Cross

Chapter 74

"IS THIS ALEX CROSS?"

"Yes?" I said. I didn't recognize the voice on the line though. Just that it was a woman.

"It's A

"A

We were acquaintances, not quite friends. Her son was one or maybe two grades ahead of Damon. A

"Alex, I'm at the hospital -"

I suddenly made a co

"It's not Nana," she said. "I didn't know who else to call. Kayla Coles was just admitted to St. Anthony's. She's here in the ER."

"Kayla?" I said, my voice rising. "What's going on? Is she okay?"

"I don't know, Alex. We don't know enough yet. It's not a good situation though."

That wasn't the answer I expected, or the one I wanted to hear.

"A

"It's hard to know exactly. What's certain is that someone attacked Kayla."

"Who?" I practically shouted into the phone, feeling horrible, as though I already knew the answer to my own question.

Damon stepped halfway into the hall and stared at me, his eyes wide and scared. It was a look I'd seen far too many times in our house.

"All I can tell you is that she was stabbed with a knife. Twice, Alex. She's alive."

Stabbed? My mind screamed the word, but I held it in. I swallowed hard. But she's alive.

"Alex, I'm not supposed to talk about this over the phone. You should get down here to the hospital as soon as you can. Can you come right now?"

"I'm on my way."

Chapter 75

NANA WAS STILL AT HER CLASS, but it only took a couple of minutes for me to get Naomi Harris from next door over to stay with the kids. I jumped into my car and sped the whole way. A siren would have helped.

The drive to the hospital was fast; that's all I really remember about it, and that Kayla was on my mind the whole way. When I pulled up outside the emergency room, her car was parked under the canopy by the entrance.

The driver's door hung open, and as I ran past and looked inside, I saw blood on the front seat. Jesus, she drove herself here! Somehow, she got away from him.

The waiting room was crowded, as it always is at St. Anthony's. There was a line of forlorn, raggedy-looking people at the front desk. The walking wounded and their friends and relations. Maria had been pronounced dead here.

"Sir, you can't -"

But I was already sliding through the doors to the treatment area before they could close. Once inside, I saw it was another very busy night at St. Tony's. Paramedics were wheeling gurneys; doctors, nurses, and patients crisscrossed every which way around me.

A young male lay on a cot with a gash in his hairline, leaking blood onto his forehead. "Am I go

"No, you'll be fine," I told him, since nobody else was stopping to talk to him. "You're all right, son."

Where was Kayla, though? Everything was moving way too fast. I couldn't find anyone to ask about her. Then I heard a voice call out my name.

"Alex, over here!"

A

Several medical perso

Other hospital people came and went, pushing past me as if I weren't even there.

That meant Kayla was alive. I assumed that the goal here would be to stabilize her if possible, then get her to the operating room.

I craned my neck to see as much as I could, and then I saw Kayla. She had a mask over her mouth and nose. Someone was just lifting a red-soaked compress from her belly where they had already cut her shirt away.

The head physician, a woman in her thirties, said, "Stab wound, abdomen, questionable spleen injury."

Other voices in the room blended together, and I tried to make sense of them as best I could, but everything was turning foggy on me.

"BP seventy, pulse one twenty. Respiration thirty-four."

"Give me some suction here, please."

"Is she okay?" I blurted out. I felt like I was in a nightmare where no one could hear me.

"Alex – " A

I realized I'd been pushing forward to get closer to the bed, to Kayla. My God, I ached for her and was finding it hard to breathe.

"Call the seventh floor, tell them we're ready," said the woman doctor who seemed in charge of everyone else in the room. "She has a surgical belly."

A

"Let's go. Hurry up, people."

I was being pushed from behind, and not with any kindness. "Move, sir. You have to move out of the way. This patient is in trouble. She could die."

I stepped sideways to make room as they wheeled her gurney into the corridor. Kayla's eyes were still closed. Did she know I was there? Or who had done this to her? I followed the procession as near as I could get. Then just as quickly as they had done everything else, they loaded her onto an elevator, and the metal doors slid shut between us.

A

Chapter 76

THIS PATIENT IS IN TROUBLE. She could die… Everybody knows she's a saint.

I spent the next three hours in the waiting room, alone and without any further word about Kayla. My head was filled with disturbing ironies: Two of my kids had been born at St. Anthony's. Maria had been pronounced dead here. And now Kayla.

Then A

"Come with me, Alex. Come, please. Hurry. I'll take you to her. She's out of the OR."

At first, I thought Kayla was still asleep in the recovery room, but she stirred when I came near. Her eyes opened, and she saw me – recognized me an instant later.

"Alex?" she whispered.

"Hey there, you," I whispered back, and gently took her hand in both of mine.

She looked very confused and lost for a moment; then she squeezed her eyes shut. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and I almost started up myself, but I thought if Kayla saw me that way it might scare her.

"It's okay," I said. "It's over now. You're in recovery."

"I was… so scared," she said, sounding like a young girl, an endearing part of Kayla I had never seen before.

"I'll bet you were," I said, and I pulled over a chair without letting go of her hand. "Did you really drive yourself here?"

She actually smiled, though her eyes stayed slightly unfocused. "I know how long it can take to get an ambulance in this neighborhood."

"Who did this to you?" I asked then. "Do you know who it was, Kayla?"

In response to the question, she shut her eyes again. My free hand tightened into a fist. Did she know who attacked her, and was she afraid to say? Had Kayla been warned not to talk?

We sat quietly for a moment – until she felt ready to say more. I wouldn't push her on this, the way I had pushed poor Mena Sunderland.

"I was on a house call," she finally said, eyes still closed. "This guy's sister called. He's a junkie. He was trying to detox at home. When I got there, he was just about out of his mind. I don't know who he thought I was. He stabbed me…"