“Dr. Ferry?” says Agent Kaiser. “Are you all right?”
Panic attack, I tell myself. Vicious circle, the anxiety worsens the symptoms, and the symptoms rev up the anxiety. You have to break the cycle
Arthur LeGendre’s corpse wavers in my vision, as though it’s lying on the bottom of a shallow river.
“Sean?” asks Kaiser. “Is she all right?”
Don’t let this happen, I beg silently. Please.
But no one hears my prayer. Whatever is happening to me has been waiting a long time to happen. A slow black train has been coming toward me for a very long time, from very far away, and now that it’s finally reached me, it plows over me without pain or sound.
And everything goes black.
Chapter 3
A female EMT is kneeling over me, reading from a blood pressure cuff strapped to my arm. The deflating cuff awakened me. Sean Regan and Special Agent Kaiser are standing over the EMT, looking worried.
“A little low,” says the tech. “I think she fainted. Her EKG is normal. Sugar’s a little low, but she’s not hypoglycemic.” The tech notices that my eyes are open. “When was the last time you ate, Dr. Ferry?”
“I don’t remember.”
“We should get some orange juice into you. Fix you right up.”
I look to my left. The stockinged feet of Arthur LeGendre’s corpse lie beside my head. Its legs and torso extend away from me at a right angle, down a different side of the kitchen island. I glance in that direction and see the bloody message again: MY WORK IS NEVER DONE.
“Any OJ in that fridge?” asks the EMT.