Belly of the Beast

Chapter 21

"What? Who sent them?" Lindy sprang into action, picking up the phone then dropping it nervously on her desk as she dialed.

"We don't know, but Vincent wants them sequestered in the mailroom until he gets here."

Lindy nodded as she relayed the information to the person on the phone, and when she hung up, her attention was immediately drawn to my finger, which didn't want to stop bleeding.

"You need a band-aid. C'mon. There's a first-aid kit in the breakroom."

I followed Lindy through the long corridor of cubicles until we reached the breakroom on the other side. A couple of early-lunchers were already eating, their cellphones propped against their coolers as they read. Lindy directed me to a stiff-backed chair next to the sink and played nursemaid, pulling the antiseptic and band-aids from the kit on the wall.

"I'm definitely going to report that nasty clip to the florist. That's a surefire way to scare off customers," she said.

"It was probably a fluke. I'm sure not all the clips are evil." As I spoke, a funny feeling came over me, like a wave of nausea was about to hit. I was grateful to be sitting. "Did you see a thermometer in the first-aid kit?"

"Do you need one? Are you feverish?"

"I'm not sure. It's probably just paranoia, you know, after that scare in DC. But it can't hurt to check, right?"

"Damn right." Lindy finished up with my finger and rummaged through the kit. "Here we go. It's the old-fashioned kind, without the beeps. It still has the paper on it."

"Good. I'd rather not share." I took the thermometer from her and put it under my tongue. As I waited for the mercury to rise, another wave hit me, and this one had some fire attached to it. I closed my eyes and tried not to succumb to the feeling of sudden weightlessness. I was starting to worry when I pulled the thermometer out of my mouth and held it out with a trembling hand. "Can you read that, Lindy?"

"Do you get queasy at the sight of blood?" she said as she held my wrist to steady it. "Wow, Reese. You feel warm." She leaned over the thermometer and squinted her eyes. "One hundred point three. That's not good. Did you wake up feeling sick?"

"Nope. You need to call me an ambulance." I wasn't going to waste time guessing whether this was the real thing or not. I just dialed Vincent while Lindy yanked her cell out of her pocket to call 911.

"Reese, what's up?"

"Don't come to Mega Mag. Meet me at the hospital."

"Why? What happened?"

"I think it has something to do with the flowers, or maybe the clip that held the note. I snapped my finger in it and Lindy just now stopped the blood flow."

"Do you need stitches?"

"No, but while I got bandaged up, I started feeling strange. So, I took my temperature and it's already over one hundred."

"Shit! Shit! Shit!" I held the phone away from my head and Lindy caught an earful. "Do not hang up the phone. Is there someone there with you?"

"Yes. Lindy and a couple of people eating lunch." I could feel sweat building up on my palm, and I looked at Lindy as she watched me with unblinking eyes. "Can you get me some ice?"

"Sure." Lindy rushed around the tiny kitchen while Vincent talked in my ear.

"When was the last time you checked your temperature?"

"A minute ago. I'm still in command of my faculties. This is just a precaution. I don't want to take any chances."

"You did the right thing."