Hiccupping and sobbing, George sprawled down on the table, now in a comatose state. At that moment, two of the paramedics who’d arrived on the scene, walked in.
"Can we help here? Shall we get him into bed and make sure he’s okay?" the closest paramedic asked.
May nodded, grateful for their help. "Yes. I think he needs to be in bed now, and to have some help getting there."
But she had suddenly realized there was a different line of thinking. What George had said had showed her that there was, in fact, another common thread.
May didn't know what to make of it, but it seemed that all three victims had come very close to death within the last two years.
It couldn't be a coincidence, she thought — or could it? She felt a flash of self-doubt but suppressed it firmly. She needed to follow this up, because surely it was no coincidence.
Three people, who’d all had a close brush with death?
And the killer was using a scythe, as if he was imitating the hand of death itself?
May thought she was onto something here. She had found the elusive common thread that she’d sensed she was missing. Now she needed to work out how to use this information.
The best way to start, May thought, would be to contact the hospitals, and find out if the two victims who had been hospitalized had gone into the same ICU ward.
Creepy as it was to imagine, she wondered if perhaps a doctor or a nurse had learned of their narrow escapes and decided to finish off what fate had started.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
"Owen," May said, as soon as her deputy joined her outside. "I’ve had an idea. I’ve found a common thread. Every one of the victims so far had a close encounter with death. Every victim has narrowly escaped it.”
Owen's eyebrows rose, and May saw him immediately catching up with her line of thinking, coming to the same chilling possibility that she had.
“That’s so bizarre, May, but it’s correct. That’s a definite common thread. It’s unusual to find someone who survives a near death experience, but for sure, all these victims have done so. Hayley almost died in the snowstorm and was in hospital on a drip afterward. And Alicia had this terrible accident. What about Jenna?"
"Well, she cheated death in that she missed the plane that crashed.”
Owen let out a long breath, shaking his head.
“And someone is killing them because they survived? May, I can’t get over the evil in some people’s hearts.”
“Me neither,” May said somberly. “But we’re not dealing with a normal person here, Owen. We’re dealing with a damaged person, who is mentally far from well.”
They paced slowly back across the uneven concrete walkway, heading for their car.
“True. So, where do we look for this person? What are your thoughts?”
“I’m thinking we start at the hospital. Perhaps a doctor or a nurse followed up on patients who survived, for some twisted reason.”
Owen narrowed his eyes. “Well, Hayley and Alicia were definitely hospitalized after their ordeals, but what about Jenna? Her husband was in the crash, not her.”
“Perhaps, afterward, she was taken to the hospital to be treated for shock. Or she went there for some other reason, and they learned about it. We never asked about that. The neighbors might not even have known that detail since it was years ago."
All three victims had escaped death in the past, only for a strange Grim Reaper to bring it to them down the line. May felt certain that they had identified the common thread that this serial killer was using to pick his targets.
"As far as I know, Tamarack County General Hospital is the only one that has the ICU facility, so that’s where Alicia would have gone, and probably Hayley too," Owen said. "The others in the area are smaller, more local, day clinics. Definitely, we should start there."
"Let's go to the hospital. Now," May said. "They're not going to want to help us with patient records over the phone. If we arrive there, in person, it's our best chance of finding out if there was anyone who might have treated both of them, or even all three, in the past."
Owen nodded, and May could see in his face that he was just as determined as she was to follow-up with this lead.
*
Twenty minutes later, May and Owen pulled up outside Tamarack County General Hospital. This large, sprawling building was set near the outskirts of Chestnut Hill. At this hour, the hospital still looked to be busy, and May guessed that evening visiting hours had recently ended, as a number of cars were leaving as they arrived.