Coughing & Donuts: A Mercy Mares Cozy Mystery Read Free Page A

buildings I'd walked in between and the doors I tried to enter.
     
    What gives? Why didn't he help me?
     
    “Wait a minute! Isn't it your job to keep this hospital safe and secure?” I asked, pointing to the array of monitors that he would have had no problem monitoring, if he bothered to do his job right. “Why didn't you help me or, at the very least, get your behind up from that chair and find out what in the world I was doing out there in the rain?”
     
    The stern look on his face softened for a moment as he took in the magnitude of his error, but rather than offering an apology, he lashed out at me. “Get out now! You don't have an employee badge. I've never seen your face before and no one mentioned anything about a new employee to me.” With that, he promptly ushered me out the door and back out into the pouring rain.
     
    I had two choices, neither of which sounded at all appealing to me. I could leave with my tail between my legs and navigate across the parking lot that was now a pond and hop in my car and go to the apartment or I could do something a tad bit more drastic and much more prudent, given my state of mind at the time. At least, that's what I planned on saying if my impending assault on the security guard ever went to trial.
     
    I banged on the door like my life depended on it. No way, no how was I going to let some smug jerk, treat me like something less than human. I'd had quite enough and he was going to have to endure my wrath. All five feet three inches (on a good day) of it!
     
    “Open this door right now!” I demanded as my fists pounded on the door. “I'm soaking wet. I'll probably catch pneumonia out here and it will be all your fault, you bully!”
     
    Rather than getting under his goat, I do believe I was providing entertainment for him. He looked at me curiously for a moment, then, that curiosity turned to amusement and he laughed and mocked me and my feeble efforts to get back inside the building.
     
    “Oh, this is just ridiculous!” I shouted. “Let me in, please.” Okay, so my angry approach didn't garner the results I'd hoped they would. I figured that I'd better try something a little bit more low key. After all, he was a man and I was a woman, so one could only assume that a part of him would have a soft spot for a damsel in distress.
     
    I took a deep breath and forced myself not to beat on the door. With a strained smile on my face, I batted my five dollar eyelashes at him and clasped my hands together in front of me and said, “Please, let me in.”
     
    He stared back at me, seeming to contemplate his next move. I had hoped that I'd finally reached him. He took a step toward the window. I inhaled slightly, anticipating kindness. He stuck his tongue right out of his mouth and put his hands up on either side of his head and said the equivalent of a schoolyard chant, before turning around, plopping himself back into his seat, and laughing a maniacal belly laugh at my expense.
     
    “What a jerk.” I said under my breath as I stared at him through the glass. I was out of options and way beyond being out of patience, but my limbs were nearly frozen solid from my long plight in the monsoon like rain that, even if I tried, I couldn't move. I just stood there, watching him take pleasure in my misery. He made a point of rubbing my predicament in my face.
     
    His next move was one I'll not soon forget. Reaching in front of him, he adjusted the monitors. I heard movement above my head. I looked up to see the eye of the camera being turned in my direction, right on my face. I quickly looked back into the windows and watched him as he zoomed in on my face, laughing and, now, talking on his cell phone.
     
    Is this guy for real , I thought.

Chapter Two
    “Well, looks like you made it after all.”
     
    “Looks like I did, frizzy hair and all.” I studied my reflection in the glass as myself and, Amy, the nurse assigned to train me, stood outside of the building, waiting