cave to die.”
He shook his head. “It was an accident. I am going to give you a sedative and when
you wake up, you will feel much better.”
A surge of fear flowed through her. “No!” she pleaded. “Don’t you understand? I’ll
never wake up. Take me out of here. Please!”
The doctor was smiling reassuringly. “I told you you are going to be fine, Mrs.
Douglas. All you need is a nice, long sleep.” He reached into a black medical bag and
began searching for a hypodermic.
Catherine tried to sit up, but a searing pain shot through her head and she was
instantly bathed in perspiration. She fell back on the bed, her head pounding unbearably.
“You must not try to move yet,” Dr. Kazomides warned. “You have been through a
terrible ordeal.” He took out the hypodermic, filled the needle from a vial of amber fluid
and turned to her. “Turn over, please. When you waken, you will feel like a new person.”
“I won’t waken,” Catherine whispered. “He’ll murder me while I’m asleep.”
There was a look of concern on the doctor’s face. He walked over to her. “Please turn
over, Mrs. Douglas.”
She stared at him, her eyes stubborn.
Gently he turned Catherine on her side, pulled up her nightgown and she felt a sharp
sting in her hip. “There you are.”
She rolled on her back and whispered. “You’ve just killed me.” Her eyes filled with
helpless tears.
“Mrs. Douglas,” the doctor said, quietly, “do you know how we found you?”
She started to shake her head, then remembered the pain. His voice was gentle. “Your
husband led us to you.”
She stared at him, not comprehending what he was saying.
“He took the wrong turn and got lost in the cave,” he explained. “When he could not
find you, he became frantic. He summoned the police and we immediately organized a
search party.”
She looked at him, still not understanding. “Larry…sent for help?”
“He was in a terrible state. He blamed himself for what happened.”
She lay there trying to take it in, trying to adjust to this new information. If Larry had
tried to kill her, he would not have organized a search party to find her, he would not have
been frantic about her safety. She was filled with a terrible confusion. The doctor was
watching her sympathetically.
“You will sleep now,” he told her. “I will come back to see you in the morning.”
She had believed that the man she loved was a murderer. She knew she had to tell