report. I need to grab my coat and purse. Don’t go anywhere.”
She disappeared behind the door to the doctor’s lounge and he was left alone. The chill was beginning to dissipate and he appreciated the warmth the blanket provided. If he’d been found in the snow, it likely hadn’t melted in the few hours since his arrival, particularly with the blackness of night making its claim against the last remnants of daylight.
Just as the door clicked closed behind Ashley, Lance rounded the corner.
“Mr. English, are you lost?”
The spry nurse rounded to the back of his wheelchair and unlocked the brake. “CT is wondering where their patient is.”
Casper took his left hand and shoved the brake into place just as Ashley came through the door, zipping up her coat and holding her purse and a large manila envelope.
“It’s okay, Lance. I’ve got it. Just didn’t want to come back to the department after I dropped him off.”
Lance nodded, though unsurely, but backed away so she could scoot behind the chair.
After a few more turns through the halls of the ER, Ashley came to a side entrance. “My car’s not far, but it’s going to be hard to get this wheelchair through the lot with all the snow.”
He nodded and flipped the footrests up. He stood, shakily. Ashley scooted next to him and fit herself under his right arm. Just the right size to act as a crutch. He leaned heavily against her, worried that she might topple over, but her strength surprised him and they soldiered through the door into the biting wind.
They walked perhaps thirty steps until they reached a pine-green Toyota Highlander. She pressed her key fob twice, unlocking the passenger door, and he poured into the seat, barely able to hold himself upright. After she grabbed the blanket and hastily threw it over his chest, she buckled the seat belt around him and hurried to the driver’s side. After starting the car, she turned on the heat, and he was immediately met with a blast of cold air that the thinly threaded blanket did little to protect him against, and the chill reasserted itself with a vengeance. His teeth chattered.
She turned down the flow and put the SUV in Reverse, making her way through the parking lot.
Just as the parking lot arm was about to release them, a security guard came running toward their vehicle from the left.
“We shouldn’t stay,” Casper warned.
Ashley powered down her window, ignoring Casper. “Everything okay, Noah?”
“Dr. Drager. A patient has been reported missing from the hospital. A Casper English.”
She glanced back at Casper and he shrugged, his mind a muddled mess of frozen brain cells.
“He’s all right,” Ashley called out the window. “Mr. English is here with me, and he’s refused any further medical care. He’s asked me to drive him home.”
“Dr. Drager, as you know, it would be highly unusual—even against policy—for you to transport a patient off hospital property regardless of their wishes.”
“It’s fine, Noah. He’s an old friend. I think the hospital will—”
Ashley jerked back and Casper felt the warm spray of something hit his face. When he looked left, he saw a fine mist of red droplets covering Ashley’s hands, which gripped the steering wheel so tightly they were stark white. Noah staggered back a few steps away from the car, a hand held tightly against his neck as blood gushed between his fingers. The guard dropped to his knees.
“Drive!” Casper yelled.
Ashley reached for the car’s door handle. “I can’t leave him,” she cried.
The next shot cracked the back driver’s-side passenger window.
“Ashley, go! We’re going to die if we stay here.”
The next shot punctured through Ashley’s open window into the dashboard.
Ashley stepped on the gas and flew out of the parking lot.
* * *
The night rushed past Ashley. Light snow flurries danced unabashed. Everything seemed quiet and peaceful other than the fact that she was speeding through neighborhoods preparing for slumber—braking, sliding on the icy streets. The dropping temperature crystallized what little snow had melted during the day. Ashley used a wet wipe from her glove box to clean the blood spray off her hands. She took another and wiped the left side of her face.
She was crying. Thinking of Noah. She prayed her call to the emergency department and 911 about Noah’s injury and the shots fired got help to Noah in time and no one else was hurt. When one of her fellow physicians pressed her for information, she’d disconnected the call.
Ashley’s thoughts spun. Adrenaline-fueled blood rushed through her head and there was a faint pitched whine ringing in her ears that masked Casper’s voice. She looked at him, barely able to see through her tears, wondering if she’d have to resort to reading lips because she couldn’t discern what his words conveyed. Gibberish. What she did see was the surprise and apprehension that covered his face.
It was the worry that concerned her the most. Who were these people?
This is exactly why patients can’t talk when I tell them bad news. Why they can’t process any information. What is this insanity?
Clenching her teeth, she wiped the tears from her face.
I have to pull myself together. Crying isn’t going to help either one of us right now.
She gripped the steering wheel so hard her hands ached. Casper glanced behind them, his movements stilted. “They’re coming.” A simple statement filled with so much danger.
Ashley glanced up in her rearview mirror. A black SUV was quickly closing the distance. Perhaps two blocks behind. A crack of metal jolted the car.
A gunshot punctured her tailgate. Ashley pressed her foot into the accelerator.
Casper narrowed his eyes. “Nearest highway?”
Ashley tried to think. First thing, she needed to shake them off their tail. She whipped the steering wheel right—so tight was the turn that the car lifted up briefly on two wheels. Ashley’s heart climbed into her throat.
After a series of three Z-turns, their pursuers remained right on their tail.
“That’s not going to work. They’re more experienced at this than you,” Casper said.
“Who is ‘they’?” Ashley yelled, briefly glancing Casper’s way. Her hands were slick with sweat.
“Get to the highway.”
Fine. What sense did it make to let the confused, amnesiac patient determine their course of action? Not much, but there hadn’t been a med school class on outrunning thugs who intended to kill innocent people, so she gave him this one suggestion.
Two more turns and Ashley sped up the entrance ramp onto the highway. She merged quickly into traffic.
