Chapter 24
Linda woke up with a start. The monitor for Joseph’s heart was silent. She stared at the flat red line on the digital display.
She looked into Joseph’s crib. Wires connected to the heart monitor lay in a loose jumble among the blankets. The crib was empty.
Hands shaking, she grabbed the balled-up blanket, tossing it on the floor. A small depression marked where Joseph had been sleeping. She stuck her shaking hands under her armpits.
No one could’ve taken him. She’d been right here. She would’ve woken up.
She stepped out of the room. The sounds of the hospital hummed around her. Wheels squeaked from a food cart. A nurse paged a doctor over the intercom. Patients, families, and doctors discussed good and bad news, creating a low murmur of background noise. She ran to the nurses’ station. Two nurses were on duty.
As much as she tried, she couldn’t find the words. She looked back toward Joseph’s room, then at the nurses, unable to speak.
The older nurse stood. “What’s wrong, miss?”
Linda shook her head. The words came out in a rush. “My son is gone. Someone must have taken him.”
The younger nurse with a blonde ponytail and pink scrubs sat down at a computer and tapped on the keyboard. “Joseph Burkett is in that room. Is that your son?”
Linda nodded and gripped the countertop, watching as the older nurse called security. The younger nurse slipped from behind the counter, shoes squeaking as she ran toward Joseph’s room.
“It’s alright, Mrs. Burkett, we’ll take care of this,” the older nurse said, punching in another phone number. “It’s probably a mix up. Your son’s probably having some tests done.”
Linda turned to watch the young nurse enter Joseph’s room. An elevator dinged as it stopped on the floor. Pushing away from the counter, Linda edged through the cleaning crew exiting the elevator. She pressed the button for the lobby. The doors whooshed closed, cutting off the voice of the older nurse yelling for her to come back.
Linda watched the numbers light up as the elevator went down. It stopped on the first floor. She pushed through the doors before they opened all the way, bumping into an elderly man. He yelled in surprise, but she didn’t stop.
The gray-haired receptionist was still on duty. She got to her feet, taking off her eyeglasses as Linda ran by. Linda bounced off a man holding a towel to his forehead. He tried to grab her, but she was moving too fast. The receptionist ran after her. Linda slammed through doors into the emergency room waiting area.
“Did anyone see someone leave with a baby?” she shouted.
Everyone in the room snapped to attention.
Someone grabbed her from behind. Linda spun. She pushed the receptionist to the floor. Two security guards jogged toward her. She ran for the emergency doors at the far end of the waiting room. If someone had Joseph, she had to catch them before they drove away.
Ambulance lights flashed as Linda got to the doors. There was no way through. The doorway was filled with men pushing a gurney. The two security guards yelled. “Stop! Stop right there!”
The men pushing the gurney stared at her. She tried to push her way through them around the gurney. A man with his head and neck wrapped in bandages grabbed her arm. She tried to wrestle away, shouting, “Let me go! Someone has my baby!”
And then she looked at the man on the gurney. Her body went numb. The man holding her shoulder let go as she reached down to touch the man’s face. “Oh, Danny. What happened?” She lifted her face, looking at the circle of people around her. “What happened to my husband?”
No one said a word. She laid her head on Danny’s chest, hugging him. He was cold. She looked at his face. It was white as a sheet of paper. His lips looked waxen. Even his hair, lying in loose curls on his shoulders, looked fake. She felt a hand on her back.
“You must be Linda. I talked to you on the phone,” the man said. “When you called Danny’s work. He got shot. He got shot by…”
The man dipped his head and continued in a trembling whisper. Linda listened, her body numb, her chest aching.
“He was trying to stop a robbery,” said the man. “The men in the ambulance said he should’ve died a long time ago, but he kept fighting. I think he was trying to get back to you.” The man grabbed her hand. “Before he stopped breathing, he said, ‘I found him, Linda. I’m bringing him back.’ Didn’t make no sense to me, but I thought you should know.”
The man put his arm around her shoulders. Something in her chest broke open, making her ache so bad she thought her heart would stop. She stared at Danny as they wheeled him away, tightening her hands into fists to hold back a racking sob.
He was a clerk at a convenience store. Why him? Why tonight?
One of the security guards stepped on the white sheet covering Danny as they wheeled him through the lobby, pulling the sheet to floor. Danny’s bloody torso was laid bare, showing the bullet hole in his side. Linda pulled away from the man and rushed to Danny’s side. A big, bearded medic stopped the gurney and bent to pick up the sheet.
“Please cover him,” Linda said, her voice hitching. Danny’s arm slid off his chest, falling alongside the gurney. Gold glinted in his dirty, clenched fist. She touched the chain wrapped around his fingers. “That’s my necklace. How did he get that?” she said, shifting her gaze between the security guard, the medic, and the man whose head and neck were bandaged. Blank stares were their only answer.
She tugged on her necklace, but Danny’s grip was locked tight. She tried to pry Danny’s cold fingers apart, but they were iron.
A nurse ran across the waiting area.
“Mrs. Burkett… Mrs. Burkett… I have Joseph… They came to get him for some tests… They said they tried to wake you up, but you were sleeping… His fever broke.”
Linda turned toward the nurse. Joseph was in the nurse’s grasp, smiling and reaching for Danny. He yelled, “Dada!”
Danny’s hand relaxed in her grip. The gold chain slipped from his fingers and dropped on the floor. She picked it up and looked at the Saint Michael the Archangel medal attached to the chain. Hand shaking, Linda turned the medal over. She laid her head on Danny’s cold chest and cried, her thumb rubbing the inscription, “Always with You ~ Danny.”