When the Heart Lies - By Christina North Page 0,23
doubt they would help him. Three of them he’d known since high school. They were good guys, the type who always had your back, and when they needed him, he’d always been around for them, too.
Hector spoke up first. “I’m in. Better make the story good because they know you’re both gone.”
“What do they know?” he asked.
“A nurse found Kinsley’s pillows in her bed. They been looking all over. Only been about five minutes, though. Haven’t started outside yet.”
“Count me in,” Miller said.
Jackson grabbed the ID from Miller’s scrub top, tearing the pocket, and put the ID on Kinsley. She and Hector glanced at each other, and then flashed him curious expressions.
“This is the story.” Jackson said. “Kinsley’s room is on the south side. From her window she saw me at the lake and reasoned I might be thinking of doing something stupid.” He thought for a bit and pointed at Miller. “She ran down the hall and snatched your ID.”
The guys eyed each other in a roundabout way. One scratched his head, the other rubbed his chin, and the third watched as his cigarette sail into the distance. They didn’t appear to have confidence in his idea.
“How did she get out the door?” Miller asked.
Jackson studied the stars, thinking. “Ah… by the time she got around the corner, she walked calmly through the door appearing to be a staff member.” It was a stretch.
Miller slanted his head toward the boys. Every head drifted in different directions. Still, they weren’t convinced.
“I wouldn’t notice anything odd about her leaving the building?” Hector said.
“Per diem staff is here all the time. Do you check their IDs leaving the building?”
Hector pursed his lips and shook his head. “Nope.”
“She took my ID. Wouldn’t I go after her?” Miller added.
“You did go after her, but for the other patients’ safety you had to pick up the meds she knocked out of your hands first.” Jackson surprised even himself, coming up with that one.
Miller mulled the scenario over and began nodding his head. “Yeah, I’d do that. What next?”
“She got to the lake before you could reach her. She startled me, and I fell in.”
“So, how’d she get all wet and dirty?”
The guys all laughed, letting their imaginations fill in the blanks. Finally, they got behind the story.
He peeked over at her and smiled. “Well, I did that because I thought it’d be funny.”
She narrowed her eyes scorning him, punched him in the arm, and then massaged her smarting fist.
He grabbed his arm and added a dramatic face. “That hurt.”
“Good, it was meant to!” She did the eye squint, screwed up mouth thing that always made him want to laugh.
Right back to business, he turned to Hector. “They’ll ask about her taking Miller’s ID. Be sure you tell them she was beside herself with worry. Tell them she yelled something like, “He’s going to jump. He’s going to jump!”
Hector nodded.
“Far as you know, she was trying to help.” He scanned the group to be sure everyone understood. When it appeared they did, he flicked his brows and mimicked a kiss in Kinsley’s direction. She ignored him.
Hector headed in. After a couple minutes, he and Kinsley went in with Miller, and the other two followed. They walked toward the nurses’ station and spotted Hector talking with the charge nurse and the supervisor, Mr. Byrd, who was getting loud and obnoxious.
“The two patients are fine. Just a misunderstanding,” Hector said.
“A misunderstanding,” Byrd said, angrily, “that allowed two people to walk out of the building? Do you know what kind of liability we could incur if something happened? Why do you think we lock this place down at night?”
“No one let anyone walk out of the building,” Hector said, one eye pinched and one eye glaring.
Jackson knew Byrd, and he wasn’t worth arguing with. Byrd was going to have to be right. It was better to let him think he was.
“Really now?” Byrd pulled his tie, loosening it from his red neck. “Appears to me, the two patients in front of me have clearly been out of the building.”
Hector didn’t back down. His arms stiffened with squared fists as his body slanted toward Byrd. “Well, maybe if you and your cronies weren’t so damn cheap, the patients would wear white scrubs when they come in and need a change of clothes. Instead of blue like the staff members. Y’all can spend money on every other God damn luxury.”
“You’re insubordinate!” Crimson now, Byrd shook his finger violently in Hector’s face.