Texas Tango: A Flint Rock Novel by Glenn Smith Read Free Book Online

she did not know anything.   Ava tried to awaken Murphy, but he remained asleep.   Then she saw the pain killer tablets.   The hospital's label said they contained propoxyphene, a pain management opiate banned in Britain and the United States.
     
    Ava asked the nurse what person had administered the drip in Murphy's arm.   It was still full, so it had not been going for more than ten or twenty minutes.   Ava disconnected it, asked for a slurry of activated charcoal which the nurse brought quickly.   She told Ava that the male nurse who was responsible for medicating Murphy had apparently left the hospital.  
     
    Working together Ava and the nurse got Murphy awake enough to swallow the charcoal in solution.   Ava asked the nurse if she knew how to test the drip solution to see if it contained propoxyphene.   She did and walked the solution to her work station where she prepared a slide.
     
    Ava called the hospital's ambulance section on the hospital phone.   She ordered a vehicle, saying that she needed to take a patient to another Naples hospital because it had the needed equipment and San Leonardo did not.   The nurse came back and reported that the solution she tested contained more than enough propoxyphene to put Murphy to sleep permanently within another half hour.   Ava got Murphy awake again and induced vomiting.   Then she had him drink another dose of activated charcoal water.
     
    Two transport guys showed up, loaded Murphy onto a gurney, flirted with Dr. Ava and the nurse as they rolled him into the ambulance.   The driver said it was his and his helper's guaranteed break time.   He wondered if Ava or the nurse wanted coffee.   They both said no thanks.   The driver shrugged and walked with his companion toward the hospital cafeteria.   As they disappeared, the nurse returned to her duties.  
     
    Ava slipped into the driver's seat, eased out to Europe Street and merged into the traffic flow.   Fifteen minutes later a guard opened heavy iron gates, watched her back the ambulance down a curved driveway and park it under the mansion's portico.   From there it was not visible to the street.   Gina Lezioni directed the guard and another employee to bring Murphy into the library.
     
    Gina and Ava hugged, spent the next two hours keeping Murphy awake with questions.   In between his answers, Ava explained her own predicament.
     
    Gina went to the kitchen to give her cook a menu for dinner.   Ava called Mary, told her where she was, briefly described what had happened, asked Mary to intercept Flint upon his arrival and fill him in.
     
    Mary was finishing a cup of tea in the Bristol's coffee shop when a young man handed her a note from the front desk.   "Mr. Rock has arrived," it read.   She signed her check and walked up to the tall stranger waiting at check in.   Ava had described his hand made, snip toed cowboy boots and his near military haircut.   She had not mentioned his olive drab blazer, tailor made in Scotland, or the narrow brimmed Stetson with an outback, pinch-front crease in the crown.
     
    "Flint Rock?" Mary asked knowing it had to be.
     
    "Yes?"
     
    Mary introduced herself, gave him Ava's message.   Half an hour later, he had showered and changed, spoken with Ava, and he and Mary were in a taxi on the way to Gina's house.
     
    Flint and Mary talked.   Mary described the virtues of her Sabreliner.   Flint had spent three months piloting a T-39 military version of it in the early 1980s.   He had flown a few Navy admirals and Marine Corps generals here and there till he was reassigned to top gun school and sea duty.  
     
    Flint and Mary were still discussing airplanes when the guard took them through the iron gate into the house.   Ava gave him a hug and said, "Flint, Mary, this is Fred Gambini.   And this is Gina Lezioni."   Each person responded appropriately, then Ava took Flint into the library to meet Bill Murphy.
     
    Simple arithmetic said Gina Lezioni had to