When Conner arrived at the emergency room six minutes later, an ER nurse briefed him on what was happening with his wife. Daryl stood by Zoe’s bed conferring with an ER doctor. Numerous tubes and wires had been attached to her body and a team of technicians and doctors were attempting to revive her. Because of the virus, Conner and Sean had been asked to wait outside by the ER entrance.

“What’s going on? Is she going to be okay?” an anxious Conner asked when one of the ER doctors came outside to give him an update. “Are you going to pump her stomach?”

“We don’t do that anymore,” said the doctor. “We’ve administered charcoal. If we get to a patient soon enough, it encapsulates the drugs in their stomach before they filter through the organs and cause permanent liver damage.”

“How do you know if you got to her in time?” asked Sean.

“We don’t. According to the intake notes, no one’s exactly sure when she took the pills or how many. We’re hoping we got to her within the window. We’ll have to wait and see how she responds,” said the doctor as he turned and went back into the ER.

There was nothing more to be done until Zoe woke up. After three hours of waiting, the nurses informed Conner that they were moving his wife into a private room.

“But shouldn’t she be in the ICU?” Conner said.

“We need to clear the ER and reserve the ICU for incoming Covid patients,” said one of the older nurses. “Your wife is breathing normally, her blood pressure is good, pulse is strong. The ICU is full of very contagious and sick patients. Your wife is better off in a private room. That way you can sit with her. Give her a little more time to wake up: it hasn’t been that long.”

Thirty minutes later, Zoe’s eyes still closed, Conner sat quietly next to his wife’s bed. Seeing no change and wanting to speak to a doctor, he let Sean in to take a turn sitting with his wife. When Sean entered the room and saw all the equipment attached to his best friend, tears pooled in his eyes. Sitting in the chair next to her bed, he talked to her, hoping somehow she could hear him. After a few minutes, Zoe muttered something unintelligible. Sean smiled and ran out into the hallway to get a doctor.

Outside the ER main entrance, a small crowd comprised of friends and relatives of patients, police, EMTs and a few members of the press gathered. Daryl Williams stood off to the side on the phone next to his partner as he briefed their captain on the new developments in the Strangler case. When he hung up, he stared at his partner.

“What?” said Heather Kim looking at the strange expression on his face.