Free Chasing Air by Delaine Roberts Page B

relief.
    “Thank you for letting me know. I look forward to getting the specifics and I’ll start work on the lecture this weekend.”
    Thank god no one would see her picture. Agent Bernard would have a stroke if he found her on the internet, She thought.
    Charts were stacked on her desk and she started tackling them one by one. She came to Serena’s chart and she started reading all of the paramedic’s call sheets when a knock came at the door.
    “Please come in,” she asked.
    Dr. Trynn stuck his head back in. “Mak, I just got a message that they need your headshot for the conference brochure ASAP. Thanks, gotta run. Send that over to me when you can.”
    Makenzie went straight into the panic zone. She immediately started Googling for conferences in New York. Sure enough, there was a Trauma Conference in three weeks. The lecture wasn’t going to be the problem, her visibility was.
     
     
     

 
    CHAPTER EIGHT
     

     
    “Terry Bernard, please?” she asked the operator.
    “Who may I say is calling?” the operator asked.
    “Makenzie, no last name.” Her voice showed how nervous she was.
    “Hold a moment please, ma’am, don’t hang up.”
    “Hi.” He paused. “Problem?” His voice low, almost a whisper.
    “I’m okay.” Makenzie uttered.
    “You know the drill. Exactly ninety minutes from now.”
    Makenzie watched her watch down to the minute. She left the payphone and drove back towards her loft. Overcome with anxiety, she knew that Agent Bernard was going to say, “I told you so.” In exactly ninety minutes, she called his safe line with a disposable phone.
    “What happened?”
    “Nothing yet. I have to give a lecture in NYC and I can’t get out of it, short of dying. There will be publicity and photos. I need help organizing this so I don’t have a problem. I need your help.” Makenzie’s voice was low and full of frustration. She had a hard time speaking. It had been almost a year since she had last seen Agent Bernard.
    “How much time do we have?”
    “Three weeks.”
    “Can you call me in exactly twenty-four hours?”
     
    “Yes.” She hung up and smashed the phone into pieces.
    Never in a million years did she think that she would keep a supply of disposable phones, just to keep herself safe. Nor did she ever think she would keep a bag packed and cash stowed, but it was a life she chose on the run. The FBI had trained her well. Therapy sessions with Rosalyn were helpful and kept her off meds. Maybe she needed to find someone local that she could trust. Bernard would have to arrange it and even then, it came with risks.
    Makenzie was terrified. She paced her office back and forth before finally grabbing the pills from her purse. She needed to spend her time preparing her lecture, not worrying about what she couldn’t control until she spoke with Agent Bernard. It was going to be a long twenty-fours.
    She spent the day working on her lecture research in her office until it was time to start her shift. She felt safer in the little cocoon she had created. When she stepped out to the ER control desk, she found a box with a card that had her name on it. She knew who left it and what it was before she even opened it.
    The hand-written note said:
     
         Treasure hunt: The piece that’s missing is hidden for now, but I think you’ll find it in due time.
     
    Ah, it was a coconut cream pie, with one very large piece missing. Perfect timing. A smile must’ve crept up on her face, one that piqued the interest of David and Veronica who happened to be approaching the control desk.
    “Lover boy’s at it again, I see,” Veronica nudged.
    Makenzie secretly slipped the card in the pocket of her lab coat. “His mom makes the most wonderful pies. But I have to break it off with her, she’s making me gain weight.”
    “Really, where?”
    “You don’t see all my junk in the trunk?” Makenzie quipped.
    “No, I don’t. I see a beautiful woman with just the right curves in just the right