Page 22 of Left Behind

Just thinking about that happening made Wiley’s gut knot.

“I’m on it, Chief. I’ll pick up a cruiser from the lot. No need dragging someone in from patrol just to give me a ride.”

Sonny smiled as Wiley bolted out of the room. Probably wanting to escape before Sonny changed his mind. He admired the Pope family. And Aaron and Wiley were two of his best officers. The brothers all looked alike, but Wiley was different. A bit wilder and far less likely to suffer fools.

***

Linette was on duty in the surgical wing when she saw Wiley Pope coming up the hall. The width of his shoulders was almost as broad as his stride was long. He needed a haircut and a warning label, but the wild side of her longed for the wild side of him. He was walking toward her with a fixed look at everything in front of him, which at this moment included her. Here she was, still waiting for that phone call and a second date, and like the proverbial bad penny, he’d turned up on her turf.

Then, before she knew what was happening, he stopped in the middle of the hall, slid his hands up the sides of her cheeks, and kissed her. Square on the mouth, with purpose and intent. Within seconds, she’d lost all sense of self.

She was in a state of shock and had forgotten to breathe when he ended it and started talking.

“I’ve been needing to do that since the moment you came running toward me at the bank. I saw all that blood on your face and thought you’d been shot, and all I could think was I’d never got the chance to say I’m sorry, or to thank you for what you did. The ICU is that way, right?” he asked, pointing up the hall.

Speechless, she nodded.

He brushed the back of his hand against her cheek again. “Sorry you weren’t up for another dinner date. Gotta go. I’ll catch you later.”

What? I never said… I didn’t.… But she never uttered the words. Instead, she turned to see where he was going and caught him standing in the hall watching her. Damn the man. He knew I would turn around. Disgusted with herself, she turned and walked away.

I knew you’d do that, Wiley thought and kept walking until he was at the entrance to the ICU. He knocked on the door, and when a nurse opened it, he flashed his badge.

“Office Pope, reporting for duty. I’ve been assigned to guard Carey Eggers. Chief Warren told me you would furnish me with a patient list and a visitor list. And you need to know that anyone who’s not on that list will not be going into the ICU for visits as long as Carey Eggers is a patient here.”

The nurse blinked. “Uh…”

Wiley kept talking. “She’s a witness to a murder. Someone tried to kill her. I’m here to make sure that doesn’t happen again. I need to see where she is, and if she’s too close to other patients, you’ll need to move her.”

“I’ll get my superior,” the nurse said, and closed the door. A few moments later, another nurse came out. “My name’s Norma. Follow me and please keep your voice down.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, and walked in behind her, quietly moving past eight other patients before they reached a bed at the far end of the room. “Doctor requested she be kept away from the others a bit. Is this okay?”

Wiley eyed the setup, then the woman in the bed. He could see the staples in her head where they’d shaved away her hair. A bandage across her shoulder, and so many cuts and contusions on her face and arms that he could only imagine what the rest of her body must look like. He turned to the nurse, nodded, and followed her out.

“I’ll get that list for you and a chair,” she said.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Wiley said.

“Just call me, Norma,” she said.

“Yes, ma’am,” he said again.

She rolled her eyes and disappeared, then came back a few minutes later with both lists on a clipboard and a folding chair.

“Sorry. It’s the best I could do,” Norma said.

“It’s fine. Thank you. Do you have visiting hours on the hour only?”

Joan nodded. “Yes. Two people per patient, and only for ten minutes, then visiting hour is over.”

“When do you change shifts?” he asked.

“Midnight. All four of us here will leave then, and four more will come on. No more. No less. Hospital rule.”

Wiley nodded and settled in. He could see the waiting room through the glassed-in enclosure in which he was sitting, and as time grew closer, people began to gather in the outer lobby. Some of them were silent. Some of were visiting quietly. One was crying, and at one time or another, they were all on their phones.

When the clock rolled around to the hour, the visitors found themselves face-to-face with a uniformed policeman.

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