Danger Close (Shadow Warriors) (35 page)

Cathy shrugged, warmed by his concern. “I can’t…. Every time I look at food, I lose my appetite.”

Arnley halted, digging in his breast pocket for another chaw of tobacco. “Well,” he grumbled, fitting the brown wad between his cheek and gum, “from now on, I’m joinin’ you for supper every night. Understand?”

Meekly, Cathy inclined her head.

He tapped her shoulder smartly. “And that tray is gonna be loaded down with chow. And you’re gonna eat all of it.”

“Buck, you’re worse than a broody hen.”

“You’ll find out just how bad I really am,” he promised her grimly. He didn’t add that if Boland was alive, he’d cajole Cathy into fighting back. It was slowly dawning upon Arnley what his captain had seen in her. He grieved silently for the loss of the captain for her sake. They had deserved one another.

Buck roused himself out of his own thoughts as he wheeled Cathy back toward the rear entrance to the hospital. “Colonel Mackey said that he was assigning Dr. Tucker to you. Wasn’t he the man who took care of the women over at Delta?”

Hope shone in Cathy’s eyes as she twisted a look around to Arnley, surprise written across her face. “Doc? Doc’s coming here?”

Grudgingly, the sergeant smiled. “Yeah, tomorrow. Is he an okay swabbie?”

Cathy could barely contain her excitement over the prospect of seeing Leonard Tucker. “For a Navy guy, he’s okay,” she told him, her voice quavering with undisguised joy.

IF SHE COULD have paced the length of her hospital room, Cathy would have. When was Doc going to arrive? Every time she thought of him, tears gathered in her eyes—something that rarely happened except for yesterday when she’d seen Buck and Gomez. Cathy stood at the venetian blinds, staring out across the grounds of the sprawling medical facility. Buck had just left after making sure she’d eaten everything on the noontime tray. He’d be back at dinner, he promised. Her heart swelled with gratitude for his care toward her. Right now, she needed someone to help her get back on her feet.

A light knock on the door sent her turning awkwardly on her injured leg. Dr. Leonard Tucker, dressed like any other doctor at the Naval hospital in his white coat and dark Navy slacks, entered the room, a smile on his thin features.

“Doc!” And Cathy hobbled awkwardly toward him, her arms outstretched.

“Cathy,” he murmured, embracing her warmly. Tucker held her and his smile disappeared. “You’re skinny,” he muttered worriedly, holding her at arm’s length.

She managed a half laugh, her green eyes shining. “I know I look like hell. I need to gain back weight. I look like I got clobbered in a barroom brawl. You can’t tell me anything I don’t already know.” She gripped his arms. “Doc, it’s great to see you again.”

He was moved by her fragility and the strain in her voice. Gently, Tucker guided her to the bed, asking Cathy to lie down so that he could change the dressing on her leg and examine the healing wound.

“I’ve got to admit, I was surprised when orders were cut for me to come here and attend to you.” He smiled, deftly moving the robe and easing the gown aside so that he could view the wound. Leonard was just as shocked at his orders as Major Lane had been. And like the harpy Lane was, she questioned him endlessly over the unusual move. Why should Fremont have what amounted to a personal physician, when none of the other wounded WLF women were accorded such a privilege? Maybe he’d find out from Cathy.

As he cleaned her wound, Tucker worked swiftly and surely. Sweat stood out on her face, her flesh growing waxen. Her fists were white-knuckled.

“Just a little more,” he soothed, “and we’ll be done.”

Cathy grunted what was supposed to be a laugh. “Until tonight,” she rasped.

He nodded to the orderly, placing all the old dressing into the tray, and gave him permission to leave.

“All over with, Cathy.” Tucker smiled gently. “You can relax until 2100.”

Shakily, she wiped the sweat off her brow and closed her eyes. “I never knew there were so many kinds of pain.”

Tucker carefully examined her leg. “As many kinds as we have people, child. You’re coming along nicely. I see from your chart they’ve got some physiotherapy scheduled for next week. I think you’re up for it.” He began to wrap the protective gauze around her thigh.

Cathy slowly began to relax. Packing was hell. Wrapping the wound was nothing in comparison. She felt shaky from the adrenaline her body had been pumping; her gown was soaked in sweat. She’d have to change again. “I can’t believe this, Doc. I’ve got Buck, the sergeant I worked with at Alpha, and you here. I’m dreaming. I’ve got to be. After almost four weeks of being cooped up, packings three times a day, nightmares when I could get some sleep and nothing but memories when I woke up…” Cathy’s voice ebbed away and she slowly opened her eyes, managing a wan smile. “I was so lonely. How did Colonel Mackey know that?”

Tucker lifted his chin, his hands momentarily stilled. “Colonel Mackey? What’s he got to do with this?”

Cathy closed her eyes, allowing herself the luxury of completely relaxing after the trauma of repacking. “You’ll know soon enough,” she murmured. “Come Monday, Senator Fredericks is going to have a request sent to Lane for her to appear before a congressional hearing.”

His eyes bulged. “What?”

Cathy heard the terror in his voice and opened her eyes, studying him. “Colonel Mackey asked me to testify in the hearing, Doc.” She licked her chapped lips. “I said I would.”

He finished the taping and brought her gown back down over her knees and pulled the chenille robe across her legs. His heart hammered hard in his chest and he tried to appear only mildly interested. “Testify on what, Cathy?”

She slowly dragged herself upright, matching his sober tone. “Mac…Colonel Mackey is coming here on Monday to fill you and Sergeant Arnley in on the details. He made me promise I wouldn’t say anything before that.” Cathy reached out, touching the doctor’s slender hand. “It’s okay. I’m doing this for all of us, Doc. We suffered too much under Lane. She’s got to be stopped.” And then Cathy shrugged, removing her hand. “After Jim died, I wanted to die. I’m still not sure I want to live yet. Just having you and Buck here helps me a lot.” Cathy glanced at him. “I’ll be up on the firing line, Doc. Again. Mac is hot on this hearing. He’s enthusiastic.”

“And you?”

“Me?” Cathy stared down at her pink robe. “It’s a long story, Doc. I’ll tell you the rest on Monday after Mac briefs you two.”

Tucker stilled his own worries and reached over, resting his hand on her slumped shoulder. “Your wound is healing well, but, emotionally, you aren’t.”

Taking a ragged breath, Cathy nodded. “Like I said, it’s a long story, Doc.”

He set his clipboard down and crossed his arms, looking at her steadily. “I got the rest of the afternoon. Now, what’s this about Captain Boland? You never told me anything about loving him when you came back over to Delta.”

“I didn’t want to bore you, Doc.”

“Cathy, I care enough to listen. You know that. Now come on. I can see that look in your eyes. What’s happened? You look as if you’ve lost your best friend.”

The urge to talk to Leonard about how she felt toward Jim was more than Cathy could bear. He was the only one she wanted to confide in. Haltingly, she began to peel off the layers of her own feelings about Jim while the doctor sat and listened.

Nearly two hours later, Cathy finished the story. Tucker had become drawn, the same look on his face that Cathy had seen before when he was assigned to Delta. She reached out and squeezed his hand. His fingers were damp and cool.

“Thanks for listening, Doc.”

He gripped her hand and then released it. Picking up the clipboard, he focused on Cathy for a moment, pushing his own problems aside.

“Listen to me, young lady. You loved Jim Boland. Face that. Accept it.”

“We didn’t know each other very long.”

“The first time I met my wife, Madeline, I fell in love with her. I took her on a date that night and the next week, I proposed to her. We’ve been married ever since.” He saw that the corners of her mouth were drawn in with pain. “Sometimes it just happens that way, child. Don’t keep hiding from how you really felt about Jim. What you had, what you shared was good and honest between you. Despite all the intrigue surrounding the situation. Okay?”

Cathy barely nodded. “Okay.”

“Cried much since his death?” he pressed gently.

“No…just yesterday when I started talking to Buck. I couldn’t stop, then. He must think I’m a crybaby.”

“Good. And I doubt seriously if this sergeant thinks that.” He placed his finger beneath her chin, forcing Cathy to look up at him. Her eyes were marred with grief. “Do some more. I promise, I’ll carry a box of Kleenex around for you, okay?”

A wobbly smile pulled at her lips. “Okay, Doc. Thanks, for everything.”

Tucker left soon afterward. Despite his own inner turmoil and worry, he felt Cathy’s anguish. With a shake of his head, he headed down the hall toward his new office. He had a phone call to make. The house of cards Lane had built was going to come crashing down around her ears. He didn’t care so much for her as he was worried about his own career status. Lane was suspicious as to why he was assigned to Cathy, reading it as a change of loyalty. Somehow, he’d have to convince Lane differently. Cathy had only mentioned in passing about a hearing coming up shortly and nothing more. Giving Lane a two-day warning that she was going to be served with orders to attend the hearing ought to convince her he was on her side. Sweat beaded Tucker’s forehead as he swung into his pale green office and shut the door behind him. He had a year and a half left before retirement. God, if only Lane would keep his secret.

LOUISE ALLOWED the phone to drop back into the cradle. She had been hard at work in her office at Camp Pendleton Staff HQ. when Tucker’s shocking call arrived. The sun wedged through the slats of the blinds, covering her and the opposite wall with prisonlike bars of light and dark. She sat there a long time, looking at the notes she had taken during the phone call.
Don’t panic, Louise. Don’t panic. This is a hearing, not a grand jury investigation
. Her mind spun. Tucker had not said anything about Fredericks’ bringing up Simmons. Had they found out about Simmons?
Impossible
. Or was it? Had Ingram or Hayes told Fremont anything before they died? Her right hand knotted slowly into a fist. The death certificate had been signed by the attending physician, Leonard Tucker. Only Tucker had drawn attention to an apparent puncture wound. She had been able to convince him to forget it and sign the damn certificate. His memo and notes about the questionable issue of an accident were “lost” from the official file. Permanently lost.

Getting up, Louise felt like a trapped animal. Mackey was going after her.
The bastard
. She’d have his ass before this was all over. Right now, she had to plan. And she had to put out top-level feelers through those who believed in what she was doing for women’s rights. Picking up the phone, Louise called Washington D.C. First, a call to Senator Jacob Roman and, then, the Pentagon.

THE FIRST DAY of the hearings raced upon them. Mackey flew back to Washington, D.C., with Cathy and the other two men who had become part of her extended family. The colonel silently thanked the sergeant for his influence upon her. Arnley was a thread of strength for her and so was Dr. Tucker.

Mackey studied Fremont as she sat across the aisle in the plane from him. She was still listless and showed little desire to live. He grudgingly remembered Tucker’s lecture on that very topic. She and Boland had gone through so much together in such a concentrated span of time that she felt his loss doubly hard. The reporters, once the news release was announced, had hounded Cathy mercilessly. He had ordered her to say “no comment” and dodge their questions. Fredericks did not want anything misunderstood or taken out of context.

NURSE JUDY Chapman came on duty, relieving Ann Watson, the ICU supervisor. She peered over the monitoring equipment at a Marine who had been in a coma for five weeks.

“No change?”

Her supervisor gave her a pensive smile. “You never give up asking that question, do you?”

Judy, the petite nurse with blond, short hair, shrugged. “I’m always holding out hope for the hopeless. You know that.”

Ann rose. “Don’t we all?”

“I just finished watching that television broadcast of Herrington’s in the lounge. Looks like there’s a big hearing concerning the WLF starting today. Can you imagine what that poor girl, Cathy Fremont, is going to go through?” Judy sat down at the nurse’s station.

Ann nodded, “She’s the one the captain rescued,” she said, her gaze drifting back to the Marine once again.

“Humph. If you ask me, this whole situation is fishy. Why has Dr. Cornell absolutely forbid ICU personnel to admit that Captain Boland is here?”

Ann agreed with a nod of her head. “Something’s going on, that’s for sure.”

“Rumor has it that Corporal Fremont and Captain Boland were close. Do you think there’s anything to that?”

With a shrug Ann said, “You’re the one who saw Herrington’s broadcast. What do you think?”

“There’s no way to tell. But remember what the flight nurse said when they had the captain flown from Bangkok to here? That Fremont was temporarily in the captain’s outfit?” Judy looked up to comment and saw her supervisor’s face drain of color. “What?”

“My God—I think he moved!” Ann breathed sharply.

“Who?” Judy asked, standing.

“Captain Boland! Quick, get Dr. Cornell,” she whispered, donning the gown and mask and running toward the door to the ICU room.

Cornell was irritated by Nurse Chapman’s urgency to hurry to ICU. Donning gown and mask, he sauntered into the austere room. Was it possible that the Marine was coming out of the coma? He took a small flashlight from the supervisor, leaning over him.

“He moved, Doctor. I saw it. His hand. Just a few moments ago,” she said breathlessly, her gaze searching the Marine’s pale, still face.

“Nonsense! It was just a muscle twitch,” Cornell snapped, lifting the lid of his right eye to survey the pupil dilation. “That happens from time to time. I fail to see why you’re making so much of this.”