Acoustic Shadows. Patrick Kendrick

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СКАЧАТЬ anything out of here before I close it?’

      ‘Uh, no,’ she managed, trying to keep her voice from breaking. ‘No, thank you. I was just getting some Amoxicillin.’

      ‘Oh,’ he said. ‘For the patient in 309?’ His eyes went to her sleeve and saw the spot of blood. She could see him staring at it.

      Erica’s mind began to race. She thought she might lose it, but managed to hold herself together.

      ‘The teacher with the gunshot wound?’ he added, his eyes now locking with hers. ‘Not too many other trauma patients here right now.’

      Erica stared at him for a moment thinking she’d been discovered, then nodded slowly.

      ‘She’s some lady, huh?’ the doctor continued. ‘Poor thing, they had to take some shotgun pellets out of her abdomen. A few nicked her spleen, but they managed to save it. She’s got some healing to do, but I heard she is going to be fine. Good thing that she had that gun. Probably saved every kid in that school. That’s a hero in my book. Take good care of her, eh?’ He turned to go out the door, then stopped and turned back to her. ‘Grab a coffee later on?’

      ‘Uh … okay,’ she said.

      ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, coming back into the room. ‘I’m Doctor Spirazza. Todd,’ he said, extending his hand. ‘And you are …?’

      Erica couldn’t look down at the name tag on her coat without giving herself away.

      ‘Susan,’ she said, smiling broadly.

      The doctor frowned. ‘Nice to meet you … Susan.’ He stood there for a minute as if he were waiting for her to say something. ‘It says “Melissa” on your name tag.’

      Erica looked down at it, feeling her face flush. ‘Oh, shoot. Mel and I came on the same time tonight. We were so busy gabbing that we must’ve accidentally grabbed each other’s coats.’

      The doctor stood gazing at her for another moment, then smiled. ‘I’ve got to finish my rounds, but I’ll be looking for that coffee in about an hour, or so. Think you can break away then?’

      Erica licked her lips, trying to be a little sexy, but her tongue was as dry as her lips, and it was like licking flypaper. ‘An hour, sure,’ she gulped. ‘Meet you at the nurses’ station then?’

      He winked at her as he left the room, then hesitated again. ‘You’ve got some blood on your sleeve,’ he said.

      Erica looked down, again, as if surprised, and could see the stain had spread.

      ‘Oh, damn. Must be from the gunshot patient. I was changing her dressing. Melissa will have a tizzy fit if I don’t get that out. Thanks for telling me.’

      The doctor smiled again, turned, and sped off toward his rounds.

      Erica had to sit down for a moment or she would have fainted. She put her head between her legs and breathed slowly. She rolled up the sleeve and wrapped some gauze around the IV site.

      When she stood up this time, she made a beeline into the hall and hung a left. She found the elevators and pushed the button. As she waited, she looked back down the corridor. The cop that had been flirting with the nurse was walking back to Erica’s room, the nurse accompanying him. The nurse was with him. Erica’s heart began to race again. She looked at the elevator light above the door that indicated which floor the car was coming from. Three more floors to go.

      The cop and the nurse entered her room. She was screwed. Within thirty seconds, both emerged. She heard the nurse say, ‘I can’t imagine where she could’ve gone with her injuries, or why she would’ve removed her IV. It doesn’t make sense. I’ll look to the left, you go to the right. I’ll notify my supervisor, too.’ They weren’t panicky yet, but it was clear they wanted to find her and get her back where she belonged. The cop started in Erica’s direction. She held her breath.

      Ding. The elevator finally arrived at her floor. The doors stayed shut for what seemed an eternity. She wanted to dig her nails into the crack between them and pry them apart. When they finally opened with a sucking sound, Erica darted inside. Then, the doors took forever to close. As they finally began to inch toward each other, she saw the cop walk past, looking both ways, but not into the elevator.

      Once in the lobby, Erica practically ran out of the hospital and into the parking lot. She walked away into the darkness, feeling safer with every step, but her side began to throb with pain. She leaned against a car and tried to catch her breath. Looking into her purse, she took out the stolen clothes, kicked off her Nikes and began to pull the jeans on. As she was doing so, she noticed a lump in one of the hip pockets and stuck her fingers in to investigate. Car keys. With a remote door lock. She finished sliding into the pants, then discarded the lab coat, and pulled on the T-shirt. The jeans were huge in the waist, the shirt baggy, but they would do for now. She squeezed her shoes back on without untying the laces. She noticed dots of her own blood on them and was grateful the inquisitive doctor had not noticed in the supply room.

      She moved into the middle of the parking lot and pressed the red button on the remote, the one with the picture of a horn. A piercing HONK from behind momentarily scared the crap out of her. She turned to see which car’s lights flashed.

      ‘No way,’ she whispered aloud. It was a squatty, black, Chevy Camaro SS. The SS stood for Super Sport. That meant it was fast. Erica smiled and got into the car.

       SEVEN

      Thiery gathered officers from the various departments that had responded to the scene and questioned their involvement. Answers ranged from, ‘we arrived and responded as a tactical SWAT unit’, from the Calusa County Sheriff’s Office, to, ‘by the time we got here, it was all over and we just helped with traffic’, from the Lake Wales Police Department. They all met in the offices of the parish hall at the church as parents and teachers from the school began to filter out and make their way home. It would serve as a temporary command post until a mobile unit was brought in.

      There were numerous departments involved, plus the school board sent their internal police. Thiery delegated assignments to each department, based on their involvement, and dismissed those representatives from departments with little to no involvement. He requested reports from all in attendance, then asked Chief Dunham to head the interviews with the families of survivors and victims. Though he didn’t say it aloud, he felt Dunham had a natural compassion that made people more comfortable talking to him. Dunham nodded his head graciously and accepted the assignment.

      Thiery asked Sheriff Conroy to have his department do the most extensive reports, the scene diagrams and initial entry reports, and to follow up with the county dispatch system to get an accurate account of any calls they received, the times they came in, were dispatched, units arrived, et cetera.

      Conroy almost sneered as he said, ‘that’s what I was going to do anyway.’

      Thiery was in no mood for his callousness. ‘Good, Sheriff Conroy, then you’re probably as concerned as I am about the reports I’m hearing on the response to the school.’

      ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ asked Conroy, pushing himself off the wall he’d been leaning against.

      Thiery’s СКАЧАТЬ