was out of earshot, Nolan said, “I talked to the funeral director earlier this evening. Wade said to ask you when Tina’s body would be released.”
“Already done. Wade picked her up about an hour ago.”
“Thanks, Lloyd.”
The doc pointed to the ambulance entrance. “Pull your car around. I’ll have the nurse escort Ms. Murphy out in a few minutes.”
Nolan parked his Explorer in front of the ER. The sleet had stopped, but ice covered the landscape. Talk about a night to remember.
He left the engine running and the heater on high. Rounding the vehicle, Nolan waited until the automatic doors opened and the nurse wheeled her patient into the cold night.
Wrapped in a white thermal blanket with her left leg propped up, Kate Murphy reminded him of a rag doll that had lost part of its stuffing. She was pale skinned and blurry eyed, as if the life had drained from her.
He opened the back passenger door.
“Can you lift her?” the nurse asked. “I’ll stabilize her leg.”
Nolan slipped one arm around Kate’s shoulders, the other under her knees and raised her from the chair. Light, maybe too light.
She stiffened in his arms and groaned.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
The nurse climbed into the SUV and supported the braced leg as Nolan positioned Kate on the seat.
He could only imagine how she felt.
Hurt. Alone. In the arms of a stranger.
“My daughter’s at home,” he offered as reassurance, though he felt certain Lloyd had explained the situation. “There’s a guest room on the first floor.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
The nurse wrapped a second blanket around Kate’s body, then stepped out of the car, slammed the door and handed Nolan a typed form. “That leg will bother her for a few days. Ice should help. Everything’s in the discharge papers.”
“Right.”
Nolan climbed into the driver’s seat and glanced at his passenger huddled in the rear. As soon as possible, he’d send Kate Murphy back to Atlanta.
He didn’t want to be responsible for another woman with what was happening in Mercy.
Kate wrapped the hospital blanket around her shoulders and tried to settle into the backseat of the SUV. Her leg burned like fire, and her body ached as if she’d done a mega workout and pushed every muscle to the limit.
She caught Nolan glancing back at her in the rearview mirror. Dark eyes, pensive, brooding.
“Warm enough?” he asked.
“I’m fine.”
She yanked the blanket higher. Her wet clothes were piled in a plastic bag on the floor along with a very soggy wallet someone had found wedged in her car’s console. The hospital gown afforded her some modesty, the blankets provided warmth and her credit cards weren’t floating downstream. At least there were some things for which to be thankful.
She flicked her gaze back to her rescuer. He appeared tall with jet-black hair, cut close, and piercing eyes that seemed to burn into her whenever he looked her way. He wore a pullover sweater and jeans, and from the looks of his dry clothes, he’d evidently changed after his dip in the creek.
Glancing down at her blanket-swathed body, she was grateful ERs didn’t provide mirrors for their patients. She’d hate to see herself. Limp brown hair, faded hospital gown, bags under her eyes, no doubt. Whatever the long-term diagnosis, she knew it wasn’t pretty.
Outside the car window, ice covered the trees and shrubs, every leaf and branch frozen in place. Another time and the landscape would have seemed magical. Like a winter wonderland. But not tonight. After all that had happened, there was nothing magical about Mercy.
The doctor had assured her she’d be comfortable staying at Nolan Price’s home. A widower with a teenage daughter. The man Tina had mentioned. Nice of him to take her in. Still, she’d give anything to be home in Atlanta.
Her eyes grew heavy. The doctor had given her something for pain. “To take the edge off,” he’d said.
She needed to ask something before she fell asleep. “What…What happened to Tina?”
Intent on driving, Nolan apparently hadn’t heard her, and she was too tired to repeat the question.
She closed her eyes, and her body floated as if she were in the creek again. This time the sun was shining down, warming her. She drifted….
His hands nudged her.
She opened her eyes.
“Easy does it,” he said, hoisting her into his arms. A sharp jab cut through her leg.
A large forbidding structure loomed ahead of them. Two-story. Brick. No light inviting them in from the cold.
Trees crowded around the house and creaked in the frigid air like old bones dancing in the night.
Kate shivered. This wasn’t the welcoming lodge she’d envisioned.
She closed her eyes. A key turned. She blinked. A young girl peered around the open door.
“Kate, this is my daughter, Heather.”
Shoulder-length blond hair, petite, big eyes that stared back at her.
“Heather, Miss Murphy’s staying in the guest room.”
Kate opened her mouth to say hello, but he rushed her past the girl too quickly.
A bed, blankets…Kate snuggled down in the warmth, vaguely aware of her host bustling about to get her settled.
Eventually, he placed a pillow under her left leg and a plastic bag filled with ice on top.
Cool, soothing.
“Call me if you need anything,” he said.
“Thanks.” She tried to smile.
A light flicked off. Darkness enveloped her. She closed her eyes….
Later, the door clicked open.
He bent over her, removed the melted ice bag and replaced it with a fresh one.
She slept again.
Her grandfather’s face floated through her dreams. “No coincidences,” he told her. “Only God-incidences.”
She wanted to laugh.
Had God brought her to Mercy to find the cross? Or to find Tina?
Then she remembered.
Tina’s
