Page 58 of Ruthless Riches
“What happened when you saw her?” I asked. My heart was racing so fast that it felt as if my ribcage was about to explode.
Sascha closed her eyes and rubbed the back of her neck. “I couldn’t touch her, but I remember trying to grab her hand anyway,” she said. As she spoke, a tear rolled down her cheek. “Something was keeping us apart. I don’t know what it was because that part is fuzzy, but she was definitely there with me. I remember talking to her for ages about all this stuff that happened when we were kids.” She paused for a breath, opened her eyes, and wiped the tear off her cheek. “I’m not making this up, Nate. Wherever I was last night, she was there. I saw her and heard her voice. Clearly.”
I scraped a hand through my hair and let out a heavy sigh. “Sascha… I believe you, but I don’t think that was Alexis,” I said. “I wish it was her, but to me it sounds like an effect of the drugs you were spiked with. You hallucinated at some point while you were out of it, and now it’s coming back to you like it’s a real memory of something that actually happened.”
“But Roofies can’t do that, can they? Don’t they just make you pass out and forget everything from the night before?”
“I’m not sure. We’ll have to ask the doctor when we get to the hospital,” I said, standing up again. “There are other drugs apart from Roofies that people use to spike drinks, so it might’ve been one of those.”
“So you think…” Sascha stopped abruptly and looked down at her lap. “You really think someone attacked me?”
“I think they tried.” I held out a hand. “Come on. The sooner we get you checked out, the better.”
“Will you talk to the doctors for me?” she asked, voice quavering slightly. “I don’t want to be alone in there.”
“Of course.”
I took her to the nearest emergency room and helped her explain her story to the doctor who was assigned to her case. He ordered some blood and urine tests, along with a sexual assault forensic exam.
I wasn’t allowed in the room while they examined her, so I went and sat out in the waiting room. About an hour later, the doctor came to find me. The initial blood and urine test results were back, and they were ready to discuss them with Sascha. She’d asked for me to be there with her because she was nervous.
I went into the room and rested a hand on her shoulder to comfort her as the doctor scanned the page on his clipboard. “Okay, Ms. Livingston, your test results show that your system is clear of any drugs,” he said, looking up at us a moment later. “But that doesn’t mean you weren’t drugged last night. Some of the most common drink spiking drugs have very short half-lives. Like GHB, for example. That can be detected for up to seventy-two hours in the bloodstream, but it really depends on the individual’s metabolism and the size of the dose they were given. In some cases, it can be completely out of the system within twelve hours.”
Sascha frowned and tilted her head slightly to one side. “I’m pretty sure I was lying in the alleyway for at least twelve hours, so I guess that makes sense.”
The doctor nodded. “It certainly sounds as if your drink was spiked with something, given the story you told me earlier.”
“What about the other tests?” I asked.
“We won’t have the results from the swabs for a while, but I can tell you that the external physical exam showed no sign of sexual assault.”
Sascha’s shoulders slumped with relief. “That’s a good sign, right?”
“Yes, but we won’t be sure until we get the rest of the results back.”
“Is there any chance I just passed out from exhaustion last night?” Sascha asked.
The doctor hesitated. “It’s possible,” he said. “But given the blank spot in your memory and the hallucinations you described, I’d say it’s unlikely.”
“Oh. Should I report this to the police, then?”
“Yes. We’ve already contacted them, so they’ll want to get a statement from you soon.”
After that, the doctor told Sascha to go home, rest, and stay hydrated. Until we heard from the police or got the forensic results back, there was nothing else we could do.
I patted Sascha on the back as we walked out of the hospital a few minutes later. “The cops will be able to check any security cameras in the area near the bar,” I said. “They should be able to find whoever did this to you.”
She glumly shook her head. “I don’t think there are any cameras around that area. I’ve never seen any.”
She went quiet after that, but I could tell something was on her mind as we drove back to her apartment. While we waited at a traffic light, I turned to her. “Are you okay?”
She lifted one shoulder in a listless shrug. “I don’t know,” she said. “It’s so hard to know what to think or feel when there’s such a giant gap in my memory. Literally anything could’ve happened to me. And I keep thinking…”
I raised a brow as she trailed off. “Keep thinking what?”
“Nothing,” she muttered. “It’s stupid.”
“Tell me.”
