Page 135 of Tear Me Apart

“I’m one hundred percent positive. There’s no way she tried to hurt herself. No way. She called me thirty minutes before I found her like this. This is a long story, and the CBI will be here any minute. They can fill you in on all the gory details. But I have to go check on my daughter, who is upstairs, and I’m afraid to leave Juliet alone without professional protection.”

“Your daughter is in the hospital, too?”

“Mindy Wright.”

“Oh, the skier. Let me call Dr. Oliver and get an update for you.”

“Protection. She needs protection. They both do. Please.” He points at Juliet, covered in leads, intubated, the machine breathing for her. She looks so weak and ethereal, so damaged. “This wasn’t an accident. It was attempted murder.”

“Okay, I hear you, Mr. Armstrong. Give me a few minutes to make arrangements, okay? Juliet has some rough hours ahead of her. She ingested a heck of a lot of ethylene glycol, plus a hefty dose of benzodiazepine. Her level was well above normal dosages, even for someone who was taking the drug consistently for weeks.”

“What, like antianxiety medication?”

“Exactly. You’re sure she wasn’t trying to end things? Because this particular combination would have been very effective if she hadn’t been attended to so quickly.”

“I’m sure,” Zack says, his voice firm.

“We have to reverse the damage the ethylene glycol did to her kidneys, watch for other organ failure, keep checking her levels, and the benzo overdose, well... She’s stabilized for the moment but in very serious condition, and this is all touch and go for the next twenty-four hours. We’re taking her to ICU for the duration of the treatment. I’m assuming she’ll be in there for a couple of days at least. It’s as secure an environment as this hospital has. Plus, we have decent security. We get celebrities in here sometimes. I’ll get the guards up here right away, both to Juliet’s room and to oncology. Okay?”

“Thank you.”

Flynn leaves the room, but not before asking a nurse to step in. Zack is heartened by this action. It means that he’s not stupid; if someone has already tried to murder his patient, he’s hardly going to leave her alone with a stranger.

The nurse fiddles with the IV, and Zack takes Juliet’s hand. “Juliet,” he whispers, and almost cries with joy when he feels a slight answering squeeze.

80

When Parks, Starr, and Woody arrive, they are greeted by a phalanx of police and hospital security. Dr. Flynn, true to his word, put out the call, and the hospital is now swarming with law enforcement. The reporters outside are in a dither—first Vail police show up, followed by the Eagle County Sheriff’s deputies, then the CBI comes in on their helicopter with unidentified cops from Nashville. Everyone knows something major is up, and everyone is trying to find out what, exactly, is happening, all while going live to report this new development, though they aren’t sure exactly what it is.

The downside to all of this attention: Zack has been deflecting questions from multiple people for the past ten minutes, and he is getting antsy. All he wants is to see Mindy, to tell her everything is going to be okay.

When Parks appears down the hallway, he waves him over gratefully.

“What the hell is going on?” Parks asks.

“These folks want to know the same thing,” Zack says. “But I have to go see Mindy. I have to talk to her.”

“Is she in any kind of shape to talk?”

“I don’t know because no one will let me see her.” He glares at the Vail policewoman who’s been trying to take his statement about Lauren and Juliet.

Woody steps in, flashes his credentials. “CBI, Special Agent Stockton. I’ll take responsibility for Mr. Armstrong. I agree he should be allowed to see his daughter.”

The gambit works. Zack is freed for the moment. Parks takes Kat’s lead, which doesn’t make her happy, but Zack kneels and says, “Hang in, sweet girl. I have to run upstairs to see Mindy.”

She barks once as if sayingOK, fine, but hurry, and he sprints toward the elevator with Woody on his heels.

Mindy is, of course, still in isolation after the treatment. Oliver, garbed in blue and wearing a mask, is in the room with her, and two sheriff’s deputies stand guard. Mindy is clearly scared; he can see her straining to see out of the room’s door from her bed.

The nurse hands him a phone. “Gotta talk to her on the room phone, we’re not ready to let in anyone from the outside yet without you getting scrubbed down.”

“Just patch me in.”

He stands by the window to the room, and Mindy settles a bit when she sees him. Oliver puts a phone in her hand, and her tired, worn voice comes across the line.

Mindy has one question for him.

“Where’s my mom?”