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“The wolf moved too fast to tell.”
“How do you believe the animal entered the hospital?”
She laughed, cold and joyless. “I know it left by standing on its hind legs and pushing open the fire exit. Perhaps it used the elevator.”
“So ‘unknown.’ Thank you. Now’s the hard part, Rachel.”
Caelan lifted his eyebrows. On cue, I stretched across the desk and tossed him a box of tissues, which, judging by the ruddy discoloration on the cardboard, had come down from the third floor with the doctor.
The doctor tipped so far back in her chair Caelan’s hand waited at the rear in case she toppled.
“You’ll need to describe what happened, Doc.”
“I know.”
“Take your time.” Caelan smiled and rose. “Please excuse us a moment. I’ve got to check in with the team.”
Huddling over her box of tissues, she was more than relieved to excuse us. The sheriff dragged me into the nearest unoccupied room.
“What’s up?” I asked.
Passing me his notebook, he frowned. “Are you a deputy or a mouse?”
“Neither?”
“Talk with her how you talked with James. I’ll be right back.” He pushed me gently forward. With a pleading look back, I returned beside Dr. Walker. The next time I saw him, he was halfway to the elevator.
Concern knit Rachel’s brow. She sat up, alarmed. “Where's the sheriff going?”
Settling into his seat, I flipped open the notebook to find handwriting leagues neater than my own and a wolf-shaped smiley (artist he was not) barking a speech bubble of, ‘Be Marcy!’
“Went to examine the scene," I guessed, thumbing the doodle in an effort to delay the inevitable. I’d pulled information out of James and shot him in the head. I felt sick, horrible and disgusted with myself as I asked, “You ready?”
She buried her face in her hands. “Goddammit, check the tapes.”
How would Caelan have done this? I studied again her neck, revised my attempt. “Do you have pets, Rachel?”
Tension eased from her shoulders. “What?”
“When I was younger a rabid coyote got into our house.” I closed the notebook and turned my palm open to her teary gaze, indicating the thin scars where Rhetta had clung. “My sister saved my life at the cost of her own. She also saved our kitten, Samson. Now, when I’m nervous, I seek Samson out, hug him, and count until the fear passes. It’s true, what Sheriff Harlowe says: you are safe.” I took her hand. “We’re both safe because of brave people. But some nights, nothing calms me better than Samson’s purrs. Do you have a pet or someone to stay with tonight?”
With her free hand she ripped tissues from the box and dabbed her eyes. “I’m divorced. I don’t have pets, what with being at the hospital more than I am home.” Her hand trembled in mine. “You lost your sister?”
“Years later, I still find it difficult to talk about it.” I withdrew my hand, brushing my knuckles against my throat. “I don’t mean to pry, but your neck, were you also . . . ?”
She brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Yeah. We lived in Waterbury. Our neighbor was a backyard breeder of pitbulls. Piece of garbage human being. The dogs were horribly inbred, chained, beaten, taught to bite anything within range of their teeth. One day, the male dug under the fence separating our backyards. I was swinging when he jumped from behind . . .”
“I’m so sorry,” I said. “For now and then.”
“I’m okay,” she mumbled, drawing a rattled breath. “When I saw the wolf’s red gaping maw close around Alicia’s arm, I froze. If it weren’t for Noah, I would’ve been next crushed in its teeth. It knocked him across my legs and sprang on his chest. I saw the panic in his eyes as the animal clawed open his ribcage. Noah was pleading and grabbing my pants and I kicked away… I loved that man and I kicked him in the head to run away.”
“He wanted you to live, Rachel,” I said, closing the notebook and studying a nurse’s schedule in a vain attempt at blocking my own memories. “He might have been scared in the moment, but he made the sacrifice necessary to get you away, no matter what it took. You did what you had to do, and in doing so, he didn’t die in vain.”
Dr. Walker’s coherency dissolved into tears and tissues. I sat beside her, rubbing her back, asking small questions, until the sheriff returned, dismissing Rachel and calling me to view the security footage.
???
“Hospital has cameras for the unit floors. Individual rooms get them if there is a special need concerning a patient. Nothing special about an old man who forgot to take water with his pills.”
