“Just a Lorazepam. It will help you to relax,” Dr. Urshman grabbed a pad of paper and a pen. She sat down and watched Bethany expectantly. “You do want to know what happened, right?”
Bethany looked at the little white pill. She desperately wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, Bethany picked it up with the water and swallowed it.
Drew glared at the television with a vicious scowl. Colby hadn’t only gotten some recognition, he’d gotten his name and face plastered all over the national news. According to the official report, Colby had found Max in the building that was supposed to be demolished. A rotting floor had collapsed, and Max had supposedly been stuck there for days.
It was a junk story, unbelievable but the media was eating it up. Piaget stood by Max’s side as they thanked Detective Colby for going the extra mile and looking for him.
Everyone was loving the happy ending.
It sickened him. Drew shut off the television and tried Bethany’s phone number again. He’d called a few times, but she hadn’t picked up. With a sigh, he grabbed his coat and keys for the truck. He needed to get out of this apartment before he went stir crazy. Drew would think that he’d be happy to have Max out of his place, yet for some reason it felt a little empty.
Before long, Drew knocked on the door to Bethany’s condo. There was something that had been bugging him about what she had said at the police station and he needed to figure it out.
He’d looked up the boat Sweet Bethany. Sure enough, there had been a boat named that. It was owned by Ted Searson. Father of Bethany Searson. Drew figured she probably had mixed memories, stealing from what was real with one memory and adding it to another. The boat had never been involved in any known criminal activity, nor had her father Ted.
However, Bethany had said she had few, if any memories from her childhood. She didn’t remember things like learning how to ride a bicycle, the first day of school, getting money from the tooth fairy. These were all rites of passage memories that she didn’t have.
Her parents had put her in therapy and she’d been heavily drugged since childhood. Drew had called her former doctors to confirm when psychiatric treatments started. It was shortly after her eighth birthday.
Not long after the treatments started, Ted sold the boat.
The timing of which made Drew a little suspicious. He wanted to go over Bethany’s story again to see if he’d missed any details. Drew was going to take this very seriously now. It might not have been drugs on the boat, but something had happened. Drew knew it in his gut. And since he was suspended, it wasn’t like he didn’t have the time to do a little investigating. He told himself it wasn’t because he wanted to see her again.
He knocked a second time and waited. Drew could hear movement inside, but it took another minute before the door opened.
“Hi,” he frowned as he saw her. Bethany was wearing yoga pants and a sweatshirt. What surprised him was the food stains on the shirt. Her hair was greasy. She didn’t have any make up on. For a woman who had been immaculate coming to the station just to fill out a report, it didn’t make sense. Drew immediately felt suspicious
She seemed sleepy. “Can I help you?”
He looked at her in surprise. “Bethany, do you know who I am?”
She stared at him in incomprehension. Her eyes and manner were entirely vacant. Her voice came out drowsily. “I’m not sure.”
“Detective Andrew Colborne,” he reminded her. “We talked at the police station a few times.”
“Oh,” she blinked in slow motion. It was like her mind was pushing through a fog just to think.
“What are you on?” Drew pushed past her into the condo. It was spotless in the hall and living room. The kitchen smelled like something had been left out and rotting for a few days. He had a quick look and was surprised to see the door to the fridge wide open. The carton of milk on the counter had obviously turned sour. There were a bunch of prescription medications on the table. He counted at least eight bottles there.
“I’m at the door,” Bethany said slowly. “Why?”
Drew turned around. There she was, confused and staring into the hallway. A bad feeling settled into his gut. Drew grabbed a plastic bag and put all her medications into it, careful to use another bag to preserve fingerprints. He added what he found in the bedroom and the bathroom, looking for anything else that wasn’t prescription. What he found were thirty bottles of prescription medications all prescribed within the last three months, most prescribed within the last week.
It was crazy, the amount of pills that she had.
He coaxed Bethany into the bedroom and helped her change into a clean shirt, jeans, socks and shoes. She was cooperative but entirely mentally vacant. She asked him once who he was. Then she told him she remembered that he was the guy who wasn’t Max. She smiled brilliantly like she’d discovered the answer to everything.
Drew wondered what he was going to do with her. He could bring her to the hospital. It was obvious somewhere, someone had just given her too many medications. Yet a suspicious warning bell sounded in his head. There were three different doctors on her medications. Over half of the bottles had been prescribed by one doctor in particular, all within the past three days. After Bethany had been trying to understand what had happened to her regarding the drugs she thought she had seen years ago. A psychiatrist that was often on call to the hospital.
What he needed was a second medical opinion, Drew decided. He pulled out his phone and called Mercy hospital. Drew grimaced as he identified himself to the night nurse.
“Detective Andrew Colborne. I’m looking for the nurse who treated me about six months ago,” he said. “I didn’t catch her name and she helped to save my life. She was short, maybe just over five feet tall, had dimples, looks impossibly young. Dark blond hair?”
“You mean Kelly,” the nurse gushed. “I remember, you’re the guy who collapsed in the parking lot.”
“That would be me,” Drew bit back his irritation. “I’d like to thank her. Do you happen to have her phone number?”
“We can’t give that information out,” the nurse said regretfully. “Even if we could, Kelly is no longer working at Mercy Hospital.”
