Her thoughts kept slipping away to Lucas Butler and the two men keenly interested in his well-being, Detective Lionel and Gavin Hawk. Lionel made it sound like Hawk was some sort of criminal, which implied that Butler was as well, but she had trouble believing that any of her patients could be on the wrong side of the law.
Criminals get hurt too, she reminded herself sternly. Maybe Butler got caught up in a drug deal that went bad. With a dog. She sighed and shook her head and tried to finish the entry she’d been working on for the last five minutes.
She finally got everything submitted properly and shoved the keyboard away, trying to massage away the ache in her eyes with the heels of her hands.
“You okay, Trisha?” Carol asked worriedly, setting another stack of papers on the counter. “You look tired.”
“I am tired. I’ve been running around all day. So have you,” she pointed out. Carol looked as fresh as she had at the start of the shift.
“Well, when you get older you get worn out more easily,” she explained seriously.
Trish tried very hard not to roll her eyes. Carol was a good nurse but sometimes the things that came out of her mouth made it sound like her head was completely hollow. “I’m twenty-four.”
“I’m twenty-three, so you’re older.”
“And I’m thirty-eight,” Naomi informed them flatly, coming up behind Carol, “so I guess I’ve got one foot in the grave already. But since I’m not quite dead yet, you,” she poked Carol in the shoulder, “go update Mr. Peterson’s vitals in 2 and you,” she pointed the same finger at Trisha, “go take a break.”
Trisha glanced at the clock. “The shift’s almost over,” she said doubtfully.
“An hour and a half isn’t almost. Go. You’re not going to be much help if you can barely drag that tight little white ass around the ER.”
“Naomi!” Trisha exclaimed in feigned shock. “What would your husband say if he heard you say things like that?”
“Nothing, if he knows what’s good for him. Git.”
Trisha got. She took a brief detour to the staff room to retrieve her purse from her locker and waved as she passed Carol heading into Exam 2. She hurried along the corridor towards the main cafeteria in the center of the campus, intending to make the most of her brief freedom, but her pace slowed when she glanced at the signs on the wall directing visitors to the different departments in the building. One of them said Trauma Center 4th Floor.
I’ll just check on him quick, she told herself, angling for the elevators. Maybe he’s awake now and I won’t have to worry about him anymore.
One of the elevators was just closing its doors but she couldn’t get to it in time. She punched the up button, watching in frustration as that elevator quickly rose to 4 and stopped while the others seemed stuck on the upper floors. One of them finally counted down to 1 and let out a white-jacketed doctor, who nodded to her as she slipped past him and tapped the button for the fourth floor.
It was just her luck that her elevator stopped on the second and third floors to pick up additional passengers, making her wonder if she should just have taken the stairs, but she finally arrived at her destination and jumped out, heading straight for the entrance to the trauma ward.
Someone was already there ahead of her, talking to the nurse at the desk. Trisha couldn’t see his face, but something about his broad shoulders and short-cropped hair rang a silent alarm bell in her mind and her steps slowed. Then she came to an abrupt halt when he turned his head slightly and her heart jumped into her throat.
“Oh my God,” she breathed. It was Gavin Hawk.
He didn’t notice her standing there gaping at him as he said something to the nurse, waving his arm in an angry gesture. Trisha couldn’t hear what he was saying but the nurse looked equally annoyed. She finally threw up a hand in resignation and pointed behind her. Hawk grabbed a neatly-folded bundle of clothing from the desk and tucked it under his arm as he walked past her, presumably heading for Butler’s room.
Trisha tried to tell herself she wasn’t in any danger. Even if Hawk was some sort of renowned criminal, he wasn’t going to do anything in the middle of a busy hospital. Besides, she was just an ER nurse, not even the one who treated his friend. Why would he care about her at all? Her brain believed it but her heart wasn’t convinced.
Hawk finally disappeared into one of the rooms and Trisha was able to move again. She approached the desk hesitantly, wondering if she should duck out of sight somewhere if Hawk came back. I have to call Detective Lionel and tell him Hawk is here, she thought. But what if Hawk leaves before he gets here? Should I follow him? She didn’t know what to do.
The other nurse glanced up and noticed her standing there, but her expression softened when she recognized a fellow nurse.
“Hi, there,” she said pleasantly enough. “What can I do for you?” Her badge identified her as Sasha. “Is everything okay?” she asked when Trisha didn’t answer.
“Oh, um, yes, everything’s fine. I was just, uh, thinking about something.” Trisha shook her head to try to clear out some of the confused fuzziness. “That man who was just here, was he looking for Lucas Butler?”
Sasha frowned. “Yes, he said he was a friend dropping off a change of clothes. Why? Is there a problem?”
“No,” Trisha assured her quickly. “It’s just that I, uh, I thought I recognized him from downstairs.” Sasha looked dubious. “I work in the ER. We sent Mr. Butler up here after his friend sorted out his paperwork.”
“Okay,” Sasha said slowly. She still looked like she expected Trisha to drop some bombshell on her.
“Is Mr. Butler awake yet?” Trisha asked, trying to change the subject. “Dr. Chandra hoped he would recover sometime today.”
Sasha shook her head. “He was still out when we checked him twenty minutes ago. Dr. Garrison wants to do an MRI if there’s no improvement in the next couple of hours.”
“I hope he –” She stopped as a movement down the hall caught her attention and she stared like a deer in headlights as Hawk strode towards them, wondering how she was going to explain her presence here. Hawk’s dark glower was fixed on Sasha, however.
“What room is Lucas in?” he barked.
Sasha bristled, even though she was barely half his size. “410, like I told you,” she snapped.
“That’s not him.”
Both nurses goggled at him. “What?” Sasha blurted. “Of course it is. I put him there myself.”
“Then you made a mistake. Come here.” Hawk headed back to the room with Sasha trotting beside him. Trisha hesitated only a second before following them.
Room 410 was a typical private hospital room, with an array of medical equipment around the gurney, a few cabinets for supplies, two chairs and a small table for family and guests, and a door leading to the toilet. The clothes Hawk had brought sat forgotten in one of the chairs as Sasha and Hawk leaned over either side of the bed. Trisha eased around to the end to get a better look at the man lying there.
He looked like Butler, a youngish man with his head wrapped in gauze and the large bandage covering his cheek, but the lighting was different here and Trisha hadn’t seen him in several hours. She couldn’t remember whether that dark bruise on his chin had been there before.
“This is Butler,” Sasha insisted. “He hasn’t moved an inch since the last time I checked on him.”
“It’s not,” snapped Hawk. “Lucas has lighter hair and a straighter nose. Look.” He reached over and ripped the plaster off Butler’s face and both nurses gasped in shock.
“What are you doing?” Sasha demanded, aghast. She grabbed the bandage from his fingers. “Get out of here before I ...” Her voice trailed off. The skin on the patient’s cheek was completely unmarked. She turned the bandage over disbelievingly, revealing a streak of dried blood. “I don’t understand.”
“Where’s the man who was supposed to be with him?” Hawk asked harshly.
“He left a little while ago,” Sasha said, staring at
the man lying in the bed.
“Did you look at his face?”
“No, I just saw his back as he walked by, but I recognized his jacket.” Slowly, Sasha reached out and pulled the blankets down. The man was wearing a white t-shirt, not the normal hospital gown. Then she lifted the man’s arm, showing the hospital bands around his forearm. She tugged at one of them and it came off easily. It had been cut and stuck back together with tape. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “It’s not him.”
“Then where is he?” asked Trisha breathlessly. “And who is this?”
Hawk seemed to notice her standing there for the first time. “This is the man we sent to guard him,” he growled. “Lucas took his clothes and walked out.”
“How is that possible?”
“Lucas must have woken up and knocked him out.”
“But he has a skull fracture!” she objected.
“As long as his brains weren’t leaking out, he could do it. Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. He looked around the room, as if that would give him some idea as to what to do next. “We need to find out where he went. Can we get access to the security cameras?” Sasha just stared at him and he jabbed his finger at the door. “Move!” he barked. Sasha ran. “God damn it.”
Trisha took Sasha’s place at the side of the bed and carefully felt for the man’s pulse. It was faint but steady. A quick check of his pupils showed normal reactions, so she hoped he’d recover with nothing more than a sore jaw and a headache. She wondered what his name was.
“We have a problem.” She looked up in surprise but Hawk was half-turned away from her, talking into his phone. “Lucas is gone.” He winced at whatever the other person said. “I didn’t do anything. It looks like he woke up suddenly and knocked out the guard. He switched clothes and just walked out.” Hawk listened, his mouth set in a thin, angry line. “How the hell should I know? I’m going to try to get a look at the security tapes. See what you can do from your side.” He swept his free hand through his hair. “I think he’s back on the Quest. No, I haven’t had a chance to go through it yet. I will.”
“What’s going on here?” Hawk and Trisha both turned to look at the older nurse standing in the doorway. Right behind her was Sasha and a man in a hospital security uniform.
“I gotta go,” Hawk said into his phone and hung up. “Who are you?” he demanded.
“I’m the ward nurse. Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Hawk ignored her. “You,” he said to the security guard. “Can you get access to the security tapes?”
Everyone starting talking at once and the population in the room grew quickly, adding two more nurses, another security guard, one of the trauma surgeons, and someone from hospital administration in the space of a few minutes, all demanding to know what was going on. Hawk was stuck in the middle of it all but Trisha managed to wriggle her way out of the room, taking a moment to ask Sasha to check on the patient and try to clear everyone out as quickly as possible. Trisha wasn’t holding her breath that things would settle down anytime soon.
She hurried down the hallway past the elevators, digging into her purse for her phone and the card Lionel had given her. Something very strange was going on and she knew Lionel needed to know about it. She wondered if he had any idea what Hawk was talking about. What was the Quest he mentioned and why was it so important that Lucas Butler would leave his hospital bed and attack another man?
9
Lionel sat at his desk, staring at nothing in particular as he sorted through the meager fragments of information he’d gathered so far and the much larger stack of questions he had.
Lucas Butler was outside in the early hours of the morning on one of the coldest nights of the year. It had to be important. Where was he going at that hour? To meet someone? Gavin Hawk lives in New York, but he tracked down Butler in the ER and identified him just a few hours later. Does he know what Butler was up to? Was he the one Butler was going to meet? Where is he now?
His phone jangled on the desk and he eyed it with a frown. Very few people had his personal number and no name appeared on the display, so it wasn’t one of his regular contacts. It was a Boston number, though, so he suspected he knew who it was. A smile teased his lips as he answered.
“This is Lionel,” he said neutrally, just in case he was wrong.
“Detective Lionel, this is Trisha Macmillan.” He nodded to himself but his smile faded. She sounded rattled.
“Is everything okay, Trisha?” he asked carefully.
“No, it’s not. Gavin Hawk is here.”
Lionel sat up straight. “At the hospital?”
“Yes, and Lucas Butler is gone.”
Lionel stared at his phone in surprise. That was the last thing he expected to hear. “What do you mean, gone?”
“I mean he’s gone. He attacked the man his company sent to stay with him, stole his clothes, and just walked out without anyone noticing. They’re trying to figure out where he went.”
“That wasn’t Hawk’s doing?”
“No, he’s the one who discovered the switch. He’s arguing with the head of security to see if the cameras picked Butler up at all.”
Lionel drummed his fingers on his desk, trying to imagine the scene. Did Hawk just pretend to discover Butler’s escape so no one would suspect him? No, that’s not his style. He’s as subtle as a wrecking ball.
“Detective?”
He shook himself out of his reverie. “Sorry, I was thinking. Are you all right, Trisha? You sound a bit out of sorts.”
“I’m completely boggled,” she admitted. “I can’t imagine anyone with his injuries just getting up out of bed, knocking someone out, and then just casually walking out of the building.”
“I’ve seen stranger things,” Lionel sighed, “but I certainly didn’t expect this to happen.”
“So what do we do now?”
We? Lionel thought. Well, well. “All you need to do is find someplace quiet to sit and settle your nerves. I’ll send someone over to take a look and see if we can pick up Butler’s trail.”
“You’re not coming yourself?”
“There’s not much point, since Butler’s gone and I don’t imagine Hawk will stay there much longer. I have people who are much better at hunting down fugitives than I am. Unless you have another reason to want me there?” He added a hopeful note at the end.
“Oh, er, no. I just thought since you were so interested in Mr. Hawk ...” Trisha’s voice trailed off awkwardly.
“I am, and thank you calling me. I might not have heard about any of this until I went back to the hospital to check on Butler and then it would have been far too late.”
“I’m glad I could help.” Lionel heard a hint of a smile in her voice now. “Is being a detective always this exciting?”
“Almost never,” he told her wryly. “If things get exciting, that usually means something’s gone wrong.”
“I suppose.”
“Are you feeling any better now?”
“Yes.” She sounded surprised. “Just sitting here listening to your voice ... I mean,” she said hastily, “it’s nice talking to someone who isn’t upset or angry for a change.”
“I find calm and quiet generally gets better results.”
“I wish Mt. Hawk felt the same way. He’s got the whole floor riled up like a hornet’s nest.”
“Well, just stay away from him and you’ll be fine.”
“What if he comes back? Should I call you again?”
“I doubt you’ll ever see him again. Since Butler’s gone, there’s no reason for him to go back there.” Unless Butler’s injuries are worse than he things and he ends up back in the hospital, he mused, but he kept that thought to himself. There was no reason to give her something else to worry about. “Just get back to your work and pretend none of this ever happened.”
“My work? What time is it? Shit!” Lionel’s eyebrows shot up. “Sorry, pardon my French. I was supposed to be back in the ER ages ago. Naomi’s go
ing to tear me a new one.”
“I understand,” Lionel chuckled. “Feel free to blame me. Just tell her I needed to question you about Butler, which is almost true.”
“No, I couldn’t do that. Won’t you get in trouble?”
“Not for this. Don’t worry about it. Go save lives and take care, Trisha. Thanks for all your help.”
“You’re welcome.” Despite everything, she seemed reluctant to hang up. Perhaps she hadn’t recovered from her ordeal as much as she thought. “Goodbye, Detective Lionel, and good luck with your case.”
“Just Lionel,” he told her with a smile she couldn’t see.
“Excuse me?”
“Lionel is my given name.”
“It is? Oh, I’m so sorry! I just assumed –”
“Don’t worry about it, Trisha. It’s my fault, I should have been clearer when we first met. Goodbye, Trisha.”
“Goodbye, uh, Lionel.” There was a stretch of awkward silence and then she finally hung up.
Lionel leaned back in his chair and smiled at the ceiling, imagining her flustered expression as she hurried back to the ER and whatever punishment Naomi decided to inflict on her. It was too bad he probably wouldn’t see her again. Maybe after the Butler situation was resolved ... Lionel shook his head. He was getting ahead of himself.
He looked down at his phone, his mood darkening. Despite what he told Trisha, he didn’t have many options available for tracking down Lucas Butler. Maybe following Hawk would be a better plan. Let the enemy do the hard work for a change.
He scrolled through his contacts thoughtfully. His thumb hovered over one for a moment as he considered the possible ramifications of that choice, and then he tapped the entry just above it. The phone rang four times before she answered.
“Yes?” Her accent was still audible, even though she and her father had been in the States for several months now.
“I need you.”
“Yes?” Now she sounded interested and Lionel rolled his eyes.
“For a job.”
“Oh.” He could just imagine her pout. “What sort of job?”
Gawain (Knights of Excalibur Book 1) Page 6