A.W. Hartoin - Mercy Watts 04 - Drop Dead Red by A.W. Hartoin Page B

healing faster, but she wasn’t as bad. Colton’s out of the woods, but he’s going to have some problems. Speech, motor control. It’ll be a long haul. You want to go in?”  
    “Not necessary. It’s a terrible time for them. I don’t want to disturb the family. Who’s the doc?” I asked.  
    “Elise Lydia. You know her?”
    “I might. Young, pretty?”  
    “That’s her. Damn good, too,” said Clem. “She’s in with Colton. You go to the family waiting area and I’ll get her.”  
    It took a while and I was nearly crashed out when Dr. Lydia came in and I could see why Clem liked her. Lydia looked about twenty. She wore enormous fuzzy boots with claws on the toes, plenty of sparkly jewelry, and her fingernails were painted with orchids. Lydia wasn’t your typical doctor. I liked her instantly.  
    “So you’re the famous Mercy Watts.” She shook my hand and plopped down on a green beanbag. “What can I do for you? You’re involved with the Berry case.”  
    “As a friend of Joey Ameche, I’m looking into the medical stuff,” I said. “Any idea where they picked up the listeriosis?”
    “That’s the big mystery,” said Dr. Lydia. “There are no reported cases in New Orleans or even the state of Louisiana. The CDC is looking into it. But until we have the strain pegged, there’s not much to do except treat the kids and get them well.”  
    “Any idea what food was tainted?”  
    “None. But they ate something that no one else ate.”  
    I didn’t like the sound of that. Coincidences happened, but, seriously, that was some pretty bad luck to come down with a mysterious form of meningitis on the day, the very day, half your family is massacred.
    “What did the kids say?” I asked. “Have they given you anything to go on?”  
    Dr. Lydia shook her head and her dangly earrings made a tinkling sound. “I wish. Colton isn’t completely aware of his surroundings yet and Abrielle doesn’t remember anything but eating cereal for breakfast. Their school verified that they ate lunch at the cafeteria with a hundred other kids. None of them are sick. None of the school employees have so much as a cold. This is isolated.”
    “A little too isolated.” I rubbed my eyes and shifted in my bean bag.
    “What are you getting at?” asked Dr. Lydia.
    I was too tired to dance around the subject. “I’m supposed to make sure that Donatella didn’t poison the children in order to save them from the shooting that killed their father and the rest of the Berrys.”  
    She stared at me and I could see she wasn’t getting it.  
    I yawned and said, “The remaining Berrys think she arranged the murders at Tulio to get rid of her husband’s family and him, of course.”  
    Dr. Lydia’s mouth fell open and she closed it with a snap. “I hadn’t heard that. I admit it was pure luck that the children lived. Did you hear about how Donatella got standby slots?”  
    “I did.”  
    She shook her head hard and her earrings went crazy, banging into her cheeks. “Donatella loves those kids. I don’t think any decent parent would take the chance, even if she desperately hated the husband, which I doubt.”
    “Why do you doubt that?” I asked. Parents weren’t always rational and sometimes their kids got dead because of it. The thought was abhorrent, but it happened.
    “Because I was in the room when Donatella got the news that her husband was dead. I’ve given a lot of horrible news, but none so bad as that. She wasn’t faking. I’d stake my license on it.”  
    “What did she do?”  
    “She didn’t believe it. She thought it was a mistake. Kept calling her husband’s phone. Wanted to go to Tulio. She wouldn’t answer any questions, because she just didn’t believe it. She was hysterical. Finally, Clem turned on the TV in the break room and took her in there. Then she went into absolute shock. Her pressure dropped into the basement and her lips turned blue. She couldn’t fake that.