Before Sunrise
Page 9
Fortin nodded and Dr. Burton moved her clipboard closer. His ID, driver’s license, medical card, business card, and a card with numbers he’d penned on the back; records of his life.
“You’re hurt too badly for us to fix everything here. We’re going to airlift you to Seattle, is there someone back home we should call?”
Fortin touched his detachment number and the card with his ex-wife’s numbers. Then he brushed his license and medical card until the doctor understood then she glanced to someone; a nurse, holding another clipboard, who nodded and left.
Soon increasingly loud thumping shook the air.
The helicopter had arrived.
As they wheeled Fortin out, he glimpsed Yacine, on a gurney in the hall, handcuffed at the wrists and ankles while half a dozen deputies and troopers guarded him.
One of them looked back at Fortin with a sudden glance that telegraphed a mix of respect and sadness.
The helicopter landed on the front lawn, and a medical crew wearing helmets and headsets loaded Fortin through the clamshell door.
Chapter 38
Ice Lake, Washington
Inside the hospital, Dr. Niki Burton was in the quiet of her office, sitting before a computer screen displaying Fortin’s vital information, which she’d accessed with the help of officials in Canada.
She studied it for several moments.
Then she called a twenty-four-hour hotline for a national organ donor network and discussed Fortin’s situation.
“That’s correct,” she said. “The patient will not recover from his injuries.”
She confirmed Fortin’s blood type, tissue type, age, and consent. The network, in turn, searched its databases and alerted a local transplant organization in Seattle, which assessed their waiting lists for a match.
Then Dr. Burton, a thirty-five-year-old mother of three children and local soccer mom, steeled herself to make another call.
Chapter 39
Above the Cascade Mountains, Washington
As the helicopter ascended, Fortin saw buildings shrink into oceans of green forest, then the majestic slopes of the Cascade Range.
The sky cleared and he saw snatches of stunning blue sky, then felt the warmest sensation of flying and falling through his life …
… there he was back in Quebec, in the Montcalm neighborhood of his youth, smelling the fresh-baked bread of the bakery where he’d go with his mother, tasting the jelly donuts she’d buy for him. Here he was feeding carrots to the horses at the gate of the old city, and there he was on the street playing hockey with his pals, and here he was at school, then at the RCMP Depot in Regina, then in New Brunswick walking with Cathy in the school yard, helping mend her broken heart. And there’s Cathy radiant in her wedding dress. He saw their little home in the foothills before the Rockies in Lone Tree, Alberta … there he was alone that night, the rain beating on the windshield of his car, the red eyes of the deer in his headlights. The Road Runner cartoons … Then the sky turned azure like Ocho Rios in Jamaica, where he and Cathy spent their honeymoon.
Chapter 40
Calgary, Alberta
At that time, the principal of Confederation Elementary School, in a southern suburb of Calgary, took an urgent call.
She left her phone off the hook and rushed out of her office to collect the vice principal. Together they hurried down the main corridor. It was empty and artwork posted on the walls by the students lifted and crackled in their wake before they’d stopped at Mrs. Endicott’s class, signalling her to step into the hall where the principal spoke softly.
“Cathy, there’s a call for you. Come with me to my office,” the principal said. “Rhonda will watch your class.”
As the principal led her to her office, Cathy read the concern in the principal’s face.
“Is it my kids?” she asked, fear filling her eyes.
The principal shook her head.
“Is it Chadwick?”
“No,” the principal said, leaving Cathy alone so she could take the emergency call in private.
Nearly numb with apprehension, Cathy picked up the handset.
“Yes, this is Cathy Endicott … Yes, Corporal Will Fortin is my husband – former husband ...”
Cathy stared hard into the painting of the Rockies on the principal’s wall, while at the other end of the line, Dr. Niki Burton explained.
Slowly the snow-tipped peaks blurred through Cathy’s tears.
She squeezed the phone hard, wishing she could reach Will Fortin’s hand; she swallowed air and found her voice.
“Yes, I can confirm he would have wanted that. We discussed it when we were marri- yes, you have my consent.”
In the adjoining office, the principal and her assistant heard the thunk of the phone hitting the desktop, then a loud sob, and they rushed into the office to comfort Cathy.
Chapter 41
Seattle, Washington
At Harborview Medical Center the specialists with the rapid organ recovery team prepared Lee Carter for an emergency kidney transplant.
In the waiting room nearby, Lee’s wife, Eileen, after countless attempts, finally succeeded in reaching Lee’s mother on her cellphone.
“Ren, they found a donor! Our prayers have been answered! They’re prepping Lee now!”
“Oh, thank God!” Ren released a sob. “I – I don’t know what to say right now … I just don’t know …”
“Ren? Is everything all right? Where are you?”
“I hit somebody!”
“You hit somebody?”
“Two men.”
“What? What happened?”
“They were on the road. I have to pray for them. I think one might die. Oh dear God, forgive me!”
“Ren?”
The state trooper who’d been watching over Ren gently accepted her phone, then got on the line and explained to Eileen what had transpired, emphasizing that Ren was not at fault.
“We’ll take care of her here,” the trooper said, “and then we’ll arrange for her to join you in Seattle at the hospital as soon as possible.”
Chapter 42
Seattle, Washington
At that moment, somewhere over the edge of Seattle within sight of the Olympic Mountains in the east, Will Fortin’s heart stopped beating as his life slipped away.
Instantly he was in the kitchen of Elena Grabowski’s basement apartment, the air smelling of spices and onions, her stern-faced relatives watching from the old pictures on the walls, the huge battered trunk, padlocked to hold her family’s secrets. The room’s dimmed light and the red candle flame flickering in her pretty, dark eyes. Elena’s soft warm hands working on his, her fingers tracing the lines in his palms, her face becoming serious as she draws it closer to his palm, feeling her soft breath on his skin as she revealed his destiny … I see darkness for you then you’re going to do something great, something wonderful …
And in his final moment of life, Fortin knew.
He’d found peace and the joy that comes at the successful end of a heart’s pursuit.
His open eyes were staring, but at nothing of this world.
Billy Dolan and his little sister, Daisy, had been waiting for him.
Smiling, they each took Fortin by the hand.
A NOTE TO THE READER
Before Sunrise is a work of fiction drawn in my imagination where I exercised creative license and took liberties with geography, technical realities, jurisdiction and the investigative process, to present a drama concerning human beings facing extraordinary situations. In bringing this story to you I benefitted from the help of several people.
Thanks to Wendy Dudley for making this a better story.
Very special thanks to Barbara, Laura and Michael.
I would like to thank Donna Carrick.
Thanks of course to Amy Moore-Benson of Meridian Artists.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Chief Superintendent Rick Taylor, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Ret.). If law enforcement aspects of the sto
ry ring true it’s because of Rick’s help. For the parts that don’t, blame me for my transgressions as a fiction writer.
Finally, I want to thank you, the reader for without you, a book remains an untold tale. Thank you for setting your life on pause and taking the journey. I deeply appreciate my audience around the world and those who’ve been with me since the beginning who keep in touch. Thank you all for your very kind words. I hope you enjoyed the ride and will check out my other books while watching for my next one. I welcome your feedback. Drop by at (www.rickmofina.com) subscribe to my newsletter and send me a note.
Rick Mofina
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Mofina is a former journalist who has interviewed murderers on death row, flown over L.A. with the LAPD and patrolled with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He's also reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait's border with Iraq. His books have been published in nearly 30 countries, including an illegal translation produced in Iran.
His work has been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper.
The Crime Writers of Canada, The International Thriller Writers and The Private Eye Writers of America have listed his titles among the best in crime fiction. As a two-time winner of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, a four-time Thriller Award finalist and a two-time Shamus Award finalist, the Library Journal calls him, “One of the best thriller writers in the business."
Also by Rick Mofina
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THE BURNING EDGE
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THE PANIC ZONE
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Rick Mofina
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