Murder on the Champ de Mars Read Online Free PDF

catch snatches of their murmured conversation. “If she’s kept stable … dosed at six-hour intervals … fifteen, eighteen hours before it’s … irregular heart rhythm.”
    Aimée inserted herself between the two doctors. “Give me the best- and worst-case scenarios,” she said, lowering her voice. “Please. I might have to prepare her son.”
    “Best-case scenario?” Dr. Estienne glanced back at Nicu. “His mother’s terminal, an advanced stage of invasive cancer. We can help her to pass peacefully, control her pain over the next few days.”
    “What if she’s not found? What would happen to her?”
    The doctor looked at Nicu, then back at Aimée. “Not that this will happen. But the other scenario …?
D’accord
. Without intervention, in ten to twelve hours there will be limb paralysis, then another few hours and her heart will start to fail. Twenty to twenty-two hours, development of delirium. Twenty-four to twenty-eight, spontaneous hemorrhaging, the respiratory system, vital organs shut down. I’m sorry, but there will be nothing painless or peaceful about it.”
    Aimée’s throat caught. Her heart ached for Nicu, and for this missing woman she didn’t remember knowing. Her father’s informer, she felt sure now. What could she do?
    “H IM .” T HE NURSE pointed to Nicu’s uncle, who’d arrived, chest heaving, at the nursing station, with the older woman and little girl in tow. “That’s him, the man who kept threatening to discharge the patient.”
    The woman let out a cry and began to beat her chest. She rocked back and forth on her heels, weeping.
    “Never trust hospitals.” Nicu’s uncle’s eyes narrowed. “I told you, Nicu. And Drina alone here—in our tradition we never let someone pass alone. Why didn’t you tell me earlier that she was here so we could come keep vigil?”
    “I didn’t know how sick she was until last night,” he said. “Today she got worse, like I’ve told you already.” Hurt and resentment simmered in his eyes.
    “So you talked her into leaving?” asked Dr. Estienne.
    “Me? I haven’t seen her.” The uncle’s voice was furious. “I’ve been trying to get
in
, not take her out.”
    “That’s impossible, as I’ve been telling you, monsieur,” said the nurse. “Hospital regulations forbid anyone after visiting hours.”
    “And now look what’s happened.” His uncle stepped toward the doctor. “May the spit in your eye dry up if you’ve killed her.”
    Aimée’s gaze caught on an orderly who had appeared behind Nicu’s uncle. He gave a quick shake of his head. “All patients accounted for except for one in Ward C, Doctor.”
    She could tell from the staff’s faces that they were at a loss. Not good. She couldn’t just stand here, listen to this wailing woman. She had to do something.
    Amid the ensuing shouting match between Nicu’s uncle and the staff, no one paid her any attention. She followed the corridor until it branched in two, one hallway heading toward the lobby, the other toward the staircase. Which way had Drina gone? Had someone bundled her out, somehow sneaking her past the reception desk? Beneath the staircase on the left wasa door with an emergency-exit sign over it, but a large sign proclaimed that an alarm would go off if the door was opened.
    She ran toward the lobby.
    “Have you discharged anyone within the past hour?” she asked at the main reception.
    The long-faced male receptionist looked up. “Visiting hours are over, Mademoiselle. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
    Just what she needed. Another by-the-book hospital administrator.
    “We’re looking for Drina Constantin,” said Nicu, who had appeared, panting, at her elbow. “I’m her son.”
    “Visiting hours ended,” the man repeated. “We follow regulations here for health and safety. Don’t you people understand? I escorted a bunch of you out already, do I need to do it again?”
    The receptionist’s look said that he’d be damned