Page 29 of Simon Says… Fight (Kate Morgan Thrillers #11)

K ate woke to a phone call blaring by her ear. As she sat up in bed and carried her phone out to the living room, she realized that it was seven o’clock in the morning.

“This is Anna,” the quavering voice said.

Kate racked her sleep-deprived brain, trying to figure out who Anna was. “Hello, Anna,” she replied cautiously. “What can I do for you?”

“They say he’s brain dead,” she muttered, sobbing, “and they just suggested that I might want to pull the plug sooner than later and decide about organ donation.”

Kate winced, making the connection now. “I’m so sorry,” she muttered. “I did understand that the damage was severe.”

“Very,” she added, sobbing harder now. “Did you find out who did this?”

“Not yet,” she replied. “I do need to ask some more questions.”

“Ask away,” she whispered.

“I’m not quite mentally there,” Kate shared, with half a thread of humor in her tone. “I haven’t even had coffee yet.”

“Maybe you could come to the hospital, and we can get this over with,” Anna suggested hopefully.

Sensing something in the back of the woman’s tone—like Anna wanted a heart-to-heart talk—Kate agreed. She might find out more about Anna’s marriage without having to ask her directly. “I’ll be down there in about twenty minutes.”

Anna ended the call.

Kate stared down at the phone, wondering who on earth would consider her to be marriage counselor material.

But she dressed quickly, and, as she was about to walk out the door, Simon came out in his pajamas, a questioning look on his face.

“The man Rodney and I found in rough shape, Sonny?… I guess the docs have decided that he’s brain dead and that his wife should consider organ donation. ”

He blinked several times. “Already?”

“I know. It does seem fast, but I guess the doctors were pretty sure yesterday. They did everything they could, but now it’s literally only the machines keeping him alive.”

“I don’t think she has to make that decision immediately, though,” Simon noted.

“I’m not sure it was a matter of making the decision, as much as she’s now feeling incapable of coping,” Kate noted.

“Right.” Then he frowned. “She called you?”

“Yes,” she muttered, with a note of humor. “I was just thinking I’m the last person anybody would normally call to help grieve the loss of a husband.”

He nodded slowly. “Unless she has something to say.”

“And that’s what I’m hoping,” she pointed out, as she headed to the door. “I don’t know if I’m about to hear a confession, or will just have an absolutely distraught woman crying on my shoulder.”

“Either way,” he noted, “look after yourself.”

And, with that, she raced outside. The traffic was light but still intense for Vancouver, and, by the time she made it to the hospital, thirty minutes had passed. She walked into Sonny’s hospital room to see Anna curled up in a tiny ball on the visitor’s chair.

When Anna looked up and saw Kate, the poor wife burst into tears and raced toward her. Kate didn’t know what to do except open her arms. Anna crashed into them, sobbing terribly. Kate held her for a long moment as she looked over at the man in the bed. “I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry,” Kate muttered.

“I just realized how much of my life centered around him, and now he won’t wake up again,” she wailed, as she stepped back, looking up at Kate in sorrow. “I can’t even begin to imagine what comes next.”

“First off, you don’t have to make a decision about life support right now,” Kate began.

“And I probably rushed that. I don’t even know that I exactly heard what they were saying.

Yet, when they mentioned how I might consider organ donation, my mind went blank.

We had always talked about that as being something we intended on doing,” she murmured.

She brushed back the tears from her eyes.

“I’m just exhausted, and I seem to go from one crisis to another, and I really don’t know quite where I’m at. ”

“Of course,” Kate agreed. “You get this devastating news, and it’s just so hard.”

“It is hard,” she declared, and then she sighed. “Could you check with the doctors to see if that’s really what they’re telling me?”

“Of course,” She stepped out and walked down to the medical station and asked for the doctor attending her victim. As it was, a voice behind her stated that he was the attending physician. She turned, and there was the same man she’d spoken to yesterday.

He nodded. “Sonny had a series of ministrokes during the night,” he explained, “and, unfortunately in this case, there’s no chance of recovery.”

“Ah,” Kate muttered. “I’m really sorry to hear that.”

“So are we,” he murmured.

“Did you mention something about life support to Anna Hilton? She’s very confused as to what stage this is at.”

He winced. “I don’t know that I did, but I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody somewhere along the line asked if she had considered whether organ donation was something she was interested in,” he replied, his face emotionless.

“Obviously nobody wants to push her into something at this point, but he is 100 percent brain dead. We take him off that machine, and he’s gone. ”

“But while he’s on the machine he is alive, correct?”

He gave her a ghost of a smile. “Depends what you mean by alive , and that’s one of those legal issues that is never clear,” he pointed out. “Will Sonny ever talk, walk, or think again? No, the damage to the brain is too severe.”

She nodded. “Okay. Anna just seems very confused at the moment.”

“A lot happened overnight,” he noted, “and I don’t think she even understands all of it.”

He explained a little bit more, and Kate got more or less what she needed to know. Then she asked, “How long is ideal for organ donation?”

“The sooner, the better,” he declared bluntly. “The machines are keeping him alive, but, in terms of actual prime organs, the clock is running.”

“He’s also been badly beaten. Do we even understand what organs are good enough to transplant?”

“That’s a good question,” he noted. “I would need to bring in the transplant team to address that. Why? You don’t think somebody beat him up for that purpose, do you?”

Her eyebrows shot up as she looked at him. “No, I hadn’t considered such a thing, and I really hope I never need to.”

“Me too,” the doctor replied, with feeling. “There’s enough pain in the work we do, especially when these devastating cases come in. I would hate to think that somebody was doing this deliberately.”

“Me too,” she murmured. She headed back toward Anna. As she got to Sonny’s room, she found Anna sitting at her husband’s side, tears in her eyes.

Anna looked up at Kate and asked, “What did they say?”

“He had a series of strokes during the night.”

“They took him out of here,” she noted, her tears pouring. “He was gone for hours, and then, when they brought him back, nobody really told me anything.”

“I am sure you are frustrated, but they were able to do some tests this morning.”

“I guess it’s just over. Is that what they told you?” she asked, tears welling up in her eyes. “Is he brain dead? Gone?”

“He had a series of strokes on top of the severe injuries he’d already sustained.

That compromised any remaining hope,” Kate murmured.

Hoping that she got the phraseology correct, but knowing that this woman wouldn’t be concerned about terminology, she cut to the chase.

“So, the sad fact of the matter is, in this case, he will not be coming back.”

Anna nodded, tears still in her eyes. “I guess when I couldn’t get anybody to really say anything and saw those pitying glances in my direction, I knew.” She took a deep breath. “Do you know what happens now?”

“I guess it depends on what you want to happen. Organ donation is potentially still a possibility,” she added, “and I say potentially because he’s been so badly beaten that we don’t know which of his organs can be transplanted. That will have to be assessed right away.”

“God,” she whispered, as she looked down at her husband. “Can you even imagine thinking that this would be the way you would go?”

“And you didn’t talk to him at all once he’d left that morning?”

“No, I never did. He’s always so busy at work and doesn’t like being disturbed.”

Kate nodded. “And do you know if he had any…”

“Any what?” Anna asked, turning to her. Then she frowned. “Oh, enemies? You mean, anybody who hated him at work?”

“Has that been a problem?”

“Actually that’s quite possible. He was the star salesman. He always earned top commissions and everything. He made a lot of money. I would have happily taken less money and had him home more.”

“Of course,” Kate replied. “Did you ever have any marital problems? Was there any chance that he might have had… you know?” She hesitated again.

The woman turned and looked at her. “You must really hate your job.”

“There are times,” Kate admitted, as she walked closer. “I have to ask these kinds of questions, so I find it best to just get it over with.”

“So, you’re wondering if he ever had affairs? I know of one that he had, but it was a few years ago, and he promised me at the time that it was the only one.… I didn’t ask after that. I didn’t really want to know and wasn’t sure I could handle the truth.”

“Of course,” Kate said.

At that, Anna frowned at Kate. “But what you’re trying not to tell me is that there was someone, wasn’t there?”

Kate hesitated, then nodded. “Yes, at work.”

“Christ, no wonder he didn’t want me phoning in.”

“You forgave him after his one indiscretion?”

“Yes,” she said, “though the people I knew back then did tell me to leave him and that it wouldn’t be a one-time thing.

One of my friends suggested that getting caught once would just make him sneakier, so he wouldn’t get caught a second time.

… I guess that’s what he did.” She stared down at her husband, then leaned in close and spoke to him.

“And what good did it do you, Sonny? All that traveling, all that being away? Even if it wasn’t with me, what good did it do you? ”