On Saturday, September 22, 2018, a man woke up with the early morning sunlight, and turned to kiss his lover who was sleeping soundly in the bed beside him. The man got out of bed and hobbled to the bathroom to wash up for the day. He went to the kitchen and prepared the couple’s usual breakfast: toasted croissants with cream cheese and red caviar. He prepared their pour over coffee, and once the table was set he called to his significant other to come eat.

The two chatted, laughed, and talked about their plans for the day. This was how their mornings usually went; they would have breakfast then go about their business. Except today, was not like most days. Today the couple would be leaving for Iceland. Their condo was on the market and soon it would be sold. An offer was accepted—over asking. The two had both retired from their respective lines of work, had a substantial savings squirreled away with even more in foreign bank accounts, and they would finally be able to live the idyllic, beautiful life they always wanted. They had booked a flight for that day and had a cab scheduled to pick them up at noon. In just a few hours, their new life would begin in Keflavik, Iceland.

They were excited, it had been a rough year, but finally the two could just get away from it all, and enjoy each other and enjoy life.

Or so…they thought.

This episode contains references to illicit drug use, torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

This episode contains references to substance use and violence. Listener discretion advised. If you or someone you know is in danger, and you are in the United States, call 9-1-1 or the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.

If you’ve been following this season of the Vaso & Vibes: A Nursing Thriller podcast, you’ll know that this season is titled What’s Happening at Hollow Chase, and rightfully so. We’ve seen mummy-snorting drug dealers and an unlicensed psychiatrist performing ritualistic torture sessions. We’ve seen a wanna-be cult form and wilt away. We’ve seen connections made and lives lost. And we learned a lot about amputations without anesthesia, septic shock, and the god-awful ways cocaine can destroy an unsuspecting human body.

And based on your feedback, you’ve loved the medical deep-dives and my nursing perspective on what might be hiding beneath the surface.

You’ll be delighted to know, this episode—and next week’s—there will definitely be a peculiar medical mystery for use to unravel. Because, though this season may be winding down, the medical thrillers and true crime-adjacent drama is just getting started.

This episode contains references to illicit drug use, torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

Fictional crime stories. Real nursing science. Every faux medical thriller case reads like a true crime and is examined through a clinical lens. Love nursing drama or clinical lore? Know someone who can’t watch a crime show without yelling, “That’s not how that works!” Send them Vaso & Vibes. Every episode is a medical thriller unpacked through real nursing and critical care science.

On the evening of June 29, 2018, a gentleman named Keith was sitting in his basement, playing guitar and just…hanging out with his wife and a few of their friends. They were laughing, singing their favorite songs, and you know, just enjoying the start to what they anticipated would be a fun and low-key weekend. It was Friday, and none of them had to work until Monday.

Then suddenly, something that, to this point, had felt like no big deal—changed. Something shifted.

Keith felt his heart racing.

His skin felt cold and clammy, and the general feeling of malaise he had been feeling seemed to...just…hit him all at once.

This episode contains references to illicit drug use, torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

But they’re upstairs cleaning the Torture Boutique, and the new girl stops wiping the floor, looks up at Jailbird, and goes:

“Have you ever thought about…leaving?”

Now Jailbird pauses, sighs, then looks away, toward the window.

“You mean…stealing away.”

She pauses again, then continues.

“As in, escaping. But keep your mouth shut. The walls have ears.”

And Jailbird was right. The walls did, in fact, have ears.

And on that Saturday, August 11, 2018, when Jailbird stepped onto the back patio for a quick carrot smoke-break, she found herself in yet another precarious situation.

As if a stroke of Deja Vu’s magic wand came down upon her, yet another body mysteriously falls from the sky and onto the back patio.

Another bloody and cracked skull belonging to another young woman who would never get justice.

The new girl.

This episode contains references to illicit drug use, torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

As she reaches for her door, she suddenly feels a hand over her mouth and a wet cloth over her face. She gasps and before she can scream, she feels it: the knife swiftly puncturing her skin and sinking into the carotid artery in her neck.

She never saw it coming and was effectively dead before she hit the pavement.

And as absurd as it sounds, it all began with a soggy tuna sandwich.

This episode contains references to illicit drug use, torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

As she reaches for her door, she suddenly feels a hand over her mouth and a wet cloth over her face. She gasps and before she can scream, she feels it: the knife swiftly puncturing her skin and sinking into the carotid artery in her neck.

She never saw it coming and was effectively dead before she hit the pavement.

And as absurd as it sounds, it all began with a soggy tuna sandwich.

This episode contains references to torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

When detectives began investigating this case, it didn’t start at the crime scene.

It didn’t start at the victim’s home.

It didn’t even start at the suspect’s home.

It started with a patient’s file.

Inside that file, investigators found the clues that revealed what likely happened to the victim. They pieced together the case long before the body was found. And the clues, eyewitness testimony, and scant evidence found at the crime scene told a grim story of a vulnerable, impressionable young girl who just…needed help.

But that help never came.

Only Evangeline.

This episode contains references to torture and violence. Listener discretion strongly advised.

What happened to Gretchen should happen to no woman—or person for that matter—but happens all too frequently in our society. With our friends, neighbors, coworkers—that we see everyday, but don’t really know what’s going on behind closed doors and in toxic relationships.

Keep your friends close…but keep their friends even closer.

Sam found this out the hard way.

1:36 a.m. And okay, where’s is Jordan…and who dragged her away?

Most residents in this rural community are asleep at this time. But beyond the banks of Polecat Creek and on the outskirts of the cemetery, someone is creeping through the dense fog, calculating every step and listening out for every sound.

Her name is Jordan and she has masterminded her plan for the drop down to the tiniest detail. She feels the kudzu vines wrapping around her ankles like hands reaching up from beneath the ground dragging her six feet under, but she persists. If she makes it up the hill and past the old lantern posts draped in kudzu, she is in the clear. Only a few steps away. A branch snaps and she hears a splash. Jordan ducks down into the vines waiting until she thinks it’s safe to proceed.

Except it wasn’t safe to proceed, and at 12:46 a.m., she heard the piercing crack of a high-powered rifle.

“But before you leave, I do have an additional question. Two, actually. You are aware of the incident that happened between the twins when they were young?" The detective asked.

“You mean the thing with the bikes when they were children? Yes, Ryan told me,” she said.

“And you’re aware of what Ryan did for retaliation? His little ‘long game’? How he lured Bryan into—”

“Yes, I’m aware. May I leave now?” Tamesha interrupted.

She was not aware of what the detective was referring to, but again, it was none of her business. But she would always wonder.

Most heart attacks happen between 6:00am and noon, when there is an increased risk of a grave cardiovascular event. Bryan and Ryan were there for it. The twins did everything together. They played ice hockey in high school together, and even had the same 3.9 grade point average. So when they decided they wanted to become flight nurses, they first became EMTs (Emergency Medical Techs) while taking prerequisite courses at the community college for nursing school. On Monday, December 23, 2002 at exactly 6:02 am, two calls came into the station; both for people presumably having heart attacks. Bryan, Ryan, and their respective partners took the calls. It was settled: Bryan and Keith, his partner, would go on one call; Ryan and Tamesha, his partner, would go on the other. Loaded up and ready to go, each ambulance with their respective partnerships departed the squad bay at the exact same time.

Only one of them would arrive at the hospital.

Viktoria sees the love and closeness of the family, and wishes she had that. She also realizes: the only way to keep her nursing license in tact—and her life—is to leave.

In a crowded loft apartment over an accounting office lived three generations of Viktoria’s family: Dedushka (her grandfather), Babushka (her grandmother), her two older brothers, her mother, and her younger brother. Dedushka, an accountant, owns the building; it is his office downstairs. Next door, Viktoria’s uncle, Dada Dima, owned the European store and lived above it with his family: his wife and his daughter Sofia. On the same block was the boxing gym also owned by their family.

Each of these establishments opened up to the back alley.

Monday morning is when Millie comes to C23; she always does. She brings colored pencils—freshly sharpened—coloring books, and masking tape. Claudia loves the fractal sheets. Swirling geometric patterns of leaves and nautilus shells.

“Everything spirals eventually in nature; it is no less beautiful,” she says.

It’s a balmy Saturday afternoon, and a heavyset seventy-four year-old man walks into the general store. No stranger to this place, its his lifeline for morning essentials: diet cola, a “dollar scratcher” (lottery ticket), and a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit with a “touch” of mayo. Two hours later, he was dead.