second set of double doors doesn’t have a code system.
Shall we?”
The cousins passed through, using the wheelchair for
leverage to open the heavy doors. Almost immediately
they came upon a nurses’ station that looked out through
glass at the patients in the ICU.
“Oh!” Judith gasped. “Joe must be in there. Where
is he?”
A middle-aged nurse with a jutting jaw stared at the
cousins. “What are you doing here?” she demanded,
whipping off her glasses.
“Where’s Joe Flynn?” Judith asked, refusing to be
put off by the nurse’s fierce countenance.
“You don’t belong in this area,” the nurse retorted.
“This is off-limits to anyone but medical staff. Please
leave at once.”
“Where’s Joe Flynn?” Judith persisted as Renie tried
to angle the wheelchair so that they could see into the
dimly lighted ward that lay behind the glass windows.
Some half-dozen patients lay in small cubicles with
SUTURE SELF
249
elaborate lighted monitors that looked as if they belonged in the cockpit of a jumbo jet.
“If you don’t get out,” the nurse growled, “I’m calling Security.”
“Look,” Renie said in the voice she reserved for
dealing with dimwitted CEOs and obstinate public relations directors, “this is Mrs. Flynn, and the least you
can do is point her husband out to her.”
“That does it!” the nurse cried, and reached under
the desk. A soft but persistent alarm sounded, making
Judith jump.
“Come on, you old crone,” Renie railed at the nurse.
“Give this poor woman a break! She’s just had hip surgery and her husband may be at death’s—”
Torchy Magee appeared as if from nowhere, huffing
and puffing through the near set of double doors. “What’s
up?” he wheezed, practically falling against the desk.
“Get these two out of here,” the nurse ordered.
“They’ve broken into the ICU without permission.”
If Torchy had still had his eyebrows, he probably
would have raised them. Instead, he merely stared at
the cousins. “I know you two. Aren’t you from the
third floor?”
“Y-e-s,” Judith said, as something moving in the
shadows of the ICU caught her eye. Probably a busy
nurse, prompting Judith to worry that Joe was in there,
requiring immediate medical attention.
Torchy shook his head. “Now, now, you should
know better than to come into an area like this. It’s
staff only. Didn’t you see the sign?”
“Yes,” Judith began, “but—”
