Death's Captive: Will she escape eternal confinement?

CHAPTER 10

I find Reeves on the Emergency floor; he's with a young woman and her baby.

"I just don't know what wrong with him, he's been so fussy and crying a lot and look, there's a rash all over his face, arms and legs." The woman said struggling with a fussy baby on her lap.

"Did he have any kind of fever?" Dr Reeves asks.

"Yeah, that's why I brought him in. The fever got quite high and I was really starting to worry."

"Ok, let's take his temperature and just have a look at his chart then." Reeves', places a thermometer in the child's ear then picks up the child's chart at the end of the bed to note down the result. He thumbs through, looking at observations and nurses notes. Reeves eyebrow cocks at the scrawl written by one of the nurses.

"Jacob isn't vaccinated?"

"No, I don't believe in vaccination," says the mother, struggling to settle her restless child on her lap.

Reeves stares at the mother "You don't believe in vaccination?"

"No, I just think that it's a horrible experience for a baby to suffer upon entering the world, being stuck with needles, which don't really do anything."

"Don't really do anything?" Reeves seems to hang on these words. "You see, I thought your child might have a common childhood sickness because a rash is a common symptom." Reeves begins calmly. "However, because your child hasn't been vaccinated, my possible diagnosis has just increased to several possibilities. He's hot, tired, and probably dehydrated. I'm going to have to run some blood tests to rule out conditions like rubella, measles, chickenpox – all of which can have deadly complications in young children. Since your kid is likely dehydrated, getting blood may take a few goes with a larger, sharper needle than would have been used for a vaccine, and it'll likely take twice as long and several sticks. But we need to find out what he's got because kids used to die from these illnesses before vaccines were invented."

"Jacob is going to die?" the mother squeaked.

"In this instance, I don't think so. It looks like parvovirus to me, not lethal, but we have to check everything, and next time it might be."

"Parvovirus?"

"Slapped-cheek, also known as Fifth's disease. Your kid probably picked it up at day care, where he'll also pick up an array of other diseases, if there's an outbreak." Reeves stands up and leaves the mother open mouthed and staring after him. She clings to her snivelling boy in the sectioned off area for infectious patients.

Margie enters the Emergency floor and Reeves immediately turns his attention to her. He excuses himself from the nurse whom he was briefing on the boy with fever and rash, then walks over to Margie, who is storing away her handbag and coat in the staff area.

"Do you have a moment?" Reeves asks Margie quietly.

Margie smiles and nods politely. Reeves leads her into an empty exam room, locks the door and shuts the blinds.

"Have you got something you want to tell me?"

Margie's face is a complete blank. It's clear she has no idea what he's talking about. "You might have to be more specific?"

"A certain high profile patient was here last week and the lab said that every specimen they received was tampered with. I know I didn't do it."

Margie folds her arms in front of her and looks at Reeves with a stony expression. "I know you didn't, because it was me."

Reeves seems surprised. I doubt he expected a confession so quickly. "You endangered a patient's life intentionally?"

"No, I endangered a child killer's life in the hopes that you couldn't diagnose him."