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“He’s a strong dog and a very good boy too, from what I understand. I remember treating him in the past. While prognosis is always guarded, I’m hopeful he’s going to pull through. Are you on board with the plan?”
“Dr. Gordon, we’ve had sort of an event here. Harper is gone for a day, and we’re hoping he should be back tomorrow. But Venom is sort of my guard dog. I know he can’t do that now, obviously, but we feel the poisoning has been intentional, and we’re looking to bring the police in. He’s probably safer down there,” she answered.
“That sounds good, Mrs. Cunningham. I’ll keep him here, and if there’s any change, good or bad, I’ll give you a call. I think it’s more important right now that you get some rest. And if Mr. Cunningham calls, I’ll make sure the staff knows to wake me up. I’m gonna be spending the night down here. We had a whole lot of emergencies this weekend, so I’m pretty tied up. Don’t think I’m gonna be making it home for one or two days. But you rest and take care of yourself and be safe, okay? And I’ve saved some of the material from the stomach. Have you found the items he may have ingested?”
“Yes, we have what looks like hamburger meat, and my guys here say there were at least ten spread out throughout the field, and they’ve got them all tucked in separate baggies. I am sure we could bring one down to you to send out for testing.”
“It wouldn’t hurt. We retained several samples from his stomach, and we’ll just see what the concentration level is. If there’s any variety in the baggies, that would also tell us what group he got it from. Sometimes, these things are different if someone made the cocktail in their kitchen, whether a strong dose or not a strong dose. It might help. In either case, it would be evidence for the police, should you go that far. So you bring it down when you can. Like I said, I’ll be here all night.”
“I’ll have Danny bring it right down to you. Thanks so much, doctor, for giving us a call.”
“No problem.”
She disconnected the phone and grinned at her two companions. “I’m so happy, and I’m so glad I got this news before I had to break it to Harper. I’m gonna try to call him again. Danny, would you mind running a few of the bags down to the doctor?”
“On it. Do you want me to take your car again or the van?”
“No, you can take my car.”
He held up the keys, showing that he still had them.
Greg joined her in the living room, bringing her a glass of water.
“Thanks. Now if I can just get a hold of Harper…”
“What’s the meeting about?”
“I’m not sure. But you know about this new team he’s on? Are you going to be joining?”
“I haven’t been asked yet. I think he was going to, but not officially. He did ask Danny. I suppose he thinks it would get over to me. I’ll probably get the call, but I’m not sure I want to do it. Like I said, I might want to move back to San Diego and be closer to the kids. Whole reason for getting out of the teams was to be closer to the family, and then I moved up here.” He shrugged.
“But you get to work with friends, right?”
“That’s part of it. I might be ready now.”
“Maybe it’s time. You’ll be able to have a better chance at a fresh start down there. I hope so.”
Lydia dialed Harper’s number, who picked up on the first ring.
“Lydia? Lydia? Are you okay? How’s Venom? I got your message. What’s the prognosis?”
“Looks like he’s going to be okay, Harper. Oh, so good to hear your voice. I was—”
“Tell me about Venom?”
“Well, we took him into the emergency room. Dr. Gordon said he’d eaten some poisoned pieces of meat. And he asked us to go search in the field, so Danny and Greg went out there and walked through the area carefully. They picked up ten little baggies of hamburger meat. We think it was laced with something, some poison. Danny’s bringing them down to the doctor right now for an analysis. They pumped his stomach, saved some of the contents, and put him into a coma for overnight to see how his other organs hold out. Doesn’t appear he has any stoppage or didn’t eat something that blocked his insides at all, which a lot of poisons do. His stomach had meat remnants and brown fluid. It may have scarred some of his stomach lining, because he was coughing up and snorting blood. It wasn’t very pretty. But I think we got it in time. And the doctor just told me that he thinks he’ll be fine without any problems. But he has to get through this night first.”
“Thank God. I didn’t even think that somebody would resort to that.”
“Yeah, when we plan and do our best, like you always told me, enemy gets a vote.”
Harper paused. “You know, Lydia, I don’t think I’ve told you that since you’ve been back. I think that’s something you heard from me from before. Are your memories coming back?”
“I had something else that happened today I’ll tell you about when you get back. But I think little spots are coming back here and there. I can’t be sure. Anyway, the boys have been great, and it’ll be wonderful to have you back home. Do you have to leave again for a while?”
“I need to talk to you about a couple of things first. It’s a possibility you’re gonna have to come back here.”
“To D.C.? Now? Whatever for?”
