Page 130 of Tear Me Apart

He calls over his shoulder, “Lauren, look in her purse. Is there any medication in there? Do you know if she’s ever taken illegal drugs?”

“I don’t know,” Lauren wails back. “She doesn’t tell me anything like that.”

He hears the sirens now, and a small spark of hope begins in his chest. Kat edges closer, then runs to the windows to watch the fire truck pulling into the driveway, the ambulance right behind.

And then they are surrounded, and a woman in a uniform is pulling him away, saying, “Sir, sir, let me take over now. What did she take?”

“We don’t know. We found her this way.” There are needles now, and tubes and an aspirator and oxygen, and within moments, they are administering the Narcan and strapping her to the gurney.

“We’re losing her, we gotta go, now. The Narcan isn’t working. She’s not responding.”

“The front door,” Zack says to Bode, who is standing to his right, a hand over his mouth. He has never seen death up close and personal, Zack knows this from the horrified look on the boy’s face.

Lauren is on the phone now, calling Jasper, he thinks. The gurney begins to clatter down the stairs, and he rounds on her, the fury barely contained. He knows this is all wrong, she is all wrong. Juliet did not do this to herself.

But he can’t read this mercurial woman standing before him. She is freaking out, falling apart, crying hard, and as they load her sister into the back of the ambulance, he has no choice but to whistle for Kat and grab Bode’s arm. “Stay with her,” he commands, and Bode nods, eyes wide. “Give me your card. I’ll call you when I know more.”

The kid fumbles a card into Zack’s hand. “You’re going with them?”

But Zack is already down the stairs and hopping in the back of the ambulance. The female paramedic starts to push him out, “Sir, the dog—” but he snaps, “Close the door,” and she obeys immediately. The sudden quiet is unnerving. “Just get to work on her,” he says, dialing his phone.

Parks answers on the first ring, and Zack doesn’t hesitate. “We have a problem.”

“Where the hell are you? I need—”

“Listen to me. I’m in an ambulance with Juliet. She’s been poisoned. And I think Lauren did it.”

“What?”

“Juliet called me, frantic, about thirty minutes ago. She said Lauren’s DNA was found at the crime scene in Nashville.”

“What—”

“I don’t know where she got the information, or what the hell happened before I got there. She told me Lauren was coming up the driveway, and she would handle it, but I didn’t like the idea of her confronting Lauren alone, so I headed right up the mountain. She didn’t answer her phone again. When I arrived, Lauren wasn’t there. She drove up a minute later with groceries in the car, and we found Juliet down in the dining room.

“She tossed out the idea that Juliet was trying to commit suicide, but I don’t buy it for a second. Someone needs to find a time stamp on that grocery receipt because I have a terrible feeling Lauren hurt Juliet. I think she’s been covering her tracks ever since I came into the picture.”

“Let me make sure I’m hearing you right. Lauren Wright knew your wife?”

“I don’t know if she knew her. But I’m pretty damn sure she killed her.”

76

VAIL HEALTH HOSPITAL

The emergency room doors have been kept clear of the media, but they are still swarming over the parking lot near the hospital’s main entrance. The ambulance screeches to a stop, the paramedic pushes him out of the way, and Juliet disappears inside before Zack is fully upright. Kat is glued to his leg, her lead trailing behind her. One of the reporters sees them—the dog is as distinctive as he is—and starts to shout. The scrum begins moving toward him, but Zack gathers Kat’s lead and hurries into the hospital.

At the emergency desk, he gets the attention of a young nurse. “I’m with Juliet Ryder. They just brought her in by ambulance.”

“Oh, the overdose? They took her back, they’re working on her. You her husband?”

“Um... Yes, yes I am.”

She narrows her eyes at him but nods. “Okay, come with me.”

She leads him through the doors to a small triage cubicle, then shoves a stack of papers on a clipboard at him, thoughtfully providing a pen from her blue scrub pocket. “Fill these out. I’ll let them know you’re here.”

“Can you check on her, please? I’m... I need...”