My Wife Is Missing(66)
“Hold on!” Natalie shouted, mostly for her own benefit. She barely checked her mirrors. Tires squealed against the pavement as she jammed the car into reverse.
She shouldn’t have been on her phone while driving, but once again Google proved to be a miracle worker. Nationwide Children’s Hospital was only a twelve-minute drive, giving Natalie a measure of calm.
“Can you breathe?” Natalie asked while switching her focus from her phone, to the road, to the backseat. She sent a silent prayer out into the universe: please don’t let me get into an accident. Don’t let anything happen to my baby girl.
“I can’t … get … one.”
Addie struggled to get out those few words.
The panic was palpable even for Bryce, judging by his wide-eyed stare. Seconds felt like minutes, minutes turned to hours.
“It’s all right, sweetie,” Natalie said. “You’re going to be fine. We’re close to the hospital and they’ll give you the right medicine.”
Natalie had to block out her other concern. The hospital would put her name into some database. That alone might call up her missing persons report, and this time there’d be no car accident to save her.
Addie’s breathing grew so labored that by the time Natalie arrived at the hospital she couldn’t risk parking her car. She left her vehicle out front with a valet before rushing Addie and Bryce inside. Bursting into the waiting room, Natalie dashed to the receptionist’s window, dragging Addie behind her. Addie’s breathing came out shallow and quick, her wheezing even more pronounced.
Maybe the receptionist could hear those strangled sounds, or she saw the panic in their eyes. Either way, she got on the phone without prompting, and a nurse appeared through a nearby set of double doors. The nurse, with the efficiency of a seasoned practitioner, rushed over to them and checked Addie’s vitals while standing in the middle of the crowded waiting room. Nobody looked at them askance for receiving preferential treatment, as Addie’s labored breathing was obvious to all.
The nurse reported that Addie’s blood oxygen saturation was eighty-nine percent, far below normal. Addie was breathing more than twenty times a minute, too, which wasn’t right for a healthy, young person. Her coloring remained pale, but thankfully her lips weren’t blue.
“We’ll get her seen right away,” the nurse informed, “but don’t worry. She’s not in any life-threatening danger.”
Addie seemed to breathe easier. Natalie did the same, even more so because after giving the receptionist her name nobody mentioned that she’d come up in a missing persons database.
Moments later, Natalie and Bryce were huddled together in one of the treatment bays with Addie on the bed. Another nurse started a nebulizer treatment and put an IV with fluids into a vein in her right arm.
Some minutes later, Natalie was giving Addie’s medical history to the doctor, a perfectly composed woman with corn-colored hair who seemed too young to have a medical license. In the back of Natalie’s mind tumbled thoughts of that Greyhound bus. They had hours before it was scheduled to depart, but that depended on her daughter’s condition, which thankfully appeared to be improving.
After careful monitoring and consideration, the doctor decided to let the nebulizer do its job before adding additional medication or ordering more tests. It took another fifteen minutes of treatment (fifteen precious minutes in which a computer could alert the authorities to her whereabouts) before Addie’s breathing returned to normal. The news got better. Addie’s oxygen saturation had shot above ninety-seven percent, well into the acceptable range. Natalie was more than a little relieved when the doctor gave word that the only additional procedure she wished to perform was a chest X-ray.
“We’re supposed to be somewhere in a few hours,” Natalie said. “Should I call them to change our plans?”
The doctor offered her assurances that the X-ray wouldn’t take too long.
Natalie checked the time. They could still make the St. Louis bus, but what to do with the car? She decided to leave it at the hospital, make it harder for Michael to figure how they left town. She’d leave the key in the car and call Hertz from Kate’s place. Whatever additional fee they’d charge for retrieval, she’d pay it.
By nine thirty that evening, Addie was ready for discharge. Natalie had waited on pins and needles for permission to go. There was one last thing she had to do. Natalie found the doctor.
“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for Addie,” she said. “We’re off to meet up with a friend of mine who lives in Toledo. Addie is so excited to meet my friend’s daughter and see Toledo. I know she’d be heartbroken if we couldn’t go.”
“I’m just glad she’s all right,” said the doctor, with a look of satisfaction.
Natalie, too, looked satisfied.
She’d picked a city to the north, a reasonable distance to travel. The doctor would remember her. The conversation would stick in her mind. Twice she’d mentioned Toledo. Natalie was certain that by the time Michael was headed north, she and the kids would already be on a bus going south, destined for St. Louis.
CHAPTER 29
MICHAEL
They stopped at a Johnny Rockets located inside the John Glenn Columbus airport for a meal. Good thing the airport location kept later hours as Michael had gone there with hope in his heart. They had a Johnny Rockets at the Burlington Mall, close to home, and it was one of his kids’ favorite restaurants. It was conceivable that they’d begged Natalie to go there on the way out of the airport, but they weren’t seated when he and Kennett arrived.