Chapter 14
Amelia turned to see who pulled up to her cabin and smiled when she saw Raymond behind the wheel of his truck.
She walked back to the top of the steps, crossed her arms beneath her breasts, and leaned against the post, not speaking until he exited, but she frowned when she saw he carried a bag with him.
“Welcome, but what’s up?” She uncrossed her arms to point to the plastic grocery bag he carried.
“Couple of questions for you, and I thought I’d offer to cook you dinner.” He held up his hand before she could answer. “Nothing special, just some spaghetti, and garlic bread.”
“You’re cooking?”
“Yes.”
“Come on in.” She laughed as she turned to open her door, and walk inside.
She wiped her feet, and went over to grab a bottle of water.
“I don’t have to tell you that this cabin is set up like yours.
I believe my dishes are in the same cupboards as yours.
” She stepped back with a grin. “By all means, help yourself. I have to warn you though.”
“What’s that?”
“Spaghetti is one of my top three favorite dishes, and I haven’t had it in over six months. Oh, and don’t think I’m a delicate flower when it comes to eating. If something is good, and I like it, I’ll devour it.”
Raymond laughed, “Good, I love a woman with a healthy appetite.” He turned to empty the bag, and didn’t see her expression when he used the love word, when he looked up her face was normal. When he pulled out a white bag, she frowned at him.
“What’s that?”
“Oh,” he said, and picked it up, but he didn’t open it, nor did he offer it to her. Instead, he looked at her until he had her undivided attention. “I can’t say a lot, but I can say this,” he paused until she nodded.
“Okay,” she said to encourage him to continue.
“Shay went to Perkins at the clinic. This bag holds the prescription he was given. He forgot to fill it, and we all read the written prescription, but couldn’t make it out.
He had to go to town today for a feed order, and had this filled.
I’m going to ask you what these pills are, then they will be put into evidence until we go to trial.
” He had stared at her face the entire time, and slowly handed over the small white bag.
“That’s all I can tell you, if you can tell me the name of this medication, and what it’s used for, I would appreciate it. ”
“I won’t get into trouble for helping you with the case?”
“No, because I can say I looked this up on the internet. I will when I get home, but they won’t want to see my computer and my search engine.”
“Okay, what is the drug?”
“I saw the video, and Perkins said it was a pain medication.” He handed her the bag and watched as she slowly opened it, and withdrew the bottle. As soon as she turned it to read it, her head whipped up, she jerked away from him, and demanded angrily.
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“What?”
“Did you happen to take a photo of the written prescription?” Raymond fumbled with his phone at the intensity of her words and look. He showed her, and she shook her head as she swore again.
“Son of a bitch,” she said with a sigh. When she looked at him, he sucked in his breath at the anguish he saw in her eyes. He paid attention when she started shaking the bottle of pills at him.
“This is an opioid. Which a highly addictive drug. Myself, I don’t like to prescribe them because they are so addictive.
If they do prescribe them, then there should be less than fifteen pills.
” She shook the bottle again, and he saw anger on her face.
“You sure as fuck don’t prescribe ninety pills.
I’m not saying Shay would, but a lesser person would be hooked within the first five days.
Another thing you never do is prescribe this dosage, it should be five milligrams or less, not one hundred, and certainly not three times a day.
I know I can’t look at things from that flash drive, but you’re going to want to pay close attention to any prescribed drugs.
If by any chance there are survivors, check on them to see if they’re addicted to pain pills. ”
“Okay, I’ll make a note of that, but what exactly is that pill, besides a pain pill?”
“Oh, sorry, it’s Hydromorphone. Highly addictive, and many, many, many times stronger than morphine.” At his shocked expression, she sighed heavily. “I don’t want to bring up any bad memories for you, but was Ciara on morphine at the end?”
“Yes, heavy doses.”
“Okay, picture the dosage she was getting, just one dose, times that by fifty, and that’s what just one of these pills would be.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?”
“I kid you not, I would even bet my medical license on it.”
“Holy shit,” he said and didn’t know if he even wanted the pills near him, but he would keep them safe. He looked around wildly, found the pad of paper on the refrigerator, ripped off the top sheet, found a pen, and started making a list.
“What are you writing?”
“Making notes to get those pills to the lab to verify they are what you say they are. I’m not doubting you.”
“I know, but I can’t know any more than that, and what you suggested is perfect.
I know I shouldn’t say this, but maybe you should find another doctor to come in and testify on things you find on the drive, and the validity of these pills.
I’ll still testify if I need to, but you’re going to want a different doctor than me. ”
“Yeah, that was my next note I was going to write.” He grinned at her snort of laughter.
“You and your lists.”
“Yeah, sorry.”
“Don’t be, it’s cute.” She placed the prescription bottle back in the bag, and set the bag on the table. She giggled when her stomach growled. “Did someone say something about spaghetti?”
“I can take a hint,” he said as he folded the paper, stuck it in his pocket, and withdrew the ingredients he had brought with him. As he started browning the burger, she started getting the garlic bread on a tray.
“Do you want cheese on your bread?”
“I didn’t bring any.”
“That’s not what I asked,” she said as she opened her refrigerator and withdrew a package of shredded cheese.
“Oh, yes please.” He turned on the oven, and continued what he was doing. A few minutes later, he turned to her. “How has your first week at the new office been going so far?”
“Good, I’ve got the entire area set up the way I want it. And I’ve already gotten five new patients.”
“Really? Isn’t that fast?”
“Yes and no.”
“What’s that mean?”
“I’ve been at the clinic in Colorado Springs for the last fifteen years.
Like Shay, I have had patients from Fool’s Gold.
They have a clinic, but the doctors there are like general practitioners.
Meaning they don’t have a specialty. I too am a general practitioner, but I also have a specialty in orthopedics.
The patients I’ve been seeing this week followed me here instead of going back to Colorado Springs. ”
“Ah, they already were your patients.”
“Correct.”
They discussed their week as they cooked, and ate the meal. When Amelia finally shoved her plate away, she leaned back and grinned as she rubbed her stomach. “Thank you, that not only tasted great, but it hit the spot.”
“You’re welcome,” he said as he settled back in his own chair. They sat there for a good five minutes in silence before he rose to start cleaning up from their meal. She immediately joined him, and with a glass of wine in hand, they went into the living room to settle in to drink it.
“Can I ask you something,” Raymond asked quietly.
“What’s that?”
“First, forgive me if this is too forward, but I told you about my tragic past with women, I was wondering if you have anyone in your past, or your present for that matter?”
Amelia looked at him, and sighed heavily after several moments. “Nothing as tragic as what you lived through, and for your first wife, I’m sorry you had to go through that. I’m still unsure if I should apologize for your second one and her daughter.”
“Thank you for saying that about Ciara, you don’t have to apologize for Melissa, I know that was my mistake.”
“Oh, anyway, to answer your question, I never had anything as tragic as your past relationships.” She shook her head and sipped her wine.
“I dated a guy all through middle school, and high school. When it came to college, we hung out the summer before leaving, but we knew we were going to break up before we went to our respective colleges.” She shook her head as she sipped her wine, and stared into the empty fireplace.
“It’s not tragic, it’s just that we were both eighteen years old, and I got a full-ride scholarship to Harvard.
I’m talking the entire degree program with the pre-med stuff, up to and including when I got my PhD.
I knew it was going to be intense studying, and I didn’t want to be distracted.
” She looked at him with a wrinkled nose.
“In order for me to keep that scholarship, I had to maintain at least a three-point eight grade point average.”
“Holy hell, that was intense.”
“Yes, yes it was. Scott knew what I would be facing. He, on the other hand, got a full-ride to Texas A & M for a football scholarship.”
“Wow, okay, well, since you’re a doctor already, I can assume you maintained that killer average, and are now a successful physician that just opened your own practice. It’s none of my business, but what is Scott doing now?”
“No clue,” she said with a shake of her head and shrug.
“The last time I heard or even saw him was during the Christmas break during our first year of college. It was only long enough to say, oh, hey, hi, how’s everything going.
Good, talk to you later. You get the gist. I did realize after seeing him again, that I never would have married him had I not gotten into college. ”
“Do you ever go back home?”
“No. I don’t mean to sound cold, but I grew up in a small town in Missouri.
I was a late in life baby for my parents.
They were told that the possibility of them ever having a child was impossible.
They both suffered from fertility issues.
Anyway, within six months of me getting my PhD, they did see me walk across the stage, they both passed away.
” She looked at him and reached out to gently take his hand in hers.
“Don’t feel sorry for me, they were forty-five when I was born. ”
“Oh, wow, you mean a late, late in life baby.”
“Yes, and Mom went into menopause about three months after I was born. I had a great childhood, and was well loved. They lived a great life, they were both almost seventy. When I went back to clean up their lives, donate their possessions, keep what I wanted, and dealt with the house, it wasn’t in the town I grew up in.
They had moved the year after I saw Scott that first Christmas.
” She looked at him with a grin. “To a retirement home in Florida. They wanted to get away from the cold and snowy winters. They had a good life.” She sipped more of her wine, and looked at their entwined fingers.
He hadn’t let go of her hand after she’d reached over and touched his.
On a heavy sigh, she snuggled deeper into the sofa, and looked at him with a small smile.
“Once I dealt with their affairs, when I returned to work, I threw myself into work. I loved my job, and that’s when I became double certified as a general physician and an orthopedic surgeon.
The surgery was intense during my residency, because in order to learn, I was called in on emergency cases.
Back then, I didn’t have time for anything else but my work, let alone time to find someone to date. ”
“Did you ever go out with anyone?”
“Not intimately,” she said with a small smile.
“Sure, a bunch of us would hang out on our days off, go out to dinner, maybe, if we didn’t run the risk of falling asleep, we would catch a movie.
I wasn’t exclusive with anyone, and I didn’t hook up with anyone to have sex in the on-call rooms like you see on the TV hospital shows.
” She frowned, stared into her wine, and looked at him with a grin.
“I can’t remember the last time I’ve had sex with a human.”
“Excuse me?”
“I do have a battery-operated boyfriend.” She laughed when she saw understanding dawn in his expression, and grinned harder when his cheeks turned bright red.
“Oh,” he didn’t say anything else, and they sat there sipping their wine, and holding hands.
“How long has it been for you?”
“Over seven years. It’s been over five since that shit with Melissa started, but she stopped being affectionate with me almost three years prior to that.
I had suspected she might have been cheating on me, but nothing came of that.
There was no proof, no one came out of the woodwork to tell me to be nice to her during her trial.
” He shrugged. “I guess we just grew apart, or she did.”
“Not to bring up bad memories, but do you think she was bleeding you dry to divorce you?”
“Yes and no, she didn’t get a lot, but that could have been the case.”
He settled back in the sofa cushions and looked at her with a smirk. “So, do you want to relieve our dry spells together?”