Chapter 167

“I’m not planning on going anywhere today,” Charles said, reassuring Theo. “I already called in when you guys were missing this morning, saying that I wouldn’t be in to work until I found you. Not to mention, I had to shut my phone off because I kept getting all sorts of messages about this story. It was better not to make a public statement until I knew exactly what was going on.”

“But,” he looked at me, and he looked at both our guards, “I will have to make a public statement soon. As the owner and operator of Rafe Media, if I don’t come out and make a statement, I look like I’m hiding something or worse.”

All three of us nodded.

“As soon as I have something concrete, I’ll give it to you,” I promised. “You don’t want your statement to look like unfounded accusations. If Anthony really did what you said he did, and he toppled your family, then it’s going to look like a grudge if you come out and say anything without proof.”

I bit my lip and twiddled my fingers together nervously. “Honestly, I think the best course of action is for me to be the first one to come out and say something. Oh, that reminds me, Theo. You and I need to go find a doctor we can trust to give us a drug test. And we need to do it now before whatever we were given works its way out of our system entirely.”

“On it,” he said, getting up from the table.

He strode to the entry, grabbing his coat. He pointed a finger between David and Charles. “You two get started on that other research. I’ll do what I can on my phone. But we’re going to go get that test. Because if we can positively say that we were drugged, that will go a long way toward making a better public statement that you guys can issue for damage control.”

Once we were in the elevator, I asked Theo, “Do you know a doctor like that?”

He nodded. “We’re going all the way across town to the very outskirts of Packhaven, where I grew up. The doctor’s office where my pediatrician worked also has general practitioners who should be able to administer a drug test like that. I’ll already be in their files. So it should be easy to get an emergency appointment. And I can’t imagine that someplace that I went to as a kid is compromised. That would be a lot of doctors in anyone’s pockets in order to cover the clinics close to here plus trace things back to my childhood.”

“I’ll trust you on that,” I said.

He led us out the door and to the car, and we were on the road again. My heart thudded against my chest as though I’d been running hard. My nerves pushed my heart rate up so that my pulse bounced around in both my neck and my wrists.

I kept massaging the other side of my wrist with my thumbs, trying to calm myself down. Two hours later, a nurse called us back, and we sat down inside a sterile exam room, waiting for the doctor to come in with our results.

“I’m glad they’re going to do this quickly,” I whispered. “For the first time in my life. I really, really hope that we were drunk. I never thought I’d make that statement.”

Theo nodded and crossed his arms. “I hope we were, too. For all our sakes. I just hope we got here fast enough.”

The door opened, and the doctor came in, peering at his Clipboard. He looked over the top of it and shut the door behind him, closing out the rest of the clinic.

“Well, you two were right,” he said. “There were traces of some powerful tranquilizers in your system. It’s not a debilitating dose, but given the timeline that you explained to me, you got here just in time before you metabolize the last of it. Regardless of the quantity, it’s undeniably present.”

Both Theo and I let out huge sighs.

The doctor looked startled. “I can’t believe you two actually look relieved at that news. Most people get upset when I have to tell them bad news.”

I drooped in my chair. “I would be upset, except that this completely exonerates me. Now, I just have to get to the bottom of who would give the two of us tranquilizers and do this to us. I don’t suppose you could do some sort of test to get us that kind of information? I mean, like where it came from.”

The doctor shook his head. “I really wish I could do that sort of investigative test work. It would make the lives of you and so many people easier, not to mention the police. But I’m afraid that sort of technology doesn’t exist in a clinic like this. You’re just going to have to do some good old-fashioned detective work.”

“Will there be any other lingering effects?” Theo asked.

The doctor shook his head. “No. You guys should be fine and healthy. The drugs we found in your system aren’t habit-forming, nor did you get a toxic dose. In fact, in mild doses, we use those same tranquilizers to help people calm down. But in a large dose, it could incapacitate somebody, just like what happened to you. Repeated high doses could lead to organ damage. But that’s more for abusers.”

I stood and shook his hand. “Thank you, doctor. Please let us know if there’s anything else we need to do.”

“I’ll be sure to do that. And if you have any strange side effects, feel free to come back and see me.”

Theo and I left the office together in silence. He didn’t speak again until we were in the car and on the road. “You realize what’s going to happen when you go public with the results that you and I were drugged, don’t you?”

I nodded. “You don’t need to tell me. Anthony Bellweather is going to deny any part in doing it. Denial is as easy as saying he had a source lead them to us posed like that. And he did the reporting to the best of his knowledge. He doesn’t have to say that he lied. Or he even did anything wrong.”

I gripped my hands together, my nails digging into the palms under my hard fists. “It makes me so mad,” I snarled. “Because, even if there was someone pulling the strings, he can just lie about it, and he comes off looking innocent. I’m beginning to think that maybe Charles was right. It’s getting harder and harder to believe that Anthony isn’t a willing party to all of this.”

Theo reached over and patted my shoulder. “Don’t get too bloodthirsty, too fast. I admire you for wanting to make sure that we have proof that he’s bad before doing exactly the same thing he’s going to claim he did by broadcasting the wrong information. You’re better than that.”

I tipped my head so that it leaned against the window. “Thanks for your faith in me. You protect me in so many senses of the word. Someday, I’ll have to do something to make it up to you.”

“You just keep fighting for goodness in the world, and that’s more than enough for me. I’m getting paid well by the government. And it’s refreshing to work for somebody who isn’t a self-absorbed jerk for a change. You wouldn’t believe how many people who need protection are really only concerned about their own safety.”