Desperation on Wildflower Island Read online

  Desperation on Wildflower Island

  Wildflower Mystery Series Book 2

  Michelle Files

  Edited by

  Cecily Brooks

  Published by BookLovers.pub

  Contents

  Introduction

  Dedication

  Novels

  Copyright

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  A Note

  Storm Preview

  INTRODUCTION

  * * *

  If you listen closely, beneath the howling wind and the crash of the waves, you might hear the island whisper its secrets.

  * * *

  A dark past she can’t forget. An uncertain future she can’t control. When people start dying in unusual ways on Wildflower Island, the residents are in a panic. Is there a serial killer on the island? Are these just unfortunate accidents? As the answers begin to surface, secrets, deep and twisted, are discovered. Secrets that no one wants revealed. It takes just one unlikely person to see the killer’s desperate cries for help. Now that person is in danger.

  * * *

  Be prepared to read all night!

  * * *

  Book 2 in the Wildflower Mystery Series.

  Dedication

  This novel is dedicated to two special people:

  My father, Chuck, who passed away quietly while I was writing this novel. I love you and will miss you for the rest of my life.

  And to my cousin, John Paul. You were taken way too soon and you will be dearly missed.

  Novels by Michelle Files:

  * * *

  TYLER SERIES:

  Girl Lost - Book 1

  A Reckless Life - Book 2

  * * *

  WILDFLOWER MYSTERY SERIES:

  Secrets of Wildflower Island - Book 1

  Desperation on Wildflower Island - Book 2

  Storm on Wildflower Island - Book 3

  Thorns on Wildflower Island - Book 4

  * * *

  Ivy Wells Time Travel Series: Books 1-5

  * * *

  For information on any of Michelle’s books:

  www.MichelleFiles.com

  Copyright ©️ 2017 by Michelle Files

  * * *

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form, without prior written permission of the author.

  * * *

  Published in the United States by BookLovers.pub.

  Edited by Cecily Brookes and BookLovers.pub.

  * * *

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to actual people, places or events is purely coincidental.

  1st Edition 2017

  Chapter 1

  A FEW YEARS AGO

  “Just breathe. Like this.” The nurse demonstrated to the woman in labor how to perform the lamaze technique for breathing. “You never took lamaze during your pregnancy?” the nurse asked her. “That’s unusual.”

  “No…I didn’t think I really…needed it,” Catherine said between breaths as her labor pains came on in a strong way. “I didn’t have anyone…to go with me anyway.”

  “I see.”

  The nurse’s judgmental tone was not lost on Catherine. Not being the confrontational type, she said nothing. It was none of the nurse’s business anyway. Between contractions, Catherine turned toward the window to watch as frequent bolts of lightning lit up the Colorado night sky, causing sparkling light to bounce off the shiny metal of the instruments in the room.

  Not being able to afford one, Catherine didn’t have her own obstetrician. Instead, she had to rely on the doctor that the hospital assigned to her when she was ready to deliver. That thought scared her when she realized that she was woefully unprepared for a child. Unprepared for the delivery, and unprepared for what came next.

  The delivery doctor on call had not shown up yet, though it had been hours since the patient arrived. This was not unusual. She couldn’t count how many times she had personally delivered a baby over the ten years she had been a nurse, due to the lack of urgency in some of the doctors. Why they chose the field of obstetrics never ceased to amaze her. It was one of those specialties that by its very nature required the doctor to be on call and get to his duties quickly. Babies waited for no one. She had a bad feeling that this would be one of those times where she got to deliver yet another child. Not that she minded, really. It gave her a warm feeling each and every time she helped a family bring a new life into the world. It seemed to her like the doctor would come tearing into the room the moment it was all done. He took all the credit, and the paycheck. She knew she did a lot of good, but often felt it was a thankless job.

  “What is your name anyway? I forgot to ask,” Catherine asked her nurse.

  “Emily,” the nurse told her just as wall rattling thunder made her jump.

  Catherine smiled as she watched Emily catch her breath after the sudden thundering. It didn’t bother Catherine a bit as she was a fairly calm sort of person. She didn’t like that her nurse was so jumpy though. That part made her nervous.

  Catherine sized Emily up and thought that she could be pretty. She had jet black hair that was pulled back into a long single braid down her back, and she wore no makeup. The lime green scrubs with daisies all over them didn’t do her any favors either. Catherine thought Emily would look much better in purple, with her coloring and all. She had a knack for that sort of thing. She would never think to say anything to her nurse though. Catherine barely knew the woman and didn’t want to anger the one person who was helping to bring her first child into the world.

  Though the two women had never met until a couple of hours prior, and nurse Emily was a decade older than Catherine, they hit it off immediately. Catherine was the forgiving type and didn’t waste another second of her time thinking about the ‘tone’ she felt Emily had in her voice earlier.

  Catherine pulled her long blonde hair up into a bun on the top of her head as the two of them talked. Though the hospital room was quite cool, Catherine was sweating profusely and needed to get her long, sticky hair out of her face.

  Not much else was going on that night in the maternity ward, so Emily spent most of her time in Catherine’s room. Catherine didn’t mind. She liked not being completely alone on the most important day of her life.

  Emily had noticed that Catherine didn’t have anyone with her, but felt it was not her place to pry, so she hadn’t said anything at all about it. During all the years she had been a nurse, she had learned to just stay out of the private lives of her patients. Truth was that she didn’t really want to get involved anyway. The vast majority of those that she cared for either went home, and she never saw them again, or they died. Even those that had to be readmitted at some point in the future, rarely remembered her. She was kind of the forgettable type. Plain, quiet, not really the type to get in the middle of other people’s problems. She had enough of her own to deal with. Despite all of that, she did her best to give Catherine as much attention as she could. Emily couldn’t imagine giving birth without her husband there for support. She felt sorry for the woman. />
  “You haven’t asked me about the baby’s father,” Catherine said once she caught her breath after another brutal contraction. She was watching Emily check the fetal heart monitor. “Is everything okay?”

  Emily turned to look at her. She could hear the worry in Catherine’s voice. “Yes, everything looks fine. You have a feisty one in there, that’s for sure.” She smiled at Catherine. “And to answer what you just said. No, I haven’t asked about the father, because I know it’s none of my business.”

  “No, it’s all right. Really. I’m here all by myself. I don’t mind telling you. Hopefully you aren’t too judgmental when you hear my story,” Catherine replied, brushing some blonde wisps of hair out of her eyes.

  “Of course not,” Emily told her. “Is the father around at all?”

  Catherine took a deep breath. She felt a deep need to talk about it, but was embarrassed by it at the same time. Catherine looked into Emily’s hazel eyes and saw kindness in them. It put her at ease.

  “Well, he is, and he isn’t.”

  Emily gave her a quizzical look. “What do you mean?” Emily walked over to the sink to get Catherine a bit of water.

  “I just mean that Donny, that’s his name, doesn’t know about the baby. If he did, he would want to be part of his or her life, but he is in prison, so that is not an option.”

  Emily stopped mid-stride and turned to look at Catherine, surprise clearly showing in her face. “Prison?”

  “Yes. He’s in for robbery and some drug charges. He’s got a mean streak in him, that’s for sure. He used to beat me up something awful.”

  “Oh my god,” was all Emily could manage to say, as she partially filled the cup with water. She couldn’t give her patient much water, because if there were complications with the baby, and they had to resort to surgery, she couldn’t have anything in her stomach. Therefore, Emily proceeded cautiously.

  “How long has he been in prison?” Emily asked as she handed the cup of water over to her patient. “I mean, it can’t be more than nine months,” Emily said looking down at Catherine’s belly.

  “Well that’s true,” Catherine smiled. “It’s actually been about six months. We didn’t even know I was pregnant when he was arrested.”

  “I hope I’m not prying, but did you know about his crimes when they happened? Like before the cops did? Do you mind if I ask?”

  “No, it’s okay. And, no, I had no idea. But, crazy as it sounds, I stayed with him anyway. Even though he is in prison, I stayed. I had some stupid hope that he would be found not guilty and released. That didn’t happen,” Catherine told her, as she looked away. She was embarrassed that she had been so dumb and gullible. She was only 25 years old, but felt that she should not be so naive.

  “Do you think he’s innocent now?” Emily was afraid to hear the answer.

  “No. Reality hit me when he was convicted. I may be slow, but I’m not a complete idiot. Ok…whoa, here’s another one,” Catherine called out as another contraction hit her.

  “Breathe like I taught you,” Emily told her as she held her hand until it was over.

  “Wow, that was a big one,” Catherine exclaimed.

  “Yeah, it won’t be long now.”

  “You know, my family hates me,” Catherine admitted.

  “What? No, I can’t believe that. You seem like a sweetheart. What could possibly make them hate you? I was kind of wondering why no one else was here with you though,” Emily told her.

  “Because even after Donny was arrested, I chose to stay with him. They all tried to talk some sense into me, but I wouldn’t listen. I know now that I was being unreasonable and that they were all right about him. But I called them lots of names and told them that if they couldn’t stand by me then I wanted nothing to do with them. Now none of them will talk to me. It’s all my fault. I know that.” Catherine looked down at her lap. She didn’t want Emily to see the embarrassment on her face.

  She looked up just as Emily shook her head in disbelief. The reaction did not go unnoticed by Catherine.

  “I have a little boy myself and I just can’t imagine him without a father and with a family that hated me,” Emily admitted. “It just breaks my heart thinking about it.”

  “Yeah, well, there’s more actually,” Catherine continued. “You won’t tell anyone, will you?”

  Catherine barely knew Emily, but felt that she needed someone to talk to. What did she have to lose anyway? If Emily blabbed to the police, Catherine would just deny it.

  “No. Who would I tell anyway?” Emily told her as she shrugged her shoulders. “I keep my patients’ secrets to myself,” Emily answered honestly. She had heard some crazy stories over the years. Most of them while the patient was under some heavy pain killers, but not always.

  “I know that Donny has killed two people,” Catherine began. “Two that I know of for sure anyway. No one else knows. They were involved with drugs somehow, I don’t really know all the details. But he got drunk one night and told me all about it. I don’t think he even remembers doing that and I never said a word to him after. I was afraid that if he knew I knew, I might be in danger.” Catherine let out a long sigh, like she had been holding that one in for a very long time.

  Emily stood there looking at her for a few moments, not really knowing how to respond to what she had just heard. “Oh wow. That was probably smart of you. He sounds like a bad guy,” Emily responded. “What are you going to do now that you are all alone? Do you have a job, a place to live?”

  “No, none of that. Since Donny has been in prison I haven’t been able to catch up on rent and I got evicted last month. I’ve been living on the streets ever since.”

  “Oh my god. That’s horrible, especially in your condition.” Emily was horrified and tried her best to hide it. It was not her place to give her opinion to her patients. She had her own life, and her own issues, and didn’t need to get involved with everyone else’s.

  At that moment the door to the hospital room opened and both women turned to see who it was that was intruding on their private conversation.

  “Hello Catherine, I’m Dr. Rodriguez. Nice to meet you,” he said as he walked over and shook her hand. “Now, let’s see how this baby is doing.”

  Dr. Rodriguez walked in wearing shorts, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. Catherine looked over at Emily for confirmation that he was actually a doctor. He certainly didn’t look like one to her. Emily nodded her head and smiled to indicate that it was all right. He was not some crazy man from off the street.

  The doctor was tall and about 40 years old with thick, black hair. He was average looking, with kind eyes, and was a favorite of the hospital staff. He had an easy going way about him and never seemed in a hurry about anything. He checked the fetal monitor and walked over to the sink and washed his hands. Then he donned some gloves and did a quick examination of Catherine.

  “Yep, you are just about to meet your new little person. I’ll be back in a minute,” he said as he walked over to the sink, removed his gloves and washed his hands again. “I just need to change.” He walked out the door without another word.

  Emily didn’t say much else to Catherine while they waited for the doctor to return. She was silently processing everything that Catherine had just said to her. It was a lot to take in.

  It only took the doctor about five minutes to return, wearing his scrubs, with two more nurses right behind him. Things started moving quickly at that point. The delivery was very quick and went smoothly. Not a single complication, to everyone’s delight. Catherine delivered a beautiful baby girl that night, to the music of thunder and rain pounding on the hospital window next to her. It was a night she would never forget.

  Not long after the birth and when the doctor was done with his part, Emily told Catherine that she was going to take the baby out for some tests. The other nurses had finished their duties and had moved on to the next patient. It was Emily’s job to continue monitoring Catherine and her new baby.

  “What? Wh
y? Is something wrong?” Emily could hear the worry in Catherine’s voice.

  “No, of course not. It’s all routine. Besides, you have had a really long, difficult day. Get some rest and I’ll bring her back in a bit. Don’t worry about a thing. I’m just going to give you a little something to help calm you down so you can rest,” Emily told her as she injected a sedative into Catherine’s I.V. without waiting for approval from her patient.

  “What is that?” Catherine asked her as her words started slurring within only a few seconds of receiving the sedative.

  Emily didn’t bother to answer. She knew Catherine would not hear her or remember her answer anyway. She picked up the baby and walked out of the room.

  A few hours after the birth, Emily walked back into Catherine’s hospital room, without the baby. Catherine was just waking up. Emily had given her a much stronger sedative than they usually give. Emily wanted to make sure that Catherine got plenty of rest.

  “Hi Catherine. How are you feeling?” Emily asked her as Catherine rubbed her sleepy eyes and looked around the room. She was searching for something.