“That’s good,” Elizabeth said. “We are still trying to get to the bottom of all this, do you mind if I ask you both a few more questions?”
“I’m so tired of answering questions!” Heather shouted. Lacey looked at her with concern.
“I understand that you’re stressed and not feeling well, but anything could help us figure out what we are looking at, and we really need your help.”
“No! I’m done! Figure out what’s wrong with me!” Heather shouted again.
Elizabeth put her hands out to try and calm Heather, but she had begun screaming. Lacey seemed too terrified to speak. Elizabeth stepped outside the room long enough to signal to the nurses that she needed help and ordered some sedative for Heather. She continued to yell and scream, and poor Lacey looked completely lost and confused.
“Lacey,” Elizabeth said, and the teenager turned her wide watery eyes toward Elizabeth. “Does Heather normally have outbursts like this?”
Lacey turned her eyes toward her sister who was finally relaxing onto the bed and dozing off.
“I-I don’t know. This is such a hard situation, I don’t think she knows how to respond,” Lacey answered shaking her head.
“I’m sure she’s had tough situations before—did she respond like this? With anger? Lashing out?” Elizabeth asked.
“No, not that I can think of, she’s usually so calm, so even, but I mean, we’ve never faced anything like this. We know that Jesse woman died and Sandra isn’t doing well, either.”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes; she wondered who had told them, or if they overheard it from the nurses. They seemed like smart girls, so Elizabeth wouldn’t put it past them to be able to figure it out.
“You may be right, Lacey,” Elizabeth said, “and wehaven’t been completely forthcoming, we are still trying to figure out what’s happening, but I am worried that Heather’s outbursts might be a symptom, not just stress.”
Tears started welling up in Lacey’s eyes and her bottom lip started to quiver. She wrapped her arms around her knees and hugged them to her body. Elizabeth walked over and put a comforting arm on her shoulder.
“Do you think you could answer some questions for me?” Elizabeth asked. “Anything at all might help.”
Lacey nodded as tears slipped from her eyes.
“I need you to walk me through everything, from the time you arrived and met up with Sandra, any detail you can think of, it doesn’t matter how small. What time were you supposed to meet the group?”
“We met at Sandra’s shop here in town,” Lacey began. “She already had our supplies packed and ready for us.”
Lacey went through each step as best she could remember, but everything seemed normal, everything seemed exactly as Sandracarried out each one of her expeditions.
“Sandra did say something about dust,” Lacey said just as she began to describe when they started setting up their tents.
“Dust?” Elizabeth repeated.
“Yeah, she said there was dust on the tents, and was annoyed about it, angry really, she started shouting about it, and then shouting at us for not having our tents up yet. She said that they should keep the warehouse cleaner, it even made her cough when she unfolded her tent.” Lacey took a deep breath.
Elizabeth bit her lip and narrowed her eyes, but she didn’t say anything.
“What is it? Is that important?” Lacey asked.
“Maybe,” Elizabeth said. “I’ll be right back, I’m going to make a phone call.”
“Please don’t let Heather die,” Lacey said as Elizabeth stood up. “She didn’t even want to go on this stupid trip, my parents didn’t want us to go either, it was me. I read a stupid book and I thought I would find something out in the wilderness, I thought it wouldbe cathartic or something to get away from Denver for a while.”
“It’s okay, Lacey,” Elizabeth said and squeezed her shoulder again. “Nature is a beautiful healer sometimes, and we can talk more about this later, but for now we are going to help you and your sister. This isnotyour fault, Lacey. I know it may feel like it, but you arenotresponsible for this.”
Lacey nodded, but Elizabeth could tell she didn’t believe her. Her heart sank a little at the thought that Lacey and Heather would likely never attempt to get outside again after this. She stepped out the door and pulled out her phone, but then put it back in her pocket. She walked quickly to the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor.
The lab was its usual buzz of quiet work and Ava lifted her dark eyes toward the door as Elizabeth entered. “Find out anything?” She asked.
Elizabeth blinked for a second, trying to get past the striking color of Ava’s eyes. “Um, maybe, did we check the tents?”
“I’m pretty sure you took some swabs from them,” Lindsey piped up from across the room. She started sifting through the contents of their search this morning.
