Dana Mentink - Seaside Secrets

“I’ll be back soon and...” Angela trailed off. How could she comfort her sister when she couldn’t even help herself? She regrouped and straightened her shoulders, hoping Dan hadn’t noticed the lapse.

When they ended the call, Dan offered to drive her to the hospital.

“No need. I’ll drive myself. I have some things to do afterward.” At the moment she had precisely nothing to do until Marco arrived, but she didn’t want to be in the car next to Dan. His silver gaze searched her face as if he understood completely that she was avoiding him.

She thanked him again for the coffee and took the scone he offered before they got into their vehicles and drove to the hospital. Lila Brown was being treated on the fifth floor.

The hallway was quiet. A nurse returned Angela’s cell phone and pointed them to room 504. The smell of the hospital assaulted her, the odor of disinfectant and, she imagined, despair. So many stories ended at such places; she felt as if her own story had ended in a hospital, too, far away on foreign soil.

She sensed Dan looking at her.

“I guess you spend a lot of time in hospitals, for your chaplain work.”

She had. But now she practically had to force herself through the doors, her visits to patients strained, requiring her to seclude herself afterward just to get her rampaging emotions under control. Her commanding officer had asked her to take a month off. Humiliating but she had complied meekly.

“You, too,” she managed. “When are you going back to surgery?”

His gaze drifted away. Surprising. He was tall, strong, self-assured to the point of arrogant, but something uncertain crept over his face, a shadow she didn’t understand.

“Not sure,” he said. “Lila’s room is right over there.”

As they rounded the corner, there was a crash, the sound of metal hitting the tile floor. Dan sprinted ahead, and, after a second of paralysis, Angela followed. They burst into the room.

A nurse looked up, startled. She held a roll of gauze in one hand. A vase of flowers had been upended, the white roses lying in a puddle of water on the floor. The bed sheets were tousled.

“What happened?” Dan demanded.

“She freaked out.”

“Lila Brown?’

The woman nodded. “She was asleep. I needed to change her dressing. I woke her. Tried to cheer her up by showing her the flowers. She opened the card and screamed. Grabbed her clothes and ran. Moved so fast I gouged her with the scissors. What’s wrong with that girl?”

“Which way did she go?”

The nurse shrugged. “Dunno.”

Dan charged out into the hallway.

“I’ll go call security,” the nurse said as she left.

Angela was about to follow, when she spotted the tiny white envelope lying half under the bed, the little card next to it.

There was no message on the card.

Blank.

A cold knot formed inside her.

She picked up the envelope. It was empty, she thought at first.

Feeling a subtle bump through the glossy paper, she looked inside.

A snippet of dark hair, fine and silky.

Like a child’s hair, she thought.

A child.

She dropped the envelope and bolted out the door.

* * *

Dan wasn’t sure which direction Lila had headed, but he knew he had to get to her. He ran to the nearest elevator and pressed the button. The light indicated it was on the way down. Lila?

He sprinted for the stairs and raced down to the fourth floor. He was going to keep running, figuring she was headed for the ground floor exit, when he noticed the stairwell door that opened out onto the fourth floor was not completely closed; a white sock on the floor kept it from latching. Bursting through the door, which creaked open with a squeal, he caught the attention of a short, dark-haired woman.

It was Patricia Lane, a surgeon at the hospital. “Patricia?”

“Dr. Blackwater?” The woman goggled. “What are you doing? Is something wrong?”

“I’m looking for a girl who just ran out of her room. I thought maybe she came up here.”

She clicked her pen closed. “I’ve been checking the charts for the past fifteen minutes and I haven’t seen anyone running through except for you.”

He saw no sign of Lila anywhere, just the normal hustle and bustle. An older bearded man appeared at the doorway to his room. He scratched his close-cut beard.

“Can I get some food? I’m hungry.” He rubbed a sleeve under his nose.

The man looked vaguely familiar. Dr. Lane hastened to his side. “Please sit down. I’ll have the nurse bring you something right away.”

The man returned to his room, muttering to himself.

Dr. Lane smiled. “Sometimes we get a wanderer. You know what that’s like.”

“I do.”

But his mind was only on one patient. Lila Brown. He walked the length of the floor and found no sign of her. Perhaps the sock had been a ruse?

Dr. Lane was staring at him. “I told you. She didn’t come here. Don’t you believe me?”

“Of course.” He returned to the stairwell door, mulling it over. The sock was protruding through to the inside, which meant Lila had arrived on the fourth floor and exited back out to the stairs. Could it have been dropped by another visitor or patient? Not likely. Patricia Lane was a stern taskmaster. The nurses and orderlies he’d worked with at the hospital were top-notch, as well.

He walked Patricia to the door and pointed out the sock.

“Strange,” she said. “I can’t imagine how that got there.”

“I’m sure it was Lila,” Dan said. “She opened the door and dropped the sock. She must have gone back out again if you didn’t see her. Is it possible you were engrossed in your work and you missed her?”

Patricia’s lips thinned into a tight line. “I would have noticed. I’m not oblivious to what goes on in my own hospital.”

“I wouldn’t even suggest that.”

Her face was stony, eyes hard and unblinking. “I’m glad to hear it.”

“There must be another explanation,” he said. “Leave the sock there and I’ll get the police on it.”

“Fine. I’ll continue my rounds.” She turned and strode away.

Dan mentally ran through the scenario. Patricia Lane was an excellent doctor with a stellar reputation. She must have been focused on her work and not heard the stairwell door open.

It was the most likely answer. But if she’d been standing at the desk checking charts not five feet from the stairwell door, how could she not have heard it open?

But what reason could Dr. Lane have for lying?

A sudden chill crept down his spine. Careful not to disturb the sock, he headed downstairs to find Angela.

* * *

Angela emerged into the hallway, and a nurse pointed out the direction Dan had taken to the stairs. Angela hurried to the stairwell door. One of them would surely intercept Lila. She intended to ask on each floor as she went if anyone had seen the girl.

She started the plunge down the steps. Her feet echoed oddly in the space. Her chest tightened up as the walls closed in around her in an ugly cement fist.

Keep going. Don’t let the thoughts catch up with you.

Racing down, she was about to exit on the fourth floor, but she heard a murmur of voices from farther down the stairwell. She continued onto the third floor and listened. No further noise. Her imagination?

Pressing on, she found a hospital gown tossed onto the cement. It was still warm to the touch. Lila had taken a few frantic moments to change clothes.

She’s getting out of here for sure. What had scared her so badly that she’d bolt without even taking the time to dress properly? Tension coiled in her gut now like a live serpent, and she continued racing down. Almost to the second floor, she was startled when she heard the door below her open.