heart like a shard of shrapnel.
“You’re fortunate, Deborah,” said Dr. Cortas. “Any longer in that refrigeration unit and your hypothermia would have been severe,” He held her head in his hands to focus on her pupils. Dr. Cortas was a fairly new doctor to Haborcreek Hospital and revealed little of himself to others, but he was an exceptionally gifted physician, and Deborah felt reassured by his assessment. “You appear to have recovered well,” he continued, writing on her medical chart. “You can go home. Frank has put you on sick leave for the next three days.”
As if he had heard his name being mentioned, a soft knock echoed on the door and Frank’s head popped into view. “How do you feel, Deborah?” He opened the door wide and Cole’s large figure came into view. He was standing in the corridor wearing a snug-fitting black T-shirt and blue jeans.
“I’ve discharged Nurse Lewis,” Dr. Cortas said with a smile. “She’s doing fine.”
“Excellent news,” Frank said, stepping into the room. Cole followed. “I want you to take some time to recover, Deborah. Don’t even think about coming back to work until you’re ready.”
Deborah couldn’t stop her eyes from flicking down to Cole’s wedding band finger—it was bare. He noticed her glance and splayed his fingers out wide, telling her what she wanted to know. She was annoyed with herself for being so obvious. She didn’t want him to read too much into it.
“What did your internal investigation uncover?” she asked Frank. “Did you find the man who assaulted me?”
“Not exactly,” he said.
Cole narrowed his eyes at Frank. He clearly wasn’t happy with this response. “There was a camera positioned right over the morgue entrance,” he said. “What did you find on the footage?”
Frank looked sheepish. “The camera isn’t working, I’m afraid. It would seem like a good idea to extend our security upgrades to the whole hospital. Can you cope with that Mr. Strachan?”
“Absolutely. I’ll get my entire team on it,” Cole replied. “But we still need to find out who attacked Deborah. Did you uncover anything? And did you call the police?”
“I decided not to involve the police at this stage,” Frank said. “Dr. Kellerman concurs with me that this could be a childish prank gone wrong. The morgue staff have been known to try to scare each other by hiding under sheets.” He threw up his hands in the air. “Of course, none of them will admit to being the culprit.”
“No!” Deborah said firmly. “Pranks are meant to be funny. What happened to me was terrifying.”
Cole stepped back into the conversation. “And why would the prankster leave Deborah locked in a compartment? She could’ve died.”
Frank obviously had anticipated this question. “The compartments have an unlocking mechanism on the inside. It should be fairly simple to slide open the unit from inside by pushing on the door, but this particular one had faulty springs, so it was jammed.”
“That could be why the attacker chose this exact unit,” said Cole. “He knew she’d be trapped.”
Frank looked exasperated. “It’s highly likely that this is a prank gone terribly wrong. The hospital deeply regrets it, and it will never happen again. Trust me.”
Cole folded his arms. “That doesn’t satisfy me at all, I’m afraid. What precautions are you taking to ensure Deborah’s personal safety?”
“We’re implementing all the recommendations you made regarding our security,” Frank said. “At considerable cost to the hospital, I might add. All our workers are perfectly safe here.”
“What about when Deborah is at home?” Cole said. “How safe is she there?”
Frank smiled in a condescending way. “I’m certain that you’re overreacting, Mr. Strachan. I expect your military training encourages you to see danger all around, but here in Harborcreek, we don’t need to be on constant guard.”
“What about the children in renal failure, Frank?” Deborah challenged. “Do they need to be constantly guarded? Can you be sure that somebody isn’t tampering with their medicine?”
“Deborah,” Frank said, putting his hand on her shoulder. “This is a hospital. It’s not unusual to have a large number of sick children suffering kidney complaints.” He looked toward the doctor. “Isn’t that right, Dr. Cortas?”
Dr. Cortas clicked the top of his pen and slid it into his breast pocket. “It’s not beyond the realm of possibility,” he said. “But it is highly unusual.”
Deborah noticed the doctor’s dark eyes dart around the room before he excused himself and left.
“I understand your concerns, Deborah,” Frank said. He sat on the bed beside her. “And by the time Mr. Strachan’s team has finished upgrading our security measures, there will be no way a staff member could harm them—even if that were happening.”
Deborah stood up. “Frank,” she said, bending to look him in the eye. His eyes were slightly bloodshot, as though his sleep had been as broken as hers. “If there is even the slightest doubt that drugs have been tampered with, we should involve the police.”
The mention of police caused Frank to stand bolt upright. “And what exactly should we say to the police? Should we tell them that we have lots of sick children in a hospital?” He let out a sigh. “We don’t know that the incident in the morgue is in any way related to the renal failures. You can’t ask the police to investigate a hunch.”
Cole stepped between Frank and Deborah. “It’s not just Deborah’s hunch. Both Dr. Warren and Dr. Cortas also seem concerned about the high level of renal failure in Pediatrics.”
Frank rubbed the back of his neck. “Do you have any idea what a police investigation could do to the reputation of our hospital? It could destroy the good name we’ve worked hard to build up. I’m sorry, but I won’t allow it unless it’s absolutely necessary.” With that he turned and stalked out the door.
Cole shook his head and turned to Deborah. “I guess that’s the end of that conversation. You ready to go?”
She took a step back from him. “Are you offering to take me home?”
“Sure. I got a team of support guys doing the work here, so I’m free to give you a ride.”
She looked up into his face. His stubble was the color of a burned sunset. “No, thanks. I’d rather make my own way.”
His jaw clenched. “Please, Deborah, let me help. It’s on my way home anyway.”
“You live in Harborcreek?” she exclaimed.
“I moved back three months ago.”
Deborah found her mouth opening and closing, unable to form any words.
“I’ve kept to myself,” he said quietly. “I didn’t want to risk running into you before you had the chance to find out I was back.”
“So when were you going to tell me?” she challenged. “In another ten years?”
“I’d
