Bad Karma (8 page)

Cassie sighed again before pulling herself to her feet. Grabbing up the boxes, she loped down the steps. She stashed the boxes under the stairs, unsure of where the trash would be picked up.

When she turned around, she stopped dead in her tracks. There was a man staring at the house. He hadn’t spotted her under the stairs yet, but he was checking out the place.

Cassie peered out through the open stairway.

The man was probably in his fifties, dressed in slacks and a dress shirt, open at the neck. Not the usual garb for a beachcomber. The wind ruffled his thinning hair, but he didn’t seem to notice. His gaze was hidden behind mirrored sunglasses. He raised his arms and...

Oh, my God! He has binoculars!
She drew in a sharp breath. He seemed to be staring at the house.

An unaccustomed explosion of anger went off inside her. She marched toward the man, taking long strides, until she was within a few feet from him.

“
What do you think you’re doing? I should call the police on you.” She glared at him in her most threatening manner.

The man dropped his binoculars in the sand. “No, please. It was a Brown Noddy.” He bent to retrieve his binoculars.

Cassie fisted her hands and assumed a threatening stance. She mentally rehearsed the punches she would deliver if he made a grab for her.

The man clutched at his chest. “Please, I meant no harm. I spotted a Brown Noddy perched under your eaves and I had to take a closer look.”

Cassie squinted into the bright sunlight, trying to maintain her fierce expression. “Are you talking about a bird?”

He nodded eagerly and reached in the pocket of his slacks, producing a small leather bound notebook. “My lifetime bird list. I was just going to make a record of this sighting.” He held the book open for her perusal.

Cassie growled her disgust and strode back to the house, leaving a bewildered and shaken man in her wake.

~*~

She was gone, all right. Miss Skyler Danforth had flown the coop. She’d escaped right under his nose. Must have moved out in the dead of night when he’d thought she was tucked in for the evening.

No problem.

He’d tracked her to Springhill. He could find her again, wherever she had gone. If she thought she could shake him off her trail, she was very much mistaken.

He could check with the moving companies and rentals for self moves. He was really getting to be quite good at assuming various roles. People seemed to believe he was whatever he said he was. And of course, when a little cash changed hands, some people didn’t care why he wanted the information.

He already knew everything about Skyler Danforth. He knew her driver’s license number, her social security number and most important of all, he knew the number of her nursing license, registered with the State Nursing Board in Austin. Wherever she went, she’d have to get a job, and sooner or later the license would be checked. Then he’d have her.

He chuckled.

It was the dead dog that sent her running. He hadn’t meant to hit it, and he didn’t hate animals, but he was glad he could dish out a little pain to the woman who had caused so much pain to him.

He shifted gears and drove out of the cheery little subdivision where Skyler Danforth had formerly resided, his brain filled with new ways to terrorize his victim.

~*~

CHAPTER FIVE

Orientation

Skyler watched the clerk print her nametag. She was then shown to a room where two people sat waiting at a conference table. Sky took a seat and nodded nervously to the others.

A man with glasses wearing some sort of coveralls and a bored looking girl who kept texting.

In a few minutes a heavy-set woman entered and introduced herself. She guided them through filling out a packet of forms and gathered them back up when they were done. She then thrust a tape into the VCR and left them to watch a somewhat dated safety film.
Talk about old school
.

The man leaned back in his chair and the girl put her head down on her folded arms.

Skyler tried to focus on the monotone of the narrator as he guided them through a series of possible disasters, but her eyelids kept fluttering, trying to close.

When the woman came back, she announced that it was almost lunchtime and showed them where the cafeteria was located.

Sky selected a small fruit salad with cottage cheese and resolved to bring her lunch. She glanced around and searched for a quiet place to sit, not particularly interested in sharing another table with her fellow orientees.

“
Over here!” Two women and a man sat around a table in the corner and the man was waving to her. “Come join us.”

Sky managed a smile and approached the group. The man stood and pulled out a chair for her. He was probably in his late thirties and quite good looking. The two women were dressed in scrubs, but the man wore slacks and a dress shirt with his sleeves rolled up and a stethoscope draped around his neck.

“
You’re the new RN, aren’t you? I’m Steve Fisher. I’m the Medical Director of the skilled unit and I have a practice here in town.” He stood beside her with his hand extended. “My father, George Fisher is the Medical Director of the hospital.

Sky placed her hand in his. “Skyler Danforth.”

“
I’m Lucy Torres. Where did you come from?” The speaker was around Sky’s age and her nametag listed her title as LVN.

Sky felt a squeezing sensation in her gut whenever she was questioned about her past. “Austin. I’m from Austin.”

The older of the two nurses smiled and extended her hand. “I’m Selena Rios. I’m the other RN.” She was in her late forties or early fifties with smooth olive skin. A few strands of white mixed into her thick, dark hair gave away her age. “We probably won’t see that much of each other because the administration wants to make sure one of us is on duty every day, but they don’t want to pay the rate for an RN on all shifts.”

Sky raised her brows. “What have you been doing up until now?”

Selena laughed, displaying white, even teeth. “I’ve worked a lot of overtime and they call in agency personnel when I got too tired.”

“
That’s rough.”

“
Not so bad. There are only eighteen beds in the entire hospital. We do a great business in the emergency room and deliver quite a few babies, but the major traumas are triaged here and sent into Harlingen or Brownsville. We just patch and ship.”

Sky nodded and took a bite of fruit to ponder the situation.

Steve leaned toward her in a conspiratorial manner. “But there’s also a skilled unit. We have some long-term patients there. It’s a small nursing home for the convenience of the community.”

“
How nice,” Sky said.

“
Is there a Mister Danforth?”

Sky almost choked on the cracker she’d just chomped into. She took a sip of water. “No, I’m single.”

Steve straightened. “Me too. I’ll have to show you around the island. There is a lot of fun to be had around here.”

The other two women exchanged a glance.

Sky kept a tight grip on her water. “Thank you. I’m sure that would be very nice.”

Lucy had a tight smile on her face. “Did you get a place at one of the condos on the beach?”

Sky shook her head. “My sister and I rented a house. She’s going to teach at the high school in the fall.”

Selena smiled across the table at her. “A teacher and a nurse. Your parents must be so proud.”

Sky considered the concept. “I think they’re proud of us. They always encouraged us to follow our dreams.”

“
One of my daughters is in nursing school,” Selena said. “My oldest son, Andres, works with my husband at our store. Our middle son is in the Marine Corps and my younger son, Javier is a Firefighter. My daughter, Rosario goes to Pan Am University. She’s studying to be a nurse. The youngest, Leticia and Alicia are still in school.

Skyler gave her a smile. “It sounds like you have a wonderful family.”

Steve pushed his chair back from the table. “We’re glad you’re here, Skyler. If you’ll excuse me, I have office hours now so I have to run. I’ll be looking for you.” He patted her shoulder and picked up his tray.

Sky nodded as he strode across the cafeteria and deposited his tray at a window.

“
He likes you,” Selena commented, her dark eyes alight with mischief.

“
He likes anything with a pulse,” Lucy growled.

Skyler spent the afternoon watching films on universal precautions, proper lifting techniques and HIV. When she climbed into the Audi she felt that she was coming out of a coma.

She opened all the windows and eased the car into gear, inhaling the fresh sea air. Exiting the employee parking area, Sky drove across the Queen Isabella Causeway and, instead of heading for the house, she turned in the opposite direction.

Sky cruised along the strip of businesses, making a mental note of the restaurants and souvenir shops, but also found a small family-owned grocery store and two convenience stores. The sign in front of the grocery store said, Rios Market. She presumed this was the store Selena’s husband and oldest son owned.

Driving all the way to the end of the island, Sky let the car idle in the gravel parking lot of the Bait Camp Zach had spoken of.

The building was erected on huge concrete pilings and had a series of wide wooden planks set as stairs leading up to the open air porch with several tables located under the wide overhang.

Zach’s brother, the big one, owned this place. It didn’t look so bad in the daylight. Nothing sinister in the appearance.

If Zach and his brothers are there, it can’t be that bad. But I have to stay out of trouble.
She tried to stifle the spine-chilling sense of being watched and put the car into gear before making a rapid departure.

At the house, she found Cassie waiting for her. She sat outside on the stairs, sipping a soft drink, her hair tied up in a makeshift pony tail. A stack of empty boxes at the base of the stairs attested to her diligence that day.

Cass raised the bottle of soda in a salute as Sky climbed the stairs and plopped down beside her. “How was it?”

“
Long and boring.”

“
What did you learn?”

“
To lift with my legs, not to have unprotected sex or share needles with HIV patients and what to do in case of a hurricane.”

Cassie giggled. “Good grief! I hadn’t thought about blowing away. Why did we move here again?”

Sky raised her eyebrows in mock exasperation. “You picked this place. June first is the start of the hurricane season.”

“
Too bad. I unpacked already.”

“
Then we have to stay.”

“
Do you have your schedule yet?”

Skyler nodded. “There’s one other RN. She and I will work alternately because there has to be an RN at least one shift per day. They wanted to give me twelves, but I explained that I was still rehabbing from an accident and they put me on eight-hour shifts to start. I’m working from seven to three, three days on and two off. So I’ll be rotating weekends with Selena.”