Chapter
3
Awhile
later, a kind-looking, middle-aged doctor came into the room. “Are you all with Nick Carter?” he
asked. We all nodded. “Ok, my name’s Dr. Cantrell, and I’ve been
taking care of Nick ever since he was brought here.” One by one, we all briefly introduced
ourselves to the doctor. Then he cleared
his throat and started to speak. “Well,
the good news is that Nick is still alive.
Unfortunately, when he fell, he landed on his back, and he hit his head
as well. Because of this, we’re very
concerned about spinal cord damage and also brain damage. As of now, Nick is in a coma because of his
head injury.”
I
looked at the other guys. They all
looked shocked and very upset, as did Heidi.
I was in a state of shock myself, for as a med student, I understood how
serious Nick’s condition was. With a
head injury, there was no guarantee that Nick would ever even wake up from his
coma. Even if he did, I knew he could
have permanent brain damage and might never walk again. But I didn’t say anything. I knew I couldn’t tell the guys that. Right now, they needed to be hopeful that
Nick would eventually be okay.
“When
can we see him?” Brian asked tearfully.
I could tell he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. I was doing the same thing too.
“Right
now, if you want,” Dr. Cantrell replied.
“We have him moved into a private room in the Neuro ICU, which is where
we take patients with possible head injuries. Only two of you can go in at a
time, but I’ll take all of you upstairs to a private waiting room near Nick’s
room. We have him in a special,
high-security room to protect him against any fans that might get in, although
we’re working on getting extra security to make sure that no fans get in to
bother you all anyway. It seems like a
crowd is already forming outside.”
“Thanks,”
AJ said, sounding relieved. I suddenly
felt like an imposer, for I was a fan myself.
I wondered if it was time Heidi and I leave.
I
turned to Brian, since he was next to me, and whispered, “Do you think Heidi
and I should leave now?”
“No,
no,” he said. “You don’t have to
leave. Only if you want to.”
“Well,
if you don’t mind us being here, then I don’t mind staying a little
longer. I kind of want to stick around
to see how Nick’s doing,” I said.
He
nodded. “That’s what I figured,” he
replied. “You’re no bother to me at
all. I’d love to have you two stay.”
Heidi
overheard this. “Thank you, Brian,” she
said sincerely, offering him a reassuring smile.
“You’re
welcome,” he said. “I know you guys must
be concerned about him too. I’m sure all
the other fans are too, but you guys are different. I know you won’t be any trouble at all.”
I
smiled. I knew that I was too old to be
considered a teenybopper anymore, but I was glad that Brian didn’t think of me
as just another nosy fan. I still felt
like I didn’t really belong there, but I really did want to stay, for I knew I
couldn’t just leave knowing how badly Nick was hurt. I wanted to be there for the rest of the
guys too, to help comfort them, if I could.
I knew they brought me comfort by just being there, and I hoped I could
help do the same for them.
“Are
you ready to go up now?” Dr. Cantrell asked, interrupting my thoughts. We all nodded and stood up. He led us up to the Neuro ICU, which was on
the third floor. We walked to the end of
the hallway and into a small waiting room, nearly identical to the one we had
came from. “Ok, who’s going in to see
him first?” Dr. Cantrell asked.
We
all looked at each other. I nudged Brian. “You should go first,” I said.
“Ok,”
he said hesitantly. “Who’s going with
me?”
“I
will,” Kevin said, standing up.
Dr.
Cantrell led the two of them out of the room, closing the door behind him. The remaining four of us just looked at each
other, not knowing what to say. Finally,
AJ stood up and turned on the TV.
I
felt sick to my stomach when I saw that the local news was on. They were talking about Nick’s accident. As the reporter told what had happened, the
horrible scene of it replayed through my mind.
As they showed an old picture of Nick on the screen, tears came to my
eyes, and I began to cry softly.
Heidi,
who was sitting beside me, reached out and wrapped her arms around me. I had only known her in person for a day, but
her hug brought me much needed comfort.
I wiped my eyes and regained my composure, pushing the horrible images
of Nick lying there out of my mind.
A
few minutes later, Brian and Kevin returned, followed by two police
officers.
“Hey,
guys,” Kevin said. “The police want to
ask us all some questions.”
“Us
too?” Heidi asked, motioning to herself and me.
“Yes,
miss,” one policeman replied. “My name
is Officer Kessler, and this is Officer James.”
He motioned to the other cop.
“Can I get your names please?”
We
all gave them our names and some other information. Then Officer Kessler turned to Heidi and
I. “We understand the two of you were
sitting near where Mr. Carter fell. Is
that correct?”
“Yes,
sir,” I replied. “Nick fell just a few
feet away from us.”
“Did
you see him fall?” he asked.
“Well,
kind of,” I said. “I wasn’t actually
watching him right before it happened, but I heard him scream, and when I
looked up, he was falling.”
“And
then you did CPR on him, right, Miss Lewis?” Kessler asked.
“Yes,”
I replied. “He wasn’t breathing, and he
had no pulse.”
Kessler
nodded. Then he turned to the
guys. “Do any of you know what might
have caused the cord of the harness to break?”
They
all shook their heads. “The harnesses
are always thoroughly checked before the show,” Howie explained.
“Do
you a man by the name of Paul Davis?” James asked.
“Yeah,
he’s one of our equipment inspectors. I think he’s in charge of Nick’s stuff,”
Kevin said. “Why? Is this all his fault? Did he screw up?”
“No,
he was found dead tonight, shortly after the arena was cleared,” James said.
“What?!”
they all cried.
“What
happened to him?” AJ asked.
“We
believe he was murdered,” Kessler said.
“He was stabbed several times in his back and side. We haven’t found a murder weapon, but the
stabs looked like knife stabs.”
“Oh
my God,” I whispered, a chill running through my body.
“Why
would someone want to kill him?” Howie asked.
“I’m
not sure whoever murdered him really cared about him. I don’t want to alarm you all, but I think
you need to know the truth. You said
Davis was the one who was in charge of inspecting Nick’s equipment, right?”
Kessler asked. They all nodded solemnly. “Well, when we checked out the cord that had
been attached to the harness, we saw that it had not simply come detached from
the harness. The whole cord had ripped
in two. It looks like someone had cut
the cord, probably only halfway across, knowing that it would tear all the way
off once Nick was hanging from it. The
murderer most likely only killed Davis so he could cut the cord.”
Our
mouths all dropped open. “You mean
someone was trying to kill Nick?!” I asked, horrified.
“We
can’t be positive, but it makes sense to us,” James says. “That rope was cut by someone, and then
Nick’s equipment inspector was found murdered.
It all adds up to us.”
“Do
you have any idea who could have done this?” AJ asked, his voice reflecting his
terror.
Kessler
and James exchanged glances and slowly shook their heads. “We questioned the other backstage workers,
and none of them remember seeing anyone.
But don’t worry, eventually, we’ll get some more clues to what happened,
and then we can get some suspects.”
“Are
we going public with this?” Kevin asked.
“It’s
up to you. You are entitled to your
privacy, but I think it would be a good idea to put this on the news. Maybe someone saw something that might give
us a lead,” said James.
“Ok,”
Kevin said slowly. “As long as we don’t
have to be interviewed or anything.”
“Of
course not,” Kessler said quickly. “We
just want to get some answers so we can get this guy behind bars as soon as
possible.”
“In
the meantime, we want all of you to be very careful. There’s a lot of security here at the
hospital, but be careful anyway. It
would be best if you stay here for as much of the time as possible. But if you do leave, don’t go anywhere
without security,” James said seriously.
“Why?”
AJ asked nervously.
“Well,
if someone was trying to kill Nick, then he might be after the rest of you
too,” James said softly.
Their
eyes widened again. I began to tremble
slightly with fear. Someone could be
after the guys, and there I was, right there with them.
***
Late
that night, I was awoken by the shrill ringing of my cell phone. I looked around, disoriented, and realized I
had fallen asleep on one of the couches.
Brian was curled up next to me, also sound asleep. Howie and AJ were sleeping on the other
couch. Heidi and Kevin weren’t in the
room. I quickly grabbed my cell phone
out of my purse and pushed ‘talk’.
“Hello?”
I said softly, walking out into the hall so I wouldn’t wake up the guys.
“Jules?”
I recognize Josh’s voice on the phone.
“Josh!”
I cried, happy to hear his voice. With
all that had happened, I had nearly forgotten about him. I suddenly realized I hadn’t called him to
tell him what had happened and where I was.
I knew he must have been worried about me, and I felt guilty for not
calling.
“Baby,
are you okay? I saw the news. Where are you?” he asked, his voice full of
panic.
“Hun,
it’s okay,” I assured him. “I’m so sorry
I didn’t call you. I’m at the hospital
right now, and I’ve been here all night.”
“You
are?” he asked. “What are you doing
there?”
“Well,
you’re not going to believe this, but I’m here with the Backstreet Boys,” I
said, chuckling slightly.
“Really? No way!”
“Yes
way! You heard what happened to Nick
right?”
“Yeah,
I was watching the news. You were really
brave,” he said.
“Huh?”
I asked, confused.
“They
were talking about how you were the first one there, and that you gave him
CPR,” Josh said.
“Whoa,
I didn’t know all that made it on the news!” I exclaimed. “And I wasn’t brave at all. I was terrified. I just did what I had to do.”
“Well,
baby, you were great. You helped save
his life,” Josh said.
“Well,
he’s alive now, but I don’t know. I
haven’t gotten to see him yet, but I know he’s in pretty bad shape,” I said
sadly.
“I’m
sorry, sweetheart,” Josh said sincerely.
“But tell me, how did you happen to meet the other guys?”
“Well,
Howie came over to me after they took Nick to the hospital and thanked me for
what I did for Nick, and then he asked me if I wanted to come with them to the
hospital, so of course I said yes, and I brought Heidi with me. They’ve let us stay the whole night with
them,” I explained.
“How
long are you going to stay?” he asked.
“Do you want me to come be with you?”
“No,”
I replied. “You get some sleep. I might be here awhile longer. I just want to see Nick before I come back.”
“Ok,”
he said reluctantly. “Is Heidi bringing
you back?”
“Yeah,”
I said. Suddenly, I realized we had
ridden over on the tour bus. I didn’t
even know if it was still there. I
hadn’t seen the driver of it all night.
I didn’t want to make Josh drive all the way to the hospital in the
middle of the night though. He sounded
exhausted. I figured Heidi and I could
hail a taxi to take us back to the arena to get her car if we needed to.
“Ok,”
Josh said, yawning over the phone.
“Baby,
you need to go to bed right now,” I said.
“I’m getting off now. Get some
sleep.”
“Ok,
honey,” he said. “If you need me, just
call. You have that piece of paper with
the number of our hotel room written on it, right?”
“Yup,
it’s in my purse,” I said. “Goodnight,
baby. I love you.”
“I
love you too, sweetie,” Josh said.
“Goodnight.” I smiled and hit
‘end’ on the phone. Then I headed back
into the waiting room and sat on the couch next to a sleeping Brian, putting my
phone back in my purse. Exhausted, I lay
my head on the arm on the couch, and before I knew it, I had dozed off.
***
