by Gina Kincade
“He was my friend, my colleague,” I explained, hoping she’d have some empathy for me.
Her body stiffened. “I’m sorry. My hands are tied.”
I didn’t believe her. She wanted me to leave long before I stepped into the hospital complex. Why didn’t she trust me? What had I done to make her not like me?
“Okay, then. Thanks.” I turned to walk out, noticing a sympathetic look on the other doctor’s face. “Have a good one,” I offered, glancing at her name tag to refresh my memory. “Don’t work too hard, Dr. Knight.”
I considered her blush a sign I might be able to have better luck with her, but for now, I’d keep my eye on the prize. Dr. Delilah Moreno was the one I needed to get close to. She was the one I needed in order to accomplish my mission. Now, all I had to do was figure out how to win her over.
As I walked through the patient waiting area, I heard the swoosh of the doors opening behind me.
“Hey! Reese, wait!”
I smiled inwardly, recognizing the voice. I turned. “Yes?”
“Sorry to bother you, but could I speak to you again, please?” Dr. Moreno asked, motioning for me to follow her back behind the secure doors.
I wanted to run, anxious to hear what she’d learned, but that would have seemed too eager. Nope, I needed to take my time. Play it cool, otherwise I’d walk away empty handed. “Sure. I have a few minutes. Did you change your mind about dinner, Dr. Moreno?” I asked.
She inhaled as I stepped past her. “Delilah. My name is Delilah,” she said.
Now was my chance to turn on the charm. Her curves made it easier for the words to roll off my tongue. “Your name is just as beautiful as you are, Delilah.”
Another quick inhale, and I do believe, I flustered the curvy doctor, but not long enough for her to remember why she’d beckoned me to follow her. “The hospital pathologist ran some tests for us. He found something a bit peculiar about Dr. Brooks. I was wondering if you might be able to clear a few things up for us?” she asked, making it a point to avoid eye contact with me.
My heart began to race in my chest. What had the pathologist discovered? “Sure, I’d be happy to help. What did he find?” I willed my body to relax, although, the bulge forming in my pants had begun to do a wild dance.
“Was Dr. Brooks a smoker? No one in the family mentioned it, but maybe they forgot.” Delilah led me to a room on the opposite side of the emergency room. “Right through here, please.”
The doctor who’d nearly trampled over me stood rifling through papers on a desk. “Hello, I’m Dr. Jordan. I’m a pathologist. I understand you and Dr. Brooks were co-workers?”
I nodded. “Yes, we have worked together for the last several months.” Keeping my tone even took more work effort than I was prepared to expend. I had to turn away from the doctor’s line of vision so he wouldn’t notice the twitching of my eye.
“Great!” Dr. Jordan was a little too zealous for my taste. “I mean, that’s good. Was he a smoker?”
I paused, choosing my words carefully. “No, not that I’m aware of. I never saw him smoke. Of course, I didn’t follow his every move, but I’d say no, he wasn’t a smoker.”
“How about chewing tobacco?” Delilah asked.
“No,” I replied. Where were they going with this?
“Is your facility a smoke-free facility?” Dr. Jordan asked as he reviewed the forms in front of him again. “I assume it must be because most buildings are, but indulge me anyway.”
I looked at Delilah, but she stood stone faced, seeming to focus on a space just above eye level.
“Yes, it’s a smoke-free building. I don’t understand what this is all about. What did you find out? Did he have cancer?” I swallowed hard, hoping these questions weren’t leading to where I thought were going.
Delilah shook her head slightly. “No, I don’t believe so. Of course, more tests will need to be done, but for now, I’d say it wasn’t cancer. Thank you for your time.” Without another word, she held the door open for me.
I had more questions, but I didn’t know where to start. First, I had to ascertain what it was they thought they knew and how that would apply to me and the work I’d done.
“Thank you, Mr. Alexander,” Dr. Jordan offered. “You’ve been very helpful.”
I nodded, confused by the statement. I hadn’t told them anything. The truth was I had no idea if Isaac had ever been a smoker. I didn’t know anything about him. Other than we happened to work in the same facility and occasionally ran into each other in the hallway or the restroom, I didn’t know a thing about him. It wasn’t my job to get to know him or anyone else at Levy Corporation, outside of Stephen and his white coat minions.
“Sure,” I said, stepping out of the room and back through the emergency room.
“You’re back,” Dr. Knight said as she rushed out of a patient’s room. “Did old fuddy duddy change her mind and agree to have dinner with you?”
I shook my head. “I wish. No, she had a few questions for me about my friend,” I answered.
“Oh, I’m sorry. It really is a troubling case. Delilah has been wracking her brain trying to figure out if there was something she could have done differently.” She stopped short. “Crap! I probably shouldn’t have said that to you. You’re a lawyer, aren’t you?”
I smiled. “Yes, but I’m one of the good guys.”
She gave me a long once-over. “I bet you are. I’ll tell you what; if Miss Uptight doesn’t make the right decision, I just might have to keep you for myself.”
“I just might let you,” I said, pretending to mean it. “Why don’t you do me a favor and put in the good word for me. I don’t think Delilah likes me much. Maybe you could help me out with that?”
As expected, Amber was more than willing to meet my needs. She wasn’t any different from any of the other women I’d encountered in my thirty-some years of life. Most of them pretended to not want to have anything to do with me, but in the end, I was all they ever wanted and more. I wondered why her friend Delilah would be any different.
“You can count on it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to kick some people out of my E.R.” She left with a wink.
I made note of the hubbub around me. Nurses scampered about tending to patients, while other support staff members and a bevy of busy doctors had their eyes glued to computer monitors. It was no wonder no one, including security guards, had bothered to question my presence. Everyone was busy. That’s probably how Isaac’s family gained entrance. No one would have questioned them and, even if they had, it wouldn’t have seemed out of the ordinary. They had a legitimate reason to be there. In the eyes of the law they were fully within their rights.
“The exit is right there.” A nurse pointed to the neon colored exit sign.
“Thanks,” I offered before leaving empty handed. I’d hoped to have garnered valuable information, but short of being asked about Isaac’s smoking habit, I had nothing to show for my efforts. Stephen would throw a fit as soon as he heard the news.
When I reached my car, I took a few moments to wrap my head around all that had happened over the last several months. I never would have imagined that any of it would have led to someone’s death, especially not someone like Isaac. As far as I knew, he was well aware of the potential danger. So, how did he succumb to it and why?
Chapter Five – Delilah
I slipped in underneath the crisp white sheets, glad to finally be home and have the scent of illness and death off of me. I had two nights off before I had to return to work. I fully intended to use those days to my advantage. Between laundry and a pile of unread books to read, I had plenty to keep me busy and nothing more to worry about. The hospital could wait. That was the beauty of working in the emergency room. Patients came in, were stabilized and either sent home and transferred to their respective floors. I didn’t have to worry about doing the rounds or following up with any of them. They weren’t my problem any longer.
My apartment was silent. Just like
I liked it, but no matter what I did, I couldn’t get Dr. Brooks’ death off my mind. Something about it didn’t seem right. Plenty of people died for unknown reasons. I understood that, but this death didn’t sit well with me. The immediacy of the attorneys bothered me the most. What were they after? Why had they been deployed before the doctor’s family had even been notified? Why the urgency?
After thirty minutes of tossing and turning, willing my brain to stop thinking, I’d had enough. I had to get up and do something, so I reluctantly inched my way out of my nice, warm bed and dragged myself to the kitchen to grab a snack I didn’t need and a drink that would undoubtedly not help my insomnia. My cabinets were a sad reminder of how little time I actually spent at home. Work was killing me.
“This is ridiculous!” I snorted as I rifled through cabinets in search of a sleep aid. “How is it I never have any medications in this house when I need them?”
I sensed movement behind me.
“You’re hearing things,” I assured myself, trying to fool myself into believing the noise was a figment of my weary brain’s imagination.
Again, there was movement coming from the direction of my front door.
I pulled the coffee pot off the counter and swung around, brandishing it as a weapon.
“Who is that?”
Nothing.
A sudden burst of air hit my bare legs.
“Hello?” I called out, peeking around the wall to look into the living room and the entryway on the other side of it. My front door was wide open. I dropped the glass decanter. It hit the ground and shattered around my feet. “Hello!” I yelled loud enough for my neighbors to hear.
I lunged over the glass lying like a sea of deadly diamonds under my feet. “Who is there? Help!” I shouted out into the dimly lit hallway.
My neighbor across the hall opened her door. “Is everything okay, Delilah?”
I shook my head before I made a mad dash down the hallway to the stairwell. “No. Someone was in my apartment. Call the police.”
When I reached the stairwell, the hollow sound surprised me. There was no movement other than my own. I ran down to the next landing and flung the door open, hoping to catch whoever had just invaded my private sanctuary.
An elderly neighbor exited the elevator at the end of the hall. His cheeks reddened as he caught sight of me in my pajamas. “You alright over there?” he called out.
I used my hand to shield my cleavage from his view. “Someone broke into my apartment,” I answered.
The elevator doors closed with a loud thud behind him.
“Was it the man in the suit?” he asked, pointing to the elevator with his cane.
I turned around and rushed down the stairs, hoping I’d catch up to the man before he left the building, but as I stepped out into the main floor lobby, I heard the exterior door slam shut. “Damn!” He was gone. By the time I made it from the stairwell to the front door, the street in front of my building was empty.
Alone, barefoot, and only wearing pajamas, I had no choice but to go back upstairs and wait for the police to arrive. When the elevator dinged and came to a stop on my floor, every one of my neighbors was in the hallway milling about. Some turned their heads as I stepped off the elevator practically naked. Others whispered to each other -- probably about me. As long as I’d lived here, I tried to keep to myself. Aside from the occasional hellos in passing, I didn’t have much interaction with them. My long work hours didn’t afford me much time to get out and mingle, but for those I had met and spoken to on previous occasions, they made an effort to speak to me when we did run into each other.
“Are you okay, Doc?” one asked.
“Are you hurt?” another asked.
“The police are on the way,” the neighbor across the hall from me said.
“Good. Thank you,” I said as I made my way back to my apartment, the door wide open for all of my neighbors to see. “I’m going to change before they get here.”
The sea of people spread out to allow me to shuffle past. I hated being on display. I felt exposed and vulnerable. Someone had been in my apartment, my refuge from the chaos at work. Why?
When I stepped inside, a cold chill washed over me like a deluge from a strong storm. It no longer felt like my home. I stood there for a moment, motionless and terrified at the same time. “Who would do this?” I asked, looking for any signs of theft or damage.
A few deep breaths didn’t help build my courage to move further into the apartment, but opening the front door again and asking my concerned neighbors to listen for any noises did. “I’ll be in the bedroom,” I said to one small woman. I thought I recognized her from one of the co-op meetings, but I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore. I’d never been the victim of a crime before. It was unnerving and went against everything I believed in.
“The police are here, honey,” one of my neighbors announced.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good.” Forgetting what I was wearing, I walked out into the hallway to greet the officers.
“Are you the homeowner?” A tall, square-shaped officer asked, his eyes skimming over my see-through attire.
I placed my hands in strategic places to block his view of places no man had seen in at least a year. “Yes, someone broke in,” I explained. “He took off when I saw him.
I spent the next hour answering questions with what little information I had and listening to them assure me that my home was safe to be in. “I can’t stay here. What if he comes back?” I asked, annoyed that they had no solution for me.
“Is there someone you can call or someone you can stay with?” an officer asked.
I shook my head. “No, no one. My family lives a thousand miles away. My co-workers are at work or sleeping like I should be. There’s no one. How long will it take to find this guy?”
The officer shrugged. “That’s hard to say. We’ll do what we can, but with no description, we really don’t have a lot to go on.”
“So, he’ll never be arrested?” I asked.
“I didn’t say that. We first have to figure out who we’re looking for.” He turned to speak to the crime scene technician. “How’s it going over there?”
She yelled over her shoulder, “Not much here. Was the gut wearing gloves?”
How was I supposed to know? “I only saw him for a second. I didn’t notice his hands. I didn’t see anything beyond the look in his eyes.” I shuddered to remember.
When they finished up, they left behind enough of a mess to keep me occupied for several hours. I didn’t bother to protest, though because I knew there would be no chance of me falling asleep anytime soon. If I thought I was restless before, this incident made it much worse.
It was well after three a.m. and, short of pretending like nothing had happened, I couldn’t settle down and relax. My condo was back in order. My psyche, however, was completely out of whack. Everything I thought I believed about myself was shaken. I’d been trained not to crack under pressure, but this -- this intrusion -- proved even the best training never prepared one for danger in their own backyard.
“Now what?” My exasperation was increasing as I listened to the sound of the clock on my wall ticking. I scrolled through my cell phone, debating over whether or not to try to contact Amber and see how things were going at the hospital. Deciding against it, I searched through my text messages and found one I’d not seen before. I needed something to distract me. After reading it, I immediately dialed the number.
“Hey, why are you awake at this time of night?” Amber answered her cell phone on the first ring.
I jumped right into it. “Someone broke into my place.” The horror of what had happened finally began to hit me, sinking into my soul like a weighted bag at the bottom of the sea.
“Oh my God! Are you kidding? Are you okay?” Amber sounded just as horrified as I was by the event. “Did you call the police?”
“Yes,” I said, my voice shaking. “They were here and took my statement. I didn’t
get a good look at the guy so I didn’t have much information for them to go on.”
“Wow! I’m so sorry. Are you hurt? Where are you?” she asked.
“I’m at home,” I said, tears threatening to escape my eyes. “I shouldn’t have bothered you, but after I saw your message, I thought I should give you a call.”
“Yeah, about that,” she paused, sighing. “I was just messing with you. I knew you’d be awake and missing this dump. Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. Now, I feel like a jerk.”
“No, don’t feel that way. You had no way of knowing, and you were right. I was lying awake, thinking about what happened to the doctor,” I said, feeling like I’d wasted my time because what happened to him didn’t matter under the circumstances. It didn’t do me any good to fret about it immediately after having had a stranger enter my home -- my sanctuary.
Amber tried to console me as best she could over the phone. “It’s going to be okay. If I could, I’d leave work and drive out to your place to keep you company, but--”
I understood. She didn’t have to explain it to me. “It’s fine. If you weren’t there, I’d be there. Just think, what if I’d come home from work and found that guy in my house doing who knows what?” I shuddered to think about it.
“This is going to sound crazy. I’m not trying to scare you, but I’d feel a whole lot better if you weren’t alone. Is there anyone you can call? I mean, besides me?” she asked.
I’d been wracking my brain trying to think of someone else to call, but the reality was, there was no one. I’d made the decision to move to this city alone. I wanted to exert my independence -- prove I could do it by myself. Up until tonight, I’d managed to be successful, but now, I felt like all of it had been for naught.
“I’ll be fine. The doors and windows are locked,” I said.
I heard the familiar shrill tone of Amber’s beeper going off. “Hey, hon, I have to go. I want you to call or text me every hour while you’re awake, understood? Don’t make me leave my patients to go looking for you.” She wouldn’t let me hang up the phone until I promised to remain in constant contact with her throughout the remainder of the night.