Free Beauty and the Beast by Laurel Cain Haws

send a living person through the morgue to the tunnels to keep her safe. I sure hope we can pull this off without someone catching on.”
    Father already had his stethoscope out of his bag, and was listening to Catherine’s chest. She had an heart beat, extremely slow, but steady, and he breathed a sigh of
    relief. Her respiration was so slow as to be undetectable. “She really does appear dead. How on earth did you realize she was still alive, David?
    Dr. Marx frowned. “Corpses don’t sweat! I saw the sweat at her hairline, and realized that in spite of all appearances to the contrary, she was still alive. Unfortunately, I had called in the troops when Vincent called me, because I had no reason to believe he could be mistaken about her condition. I told my assistants to bag her hands to collect evidence, and while they were busy doing that, I ran out to nab Tony, because I had seen him hanging around the hallway. I sent a note with him to you through Catherine’s tunnel access in the basement. That poor boy was devastated over the report that she was dead, and I didn’t have time to explain to him that she wasn’t. It probably wouldn’t have been wise to tell him anyway. He took off like a shot, and obviously you got the message. We’ve got to do what essentially amounts to a living autopsy on Catherine right now, as fast as possible, so I’ve got the evidence the DA needs to try and find the murderer who did this to her. Father, grab an evidence collection kit from the cabinet right behind you there.”
    Father got up and went to the cabinet. When he opened it to get the kit, he found Tony crunched up on the bottom shelf with tears streaming down his face. “Is Cathy going to be all right?” He sobbed.
    The boy was so stricken Father couldn’t bring himself to scold him for stowing away in the van. “We are going to
    do everything we can to save her. For now, you just stay right where you are while we work on her, OK?” Tony nodded and stayed quiet after that.
    Father found the kit and went back to Catherine with it. “What do you need for me to do, David?”
    “Before we give her any shots to stabilize her, we need a blood sample, so I can determine what she was given to put her in this condition. I have a good idea what I’m going to find, but I need to be sure. Take the blood sample and bag it. Then, I need for you to swab under her fingernails for any evidence there, and bag the swabs while I do a thorough examination. We’ll give her the shots before we drop you off in the manhole.”
    Father went to work on the blood sample and her bagged hands. As Dr. Marx examined her from head to toe with a magnifying glass, he paused at her upper left arm. “Look here, Father, there is a needle puncture.” Father looked, and nodded his head. Dr. Marx went on with his examination and finished with a pelvic exam. His face fell as he looked at Father and said, “Catherine has given birth within the last twenty-four hours. Whoever tried to kill her must have given her what they thought was a fatal dose of morphine. That is the only thing that makes any sense.”
    Father looked at him in horror. “Oh, David, poor Catherine had a baby?” Dr. Marx nodded. Father spoke vehemently, “Some unspeakable devil must have violated her!” After recovering his composure somewhat he said, “I had better give her just a small dose of epinephrine. We don’t want to shock her system, but we do need to stimulate her heart and respiration until we can do a brain scan to determine just how deep this coma is. Catherine is sweating because they tried to kill her rather than properly caring for her after the birth. Ill give her a full dose of the penicillin to stem infection.”
    Dr. Marx spoke while Father was administering the shots, “I’m sorry I had to have you bring your precious supplies of those things, Father. When I figured out that she was alive, I couldn’t very well send for the medicines without everyone