Free Diagnosis Murder 7 - The Double LIfe by Lee Goldberg Page A

was clear to Mark, too.
    "Chad got in the hot tub and had a couple of beers," Mark said. "The hot water dilated his blood vessels and lowered his blood pressure."
    "So did the beers," Emily added.
    "The combination of the two lowered the supply of blood to his heart," Mark said. "Giving him a stabbing chest pain that he mistook for angina."
    "But the pain wasn't from clogged arteries," Emily said. "It was actually the reverse."
    "Chad didn't know that," Dalton said. "He took a nitro tablet and made everything worse."
    "He might as well have shot himself in the chest," Emily said.
    "The pill caused a massive drop in blood pressure, provoking a fatal myocardial infarction," Mark said.
    "I can forgive the guy for mistaking the chest pain for angina," Emily said, "but he should have known better than to get into a hot tub and drink in the first place."
    "Chad was young, single, and he liked to party," Dalton said. "He certainly isn't the first person to die because of it." 
    "Some people are just too stupid to live," Emily said. 
    "Chad was already living on borrowed time," Dalton said. "Less than a year earlier, he had a massive heart attack at a club. Turns out he'd taken some meth. He would have died, too, but the guy next to him happened to be an off-duty fireman who knew CPR."
    There was something about the fates of Leila Pevney and Chadwick Saxelid that troubled Mark, but he couldn't figure out what it was. The two had several things in common besides being Dr. Dalton's patients: They both had coronary diseases, and their deaths, to some degree, were both the result of fatal reactions to drugs.
    But that was a stretch, and neither of those similarities was what was nagging Mark. It was something else. He just couldn't identify it and couldn't think of what to ask Dr. Dalton that might bring it to light.
    So he thanked Dr. Dalton for his time and he and Emily left.
     
    Emily drove with the top down, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses. Mark wore sunglasses but no hat. They were on the southbound San Diego Freeway going over the Sepulveda Pass, leaving the smog-choked San Fernando Valley and heading into the smog-choked Los Angeles Basin.
    "You should be wearing a hat," Emily said.
    "I don't mind the air," Mark said.
    "It's not the air I'm worried about, it's the sun. Have you forgotten about that gash on your head? You're going to have an ugly scar if you don't wear sunscreen and a hat."
    "If you're so worried," Mark said, "put up the top."
    She glared at him. "What's the matter with you?"
    "Besides losing Jesse and two years of my memory?"
    "And me," she said. "I'd say ‘don't forget that,' but you already have."
    Mark reached into the backseat, grabbed the baseball cap that was there, and put it snugly on his head.
    "There," he said. "Happy now?"
    They were silent for a long moment, making a point of not looking at each other. Finally, Emily sighed.
    "I'm sorry. That wasn't fair," she said. "I shouldn't have said that."
    "It's okay," Mark said. "You were right about the scar and about the way I am treating you. I'm being very selfish when, in fact, it's you who is suffering the most. My condition is a lot harder on you than it is for me."
    "Why do you say that?"
    "Because you remember everything," Mark said. "Your love hasn't dimmed a bit, and yet here I sit, treating you like a stranger. I feel awkwardness, but you feel heartbreak."
    "So you're saying I'm the one who should be surly," Emily said, giving him a smile.
    "I'm frustrated, that's all. I don't like having to play catch-up in this investigation. Not only do I have to figure out who the killer is and what he's thinking, I have to figure out who / was and what / was thinking. It puts me at a huge disadvantage."
    "Talking to Dr. Barnes and Dr. Dalton didn't clarify things?"
    "Not really."
    "But at least you know there is a killer."
    "I was already working from that assumption, which was confirmed when someone tried to run me over and got Jesse instead," Mark