Silent Awakening

“We’re working together on a case.” Brady considered his response further, noting the spark of interest in the striking doctor’s eyes and the bare finger on her left hand, which still bore the mark of a ring. The doctor was obviously recently divorced and making certain he knew she was available. Under other circumstances, he might’ve been flattered enough to accept the doctor’s unspoken invitation. Instead, he heard himself add, “But she’s a…special friend.”

“Oh. She’s luckier than I thought.” Dr. Weiss added with a shrug of her shoulders, “Stay as long as you like, Detective. She should wake up soon.”

“Right.”

Brady watched the sway of Dr. Weiss’s hips as she strode down the hallway. Interesting. Dr. Weiss obviously had plenty to offer, and he had just turned it all down. For the life of him, he didn’t know why.

Brady glanced into Natalie’s room.

Not an accident. Somebody pushed me. I felt it.

Brady walked back inside, pulled the armchair closer to the bed, and sat down.

CONSCIOUSNESS CAME slowly and painfully. The throbbing in her head had not subsided, but the semidarkness of the room was a relief when Natalie opened her eyes and attempted to get her bearings.

Memory nagged again and fear stabbed her gut. She had been standing on a street corner waiting for the light to change when someone had deliberately pushed her into the path of an oncoming car.

Accident…accident…

Natalie closed her eyes, unable to hold back the tear that slipped out the corner of her eye as the pounding in her head increased. She gasped when a calloused hand smoothed it away and a deep voice said, “Are you all right, Natalie?”

She recognized that voice.

Natalie opened her eyes to the image that had haunted her angry thoughts for the past week. She said in a croaking voice, “What are you doing here?”

Detective Brady Tomasini smiled as he responded, “It’s nice to know you’re glad to see me.” It took Natalie a moment to realize she’d never seen him smile before. The transformation was startling.

He sobered as he asked, “How do you feel, Natalie? Do you want me to call the doctor?”

“Natalie?” she continued hoarsely, “When did we get on a first-name basis?”

“When they brought you into the hospital unconscious.” He asked again, “Do you want me to call the doctor?”

“No. I’m not ready for her yet.”

“The nurse?”

“No.”

“Your supper came while you were sleeping—a liquid diet, I think. Do you want anything?”

Natalie shuddered. “No.”

“Some water?”

Natalie eyed him cautiously, “Why are you being so nice?”

“All I did was ask if you wanted some water.”

Natalie swallowed with difficulty, then said, “Yes.”

She was uncertain how to react when Tomasini held the cup close to her lips and tilted the straw into her mouth, but she swallowed thankfully.

A sudden thought occurred to her and she asked abruptly, “Am I dying?”

Amused, Tomasini replied, “Not that I know of.”

“Then why—?”

“You were late for the meeting at the precinct, and Dr. Gregory called and said you’d had an accident.”

“It wasn’t an accident.”

All sign of levity disappeared from Tomasini’s expression. “That’s what you told the doctor this afternoon when you woke up the first time.”

“It wasn’t an accident.” Natalie closed her eyes again as the pounding in her head increased. She persisted with her eyes closed, “Somebody pushed me. I felt his hands.”

Natalie opened her eyes slowly. Tomasini wasn’t laughing.

“Dr. Weiss said the sensation of being pushed was probably just a result of your concussion.”

“She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

He looked amused again. “That’s what I thought you’d say.”

Natalie took a deep breath, winced at the effort, and said, “Why would somebody push me, Detective?”

“Brady.”

“What?”

“My first name is Brady. In answer to your question, I don’t know.” He added, “I’m not even completely sure I can believe what you’re telling me now. You might wake up tomorrow and forget everything you just said.”

“Somebody pushed me!”

“All right, don’t get angry. They’ll throw me out of here if I upset you.”

The sound of footsteps turned them both toward the door as a gray-haired nurse entered. Her cheerful voice reverberated in the silence of the room as she said, “So you’re awake at last. Good for you! Maybe this fellow will go home, now that he sees you’re all right.” She smiled as she turned back toward the door. “Dr. Weiss is still on call. I’ll bring her back to take a look at you. I’ll only be a minute.”

Natalie looked at Brady as the nurse left the room. She said, “You’ve been here all day?”

“No, only since they put you in here.”

“You know what I mean.”

“Have I been sitting here, waiting for you to wake up? Yes. Why? Because when you first opened your eyes, you claimed someone deliberately pushed you into the street. For some reason, I believed you and I wondered why somebody would want to kill you.”

“Kill me…” A chill ran down Natalie’s spine. “Somehow I didn’t think of it that way.”

“What did you think?”

“I don’t know.”

Natalie saw him frown as he searched her face. She noted the concern that knit his dark brows and she wondered what he saw. A slowly escalating fear gained control as she asked, “Who would want to kill me?”

“That’s what I was going to ask you. It could’ve been a random act—some psychopath with a grudge against something or other. Unfortunately, that kind of thing does happen occasionally.”

“No…I don’t think so. It was—” Memory nudged again and Natalie shuddered. Her breathing grew agitated as the memory cleared and she gasped, “It wasn’t random.”

“How do you know that?” Brady moved closer. He gripped her hand as she started to shake. He said tensely, “Natalie?”

“I know because—” Natalie’s breath quivered on her lips. Her eyes widened as she managed to choke out the words, “Because…he said my name.”

BRADY INSTINCTIVELY moved closer. He held her hand tighter, but she was suddenly trembling so badly that her teeth were chattering. Leaning closer, he whispered against her cheek, “Don’t be afraid, Natalie. You’re safe now.”

Natalie mumbled with growing incoherence, “How did this happen? I don’t understand. He said my name…my name…”

She moaned and twisted in bed. A wave of panic overwhelmed Brady and he pressed the call button. Where the hell was everybody? He turned as Dr. Weiss ordered sharply from behind him, “Step back, Detective. Move out of the way, please.”

Brady drew back to the far wall and watched as Dr. Weiss talked softly, responding to Natalie’s increasingly confused mumblings. He saw her speak to the nurse, then accept the syringe the nurse handed her a few minutes later. After injecting it into the IV, Dr. Weiss turned toward him to say, “Perhaps you’d better leave for a little while, Detective. There are some things I’ll need to take care of here that’ll take me a half hour or so. Don’t worry. Natalie will be fine while you’re gone.”

Nodding, Brady started toward the door. He had reached the hallway when he heard Dr. Weiss call out, “Wait a minute, please.” Drawing him outside the room a few moments later, Dr. Weiss said, “I heard what Natalie told you, Detective, but you have to understand that situations like this are quite common with head trauma. Natalie may even come up with more alarming delusions before this is over. She’s confused…frightened. She’s had a terrible experience and her mind is trying to make sense out of it. In my opinion, it wouldn’t be wise to put too much credence into what she says for another day, at least until she’s completely coherent.”

“You could be right, Doctor.” Refusing to add that she could also be wrong—dead wrong—Brady said, “You said you’d be busy here for a while?”

“About half an hour, at least. Natalie needs to be made more comfortable before she’s settled in for the night.” She hesitated. “Why don’t you go down to the cafeteria and get yourself a cup of coffee? I’ll make sure somebody stays with her until you return, if that’s what’s concerning you.” She patted his arm. “She’ll be much better tomorrow. You’ll see.”

Brady walked rapidly down the hospital corridor, his expression tense. He didn’t like this. Dr. Weiss could be right, of course. Everything Natalie had said could be a result of her injury, but he didn’t buy it.

Brady scrutinized the surrounding rooms as he passed. He had half an hour. Visiting hours were in effect, making it difficult as he searched the faces of the crowd moving down the hallway, but he also knew there was safety in numbers. With Dr. Weiss and the nurse in Natalie’s room, and with steady traffic moving past, Natalie would be safe enough for a while—at least long enough for him to get outside so he could use his cell phone to call the precinct and to make a quick call to the veterinary hospital.

Sarah was going to miss his nightly visit.

Wilthauer would have a fit when he called.

Stansky would be sure he’d gone crazy.

Hell, maybe he had.

Brady rang the elevator and waited anxiously. Actually, no one was more surprised than he was at the range of emotions Natalie—a virtual stranger—had raised in him. A few hours earlier, he had been gritting his teeth at the thought of seeing her at that precinct meeting; yet the moment he saw her lying in that hospital bed, battered, bruised and so damned helpless—

Brady felt an inexplicable heat rise to his face. He’d find the animal who’d pushed Natalie into the street and make sure the bastard never tried anything like that again.

He had half an hour.

The elevator doors opened and Brady stepped inside. He automatically scanned the hallway again as the elevator doors closed.

DR. HADDEN MOORE strode down the hospital hallway at a modest pace. It was almost nine o’clock and daylight was fading on the busy streets outside. Inside the hospital, the hallways had cleared of visitors and the nurses were busy dispensing meds before the patients were settled down for the night.

He wasn’t concerned by the late hour. Visiting hours didn’t apply to him. Dressed as he was in a white lab coat he had removed from the hospital linen closet, and with a stethoscope around his neck that he had found lying nearby, no one gave him a second look. The nurses’ station was vacant when he strolled past and he picked up a chart without challenge. Yet it didn’t really matter if he were challenged. He had a Ph.D. and he was completely confident that he was capable of carrying off his disguise in a convincing manner.

Hadden halted and leaned down toward the water fountain, frowning as Dr. Rita Weiss strode toward the elevator. Dr. Weiss was late leaving the hospital. His short visit to the emergency room earlier that day had been very informative. Natalie Patterson had been brought in and her injuries treated. She had been admitted and her care turned over to the recently divorced, efficient Dr. Weiss, whom a chatty clerk had helpfully pointed out to him. He had then gone to the cafeteria to pass the time until Natalie was situated in her room, the location of which the clerk had also cheerfully provided.

He had waited patiently until a later hour when he knew he could make his entrance virtually without being noticed.

His smile faltered as he approached Natalie’s room. Aware of the merits of well-planned strategy, he had resumed his surveillance of Natalie’s daily routine since she’d been assigned to the city, but she had emerged from her hotel later than usual that morning, surprising him. He had followed her covertly and had watched as she walked to the corner, failing again and again to hail a cab before finally boarding a bus in frustration.

He’d boarded the bus behind her, but she did not even look his way.

Disembarking from the rear door of the bus at the same stop as Natalie, he had then followed her cautiously as she continued on through the heavy pedestrian traffic.

He saw her irritation when she stopped at the last street corner and waited for the light to change. The crowd behind her swelled in size as she stood on the curb, alternating on obviously aching feet, and it was then that he realized he had been presented with an opportunity too irresistible for him to turn down.

No one paid attention to him as he slipped up behind Natalie in the crowd. Nor did anyone notice when, in a flash of movement too quick to perceive, he pressed the flat of his hands into the curve of her back and shoved her into the street.

He had been euphoric. Yet his euphoria came to an abrupt end only seconds later when two fellows managed to jerk her out of the limo’s path. She struck her head on the curb as they did.

He supposed that was why neither of the men had waited around after the ambulance arrived. But by that time the situation had slipped beyond his control. He’d had no recourse but to follow the ambulance in a cab in order to find out the result of his effort.

And now here he was…determined to finish what he had started.

Hadden neared Natalie’s hospital room, his heart pounding. He was about to step inside when the unexpected sight of Detective Tomasini of the NYPD dozing in a chair beside her bed halted him.

Damn the man! What was he doing here?

Hadden pulled back without being seen, then stared at Natalie lying so still in the hospital bed. Her long, dark hair was stretched across the pillow in sharp contrast with the stark white of the bed linens and the bandage she wore on her forehead. She was petite, silent, her small features delicately composed, the long, black fans of her eyelashes lying like lush crescent moons against her pale cheeks. Surrounded in immaculate white, the pale beam of light shining down on her in the semidarkness forming a gleaming halo around her head, she looked like a celestial being—innocent and so completely pure that she stole his breath.

He paused at that thought.

But Natalie Patterson wasn’t pure, and she wasn’t celestial. She was the lab technician who had foiled his perfect revenge and because of her, the entire NYPD would soon be out searching for him.

Hatred surged hotly through him as Hadden turned abruptly and started back down the hallway.

He’d be back.

Chapter Four

The sound of morning activity in the hospital corridor beyond Natalie’s door woke Brady abruptly. Angry with himself for having dozed, he glanced at the bed a few feet away where Natalie slept, breathing easily. Her color had improved and her features were relaxed. Her sleep appeared to be natural and presently devoid of the nightmares that had awakened her several times during the night.

Brady rubbed his palm across his stubbled jaw, then ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to restore a sense of order to his disheveled appearance as he pushed himself upright in the chair. He recalled Natalie’s incoherent mumblings jarring him from his semisleep during the night and the sudden panic that had snapped her eyes open. He had moved to her side spontaneously. He had comforted her, telling her she didn’t need to be afraid, that he was there and he’d protect her. He had whispered reassuringly until her breathing became normal, and he had suffered a sense of helplessness when she awoke again, tortured by the same frightening torments. The experience had been bittersweet as she turned to him in her terror; yet as confusing as his feelings had become, he was certain of one thing—he would protect her with his life.

His attitude toward her had changed drastically. He couldn’t be sure if guilt at his misjudgment of Natalie was responsible; if having misjudged her once, he was anxious not to repeat the same mistake, especially when the stakes were so high. Or if his reaction to her utter helplessness was what had kept him sitting at her bedside, holding her hand until she fell back to sleep again.

It annoyed him that he’d been unable to remain awake all night, but he had consoled himself that he had been immediately alert each time someone stepped into the room, that he had diligently checked all medication and IV changes that had been conducted during that time—all of which, he recognized, would be a complete waste of time if Natalie woke up and recanted her story about being pushed into the street.

Yet, he somehow knew she would not.

Despite Dr. Weiss’s warning, there had been something about Natalie’s adamancy, and the look in those heavily lidded gray eyes that made him believe her when she repeated, He said my name.

He supposed he might not have given those four words much credence if not for the chilling fax he had received from Manderling Pharmaceuticals and his realization that only a madman could be guilty of the atrocity Dr. Hadden Moore was suspected of having committed. The knowledge that Moore might still be in the city was a major concern. Brady knew that if Moore were guilty, he would realize that having identified Candoxine as the cause of the Winslow barbecue deaths, Natalie had set the police on his trail. The possible repercussions of that scenario, considering Natalie’s “accident,” were too disturbing to ignore.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Brady was too familiar with that maxim to disregard it.

Brady glanced back at Natalie, recalling the way she had clutched his hand until she fell asleep—so tightly that she had surprised him with her strength. She was so slight that she—

Natalie’s eyes fluttered open, interrupting Brady’s thoughts. She stared at him a moment before she said, “Are you still here?”

“Yeah.” Brady moved closer to the bed. “Something wrong with that?”

“You were here all night, weren’t you?”

Brady nodded.

“Why?”

“Let me see.” Brady moved closer still and looked down into her pale face. “You had an accident on the street.”

“It wasn’t an accident.”

“And you said it wasn’t an accident, that somebody pushed you.”

“Somebody did.”

“Maybe I believed you and figured you’d need somebody to stay with you for a while.”

Natalie searched his face, frowning.

“And maybe I stayed because I owe you an apology.”

“An apology…”

“Because I was tired and irritable that first day I met you and I acted like an ass. Because I was wrong and needed to tell you I was wrong.”

“What about the second day?”

Brady smiled. “I was an ass then, too.”

Natalie nodded.

“And I also wanted to tell you that—”

A sound at the door turned them toward Dr. Weiss as she stopped still and said, “Excuse me. Am I interrupting something?”

“No.” Brady stood up. “Come on in.”

Dr. Weiss glanced between them as she approached the bed. She said, “Well, you look a lot better today, Natalie. That’s more than I can say for your friend here. How do you feel?”

“Somewhat better.”

Brady started toward the door and Dr. Weiss said, “I’ll be done here shortly, Detective. Also, there’s a uniformed officer waiting for you at the nurses’ station. He said you’re expecting him.”

“Right.”

“Brady?”

Brady looked back when Natalie called after him with uncertainty. He responded to her unasked question. “I’ll be back.”

It occurred to Brady as he stepped into the hallway and the officer at the desk started toward him that he suddenly felt like smiling.

Why?

The answer to that was embarrassingly simple. It was because Natalie hadn’t wanted him to leave.

BRADY PULLED THE DOOR of the precinct station house open and strode inside, squinting as his eyes acclimated to the darkness within. He swore under his breath as he tripped over a carton of snack cakes beside the vending machine that was being refilled. He glared at the service attendant, mumbled an apology and moved the carton out of his way, then turned toward the squad room in the rear where Wilthauer was waiting. He was late. It had taken him longer than he had expected to get cleaned up, change his clothes and negotiate the traffic for his morning meeting. The fact that Wilthauer was waiting was already one count against him.

In Wilthauer’s office minutes later, with Stansky standing silently nearby, Brady insisted, “You know damned well Natalie Patterson will need protection, at least until she leaves that hospital. She can’t protect herself and since she’s the possible target of a homicidal maniac and somebody already tried to push her into the path of an oncoming car, I’d say we have no choice.”

“Possible target of a homicidal maniac? Don’t you think you’re going a little overboard on this, Tomasini? I don’t have the statistics, but I’d say similar, unfortunate accidents like the one that happened to Patterson, have been known to occur more often than we care to admit in this city.”

“It wasn’t an accident. Somebody pushed her.”

“So she says.”

“I believe her.”

“Maybe somebody did push her, some careless bastard in a rush who—”

“She said that careless bastard called her by name.”

“What do you mean?”

“She said he whispered her name before he shoved her into the street. There’s nothing accidental about that, and you know damned well I wouldn’t be making a case of it if I didn’t believe it was true.”

“Come on…”

“Natalie’s not the type to cry wolf, I tell you.”

“You haven’t gotten far enough in this investigation to be sure what type this Patterson woman is, or to be sure if this Moore character is still in the country—if he is the perpetrator.”

“He’s the one. He had motive and the opportunity to obtain the Candoxine. You know that as well as I do. And I’ll make you a bet that as soon as we do some checking to determine his location, we’ll find out—”

Breaking his silence, Stansky interjected, “I’ve already checked on Moore’s location. There’s no record of his return to England…or of his leaving the U.S., for that matter. He’s still in this country somewhere as far as the records show.” At Brady’s inquiring glance, he added, “What did you think I was doing while you were babysitting at the hospital all day?”

Brady looked back at Wilthauer’s frown. “What does that tell you?”

“That you’re both jumping to conclusions.”

“I don’t know. Are we?”

Brady stared at Wilthauer boldly. Damn, the man was hardheaded! He’d been able to get a uniform stationed at Natalie’s door temporarily, but he knew temporarily wouldn’t do. He said, “Look, Captain, we can’t afford to take the risk. If Natalie gets attacked again and the attack succeeds, there’ll be hell to pay. Natalie’s the golden girl of the CDC. They won’t take it lightly that we didn’t protect her.”

He knew he had hit the bull’s-eye with that thought when Wilthauer hesitated, then responded, “All right. You win. I’ll keep a uniform outside the Patterson woman’s hospital door until she’s released, but remember, we can’t provide protection for an extended period. We don’t have the manpower to spare, so find this Moore guy and make it quick. Manderling provided us with his picture. Leak it to the newspapers. Notify the networks. Flood the town with his picture, and then get set for the deluge. If he’s still around, you’ll get him.”

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