A Doctor in His House

“My vision is blurred, and I’m having a dizzy spell. I can’t see.”

“In that case, I’m going to have you feel the insignia on my shirtsleeve. It’s a double chevron. I want you to know that I’m an officer of the law.” Leaning down to the open car window, he kept his eyes on the screen of shrubby trees beyond the shoulder of the road, waited for the sound of slurring—either real or faked—in her voice.

She reached up, found his shirtsleeve and felt the raised weave of the insignia, rubbing neat fingers across the fabric, brushing his bare upper arm with the heel of her hand just below the hem of the short sleeve. The touch was accidental, yet oddly personal. “Okay. Thanks,” she said. “I do believe you.”

“Do you need medical attention, ma’am?”

“Yes.” If she was faking, then she was good at it. If she was impaired by substance abuse, it didn’t show.

“I’ll call the ambulance,” he said.

“No, that’s … not necessary. Not an ambulance.”

First indication of something not quite right. He went on high alert. If the “dizzy spell” was bad enough that she really couldn’t move, then why didn’t she want an ambulance?

But she was speaking again. “Call my brother.”

“Your brother?”

“He’s a doctor. Andy McKinley. He lives just a couple of miles from here. He’ll come get me.”

Daniel knew Andy quite well. Doctors and law enforcement officers tended to know each other in a rural community like Radford. There was a connection between hospital emergency rooms and crime, and he and Dr. McKinley had been involved in various incidents together. Andy was a good guy. Understood the police angle. Went the extra mile. Didn’t let any ego get in his way. Daniel would almost call him a friend.

He didn’t let on to this woman right away that the name was familiar, however. In his experience, personal information was best handled on a need-to-know basis, and he considered that most people needed to know very little about him.

Some people—work colleagues, and his sister, Paula, for example—said that this showed in the way he talked, and the way he often paused before he talked, but he didn’t care and he wasn’t prompted to change.

Andy’s sister would learn of his connection with her brother soon enough. No sense wasting time or words over it now. “Andy McKinley,” he echoed, giving nothing away. “Can you give me his number?”

Obediently Scarlett reeled off the digits of Andy’s cell phone, then heard a moment later, “Andy? It’s Daniel Porter, here.”

What?

The name ambushed Scarlett from out of the past. She couldn’t take it in, couldn’t react. Daniel—that other Daniel—had grown up in Vermont, somewhere near here. Indirectly, two steps removed, that Daniel Porter was the reason she was here, now, although he wouldn’t know it, and she hadn’t thought of the Vermont connection herself in years. Hadn’t thought about Daniel at all, except for the maddening fact that he wouldn’t stay out of her dreams.

But now he was here.

Because it had to be the same man.

She couldn’t know for sure, since the blurred vision meant she couldn’t look at him and his voice wasn’t enough to go on, but it had to be him. This man had said he was an officer of the law, she’d felt the insignia on his shirt and she knew that a law enforcement career had always been Daniel’s goal.

It had to be him.

She waited for a whole slew of possible emotions to wash over her—anger, regret, embarrassment, self-doubt and loss—but none of them came. She was simply too shocked.

“I have your sister here,” he said into the phone, “pulled over on Route 47, just coming in to town.” He listened for a moment, then said carefully, “No, nothing like that. She’s been taken ill, and she’s hoping you’ll be able to come get her.” He listened again. “A dizzy spell, she says.”

“Put him on,” Scarlett managed, on a croak.

She felt the hard, cool shape of a cell phone pressed against her cheek, and the softer touch of a masculine hand. Daniel Porter’s hand. She scrabbled for the phone, managed to take hold of it and the hand went away. She made another attempt to open her eyes but the bright light whirled in a sickening way and twelve steering wheels danced like dervishes right in front of her.

Don’t try it, Scarlett, just breathe. “Andy?” she got out, after a moment.

“Scarlett, you sound terrible. What’s the problem?”

“Migraine. Vision problems and dizziness. I had to pull over. I need you to come.”

“I can’t,” Andy said blankly. “Not right now.”

Before she could stop herself, she let out a stricken sound.

“I have a patient under local anesthesia, and four moles to take off her back. I practically had the scalpel in my hand when you called. After that, okay? Immediately after.”

This time, she couldn’t keep back a moan. His voice had made her feel as if help was at hand, and now it had been snatched away.

“I’m sorry,” her brother said. “I can’t blow off a patient.”

“I know.” Scarlett wouldn’t have done it, either. She rounded her lips and blew out a careful breath, gaining enough control to tell him, “You’re right.”

“Listen, Daniel is a good guy. Straight down the line. A state trooper.”

“Yes, so he said.” Andy hadn’t met Daniel, six years ago, even though, indirectly, he’d moved to Vermont because of Daniel’s influence. He had no idea that Daniel and Scarlett had briefly been involved. Almost no one knew that. Their whole relationship had vanished into the past without trace.

“He’ll call an ambulance for you. He’ll wait with you till it comes.”

“I don’t need an ambulance. It’s just a migraine. I’ve had these spells before.”

“Like you’re having now?”

“Never this bad.”

“So the hospital—”

“Don’t make me go to the hospital.” She was so overdosed on hospitals. She’d been working ninety hours a week in one for years. She was the smartest one in the family, Dad always said, but somehow that didn’t seem like the best end of the deal when her skin always smelled like chemicals and she only ever saw the sky through tinted glass. “I just want to be lying flat in a dark room.”

“Put Daniel back on and I’ll ask him if he can drive you to my place.”

“My car …”

“He’ll drive your car off the road, park it somewhere safe. One of our office staff can drive it home for you later.”

“Home to your place.”

“Home to my place, it’s no problem, it’s not far. Put Daniel on.”

Blindly she held out the phone, gripping the wheel with her free hand to minimize the movement. “My brother wants to talk.”

A hand took the phone. “Sure,” said the gravelly voice. Daniel had been twenty-four years old when she’d known him, to her twenty-six. He must be thirty, now. His voice had deepened, matured, but he was as measured and careful with his words as he’d always been.