Free Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? by Ann Rule Page B

to
    hear that Brad had been brought into the emergency room at Providence
    by ambulance.   My Cod!   Had someone gotten to Brad, just as he
    feared?
     
    Terrified that he had been shot, Sara rushed down to the emergency room
    and stood by as Brad was wheeled in on a gurney.   He hadn't been shot,
    at least he wasn't wounded.   He had apparently suffered a heart attack
    in Phil Margolin's office.   That was something she had never even
    thought of.   Brad was such a strong man, and he was only thirty-seven
    years old.   But her physician's mind told her that didn't mean he
    couldn't have heart trouble.   His father had just died of a massive
    coronary in July, and he was only sixty-one.   And Sanford Cunningham
    had suffered several heart attacks in the years before his death, it
    was an ominous cardiac history for Brad.
     
    It was 11:45
     
    A.M. when Dr. Steve Rinehart, Sara's friend and a cardiologist on
    staff, began treating Brad.   He complained of chest pains, and he
    winced when Dr. Rinehart touched the left front of his chest.   The
    heart monitor showed that Brad was throwing PVCsþpremature ventricular
    contractions.   There was an early extra beat of the ventricles and his
    heart was contracting out of normal sequence.   It was a very common
    conditionþand sometimes it was life-threatening.
     
    Sara understood the potential danger of this particular irregularity of
    the heart's rhythm.   A lot of people under extreme stress throw PACsþ
    premature atrial contractionsþand they were not nearly as likely to
    interfere with life itself But the ventricles were the largest chambers
    in the heart and she knew that Brad's heart could go into fibrillation
    and lose all of its normal rhythm in an instant, becoming just a
    useless squirming organ unable to pump blood.   If that happened, Steve
    Rinehart would have to put the electrical paddles from the Lifepak on
    Brad's chest and try to shock his heart back into normal sinus
    rhythm.
     
    Sara had seen too many patients go sour and die with exactly the same
    condition that Brad had.   She watched, stricken, as Rinehart examined
    the man she loved.   How much emotional pain could she and Brad be
    expected to take in one day?   Their happy time with his laughing little
    boys at the pizza restaurant on Sunday seemed a million years away, and
    it had been less than forty-eight hours ago.   Now, Brent kept his
    little brothers occupied in the nurses' lounge while Brad was being
    treated.   Sara couldn't bear to think that they could be orphans in an
    instant.
     
    To her immense relief, Brad began to come around and his EKG tracings
    showed he was back in perfectly normal sinus rhythm.   Despite Sara's
    pleading, he refused to he admitted to the hospital.   He had too much
    to do.   Dr. Rinehart insisted, however, that Brad take a stress test
    on the treadmill before he would release him.   Leads were attached to
    his chest, arms, and ankles so that his blood pressure and heart rate
    could be monitored as he walked on the moving belt.   Every three
    minutes, a technician increased the rate and the incline of the
    treadmill.
     
    Brad's heart picked up speed, but it beat as steadily as a clock.   At
    2:30 that Tuesday afternoon, he was released from the hospital.
     
    Brad took Sara aside and told her that they had to continue to take
    great precautions to protect themselves.   He felt it wasn't safe for
    them to stay in the Madison Tower.   Whoever was stalking them, whoever
    had killed Cheryl, could trap them there.   "That's exactly where they
    will expect us to be," he whispered.
     
    Phil Margolin required a retainer, Brad told Sara.   That was standard,
    she knew.   She wrote out a five-thousand-dollar check and assured Brad
    that she would pay for private investigatorsþfor anything he needed so
    that he would be adequately represented and they could all be safe.
     
    She knew Brad, and she loved him.   The world seemed to be closing in