Royal Pains : Sick Rich (9781101559536) by D. P. Lyle Page A

echocardiogram. Felicia then climbed on the treadmill belt and we began the exercise portion of the test. While she walked, I asked more questions.
    â€œThese dizzy spells? Did they only happen while you were having the headaches?”
    â€œYes.” She hesitated for a beat. “Actually the dizziness seems to happen only when the pain is in my jaw and tongue.”
    â€œI thought those symptoms were new. Just today.”
    â€œMaybe a few times in the last week. But never before that.”
    The treadmill kicked up its speed and elevation as she entered the second stage of the Bruce Protocol.
    â€œHow long do I have to do this?” Felicia asked.
    â€œUntil we get your heart rate up to about one-seventy or until you can’t do any more, whichever comes first.”
    â€œI’d bet on the latter.”
    She was wrong. She got her heart rate up to one-eighty before I ended the test. Divya completed the postexercise echocardiogram. I then loaded the images onto my laptop and angled the screen slightly toward Felicia so she could see the images.
    â€œThese are ultrasound movies of your heart,” I said.
    â€œThat’s it moving there?”
    â€œSure is.”
    â€œFascinating. What do you see?”
    â€œA completely normal heart.”
    â€œReally?”
    â€œScout’s honor.”
    â€œThank goodness.”
    â€œNow that we know it’s not your heart, you can relax a bit while we finish what we need to do.”
    â€œSo you still don’t know what it is?”
    â€œPatience.” I smiled. “We now know what it isn’t and that’s important. It isn’t your heart, so whatever it is, it’ll be less sinister than that.”
    â€œSinister?”
    â€œMaybe not the best word. Let’s say less threatening.”
    She nodded. “That’s comforting.”
    â€œI think it might be a problem with one of the nerves that come from the base of your brain. But like I told you earlier, let’s not get too far down that road until we know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
    â€œWhat’s next? A surgeon to open my head and look around?”
    I laughed. “I don’t think we have to go quite that far. I’m going to arrange a brain MRI for you over at Hamptons Heritage. Later today. While you’re there they’ll place a Holter monitor on you. It’s a device that records all your heartbeats for twenty-four hours.”
    â€œI thought you said my heart was normal.”
    â€œIt is. But if what I suspect is indeed the problem, slow heart rates and dizziness, even passing out, can be part of it.”
    â€œYou guys are just full of good news, aren’t you?”
    I smiled. “We try.”
    It’s not every day that you get a call from the medical examiner. Actually the call didn’t come from him. It was from Sergeant McCutcheon. But the medical examiner was sitting right there in McCutcheon’s office. McCutcheon wondered if I was available to drop by for a chat. When I asked what it was about he said they would tell me when I got there.
    If a call like that doesn’t tweak your curiosity you must be in a coma.
    I told him I’d be right over.
    We still had two follow-up visits scheduled, so Divya dropped me by Shadow Pond to pick up my trusty Saab and she took the HankMed van. We arranged to meet over at the high school after we were finished.
    When I entered McCutcheon’s office I was greeted by two somber faces. McCutcheon and Suffolk County’s medical examiner, Dr. James Hawkins. I had met Hawkins a few months earlier during the StellarCare/Julian Morelli investigation.
    Hawkins stood and shook my hand. “Thanks for coming over.”
    â€œGood to see you again.”
    â€œHave a seat,” McCutcheon said from behind his desk.
    Curiosity faded to dread as I sat in one of the two chairs that faced his desk. Hawkins took the other.
    â€œWhat’s this