Dead Presidents (An Aria Raymond Thriller Book 3) by Thomas Ransom (that summer book txt) 📕

her phone. It was Sanjay. For the first time since she had known him, she felt irritated with him, “What?!” she said as she answered the phone. His reply evaporated all the irritation at once. “Shit!” she replied and hesitated, looking at Mark, who was already looking at her with interest, “I… I am a little busy…” she sighed, “Okay. No, no! I am coming in a few minutes. See you there.”

“What happened?” asked Mark.

“It’s Wayne.”

“Oh no! I am sorry,” Mark replied sympathetically.

“No, no, no. He is fine! He is fine,” she smiled. “He has gotten much better and actually asked the doctor to get in touch with Sanjay. He wants to talk about something. Finally, things are going our way. I know he has the key. I just know it. It will help us in taking all of those evil people down for good.”

“Oh… I thought, he wasn’t…”

“I know!” she hastily went to the closet to get her coat, “I am really sorry, babe. I have to go with Sanjay. He wants me to come along so we can quickly come up with a plan. This thing has dragged on for too long now.”

“Of course, I understand. Do you have to rush out right this minute? You haven’t even had anything to eat yet. Besides, you know that dress looks too fancy to wear to the hospital.”

Diaz hesitated and looked at her dress, “I guess I should change first before heading out, and I will eat when I come back.”

She raced into her room and quickly changed into a causal outfit. Diaz came out of the room and grabbed her coat. Mark was on call and set aside his phone the minute he saw Diaz, “Babe, just eat something. A few bites… here…” he took out a cream cheese wonton and offered it to her, “This was always your favorite when we had Chinese food.”

“I can’t Mark,” Diaz put on her shoes and grabbed her keys, “I honestly have to run. Sanjay is waiting for me.”

“Just one…” Mark insisted.

Diaz smiled and shook her head, “You are impossible.”

“I worry about you,” he grabbed her close and started kissing her. Diaz laughed, trying to push him away gently. “I am late…”

“They can wait for a while,” he murmured.

Diaz sighed and closed her eyes, but she pushed him away apologetically, “I promise I will be back soon. I really have to go. Please be here when I get back, Okay?” She grabbed the wonton and waved at him as she raced out of the apartment. It took her a while to find a parking spot at the hospital and she jogged toward the entrance and saw Sanjay racing toward the door from the opposite direction.

“Sorry!” he huffed, “I got held up… there was an accident nearby … and they had stopped traffic.” He said as he tried to catch his breath.

“Don’t worry... I thought I was running late,” Diaz replied, wiping the sweat from her forehead.

“Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, let’s go. Hopefully, we will finally get some answers,” she smiled.

They made their way inside toward the reception where Sanjay told them his name and asked for Wayne’s room number. The receptionist looked at him and spoke on the phone for a few minutes.

“The doctor is coming to talk to you. He asked for you to wait here. Please have a seat.”

Sanjay took a seat in the waiting area, but Diaz was too excited to sit. She paced the floor as they waited for the doctor, “What’s taking so long? Can’t they just give us the room number. They asked you to come to the hospital to talk to him, right?” she looked impatiently around.

“He probably wants to brief us about his condition first and tell us not to overwhelm him … you know the usual… he will be out soon. Oh! There he is.” he stood up as he noticed the doctor walking toward him.

“Can we go see him now?” Diaz immediately asked, even before the doctor said anything. The doctor took a deep sigh, looking grim.

“What happened? What is it?” Sanjay asked.

“I have some unfortunate news, I’m afraid,” the doctor looked at Sanjay, “Wayne suffered a cardiac arrest minutes ago and he is no longer with us. I am so sorry.”

“What do you mean?!” Diaz stammered. “He was fine. He was getting better, right? You told Sanjay he was better now and wanted to talk to him. What the hell happened?!”

The doctor nodded, “I know. His vitals had improved, and his paranoia was disappearing. We tried to save him but unfortunately…”

“Of course, you did your best, doctor,” Sanjay replied. “I just…Is this normal? How did he suddenly …”

“It is not common, but not unusual either. Suffering through a traumatic injury like that can cause other complications unexpectedly…”

Diaz interrupted, “Are you sure about that? Maybe someone did something…”

“Are you saying our staff didn’t take good care of him?”

Diaz stammered, “No. No! I didn’t mean… I just… I didn’t mean it like that…”

“We are sorry, doctor. We are just shocked at his sudden death… we honestly thought he was out of danger and were expecting to talk to him. This… this never crossed our minds.”

The doctor nodded, “It is understandable. I get it. Believe it or not, we do get that a lot here. We try our best. Complications like this are rare but prove fatal. I am sorry for your loss.”

“Thank you, doctor.”

Diaz sat on an empty chair and buried her head in her hands. Sanjay sat next to her, lost in his own thoughts. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, not knowing what to say. They were hoping to finally get some answers but instead received tragic news.

“What. The. Hell!” Diaz finally said out loud. “Every time we come close to