Bound By Passion: No Desire Denied / One More Kiss / Second-Chance Seduction. Cara Summers

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       7

      NELL STOOD IN front of a long glass window. Beyond it Deanna Lewis lay in a narrow hospital bed flanked by serious-looking machines that beeped and blinked continuously. A nurse was in the room replacing an IV.

      Ever since they’d left the car, Reid had slipped back into the role of Secret Service agent. He’d introduced himself and shown his badge to the young officer who was standing guard at Deanna Lewis’s door. Officer Jameson had been polite, but he’d asked them to wait while he contacted his superior officer.

      Signaling them to join him, the young man said, “Sheriff Skinner over in Glen Loch has cleared you.”

      Reid nodded to him, then turned as the nurse opened the door. “How is Miss Lewis?”

      “There’s been no change in her condition since the surgery.” The woman’s name tag read Nancy Braxton. Nell estimated she was in her late twenties. Leading them back into the room, Braxton continued, “Dr. Knight stops in to see her every day. He’s confident that she’s healing, but there’s no way to tell when she might come out of the coma.”

      “And there have been no visitors?” Reid asked.

      “No. The police have been quite explicit about that. The only people who have been allowed in this room are doctors, nurses or members of our volunteer staff.”

      “There was a reporter from the New York Times who stopped by last week,” Officer Jameson said from the doorway. “I told him about the no-visitor policy.”

      “A reporter?” Reid asked.

      “Very polite young man. James Orbison,” Jameson said.

      “Can you describe him?” Reid asked.

      “Medium height, short brown hair, slender build,” Jameson said.

      “Cute,” Nurse Braxton added. “He wore preppy clothes, and the glasses added a geeky aura. Sexy.”

      Jameson glanced at the nurse with a raised eyebrow. “Sexy?”

      Braxton shrugged. “Just saying.”

      Reid interrupted the byplay. “Anything else you can recall?”

      “He said he’d written an article about Castle MacPherson a little over six months ago,” Jameson said. “He’d convinced his editor to let him do a follow-up piece once some of the Stuart sapphires were discovered.”

      “You didn’t let him visit Ms. Lewis?”

      “No. He did see her through the glass. No way to prevent that. And he had questions about her condition. But I told him that he’d have to talk to Sheriff Skinner over in Glen Loch if he wanted any further information. He said that the sheriff was next on his list.” Jameson’s gaze shifted to Deanna. “She’s such a pretty little thing. It’s hard to believe that she threatened to kill someone.”

      Nell agreed with the young officer’s assessment. Even with her head wrapped in bandages, Deanna Lewis was pretty. Hooked up to all the tubes and wires, she looked fragile and defenseless. Yet she’d taken out Duncan with a Taser shot and then kidnapped Piper at gunpoint.

      “You mentioned that members of the volunteer staff are allowed in the room,” Reid said. “Who are they exactly?”

      “Oh, we have an amazing group of people who volunteer their services here at the hospital,” Nurse Braxton said. “Many of them are senior citizens, but we also have college students who are required to do community service as part of their degree programs. Since Deanna didn’t have any family visiting, Dr. Knight asked the woman who runs the service if she could find someone to spend time reading to her. He believes that the sound of a human voice often speeds the recovery of coma patients.”

      “And the volunteers do that?” Reid asked.

      “One volunteer,” Nurse Braxton said. “After her first visit, she said she’d try to come back every day. But the day before yesterday, she said she had to go out of town for a couple of days and not to expect her back for a few days.”

      Nell glanced at Reid, and she could tell what he was thinking. She asked the question. “What did this woman look like?”

      “Brunette, tall and very attractive. In her early fifties, I’d say. Well dressed. Good jewelry.”