What Echoes Render Read online

  She frowned. “I know, me neither. But then, maybe it wasn’t a parent. Or maybe the parent isn’t fit and knows the little girl will be better off without him or her. Any way you look at it, it’s going to be a sad story.”

  ***

  And it got even sadder as the days passed and no one claimed the little girl. Jesse looked at the calendar on her desk; it had been five days since Jane, as they called her, had been found. And still not a word from anyone. It was hard to believe no one would miss such a sweet child. The temporary foster parent and the social worker assigned to the case had brought her into the hospital a few times for additional checkups. So far she was healthy, which was good, but made the fact of her having been abandoned seem even more bizarre. Developmentally, she was a little behind in her speech, but other than that there was no malnutrition or special needs to indicate hardship of any sort. And Jesse wasn’t the only one confused by the whole thing; the police department, though proceeding through the motions, was as befuddled as she was.

  An instant message pinged on her computer and she glanced at the screen. Then frowned.

  “Hi Mom,” the message from James started. “In my computer programming class. It’s so basic I may have to hack into his lesson plan to make it more interesting. Just thought I would let you know.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” she typed back instantly. He was home from Boston and back in school. If the way things had been going so far were any indication, this year was going to be interesting.

  “Ha! Nice to know you think so highly of me. Actually, in the library for morning break right now. Going to Chelsea’s house after school. Be home by dinner.”

  She sighed. “Just be glad I think so highly of your skills, if not always your judgment. Have fun and tell Chelsea I said hi.”

  “Nice save, Mom.” And he ended the conversation.

  She smiled thinking of her younger son. He and Chelsea had grown closer over the summer and Jesse was happy to see a true friendship developing between them. She’d been convinced early on that James had actually been interested in Heather, Chelsea’s best friend who was calmer and seemingly more James’s type. But after all the problems her mom had been going through, Chelsea seemed to have settled down a bit. She seemed to be figuring out what was important and what wasn’t. And her friendship with James was currently ranking pretty high on her list.

  “Jesse?” The intercom on her phone buzzed. “Sorry to interrupt you, but Dr. Martinez is down in the emergency department and was hoping to speak with you today. You have back-to-back meetings starting in about twenty minutes,” Kayla said.

  “So if I don’t go now, I’m out of luck.”

  “If you don’t go now, she’ll be out of luck,” Kayla corrected.

  “I’m on my way.”

  Jesse left her office and headed down to the ER with orders from Kayla to be in the conference room on the second floor in twenty minutes for one of the departmental budget meetings.

  The ER had always been her least favorite place to visit in the hospital. It was a hive of activity, not just with patients coming in, but also with doctors and nurses moving quickly about triaging those patients. And then there was the near constant presence of the support staff—pushing carts, opening cabinets, and moving in and out of rooms in an effort to keep all the supplies stocked. It ran like a well-oiled machine, even on the worst of days, and Jesse was proud of how successful it was—of their patient-satisfaction rates and patient-care scores—but it was also the one place in the hospital she felt well and truly out of place.

  And this day was no different. She skirted an empty gurney being pushed by an orderly, then dodged a food cart, no doubt on its way to another part of the hospital, as well as a supply cart, before stopping in front of the nurses’ station. She hated to disturb the nurses, who all seemed to be doing four things at once, but managed to ask one where she might find Abigail and was directed toward the back of the department.

  “Abigail, Kayla said you wanted to talk to me?” Jesse asked, approaching her friend, who was scrubbing out in one of the back rooms.

  Abigail turned and smiled as she finished rinsing her hands. “Miss Matt yet?”

  “Not yet, but I’m sure it will come if I allow myself to acknowledge the fact that he’s in college. But for now, denial and I are like this.” Jesse held up her crossed fingers. “And Danielle?”

  “I do miss her, but I’m glad she and Matt are at the same school. I think it will be good for her to have a familiar face in the sea of humanity that is college. But,” she paused to drop the paper towels she’d used to dry her hands into the bin, “that’s not why I asked to see you, and thanks for coming down. I wanted to talk to you—”

  Abigail drew up short when they both heard a crash and someone not quite yelling, but speaking very loudly in the hall. Jesse glanced at her friend, who frowned and shrugged, then they both stepped out to see what was going on.

  “Where is she?” a man demanded. Jesse took in his slipshod appearance and shot a glance at a nurse standing behind a nearby counter. Call security, she tried to communicate with her eyes. The nurse seemed to get it and gave her a sharp nod before sitting down and picking up the phone as discreetly as she could behind the counter. The man, who appeared to be in his midtwenties, was wearing a faded red sweatshirt covered in holes and brown cotton pants with frayed hems that fell just above his ankles. Based on his build, which was slightly pudgy but not overweight, he looked like someone who led a mostly sedentary life. And though he looked unkempt, Jesse didn’t think he seemed all that dangerous, more agitated and confused. Still, no one was about to take any chances, especially with so many people around.

  “Can I help you?” Jesse stepped forward and asked in her most soothing voice. The man’s dark-brown eyes shot to her and for a moment she had the strangest sensation that he recognized her. His eyes narrowed and his mouth moved, but he didn’t say a thing. He raised a hand as if to beckon her to him and she saw it was shaking. She glanced quickly at the nurse, who gave her a slight nod, then turned her attention back to the man.

  There was something seriously wrong. And she wasn’t the only one to sense it. Quietly, and without making a production of it, nurses and doctors had begun herding patients and their families into rooms, and staff, such as stocking clerks, out of the area.

  Tuning out the activity going on around her, Jesse kept her gaze locked on to the man, trying to figure out if he was a junkie, either coming down or high as a kite, or just someone who was mentally unbalanced and off his medications. She didn’t know what was off about him, but something was definitely off. He fumbled in his jacket pocket and when his hand emerged, her heart slammed into her chest.

  Wavering in front of her was the barrel of a gun.

  CHAPTER 19

  JESSE FELT A TREMBLING BEGINNING within her and a cold sweat gathering on her skin. But she forced herself to swallow, placing her faith in the knowledge that security would be there soon.

  “Tell me your name,” she coaxed.

  To her right she sensed Abigail moving. From where she stood, Abigail wouldn’t be able to see the gun, but if she was listening at all to the panicked sounds coming from the few nurses and doctors remaining in the area, she would know something was very, very wrong. And she knew that Abigail was not one to abandon another person in danger.

  Knowing Abigail’s inclinations, Jesse made a desperate attempt to motion her friend back. As it was, the man was only focused on her and she was hoping to keep him talking to her, and only her, until security arrived.

  At least they weren’t in the ER lobby or any of the more public parts of the hospital, she thought to herself. Standing in that hall, it was now just Jesse, three nurses, and one doctor other than Abigail. As if that wasn’t enough.

  Staring down the barrel, Jesse wondered how many bullets it had, how many people he could kill if he decided to shoot. For a fleeting moment, she wished she’d learned more about guns. Then she quickly a
cknowledged that it wasn’t guns she wished she knew more about, but how to get them away from people.

  “You asked where she is when you first came back here. Who are you looking for?” Jesse asked, taking a step to the side toward the room she’d come out of. She wasn’t going to duck and hide but she wanted to get closer to Abigail so that her friend could see that she was, relatively, okay at the moment.

  “My, my sister,” he stuttered.

  “And who is your sister?”

  “G-G-Gabby.”

  “I know Gabby. She’s one of our pediatric nurses, right?”

  He gave a jerky nod. “Why are you looking for her, is there something I can help you with?” Jesse asked, trying to keep her voice soothing.

  “I want to g-g-get m-married and she won’t let me.”

  Jesse tilted her head to the side. “Are you sure about that? That doesn’t sound like the Gabby I know.”

  “Ye-s-s, she said I c-c-can’t get m-married be-because I can’t hold a j-job, but she wo-won’t let me get a job!”

  The only thing that made any sense to her was that the man was getting more and more agitated. And when security picked that exact moment to show up, Jesse, with a growing sense of dread, watched as the man’s eyes went wild. She didn’t dare look at Abigail—if she showed any sign of needing help, her friend would be there in a heartbeat and she didn’t want that. At all.

  Jesse stood, frozen in place, as four security guards yelled repeatedly at the man to put the gun down. She had hoped their presence would help, but judging by the look of anguish that washed over the young man’s face as he howled and clutched at his ear with his one free hand, “help” wasn’t what was happening. It was getting more and more chaotic by the second and she knew she needed to get the guards to back down for just a second before things got even more out of control.

  And then, suddenly, Abigail was at her side.

  “Stop it!” Abigail shouted at the guards. Too caught up in what they were doing and not noticing they were making it worse, they ignored her.

  But the man did not.

  It felt like the world slowed to a crawl as she watched the man’s gaze focus on Abigail. His expression changed from tormented to calm and with a deliberateness that belied his earlier state, he raised his gun and fired twice.

  Jesse was on the ground before she knew it, dimly aware of people screaming, shouting, and running past her. The noises became louder as she realized that she hadn’t been hit. Then her eyes flew to Abigail.

  A bright red stain was blossoming on the front of her friend’s green scrubs. Abigail’s eyes watched her in silent confusion. Jesse heard herself shouting “No!” repeatedly as she scrambled toward her friend, clawing at Abigail’s clothes, desperate to find the wound, to prove that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Frantic to stop the bleeding, to stop the pain, Jesse screamed for help. And for a moment, no one heard her. Then, suddenly, finally, a nurse was beside her.

  “Is it safe?” Jesse demanded, compressing the wound with her hand. Blood seeped between her fingers as she fought back tears.

  “Yes,” the nurse answered, handing her a thick towel.

  “Get Dr. Bennet. Where is Dr. Bennet?” Jesse demanded, shouting at anyone who would listen in the hall. The towel gave the illusion that her friend wasn’t bleeding underneath it, but she knew better.

  “I’m right here.” The doctor kneeled on the other side of Abigail. He looked lost and in shock as he stared at his colleague. And utterly useless.

  “Dr. Bennet,” Jesse barked, bringing his attention back to her. “We need a board. We need to get her onto a gurney, and into surgery. Do you understand?” He stared back blankly. “Do. You. Understand. Dr. Bennet?”

  He blinked then started shouting orders. A nurse took over Jesse’s compression and then two more pushed her out of the way. Jesse backed up against the wall and, barely holding back her tears, watched as one of her closest friends was wheeled away. Within seconds, Abigail was gone.

  “Jesse!” one of the other nurses came running up to her. “Are you okay?”

  Jesse just looked at the older woman. “Where is he?” Her voice was flat and devoid.

  “He, um, he shot himself.”

  Jesse turned and saw that whoever it was had indeed shot himself. She took in the blood splatter on the walls then let her eyes fall to the blood on the floor at her feet. She raised her hands and looked at her red-soaked skin.

  “Jesse?” the nurse said.

  “We need to secure the hospital. We’ve run this scenario a hundred times during our emergency trainings, everyone should know what to do,” she said through a tunnel of emotions. “And someone needs to call her husband. I need to call Joe,” she added, her voice breaking.

  “Ma’am?” One of the security guards approached with a police officer who must have arrived within minutes of the shooting. She knew she would need to talk to them eventually, but now she needed to make sure the hospital was indeed safe. And then she needed to call Abigail’s husband.

  “Jesse,” Mike Mitchel, her head of security, said as he rushed toward her.

  “Mike, where are we? What’s the situation and what’s being done?” How she managed to ask these questions, she didn’t know. They had run this scenario during their emergency planning. But training for it and living it were two different things. Especially when one of the victims was one of her best friends. That was something no one could ever train for.

  In a succinct manner that Jesse, and the policeman standing with them, appreciated, Mike filled her in. All of the processes and procedures they’d put in place were being implemented. The hospital was being searched, the public areas were in lockdown, and security and the police were coordinating to contain the situation.

  Feeling dazed, Jesse nodded and issued the orders and directions the training had instilled in her. When she finished, Mike left to implement his part of the response. She turned to the policeman standing beside her and felt a complete loss for words.

  Maybe sensing her impending shock, a nurse beckoned her over.

  “Jesse, in here,” she said.

  Jesse looked up just as the nurse reached out to take her hand. After guiding her into a hospital room, the nurse turned on the tap in one of the sinks and scrubbed Jesse’s hands with soap, washing most of the blood away as Jesse stood and watched the pink-tinged water circle the drain and disappear.

  “Jesse!” Kayla came running into the room. The police officer had stationed himself at the door, but Kayla had completely ignored his attempt to keep her back. Her eyes were red rimmed as she watched the nurse help Jesse dry her hands. All three sets of eyes lingered on the pink tinged cloth for a moment, then Kayla cleared her throat.

  “Come in here,” she said, taking Jesse by the arm and leading her into a sitting room. Kayla pushed her into a seat and when her damp shirt touched the skin of her stomach she realized just how much of Abigail’s blood she had on her. She may have gotten most of it off her hands, but still, she felt like it was everywhere. There was too much of it.

  “I’ll call Joe,” Kayla said, taking a seat beside her, wiping at her eyes and nose as she tried to dial.

  Jesse held out her hand. “I need to tell him, Kayla.”

  Her assistant studied her face for a long moment, then handed her the phone.

  The conversation was short, but no one knew better she did just how much a few words could change your life forever. At the end, she offered to call Danielle, too. She wasn’t sure she’d be able to have that conversation, that she’d be able to tell the young woman her mother had been shot and they didn’t know if she would live or die, but knowing that Joe wasn’t in a position to make any calls gave her the strength to try.

  She dialed Danielle’s number and it went straight to voice mail. She tried again with the same results. Finally, she tried Matt. He answered on the second ring.

  “Mom?”

  “Matt.”

  “What’s wrong?” he asked instan
tly.

  “Have you seen Danielle?” she asked.

  He hesitated. “No, but I’m on my way to meet her at the gym right now.”

  She tried not to cry, but the tears started to fall silently. Closing her eyes and drawing on all her strength, she told Matt what had happened. That he needed to get to Danielle before she heard it anywhere else went without saying.

  “Are you alright?” he asked. She could hear the shakiness in his voice. And though she wasn’t alright, and wouldn’t be for a while, she told him she was fine.

  “Okay.” He took a deep breath. “I’m going to get Danielle and bring her home. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  “I’m not sure you should be driving now, honey,” she managed to say.

  She could hear him take another breath. “I know you’re okay. But Danielle isn’t going to be. I’ll get her there just fine. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

  She agreed, against her better judgment, and hung up. Blindly, she handed the phone to Kayla. She felt like a lead weight sat heavily in her stomach.

  “Jesse?”

  She looked up.

  “Why don’t we get you cleaned up?” Kayla’s voice was gentle but persuasive, and Jesse was once again grateful for her young assistant as she let herself be led her to the staff room and into the shower.

  CHAPTER 20

  “HATHAWAY!”

  David started and looked up to see Dominic jogging down the stairs, jangling a key chain in his hand.

  “Yeah?”

  “Get up, we need to go.”

  David frowned. The bell hadn’t rung and he had no idea what Dominic was talking about. Even so, he felt sweat begin to bead on his brow.

  “What’s wrong,” he demanded.

  Dominic swallowed. “There’s been a shooting at Riverside Hospital.”

  David felt like the floor was falling out from under him as the denial started to form on his lips.

  “Let’s go. We’ll talk on the way,” Dominic ordered.