Honor Read Free

have been so patient. He shouldn’t have waited for her to make the first real moves.
    A few drops of rain hit the curved glass of the windshield by the time he raced down the bay road that would take him to I-95. Five minutes later, it was pouring. The glass was obscured by thick, spattering drops that made everything blurry.
    An eighteen-wheeler overtook him on the left, throwing blinding spray back against his windshield. Linc swerved to the right, wondering if a rig that size had done in Kenzie’s car. Could be. But she’d been driving under clear skies.
    Just let her be all right. That didn’t seem like too much to ask.
    Merged into six fast-moving lanes, he headed straight for the largest hospital of the four he’d tagged, a few miles from the highway. The emergency room entrance was brightly lit, marked by a red sign. He screeched the truck into a parking spot and jumped out, barely noticing the pounding rain.
    The ER didn’t seem busy. Talking into a slotted metal circle set into wire-mesh glass, he gave the intake clerk a basic explanation and got the runaround.
    “The paramedics had her on a spine board before they lifted her into the ambulance. B. MacKenzie. Anyone by that name brought in?” He knew his voice was agitated, but he couldn’t control it.
    “I just started my shift, sir.” She pursed her lips and looked at him disapprovingly, safe in her cubicle.
    “But you have to have the admit list for today and tonight.” Linc pushed his wet hair back with one hand, aware that he looked like he’d been rolling around in an overflowing gutter. No doubt that was what she was thinking. He didn’t give a damn. But he had to be nice.
    “I’ll look.” She began to shuffle through papers on her desktop. Very slowly.
    “Maybe she went straight into surgery. How about the ICU? Help me out here.”
    The intake clerk shook her head. “We don’t give patient information to anyone who asks. As a general rule, family members are allowed to visit patients, but you said you weren’t family.”
    Next time he would lie. The clerk hadn’t said in so many words that Kenzie wasn’t there, so maybe she was. Right now he was ready to slam through the swinging doors that said Staff Only and find out for himself.
    A clipboard landed on the counter next to Linc’s elbow and he turned to see a youngish woman wearing glasses. The tag pinned to her jacket said her name and under that, ER Supervisor .
    “What seems to be the problem here?”
    The intake clerk slid a disdainful look at Linc to indicate that he was. The ER manager peered at him through lenses that made her eyes wide and owlish.
    “Can I help you?” she asked him crisply.
    “Sorry to bother you. I’m looking for someone who may have been in an accident—”
    “And you are?” she interrupted him.
    “Her, um, friend.” He couldn’t suddenly turn into Kenzie’s brother in front of the unhelpful clerk. “My name is Linc Bannon—”
    She interrupted him again. “And your friend’s name is?”
    “Her last name is MacKenzie.”
    “You don’t know her first name?”
    “She goes by—never mind. Tell me something. How many MacKenzies do you get on an average night? Ten? Fifteen? Is she here or not?”
    The supervisor kept her cool. “I’m trying to help you.”
    She was. Linc collected himself. “Sorry. Look, I know I saw her crashed car on the news. Live on the scene—ambulance, highway patrol, the works. I couldn’t see her on the stretcher but they showed a close-up of the plates. It was a rollover. Maybe on 1-95 or a connecting highway.”
    “Can you narrow that down a little? You’re talking about a lot of road.”
    “Somewhere around here, I think. The reporter said Summer River.”
    The ER supervisor nodded. “That’s not far from us. Let me check the admit list.” Linc noticed that the clerk ducked her head down when she heard that and got busy with the papers again. “Sorry. No one by that name has come in.”
    “Oh,