Hostage by Zimmerman R.D

Author:Zimmerman, R.D. [Zimmerman, R.D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery, detective, Edgar Award, Gay, gay mystery, Lambda Award, AIDS
Publisher: ScribblePub
Published: 2011-04-27T05:00:00+00:00

22

Oh, he didn’t like this. Oh, this scared him. Thinking back on everything he’d read, Elliot knew this wasn’t good. Tina had been in the bathroom since Matthew had left, and he knew there was nothing left to come out of her except her insides. And that was exactly what seemed to be happening. If they weren’t precisely where they were in these subterranean chambers and if the police, the FBI, and who knew who else weren’t looking for them—which they surely were—Elliot would drag Tina to the closest hospital and make them fill her up intravenously with fluids.

“Oh, Elliot, I can’t stop it!” she moaned from behind the closed door. “The cramps are so bad.”

“I know, dear, I know.”

There was another gush from inside her, and she cried, “There’s so much blood!”

“Just be cool.” Elliot leaned against the door frame and mumbled, “I can’t say for sure because of course I’m not a doctor, as we both know, but I think this goes beyond cytomegalovirus colitis. I mean, CMV isn’t usually quite so… so aggressive. It could be another organism, say giardia, which is definitely not fun. But no, that wouldn’t explain the blood, now, would it? Nor would simple food poisoning, say, if you ate some meat that wasn’t cooked all the way through or ate some bad mayonnaise. I mean, actually it sounds to moi like you’ve got a lesion or something going on, you know, like one of your intestines has cracked a leak. Tina, hon, you sure you never had any KS?”

“No. No… oh, my God, ow!” Crying, she paused, gasped for air. “No, I don’t think so.”

“Well, I suppose you’d know if you did.”

Okay, so what else could it be? He thought through all the typical stuff—lactose intolerance, spicy foods, fatty foods—all that crap, but none of them would explain the blood. Scratching his nose, he glanced over at the huge boxful of drugs they’d dragged down here. Unfortunately, this went way beyond anything he could deal with. Maybe when Matthew returned they should just take her out of here and ditch her somewhere, then call 911 and tell them to fetch her. Or maybe she couldn’t wait that long. In fact, listening to her writhe, he doubted she could. What she probably needed and needed now was not only an IV of fluids but a good, strong transfusion.

“Hon,” he called through the door, “I can hear you crying in there, but can you tell me, are any tears rollin’ down those pretty cheeks of yours?”

“What?” She sniffled. “Actually, no.”

He slapped his cheek, rolled his eyes. Oh, this was definitely not cool. No tears meant her body couldn’t spare a drop of moisture, which clearly signified that Tina was already acutely dehydrated. Notwithstanding that her kidneys could be seriously and permanently damaged—big deal at this point—she was probably just minutes away from slipping into shock. Shit, when the hell was Matthew going to get back?

Okay, okay, just think, you moron.

Elliot scurried over to the boxes of food.

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