A Deathly Rattle Read online

  “Jim!” I’m pretty sure I screamed louder than I should have. I heard him come stomping through the house, Laurie in tow, like he thought I had fallen and hit my head or something.

  By the time he got back to the bathroom I had thrown on a robe and had investigated the source of the blood glop. I was definitely bleeding – fairly heavily, might I add. I didn’t even have to say anything because my pants and underwear were sitting on the floor in front of the tub.

  Jim instantly went pale, and he put Laurie down. “I’m taking you to the hospital,” he said. “I’m going to call Kenny, get dressed.”

  He switched into autopilot, I think. It was his way of keeping himself from panicking. Kenny darted over before I could even get my purse together. By the time I came out of the back bedroom, Kenny was already playing with Laurie in the floor, and he looked up at me with this concerned gaze while Jim threw on a jacket and snagged the car keys.

  “Are you all right, Kate?” Kenny asked.

  “I think so… I don’t know…” I said, quickly spitting out a thank you for rushing over so quickly while Jim ushered me out the door and helped me into the car.

  We didn’t speak to each other much on the way to the hospital. Jim reached for my hand at every red light and it seemed we hit all of them.

  I’d virtually zero problems with my first pregnancy. Why was this happening?

  Maybe all of my dry heaving from earlier hurt the baby, I thought – ready to blame myself instantly.

  The thought I might be having a miscarriage made me want to curl up and cry. My hands were shaky, and when I glanced over at Jim I could tell he was worried. His eyes were glossy, and his stare was very intense as he looked out at the road in front of us.

  “Should I call Dr. Green?” I asked.

  He nodded and I pulled out my cell phone. I had her on speed dial, but her office was closed for the evening. I left her a message with her answering service then shrugged at Jim.

  A few minutes later, I received a text from Dr. Green office telling me to go straight to the hospital and that she would meet us there in the emergency wing.

  I was really relieved to see Dr. Green pulling up at the same time as us. She smiled and greeted us and immediately starting asking me questions. She did however sound reassuring as we walked into the ER and for that I was grateful.

  She led us out of the waiting room and down a series of connecting halls towards her practice’s office area. In an instant, Jim and I were in a room.

  The first thing she did was hand me an awful hospital gown. While I changed, she scrubbed her hands, then rubbed some goop on my belly to check for the baby’s heartbeat.

  Anxiety seemed to be chocking me and I bit back tears as I looked at Jim.

  I was so grateful he’d been at home when this had happened. He stood by me, holding my hand, while we waited patiently on Dr. Green. Then, we heard the sound that made both Jim and I exhale in relief.

  Our baby’s heartbeat.

  “Sounds like your baby is just fine, but I’m going to do a blood test and do a cervical check to make sure everything’s okay,” Dr. Green said, but then she paused for a second. She continued listening to the heartbeat, moving the little device across my stomach. “Hold on a second, there, Kate… I think I’m picking up a second heartbeat…”

  “Wait, what?” Jim asked, suddenly becoming very lively. “You mean you’re picking up Kate’s heartbeat?”

  “No, I mean there might be a second baby in there,” Dr. Green said. She put the little device aside and reached over to the ultrasound machine; it rolled towards the chair where I was seated and leaned back. “You’re due for your second ultrasound next week anyway. Let’s take a look.”

  My heart raced. Twins?

  She turned the light off in the room. There was a monitor display in the corner for Jim and I to look at. Sure enough, I spotted a little baby that still looked a little more peanut-like than baby wiggling around.

  “Oh, yeah, there’s two in there,” Dr. Green said.

  “What! Where?” Jim demanded. I couldn’t tell if he was horrified or excited.

  She pointed up towards the scream. “That second baby is hiding behind the first one, but you can see three arms on the… hold on, they’re moving. Yup, there you go.”

  I could see two heads. They were squished together, their arms were so tiny compared to the rest of them right now, but I could see both of their shapes clearly.

  Dr. Green clicked a button on the ultrasound to capture the clear shot. “Congratulations,” she said. “You’re having twins. I can’t believe we didn’t pick up that second heartbeat at your last visit.”

  I heard a dry-heaving sound erupt from Jim’s throat, and his hand squeezed me tight. I looked over at him, and he was white as a ghost, but he was smiling… sort of.

  “Jim? Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said quickly, but he let go of me and sat down in the spare chair. “Twins,” he said under his breath, and he started laughing uncontrollable.

  Dr. Green looked from Jim to me. “It’s a lot to take in, I know.”

  I didn’t have time to deal with whatever Jim was going through at the moment. I was at least glad he was smiling, though. We hadn’t planned on having a second baby so soon, but he had been really excited… but twins was a lot more than what we had expected, so I was going to give him a minute to let it sink in before I got all pregnant angry Kate on him. I had something else on my mind.

  “What about the blood?” I asked. “Are the baby’s okay?”

  “They appear to be, but I’m going to check you over to be sure,” she said and proceeded to turn the lights back on and get ready for an exam. Jim kept sitting in the chair looking like a deer in headlights. Before she could begin, a nurse knocked on the door and entered with the printed ultrasound.

  Dr. Green handed it over to Jim so he could look at it while she conducted the exam. “Everything’s looking good, Kate, but there is a lot of spotting down there,” she said. “I’m going to have a nurse come in and draw some blood and then I’m going to have you wait downstairs in the ER for the lab results before I send you home just to be safe. It sounds like it was a lot of blood, so I want us to be cautious, okay?”

  “Thank you, Dr. Green,” I said, and she left the room. While we were waiting on the nurse, I turned my head to look at Jim. “Jim?” I said, and he looked up at me with this goofy looking grin of his.

  “Twins,” he said.

  “Yes, twins,” I said and smiled. “Are you… okay with that?”

  “Shocked, but yeah, baby,” he said and stood up. “Sorry… I was just a little… surprised.” He bent down and gave me a kiss, standing over me. He held the ultrasound picture out so we could both look. “There are definitely two little ones in there.” He bent down and kissed my stomach. “You aren’t hiding anymore in there, are you?” he asked, and I laughed nervously.

  “Not funny,” I said, smirking.

  A nurse arrived and drew a blood sample, and after a few more minutes a second nurse arrived to cart me to a hospital room in a wheelchair. Jim walked behind, and after a few minutes we were left alone in the hospital room, myself propped up in the bed. My mind was running in a million different directions.

  “Oh, I got to call Mom!” I suddenly whaled, and Jim gave me this pleading look. “What? Do you want to tell her?”

  “Kind of,” he said. Jim’s parents were deceased and he didn’t have much of a family life, in fact, he thought of my mom as his own.

  I was the one always calling mom with news. I told her the first time I was pregnant. Told her when we found out we were having a girl. And, I got to tell Mom about being pregnant for a second time. Jim didn’t really have anyone he was as close to as my mom to call and give exciting news like this to.

  “Go ahead,” I said, and he smiled and snagged his phone.

  When he told her the news about me being pregnant
with twins, I could hear my mom shrieking through the phone into Jim’s ear from across the room.

  I laughed, glad she was so excited. But, we were still in the ER. This was a time to be serious. Once I knew the babies were fine, I would celebrate then.

  After about an hour of waiting around, Dr. Green arrived wearing a serious expression.

  My heart plummeted.

  “Okay, so your test came back, and you have a low oxygen level in your blood,” she began, pulling up a chair beside my hospital bed. She proceeded to ask me a series of questions about my health, exercise routine, and diet. Everything checked out. “Tell me a little more about the carbon monoxide poisoning you experienced last month,” she said, and my stomach dropped.

  Could my babies be hurt?

  Dr. Green hadn’t been the one to treat me for that incident. It’d been a doctor here at the ER. So, I gave her the rundown.

  A psychopath had locked my mom in a steam room at a sauna and had filled it with carbon monoxide. I had gotten my mom out, but I had wound up collapsing after inhaling too much of the poison.

  “Did you pass out? Were you unconscious?” Dr. Green asked. She flipped through my file, looking at the other physician’s notes.

  “Yes,” I said. “But, the doctor said I was probably fine.”

  “I agree. The babies are likely fine,” Dr. Green said. “A mild carbon monoxide poisoning will not normally cause harm to the fetus, but since you passed out there is a chance it did affect them in some way. Right now, other than low oxygen in your bloodstream, there doesn’t appear to be anything to worry about. But, we are going to have to keep a very close eye on you during this pregnancy, Kate. You and the babies to make sure there has not been any serious, long term effects.”

  I felt sick and angry and million other emotions, but Dr. Green was very reassuring. Everything had looked fine on the ultrasound and during her inspection. And, other than a slightly low supply of oxygen in my blood, nothing came back unusual in the blood sample either when they tested it. So long as we were careful, the babies should be fine.

  And, then she delivered the bad news: she wanted me to stay overnight at the ER and put me on oxygen until morning.

  Great.

  Jim insisted on staying with me, so he called up Kenny who was more than willing to stay with Laurie – he was just glad to hear that I was okay, and he was almost as excited as Mom about me having twins.

  I had to sleep in a stupid hospital bed with tubes in my nose while they pumped me full of oxygen. I was not a fan of that, but once the dust settled and Jim and I were just enjoying an impromptu sleepover together at the hospital, I was able to cut lose a little. Twins. We were having twin! And, after the shock of that news settled a bit, I was beyond excited.

  Chapter Five

  A little over a week went by after my unfortunate visit to the ER before opening night of Domingo’s play.

  By that time, I was chomping at the bit to get out of the house. Jim had treated me like a hot house flower and practically restricted me to bed rest.

  I did get his permission to do one stake-out as long as I had someone with me. Kenny, it seemed, was now babysitting me instead of Laurie.

  Kenny eagerly agreed on the stake-out and even packed us plenty of carbs and sugar. We had chips, coke, candy bars and enough Swedish Fish to survive a zombie apocalypse.

  This time around, getting a snap of our lumberjack adulterer was easy peasy. They’d left the curtains open and the shots I took were so compromising, I had to tell Kenny to look away.

  The woman was young, wearing a slinky black negligee and blonde hair twisted into dreadlocks.

  Jim and I got all dressed up, and I was ready to paint the town red after the month that I had had. Between missing the shot of my perp due to a pregnancy craving and having to go to the hospital, I felt like I deserved an evening night out with the husband.

  Speaking of my perp, I did finally manage to snag a picture of him and his side girl swapping spit in front of her house. I had the pictures printed at home and ready to send them to Galigani in the morning. Paula was unfortunately missing opening night and the after party; her kids and husband had all come down with the flu. I felt for her – especially since she had designed the set, but she had managed to snag two tickets for closing night, which meant I would be back to see the play again with her at a later date. Knowing that I was going to be sitting through this thing twice made me really hope it was good and entertaining.

  Jim and I had great seats, and I was pretty excited for show time. The lights in the theater dimmed, and the curtains opened. I couldn’t resist texting Paula just to tell her how amazing the set looked before politely turning off my cell phone as the instructions over the speakers had requested before the show had started.

  On stage was Peter and Nate. Peter’s character was dressed in a leather jacket as he sat down at the bar; he was playing the fictionalized version of Vicente Domingo, and I was excited to get a snap shot of Domingo’s life even if it was supposedly fictionalized. Vinnie ordered a cup of coffee, and Nate played it off like an annoyed bar tender. Next, Tony entered – he was playing the role of the cheating husband. The scene unfolded as Tony flirted with the steamy redhead actress in front of Vinnie. While the two flirted, the all silent character Vinnie snapped photos. It was supposed to be a serious scene – the undercover PI taking photos of his man, but the actors played it off almost like a photoshoot – a little gag at the end in which the pair intentionally posed made the audience snicker.

  Jim nudged me, and I looked to where he was nodding. A few rows in front of us was Domingo, and he looked positively irate. The first scene, and already Domingo was fuming. I thought of one of the scenes later in the play I had witnessed my mom run lines for the other day, and I cringed. As much as I didn’t care for Domingo, I felt a little bad for him. His art was being picked apart on stage and turned into a lame comedy act. I didn’t blame my mom or the actors – it had been the director’s decision.

  The character Vinnie paid the bill, and he and the cheating husband character made awkward and somewhat goofy eye contact on his way off stage that once again made the audience snicker. Lights down and up again – scene two. I grinned. There was one part of set that I hadn’t gotten a sneak peek off – the home. It was a kitchen – very cute and quaint. And, there was Mom standing there with her hair pulled up in a housewife dress. She was playing with a pill bottle. I frowned. This was obviously supposed to be a serious scene. My mom’s character is taking pills to drown the pain, but instead my mom had been instructed to play it off like she was high when Peter arrived on stage to deliver the news that her husband, the man from the bar scene, was cheating.

  I kept glancing down at Domingo. The man was gripping each arm of his theater seat; I swear, he looked like he was seconds from tearing the arms off. When Peter’s character gave the big reveal, showing the pictures he had taken at the bar, my mom’s character, Anjie, announced that the woman in the pictures was her sister. The sound guys played a loud and ridiculous Dun-Dun-Dun over the speakers, and mom and Peter paused for a ridiculous, overplayed dramatic effect. Poor Domingo, I thought, shaking my head. The play was good this way. The audience was enjoying themselves. But, this was not what it was supposed to be.

  I felt myself hiding by slouching down in my seat in embarrassment. I didn’t want Domingo to see me and think I was enjoying this mockery of his play. The next scene was even worse. Back at the bar was the cheat, the adulteress, and Nate still playing the bartender. When the adulteress headed to the ladies room, Nate’s character leaned over the bar. “Hey, Howie, that fella who was in here earlier… I think he snapped some photos of you and the side chick,” she mused, and several of the ensemble characters – biker bar types – all glanced up from the various tables set up on stage.

  “What!” Tony yelped at the top of his lungs and jumped up.

  I heard music. “Oh no,” I said under my breath. Not a mu
sical number. An unscripted musical number!

  Having had run lines with my mom more than once for this thing, I know Domingo’s original script didn’t include any musical numbers. Everyone was clapping and dancing, Tony was signing a ridiculous song that keyed the audience in on the fact that his character and his wife had a prenuptial agreement, that he thought he was being blackmailed, and that he was a big-shot powerful man in town. The whole thing, to make matters worse, was to the tune of the song Gaston from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

  Jim leaned over in the middle of a chorus and whispered, “Is there supposed to be music in Domingo’s play?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. The audience was laughing and clapping along to what was basically a rewrite of the tavern scene from the Disney classic. I glanced over, and I could see that Domingo had completely sunk down in his seat in utter humiliation.

  A few other hilarious scenes, followed by the big finale. Mom’s character and Peter’s, Vinnie, were wrapped up in what had obviously been an awkward off-stage sex scene, and suddenly Mom’s character, Anjie, is dead. Peter’s character freaks, calls in a favor, and they stage the whole thing to make it look like Anjie had just been given the news of her husband’s affair with her sister and that that had caused her to have a heart attack… rather than a woman with heart disease, hence the pills from earlier, getting a little too rough and tumble in bed.

  Tony’s character, the cheating husband, enters screaming and ranting and raving about his dead wife. Peter’s character makes a comment about Howie not caring about his wife when he was in bed with her sister. The characters are pulled apart, and his buddy officer assures him the coroner will call this a death by natural causes and that Vinnie won’t have to worry. He tells him to get out of town. The lights go dim, and suddenly Peter is the only one left on stage, still playing the role of Vinnie. He gives a bit of a speech about love, loss, and guilt before making a phone call. The man is speaking to his cousin on the other line, telling him he needs to get out of town and needs a job.