Page 86 of The Night Before (Savannah 1)

Sliding out of her Lexus, she stepped into the thick, warm night. There was a slight breeze off the Savannah River and the rumble of a few engines as solitary cars, headlights cutting down the city streets, rolled past. Her footsteps echoed across the pavement as she spied Troy’s black Range Rover and, beside it, Hannah’s Honda.

Glass doors opened as she stepped under the covered portico. Inside the lights were turned low, the corridors hushed except for the ER, where lights blazed. The night staff was on duty, and several members of her family were waiting.

Grim faced, Troy stood near the admissions desk while Hannah sat on a long couch and absently flipped through a magazine. Lucille sat on a small chair near a potted palm and looked straight ahead, either dead tired or stricken, Caitlyn couldn’t tell which. Amanda, none the worse from her recent accident, perched on the edge of a plastic chair and Ian, dressed in his uniform, his shirt crisp, his cap lying on a table, seemed distracted and edgy. He constantly glanced at his watch or bit at a thumbnail.

“How is Mom?” Caitlyn asked, approaching her brother.

“Better.” Troy tried to angle a look past the drapes of the private rooms as some sleepy elevator music played from speakers set into the walls.

“Thank God,” Amanda said with a sigh. “I don’t know if I could take another tragedy.”

“You could take anything,” Hannah said without looking up from a six-month-old edition of People magazine. “You’re tough as nails.”

“How would you know?”

“I know.” She flipped another page slowly, and Caitlyn caught a glimpse of Julia Roberts on an inside page.

“Fine, so you’re psychic.”

“Nooooo, I just know people. I leave all that psychic crap to Lucille.”

Amanda looked about to shoot back a retort but decided to hold her tongue. Lucille didn’t so much as glance in Hannah’s direction.

Troy ignored his sisters’ bickering. “Once the ambulance got her here, the doctors were able to stabilize her.”

“She had another one of her ‘spells,’ ” Amanda offered.

“Her heart?”

“Umhmm. Angina attack.”

“Angina pectoris,” Hannah clarified, looking up briefly. “You know, as opposed to just angina, which can be anything. You’re talking about her heart.”

“What about her nitroglycerine pills? They’re supposed to help.”

“They didn’t work this time.”

Lucille sighed heavily as she wrung her hands. “This time nothing helped, so I called 911.” Guilt kept her eyes from meeting Caitlyn’s. She stared at the coffee table. “Nothing worked. I was walking her upstairs to bed, and she began to have trouble, breathing hard, complaining of pain. I managed to get her into the bed and give her the pill, but she just kept getting worse.” The older woman’s lips pursed, and she shook her head. “I called Doc Fellers, and he didn’t answer. Your mother, she was fit to be tied and in so much pain, but she didn’t want me to call anyone else. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I called 911, and they sent an ambulance.”

“You did what you could,” Troy said.

Hannah rolled her eyes.

Amanda shot Hannah a warning glare, but their youngest sibling didn’t seem to notice as she tossed the glossy magazine onto the table.

“I should have called sooner,” Lucille said.

“Where were you, Hannah?” Troy asked.

“Out,” Hannah said sullenly, then grabbed her bag. “I’m going out for a smoke.”

“I’ll join you.” Troy was already reaching into his jacket pocket and jogged to catch up with her. The glass doors parted and they stepped outside, huddled together near the ash can.

Caitlyn looked over at Amanda. “How’re you feeling?”

“All in all? Just peachy,” Amanda said flippantly. “All in all, it’s been a helluva week.”

Caitlyn couldn’t disagree, but as the first light of dawn seeped through the mist, she had the gnawing feeling that it was only going to get worse.

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