* * *
Two short lengths of bone lay side by side on Russell’s work table. He picked up a sheet of sandpaper and tried to smooth the end of one bone.
It hadn’t dried out thoroughly and was way too porous for his use, not the young bone he always demanded of Eddie. It was never going to make a strong knife handle. It would never be right.
“Screwed me over.”
He punched Eddie’s number into his cell phone.
“Yeah?”
“You owe me two hundred dollars worth of bone.”
“Don’t owe you nothin’. You got the bone.”
“This is some old geezer’s lifeless bone.”
“So what’s the fucking big deal? And stop calling me all day here or we’re finished.”
“Get me another bone.”
“Sure thing, Russell ... but it’s still gonna cost you another two bills. Take it, or leave it.”
“Just do it!”
Chapter 16
Dominick was awakened by the clatter of ICU equipment and the beeping of instruments, but especially the sharp aroma of alcohol that made his nostrils sting.
More than anything, it was that voice.
He kept his eyes closed, but his focus was on Harry Lucke, his ex-wife’s boyfriend.
Dominick had secretly watched the dude in action—taking care of patients, talking to other nurses. Sure as shit, he was one of those good guys Gina always used to talk about.
Yeah, like those medical people were some kind of heroes. What a bunch of crap. Hell, I listened to her run through all that hype when it was just them doing their job.
Nobody had ever called Dominick a hero.
Oh, that’s right, he was going to be a hero, a Yankee. Didn’t make it, though, because his bitchy wife ruined it for him.
So what if I drank a little, gambled a little? What’s that got to do with anything? I could still work the ball. Isn’t that what counts? It was her nagging that distracted me. That’s what did me in.
Hell, maybe I can’t get to Gina right now, but taking care of Harry Lucke will be a close second.
Harry was talking to another nurse. They were both standing by his bed. Dominick played possum and listened:
“I hear he plowed into a car and then got rear-ended,” Harry said. “And no seat belt. Man’s lucky to be alive.”
“No, you’re Lucke. He just lucked out.”
“Aren’t you a cute little thing?” Harry’s voice was sharp. “Let’s just get on with the change of shift report.”
“All right, already. Lighten up, dude.”
“Sorry, end of shift exhaustion,” Harry said. “Anyway, the only reason he’s still in ICU is there’s no bed for him in Internal Medicine. He probably could use another day for meds and observation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they discharged him right from ICU tomorrow.
“Got it.”
“Vitals are stable, have been most of today,” Harry said. “That collar is more for comfort. Scans were basically negative, although I’ll bet his neck took a helluva beating. Cracked four ribs ... miracle they didn’t splinter and puncture his lungs.”
“I see he’s bound up.”
“Got to keep him breathing, especially since he’s on heavy-duty pain medication. I’ve never broken any ribs myself, but I know from patients that taking a deep breath hurts like hell.”
“Yeah, again, I got it.”
“Then I’m out of here,” Harry said. “Hope things stay quiet for you.”
They may stay quiet for her, loser, but things are gonna heat up for you when I get out of here.
* * *
It was the end of shift and Abby Singer was sitting on the hospital stoop waiting for Harry. She usually got out before he did. Orthopedics was a little more predictable than ICU.
In the few weeks she’d known Harry, it hurt to even be apart from him. She’d fallen for him.
Hard.
She knew he saw her only as a friend, and why on earth would she even consider having a serious relationship with someone on the rebound?
For some reason, she’d shoved all logic aside and continued not only to spend all her free time with him, but to allow herself to hope things would change between them.
Besides, he was fun, and adventurous, and when she first started hanging out with him, she didn’t mind being an impartial listener to his feelings about ex-girlfriend Gina. He seemed to be what she called a deep guy, but solid and real. Abby didn’t have a chance to meet too many men like that.
She hadn’t been thinking about a long-term relationship of any kind. But here she was, falling in love with Harry Lucke.
That Gina has got to have a loose screw in her head. The man is crazy about her and she won’t seal the deal. Some people don’t know a good thing even when it’s standing right in front of them.
Harry walked out of the hospital front entrance, saw her, waved, and gave her that wonderful smile of his. “Hey, how was your day?”
“Pretty routine. A couple of hip fractures, a fractured arm. The rest were post-op hip replacements.” Abby shrugged. “It never ends.”
“Ready for a ride in the Porsche?”
Abby hesitated. She really wanted to talk to him about the two of them.
Was their relationship going anywhere? Could she continue to be only a friend? At least get it all out in the open. It was time. Maybe past time.
“I’m still hungry,” she said. “I ate dinner hours ago. How about we grab a taco and a beer at Picos. Is that all right with you?” She crossed her fingers behind her back as they headed for the Porsche.
* * *
Picos was a small Mexican restaurant a couple of blocks from the hospital. It was rare to find anyplace to eat at this hour, but they were open and served food until 2:00 a.m. Of course it was the bar that brought in the money, but they managed to get enough midnight snackers to make wee hours food service worthwhile.
Harry led Abby to a corner booth that two people were just leaving. They stood and waited while a waiter rushed in to clean off the dirty dishes, wipe down the table, and reset the silverware.
“Bueno, mis amigos.” The man handed them menus and hurried off.
“I’ve never seen it this busy at this hour,” Harry said as they slipped into the booth.
He could tell Abby had something on her mind and he sensed what it was. What he didn’t know was how he was going to handle it.
They each ordered a draft beer and supersize chicken tacos. The waiter had no sooner left than Abby said, “I need to talk to you, Harry.”
“Sure.”
The change of her expression from carefree to sad-eyed and questioning made Harry shift in his seat with worry. Before she could say anything more, the tacos and two Dos Equis arrived. Harry could tell she was as happy as he was for the momentary distraction.
Harry loaded his food with Tabasco while Abby used the green sauce that came in a little bowl.
“Man, this is really great,” Harry said, biting off a large chunk and dribbling sauce onto the plate. “Nothing neat about eating a taco.” He laughed.
Abby downed all of her food with a sense of urgency, as though she hadn’t eaten in days. Finishing her last bite, she splattered salsa on her green scrub top and tried to wipe it away with a napkin.
”You must be kidding if you think attacking that juicy stuff is going to do anything but spread it around.” Harry was laughing so hard he had to put down his half-finished taco before he spilled it everywhere.
Abby looked up at him, but she wasn’t smiling. She pushed her plate aside, wiped her mouth, and without a word left the booth and ran out the door.
Harry was stunned. He quickly pulled some bills from his wallet, threw them on the table, and took off.
He could see her in the distance, running so hard she was already half a block away.
He fired up the Porsche and drove after her. When they were side by side, he called out, “Abby! Come on! Get in the car, please.”
She stopp
ed, and he reached across to open the passenger door. She just stood there, not moving.
Her shoulders lifted, she sighed, stepped up to the car, dropped down into the leather bucket seat. Seatbelt fastened, she turned to face him, eyes desperate. Tears were rolling down her cheeks.
Harry reached over and folded her into his arms.
Chapter 17
Lena Dobbs had been feeling ill for the past two days, but swallowing aspirin helped shove the muscle aches and fatigue aside. She refused to let it hang foremost on her mind. She was used to pushing herself to the limit, no matter what or how she felt. A little bit of a temperature and a cough wasn’t going to kill her, especially when she had finals staring her in the face. She knew the flu was running rampant, but she could not, would not accept that she was really sick.
She checked her iPhone to see if there were any new messages, but there it sat, the same one from her boyfriend, Benjamin―the one that she’d been ignoring all morning. She finally gave in and hit the speaker button.
“Hi, babe ... I’m sorry about last night ... I really missed you ... but it hurt when you didn’t come to my gig.”
There was a long pause.
“I know you’ve got finals ... I just thought ... anyway, let’s talk later. You know I love you, baby.”
Lena wasn’t prone to headaches but after listening to Benjamin, her head started to pound and her eyelids grew heavy. She went into her parents’ bathroom and grabbed two more aspirins from their medicine cabinet.
She was shocked when she looked into the cabinet mirror and saw dark circles under both eyes—the contrast to her golden brown skin was not what she had expected to see.
Mom and Dad assured her that she wasn’t adopted—both of them dark-skinned African Americans—but Lena was about one hundred shades lighter. Family joke: Way back some slave trader inserted himself into the family tree. Lena never thought it was funny.
She ran a comb through her tight curls and spread foundation makeup around her eyes, trying to lighten the dark circles. She walked down the hall to her room to gather her books.
Benjamin kept popping back into her head.
At twenty-five, she thought her life was full of wonderful choices. Unlike Benjamin and many of her friends, who didn’t have a clue about what they wanted to do after college, she’d always known exactly where she was going.
Her parents were both tax lawyers and in practice together, and loved living in San Francisco.
At first, Lena thought she would follow in their footsteps, not because they pushed her in that direction, but because she found the practice of law fascinating. If they’d tried to influence her in any way at all, it was to become a doctor and help people in a different way. That’s what her parents were like.
But the more she studied, the more she realized that criminal defense was where she belonged. The idea that she could be responsible for saving innocent people from being executed or going to prison, made her feel inspired. If she could keep anyone from suffering any kind of injustice, that was what she wanted to do.
Benjamin.
He wanted to be a music teacher, but wasn’t ready to tie himself down. Most of their fights were about his not jumping into his future, laying low and partying wasn’t going to make anything happen.
Lena walked to her desk, sat, and started fingering through her notes on Criminal Justice Reform and Individual Representation. The words kept blurring and her headache stabbed at her; it was getting worse.
Maybe I ought to get some orange juice. A little vitamin C might help.
When she stood, the room tilted, then started spinning. Lena grabbed onto the desk to steady herself. After a moment, everything returned to normal.
Shoot, I have two exams today ... have to get myself together.
She took her time, walked from her bedroom into the kitchen, navigating by holding onto furniture and the walls. She reached into the refrigerator and opened a large jug of juice.
The last thing she remembered was watching in amazement as it slid through her fingers, splashing all over the floor.
* * *
Lena heard the shifting of machinery all around her. She was so tired. She didn’t want to see anything, she just wanted to rest, but there was such a racket, her eyes snapped open.
She was in a semi-chamber, stretched out on a table.
“Where am I?” she screamed. “Help!”
She couldn’t move her head. Something was holding it down.
She screamed again. “Let me out of here!”
A disembodied voice spoke softly: “It’s all right, Lena. You’re fine. We’re just taking a scan of your head. You have to lie very still; you’ll be out very soon. I promise.”
She stopped struggling.
“What happened?”
“You fainted and struck your head. The scan is just to make sure everything is all right. Your parents are in the waiting room and you’ll be seeing them soon.”
The voice faded and Lena closed her eyes.
* * *
Brad Rizzo pulled up a chair and sat down next to Gina in the nurses’ station. Much to her disgust, she couldn’t stop her face from burning.
Someday I’m going to stop morphing into a persimmon at the least little male-female interaction. But obviously not this morning.
“One of my patients, Lena Dobbs, is going to be admitted very soon.”
“What’s the problem?”
“Her parents found her passed out. Seems she fell in their kitchen and gave her cranium a royal whop.”
Brad edged in a little closer. “She’s fortunate they decided to come home for lunch for a change. Otherwise, she might have been there all day on the kitchen floor in huge puddle of orange juice. P. S. she also could have died. ”
“Poor gal. It must have been scary for her.”
“EMTs admitted her through the ER. The doc worked her up and had her head scanned.”
Gina felt his knee casually brush against hers.
“She’s had a concussion, but there’s more to it,” he said.
“There’s more than a conk on the head?”
It was a poor time to joke, but Brad was making Gina nervous sitting so close to her, even though it was simply a normal medical conversation about a patient, nothing out of the ordinary.
“Lena has the flu, she’s a rundown mess, and has a go-go-go personality.”
“Quite a combination.”
“Yeah, and like every Type A you’ve ever known, she’s ready to burn the world down if she has to crawl to do it. We had to practically pin her down after she woke up. It’s hard. She’s a law student about to graduate, and has finals today and tomorrow. Or should I say, had finals. Which she’s definitely going to miss.”
“That’s pretty rough, “ Gina said. “Will they let her make them up?”
“I’m betting they will. Her parents are both lawyers. I think they’ll make sure she gets what she needs.”
Brad gave her one of his dimpled smiles. Gina’s heart started racing.
God, I hate this. He must have pheromones polluting the air.
“I’ve been taking care of Lena since she was fifteen. She’s a very special person.”
“How is she taking all of this?”
“Not well. But she’s been walking around with a temp of one hundred and one ... finally got her to admit to severe chest pain and a gunky, productive cough. I’m sure a culture will reveal strep colonies, or other organisms that think they’ve found a home.”
“X-ray?”
“Yup. Pneumonia for sure, and a pretty bad case of it ... we’ll be drowning her in IV antibiotics.” Brad chuckled. “That, after her giving me the third degree about why antibiotics were overused ... wanted to know if she couldn’t just play it cool.”
“I like her already.”
“Normally, I’d release her after a night of observation and antibiotics. But I know if we release her she won’t stay down. Bed rest is not in her vocabulary. One part
of her brain says this is really serious. Another part says, I can get through anything.”
He typed in the rest of his medical orders. “That’s youth for you.”
“I’m not sure I recall,” Gina said.
He stood. “I had such a good time with you last night. I can’t remember ever enjoying deli so much.”
Gina looked up at him. “I guess we don’t need to go out Saturday now.”
“You’re an imp, Ms. Mazzio. Do you know that?” He took her hand and pulled her up into his arms, kissed her right then and there in the nurses’ station.
“Brad!”
“There’s your answer.” And then he walked away.
Chapter 18
Gina walked into the private room, stepped back as the ER techs transferred Brad’s restless patient from a gurney onto her bed.
That is one sick twenty-five-year-old.
Although Lena Dobbs was a beautiful young woman, her face was drawn, her skin dull and slack.
Her face held a range of naked emotions—worry, anger, fear—and total exhaustion. To top it off, every movement caused a deep cough to rack her whole upper body.
Yes, she was very sick.
Gina was glad the patient was already hooked up to an IV because she didn’t need one more moment of unnecessary pain.
As if anybody does.
When she stepped up to the side of the bed, Lena’s expression shouted: What now?
“Hi, I’m Gina, one of the nurses who’ll be taking care of you.” She placed a hand on the young woman’s shoulder—that was enough to make her burst into tears.
Gina grabbed several tissues from the bedside table and gently placed them in her hand.
“I can’t be here,” Lena said between sobs. She yanked the oxygen cannulas from her nose and blew into the tissues. “I have a final today. I can’t not show up.”
“You look pretty washed out,” Gina said softly. “Too sick to do anything but rest and I think you know that, Lena.”
“One of my friends had a concussion ... they didn’t keep her in the hospital.” Lena looked at Gina with a child’s questioning face, but her eyes were very grown-up and piercing. “I’ll bet my parents put Dr. Rizzo up to this.”
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