Page 1 of Hell In A Handbasket
MINKA
“Hey, Boss.” Bright, loud—in personality and presence—the beautiful Doctor Raquel strides into my office in sleek red high heels that match the glistening color on her lips and a cute dress that complements her ocean blue eyes, though she keeps the dress partially hidden beneath a white lab coat that flaps around her knees. She moves confidently ahead of the rest of our staff in preparation for morning rounds, because it’s a fresh new day, and people consistently die, even when we’d prefer they didn’t. “I need the weekend off.” She tickles the back of Aubree’s neck as she passes, snickering and whipping her hand away faster than Aubree can smack. “And tomorrow, too. Please.”
“Don’t you know it’s unprofessional to ask for time off the day before you need that time?” I meander around my desk, palming my metal ruler and leaning against the heavy mahogany so I can still maintain the head position of this meeting without having to sit.
My ass is sick of that chair.
“Seems awfully improper of you, Doctor.” I tap my palm with the ruler, the slap of metal on flesh reverberating throughout my filling office. “You should have submitted notice at least thirty days ago. Now, I’m not so sure we can spare you.”
“Ahem.” Callen, our office… organizer, for lack of a better word, clears her throat and hugs a folder to her chest. “Chief. She did.”
“Aw, shucks. Guess I did.” Smug, Raquel flicks the ends of Aubree’s hair and spins away before her colleague becomes sibling-esque and slams her into the tiles. She wanders all the way to my floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook Copeland City in all her sweltering June glory. Winter is gone, and summer is ready to kick our asses.Again. “Guess I followed protocol, Boss. If you didn’t check your emails, then that sounds like ayouproblem.”
Shit.Bested, I look at Aubree and her subtle chin tilt of confirmation, then I roll my bottom lip between my teeth just long enough to avoid meeting Raquel’s arrogant eyes. “Fine. Tomorrow’s Friday anyway, and the schedules were already drawn up for the weekend, so it works out. Brief Doctor Campbell before you go, so he knows what to do.”
“That’s it?” She shuffles to the side as Doctors Flynn and Kirk join her by the windows. “You’re not even gonna ask where I’m going? Or who I’m going to see?”
“No. That would be personal, and this is business. Now that everyone is here,” I glance around my office at the dozen techs who do damn good work. “Rounds. Doctor Kirk, where are you at with the?—”
“I’m going to a wedding,” Raquel cuts in, smirking and studying her nails. “Heading back to my hometown for a friend’s wedding.”
“Cool,” I drawl. “Doctor Kirk?—”
“It’s a really fun story, actually.”
Like we’re playing at Wimbledon, and my techs are our watchful crowd, their heads swivel back and forth.
“The wedding is for this couple I grew up with. He’s sorta famous, but I won’t drop his name because I’m not that kinda person. They were high school sweethearts since forever, and they were planning on getting hitched way back after high school.”
“Wonderful story,” I grit out, then I meet Doctor Kirk’s eyes and glower. “I’d like to focus on work now. Update, please.”
“Uh… s-sure.” He’s our shyest. Youngest, too… not including that new medical school student Aubree insists on keeping around like a little pet. But Rory’s busy at the hospital this week, which means I’m not on babysitting duty. Better yet, if I get through the massive stacks of paperwork on my desk anddon’tcatch a case, I might actually get to take the weekend off to spend with my husband.Could I be so lucky?
“I’ve got an unattended death,” Kirk murmurs. “All signs lead to myoc?—”
“So this couple,” Raquel announces, stealing back her spotlight with a smug grin. “They split when they were eighteen. And when I say they split, I meanshesplit. Like, right outta town. She ran, and no one really knew why.”
“Doctor Raquel!” I slap my hands to my desk and ignore Aubree’s taunting smirk in my peripherals. “Are you seriouslythisin need of attention, or can we get back to work?”
“Can I finish my story first? It’s really good.”
“No one cares about this couple we don’t know from a town we’ve never been to! You’re going to their wedding, which means you’ve spoiled the ending: it works out.”
“Uh… actually.” Doctor Flynn raises her hand. “I want to know. You say no one knew why she left?”
“For god’s sake.” I shove off my desk and stalk around to my chair. Because it’s sweltering outside, my techs are bored, fewer people have been dying lately—on average, that is—and paperwork is no one’s preferred way to spend a workday.
Plopping into my chair until the frame squeaks, I fold my arms and huff.
“We knownow,” Raquel continues. “It’s pretty awful, actually. So this couple, they were always end game, right? They were obsessed with each other for the longest time. My brother is still pretty close with them, so when the chick—Alana—ditches town ten years ago, everyone is pretty stunned. Most of all, the guy she left. She didn’t tell anyone that she was leaving or why she was leaving. She was just there and then gone, ya know?”
“S-so what happened?” Doctor Kirk stammers.
“We were all pretty worried at first, then pissed, since friends don’t do that to friends. But she came back about a year ago. No warning, no answers. She tiptoed back into town, and get this…” Her eyes glitter with mischievousness as she leans toward her rapt audience. “She came back with her kid, who was, at the time, nine and a half years old.”
“So she got knocked up, was scared, and ran,” I drone. “Cool story. You done now?”
“The baby wasn’t her boyfriend’s,” she counters. “But she didn’t wanna say whose he was. So she bolted to New York, got hitched to this other dude, and played happy family for nearly a decade. But then her mom got sick. You remember that funeral I went to last summer?” She looks at Aubree since she knows I’m far less likely to answer. “That was this chick’s mom. She died, and the day of the funeral was the day all the secrets came out.So much drama!”
