Killer Dreams

1

Two years later
Fentway University Hospital
Baltimore, Maryland


What's going on? You're not supposed to be here.

Sophie Dunston looked up from the chart to see Kathy VanBoskirk, the head night nurse, standing in the doorway. An overnight apnea study.

You worked all day and now youýre monitoring an overnighter? Kathy came into the room and glanced at the bed on the other side of the double glass panel. Ah, an infant. The light dawns.

Not so much an infant any longer. Elspethýs fourteen months, Sophie said. She'd stopped having incidents three months ago and now they're back. She just stops breathing in the middle of the night and her doctor can't find any reason for it. Her mother is worried sick.

"Then where is she?"

"She works nights."

"So do you. Days and nights." Kathy gazed at the sleeping baby. "Lord, she's beautiful. Makes my biological clock start ticking. My kid is fifteen now and there's nothing lovable about him. I'm hoping he'll turn back into a human being in another six years. Think I have a chance?"

"Don is just your typical teenager. He'll get there." Sophie rubbed her eyes. They felt as if they had sand in them. It was almost five and the sleep study would be over soon. Then she'd run the errand that was on the top of her list before getting to bed and grabbing a few hours of shut-eye before she had to get back for her first one o'clock session with the Cartwright child. -And he offered to clean my car last week when you had him at the office.-

"He probably wanted a chance to swipe it." Kathy grimaced. "Or maybe he wanted the chance to score with an older woman. He thinks youýre cool-looking."

"Yeah, sure." Right now, Sophie felt older than her years, frumpy, and ugly as sin. She turned back the chart and checked Elspeth's case history. She'd had an apnea episode about 1:00 a.m. and nothing since. There might be something there that would help her pin down

"Thereýs a message for you at the nurses- station," Kathy said.

Sophie stiffened. "Home?"