Guarded Prognosis
Page 21
She tapped the accelerator, but the obstruction held her car fast. Kelly put the transmission into park and climbed out.
As she made her way carefully to the rear of the car, Kelly hoped the bump she felt was just a mound of snow. A few moments with the shovel could take care of that. She might even be able to simply go forward a bit, then put the car in reverse, push down on the accelerator, power over the obstruction, and be on her way.
But after she’d taken a few more steps toward the car’s rear bumper she realized that the bump she’d felt wasn’t snow. It was the body of a man lying in the driveway, blocking her passage. His left hand, which lay outstretched beneath the right rear wheel of her still-running car, seemed to be reaching out to her.
She stifled the scream that caught in her throat. Her eyes never left the corpse as she tried to call out. When Kelly finally was able to make her vocal cords work, she called in a surprisingly calm voice, “Jack, there’s a dead man in our driveway.”
Jack’s mind was elsewhere as he walked out of the house and into the garage. When he felt the cold wind and saw that the overhead door was open, he grumbled and buttoned his topcoat. The sight of Kelly’s car idling about half-way down the driveway caused him to shake his head sadly. What has she done this time? And is it going to slow me down?
“What’s wrong?” Jack said in a voice calculated to carry. “If it’s car trouble, you’ll have to call AAA. And don’t think you’re going to take mine. I’m due in court for a very important hearing this morning.” He started to open the door and climb into his BMW but stopped when he heard Kelly’s words. At first, he wasn’t certain he’d heard her correctly.
“Jack, there’s a dead man in our driveway.”
“What?”
She repeated the sentence, a bit louder this time. Jack left his car and moved toward the back of Kelly’s Subaru. “That’s ridiculous,” he said.
“See for yourself,” she managed to say.
In a few more steps, he reached the corpse. When he saw the face, he knew this was going to be a long morning—no, make that a long day.
Books by Richard L. Mabry, MD
Novels of Medical Suspense
Code Blue
Medical Error
Diagnosis Death
Lethal Remedy
Stress Test
Heart Failure
Critical Condition
Fatal Trauma
Miracle Drug
Medical Judgment
Cardiac Event
Guarded Prognosis
Novellas
Rx Murder
Silent Night, Deadly Night
Doctor’s Dilemma
Surgeon’s Choice
Non-Fiction
The Tender Scar: Life After the Death of A Spouse
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT RICHARD MABRY’S BOOKS
About Cardiac Event: “There is so much action in his latest release, with just the right amount of romance, it makes it hard to go on without finishing one more chapter.”
Romantic Times Book Reviews (4 ½ stars, Top Pick)
About Medical Judgment: “Balances action with emotion and struggles of faith, making it easy for readers to care about the characters and what happens to them in all the twists and turns of the genre.”
Lauraine Snelling, best-selling author of the Red River of the North sagas
About Miracle Drug: “Excellent story. Excellently crafted. Great characters. Great plot.” DiAnne Mills, Christy-award winning author of Deadlock
About Fatal Trauma: “Asks big questions of faith, priorities, and meaning, all within the context of a tightly crafted medical drama.”
Steven James, best-selling author of Placebo and Checkmate
About Critical Condition: “Has the uncommon ability to take medical details and make them understandable, while still maintaining accuracy and intrigue.”
Romantic Times Book Reviews (4 ½ stars)
About Heart Failure: “Combines his medical expertise with a story that will keep you on the edge of your seat.”
USA Today
About Stress Test: “Original and profound. I found the . . . story (moving) a mile a minute.”
Michael Palmer, NYT best-selling author of Oath of Office