If I Should Die_ A Novel of Suspense - Allison Brennan [15]
“Thank you so much for coming,” Lucy told the semiretired doctor who’d agreed to make a house call when Sean refused to go to the closest hospital in Potsdam.
“No trouble, no trouble,” Dr. Sherwood Griffin answered, looking across the room at the patient in bed. “Just wake him every couple of hours, check his eyes and reflexes, give him the pain meds every six hours. He’ll be sore but I’ve seen far worse.”
“I’m not taking any pills,” a pale and exhausted Sean mumbled from the bed.
Lucy sat down next to him. “Can I convince you to sleep?”
“Yes.”
“By morning, I guarantee you’ll be wanting something to knock out the pain.” Griffin grinned, revealing crooked white teeth.
Sean didn’t return the physician’s smile. He took Lucy’s hand and pulled it to his chest, forcing her to lean over him. Through clenched teeth, he said, “Get him out of here.”
She kissed him lightly. She had an impulse to lie down next to Sean and make sure he was really okay, even though she knew he was going to be fine. She’d been periodically shaking since returning from the mine shaft. She didn’t understand her unusual reaction, considering she’d been around plenty of dead bodies at the morgue and none of them had affected her the way the dead blonde had.
“I’ll be back in a few minutes,” she told Sean.
He nodded, still glaring at the doctor. When Sean had found out that Sherwood Griffin doubled as a veterinarian, he’d almost agreed to go to the hospital.
Lucy walked Dr. Griffin down the path toward the main lodge. The sun had just set, the sky glowing orange, pink, and purple. She wanted a moment of peace and silence to absorb the stunning beauty of the scene, thankful that Sean was alive.
But the doctor had something else in mind besides quiet contemplation. “I heard Tim say you found a body in the mine.”
“Yes.”
“Probably a hiker. We’ve lost more than a few in my sixty-nine years. Think because we have rolling hills and some good trails they can just do what they like, but there’s plenty of danger if you don’t know what you’re doing.” He looked her over, top to bottom. “You’re a city girl. What were you doing near the mine?”
Tim hadn’t told the doctor about the vandalism, and Lucy wasn’t going to. “I’ve done my fair share of camping.”
He laughed. “Your hands are too pretty to spend much time outside.”
Though his comment could be a compliment, his tone was one of derision. She’d already considered the lost hiker theory, but the positioning of the body didn’t suggest accident. Possibly natural, but more likely not. Someone had specifically arranged the body.
However, she asked, “Have you heard of any hikers gone missing recently?”
“Nope, but that don’t mean much. If anyone’s missing, they’ll be posted at the Fire and Rescue.”
“Where’s the station?”
“We’re too small for our own substation, but about twenty minutes southeast, up the mountain near Indian Hills, there’s a good-sized station. Handles a much larger area than just our little dot on the map. When I was little, we had over four thousand people in Spruce Lake and our own pump engine. Now, less than four hundred.” He shook his head.
Tim emerged from his house. He extended his hand to the doctor. “Thanks for coming out, Doctor. Please send me the bill.”
“Glad to do it, Tim.” He looked over at the lodge and frowned. The smoke and fire in the kitchen had blackened the walls outside the windows. “I heard you had a kitchen fire. Word is it was arson.”
“Word sure gets around fast.”
“The Getty boy is on Fire and Rescue, and he’s sweet on Trina. You tell Trina something, the entire town knows by sundown.”
“The sheriff is sending an investigator tomorrow,” Tim said.
“And what about the body in the mine?” Lucy asked.
“They will need to bring in equipment, the coroner, and a detective. Everyone should be here by eight in the morning.”
Lucy thought of the woman spending another night exposed like that. Someone somewhere loved her—a husband, a parent, a sister, a child. Her family deserved to know what had happened as much as she needed a proper burial.
“Where’s Adam?” Griffin asked,