Nate gave her a questioning look. “It’s Mama. She knows I’m with you. And she’s not crazy about the idea.”
“You told her?” Nate asked. “That’s a pretty bold move for you.”
“Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance,” Riley said. She poured herself a glass of wine and was telling him about the cell phone photo of their embrace that had gone viral when her phone rang again.
“Don’t answer it,” Nate said sharply.
She looked down at the caller ID and saw that the call was from Billy.
“It’s my brother,” she said. “He never calls my cell.”
She hit the connect button. “Billy?”
“Riley, I’m at Shutters with Mama. Maggy’s locked herself in her bedroom and we can’t get her to come to the door. I think she’s sick.”
“What? She was supposed to be at Annabelle’s.”
“Look, I’m trying to get the door open. I think you better come. I think something bad has happened.”
“I’ll be right there,” Riley said. “I don’t care what you have to do, just get that damn door open. I’m on my way.”
“What is it?” Nate asked.
“It’s Maggy. I’ll tell you what I know on the way,” Riley said.
* * *
“I don’t know why she went home,” Riley said, as Nate drove through the darkness. “She was supposed to spend the night at Annabelle’s.” She looked out at the thick canopy of trees. “Isn’t there any kind of shortcut?”
“No,” Nate said. “The creek winds all through here. There’s only one way in and one way out. I’m going as fast as I can.”
“We had another fight before she left,” Riley said, on the verge of tears. “Maggy was so angry and irritable, I thought maybe her blood sugar was off. She gets that way when it’s too low or too high. But she said she’d eaten and taken her insulin. And I checked her backpack. She had her syringes and her blood-testing kit with her. I don’t know what happened.”
“What was the fight about?” he asked.
“You,” Riley said, glancing over at him. “Maggy’s furious that I’m seeing you. She accused me of all kinds of horrible things, called me selfish, said I didn’t care about her feelings.”
Nate reached for her hand and squeezed it. “Kids say things they don’t mean.”
She shook her head vehemently. “No. She said she wished Wendell was alive and I was dead. And she meant every word.”
“We’ll be there in five minutes,” Nate said. “What can I do?”
“Drive faster,” Riley said. “Please, for God’s sake, drive faster.”
* * *
Lights blazed from every window at Shutters. Riley jumped from the moving golf cart and ran up the stairs. Billy knelt in front of Maggy’s door, an ice pick stuck into the lock. He turned helpless eyes to his sister.
“I can’t open it,” he said. “I’ve tried kicking it, but this thing is like lead.”
Nate came running up the stairs and appraised the situation with one look. “Get me a screwdriver and a hammer,” he said.
“In the kitchen, in the drawer by the fridge,” Evelyn said, wringing her hands. “Hurry, Billy.”
A moment later, Billy was back with tools in hand. Nate grabbed the screwdriver and started working on the hinges.
“Maggy!” Riley called, putting her lips to the door. “Maggy! Can you hear me?”
She thought she heard a faint noise, then nothing.
“Nate, hurry,” Riley urged.
“The damn pin is frozen,” he said. He took the screwdriver and jammed it into the gap between the pin and the hinge, using it as a wedge, then began striking the screwdriver handle with the hammer, again and again, until slowly the pin moved upward and popped loose. He moved down the door to the next hinge and repeated the same action, until finally, the second pin popped up. “Almost there,” Nate muttered. He grasped the door by the knob and middle hinge and yanked it completely off the door frame.
Riley ran past him. Maggy was sprawled backward on the bed, her eyes barely open. An empty Coke can lay on the floor, and the rug was littered with mini Snickers candy wrappers.
“Call nine-one-one,” Riley shouted. Evelyn looked on, paralyzed. “Mama, call nine-one-one!” she screamed. “Tell them we’ve got a twelve-year-old in a diabetic coma. We need to get to the hospital.”
“Maggy!” Riley yelled. She knelt beside her daughter and felt that the bed was damp. She touched Maggy’s face and sniffed her breath. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “She’s peed the bed. Where’s her kit? Where’s the damn kit?”
“Here’s her backpack,” Billy said, picking it up from the floor.
“The purple zippered case,” Riley said. “There’s a preloaded syringe. Hurry!”
Billy found the kit and handed the syringe to his sister.
Riley grabbed it and grasped Maggy’s leg, plunging the syringe into the outside of her upper thigh.
“Oh, my God,” Evelyn whimpered. “Oh, my God.” She held the phone in her hand, staring at it.
Billy took the phone and went out into the hallway. They heard his voice echoing in the high-ceilinged room. “Ambulance needed at the Shutters. Bluff Road. My twelve-year-old niece is in a diabetic coma. Please hurry!”
“What should I do?” Nate asked.
“Get her downstairs. We’ve got to get her to the hospital in town.”
Nate bent over the girl, wrapped the edges of the bedspread around her limp form, and cradled her in his arms. Riley picked up her daughter’s kit and followed him down the stairs.
He carried her out onto the porch and paused beside the golf cart. “The hell with it,” he said. “We’ll take her in the cart.” Just then they heard the wail of a siren. Moments later they saw the flashing red lights as the Belle Isle ambulance came speeding down the sandy drive.
Two EMTs, a young woman and a chubby tech who looked to be barely out of his teens, jumped out of the vehicle and loaded Maggy onto a gurney. “We called for the Life Flight helicopter from Baldwin Memorial,” the woman told Riley. “They’ll land on the village green to pick us up.” She gestured to Riley. “You can ride in the back with your daughter, but we’ve gotta go right now.”
Riley ducked into the ambulance and turned to look at Nate. She pointed toward the porch, where Evelyn stood, silhouetted in the doorway. “Tell Mama I’ll call her as soon as we get to the hospital.”
“I’ll meet you there,” he called. But the ambulance was pulling away.
* * *
Nate met Evelyn and Billy at the edge of the porch. Billy had a protective arm wrapped around his mother’s shoulders. She stared at Nate with empty eyes. “They’re going to Life Flight Maggy to the hospital in Southpoint,” he said. “I’m going to take my boat over. Would you two like to ride with me?”
“Your boat?” Evelyn looked confused. “Not the ferry?”
“No, my boat can make it across in half the time it’d take the ferry,” Nate explained. “I’ll be happy to take you with me. My car is parked at the ferry dock.”