“I’m sorry that we haven’t contacted your family and let them know that you’re here,” Leah said sympathetically. “You had no identification on you when you were brought to the hospital. So far I haven’t heard of anyone finding your wallet.” She liked talking to her patients even if they didn’t answer back—or couldn’t, for that matter. She also knew that they could hear her; all coma patients could, they just couldn’t speak or respond.
Leah had made sure that she was on the roster to help take care of him. No matter what Dr. Amal said, she couldn’t help but care for this man lying here. There was just something about him. She didn’t want to give up hope that this man wouldn’t come out of this. A flash of a memory came back to her and she squeezed her eyes shut. This wasn’t the time to think about the past and what she had done to her dad. She couldn’t change the past or bring him back after what she’d done to him.
When she arrived home after her shift ended last night she had done some research. As exhausted as she was from working extra hours all week, she searched through all her textbooks and the web to find out everything about brain-dead patients. There had been some cases, though extremely rare, where patients had come back. It had happened and that was the kind of faith and hope Leah held in her heart.
She wasn’t one to give up on the people she tended to every day. They were like her family. A part of her. Granted, she knew better and was also told not to get too close to the patients that came into the hospital. She honestly tried, but her heart was full of love. Her adopted mom taught her to be kind and to help everyone that needed help and couldn’t take care of themselves.
Leah rolled down the blanket placed on the man’s tanned, sculpted body. Every hour, a new heated blanket needed to be placed on the body. Without the brain working, there was no way for the body to heat itself.
She wished that she could see all his face, as half of it was covered in gauze due to third degree burns on his face and the side of his head. She knew that his eyes were a shade of blue because she stood next to the doctor when he shined a light in his eyes. It wasn’t much to go on, but it was better than nothing.
She had overheard Dr. Amal saying to the head nurse earlier that three to seven days is given to keep any patient that is brain-dead on life support unless a judge has given a motion for them not to be taken off. If family is contacted the hospital is to wait for them to say goodbye to their loved one. This meant that she needed to find out who this man was and to help find his family before Dr. Amal let him die. Granted, he was already dead.
~ ~ ~
After Leah’s shift was over, she drove to the Franklin Police Department, hoping that someone there could help her. Leah had lived in Franklin her whole life after she was adopted at birth. Though they weren’t her biological parents, she loved them like they were.
Leah turned into the parking lot of the Franklin Police Department, parked her car, and went inside. The station wasn’t as busy as she thought it would be after the accident on the Turnpike. Although she had never been in a police station before, TV somehow made it look like a constant circus of angry men and women. Leah wasn’t sure why her mind thought of a police station as a zoo of criminals running around. The place was dead. Not dead, as in everyone was lying on the ground dead, but dead as in there weren’t any cops hauling anyone away. No men cuffed and shouting that they get to make a phone call. She only saw police officers sitting at their desks doing paperwork and talking on the phones.
Leah straightened her posture and walked up to the counter, “Excuse me, but is there someone I can talk to about the accident yesterday on the Ohio Turnpike?”
“Give me just a moment and I’ll get the officer in charge to speak to you.” The blond uniformed officer behind the desk picked up the phone and dialed a number. She spoke in a hushed voice, then hung up. “Someone will be right out,” the woman officer said, smiling.
Leah nodded.
“You can wait over there.” The officer pointed to a set of chairs along the wall.
Leah turned and walked to the chairs along the cream-colored wall and sat down. She scanned around as if looking for a magazine to read and wondered if that was something police stations even carried. She didn’t think so because it wasn’t like being at a doctor’s office.
A few minutes later, a shadow appeared in front of her. Leah looked up to see a tall, muscular, yet slender man standing in front of her. From what she could tell, he wasn’t one of those bulging muscle men. He seemed to be built just right. She shook her head. What the heck was she thinking of his body for? Get hold of yourself, Leah, she thought to herself.
“Are you the one who asked about the accident yesterday?”
Leah swallowed, shaking the pornographic images from her head. She began to feel intimidated by the man in front of her. Was it because he was in law enforcement or because of his tanned muscular build? There she went again, thinking about what his body looked like under his clothes. She wasn’t sure why his appearance had gotten to her and it didn’t really matter. She was here to find out what she could about the man lying brain-dead in the hospital.
“Um, yes,” she said as she stood. “My name is Leah James. I work at Franklin Hospital and a man was brought in yesterday from the crash with no identification on him. As of right now, we can’t contact anyone to let them know where he is and how he’s doing,” she stated. “I was hoping that you might be of some help.”
“Come to my office and I’ll see what I can do,” Sergeant Miles replied.
Leah felt all eyes watching her as she walked in step behind Sergeant Miles. They entered a room at the end of the hall. She scanned the walls and saw framed diplomas and awards arranged in a diamond shape with one photo of the officer’s graduating class in the middle, she assumed. She wasn’t here to find out about the officer in front of her. She was here only to find the family of the man in the hospital.
Sergeant Miles cleared his throat, bringing Leah out of the zone she seemed to be in. She sat down in the chair by the desk as the officer took a seat directly in front of her.
“Is there anything you can tell me about the man you’re wanting information on?” Sergeant Miles asked.
“Well, I can only give you a description of the man. He’s brain-dead so he can’t tell me who he is. He can’t talk.”
“I’m aware of what brain-dead means, ma’am. I hate to waste your time on this, but without any kind of name, I’m not sure what I can do for you.”
“Is there anything from the scene that I could go through and maybe find a picture of him? Something that I can use to contact his wife?”
“What do you mean his wife? How do you know that he’s married if he doesn’t have an ID?”
“Well, he has a ring with his belongings. One would assume that it’s a wedding band. Not many men wear rings,” she said matter-of-factly.
“I see,” Miles said, rubbing his chin with his thumb and forefinger. His skin looked smooth and soft, as if he had just shaved before he came into work this morning. “Well, I could try and get a print or some DNA from the ring. Run the samples in our database and see if he’s in the system. But that would only be if he’s done something illegal or ever been in the military.”
Leah nodded. It was the only choice she had. “How long would it take to get the results back?”
“One, maybe two weeks.”
“No!” she shrieked, startling the officer. “I need to know as soon as possible. They’ll withdraw care for him in less than a week. I need to know by tomorrow, or two days at the most,” Leah said, her heart beating fast beneath her blouse. She didn’t mean to sound rude. She just wanted to find the man’s family before it was too late—if he even had a family, but she was sure that he did. The ring was evidence that he had been or was currently married. “I can let the doctor know that you are searching for his family and they’ll have to wait for your report,” Leah said, hoping that she was right.
“If you can provide me with his belong
ings. I can see what I can do. Since this is a life and death situation, I can make it a priority.”
Leah had already thought of this and reached down in the huge bag she’d brought with her and pulled out a plastic bag holding the patient’s belongings. “Here, this is everything I could find on him,” Leah said, handing the plastic bag across the table.
The officer looked flabbergasted as he took the bag and placed it on the desk. “Leave me your contact information and I will call you as soon as I get the results back, if there is any,” Sergeant Miles said. “Just so you know, we do have other cases to work on. I’ll do the best that I can, but I can’t make you a promise that I’ll find anything.”
Leah nodded and scribbled down her name and number and left the room. She had less than six days to find the family of this man before it was too late.
11
Officer Adanya Moore was plagued by the notion that something wasn’t right, but she didn’t know what that was. She thought back on the past week, her mind shuffling over each day and its events but mostly her mind went to the ten-car pile-up on the Ohio Turnpike from yesterday. She had watched with attentive eyes as the firefighters and paramedics hurriedly and cautiously rescued the people from their vehicles. As quickly as one ambulance arrived another two were leaving and heading to hospitals around the area.
She replayed the moment when she found the guy trapped under the truck and wondered how his wallet had gotten from the truck to the place where she was standing. He hadn’t been anywhere near that spot. It was after they had taken him away that she’d found the wallet. Sure, it was possible that it had flown from the vehicle he was in. Some men didn’t keep their wallet in their back pocket when they were driving. Doctors had reported that sitting on your wallet was bad for your back, especially if it were thick and bulky.
She shook her head. Why was she even thinking about this? She’d met the man’s wife and she, Kaitlyn, hadn’t said anything different. Although she hadn’t spoken to the lady since last night. She hadn’t asked her any questions, not like the ones swimming around in her head now. Moore noted that Kaitlyn hadn’t called her about him not being her husband so why was this bothering her so much? She decided that later, after work, she would stop by Edon Hospital and pay Kaitlyn and her husband a visit.
Officer Moore folded and tossed the newspaper she had been reading aside. She wasn’t sure which was worse, reading about the God-awful accident or standing there seeing it with her own two eyes. She’d have to go with the second one. Because she had been there, and it was the worst accident she’d seen in her entire career as a police officer. Officer Moore shook her head, not in disgust at what had happened, but in sorrow for those who had been hurt or died in the accident.
Moore stood and walked into the kitchen and refilled her coffee cup. She had to get ready for work soon, no matter how much pain she felt these past two days. She wasn’t pregnant. She knew what pregnancy felt like from twenty-eight years ago. It had been her decision alone to give up her baby, for her child to have a better life than she could’ve given her. She was getting past the age to have children now and a part of her regretted what she did all those years ago, but it was for the best. She also made sure that the files were locked so she didn’t know where her child was just in case she changed her mind. Of course, she hated herself for doing what she did, but once it was done there was nothing she could do. Besides, it wouldn’t be fair to the people who adopted her child and raised her for Moore to come in and take back her baby girl. But that didn’t mean she never thought about her daughter. Where she lived and what she did with her life. No matter what, Moore would always love her daughter.
She was sure her nausea had to do with the wreckage yesterday, but still she thought it would be best to see the doctor just in case it was a bug of some sorts. Didn’t need to go spreading any infections or diseases around the office, but it could be that her body was terribly worn down.
Officer Moore sipped her coffee and trudged off into the bedroom. She came walking out fifteen minutes later, closing the door to her three-bedroom house that her father had left her when he passed away two years ago. She had always wanted a big family, but she knew that time had sailed right by her. She would die in this house, probably all by her lonesome. No sounds of kids running around and no husband to kiss goodbye when she left for work. Maybe she’d think of getting a cat to keep her company, but she was allergic to cats. And a dog was out of the question. She was gone all day long and wouldn’t be able to let him outside. She wasn’t one of those people who chained their dog outside all day either.
Moore couldn’t deny that she was lonely. She had been lonely ever since her father died. It wasn’t like she hadn’t tried to find a man, because she had. Each time she went out with a guy, all he wanted was to get her in bed. She wanted a relationship first, then came the sex. She couldn’t deny that when she woke the following morning she didn’t regret taking her date up on his offer. She wasn’t easy. Had never been easy, even when she had become pregnant at eighteen. She didn’t want to come off as a slut, sleeping with every guy she went out with. Wasn’t that what these young teens called it these days?
At the office, she’d listen in on some of the gossip the guys talked about. Some of them had teenagers in high school and would repeat conversations that they heard their kids talking about, mostly about girls at school sleeping around with guys they barely knew as if they had some contest to win. Going behind their parents back and getting birth control at Planned Parenthood or wherever they could get them. So yeah, she didn’t want to be like those girls, even if she was much, much older than them.
She climbed into her SUV and started the engine. She needed to stop this poor me attitude and start living her life. Yep! That’s what she needed to do but saying and doing were two different things. She’d have to start with not working so many hours, which wouldn’t happen since they’d made some cutbacks in the department. Working all the time wasn’t going to get her any dates. There she was feeling sorry for herself again.
Moore turned on the radio and listened to her favorite songs from the eighties as she drove through town. Sometimes it seemed like a ghost town when she drove to work at eight in the morning. Nothing seemed to be open early anymore. Most places had to let some of their people go or even close their doors for business because there was never enough money coming in. This place was going to hell in a handbag if you asked her. Maybe she should just sell the house and move some place better, maybe even warmer, like Florida or North Carolina. Besides her job, there wasn’t really anything keeping her here in Edon. Her mother had passed away when Moore was three years old and her father from heart failure a couple of years ago. She had been an only child so there was no one else but her.
Ten minutes later, she walked through the doors of Edon Police Department. She knew by the stillness around the office that her day was going to be a long one. “Thank God,” she mumbled, mostly to herself. She didn’t want to see another accident like yesterday. It was as dead as a mouse stuck to a sticky trap, but maybe that was a good thing. She could be living in Cleveland or Chicago and dealing with shootings every day, but it also made for a very long day with nothing to do.
She made her way to her desk and sat down. She had a couple of files to scan through and to return a phone call. For just a split second she thought about taking that early retirement. She’d been a police officer for over twenty years so why shouldn’t she just retire and live it up? She laughed to herself. Live it up? She lived in a town where nothing ever happened. What exactly would she do with all her free time? Besides, she had another ten years to go before she could really retire if she wanted the full benefits.
“Hey Moore,” Officer Trevon Woods said as he motioned her over to where he was standing but spoke before she even got out of her seat. “Want to go out for lunch later?”
Officer Woods was a black, handsome forty-four-year-old man who stood six feet two inches tall with bulging muscle
s, as if he worked out several times a week, which she was sure he did. Woods had been begging Moore for months to go out with him. She’d told him that she didn’t want to date anyone she worked with because if it didn’t work out they’d have to see each other every day. Woods said in return that he didn’t care and just wanted to hang with her outside of work.
She stood, trying to keep her eyes from devouring his body like most women did when they saw him. She focused on the picture beside him of the Colorado mountains, wishing she were there right now instead of the awkward situation she was about to walk into. She walked over to where he was standing. “I told you I’m not interested in dating you. I’m not trying to be mean, but it’s just not a good idea,” she whispered as she took him by the arm and moved them toward the far wall, out of earshot of the other officers.
“It’s just lunch,” Woods replied. “I swear, I won’t push you on the issue of dating. Just an officer to an officer, having lunch together as coworkers,” he said, smiling his killer smile at her.
That smile always made her knees wobble and she was afraid she might fall over where she stood. God, he was so handsome, she could consume him in one serving. “You know people will talk around here even if there’s nothing going on between us,” Officer Moore said. “There’s not enough action going on in this town to get people to mind their own business. I honestly think they like meddling in other people’s lives.”
“Look, I know you don’t want any kind of relationship. I just want to be friends. That’s all,” Woods replied, smiling again.
Moore nodded, feeling disappointed suddenly. She wasn’t sure what he saw in her; she wasn’t a beauty queen—well, not in her eyes. She did get the occasional look from other guys, but she always looked straight ahead, not making eye contact, and yet she wondered why she was still single. She shook her head. She had to think of work first. Maybe he was being sincere, and she was just making something out of nothing. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. “Okay, yeah, fine. I’ll have lunch with you, but I must warn you, I haven’t been feeling too good the past two days.” She wasn’t sure why she had just told him that, but it was out there now.
The Accident Page 6