Page 27 of Lethal Game

"Thank you. I don't want her to stay in this room a minute longer than necessary."

"She's doing better, so whatever it was, it's no longer having a strong effect on her. However, I don't want her to eat or drink anything in the room. If you can make sure that happens, that would be helpful."

"I'd like to take things a step further and get security during the transfer and stationed outside her room upstairs," Jason said. "I'll talk to hospital security and my team as well."

"Whatever you feel is necessary," the doctor replied, glancing at his watch. "We'll do her next blood work at five and should have the results around seven. That will tell us if her numbers are going in the right direction. I hope to consult with another physician later today. In the meantime, it's fine if your mother sleeps. Her body needs rest to recover."

"Thank you so much," she said. As Dr. Grayson left, she looked at Jason. "What do you think?"

He gave her a sober look. "You and your family are caught in the middle of something, and we need to figure it out fast. Which brings me to your father…"

"I know. We need to find him."

"You're not going to like this next question, Alisa."

"Then maybe don't ask it," she said quickly, feeling overwhelmed.

He gave her a sympathetic look, but he pressed on. "Is there any chance your father could have been involved? The poisonhad to start somewhere—before she got to the hospital. How long was she sick before you brought her in?"

"About a week. Her symptoms fluctuated. She'd feel sick, then better. It was a strange pattern, but now it makes more sense. My father is the one who brought her in on Monday, so he couldn't have been the one who was poisoning her."

"When was the last time you saw your father or that he was with your mother?"

"I saw him Tuesday evening. When I went to her room after my shift on Wednesday, she told me he'd gone out of town. I don't know when she last saw him, but it might have been Tuesday as well. As I mentioned before, she made light of his absence. Since she was doing much better, I wasn't that concerned until everything else happened."

"Got it. Do you live with your parents?"

"No. I have an apartment a few miles from here. It's just the two of them in the house." She paused, realizing another disturbing fact. "We can't go to her house and look for poison because the house caught fire. Do you think that's why?"

"Possibly. It would make sense to destroy the evidence. The way the toxin is being used—it’s calculated," Jason said, his voice hardening. "Whoever’s behind this is keeping her on the edge, making sure she’s sick but not killing her outright. It’s deliberate, and that makes it even more dangerous."

She could see the wheels turning in his head, but she didn't know where he was going. "What does that mean to you?"

"It feels like someone is threatening her life, holding her hostage in a way, and I think that ties to the one person who isn't here."

"My dad," she said with a sigh. "It's not like him to be gone. He and my mother are so in love with each other, it's almost unbelievable. After thirty years together, they still have all the passion, the fire, and the trust. They never go anywhere without the other. Which is why I don't understand where my father is,why he would let her suffer without being here to comfort her. Do you think you could use your FBI resources to find him?"

"Yes. I'm also going to get a forensics team over here to go through your mother's room after she's moved upstairs. Have you felt ill while you've been with her?"

"No…I've been tired, but the past few days have been stressful."

"What about the man you mentioned—Henry? Who is he?"

"Dr. Henry Cavendish. He's a good friend of my parents. He runs a medical research lab in the building next door. His team's focus is oncology."

"When did he meet your parents?"

"It was about ten years ago at a high school science fair. Henry's son was in my father's class."

"Your father is a teacher?"

"Yes. He's been teaching high school biology forever. And when he met Henry, he found a friend who also loved science. Henry's wife, Jill, and my mother got along well, too. They were a foursome until Jill died several months ago. Anyway, Henry wouldn't do anything to hurt my mother." She frowned. "There were two vases of flowers in her room, though. I assumed my father had given her the other, but maybe it was someone else."

"We'll check out the flowers and everything else. Let me make some calls, get things going, and we'll talk after that. I'd rather you wait out here than in your mother's room."

"I can't leave her alone in there."

"Alisa, you need to stay as healthy as you can. Otherwise, you won't be able to help her or your father. She's improved. It's most probable that whatever she was exposed to has dissipated or hasn't yet been consumed again. But you need to be careful."

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