Where the Forest Meets the Stars(72)

“I was shot in the back of the leg.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“In Marion?”
“You’re in Saint Louis.”
“Saint Louis?”
“Don’t you remember? You came to this hospital by medevac.”
Now that she knew, she did remember. She’d thought the loud whir of the helicopter had been part of her delirium. “What’s going on with my leg?”
“You received several units of blood, and the surgery involved vascular and tissue repair. The surgeon will explain when he comes by.”
“Is a man named Gabriel Nash here?”
“Are you feeling up to seeing visitors?”
“Yes, I want to see him.”
“Are you sure you’re well enough?”
“Yes!”
The nurse left the room. A few minutes later, the door opened. It wasn’t Gabe. A uniformed officer and a man dressed in a white shirt and khaki pants entered. Each of the men wore a gun, which meant the one in plain clothes must be a detective. They were both in their midforties but opposite in looks. The deputy was about six feet tall with dark eyes and short black hair, and the detective was five inches shorter with light eyes and blondish hair worn in a stubby ponytail. Their solemn faces made Jo wish she hadn’t awakened.
“Joanna Teale?” the detective asked.
“Yes,” she said.
“I’m Detective Kellen out of Effingham, and this is Chief Deputy McNabb from Vienna.”
“I need to know about Ursa. Did she die? Just tell me.”
“How did you know her name is Ursa?” he asked.
“She told me.”
“Did she tell you her whole name?”
“Are you really going to do this to me? You’re going to ask me a hundred questions without answering the only one that matters?”
“We can’t answer because she’s still in surgery or post-op. We don’t know if she’ll pull through.”
She put her hands over her face, the only privacy available. She thought Ursa had died on the Kinney property. “Is she here—in this hospital?”
After a pause, the detective said, “Yes.”
The other cop, McNabb, shot Kellen a disapproving glance. For some reason he hadn’t wanted the detective to relay Ursa’s whereabouts.
“Do you know why those men shot Ursa?” Jo asked.
“Please let us ask the questions, Ms. Teale,” Deputy McNabb said.
“Are you feeling well enough?” Kellen asked.
She consented, and for the next twenty minutes, she answered their many questions. McNabb, who’d been at the crime scene, mostly asked about the shooting, while Kellen focused more on Jo’s history with Ursa. Though they didn’t say it, many of their questions were clearly aimed at corroborating statements Gabe had made. Jo tried to keep him out of her story as much as possible, but the two cops brought him up frequently. “Was Gabriel Nash there when that happened?” the detective often asked.
When Jo talked about Ursa and how she’d come to live with her, it all sounded wrong. She saw the judgment in the men’s eyes and heard it in their questions. As the interrogation continued, Jo began to think she might be in serious trouble with the law. The anxiety, combined with the many other stresses on her mind and body, wore her out quickly. The police saw she was losing coherence and decided to quit for the time being.
“Is Gabe here?” Jo asked before they left.
“He was an hour ago,” Kellen said. “Get some rest.” He and the deputy walked out the door.
Jo pushed her call button. “Is there some way you can see if a visitor is in the waiting room and bring him here?” Jo asked the nurse when she arrived.
“Is it a family member?”
“No.”
“For now, only family is allowed in.”
“Wouldn’t that be up to me?”
“You’ll have to speak with your doctor.”
“Okay, let me speak to him.”
“I can’t say when he’ll be here. He’ll see you when he makes rounds.”
The hospital runaround. Jo knew it well. But she was too tired to wrangle. She quit fighting the drugs and succumbed to sleep.
When she woke hours later, she discovered she’d missed the doctor. She was desperate for news about Ursa, but she had a new nurse who was even less communicative than the last one. The pain medication the nurse gave her put her under again.
Jo thought she was dreaming when she felt lips touch her cheek. She won a battle with her heavy eyelids and looked into familiar green eyes. “Tabby!”
“This hospital thing is getting old, Jojo,” Tabby said. She looked toward a dark window and said, “Go on, kiss her. She needs it.” She stepped aside, and there was Gabe, his face haggard and shadowed with a beard. At first he and Jo could only stare at one another.
“Come on, Nash, just kiss her,” Tabby said.
He leaned over and held her. They embraced for a long time before they obeyed Tabby with a short kiss. “How did you get in?” Jo asked. “They’ve been withholding visitors since I woke up this morning.”
“Tabby did it,” Gabe said. “In all of two minutes, she got the gatekeepers to open the door, and I’ve been trying all day.”
“How did you do it?” she asked Tabby.
“I said you’re an orphan and cancer survivor who has no one to lean on but us.”
“She was persuasive,” Gabe said. “The nurse at the desk was nearly teary.”
“I’m experienced with hospital ogres,” Tabby said, “because Jo comes to these places often. She must like the food.”