Murder Is Paralyzing | Hannah Kline Mysteries

Hannah Kline Mystery Series Book 9

In the chaos of the emergency room, Dr. Hannah Kline confronts a chilling mystery
when a pregnant hit-and-run victim, Nicole Adler, is rushed in. Hannah delivers the
baby safely, but the woman’s devastating injuries have rendered her a quadriplegic
with amnesia.
Nicole has no idea who fathered her child and no memory of her life for the past
year in Los Angeles. When neighborhood security videos reveal that the hit-and-run
was a deliberate murder attempt, Hannah enlists her husband, LAPD Detective
Daniel Ross, to help her dig into her patient’s background.
Hannah’s pursuit of justice leads her on a dangerous journey. Powerful foes lurk in
the shadows, ready to go to any lengths to eliminate Nicole and safeguard their
well-kept secrets. Hannah’s relentless determination to unravel the truth soon
places her own life in jeopardy.

You can buy Murder is Paralyzing at the following online bookstores: Draft2Digital.com

Excerpt

Murder is Paralyzing

Friday October 21, 2016
Chapter 1

DR. HANNAH KLINE OPENED HER EYES IN THE pitch dark, her heart pounding and the taste of acid reflux in her mouth. What a hideous dream! She dreamt she’d found a patient’s dead body in a hospital bed and as she was bending over to check the patient’s pulse, her cell phone jerked her awake.

“It’s Dr. Kline. What’s going on?” “Sorry to disturb you, Doctor. We have a hit-and-run victim. She’s unconscious and very pregnant. Can you come and evaluate her?” “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

Hannah flipped a switch and squinted against the bright fluorescent light in the tiny, windowless on-call room at Memorial Hospital. She couldn’t have been asleep for more than half an hour. Thank goodness she only had to take Emergency Room call once every six months. She was feeling too old for this.

She spent two minutes emptying her bladder, splashed some cold water on her face, pulled her long red hair into a ponytail, and put on a white coat over her wrinkled scrubs. Then she walked through the double doors.

The emergency room was relatively empty, compared to how packed it had been earlier in the evening. Hannah had already taken care of several miscarriages and operated on a ruptured tubal pregnancy. She had hoped she was finished for the night.

She saw a crowd around a bed in one of the trauma rooms and headed in that direction. The patient was a visibly pregnant young woman. Her skin was pale and pasty, her face swollen and bruised, her light blonde hair soaked in blood. She wore a gold cross on a delicate chain around her neck.

“Hi, Hannah.” Dr. Jai Patel, the good-looking Indian ER doc, had just drawn multiple tubes of blood and was handing them to one of the nurses. Hannah gave him a wave and a smile.

“What’s the story?” Patel shrugged. “A couple returning home from a dinner out found her lying in the street and called 911. The EMTs had no idea how long she’d been there, but from the trauma they were sure she’d been hit by a car.”

“Do we know who she is?”

“No purse, no wallet, no phone, no ID. We’ll have to wait until she regains consciousness to get her contact information and notify her family.”

Hannah turned to the OB resident on call. “What’s the status of the pregnancy?”

“I got a heartbeat. I was just about to do an ultrasound for dating and to make sure the placenta wasn’t bleeding.”

“We can look together. What about her vitals? Any sign of a brain bleed?”

“Vitals are stable,” Patel said. “We’re evaluating her neuro-logical status right now. Have you met Dr. Roger Geller? He’s a neurosurgeon.”

Geller was a tall, completely bald man with a bushy gray mustache, who was shining a light into the woman’s pupils.

“I’ve heard your name, but we haven’t met,” Hannah said. “I’m Hannah Kline, the OB attending. What’s her neuro status?”

“She’s unconscious. I’m going to need a CT to evaluate her brain for a bleed and to check for fractures.”

Hannah watched as the resident squeezed ultrasound gel onto the woman’s abdomen and began the scan. “The baby is vertex. His head diameter is consistent with 38 weeks, there’s plenty of amniotic fluid, and he’s active.”

“Those are all good signs. I don’t see any evidence of a placental bleed,” Hannah said.

“I want to take her to CT now,” Geller said.

The woman moaned and her eyelids fluttered.

“Don’t be afraid,” Patel said. “You’ve had an accident and you’re in the hospital. We’re going to take good care of you.”

She opened her eyes. They were deep blue and moved frantically around the room.

“I can’t move my hands,” she said.

Dr Geller reached for a needle and took her hand in his, placing two fingers on her palm.

“Squeeze my hand,” he said.

There was no movement.

He took the needle and began working his way up her arm. “Tell me when you feel something sharp.”

“I can’t feel anything,” she said. As the needle reached her shoulder she winced. “I felt that.”

“Let’s check your feet. Can you wiggle your toes?”

She couldn’t, and had no response as he moved the needle up her leg.

“You seem to have an injury to your spine,” Dr. Geller said. “We’re going to send you for a scan. Once I can see the damage, we’ll take you to surgery to fix it.”

A look of panic crossed the woman’s face.

Hannah leaned over and touched her shoulder. “I’m Dr. Kline. I want you to know your baby is fine. He wasn’t injured in the accident.”

“What baby? I don’t have a baby!”

“Not yet,” Hannah said, “but it looks as if you’re due to deliver in about two weeks.”

“I’m pregnant!” She couldn’t have looked more astonished.

“Can you tell me your name,” Geller asked.

“It’s Nicole, Nicole Adler.”

“Nicole, can we call someone for you, your husband or parents?”

“I don’t think I have a husband or parents. I can’t think of anyone.”

Two orderlies with a gurney and a transfer board entered the room.

“Nicole, let’s get a scan and see what we need to do to help you. Then we can figure everything else out,” Hannah said. “Would you like me to come with you to radiology?”

“Please,” Nicole whispered. “I’ve never been so scared.”