Free You Can Run... by Carlene Thompson Page A

heavens she wasn’t burned. Someone found her and took her to the paramedics. He phoned us—the man who found her, not the paramedics—and said she seemed all right, but the paramedics were going to bring her here in the ambulance, so I think she could only have arrived about half an hour ago,” Diana ended breathlessly.
    The nurse spent at least five seconds looking into Diana’s bloodshot eyes before asking in a cautious tone, “Are you family?”
    “No. Penny and Willow have no family.” Diana forced herself to take a deep breath and try to sound more calm and competent. “I mean, Penny and Willow have no family anywhere nearby. Penny works for my great-uncle, Dr. Simon Van Etton. He’s a retired professor of archaeology. I live with him. My name is Diana Sheridan. Simon and I are the closest people Penny and Willow have to relatives in this part of the country.”
    Diana had no idea if the last part of her statement was true, but she did her best to look trustworthy. She wouldn’tallow herself to blink as the nurse’s intelligent gaze probed her face, obviously deciding whether to believe her. Diana knew she must look awful—messy hair, skin pale from shock and dry from recent washings with strong hand soap, her lower lip swollen from nervously pulling it between her teeth.
    The woman finally seemed to make up her mind in Diana’s favor. “Willow Conley is still being examined, Ms. Sheridan.”
    “I see.” Diana tried to sound calm. “Which examining room?”
    The nurse looked regretful. “I’m afraid you can’t go in. As you said, you’re not family.”
    Diana’s artificial poise vanished. “But I’m the closest thing to family Willow has!” She hated the shrillness of her voice but was helpless to quiet it. “I mean, I’m the closest thing Willow has to family except for her mother! She needs me. Please!”
    “I’m very sorry.”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Rules are rules, Ms. Sheridan. You can’t see Willow Conley.” Diana drew back, wanting to be angry, but aware the nurse realized Diana would have argued for at least ten minutes unless cut off firmly. “Now try to calm down because the doctor needs to ask you a few things about Willow,” the woman went on crisply, not giving Diana a chance to interrupt. “We know nothing about her except what the paramedics told us.”
    Diana forced down her ire, telling herself the nurse couldn’t be as emotionless as she looked. The woman had to maintain her composure even if Diana couldn’t maintain hers. Allowing herself to get visibly disturbed over every patient who came into the emergency ward wouldn’t be good for the patient or the family, not to mention the nurse’s own well-being. A nurse prone to hysterics wouldn’t last long in the profession.
    Diana felt her frustration begin to ebb before she said in a softer tone, “I’m sorry if I sounded unreasonable. Ofcourse you couldn’t know anything about Willow because Tyler Raines doesn’t know Willow. Or Penny.”
    The nurse’s eyebrows rose again. “Tyler Raines?”
    “The man who brought in Willow. I’m sure he spoke to you as soon as he could after Willow arrived.” The nurse continued to look at her quizzically and Diana felt her frustration level rising once more. “He’s early thirties, at least six feet tall. He has blond hair and blue eyes. He had on jeans and a T-shirt. He would have been dirty because he helped the firefighters at the site of the explosion. . . .” Diana trailed off, watching a vertical line form between the nurse’s eyebrows. “Maybe he didn’t give his name—”
    “Ms. Sheridan, no one came with Willow Conley. The paramedics who brought her in said a man handed her over to them, and then he drove away.”
    “Drove away?” Diana asked faintly. “He just drove away from the site of the fire?”
    “Apparently, if that’s where the child was found. The paramedics said he didn’t even give his name.” Diana stared, surprised, as the nurse