“We don’t know,” said the physician. “From the ER reports I received, it seems the encapsulation of the drugs in her system was only partly successful because her liver enzymes were somewhat elevated. We’ve been monitoring that closely.”

“When will she regain consciousness?” said Conner.

“It’s unpredictable,” said the doctor. “All of her vitals are good. She could wake up in thirty seconds or it could be longer.”

“She will wake up, right?” said Conner, alarm in his voice.

“I’ll check back in later today,” said the doctor. “She’s in otherwise good health. Hang in there. This is a time game.”

An hour later, Sean managed to sneak by security and into Zoe’s room and asked Conner the same questions. “She’ll wake up, won’t she?”

“They’re not saying,” Conner replied. “I believe she will. Zoe’s one of the strongest people I know.”

Sean smiled weakly and looked over at his friend motionless in the bed. “She’s a force of nature.” Taking her hand, Sean talked softly, encouraging Zoe to wake up.

After a brief visit, Sean left for work and by 9pm, with no discernible change in Zoe’s condition, one of the nurses suggested Conner go home and get some sleep. “You’re no good to her if you get sick,” said the kindly nurse. “When she wakes up she’s going to need a lot of support. Go home and get some rest. We’ll call if there’s any change.”

Conner nodded. He had much to do. The two detectives had already grilled him on his whereabouts on the afternoon Zoe took the overdose of pills. They asked him several times why he had left her alone on Monday when she had been violently attacked only a few days before.

“Look, detective,” Conner had replied, indignant, “I’m in the middle of a huge FBI undercover operation that’s coming to a head. When my wife was attacked, I asked for some time off. Getting that time required a lot of extra work on the part of my team so my cover wasn’t blown. I had to go into the office for fifteen minutes and sign-off on something.”

“But then you went out shopping,” said Heather studying him.

“We had no food in the house,” said Conner. “I didn’t realize how depressed my wife was. If I had, I wouldn’t have left her. I only saw the email she sent to me that day a few minutes ago.”

“What email?” asked Daryl.

Conner pulled out his iPhone and opened his Gmail account. “She sent this after I left for my office on Monday. I didn’t see it until today. I usually check my personal Gmail more frequently but with everything that was going on I didn’t look until this morning.” He handed his phone to Daryl.