Free T Wave by Steven F. Freeman Page B

mom was in the hospice for pancreatic cancer. But tonight, Nurse Corroto said Mrs. Ronquillo died from a cardiac arrest—at least that’s what they think. I guess it’s not the way they expected Mrs. Ronquillo to go.”
    “That’s funny,” said Mallory. “I saw almost the exact same thing happen there yesterday.” She described the premature expiration of Mr. Hutchins, the COPD patient.
    “Speaking of patients,” continued Mallory, “I got pulled into another drug case involving hospital patients—sort of.”
    “What do you mean, ‘sort of’?” asked Alton. Even though Mallory had been trained in hand-to-hand combat and firearms in both the Army and FBI, Alton was uncomfortable with the idea of his petite girlfriend mixing it up with meth heads.
    “Do you remember Jim Thompson?” Mallory asked Alton. Turning to David and Fahima, she added, “He’s an FBI colleague.”
    “Yeah, I remember him,” replied Alton.
    “Jim needs a second agent to act as a witness during the interrogation of a hospital patient. It seems the patient was involved in a shootout during a drug deal gone bad and got the worst of it.”
    “I see,” said Alton. “Any particular reason he asked you to act as witness instead of someone in, say, the drug-enforcement division?”
    “I couldn’t say. He just texted me this afternoon to ask if I could help. I don’t know any of the details.”
    “He has your phone number? I didn’t think he was in your department.” Alton maintained a calm exterior, but inside a faint alarm began to sound.
    “He’s not in my department, but we’ve helped each other out on a few cases. We have each other’s backs.” Seeming to peer into his soul, she scooted closer to Alton and leaned her head on his shoulder. “He knows how I feel about you. I think the whole division knows.”
    The alarm fell silent. Alton wrapped his arm around Mallory and pulled her even closer, once again issuing a silent prayer of gratitude to God for having guided her into his life.
    “Well, now it doesn’t feel quite so much like old times,” wisecracked David as he observed the amorous duo. “I always thought you two would make a great couple, but it didn’t seem like you all would ever figure that out for yourselves.” Fahima snickered in apparent agreement with the sentiment.
    “Well, we almost didn’t,” admitted Alton with a sheepish grin. “I always wanted to date Mallory but couldn’t see how a girl like her would be interested in a guy like me. I didn’t want to ruin the friendship by pressing my case.”
    “And I loved him for months before he even left Kabul,” said Mallory, “but he hid his feelings so well, and was so serious all the time, that I could never pick up any vibe he was interested in me. Can you believe that? We were both this close ,” she said, holding her thumb and index finger millimeters apart, “to never knowing the other’s true feelings.”
    “Really?” said David. “You never told me all this. I demand details!”
    “Yes,” said Fahima, giggling. “I would like to know all about it.”
    The friends reminisced far into the night. Alton and Mallory enjoyed the chance to recount the greatest story of their lives—falling in love with each other, and only later learning their love was reciprocated—while embracing the opportunity to provide a beacon of hope and companionship to carry their friends through this somber chapter of their lives.

MONDAY, JULY 16
     

CHAPTER 20
    William Cline rested his head on a balled fist as he studied the scrolling figures on his monitor.
    “No matter what font you use, the numbers don’t look good,” he grumbled to himself. “If we could just get the occupancy rate up.”
    The jarring ring of the office phone interrupted his musings. He hesitated for a moment before answering the incoming call from Leo Jacobin, CEO of Stokely Medical Group.
    “Hello, Doctor Jacobin—how can I help you?”
    “We announced our quarterly earnings