Page 79 of Ruled By Fate

So much had happened in the last few days, so many invisible traumas and supernatural revelations, their agreement to make weekend plans seemed like a lifetime ago.

“Right. Yes, I totally remembered.”

Sherry rolled her eyes. “Very convincing. I suppose you also forgot about our exercise date tomorrow morning.”

“I most certainly did not. In fact, I’m looking forward to it.”

“Ha. I’m not,” Sherry declared. “Regardless, I’ll come by to pick you up in the morning, bright and early, so make sure you aren’t in the middle of any indecent shenanigans.”

“Says the woman whose date nights routinely involve handcuffs.”

They stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the basement. Sherry regarded her with a curious frown. “How’s it going with you two, anyway?”

There was a quiet pause.

“I don’t really know how it’s going,” Brie admitted. “Or where it’s going. Or if it’s going. But he gets me in a way I never thought possible. I can be myself with him in a way I’ve never known.”

She opened her mouth to say something further, then bowed her head in defeat.

“Oh, honey.” Sherry wrapped an arm around her waist. “I didn’t mean to upset you. Truth be told, I don’t know why you’re upset at all. Those are great things you just said.”

“Yeah, no, they are.” Brie nodded quickly, surprised at how quickly the simple question had unraveled her. “He just… keeps himself at a distance. Do you know what I mean?”

A divine distance. One that comes with heavenly repercussions if you dare to cross those lines.

Sherry nodded wisely. “The age-old problem. These guys would fight a puma with their bare hands, but when it comes to relationships, they’re afraid to commit. I blame it on increased lead in the water supply.”

The elevator doors opened, and they headed towards the morgue, only to be stopped in their tracks by the sound of raised voices — one patient, the other filled with rage.

“I’m telling you, there’s nothing there.”

“That’s impossible!”

“Then you find something.”

The two women shared a glance, frozen in the middle of the hall. It was easy to recognize the strained, patient voice as Rashida’s. The other had a distinctively bureaucratic edge.

“This young man’s family is a huge donor. The east wing of the hospital is named after them. I can’t go back to his grieving parents and say we have no idea what happened to their son.”

“This is what I’ve been telling you for months. There’s no reason he should be dead. No family history, no underlying condition, no architectural deformity, no disease, no history of addiction, no foreign substances in his blood, no external trauma.”

There was a momentary pause as Rashida caught her breath. “There’s nothing wrong with him, except his heart’s been pulverized. From inside his chest.”

Papers rustled, and shoes squeaked against the floor.

“Well, that’s just unacceptable.”

“I don’t disagree at all. But it’s what’s happening. And I’m telling you, I think it’s tied to all these unexplained ODs. In some of the cases, it’s clearly poison, but with no poison in their system at all. In others, it’s as if their heart merely explodes.”

There was the sound of someone pacing.

“You tell me what you need, Ms. Botha. Money, equipment, anything. I’ll tell the family our investigation is ongoing. But Ida,” his voice was almost pleading, “you have to find something.”

The woman sighed heavily. “I’ll rerun my tests. Again.”

“Keep me informed.”

The door opened, and a hospital administrator Brie had never seen before walked out. He was an enormous individual — at least three hundred pounds of anxiety in an expensive suit. He very nearly bowled them over before he realized there was anyone else there.

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