Dead Frenzy by Victoria Houston Read Free Book Online Page B

the four Lundberg kids, she was tall, slightly overweight, and quite a pretty brunette with soft, round features and shy brown eyes. He knew from the years of annual school checkups that she had a voice that matched her eyes: soft and pleasant.
    Jessie was one of Loon Lake’s stars. Now in her early thirties, she had logged ten years as a television news producer in Australia and on the East Coast, only recently returning to her hometown to open a small ad agency producing television commercials.
    All of Loon Lake had speculated on the reasons for her return. Erin was convinced she was recovering from a broken heart. Mallory, who had been a year ahead of Jessie in school, thought otherwise. Jessie was so soft-spoken and gentle, it was Mallory’s guess that she lost out to the hard chargers in her field. Whatever the reason, her little agency had already snagged the account of the local hospital and seemed to be doing nicely. At least, that’s what Osborne had heard from her father over coffee at McDonald’s.
    Jessie must have seen the look of astonishment on Osborne’s face because she stood up and stepped back to stand beside him while her two colleagues continued hooking up an IV and preparing to roll the young woman onto a stretcher.
    “Tell me when you need help, guys,” she said, then turned to Osborne. “Surprised to see me, Dr. Osborne?” she said. “I’ve been training as an EMT this past year, taking classes at Nicolet College over in Rhinelander. I got certified a couple months ago, now I’m training for the next level.”
    “Wow,” said Osborne. “After a long day in the office?”
    “Well … I don’t have a personal life,” she grinned a little sheepishly. “And I’ve been thinking about making a career change—maybe going back to school in medicine, so I thought this would be a good test.”
    “You don’t want to give dentistry a shot?” he kidded.
    She gave him a quick smile and shook her head. “How come
you ‘re
out here tonight?”
    “Chief Ferris and I were on our way to do a little fishing when we saw something was wrong—”
    “Oh?” Jessie glanced over at Lew, then back at Osborne. A funny look in her eye triggered a feeling of mild embarrassment, which Osborne did his best to shake off. But Jessie’s amusement faded fast. “Whatever—that girl is lucky you two came by. Excuse me—”
    At a wave from Chris, Jessie stepped forward to carry the IV and supplies as the other two lifted the stretcher. As another siren wailed in the distance, Lew and Osborne followed the EMTs as they carried the stretcher to the ambulance.
    “Chris, is she in good enough shape for you to wait until my deputy gets here? He’s about thirty seconds away,” said Lew.
    “Sure,” said Chris, “she’s stable. We can wait a few minutes, Chief.” He appeared to be in charge of the operation.
    “Chris?” Jessie called out from inside the ambulance as they eased the stretcher into place. “Do you know Dr. Osborne? He’s a dentist in Loon Lake, friend of my dad’s.”
    “Retired,” added Osborne, shaking Chris’s hand.
    Jessie backed out of the ambulance and looked at her male colleague. “This looks like another overdose to me, Chris. What do you think?”
    “What do you mean
another
?” said Lew with an edge in her voice.
    Stripping off his disposable rubber gloves, Chris paused before answering. “I’m just a paramedic, Chief, but I think you should know that we got a call on another young kid, a boy, about two hours ago. Similar symptoms—high body temp, seriously dehydrated. He wasn’t convulsing but he’d passed out. My guess is Ecstasy.
    “Picked that one up down near Elcho. Bunch of kids held a rave back in on some farmland over off Highway 55 this weekend. I heard they had ten thousand people show up.”
    “Ten
thousand
?” Osborne gasped. “Where do they come from?”
    “Everywhere,” said Jessie. “Wausau, Madison, Milwaukee. And they party all day and all night.