Free Double Blind by Carrie Bedford

again. “What’s wrong, Kate?”
    How could I tell her that she had an aura?
    I looked at her salad. “Yours looks far more appetizing. Do you want mine?” It was a futile attempt to distract her.
    “No thank you. And we’re not eating until you tell me what’s going on,” she said.
    “You have an aura.” There was no point in trying to soften the blow. Anita swore by telling and hearing the truth, however unpalatable.
    “I don’t believe in auras, remember?” she said, pouring dressing over her salad greens.
    We sat in silence for a couple of minutes while I pushed pieces of lettuce around in the plastic tray. Anita looked up at me. “So how will I die and how long do I have?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t know how it will happen. Your aura is faint, so maybe a few weeks, a month. But, listen, you won’t die. I won’t let you. We’ve got time to work it out. Remember, my nephew had an aura, and he’s fit and healthy now.”
    “Because you got him to the hospital in time,” she said.
    “That’s not your problem,” I said, forcing a laugh. “You’re already here.”
    She grinned, forking food into her mouth. I doubt I could eat if someone had just told me I was going to die. But then she didn’t believe me.
    “I think there has to be a link with Dr. Reid,” I said.
    “But I’m hoping his aura has gone. He’s been better again today. We need to go check on him.”
    I told her that I’d already seen him upstairs and that his aura was still there. “If anything, it’s moving faster. That’s not good.”
    “Damn,” she said.
    “So you both have auras. We need to analyze what the connection could be. It’s highly likely that the danger to you both is from the same source.” I pushed my uneaten lunch away. “Can you think of anything?”
    “He and I are pediatric doctors and we work together,” Anita said, ticking off the items on her fingers. “And we have offices on the same floor.”
    “Yes, but there are other doctors who work on your floor and they don’t have auras. Is there anything that’s specific to just you and Dr. Reid?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m Indian, he’s white. He’s married and I’m not — yet anyway.” She grimaced, no doubt thinking of her father’s plans for an arranged marriage. “He’s old, I’m young. We have the same blood type. That came up in conversation once. Oh, I know. We both love chocolate-covered cherries. A patient gave me a box and Dr. Reid and I fought over it like ravenous wolves.”
    She wasn’t taking this seriously. I wanted to shake her, to make her see it was real. “Do this for me,” I said. “Have as many health checks as you can, MRI, blood test, cardiogram. Let’s try to eliminate the obvious risks. And keep thinking about any possible relation between you and Reid. Do you ever go off-site together, for example? In a car, an ambulance?”
    “No.”
    “Okay, what about your patients? Do you both care for a patient who could in some way be a threat?”
    “What? One of the kids is going to jump on us both with a coloring crayon?”
    “I’m serious. Maybe a parent who’s unhappy with the care a kid received?”
    She shrugged. I knew I wouldn’t get much further with her. She needed time to internalize what I’d told her and I could only hope she wouldn’t take too long.
    “There’s something else,” I said. “I wasn’t going to tell you, but Simon Scott has an aura as well. And his colleague, Kevin Lewis.”
    She was staring at me, her fork halfway to her mouth.
    “Scott?” she said. “Bloody hell, Kate. Your aura-seeing capability knows no bounds. Look around, how many people here have auras?”
    I didn’t want to see any more darn auras, so I shook my head. “Probably a few, given that we are in a hospital.”
    She finished her salad in silence, and I kept quiet too. There was nothing to be gained by trying to convince her of something she didn’t want to hear. When her pager