AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She supposed her first reaction could be best described as a mild acceptance. Sure, there were thoughts of how it was unfair, but even back then, she’d understood how childish and almost selfish that had seemed. Shit happens. These things happen to people every day, all over the world, sometimes to people in amazing health and sometimes to people with declining health.
Sadness and angercame later. She couldn't pinpoint a specific time, but she knew Peter had been there when the first bout of anger had come. The anger had blindsided her, and though she hadn't acted out on it, she had felt it inside of her body. The anger was much like the tumor itself, and she certainly didn't want it, and it slowly ate away at her. Again, this wasn't anything she realized until after the fact. And as she paced back and forth on the rim of the fast food restaurant parking lot, she was able to understand that processing and dealing with the anger had been one of the reasons she had been so stubborn about staying at her work. Without her work, the anger would have taken over and completely consumed her.
“Huh,” she said as this realization registered.
She supposed other people had seen this right away. Grandma Tate, probably. Jack, for sure. But to come to this understanding while also trying to get a better feel for the killer they were after, Rachel felt as if a veil had been pulled back. She knew that continuing to work after that first diagnosis was also a way of denying her reality. It was like a late bill or a dentist appointment she didn't want to go to—something bigger to put in front of an inconvenience.
And then, in a flash, she saw the world through the eyes of their killer… so angry, looking for someplace to stick the blame. She pictured him shuffling through the Newsoms’ front hall, having just killed Donna Newsom. She saw him growing dizzy, stumbling and catching himself by the glass of their front screen door, leaving smudged fingerprints.
Stumbling to where, though? Who would be next? In all of the documents she’d seen, the only doctors that had seen him were Matthews and Leery. She supposed he could go after some of the insurance people, but that would require him to get a bit more creative in terms of finding the right people that he’d deem responsible. And she had tohopethat’s not the route he went next because that would also take a lot of digging ontheirend… and the list of people to look into would be enormous.
Thinking of the insurance people made her also think about the folks at the pharmacies Dickerson may have had issues with. People at local pharmacies would be a bit easier to locate. Just follow them home from work, and there you have it. As Rachel sipped her soda through the straw, this theory felt like it might have merit. But as she considered it, she realized that it was only triggering something else… something tidbit she had nearly overlooked.
Pharmacies…prescriptions…
She took out her phone and looked at some of the pictures she’d taken back in Dickerson’s house. She knew the one she was looking for and found it without much of a problem. When she’d originally found the treasure trove of information, she’d made the mistake of ignoring one of the most recent receipts Dickerson had kept. It had been the receipt and a copy of the prescription form—a prescription for pain meds.
The prescription had taken some work to get. Based on the little bit of paperwork she’d seen, it had gone through two different places and sort of bounced around a bit before finally landing at a pharmacy in the Brandermill area. Rachel once again looked through the information in the pictures and found the name of the specialist he had seen in order to start the prolonged process of getting the medication.
The little bit she had to go from didn’t tell herwhythe specialist had originally resisted, but the back-and-forth line of communication on the xeroxed form showed that was exactly what happened: Dickerson had gone to a specialist—Dr. McKinney on the forms—and McKinney had originally rejected it. Dickerson had then gone to another source, and the request for medication was sentbackto McKinney for some reason… maybe for a referral or just a desperate second attempt. Whatever the reason, four days after his initial rejection, McKinney approved it.
The mere breakdown of how it happened aggravated even Rachel (as did most things about the way doctors and pharmacies often worked together), so she could only imagine how it would have infuriated Dickerson.
Taking one last bite of her salad, she hurried back to the car. Jack’s eyes were on her before she was even at the door. When she got inside, he was sipping on his own drink. “You have the look of a woman with an idea,” he said.
“Good, because I do. We need to locate a pain management specialist by the name of Dr. McKinney. When Dickerson saw him, it was during a visit to Solace Pain Management. Based on some of the documents we saw back at his house, I think he may have caused a hold-up in Dickerson getting pain meds in a timely manner.”
“You’re sure?” he asked, though he was already reaching for his phone.
“I think so, yeah. According to all of those records, Leery was the doctor who originallyfailedto properly diagnose him… to overlook the tumor. And then when Matthewsdidfind it, Dickerson for some reason ended up goingbackto Leery. And seeing as how he was still seeing doctors as recently as two months ago, I’m assuming there was never any real progress.”
“Okay, I follow so far…”
“He’s killing people that he can place blame on. Leery for not finding it. Matthews for finding it and breaking the bad news. Donna Newsom for… well, for I’m not sure what. We still don’t have a clear picture of that, do we?”
“No. And now that I think about it, the nurse I was speaking to when we were at your kitchen table was supposed to call me back, but she never did. I can give her a call back right now.”
“I think you should make the call about McKinney first. Find out where he is and send a cop or two over his way to make sure he stays safe. And then see if we can get the details on how Dickerson and Donna Newsom were linked.”
She pulled up the address for Solace Pain Management as Jack made the call for a unit to be sent to the business inconspicuously and to have a policeman get McKinney freed up. She felt like nothing more than a passenger because Jack had to make the callsanddrive. Rachel making the calls would leave a trail that she had been directly involved with the case, and after her latest diagnosis, she knew better than to even ask Jack to let her drive.
So she set her phone to give directions to Solace Pain Management and set it on the center console. Jack set his own phone to speaker mode and pulled out of the parking lot just as someone from the local PD answered his call.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Within just five minutes of leaving their makeshift lunch spot, Jack received a call from a policeman. Rachel listened in as the cop let them know that Dr. Byron McKinney had been located and was safe. He was currently being moved to a small conference room within the Solace Pain Management offices. With that one piece already set in place and ready to go, Jack then placed a call to the hospital using the same number he’d been given for direct contact earlier in the day. When he was finally connected, the woman on the other end was profusely apologetic.
“Agent Rivers, I’m so sorry. I did have someone find out the information you were looking for pertaining to Donna and Mr. Dickerson. By the time they had the information, I was called out to fill in for another nurse that didn’t show up today. So I had to do her rounds, and I completely forgot!”
“It happens,” Jack said, though he wasn’t doing a great job of hiding his aggravation. “So what did you find out?”
Rachel heard the woman sigh before she started, a sign that it was likely going to be interesting.
“Mr. Dickerson was admitted on a Wednesday night following what was diagnosed as a likely suicide attempt. He’d taken a copious amount of a strange mix of drugs—most notably some pain killers and some blood pressure medication. Our records show that he flatlined for about forty seconds. Based on the hospital records, it was Donna that brought him back. Well, it was the medicine that we’d put into him and the stomach pump, but somewhere after all that, he flatlined… and Donna resuscitated him.”
Rachel and Jack stared at one another. Rachelthought that if Dickerson had genuinely wanted to die only to be brought back, he’d likely blame the person that he saw as being responsible for thwarting the attempt. In this case, it would be Donna Newsom.
“Is there anything else in the notes?” Rachel asked. She then clapped her hand to her mouth. She’d not intended to speak because no one else was supposed to know she was helping. She looked sad and Jack and was relieved when he gave a half-hearted shrug.
