AllFreeNovel
Share Us
But what was going to be hard to admit to her (and, he supposed, fully to himself) was that he was quickly falling in love with a woman that might be dead in less than two years.
CHAPTER SIX
On the morning after Jack had come by only to get pulled away by another case, Rachel woke up feeling a sense of urgency. She wasn't scared, and there was no more panic in her heart about her situation than usual. She simply woke up feeling that she needed to get some things accomplished.
Ever since she had taken her leave from work, she'd been unable to sleep in. The one exception was the very first morning when she had managed to sleep until about nine o'clock. Every morning since then, she had woken up just shy of six. Most of those mornings were spent in silence on the patio, sitting in the glider with a cup of coffee until Grandma Tate came out.
But now, seconds after opening her eyes, Rachel got out of bed, brushed her teeth, and went downstairs. She poured a cup of coffee and headed for the patio as usual, but this time she took the small file folder she’d kept tucked in the magazine rack by the couch.
The folder contained what she was starting to think of as her End-of-Life To-Do List. It contained printouts and pamphlets about the chemo treatments that had been offered to her. As a total alternative to that, it also held a little bucket list of sorts that she had been keeping ever since her first negative diagnosis. It had changed a bit after Peter died, butalmost every entry on the list involved Paige. There was information on how to enjoy Disney on a budget, a list of all family-oriented water parks in the state, and information on a few local travel agents that might be able to get the ball rolling on a trip to Hawaii.
She figured that if she started on this list soon, she could knock every single one of them out before things got bad—whether or not she opted to undergo chemotherapy. It would pretty much wipe out her bank account, but it would be worth it. She knew that within a few weeks, the life insurance policy Peter had would start paying out, but she didn’t want to touch that money just yet. She knew without a doubt that he’d have no issues with her using it to pay for the trips if Paige was involved, but she still felt weird thinking about spending the money in such a way.
She’d already done the math and knew that she could pull the trigger on the Disney trip whenever she wanted. The idea of it did make her happy, and she knew it was something she wanted to do long before things got worse for her. She started making a to-do list for the day, making a note to call Dr. Emerson’s office to see if it would be safe for her to fly.
With the day’s to-do list sketched out, she eyed the pamphlets about chemo. Deep down, she was pretty sure it was the route she was going to take. Maybe after Disney and Hawaii, she’d go ahead and do it. It would give her, Paige, and Grandma Tate some wonderful memories to file away before things got too hard.
As she took a sip from her coffee, her phone buzzed at her. Curious, she checked it right away, not sure who would text her at such an early hour. She smiled when she saw that it was a text from Jack. Itsimply read: Awake yet?
She answered back with: Yes. Coffee on the patio.
Rachel wondered if he’d get a chance to come by at some point today. But if he was burdened with two different cases, she doubted it. Maybe Anderson would take him off of the White Van Case if this newer one was more pressing. She found herself wondering what the new case could be and if Anderson would pair him up with someone new. If he did, she assumed it would be someone fairly new, maybe even a rookie.
As she wondered about all of this, she heard the patio door open. She scooted over a bit on the glider, expecting Grandma Tate to join her like she did every morning. When she turned to greet her, she was startled to see Jack coming out to join her.
“Um…well, hey,” she said. “Good morning.”
“Same to you,” he said, sitting down beside her. She smiled at him when she saw that he had a mug of coffee—a mug from the kitchen. “How’d you…hold on…what?”
“Well, remember a few months back, you told me where the spare key was. Back when…when you got your fist bad news at the doctor. I came in right after I texted you. Your grandmother was in the kitchen, and I think I inadvertently scared the hell out of her. She poured me a cup of coffee and told me to take her place for the morning.”
“Well, it’s nice to see you.”
“You, too.”
“I figured you’d be running ragged with two cases.”
“Oh, Anderson pretty much took me off of the one about the white van. The one I got called in for last night is taking priority.”
“How late did it keep you out last night?”
“I got home at 12:30. There are a lot of roadblocks I need to try to find ways around today.”
“Sounds exciting. Want to tell me about it?”
He leaned in and kissed her on the corner of the mouth.“If you want to hear about it…sure.”
“I told you already,” she said, “I’m going to be living vicariously through you for quite a while.”
“Okay. Well, it seems there have been two doctors murdered in the city over the last four days. One of them was killed last night in his office. The other was attacked in a parking garage. Two different hospitals, but both doctors are basic primary care physicians. The murders are violent. Lots of blood, indications of brutal violence.”
Rachel considered this for a moment and said,“I take it some of the obstacles you’re trying to get around are related to getting patient information?”
“Yes, exactly.” He smiled and took her hand. “So at six’ clock this morning, I was on the phone, seeking a warrant from a judge that will allow me to get access to the medical records. For right now, I’d be happy with just the patient lists, but I only have those from one of the doctors.”
“You talked to a judge at six?”
“No. An assistant or secretary…something like that. I was pretty hostile about it, I have to admit. I made it clear that I needed the warrant right away so I could start investigating as early as possible. She said she’d pass the message along urgently. I should know something by eight o’ clock.”
