Mercy

'Center what?' she asked.

'That kid with the earring wants to play center.'

She was biting her lower lip to keep from laughing, but as they were leaving the parking lot, Theo was subjected to yet another cheer, and Michelle lost it.

'Give me a B!'

'You know what those kids need?' he asked.

'Let me guess. A football coach.'

'No, they need an English teacher, someone who can teach them how to spell.'

'They're just very happy you're here,' she said. She wiped the tears away from her eyes and let out a sigh.

'Listen,' he said, 'all I did was stop for gas, and this kid mistook me for the coach.'

'They're going to be very disappointed you've led them on. Oh, my, I haven't laughed like that in a long time.'

'Glad I could help,' he said dryly. 'Tell me something. How come no one in this town will listen to me?'

'They're too busy trying to impress you. Are you going to let Andy Ferraud quarterback this year?'

'Very funny.'

'He's got a good arm.'

He stopped the car at the intersection and turned to her. 'I came to fish.'

After a few seconds Michelle realized the car wasn't moving. He had obviously stopped to wait for her to give him directions,

and there she sat, like a lump, staring at him.

'Turn left here,' she instructed. 'My clinic's a few blocks down this road. If you keep going, you'll run into my house. It's about

a block further along the curve. It's a little two-bedroom house actually. Nothing fancy. I'm rambling, aren't I? It's odd,' she

added. 'I think you make me nervous.'

'Why is that odd?'

'I should make you nervous. After all…'

'What?'

'I've seen you naked.'

'And you were, of course, naturally impressed.'

'Your appendix impressed me.'

'Whatever it takes to make a beautiful woman notice me,' he said as he steered the car to the left.

'There's my clinic.'

It would have been hard to miss. The clinic was the only building on the gravel road. Theo pulled into the black tarred lot on

the side of the building and parked the car near a giant sycamore tree. The branches of the tree draped across the roof. It was

a disaster waiting to happen.

'You should get someone to trim those branches for you. A good lightning storm and you could lose your roof.'

'I know. It's on my to-do list.'

Her clinic was a small, rectangular, stone building that had been freshly painted white. The front door was black, and above

the doorknob in the center was a black plaque with Michelle's name in gold letters. There were two overturned potted geraniums in cement planters flanking the stone walkway. Both of the planters had been smashed.

Michelle led him to the back entrance of the building. There were trash bags ripped apart, and the metal garbage container had been overturned. The backyard resembled a dump site.

'I just finished painting the door, and look what they did to it.'

Across the white enameled door, the word 'bitch' had been spray-painted-spelled correctly, Theo noticed.

She pointed to a discarded spray can on the ground. 'They got the paint from the supply closet.'

He glanced at the back lot again, then backed out of the way so Michelle could get her key into the lock to let him inside. She brushed against him as she walked past into the back hall and flipped on the lights.

There were three examination rooms, and all of them appeared to be intact. Aside from the spray paint on the walls, the exam tables and the cabinets had been left alone. The doors were open and the supplies had been overturned, but it didn't appear that much had been tampered with.

Her office was another matter altogether. Theo whistled when he saw it. The room looked as if a cyclone had hit it. Her desk had been turned on its side, the drawers ripped out and smashed in, and there were papers everywhere.

'I meant it when I said I hadn't had time to start cleaning up,' she warned. 'I took one look and called Ben.'

Theo was looking at an old sofa across the room. One of the vandals had taken a knife to it. The burgundy leather had been shredded, and the stuffing was sticking out like puffed wheat. It looked like someone had worked himself into a rage in this room.

'Look what those creeps did to my door. I always keep my office closed, but I never lock the door. All they had to do was turn the knob. They went to a lot of trouble kicking it in.'

'Maybe they had just figured out you didn't have any hard drugs around.'

'And went crazy?'

'Possibly.'

She started down the hallway. 'Wait until you see the front. It's worse.'

Theo continued to stand in the office doorway staring at the wreckage.

'What are you doing?'

'Figuring out the pattern.'

'What pattern?'

He shook his head. 'How come your brother and your dad haven't started cleaning up the place? Jake told me he offered,

but you wouldn't let him touch anything. Why not?'

'I'm going to have to put the files back together first or at least be here when they do it so I can supervise. The information

in the patient files is confidential, and I need to make sure all the reports get back in the right folders.'

'I thought you were just opening this clinic.'

'I am.'

'Then where did all the patient files come from?'

'They're Dr. Robinson's files. He left Bowen two months ago and sent all his patient files to me. I found out about it after the fact,' she said. 'I knew he hated Bowen, but he really left his patients in the lurch. He told my dad that life was too short to

work in a, and I quote, 'Godforsaken shanty town.' '

'With that attitude, his patients must have loved him,' he said.

'No, they didn't like him much, and they only went to him for medical help when they were desperate. They knew how he felt about our town… and about them, or rather, us. You ready to see the front office?'

'Sure.' He followed her down the hall and around the corner to the nurses' station behind the reception area. A glass partition

that separated the space was shattered, and most of the jagged glass was still on the floor. There was a broken window next to the file cabinets. He slowly crossed the room to get a closer look at it. Then he looked at the floor below and nodded.

'Be careful where you step,' she warned.

Though it didn't seem possible, the nurses' station was much worse. The countertop had been torn out of the