Page 59 of Deception

Rebecca grabbed his arm. “You shouldn’t be here.”

He jutted his jaw. “Not leaving.”

She left him alone, but seconds later someone closed the door and curtain to the judge’s room. He stood sentinel until a doctor arrived, and seconds later the nurse he’d seen giving CPR stumbled from the room, tears in her eyes. She stopped short when she saw him.

“He didn’t make it,” Clayton said.

She shook her head and hurried down the hall.

He squeezed his eyes closed. Madison would take this hard. He had to get to her, be there when she got the word. Or tell her himself.

Clayton found Rebecca at the nurses’ station. “Can you holdoff on notifying Madison about her grandfather until I can reach her?”

Tears glistened in the nurse’s eyes. “It’s...” She bit her lip and then wiped her eyes. “It’s not up to me. Once my boss tells me to make the call, I’ll have to do it.”

Then he had no choice but to try to reach Madison first. “Give me a little time, if you can.” He spun on his heel and rushed out of the unit.

33

Madison...”

Immediately she recognized the charge nurse’s voice, and when Rebecca’s voice cracked, Madison steeled herself.

“Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

“I’m afraid Judge Anderson had a massive heart attack ... we weren’t able to revive him.”

Madison stumbled to a chair and collapsed in it. “I thought his condition was improving....” The scene from when he crashed earlier was embedded in her memory.

“He was, but his heart slipped into an abnormal rhythm, and the stress was too much. I’m sorry.”

“Thank you for notifying me. I’ll be right there.” She stood and turned to Hugh. “I have to go to the hospital.”

“What’s wrong?”

Ignoring the buzzing on her phone, she slipped it in her pocket. The room turned into a blur. “Grandfather just died.”

“I’m sorry, Madison.”

Numbly she nodded. “Thank you.”

“If there’s anything—”

She held up her hand, cutting him off. “Someone shot my grandfather and if you won’t find them, I will—if it’s the last thing I ever do.”

“Madison—”

“I mean it, Hugh.”

“You have bereavement time with the park service. Take it. We’ll sit down later and go over this,” he said. “Right now, you have things to take care of. Is there anyone who can help you arrange the funeral?”

Funeral.She’d have to contact her cousins, but she doubted Buddy and Joe would be much help, living so far away. She didn’t remember the last time they came to visit Grandfather.

The room closed in on her. She had to get out of here. Madison nodded to whatever he’d said after “funeral” and rushed from the room and down the hallway. When she flung the front door open, Clayton stood there.

Without thinking, she threw herself into his arms and burst into tears.

---