'Frances, please bring Theo a phone.'
'There's one on the wall,' she pointed out.
'But he can't reach it, can he?' Michelle sounded testy now.
'Very well, Doctor.'
Frances delegated the task to Megan, who was leaning over the nurses' station flirting with a paramedic.
The phone was an old-fashioned desk model. Megan undipped the wall phone outlet, snapped the plug in, and handed the phone
to Theo. 'You have to dial nine to get outside.'
Michelle had finished cleaning the wound and was ready to begin stitching. 'Quit squirming,' she told him. 'Are you trying to get Noah again?'
'I want to talk to the administrator first and get us some help. If we have to tear this place apart, that's what we're going to do.
I want to find that package.'
'I'm the one who has to look… maybe you and one other person could help. If you have everyone searching, I won't know
where they looked and where they didn't. Let me look around the ER and the surgical floor before you call in reinforcements.'
'Why just those two areas?'
'Because any mail I don't pick up down here is sent up to surgical. All the surgeons have cubicles upstairs, and that's where
they drop our mail.'
'She's right,' Megan said. 'I've taken lots of mail up. I go upstairs at least twice a day. I try to be helpful.' Then she added, 'There's a really cute tech up there. I've been trying get him to notice me. I'll help you, Dr. Mike. Nothing much is happening in the ER, and Frances will page me if she needs me.'
'Thanks, Megan.'
'No problem. What am I helping you do?'
'Find a package that was delivered by the Speedy Messenger Service.'
'Oh, we get lots of packages.'
'Michelle, honey, are you almost finished?' Theo asked.
'Wooo! He just called you honey,' Megan crooned.
'Megan, you're in my light.'
'Sorry, Doctor.' As she stepped back, her gaze bounced from Theo to Michelle and back again. 'So what's the deal?' she
asked in a whisper.
'Why don't you start searching through the desks and cabinets down here while Michelle finishes this,' Theo ordered.
'Yes, sir.'
'Be thorough,' Michelle said without looking up.
The second Megan pulled the curtain closed, Michelle whispered, 'You shouldn't have called me honey.'
'Did I undermine your authority?'
'No. It's just that…'
'What?'
'Megan's sweet, but she tells everything, and I can only imagine what the gossip will be tomorrow. They'll have me barefoot
and pregnant.'
He tilted his head. 'The pregnant part… that's a nice image.'
She rolled her eyes. 'For heaven's sake.'
He smiled. 'A woman who could breeze through a snake crawling up her leg can handle a little gossip. You're tougher than you look.'
She focused on the task at hand. 'One more stitch and I'm finished. When did you have your last tetanus shot?'
He didn't miss a heartbeat. 'Yesterday.'
'So you hate shots too, huh? You're getting one.'
He reached across to touch her cheek. 'You get flustered when I tease you, and you get embarrassed with compliments.
You don't know what to do with them, do you?'
'Finished,' she announced. 'You're back together again, Humpty-Dumpty. Don't get up yet,' she quickly added when he moved. 'I'm finished. You're not.'
'What does that mean?'
'Bandage and shot.'
'How many stitches?'
'Six.'
The curtain parted as Michelle was removing her gloves. Megan interrupted. 'Dr. Mike, there's a detective from New Orleans wanting to talk to you and your boyfriend.'
'He's a patient,' Michelle snapped, and too late realized she shouldn't have said anything. She'd sounded defensive, which, of course, only fueled Megan's overactive imagination.
Megan pulled the curtain back. 'This is Detective Harris,' she said.
The woman was tall, strikingly attractive, with an oval face and piercing eyes. As she strode forward, Michelle could see the lines at the corners of her eyes and around her mouth. Dressed in a pair of black pants, sensible black shoes, and a pale blue blouse, she moved toward Theo. When she extended her hand to shake his, Michelle noticed the badge and gun clipped to her belt.
Harris didn't waste time on preliminaries. 'I want to hear exactly what happened last night. Chief Nelson filled me in on what
went down, but I want to hear your version.'
'Where is Ben?' Michelle asked.
'He went back to your house to finish sweeping the crime scene.' She gave Michelle a cursory once-over before continuing.
'I'll take whatever he bags back to the lab in New Orleans.'
Theo studied Harris while she talked to Michelle. The detective was like a thousand other police officers he'd known. There was
a weariness about her as though she'd been exhausted most of her life. Her attitude was brittle and hard.
'How long have you been with the department?' he asked.
'Four years in homicide,' she responded impatiently. 'Three years with vice before the transfer.'
Ah. Vice. That explained it. 'So what brought you to Bowen?'
'If you don't mind, I'll ask the questions.'
'Sure,' he said agreeably. 'Just as soon as you answer mine.'
Her lip curled in what Theo thought might have been an attempt at a smile. 'If Nelson hadn't already told me, I would have guessed you were an attorney.'
Theo didn't respond to the comment. He simply waited for her to answer his question. She tried to out-stare and intimidate him,
but she lost on both counts.
With a sigh, she answered, 'I got a tip… a good, reliable, inside tip that a hitter I've been trailing for three long years is setting
up here. I was told he's in Bowen to do a job, and, I swear to God, I'm going to get him this time.'
'Who is he?'
'A ghost. At least, that's what some of the guys in homicide call him, because he vanishes into thin air every time I get close. According to my informant, he's calling himself Monk these days. I've put him with two murders in
