Читать книгу Scared to Death - Debby Giusti - Страница 7

Nolan Price would rather be anywhere than outside Mercy MedClinic’s emergency room. Hand him a financial portfolio to study or a corporate merger to broker and he was home free. But tubes pumping blood and oxygen into dying patients gave him the creeps.

Maybe it was the memories. Eight months and the pain hadn’t gone away. He doubted it ever would.

He glanced at his watch—10:00 p.m. Over three hours since he’d pulled the woman from the creek. Surely medical science, even in this rural facility, could determine the extent of her injuries in that length of time.

Kate Murphy. He’d finally learned her name.

Nolan shook his head. Too much had happened in one afternoon. The phone call about Tina, and then her friend had almost died in his arms.

God had a strange sense of timing.

Of course, he’d found that out with his wife’s tragic death.

At least he still had Heather. Not that raising a fifteen-year-old single-handed was anything but tough. Every time he thought he was making headway, she retreated into her shell. He couldn’t relate to his daughter no matter how hard he tried. Or prayed.

Maybe they should have stayed in Los Angeles.

He sighed, then pulled his cell from his pocket, hit the home listing and listened as the phone rang and rang.

The answering machine clicked on. “I’m sorry we’re unable to take your call. Please leave a message….”

Why wouldn’t she answer?

“Heather, I know you’re there. Pick up the phone.”

No response.

“I’m not mad.” Anymore, he wanted to add.

If only Olivia were alive.

“Make sure the doors to the house are locked, and don’t open for anyone. I’ll be home as soon as I can.”

Nolan snapped the phone shut and shoved it back in his pocket as the sheriff pushed through the emergency-room doors. Early forties, tall and lanky, Wayne Turner was a pack-a-day smoker with a habit of poking his nose into everyone else’s business.

“Doc said he’d be finished with her soon. Lady’s lucky. Tore one of her knee ligaments. That’s the extent of it ’cept for a few cuts and scrapes.”

Nolan nodded. No reason to encourage Turner. Tonight of all nights, he didn’t feel like making conversation.

“Must be quite a lady from what the EMTs said.” The sheriff stuck his chin in the air. “What’s your take?”

“Last I saw, she was bone cold and struggling to survive. We didn’t have time to exchange pleasantries.”

Turner shoved his hand in his pocket and rattled his change. “Lucky you found her. The way your house sits back from the road, no way you could have heard the crash. How’d you happen to be outside on a night like this?”

A vision flashed through Nolan’s head—Heather’s boyfriend running through the woods.

“I was on my way back from talking to Wade Green over at the funeral home about how to handle Tina’s arrangements,” Nolan said, purposely not mentioning the boy. “That’s when I saw the break in the bridge.”

Turner sniffed. “Sorry about your housekeeper. Guess we owe you. Would have been two dead-on-arrivals if you hadn’t happened by in the nick of time.”

Nolan leaned against the cold tile wall. He hadn’t thought of saving anyone when he’d raced after the boy. Then he’d seen the car, realized someone was trapped inside. Thankfully, he’d had his cell phone and the EMTs had answered his call for help or Turner’s statement might have proven true.

The Good Lord supposedly didn’t give you more than you could handle. Heather was the problem. Tina had filled a portion of the void Olivia left. His daughter confided in the housekeeper, trusted her. Now that Tina was gone, Heather might withdraw even further from him.

“Shame that housekeeper of yours had a flat on Old Man Hawkins’ dirt road. Pretty isolated stretch. No one to help her.” Turner shook his head. “Allergic to latex. Who’d figure? Not the way I’d wanna die.”

Doc Samuels had filled Nolan in earlier. Changing the tire had brought Tina into contact with something that had triggered an anaphylactic reaction.

Ignoring the sheriff, Nolan turned to face the doc as he pushed open the ER doors.

Short, stocky, with a receding hairline and a small birthmark over his left brow, Mercy’s sole physician stuck out his hand. “Thanks for staying, Nolan.”

He returned the handshake. “Lloyd.”

“Good job with the accident victim. Few seconds longer and she’d be in the morgue instead of the treatment room. Keeping her warm did the trick.”

“Hypothermia’s easy enough to spot.”

“Yeah, but you reacted.” The doc pointed to the doors he had just stepped through. “That little lady owes you her life.”

Nolan shrugged off the praise. “Right time, right place.”

“She tore her ACL. Probably won’t need surgery, but her leg’s too swollen to be sure. She’ll need an MRI once the swelling subsides. Right now, I’ve got her in a knee immobilizer, but she has to stay off her feet for a few days. Problem is her insurance won’t cover keeping her here all night. Closest hotel’s in Summerton. Don’t know if driving over the mountain would be the safest bet.” He looked at the sheriff.

“Rain turned to sleet about an hour ago,” Turner said. “Highway patrol plans to close the pass to Summerton. The way the temperature’s dropping, we’ll be iced over for the rest of the night.”

“Would Edith mind if—”

Turner held up one hand, palm out. “Count me out, Doc. Edith’s spending the night with Ms. Agnes. That handicapped daughter of hers took a turn for the worse. Edith’s helping out.”

Nolan let out an exasperated breath. Last thing he wanted was a stranger underfoot, but the woman needed a place to stay.

“Kate Murphy knew Tina. Heather and I can put her up until the storm passes.”

“Appreciate it,” Lloyd said, slapping Nolan’s arm. “I gave her something for the pain. She’s a little groggy. Check on her occasionally in the night.”

The doc turned to the chief. “Ms. Murphy asked about her car.”

Turner whistled. “Boys are still trying to pull that sucker out of the water. Probably late morning before the roads improve so they can tow it over to Mercy Automotive. Mind if I get a little info from the patient, Doc?”

Lloyd nodded and pointed the sheriff toward the treatment room.

When Turner was out of earshot, Nolan said, “I talked to the funeral director earlier this evening. Wade said to ask you when Tina’s body would be released.”

“Already done. Wade picked her up about an hour ago.”

“Thanks, Lloyd.”

The doc pointed to the ambulance entrance. “Pull your car around. I’ll have the nurse escort Ms. Murphy out in a few minutes.”

Nolan parked his Explorer in front of the ER. The sleet had stopped, but ice covered the landscape. Talk about a night to remember.

He left the engine running and the heater on high. Rounding the vehicle, Nolan waited until the automatic doors opened and the nurse wheeled her patient into the cold night.

Wrapped in a white thermal blanket with her left leg propped up, Kate Murphy reminded him of a rag doll that had lost part of its stuffing. She was pale skinned and blurry eyed, as if the life had drained from her.

He opened the back passenger door.

“Can you lift her?” the nurse asked. “I’ll stabilize her leg.”

Nolan slipped one arm around Kate’s shoulders, the other under her knees and raised her from the chair. Light, maybe too light.

She stiffened in his arms and groaned.

“Sorry,” he mumbled.

The nurse climbed into the SUV and supported the braced leg as Nolan positioned Kate on the seat.

He could only imagine how she felt.

Hurt. Alone. In the arms of a stranger.

“My daughter’s at home,” he offered as reassurance, though he felt certain Lloyd had explained the situation. “There’s a guest room on the first floor.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

The nurse wrapped a second blanket around Kate’s body, then stepped out of the car, slammed the door and handed Nolan a typed form. “That leg will bother her for a few days. Ice should help. Everything’s in the discharge papers.”

“Right.”

Nolan climbed into the driver’s seat and glanced at his passenger huddled in the rear. As soon as possible, he’d send Kate Murphy back to Atlanta.

He didn’t want to be responsible for another woman with what was happening in Mercy.

Kate wrapped the hospital blanket around her shoulders and tried to settle into the backseat of the SUV. Her leg burned like fire, and her body ached as if she’d done a mega workout and pushed every muscle to the limit.

She caught Nolan glancing back at her in the rearview mirror. Dark eyes, pensive, brooding.

“Warm enough?” he asked.

“I’m fine.”

She yanked the blanket higher. Her wet clothes were piled in a plastic bag on the floor along with a very soggy wallet someone had found wedged in her car’s console. The hospital gown afforded her some modesty, the blankets provided warmth and her credit cards weren’t floating downstream. At least there were some things for which to be thankful.

She flicked her gaze back to her rescuer. He appeared tall with jet-black hair, cut close, and piercing eyes that seemed to burn into her whenever he looked her way. He wore a pullover sweater and jeans, and from the looks of his dry clothes, he’d evidently changed after his dip in the creek.

Glancing down at her blanket-swathed body, she was grateful ERs didn’t provide mirrors for their patients. She’d hate to see herself. Limp brown hair, faded hospital gown, bags under her eyes, no doubt. Whatever the long-term diagnosis, she knew it wasn’t pretty.

Outside the car window, ice covered the trees and shrubs, every leaf and branch frozen in place. Another time and the landscape would have seemed magical. Like a winter wonderland. But not tonight. After all that had happened, there was nothing magical about Mercy.

The doctor had assured her she’d be comfortable staying at Nolan Price’s home. A widower with a teenage daughter. The man Tina had mentioned. Nice of him to take her in. Still, she’d give anything to be home in Atlanta.

Her eyes grew heavy. The doctor had given her something for pain. “To take the edge off,” he’d said.

She needed to ask something before she fell asleep. “What…What happened to Tina?”

Intent on driving, Nolan apparently hadn’t heard her, and she was too tired to repeat the question.

She closed her eyes, and her body floated as if she were in the creek again. This time the sun was shining down, warming her. She drifted….

His hands nudged her.

She opened her eyes.

“Easy does it,” he said, hoisting her into his arms. A sharp jab cut through her leg.

A large forbidding structure loomed ahead of them. Two-story. Brick. No light inviting them in from the cold.

Trees crowded around the house and creaked in the frigid air like old bones dancing in the night.

Kate shivered. This wasn’t the welcoming lodge she’d envisioned.

She closed her eyes. A key turned. She blinked. A young girl peered around the open door.

“Kate, this is my daughter, Heather.”

Shoulder-length blond hair, petite, big eyes that stared back at her.

“Heather, Miss Murphy’s staying in the guest room.”

Kate opened her mouth to say hello, but he rushed her past the girl too quickly.

A bed, blankets…Kate snuggled down in the warmth, vaguely aware of her host bustling about to get her settled.

Eventually, he placed a pillow under her left leg and a plastic bag filled with ice on top.

Cool, soothing.

“Call me if you need anything,” he said.

“Thanks.” She tried to smile.

A light flicked off. Darkness enveloped her. She closed her eyes….

Later, the door clicked open.

He bent over her, removed the melted ice bag and replaced it with a fresh one.

She slept again.

Her grandfather’s face floated through her dreams. “No coincidences,” he told her. “Only God-incidences.”

She wanted to laugh.

Had God brought her to Mercy to find the cross? Or to find Tina?

Then she remembered.

Tina’s dead. The words hammered through her brain.

Her eyes flew open. A girl’s voice cut through the night. Heather sounded as if she was standing directly outside Kate’s room.

“Is she taking Tina’s place?”

“I told you, she’s only staying a short time.”

“But when I tell you something you never believe me,” the girl threw back at her father.

“You know the rules, Heather. No one comes into the house when I’m not home.”

“Jimmy stayed outside.”

“Then why’d he run away?”

Maybe all families were the same. Kate and her dad had had their share of problems before he’d walked out of her life.

The irony was she was still waiting for him to return.

“I love you, honey.” At least Nolan was trying.

“You didn’t love Mom.”

“Heather, please—”

Too private for Kate’s ears. She cleared her throat, hoping they would hear her and take their discussion elsewhere.

“I told you not to leave.” The girl’s voice was edged with pain. “I knew something bad would happen.”

“Your mother’s death wasn’t my fault, Heather.”

“No? Then whose fault was it?”