“I’m fine.” Her words had some fight in them, but that didn’t match the weariness in her body language.
“Hold it where you hit your head. It’ll help with the swelling.” He held a light up to her eyes. “I don’t think you’ve got a concussion, but we can run some tests.”
“I didn’t black out, and I’m not nauseous. I just have a headache. Focus on someone who needs the attention.” Her attention shifted to the bed where Dr. Miller and a couple of nurses were working on the girl. “How is she?”
The nurse glanced that direction and shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s a good thing you walked in.”
That got Todd’s attention. “You left?”
“Just to use the restroom. They were getting ready to transport her to a room.” She sighed. “Everyone told me that it was a good time to leave. I was gone a whole five minutes.”
The alarm stopped, and Dr. Miller stepped back from the bed, eyes glued to the monitors. After a moment, she nodded. “Okay. Looks like we have her stabilized. This young lady just got upgraded to the ICU for the night. I want her closely monitored while we make sure she’s okay.”
“What happened?”
Dr. Miller pointed to the abandoned syringe. “It looks like whoever was in here shot her up with drugs. We treated her with Narcan and other interventions. But I want to know who did this and why.” She pointed to Todd. “Can you get security in here?”
“Sure.” He left the emergency room and wound his way through the maze of the hospital to the security center. When he entered, he found Benjamin Rice sitting at a bank of monitors. “Ben, good to see you.”
“Long time no see, man.” They exchanged the elaborate handshake from their days in the local National Guard unit. The man had put on some weight, likely from not having to do the annual physical, but other than that looked unchanged. “What can I do for you?”
“We had an incident in the Emergency Room in the last half hour. Dr. Miller asked if you would come down.”
“I’m the only one here right now. I can send the circulating security officer to the ER.” Ben frowned as he scanned the monitors. “Officer Suarez should have been in that vicinity.”
“A few transports were arriving from an accident scene.”
“It’s been a crazy night. At first everyone was diverted to St. E’s and the trauma center at Bryan East, but now they’re overflowing here. That accident must have been a doozy.” He pointed to a monitor. “There she is. I can direct her to Dr. Miller. Which bay in the ER?”
Todd told him. “Someone injected the patient, a Jane Doe, with something. We’re guessing drugs.”
Ben looked up at him, slack jawed. “What? When did this happen? I can try to find video.”
“I wasn’t here, so you’ll need to ask Bridget Ellis, the case worker, who was around the room.” He felt the frustration build at the realization he could have prevented the incident if he hadn’t left. “I’d stepped away to go back to the scene where I found the girl.”
“Makes sense. Unidentified?”
“Yep.”
“That’s sad.” He typed a message to the security officer, then focused on Todd. “Get me a timeline, and we can review the video.”
“On it.” He stifled a yawn. This wasn’t the first night he would pull an all-nighter, but he’d had a couple late nights this week. Maybe his body was letting him know he wasn’t as young as heused to be. It wasn’t like he was ancient though. He should be able to keep up.
“Come on, old man. Do you need a Red Bull?”
“Nah. Just need to stay in motion.” It was barely midnight after all. “I’ll be back.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be here ready to scroll to what you need.” Ben toasted him with his energy drink and returned his focus to the monitors.
Todd scanned the screens, then turned and left the room.
His phone vibrated as he stepped into the hall, and he pulled it free. “Westmont.”
“You texted.” Caleb sounded tired yet alert.
“I didn’t expect you to call.”
“Brianna decided she wanted company.”
