Foul Play
And she wanted him gone.
She fixed him with a stare. “Please leave,” she said, before turning her attention to Frank. “I don’t want him here.”
Diane squeezed her hand. “He saved you from the morgue storage unit,” she said gently. “And he hasn’t left your side since.”
Deborah flicked her eyes to Cole’s and lifted her head. He was looking down at the floor. “Thank you,” she said tersely. “I guess that makes us even.” She heard the hardness in her voice and she didn’t like it. This wasn’t who she was. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m grateful you helped me.” She let her head flop back on the pillows, still fatigued from the low temperatures she had been subjected to.
Frank stepped toward the bed. “I’m so sorry this happened, Deborah. Dr. Kellerman from the morgue insists that he did not page you. We’re looking into it.”
“I’ll tell you what happened,” she said. “Somebody pretended to be dead and then forced me into...” She stopped. The experience clearly had had more of an impact than she’d realized. Cole’s presence in the room made her dizziness worse. Her breathing became more labored. Dr. Warren walked to her side and placed a stethoscope on her chest.
“Calm down, Deborah,” Dr. Warren soothed. “Slow, deep breaths, okay?”
Deborah could take it no longer. She pointed to Cole and addressed the hospital administrator, who was skirting the edges of the room, hands in pockets. “What exactly is he doing here, Frank?”
“Mr. Strachan is here to help us with our security arrangements,” Frank replied. “Just like you asked.”
Deborah frowned. “So you go and hire a navy SEAL?” she asked incredulously. “Is that really necessary?”
Cole spoke. His voice was an octave lower than it used to be. It was rich and velvety and took her by surprise. “I’m not a SEAL anymore, Dee. I retired six months ago.”
Her eyes shot to his and she felt her nostrils flare. His use of her pet name was overstepping, and her glare was intended to let him know exactly where he stood.
Cole produced a business card. “I run a security firm now called Secure It. Frank called me to ask if I could install some extra features to make you all a bit safer.” He leaned over and placed the card on her bedside table. She caught a faint trace of his aftershave in the air. “But I never realized how serious it was until I got here. Whatever happened to you today was probably a deliberate attack, designed to hurt you or scare you, or both. And I want to get to the bottom of it.”
Cole’s strong, commanding voice caused the other four faces in the room to stop and turn in his direction.
“Just hold on a minute,” Frank said. “Have you considered that this might simply be a prank gone wrong? Those guys down at the morgue have a pretty dark sense of humor, you know.”
Dr. Warren exchanged a look of concern with Dr. Cortas. “Frank,” she said. “Another child became sick today with suspected renal failure—a tiny baby boy. That makes a total of six in the last three weeks. Deborah was the one who initially raised the alarm, and she’s the one who’s been pushing for an investigation, as well as extra security on the unit. That certainly would mark her as a target for anyone tampering with patient medicine.”
Frank closed his eyes and put a hand on his forehead. “The toxicology reports have all come back clean on these patients.” He opened his eyes. “There is simply no evidence to suggest foul play.”
Cole stood up. Deborah had forgotten how tall he was. His full height dwarfed everyone around him. “Deborah was attacked,” he said. “That’s evidence enough for me that she’s onto something, and somebody wants to stop her.”
“Let’s wait until an investigation is complete before we jump to conclusions about an attack,” Frank said. “The morgue staff are being interviewed by hospital security guards, and CCTV footage is being analyzed.”
Cole let out a snort of derision. “I met your security guards on my way in here. I very much doubt they could find a GI Joe in a toy store.”
Deborah suddenly felt a tear spring entirely unprompted from her eye and land on her cheek. She tried to brush it away quickly, but Diane saw it and turned to the men in the room. “You’re upsetting Deborah. She doesn’t need this now. She needs time to recover.”
Cole swiveled to look at Deborah. She refused to meet his eye, but in her peripheral vision she saw him rub his fingers roughly over his face, coming to rest on the cleft in his chin. She bowed her head low. Her tears were coming too fast to stop them, and he was the very last person she wanted to see her raw emotions.
“I’m sorry, Deborah,” Cole said. “It’s insensitive of me to argue while you need to rest.” He gesticulated toward the door. “Shall we all leave Deborah in peace for a while?”
“Thank you,” she whispered, watching the staff members leave the room until just Cole remained standing by the door. He opened his mouth to speak but seemed to change his mind. Instead, he looked at her, apparently waiting for her to acknowledge him, and she raised her head, meeting his gaze with steeliness, wiping the wetness from her cheeks.
“Close the door behind you,” she said flatly.
His face was pained as he gave a small nod. After the door clicked into place and she was alone with her thoughts, she picked up the small white card Cole had left on the bedside table. She rubbed her fingers over the gold embossed letters of his name, before taking the card gently between her thumb and forefinger and tearing it into teeny, tiny pieces.
* * *
Cole stood opposite Frank in the corridor with a cold and heavy sensation weighing on his chest. The iciness with which Deborah had looked at him was hard to bear. This woman who had once run through a thunderstorm to tell him how much she loved him now felt nothing but bitterness and regret. And who could blame her? He had broken all his promises. He had abandoned her without warning. But he sure wasn’t going to abandon her again, not when she so clearly needed somebody to protect her. This was the least he could do for her.
“I’d like to start work right away,” Cole said to Frank. “I’ll do a thorough check of all your current security arrangements and compile a list of changes I advise you to make.”
Frank shifted uncomfortably. “What kind of price are we talking about here?”
Cole raised his eyebrows. “What kind of price do you put on the safety of your patients and medical staff, Mr. Carlisle?”
“I would like to stress that these measures are just routine,” Frank said. “Despite the recent uptick in renal problems, we have no proof of drug tampering. It’s likely a coincidence.”
As if to mock the hollowness of his words, the hurried figure of Dr. Warren rounded a corner and pushed past them. “One of the kids has gone into acute renal failure. We need to get him on permanent dialysis before his organs totally shut down.”
“No,” Cole said under his breath, watching the staff rush into a room with a machine that they quickly connected to the body of a young boy, already yellow and jaundiced from the toxins in his blood.
Cole bowed his head and prayed for the life of this child, remembering the lives of many children he had already seen lost on the fateful Dark Skies mission in Afghanistan four years ago. He remembered the life of his own son, taken too soon to reside with his Heavenly Father. God had certainly never shielded Cole from the painful reality that children die, and He clearly wasn’t about to start now.
Cole silently acknowledged that something sinister had brought him back to Harborcreek and back to Deborah. Like the children in this unit, Deborah was in trouble, and whether she liked it or not, he would stick by her side and see her safely through. He couldn’t offer her all the things he had once promised, and she wouldn’t want them from him now anyway. But maybe if he could look after her for a little while, he would be able to somehow atone for the wrong he had done.
TWO
Deborah sat on the edge of the bed as Dr. Cortas gave her one final health check before allowing her to go home. She felt odd being in a sweat suit when she should have been in scrubs. She had stayed in the hospital overnight, being monitored for the potentially damaging aftereffects of her hypothermic state, and Diane had kindly gone to her home to pack an overnight bag.
Deborah’s night of sleep had been broken, full of nightmares of a shrouded man looming toward her. In her dreams she had managed to pull the shroud from the man, revealing his face as Cole’s, and she’d awoken with a start, dread invading her bones. Where was the true fear in her situation? Was it the man in the morgue, or was it Cole? Both men had strong power over her emotions.
She could scarcely believe Cole was here, looking as lean and handsome as the day he had promised to marry her. She knew they had been young at the time—only nineteen years old—but it had seemed so natural. They wrote constant emails to each other after he enlisted in the navy, but Cole’s correspondence gradually tailed off as he talked more and more about the new and exciting life he was leading. Shortly after his twentieth birthday, he had paid her one final visit, giving her the news that their relationship was over. That was the last time she had seen his face, although she continued to hear of his progress in the military through the grapevine in Harborcreek. He successfully made it all the way to the navy SEALs. And she also heard that he had gotten married. That particular piece of information had pierced her heart like a shard of shrapnel.
“You’re fortunate, Deborah,” said Dr. Cortas. “Any longer in that refrigeration unit and your hypothermia would have been severe,” He held her head in his hands to focus on her pupils. Dr. Cortas was a fairly new doctor to Haborcreek Hospital and revealed little of himself to others, but he was an exceptionally gifted physician, and Deborah felt reassured by his assessment. “You appear to have recovered well,” he continued, writing on her medical chart. “You can go home. Frank has put you on sick leave for the next three days.”
As if he had heard his name being mentioned, a soft knock echoed on the door and Frank’s head popped into view. “How do you feel, Deborah?” He opened the door wide and Cole’s large figure came into view. He was standing in the corridor wearing a snug-fitting black T-shirt and blue jeans.
“I’ve discharged Nurse Lewis,” Dr. Cortas said with a smile. “She’s doing fine.”
“Excellent news,” Frank said, stepping into the room. Cole followed. “I want you to take some time to recover, Deborah. Don’t even think about coming back to work until you’re ready.”
Deborah couldn’t stop her eyes from flicking down to Cole’s wedding band finger—it was bare. He noticed her glance and splayed his fingers out wide, telling her what she wanted to know. She was annoyed with herself for being so obvious. She didn’t want him to read too much into it.
“What did your internal investigation uncover?” she asked Frank. “Did you find the man who assaulted me?”
“Not exactly,” he said.
Cole narrowed his eyes at Frank. He clearly wasn’t happy with this response. “There was a camera positioned right over the morgue entrance,” he said. “What did you find on the footage?”
Frank looked sheepish. “The camera isn’t working, I’m afraid. It would seem like a good idea to extend our security upgrades to the whole hospital. Can you cope with that Mr. Strachan?”
“Absolutely. I’ll get my entire team on it,” Cole replied. “But we still need to find out who attacked Deborah. Did you uncover anything? And did you call the police?”
“I decided not to involve the police at this stage,” Frank said. “Dr. Kellerman concurs with me that this could be a childish prank gone wrong. The morgue staff have been known to try to scare each other by hiding under sheets.” He threw up his hands in the air. “Of course, none of them will admit to being the culprit.”
“No!” Deborah said firmly. “Pranks are meant to be funny. What happened to me was terrifying.”
Cole stepped back into the conversation. “And why would the prankster leave Deborah locked in a compartment? She could’ve died.”
Frank obviously had anticipated this question. “The compartments have an unlocking mechanism on the inside. It should be fairly simple to slide open the unit from inside by pushing on the door, but this particular one had faulty springs, so it was jammed.”
“That could be why the attacker chose this exact unit,” said Cole. “He knew she’d be trapped.”
Frank looked exasperated. “It’s highly likely that this is a prank gone terribly wrong. The hospital deeply regrets it, and it will never happen again. Trust me.”
Cole folded his arms. “That doesn’t satisfy me at all, I’m afraid. What precautions are you taking to ensure Deborah’s personal safety?”
“We’re implementing all the recommendations you made regarding our security,” Frank said. “At considerable cost to the hospital, I might add. All our workers are perfectly safe here.”
“What about when Deborah is at home?” Cole said. “How safe is she there?”
Frank smiled in a condescending way. “I’m certain that you’re overreacting, Mr. Strachan. I expect your military training encourages you to see danger all around, but here in Harborcreek, we don’t need to be on constant guard.”
“What about the children in renal failure, Frank?” Deborah challenged. “Do they need to be constantly guarded? Can you be sure that somebody isn’t tampering with their medicine?”
“Deborah,” Frank said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “This is a hospital. It’s not unusual to have a large number of sick children suffering kidney complaints.” He looked toward the doctor. “Isn’t that right, Dr. Cortas?”
Dr. Cortas clicked the top of his pen and slid it into his breast pocket. “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility,” he said. “But it is highly unusual.”
Deborah noticed the doctor’s dark eyes dart around the room before he excused himself and left.
“I understand your concerns, Deborah,” Frank said. He sat on the bed beside her. “And by the time Mr. Strachan’s team has finished upgrading our security measures, there will be no way a staff member could harm them—even if that were happening.”
Deborah stood up. “Frank,” she said, bending to look him in the eye. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, as though his sleep had been as broken as hers. “If there is even the slightest doubt that drugs have been tampered with, we should involve the police.”
The mention of police caused Frank to stand bolt upright. “And what exactly should we say to the police? Should we tell them that we have lots of sick children in a hospital?” He let out a sigh. “We don’t know that the incident in the morgue is in any way related to the renal failures. You can’t ask the police to investigate a hunch.”
Cole stepped between Frank and Deborah. “It’s not just Deborah’s hunch. Both Dr. Warren and Dr. Cortas also seem concerned about the high level of renal failure in Pediatrics.”
Frank rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you have any idea what a police investigation could do to the reputation of our hospital? It could destroy the good name we’ve worked hard to build up. I’m sorry, but I won’t allow it unless it’s absolutely necessary.” With that he turned and stalked out the door.
Cole shook his head and turned to Deborah. “I guess that’s the end of that conversation. You ready to go?”
She took a step back from him. “Are you offering to take me home?”
“Sure. I got a team of support guys doing the work here, so I’m free to give you a ride.”
She looked up into his face. His stubble was the color of a burned sunset. “No, thanks. I’d rather make my own way.”
His jaw clenched. “Please, Deborah, let me help. It’s on my way home anyway.”
“You live in Harborcreek?” she exclaimed.
“I moved back three months ago.”
Deborah found her mouth opening and closing, unable to form any words.
“I’ve kept to myself,” he said quietly. “I didn’t want to risk running into you before you had the chance to find out I was back.”
“So when were you going to tell me?” she challenged. “In another ten years?”
“I’d planned to call your parents this weekend and ask them to tell you I was back in town. I kept putting it off because I was worried how you’d take the news.”
Only one word formed in her mind. “Coward.”
He nodded his head. “I deserved that. You’re right. I handled it badly. I just didn’t want to hurt you any more than I have already.”
“Why did you come back anyway?” Her question sounded like an accusation.
Cole pushed his hands deep into his jeans pockets. “It’s a long story.”
“Did your wife move here with you?” she asked.
He closed his eyes. “No, she divorced me a couple of years back.”
Deborah stood in silence for a few moments. Despite her hostility toward Cole, she didn’t revel in the breakdown of his marriage. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said.
“What about you?” he asked. “I see you don’t wear a ring, either.”
“I’m not married,” she said. “I was engaged to somebody for a while, but it didn’t work out.”
A strange look swept over his face. It was one of both surprise and disappointment, as if a million regrets rushed through him at once. “Please, Deborah,” Cole said. “Let me drive you home. It’s cold and rainy out there.”
He picked up her bag from the bed, his muscles flexing beneath his T-shirt, and she remembered how safe his physical strength always used to make her feel. Now she felt nothing but anger and regret that she had ever allowed him into her life.
She reached for the bag and wrested it from him. “I’ll take my chances alone. The bus is always busy, and nobody would try to attack me in public.”
“You don’t drive?” he asked, obviously remembering the fact he had given her a few lessons in his car before they broke up.
“No, I don’t drive,” she said. “I manage perfectly well without a car. I make this bus journey every day, so you really don’t need to worry.”
Cole looked skyward as if trying to keep his cool. “You’re letting your emotions override your common sense. You need protection. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”
She knew he was right. A ball of fear was curled up in her belly, telling her to be cautious, to be on her guard, but she ignored it. Yes, Cole could provide protection, but at what cost to her sanity?
“Thanks for all you’ve done to help me,” she said. “But I’ll take it from here.” With that she stalked out the door and headed for the exit. He didn’t try to follow her, but she knew he was watching her leave, no doubt shaking his head at her stubbornness. She put aside the voice in her head telling her to stop, to turn around and take him up on his offer. Instead, she called the elevator and pressed the button to take her to the basement floor, where a bus stop was situated in the underground parking lot for the hospital staff. As the elevator glided below ground, Deborah clenched her teeth together, gripping her bag with tight fingers, trying with all her might to contain her rising level of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, Cole’s presence gave her a sense of reassurance that he could shield her from another attack, but every fiber of her body cried out to run away from him.
She carried her head high as the doors opened and she strode purposefully out into the parking lot, keeping her wits about her, checking her surroundings. The lot was full of cars and empty of people, as it usually was at this time, and the bus stop was near to the exit ramp just around the corner. It would take her only two or three minutes to walk there.
She heard the squeal of rubber tires turning quickly on asphalt and she darted between two cars, crouching low to see where the vehicle was located. A beat-up red compact came into view, radio blaring, a young man at the wheel chewing gum. He raced past her driving way too fast and was soon out of sight. She stood up, exhaling in annoyance as she heard his car scrape its underside on the exit ramp. He was a young hospital orderly, immature and reckless.
But the sound and sight of normal everyday activity reassured her, and she weaved between the vehicles, resuming her walk to the bus stop, where she reckoned several other people already would be waiting. That was when she heard footsteps behind her keeping pace with hers. They were heavy, those of a man, and she suspected that Cole had followed her to try to persuade her not to travel home alone.
She spun around. “Cole...” She stopped. The sound of footsteps melted away, and a hush descended over the lot. Nobody was there.
“Cole?” she repeated. “Is that you?”
No reply.
“Who’s there?” she called.
A menacing voice rumbled in the windowless lot lit by dim overhead bulbs. “Your worst nightmare.”
Panic hit her full force in the gut, and she dropped her bag and started to run. The heavy footsteps resumed behind her, and she cried out, trying to alert the people who would be waiting at the bus stop just around the corner.
“Help!” Her voice was weak with fear and she filled her lungs to shout louder.
Before she could make another sound she became aware of a person close behind, seeming to appear from thin air. A hand curled over her mouth, another around her throat. They were large hands, rough and calloused, exactly like the ones on the attacker in the morgue. Her screams were stifled, and her legs gave way.
Cole had been right. She had been foolish to refuse his offer of protection. And now she would pay a heavy price.
* * *
Cole turned the wheel of his cargo van sharply in the hospital’s underground parking lot, sending unsecured equipment in the back crashing to the floor. He saw Deborah, fighting hard with a heavyset man who had grabbed her by the throat. Despite being petite in size, she was holding her own, using her elbow to repeatedly strike the man in the ribs.
Cole screeched his vehicle to a halt alongside the pair, and the man released his grip in surprise. The scarf that the attacker had tied around his face left only his eyes visible, and Cole saw them widen in shock. The guy turned on his heel and ran. Cole jumped from the driver’s seat and darted toward the assailant. The man pulled a handgun from his pocket as he glanced back, and Cole decided pursuit wasn’t worth it. A hospital was no place to begin a gun battle. Plus, there was someone who needed him to stay right there. He watched the man run to the exit door and push it roughly open. He was headed for the street, not the hospital. At least that put his mind at rest.
He rushed to Deborah’s side. She had sunk to her knees and was gasping for air. He gathered her into his arms and pulled her to her feet, waiting for her to catch her breath. Then he lifted her onto the passenger seat of his van and reached for a bottle of water in the cup holder.
“Here,” he said. “Drink this.”
She sipped the cool liquid slowly, coughing occasionally and rubbing her neck where pressure had been applied.
“The guy’s gone,” he said gently. “We should go back inside and report this.”
She shook her mane of blond curls. “I just want to go home,” she replied. “I’ll make the calls from there.” She continued to rub her neck. “I don’t want to stay here one second longer.”
Cole put a hand to her cheek. “Did he hurt you?”
Deborah set her amber eyes on him. “Just my pride,” she said. Her pale heart-shaped face was partially hidden by the mass of curls that used to fall against his face whenever they kissed. “You were right, Cole. I did need protection. I just didn’t want it from you.”
“Yeah, I guessed that,” he said, removing his hand from her face and placing it on his holstered weapon instead. “That’s why I decided to take matters into my own hands. I was following you. I couldn’t rest knowing you could be attacked again.”
She gave a half smile. “I always used to hate it when you were right.”
He laughed. “I remember.”
She screwed the top back on the water bottle. “Will you take me home, please?”
