Читать книгу Special Agent Nanny - Linda Johnston O. - Страница 13

The day had felt abysmally long. Kelley couldn’t wait to go home. But mostly she couldn’t wait to see Jenny.

Smiling at the thought of her daughter, she picked up her pace down the nearly empty halls that connected the medical building with the hospital. Before the fire, she’d often stopped to see Jenny during her lunch break. Since the fire, she only did that when she could make sure Jenny wouldn’t see her. Every time Kelley left her now, Jenny went through the agonies of separation. And there were days when Jenny threw tantrums, yelled at the other kids, even spilled their lunches on the floor.

The counselor they’d been seeing said it would take time for Jenny to get over her fears about the fire. She was too young to understand much except how scared she’d been. Talking about it would help. But Jenny didn’t want to talk about it.

Today Kelley hadn’t been able to get away at lunch to peek in on Jenny. Every time she’d left her office, someone had beeped her. At least her services were in demand.

As she turned the corner to the KidClub, she recalled that morning.

The new attendant, Shawn Jameson, might still be there.

So what if Kelley thought him a hunk? Or that Madelyne Younger did, too? He would probably catch the attention of every woman in the hospital. But all that counted was whether he connected well with the children.

She pushed open the door and walked in. Her grin broadened.

Marge Ralston was there, leading some kids in an endearing off-key rendition of “I’m A Little Teapot.” Marge, in her early thirties like Kelley, loved children. A perky, curly-haired brunette, she wore paint-splashed smocks over her jeans, never caring if she got additional spots on them. She had studied to be a grade school teacher but had elected to work with little ones and was great with them.

Kelley waved at her. Then, not seeing her daughter, she mouthed, “Where’s Jenny?”

Without missing a beat or a teapot gesture, Marge pointed toward the door to one of the other rooms. Kelley headed there.

And stopped in the doorway. Large, brawny Shawn Jameson sat at a tyke table surrounded by kids, looking like a giant at an elf’s tea party. He appeared tense. His eyes darted from one child to another, as if he was unsure which would do something unexpected first.

Jenny sat beside him. She barely looked up when Kelley approached. On the table in front of her was a large paper on which she was sketching with crayons. Her drawing of uneven circles and lines was a credible rendering of a smiling pig.

“Jenny, that’s wonderful!” Kelley exclaimed, leaning over her daughter’s shoulder.

“Shawn teached me. He says he can teach me lots of an’mals.”

“Me, too,” said the little girl on Shawn’s other side. Claire Fritz, Jenny’s best friend, was the daughter of a woman who worked in the hospital pharmacy. Claire also had a colorful stick drawing in front of her, as did the other five children.

Kelley turned to thank Shawn and found herself looking straight into his blue eyes. They brightened a little as they found hers, as if the appearance of another adult put him more at ease. Her smile faltered as something seemed to spark between them, and she pulled herself upright so she was looking down on him. “This is wonderful, Shawn. Thank you.”

He quickly pushed back his chair and rose, unfurling his long limbs. He was probably just short of six feet, Kelley guessed, for she was eight or nine inches shorter and felt dwarfed not only by his height but also by his brawny breadth. From his hurried yet easy grace, she had no doubt that what expanded his vest and shirt was muscle, not flab.

“You’re welcome,” his deep voice rumbled. “Can I speak to you about Jenny’s behavior this morning?”

Kelley’s gut clenched. “What happened?”

He shook his head quickly. “Nothing bad. I just want to talk about how she was when you left her. I’ll get another attendant to keep an eye on the kids. Can we go get a cup of coffee in the cafeteria?”

Kelley blinked. Was he just looking for an excuse to get away from the kids? If so, why was he here?

Or was he hitting on her? That idea almost made her smile. Her miserable relationship with Randall, and their subsequent divorce, had taught her that what men thought of her was irrelevant. But to have one as handsome and as kind to kids as Shawn seem interested…? Well, that felt awfully good.

But inappropriate. He was on the hospital staff. She had enough problems these days. She didn’t need another.

Besides, she’d probably misread his simple invitation. Despite his apparent unease, he must like kids or he wouldn’t have taken this job. He’d be concerned about any child in his charge. He undoubtedly just wanted to discuss her troubled daughter.

They had an appointment with Jenny’s counselor that evening. And Kelley knew all about the problem with Jenny’s behavior when Kelley left her at KidClub—all the more reason to speak with Jenny’s therapist.

“Maybe another time,” she said. “Time to go, Jenny.”

THAT NIGHT, SHAWN lost count of the sit-ups he did on the worn gray carpet in the shabbily furnished apartment he’d leased near the hospital for the duration of his assignment.

When he was exhausted, he dragged his aching body up and forced it onto the tattered green sofa. The place smelled of cleaning products, but they failed to mask that the previous tenant had been a heavy smoker.

Shawn unbuttoned his shirt, feeling slightly strange without the shoulder and ankle holsters he wore on his other ICU assignments. Working with kids meant carrying no firearms, which was okay. Likely, the only danger he might face on this mission was the arsonist lighting up again. Improbable, given the suspected motive. Hospital records could only burn once.

He picked up the cool soft drink can he had left on the end table. As he took a swig of cold, sweet cola, he wished it was a beer.

“Well, damn,” he said to the stark white walls. The television news was on mute. He let the blessed quiet and sense of solitude wash over him, a relief after being surrounded by screaming tots for what seemed forever. He liked it quiet. He liked to be alone.

Oh, the day had gone well enough. Though he was still sweating his cover—dealing with a bunch of rowdy preschoolers—he’d found a method that at least calmed them. Sort of. For a few minutes at a time, though unfortunately not all at once.

After learning to work with stubborn and skittish horses at the Royal Flush, and to use them for herding a few head of cattle at a time, he’d thought he had already gone beyond the call of duty to establish his cover.

Now this.

But damned if the kids didn’t like to draw cartoons. The talent he had thought he’d tucked away forever had come to his rescue again. And the kids were so cute and earnest about it that they’d unexpectedly made him smile.

Other than his short conversation with Louis Paxler, he’d hardly accomplished anything that day to further his investigation. Of course, he had to establish himself and his cover. Only then could he gain people’s confidence, get them to answer questions without suspecting why he was there.

But Shawn’s strong suit was not patience.

And it bothered him more than he wanted to admit that Kelley had turned him down when he’d invited her for coffee.

He’d known rejection. Hell, it had been part of his life, but he’d gotten over it. Still, figuring out Dr. Kelley Stanton and her relationship to the flu and the fire was his mission. That meant he needed to spend time with the lovely physician. Not exactly a hardship—though her presence had already caused part of his anatomy to grow hard.

He laughed derisively at himself. Shaking his head, Shawn reached for the phone on the end table beside the couch. He had to report in.

But before he lifted the receiver, the phone rang.

“Jameson,” he answered.

“You were supposed to call,” said Colleen Wellesley without preamble.

“I was just about to.” He put the soft drink can on the table and leaned forward, alert, ready to talk.

“Right. So how did it go? Did you learn anything?”

Shawn responded in a tone reminiscent of the kids’ chanting. “I didn’t blow my cover yet but didn’t learn much, either. Except for where the potty is.”

“Don’t get smart.”

“Who, me? I take it you’re still at the ranch.”

“Right, though I’ll be at the Denver office later in the week. Tell me about your day.”

He pictured his solemn, serious lady-boss pacing and holding a cordless phone to her cheek beneath the curve of her chin-length brown hair. She had to be in her bedroom or one of the secure rooms in the basement to be talking like this, for she wouldn’t want the foreman, Dex, or the Castillos to overhear.

“Okay, C., it’s like this,” he said. “I talked with the administrator, Paxler, and got a rundown of who’s who and what’s what, at least in his opinion.”

“So he’s still cooperating? Good, but is he helpful?”

“Yeah, a little too helpful—like he’s covering his butt and the hospital’s insurance by pointing fingers where he can.”

“Well, you’ll have to sort out what’s true and what’s butt-protecting. Is that all?”

“No. I’ve met Dr. Kelley Stanton and established a rapport of sorts with her daughter, so—”

“Really?” Colleen sounded incredulous.

“Why did you create this cover if you thought I couldn’t handle it?”

“Did I say that? I just expected it to take you longer to settle in. You’ll have to tell me all about your experience one of these days.”

“Right.” He would definitely not tell her how rattled he remained around a bunch of screaming munchkins. “Anyhow, now that I know the layout and have met some of the cast of characters, I’ve been working on a game plan. I should have more to report next time.”

“Fine, but don’t push so hard that you blow your cover. We need answers fast. Real fast. But we won’t get them if we have to start over.”

“Don’t worry,” he said firmly. “I’m in.”

AS USUAL, KELLEY hesitated the next morning at the entry to KidClub. Jenny was holding her hand tightly. Her thumb was in her mouth.

Inhaling deeply to steel herself for the scene to come, Kelley pushed open the door.

Shawn Jameson, tall and broad-shouldered, looking as confident as if he had always worked there, stood to the right of the entry. Maybe he just appeared confident because he was engrossed in conversation with Marge Ralston, who was obviously hanging on his every word.

A group of kids sat on floor mats in a far corner of the room. A TV on a stand had been wheeled in, and they were watching a public television children’s show.

At Kelley’s side, Jenny hesitated. Kelley felt her daughter’s grip tighten.

Shawn turned away from Marge and looked straight at Kelley as if he had been expecting her.

Which of course he was, as he expected all the kids’ parents. He wasn’t anticipating seeing her in particular.

Still, the way his lips curved slowly into a lazy but welcoming smile made her insides melt. She shook her head to bring herself back to reality.

He said something else to Marge that Kelley couldn’t hear. The facility’s head caregiver continued to gaze at him as if in rapt attention. Then he broke away from Marge and approached Kelley and Jenny.

“Good morning, Shawn,” Kelley said.

“Hi.” He wore no vest today. Instead he had on a navy blue shirt that enhanced the deep color of his eyes. He still looked like a handsome cowboy in his jeans and boots. “How are you both?”

“Fine, Shawn,” Jenny said softly.

“Good. Are we going to have fun today?”

“Can we draw an’mals?” Jenny’s voice quivered, and Kelley braced herself for her daughter’s next tearful farewell.

“Sure,” Shawn said.

To Kelley’s surprise, Jenny let go of her and held out her hand. After a slight hesitation Shawn took it and led her farther into the room. He met Kelley’s eyes over the child’s head.

No separation anxiety today? Kelley was so relieved that she felt her whole face brighten.

Shawn’s return smile was smug but brief. He looked toward Jenny. “You can choose the animals you’d like to work on,” he said. “And maybe one of these days your mama and I can talk about the animals, too.” He raised a light brown brow at Kelley, then turned his back and led Jenny from the room.

Kelley watched with bemusement and delight.

“Wow!” Marge joined her, grinning after the man and child as they walked into the adjoining playroom. “He’s something, isn’t he? Even Jenny is responding to him.”

“He’s something, all right,” Kelley agreed. “He…well, he doesn’t strike me as the typical day-care worker. Do you know his background?”

“Sure,” Marge replied. “He was in the military—army, I think. He got out after a couple of hitches and is now in college studying child psychology. He wants to work with kids, so he’s here earning a little money and learning about children on a school internship.”

“I see,” Kelley said, though she was puzzled. He didn’t seem the type. But obviously she was wrong.

Maybe one day she would take him up on that offer to have coffee in the cafeteria—so they could discuss his drawing talent, and the way he worked with kids.

Now, though, it was time to leave the child-care center.

This morning seemed to be the start of a good day.

IT CONTINUED THAT WAY, too, for a while.

She ran into Juan Cortes, who gave her a hearty, “Good morning.” She’d noticed the usual treats in the KidClub, so she thanked the janitor but reiterated her offer to bring some soon.

Next, she passed hospital administrator Louis Paxler on his way to his office. He actually managed a civil greeting.

Then the day began to deteriorate. She saw her ex-husband at the nurse’s station talking with Cheryl Marten. They both seemed engrossed in conversation, and Kelley attempted to slip by unseen.

No such luck. “Good morning, Kelley,” Randall said in his usual contemptuous, booming voice.

A couple of nurses seated behind the tall U-shaped desk looked up in interest. Damn. They had an audience.

“Good morning,” Kelley said neutrally.

“Which patients are you seeing here today?” Randall had turned to face her. As usual, he was dressed immaculately in a pristine white lab jacket, a stethoscope around his neck. His silvery hair was combed as perfectly as an actor on a set playing a doctor’s might be.

None of your business. “A couple of influenza cases and an infection.”

“Take care that they survive,” he said in mock concern.

Kelley’s chest constricted. She’d done all she could to help those poor influenza patients who’d died several months ago, yet she knew Randall was a major source of the rumors that she’d messed up.

She’d told herself over and over that he was wrong.

But if so, why did so many people listen to him?

“They’ll be fine, thanks, Randall,” she said coolly, not rising to his bait.

“I’m sure,” he said.

Cheryl smirked over her shoulder. Kelley could have smacked her. She was the one who had left little Jenny alone the night of the fire, then had lied about it. Implicated Kelley.

“If something happens to them,” Cheryl said, “I’ve got a friend in the fire department. I’ll alert him that our records department is in jeopardy again.”

Oh, Lord. Kelley had heard that more than once, too—that she’d set the records room on fire to destroy the charts that would reveal what she’d done wrong in her treatment of those patients.

There was just one little flaw to that reasoning…but she hadn’t revealed it to anyone.

For one thing, it would have sounded defensive.

For another, she would be revealing something that she actually had done wrong.

Without saying another word, Kelley hurried down the hall toward her first patient’s room.

And ignored the murmuring behind her.

THAT EVENING, AS HE prepared to leave KidClub for the day, Shawn was damned disappointed.

Of course he would be. He’d been trying to think of a way to talk to his chief suspect, Dr. Kelley Stanton, alone, and she hadn’t been the one to pick up her daughter.

He should have been pleased that he’d gotten the opportunity to meet her ex-husband.

The condescending ass. Randall Stanton hadn’t been alone, either. Nurse Cheryl Marten had been with him.

“I’m going to leave now, Shawn.” Marge Ralston’s vivacious voice interrupted his thoughts.

He turned. “Are all the kids gone?”

She nodded, and her dark curls bounced round her pretty, animated face. “Yes, we’re the last ones here.” She looked cute, cleaned up without the usual kid-proof smock over her knit top. She hesitated, then said, “I’m going to grab a bite to eat on the way home. Care to join me?”

“Another time.” He flashed her a friendly smile. She was a chatty woman, and he figured he had already gotten from her all she knew about the flu epidemic and the fire in the records room.

Which amounted to zilch.

“Okay.” She looked disappointed. But though she would probably be good company, he knew better than to date someone when on assignment.

Unless she was part of the assignment. Like Kelley…

“You’ll lock up when you leave?” she asked.

He nodded. “See you tomorrow.”

He wasn’t ready to leave the hospital yet. He needed more information, and not just reports generated by people officially on the investigation, no matter how competently they had handled it so far. He needed to get a feel for what had happened.

It was what he was good at.

Yet it had been awhile. He would have to prepare himself for what he would find. What he wouldn’t find. And the way his own damned gut always twisted into knots at arson fire sites.

Once he was sure Marge was gone, he headed down the empty hall.

SINCE THE FIRE, Kelley hadn’t trusted Randall to pick up Jenny when he said he would, though she called to remind him.

As a result, she found herself on her way to KidClub late that evening. Later than anyone should be there.

As late as it had been the night of the fire, when Jenny had been there alone….

“No,” she whispered aloud. Her daughter wouldn’t be there. Though Randall had manufactured an excuse for not having retrieved Jenny himself that night, surely not even he would be stupid enough to forget about her now. Or to send his beloved, lying assistant Cheryl to fetch his daughter.

In any event, Kelley would make certain no one was around.

That no one had left Jenny.

When Kelley reached the closed door of the child-care center, she tried it. It was locked. She stood still and listened, just in case. She heard nothing from inside. No whimpers from outside. No menacing crackles or crashes.

Except… There was a noise from the direction of the former records center.

Even after six weeks, the area was still cordoned off with yellow tape demanding that no one enter. Kelley had heard that, though experts on fire and water damage repair had made recommendations, reconstruction would not begin until the fire department and the insurance company gave the go-ahead. The walls, or what remained of them, were covered by plywood sheets. One sheet was now a door, kept locked at all times.

But Kelley had heard a sound from that area.

Could the arsonist have returned to the scene of the crime?

Not likely, but someone was there.

Carefully, she crept down the hall.

And stopped. Inhaled sharply. The door was ajar. Slowly, quietly, Kelley ducked under the yellow tape. Without opening the door further, she looked inside.

A man with a flashlight stood in the middle of the damaged but otherwise empty room. He didn’t move. In a moment, when her eyes adjusted to the dimness, Kelley could make out who it was.

Shawn Jameson.

What was he doing here? The psych student hadn’t even worked at Gilpin at the time of the fire. He couldn’t be the arsonist. Could he?

She watched for a long moment. His shoulders were hunched, as if he was in pain. He remained very still.

She wanted to approach him.

He aimed his flashlight at the blackened floor. Knelt and touched it. Inhaled deeply, as if absorbing the now-faint odor of burned building materials and paper.

Though she felt immobilized, Kelley must have made a sound, for he abruptly stood and stared right at her.

She took the offensive and pulled the door open farther. “What are you doing here?”

“What are you doing here?” he countered. At first, she thought she glimpsed raw fury in his eyes. But it must have been a trick in the dimness, for his gaze was flat.

“I heard something and thought I’d better check it out,” she said.

“Sorry,” he said. “I heard about this fire in the news a few weeks back. I was curious, so I figured I’d take a peek.”

His words were light, but Kelley sensed something behind them. Frustration? Anger? Pain?

Definitely lies.

“I don’t suppose you’d like to get that cup of coffee now, would you?” he asked.

To her surprise, she wanted to say yes. And yet—she felt a pang of unease. “Maybe tomorrow,” she replied noncommittally. When it would be daylight. Plenty of people around.

And she would have had time to prepare herself for a conversation with this very disconcerting man. There were some questions she definitely wanted him to answer.

“Tomorrow,” he confirmed. “See you then, Kelley. It’s okay to call you Kelley, isn’t it?”

She nodded automatically, then wished she hadn’t. Being on a first name basis with Shawn eliminated a barrier between them. One she suspected she would miss.

He brushed past and left her standing there, alone in the burned out, empty room, lit only from the hallway behind her.

Tomorrow? She didn’t really need those answers. She could always make up an excuse to put off their meeting. Put it off forever.

Yet she wondered, as she hustled out the door, if she would.

NIGHTTIME.

The arsonist stood alone, outside the administrative wing of Gilpin Hospital, and looked up at the stars.

It was better to look at them far from here, without the bright city lights of Denver interfering. There were a lot of fascinating things in the sky that couldn’t be seen here.

But Denver was still home.

And on this side of the building, at this hour, there were few office lights to disturb the darkness.

The arsonist liked the night, even here. When ambulance sirens weren’t shrieking to herald yet another serious case requiring emergency attention, the area around Gilpin Hospital was quiet, with only traffic sounds interrupting the stillness.

This was a time when things could be done in darkness.

Without being seen.

Like setting fires, when necessary.

Fires like the very successful one that had destroyed the Gilpin Hospital records center.

That task had been a pleasure as well as a duty. The arsonist had enjoyed watching the room burn, all the while anticipating the money to come for that job.

But several weeks later, the job wasn’t over yet. Too many loose ends.

Like Dr. Kelley Stanton.

There were things she knew. Things she didn’t realize she knew…yet.

But she had to be neutralized, in case she recognized them.

If discrediting her was effective, so much the better. It was certainly the least messy way.

If not…well, there were many kinds of accidents that could occur around a hospital.

The arsonist would keep an eye on her. Listen to her, and to what was being said about her.

Report it, when asked.

And, when ordered, the arsonist would act quickly. Efficiently.

Effectively.

Again.