Silent Scream (2 page)

A fire truck pulled up and two fire men got out and stood next to Gabriel, silently watching a procedure they’d all memorized.  A third  walked up.  He was a tall, bulky African American who set his hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

“You okay?”  He looked at Gabriel.

Gabriel nodded at his best friend, Elijah Ramsey.  “Yeah.  It’s just been a long night.”

Another wailing siren bathed the landscape in reds and blues as a police car pulled up   Two cops, David Ferguson and Steve Hansen, got out of the car, walked up to the scene, and looked at the EMTs before approaching the firemen.  David nodded at them, bracing his hands on his hips.  “What happened?” he asked as he chewed a toothpick.

Gabriel watched the EMTs work on her.  “About ten minutes ago, I pulled over to let the dog do his business.  Damned if Donner didn’t find her in pretty much the same spot she’s in now.”

David glanced at the woman.  “Did you see or hear anything unusual?”

“You mean besides her?” Gabriel retorted.  “No.  Everything was quiet.”

“Did you see if she had any identification?”  David shifted the toothpick to the other side of his mouth.

Gabriel shook his head.  “I don’t think she’s got a purse, and her clothes are pretty tattered, so my guess would be no, she doesn’t.”

Steve scratched notes on the pad.  Still, when they lapsed into silence, the page was only half-filled.  So many questions, no answers.  In silence, the small group watched the EMTs load her onto the gurney they set in the ambulance. 

“You taking her to Memorial?” Steve called to the EMTs as he flipped his pad closed.

“Yeah,” the driver said.  “We’ll compare notes there.”

The four of them watched as the ambulance headed off into the night, blinding them with its red and blue lights, deafening them with its screaming wail.

Steve shook his head.  “Looks like it’s going to be a long one.”  He tapped his partner’s arm.  “Let’s head to the hospital and see what they can tell us.”

As the cruiser drove away, Gabriel stared at the ground where he’d found her.  Another fire man, Beck patted his shoulder one last time.

“I’ll see you later.”  The fireman cocked a lazy half-smile at Gabriel before heading back to his fire truck and driving away.

In the faint moonlight, he couldn’t even see the impressions in the grass where she’d been, and he was tempted to think of it all as a dream.

Under the cover of night, the ground looked just like all the rest, save for the yellow tape where they’d cordoned off a small section.  He knew he’d never forget her face.  He just wished he had a name to go with it.  At least that way he’d know what to call her in his nightmares.

Chapter Two

Morning poured through his grimy windshield as Gabriel parked his truck in the hospital lot.  Slate grey clouds tumbled slowly overhead, meandering. As Gabriel stepped onto the concrete, he gazed hard at the sky.  A frown furrowed his brows as he peered at the tumult of grey blocking out the sun.  The heavens appeared freighted with rain, but Gabriel knew it was too cold for that.  Snow, maybe.  Sleet, definitely.

He reached into the vehicle and grabbed a crossword puzzle magazine from the passenger’s seat.  As he slammed the door, he wondered if Maddie Gilcrest even liked crossword puzzles.  He knew nothing about her except her name, but it seemed a safe enough gift.  Besides, he thought, gritting his teeth, he wasn’t even sure she’d be conscious.  He hadn’t heard how badly she’d been injured, but at least she wasn’t in the ICU.  He knew that much from when he’d called David earlier to check on her.

Rolling the magazine so it would fit in his closed palm, he walked inside the hospital and headed for room 211.  A closed door and a sign that read “no visitors” greeted him, and Gabriel nodded.  He could understand that.  He looked at the magazine and wondered what the hell to do with it.  Crossword puzzles just frustrated him.  Shaking his head, he decided to keep it, anyway.

As he turned and started to walk away, he heard a loud crash from inside the room.  Although the nurses’ station was just a few steps away, there were no nurses to be seen.  Gabriel opened the door and poked his head inside, about to ask if she was all right when he spotted her on her knees on the ground, trying to get up.   Her IV tube was tangled in the bed’s frame, and about to pull free of the arm that didn’t have a cast on it.

“You all right?”  He hustled inside and knelt to help her.  As he tried to grab her arm, she pulled away.  Her whole body trembled, and he scooted back to give her some distance.  “I didn’t mean to upset you.”  He pointed to her arm where the IV cord pulled taut.  “Your IV is about to come loose and I was trying to help you up so it wouldn’t have to be re-started.” 

She tried to stand, but her legs trembled and gave way.  “Oh, God,” she whispered, refusing to meet his gaze.  Dark hair fell into her face, only half-concealing a blackened eye and gouged cheek.  Her lips were swollen. 

He set the magazine on the other bed.  “I’m going to put you back on the bed, okay?  I’d call for a nurse to do it, but none of them are at the nurses’ station, and who knows when they’re going to figure out you’re down here.”  He leaned close, slid one arm under the bend of her knees and placed the other around her back, carefully avoiding her broken arm.  Although he half expected her to turn hellcat, she didn’t.  Instead, she let him lift her back into the bed.

As she lay there, she tried to pull the blankets around her, but with one hand, she couldn’t even manage to untangle them, let alone drag them  back onto the bed.

“I’ll get those,” Gabriel said, pulling the covers from the floor and draping them over her body.

“Thank you,” she said.

“Maybe we’d better call the nurse and see if she can look you over.”  He reached over and pressed the nurse button on the control panel inside the bed’s railing.  “That floor isn’t soft, and your IV might not be working.”

He thought about leaving but he couldn’t, not without somebody looking in on her.

She closed her eyes.  “Who are you?”  She finally managed to break the stillness.

“My name is Gabriel Martin.”  He tapped one boot against the linoleum in rhythm with his heart.  “I didn’t mean to scare you earlier.  I just knew you couldn’t get back into bed by yourself.”

She thought about his name, trying to place it, but it sounded unfamiliar.  “Why are you here?”  

“I came to see you,” he said finally and held out the magazine.  “I didn’t know if you’d like crossword puzzles, but I thought they might help distract you.”

Maddie took the magazine and set it on the table beside the bed.  She took in his face, trying to place him, wondering how he knew her.  Had he been a patient in the ER?  “Do I know you?” she finally asked.

“Not exactly.”  He folded his arms across his chest and frowned, wondering how to phrase his response.  “I was driving home last night with my dog.  He needed to go to the bathroom, and I…found you. I called 911.”  He saw her shudder and look from him to the covers draping her body.

She inhaled sharply.  “Where did you find me?”

The image of her on the ground came back to him, and he winced.  “About fifteen miles from Lawton.  You were incoherent and bleeding.” 

“Can you read?” a portly nurse asked, glaring at Gabriel as she entered carrying a new bag of IV fluid.  “The sign says ‘No Visitors.’”

“It’s all right, Becca,” Maddie said.  “I fell out of bed, and he came to help.”  She pushed a thick strand of hair behind her ear.

“Are you hurt?” Becca asked, ignoring Gabriel as she scooted past him.

“I don’t know.  I can’t differentiate the pain.  My whole body hurts.”

Gabriel pointed to the IV.  “You might want to check her IV.  It was about to pull loose when she was on the floor.”

Becca looked and found a small release of blood in the tubing.  “We’re going to have to re-start it.  You’ve got some backflow going on.”  She patted her pockets and shook her head.  “Let’s get the old one off.”  She pulled at the tape and plucked out the cannula.  She pulled out a package of gauze, ripped it open, and pushed the soft fibers against Maddie’s hand.  “Hold this while I go get stuff.”  She shuffled past Gabriel and paused at the door.  “You want him to leave, Maddie?”

Maddie shook her head.  “No, he’s fine.”

She glared at him.  “I’ll leave the door open just in case.”

Gabriel waited until she was out of earshot and said, “In case of what?”

Maddie gingerly pulled back the gauze to check the bleeding.  Yep, it still flowed.  She pressed the gauze back in place.  “She’s just being overprotective.”

“I guess that’s a good thing.”  Gabriel shifted his weight from one foot the other.  “I mean, she must care about her patients.”

“She’s not normally like that.”

“You spend a lot of time in the hospital?” Gabriel asked as he walked to the window and looked out.  Snowflakes fell silently.

Maddie nodded.  “Yeah, I work here.”  She pulled back the gauze and waiting a moment until satisfied the bleeding had stopped.

“Are you a nurse?”

“No, I’m a doctor.”

That would explain a few things
, Gabriel thought.  “I guess I should get out of your hair before she comes back to re-start the IV.”  He turned back and started for the door.  “I hope you enjoy the crossword puzzles.”

“Gabriel?”

He turned slowly.  “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“It’s just a magazine.”

“Not just for that.  For last night.”

He pulled the keys from his jacket pocket.  “I understand why you’re thanking me, Maddie, but you don’t have to–”

”Yes, I do,” she insisted, staring at her fingernails.  The hand of her unbroken arm bore a nasty bruise.  “I keep thinking about what would have happened if you hadn’t...found me.”  Her voice thickened as tears pooled and glistened in her dark blue eyes.

He stepped back to the bed and touched her hand.  “I didn’t do anything exceptional.  Any decent person would have taken care of you.”  He lightly patted her hand.  “Besides, I didn’t find you.  My dog, Donner, did.  If you want to thank him, buy him a jumbo box of Milk Bones.  He can never get enough of them.”   He saw her lips twist into a half-smile.

“How did we know you’d be here?” a male voice asked from the doorway.

Gabriel turned to find Steve and David standing there in uniform.  “Lucky guess.”

The two officers from last night sauntered into the room.  “Luck had nothing to do with it, and you know it.”  David walked past Gabriel and stopped at the foot of the bed.  “Dr. Gilcrest, we’d like to ask you a few questions about last night.  I know this isn’t probably the best time, but the sooner we talk about this, the sooner we can catch the guy who did this and lock him up.”

Gabriel watched all traces of the smile disappear as Maddie clenched the blanket and drew it even higher on her body.  He thumbed at the door.  “I should go,” he said.

Maddie nodded and said, “Okay.”

As Gabriel exited, he almost ran into Becca.  She was so surprised she started to drop the packets of tubing, but Gabriel caught them.

“I didn’t know you were the one who found Maddie,” she said as Gabriel handed her the packets.  “Thank you for taking care of her.  She’s a good friend.”

Gabriel smiled.  “You don’t have to thank me any more than Maddie did. I’m glad I could help.  How badly was she hurt?”

“Two bones broken in her arm, three fractured ribs, a concussion, a small knife wound, and lots of bruises.”  Becca chewed her bottom lip while shaking her head, nodding toward Maddie’s room where the cops were.  “I hope they get him and lock him up for the rest of his life.”  Tears pricked her eyes, and Gabriel watched her trembling hand wipe them away.  “I should go take care of her.”

Becca bustled into the room.  As she opened the door, Gabriel peered inside to see the two officers questioning Maddie.  Although she spoke with them, she gazed at the portion of blanket in her hand and avoided their gaze.  Gabriel’s shoulders tensed, and he understood why she couldn’t face them.  In the few moments he’d been in that room, he’d looked into the depths of her eyes and saw the wound she couldn’t hide, and last night, after the ambulance had brought her here, he’d tried to sleep, but every time he’d started to drift, he’d thought he’d heard that same keening sound, the one reminding him of an animal caught in a trap.  The sound came from a place most people never visited–a place he’d known well since his sister’s murder ten years ago at the hands of a man who’d raped her and squeezed the last breath from her body.

A shudder caught Gabriel off-guard and he tried to hide it by striding down the hall toward the elevator.  Gritting his teeth, he punched the button.  Still, his mind lingered with Maddie as he wondered what the hell had transpired last night before he’d found her.  He raked his fingers through his hair and remembered what she’d looked like on the ground.  Maybe he was better off not knowing.  As it was, he doubted he could ever forget her face in the moonlight and her wail as it filled the night.

The elevator opened, and a doctor carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and his keys in the other stepped past Gabriel.  Hesitating for just a moment, Gabriel finally stepped inside and leaned against the wall, waiting for the doors to close.  They’d started sliding together when a nurse scooted between them at the last second and they immediately drew apart.  “Sorry about that,” she said in a breathy voice.  “I don’t mean to hold things up for you.”

Even though Gabriel had heard her speak, his mind was still with Maddie. 
Why was no one with her?  Shouldn’t her family be here?

Did she have a family?

The doors closed, and the nurse punched the button for the second floor.  Turning, she faced him and asked, “What floor?”

“Ground,” he said, watching her finger the button.  “Thanks.”

The elevator slowly dropped from the third floor to the second, and it took just a moment for the doors to open, allowing the nurse to leave.  The car paused, waiting for any other occupants, but the doors shut and the car began to descend again.  The “G” lit up, and the doors opened.  He stepped toward the lobby, intending to get off, but something stopped him, something he couldn’t name or understand but felt just the same.