heart.
The burn in my throat was so fierce I choked. The only thing keeping me from coming apart at the seams was that little green line bouncing on a black screen.
“Dr. Harris is on his way.” Helena pointed to the lone chair positioned by Ilsa’s side.
I took a seat and lifted Ilsa’s hand, clasping it between my own. Her knuckles were too cold, so I blew my warm breath on them, holding them against my lips.
Wake up, baby.
“Sheriff Raynes.” Dr. Harris walked into the room with a clipboard in one hand. His white coat was open, revealing teal scrubs like Helena’s. His salt-and-pepper hair was clipped high and tight with a square style on top.
Dr. Harris was the man who’d delivered Spencer. He’d set my son’s broken arm. I hoped and prayed he’d save Ilsa’s life.
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked, my throat ragged, the words raspy.
“I can’t tell you much since you aren’t immediate family,” he said, stepping closer until he stood at the foot of her bed.
“The next forty-eight hours are critical. We’re lucky she was brought in so quickly.
We’ve notified her mother. She said she’ll leave Phoenix immediately and be here as soon as possible.
Once she gets to Dalton, I can share more. ”
He’d abide by his protocols. And I’d abide by mine.
I let go of Ilsa’s hand, placing it gently at her side, and stood. “What happened to her? I’m asking as the sheriff.”
Harris hesitated.
“If you need me to get a deputy down here to ask the questions, I’ll call the station right now. Or you can tell me why the hell Ilsa Poe is in this hospital bed.”
He frowned but plucked the reading glasses from his coat’s pocket, fitting them to his face as he looked at the clipboard. “Every indication leads me to believe she was poisoned. We’ve treated her with activated charcoal and we’re trying to flush it from her system with intravenous fluids.”
“What poison?”
“I don’t know yet. We’ve taken urine and blood samples. They’re not always definitive.”
“Ingested, inhaled or injected?”
“Ingested.”
Fuck. My molars ground together so hard they cracked. “Anything else you can tell me?”
“No.” Harris gave me a tight smile. “Given the circumstances, we’ll limit visitors to—”
“Me. And only me. Until her mother arrives. Even then, every visitor is cleared through me.”
“Very well.” He nodded and took off his glasses. “Sheriff Raynes.”
I gave him a nod. “Doctor Harris.”
The moment he left, I used the phone next to Ilsa’s bed and called the station.
Chuck answered on the first ring. “Dalton County Sheriff’s Department.”
“Chuck, it’s Cosi.”
His exhale was audible. “How is she?”
“Alive.” And if I had to will her to stay that way, so be it. I brushed the hair off Ilsa’s temple before I sank into the chair. “Got a pen?”
“Yes.”
“There’s a glass jar, a Mason jar, either at my house on the stoop or at the school. Find it. Print it.” Hopefully, no matter where it was, no one had touched it. And that the prints I was looking for weren’t entirely smudged.
I suspected that the fingerprints on that glass would match those found at the tiny cabin Ilsa had found across Cotters Lake.
Fingerprints that belonged to one of my oldest friends.
When I’d gone to ask Trick today if he knew anyone named Jerry, he’d looked me dead in the eye and said he had no clue. Then he’d offered to fill up Ilsa’s water jar when I’d said I was taking it to her at school.
That motherfucker must have laced it with poison.
I wasn’t sure exactly why yet, but I had ideas. I suspected it had everything to do with the contents of Ilsa’s briefcase. When he hadn’t been able to find Ike’s journal at the cabin, he’d poisoned Ilsa so she’d be out of his way.
“Got it,” Chuck said. “Anything else?”
“If there’s water in that jar, don’t toss it. Bring it to the hospital.”
“All right, boss.”
“I’ll be at this number.” I pressed the button in the cradle once to end the call, then waited until I had a dial tone. After a quick call to Mom to check on Spencer and give her an update, I put the phone aside and clasped Ilsa’s hand.
Her knuckles were cold again.
“Ilsa.” I waited, hoping those eyes would flutter open. That she’d gift me with a small smile. But she didn’t move, so I kept her hand warm in mine and stared at the monitor, knowing that if her heart stopped, mine would too.
For three days, I stayed at Ilsa’s side.
When Chuck came to the hospital to give me an update on his investigation, I listened from her room.
I learned that Trick’s prints were on the glass along with mine and Ilsa’s.
That the water had tested positive for ricin, a poison derived from castor beans.
And that a man I’d once called friend was nowhere to be found.
When Ilsa’s mother, Florence, arrived in Dalton, I had the nurses bring in another chair because I wasn’t giving up mine.
And when Spencer came to visit, he sat at the foot of Ilsa’s bed while I told him the whole truth about what had happened, including how his mother might have saved Ilsa’s life.
For three days, I stayed at her side, holding her hand.
Until finally, those beautiful brown eyes opened. And the nightmare came to an end.
“Hey, baby,” she whispered.
I clutched her hand as tears filled my eyes. “That’s my line.”