Ashley continued walking until he reached a point a few steps away from the coffee table. There he stopped and remained motionless while staring out at the balcony. Carol turned on more lights to fill the room with illumination, then went to Ashley to see if she could get him to sit down.
Daniel dumped the contents of the medical pouch on one of the small matching console tables in the foyer. He fumbled, trying to tear open a syringe packet, while Stephanie removed the cap covering the rubber stopper on the parenteral medication vial.
“How are you going to do this if he resists?” Stephanie whispered.
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Daniel admitted. “Hopefully, Dr. Nawaz and Dr. Newhouse will be here to lend a hand.” He had to use his teeth on the cellophane.
“The senator is grimacing like he did when he smelled the pig excrement,” Carol called from the other room.
“Try to get him to sit down,” Daniel yelled back. He finally got the syringe out of its packaging and threw the wrapper to the side.
“I already tried,” Carol said. “He refuses.”
A loud crash of furniture in the other room snapped Daniel and Stephanie’s heads around. Carol was picking herself up from the floor after having been shoved into one of the end tables, knocking its lamp over. The ceramic lamp had shattered into a thousand pieces. Ashley was tearing off his clothes and throwing them around the room.
“Oh God!” Daniel cried. “The senator is going off the deep end.” Daniel grabbed one of the alcohol pledgets and tore it open, but the moment he got the pledget itself out, he dropped it. He grabbed another.
“Can I help?” Stephanie asked.
“I’m all thumbs,” Daniel admitted. He got another pledget out and swabbed the rubber stopper of the medication vial. But before he could insert the needle, Ashley let out a shriek. In a panic, Daniel thrust the vial and the syringe into Stephanie’s hands before dashing into the room to see what was happening. Carol was standing behind one of the couches with her hands clasped alongside her face. Ashley was still in the same place but naked save for calf-length black socks. He was slightly hunched over and staring at his hands, which he had cupped close to his face.
“What’s the trouble?” Daniel cried, as he came around to look at Ashley.
“My palms are bleeding,” Ashley said with horror. He was shaking. Slowly, he lowered his trembling hands palm-up, spreading his fingers widely.
Daniel looked at Ashley’s hands and back up into his face. “Your hands are fine, Senator. You have to calm yourself. Everything is going to be all right. Why don’t you sit down? We have some medicine for you, which will make you feel relaxed.”
“I am sorry for you that you cannot see the wounds on my hands,” Ashley snapped. “Perhaps you can see them on my feet.”
Daniel looked down and then back up at Ashley. “You’re wearing socks, but your feet look fine. Let’s sit you down on the couch.” Daniel reached out to take Ashley’s arm, but before he could, Ashley slapped his hands against Daniel’s chest and viciously shoved him away. Completely caught off guard, Daniel stumbled into the coffee table, falling over backward onto it and smashing the flower vase in the process. Water and cut flowers splayed out in an arc on the thick carpet. Daniel rolled off the table face-first, falling between it and one of the couches. Carol screamed.
Mindless of the havoc he’d caused, Ashley skirted around the other side of the coffee table and ran toward the balcony. He stopped abruptly just over the threshold and lifted his hands horizontally with his palms facing forward. The night breeze off the ocean fluttered his disheveled hair.
“Good grief! He’s out on the balcony!” Stephanie yelled. She was clutching the syringe, alcohol pledget, and vial to her chest.
Wincing from the pain in his back from the collision with the flower vase, Daniel struggled to his feet. He ran out onto the balcony, skirting Ashley, to put himself between Ashley and the balustrade.
“Senator!” Daniel yelled, holding up his hands. “Get back in the room!”
Ashley did not move. His eyes were closed, and a look of serenity had replaced the earlier horror.
Daniel snapped his fingers to get Stephanie’s attention. She had stopped just inside the room with a look of dismay on her face. “Is the syringe filled?” he asked, without taking his eyes off Ashley.
“No!”
“Fill it fast!”
“How much?”
“Two cc’s. Quick!”
Stephanie drew up the fluid, pocketed the vial, and snapped the syringe with the nail of her index finger to get rid of any bubbles. She dashed out onto the balcony and handed the syringe to Daniel. She looked into Ashley’s placid face. The man was like a statue. He didn’t move. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.
“It’s like he is frozen,” Stephanie said.
“I don’t know whether to try to give this IV or just settle for IM,” Daniel debated. He took a step forward, still not having decided what he was going to do, when Ashley’s eyes popped open. Without the slightest warning, Ashley bolted forward. Daniel reacted by throwing his arms around Ashley’s chest while trying to brace himself against the floor tiles. But it was like trying to hold back a charging bull. Daniel’s shoes slid easily across the ceramic floor, and when the two men collided with the balustrade, Ashley’s momentum caused them to flip over the top and out into the night.
Stephanie screamed “No!” as she raced to the railing and looked down. To her utter horror, Ashley and Daniel were locked in a slow-motion, tumbling embrace, like two lovers falling into the abyss. In the next instant, Stephanie averted her gaze, and with a sick feeling, she slumped down with her back against the cold stone balustrade.
epilogue
6:15 A.M., Monday, March 25, 2002
The faint brightening of the sky, which had been almost imperceptible a half hour earlier, was now definite. The stars had faded, and in their place was a soft, rosy glow heralding the imminent sunrise. The night breeze had quieted. Incessant chatter of songbirds could now be heard, even thirty-two stories up from the ground.
Stephanie and Carol were sitting on opposite couches in the main room of a suite similar in size but not quite as luxurious as the Poseidon Suite. They had been sitting there for hours without moving or speaking, in near catatonia, after having been emotionally traumatized by Ashley and Daniel’s shocking somersault over the balustrade. Carol had been the first to react after the event. She’d dashed for the phone and blurted to the operator that two people had fallen from the Poseidon Suite balcony.
Carol’s panicked voice had mobilized Stephanie to clamber to her feet. She avoided looking over the railing again but rather rushed for the door and ran headlong down the corridor. As she waited breathlessly at the elevator, Carol had joined her. On the elevator, neither spoke, but they stared at each other in total disbelief of what they had witnessed. Both nursed a wisp of hope for a miracle. It had all happened so quickly that there was a sense of unreality.
The two women descended to the level of what was called the Dig, requiring them to run past huge illuminated aquariums filled with all manner of sea creatures, as well as fanciful ruins of the mythical city of Atlantis, in order to reach the ground level in front of the hotel complex. They both guessed that there was a shorter route, but this was the only way Carol knew to get there, and time was of the essence.
On emerging into the night, they veered left, skirting the Royal Baths Pool, illuminated with its underwater lights. Reaching a narrower walkway that wasn’t as well lighted, they had to slow. They crossed a bridge over the Stingray Lagoon to arrive at the darkened, carefully landscaped area at the foot of the Royal Towers’ west wing. Both women were winded.