Page 83 of Refuge for Flora

But his heart froze when he pulled into the drive. There were no lights on in the house?none. Not one single glimmer. He tried the front door, but it was locked, so he went around to the back door, but it was locked too. A glance through the living room window from the porch told him there was no one inside, but there were some things on the floor, and from where he stood, they looked like wrappers from medical supplies. Barrett ran back to his truck and picked up the radio mic. “Central dispatch, this is KDFWR unit four twelve. Over.”

“Unit four twelve, central dispatch responding. Over.”

“I need to know if emergency services were called to eight forty-two Magruder Road this evening. Over.”

“Copy, four twelve. That’s a roger. Call came in at nineteen forty-three for an ninety-year-old female with cardiac distress. Transported via ambulance to Mercy Regional.”

“Copy, dispatch. Thank you. Out.” At least he knew what had happened, and it hadn’t happened to Flora. But she should’ve stayed at the house and locked herself in. He checked?yep, the Buick was gone, so she’d most likely followed the ambulance.

Barrett slung gravel as he powered out of the driveway and headed toward Paducah. Why had she left? She’d been told repeatedly to stay there where she was safe. At least she was at the hospital. There was security there, and she’d be surrounded by people. She’d be fine as long as she stayed put.

He took a minute to drive through the parking lot when he got to the hospital. At that hour of the night, there weren’t many cars there and, sure enough, the Buick was sitting outside the emergency department doors. The automatic doors let out awhoosh!as he stepped through, and the admissions clerk looked up. “May I help you?”

“Yes. I’m looking for an elderly woman who came in via ambulance earlier. Murphy?”

“Yes, officer.” That was the moment he realized he was still in his uniform. He’d totally forgotten. “She’s being admitted for insertion of a pacemaker, so they’re taking her to a room.”

“Do you know the room number?”

“Not yet. We’ll?”

A voice from down the hallway yelled, “I don’t need no damn stitches! I need to go! We got business to take care of, damn it!”

Then another voice chimed in. “Calm down. Just let ‘em stitch it up and it’ll be okay.”

“Fuck, no, it ain’t gonna be okay!”

“You want your damn arm to fall off? That’s what’ll happen if’n that gets infected. Let ‘em look at it.” Barrett turned toward the voice, and when he saw the profile with the scar, he knew it was Bradley. Then he caught it?the moment the man saw something, or someone, and he yelled out, “Hey! Stop! Damn it! Is that you, Flora? Stop, god damn it!” The sound of running feet filled the air around him, and Barrett found it hard to breathe.

“Sir? Sir, are you?”

“That hallway?” he whispered to the woman. “Where does it go?”

“Sir, you can get just about anywhere in this hospital from that hallway depending on which way you turn.”

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!Barrett didn’t know what to do. Somewhere in the bowels of the hospital, Flora was running, and Bradley was behind her. But in a few seconds, he saw Bradley step back into the main hallway, and Barrett listened without looking at the man.

A voice from inside the cubicle yelled, “Was that her?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a close enough look.”

“Well, god damn it, find her! We come all this way lookin’ for her and you let her get away?”

“She could be anywhere by now. This is a big place. I don’t know where to even start looking.”

“Then we need to be outside when she comes back out.”

A doctor stepped up to the cubicle door and Barrett heard him ask, “Mr.Stevens?”

Everything in his brain slowed and he felt slightly queasy, but just as quickly, it righted itself and he leaned toward the admissions clerk. “I need you to get on the paging system. I need you to page Dr.Barrett Quarles to the fifth-floor nurses’ station.”

“There’s no?”

“Just do it. Please. Which way are the elevators?” She pointed. “Wait until I’m in the elevator and on my way up, then make the page. Dr.Barrett Quarles, fifth-floor nurses’ station. Can you remember that?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Thank you.” Barrett walked as calmly as he could manage to the elevator bay halfway down the secondary hallway and pushed the button. As soon as he got in, he hit the button for the fifth floor. He was passing the third floor when he heard the page go out.

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