Not Quite Gone (A Lowcountry Mystery) (10 page)

“Yes.”

“Yes?” My internal revelation almost made me forget the question. “Oh. What did you want to be?”

“Wanted to be a cowboy. When I was…five. ”

I can’t help but shake my head. “Unless you’re going to move to Montana and buy a ranch I’d say that one’s
out the window. Not to mention you’d be a bit behind the learning curve.”

“You don’t know everything…” He trails off, then winces, biting back a groan. “Everything about me. I can rope a steer.”

“I just bet you can. What else?”

“Astronaut.”

“Again, with the training. You’re no young pup,” I tease, trying and mostly failing to hold his attention.

He goes still, but not in a peaceful way. In
a way that suggests he’s holding every single muscle in check, afraid of what kind of pain he might feel if he moves. This time when he answers, his teeth are chattering. “I wanted to restore houses. Worked on a crew the summer I was nineteen doing projects downtown and fell in love with the work.”

The third sign for Saint Francis distracts me, and it’s not until I pull off the highway and am
sitting at a red light that his response filters from my ears to my brain. I’m about to say something but one look tells me he’s passed out and no amount of semi-interesting conversation is going to wake him up.

Luckily, the hospital is as close as he promised. I screech to a stop in front of the emergency room entrance and scramble out, slamming the door and running inside to get help.

A nurse
and what appears to be a teenager in scrubs follow me back outside, running right on my heels, and the three of us wrestle Beau into a wheelchair. He disappears through the doors with the nurse and the child-doctor and I pop open the trunk, grabbing the basket. It takes all my self-control not to hold it away from me. Well, self-control and the fact that the sucker is as heavy as a toddler.

Beau’s nowhere to be found when I make it back inside. My heart lodges in my throat. I catch a glimpse of myself in a mirror mounted on the wall and nearly scream—my hair is sticking up everywhere and my makeup is smudged under my eyes. I had no idea I’d been crying until now.

The nurse behind the information desk isn’t the same one who ran outside to help Beau. I gulp air in an effort to settle
myself back into some semblance of a human being.

The raise of her eyebrows and the slight alarm in her muddy gaze says it’s not working. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, they just brought in my boyfriend? Snakebite?”

“I believe they took him back, but it’s family only.”

“It’s not that I don’t respect a good policy…” One of her eyebrows arches higher. “Fine, I don’t respect policies at all, but the
point is that I have the snake. And based on all the books I’ve ever read and stupid television shows on the Discovery Channel I’ve ever watched, the doctors are going to need it.”

She rolls her chair back, a mask of horror on her face. “There’s a snake in there?”

“It’s dead. I’m pretty sure.”

The chair rolls farther away and she points a pen down the hall. “Exam Three. Second door on the right
once you get behind the locked doors. I’m opening them now.”

“Thanks for your help.”

The doors are still buzzing when my hand grips the handle and flings open the entrance to the apparently top-secret emergency room exam area. It’s been a while since I’ve been in any sort of modern hospital. Maybe they’ve all gone in this security-crazed direction.

The room I’m looking for is helpfully labeled
Exam #3. Beau’s on the bed, not looking any better or any more awake than the last time I saw him, and two doctors and two nurses crowd the space. One of the nurses frowns when she sees me. “You need to leave.”

“I have the snake that bit him. Don’t you need it to, like, give him an antidote?”

“We keep several local antivenoms in stock,” the younger doctor barks, motioning for the basket. “Let
me see it.”

I have my doubts as to whether a twelve-year-old can identify the snake but hand over the basket anyway. Maybe he was a Boy Scout. Or
is
a Boy Scout. My hands shake once they’re free of their burden. In fact, there’s no part of me that’s not shaking from fear, uselessness, anxiety, and a bunch of other emotions.

“It’s dead,” I inform him, thinking now about the ghost who kind of
half-assed the whole saving-our-lives mission, even if she did—I
think
—kill that snake.

But maybe she was only there to save me.

A chill goes through me at the thought that came from nowhere. Why would that be?

“Son of a bitch!” The doctor drops the basket immediately after peering inside. It lands on the floor and part of the snake—neither head nor tail—flops onto the white linoleum. His sharp,
light eyes land on mine, accusing. “What the hell are you playing at?”

“Me? Nothing! I’m trying to help my boyfriend.” The words are indignant in my head but come out of my mouth covered in tears. “Please.”

“That’s an African snake.” He’s still looking at me as though this whole thing is some sort of joke while Beau lies there unconscious, hooked up to some sort of IV fluids but without actual
antivenom.

More tears gather in my eyes even as my fingernails bite into my palms. “Look, Doogie Howser, that thing bit my boyfriend in the leg, he freaked out, I grabbed the snake and him, and drove here. That’s all I know.”

“Who’s Doogie Howser?” he asks, poking the snake carefully with a toe.

“How’d you kill it?” The other doctor’s eyes are huge, and on the snake, not me.

“I, um, smashed
its head. With a rock.”

They’re going to figure out that’s not true as soon as they get a look at its intact head but there’s nothing I can do about that. Right now, we need someone to figure out what sort of snake it is so we can get Beau some help.

His earlier pronouncement hits me, and my knees buckle. “Wait, did you say it’s an African snake? What’s it doing in the lowcountry?”

“Some kind
of viper, yeah. I’m not an expert, but it sure doesn’t belong here.”

“Wait. Did you say a viper?” One of the nurses, a pretty girl who might be around my age, looks thoughtful.

“Yeah. I mean, I think.”

“There was a story earlier about one being stolen from the serpentarium on Edisto. I’m pretty sure.”

“If it’s any sort of African viper, we need to move quickly.” The second doctor, a middle-aged
man with graying hair at his temples, pulls his stethoscope from his ears, hanging it around his neck. The concern etched on his face tightens my throat. “I’m going to call the serpentarium and talk to one of their experts. In the meantime, give him as much generic antivenom as we can scrounge up and keep pushing fluids.”

He leaves the room, and the nurses fly into action, one of them leaving
the room. Doogie punches some buttons on the IV machine before following her.

The second nurse, the one who remembered the news story, uses her elbow to nudge tight brunette curls back toward her bun. “You can stay. No one will notice.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m going to take the snake out to Dr. Shaw in case he needs to send a picture or describe it to the people on Edisto.”

I nod, vaguely impressed
that she gathers it up without freaking out. Then it’s just Beau and me. To my surprise, his eyes are open. Cloudy, but focused enough.

“Hey,” I say, dropping into the chair beside the bed and snatching his hand to my chest. “You’re looking good.”

He looks as though he wants to respond but forming words and pushing them out would require too much effort. The look in his eyes, part pain and part
resignation, breaks my heart.

“Hey,” I say again, leaning forward to push his golden-brown hair back off his sweaty forehead. His clammy skin spikes my concern, but the machine showing his vitals promises he’s okay. For now. “They figured out what kind of snake it is and they’re getting you antivenom now. When you say surprise date that’s going to blow my mind, you really go all out, huh?”

That earns me the hint of a smile before his eyes drop closed again. It hits me then that only family is supposed to be back here, and while I don’t care that I’m breaking the rules, perhaps Beau’s actual family would like to know that he’s in the hospital.

I have Brick’s number, which Beau insisted be programmed into my phone in case of emergency during the trial, but now I have Cordelia’s, too.
Since she’s my boss.

This is where taking the job out there gets complicated.

My hands shake as I dial. They’ve been shaking for an hour straight.

“Yes, Graciela?”

Trust Beau’s mother to answer the phone in the weirdest way possible. No hello or bothering to sound happy to hear from me. I clear my throat. “I’m terribly sorry to bother you so late, Mrs. Drayton, but I thought you’d want to
know that Beau is at Saint Francis Hospital.”

I swallow hard, trying to calm down.

“Oh?”

My body stills, warning bells in my mind screaming. She doesn’t sound surprised. Or concerned. How is that possible?

“Yes. We were having a picnic earlier tonight and he was bitten by a snake.” I pause, wondering whether to give more information if she doesn’t ask, but in the end, the manners my Grams
drilled into my head win out. “It’s not a normal snake, ma’am. It’s an extremely venomous species native to Africa.”

“He’ll be fine?”

I swallow again but refuse to entertain any alternative. “They’re working with a local snake preserve to get some antivenom now, but it…it needs to happen fast.”

“I’ll send Brick over immediately to represent the family. Thank you for calling.” She pauses, seeming
to give me an opportunity to speak, then sighs. “Is there anything else?”

Anything else? Besides the fact that your son is lying in a hospital bed with a bite from a deadly viper that doesn’t belong on this continent? “No.”

The chill in my voice is no match for the practiced one in hers. She clicks off without saying good-bye. I decide there’s nothing to do but ignore her abhorrent lack of maternal
instinct and open the internet browser on my phone instead.

I look up African vipers and find that most are indigenous to the Gold Coast, or maybe the Slave Coast. The one in my basket is either a gaboon viper—though it would be a small one—or a rhinoceros viper. We’re lucky no one stole or lost a puff adder because Beau apparently wouldn’t have made it to the car before going into cardiac arrest.

In fact, all the information on these snakes is scary as all get-out. Their venom is intense and certainly kills people every year. It’s also responsible for nerve damage, brain damage, scarring, and loss of limbs…basically I’m never visiting Africa because no. My stomach is in full-on freak-out mode when the older doctor comes back into the room with the curly-haired nurse behind him.

“Miss…”
the doctor starts.

“Harper.” I shoot to my feet, unsure whether it’s appropriate to shake his hand in this situation but doing it anyway. His palm is dry and steady, passing me the slightest bit of calm.

“I’m Dr. Shaw. The scientist over at the serpentarium is on his way with antivenom and to take possession of the snake. He’s given us instructions in the meantime.”

“So Beau’s going to be fine?”

“He’ll probably have a nasty scar, but he’s going to live. No permanent damage.”

I sit back down. Collapse, really, since all the taut energy inside me snaps, deflating my body like a balloon. “Thank God.”

He hesitates, as though deciding whether to say more. “It could have been much worse. Should have been, probably. These snakes are responsible for multiple deaths a year and y’all did not
get here terribly fast.”

I swallow, not wanting to think about it. “Why is he okay, then?”

“Since the snake has been living in captivity, it’s milked on a regular basis. Its venom stores are very low, so when it bit Mr. Drayton, only a small amount was injected. Its fangs are some of the longest in the world, though, and no doubt packed quite a punch, pain-wise.”

I nod, wincing at the memory
of the agony on Beau’s face when it happened. “What now?”

“If you could give us about thirty minutes, we’re going to take him up to a room and start the admittance process. You’ll be able to see him again once he’s settled.”

“What room?”

“I’ll let you know when I fetch you.”

“Thank you.”

He nods, stepping aside and clearly waiting for me to leave. It takes me forever to stand up and I’m not
sure whether it’s leaving Beau or facing Brick that’s got me dragging my feet.

I somehow get moving and head back through the doors toward the emergency waiting area. It’s not very crowded. I find a seat next to a plant and put my back to a wall, exhausted now that it appears everything is going to be fine.

It’s taking a long time, longer than
thirty minutes for them to come to get me, but the nurse at reception will only assure me that everything’s fine, not tell me where he’s gone.

I flop back down, start to read a book on my phone. It dies. The rapid loss of adrenaline has my eyes slipping closed no matter how hard I fight, but maybe a little catnap wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. Beau’s going to need me to sit with him
once he’s settled in his room, and then we’ll have to get him home later.