word that Caitlyn Brown is coming out of the hospital at this very moment. Tim, Im going to try and get over there-
There followed a confusion of rapidly changing pictures, garbled sounds and jerky images, and then a partly obscured view of the hospitals ambulance entrance, where someone in a wheelchair had apparently just emerged through the automatic sliding door. The wheelchair was being propelled with some urgency across the pavement to where three dark sedans with tinted windows waited, engines idling. There were only glimpses of the chair and its occupant, surrounded as they were by hospital personnel in light-colored slacks and tunics and men in neckties and dark suits. Nevertheless, it was possible to determine that the figure in the chair was slender and slightly built and was wearing dark blue sweats and a black-and-yellow baseball cap that didnt quite cover the bandages swathing her head. Also a pair of dark-rimmed sunglasses.
Why, the red-faced man said in an awed voice, looka there, she aint but a little bit of a thang.
C.J. nodded absently. His eyes were riveted on the TV screen and he was trying his best to follow the jerky, jostled images of a pale face all but obscured by huge dark lenses. Then there was only a closing car door, and dark-tinted windows reflecting back excited faces, open mouths and shoving microphones against a blue September sky.
The red-faced man said sadly, Its just a shame, innit? A real shame
C.J. let out the breath hed been holding and agreed that it was indeed a shame. Then, murmuring, Would you excuse me? he pushed himself up from the chair and lurched out of the waiting area. Halfway down an empty hallway across from an elevator marked Hospital Personnel Only, he pushed open a door, stepped into a room and closed the door behind him.
Okay, he said, a little out of breath, theyre off. Hows everybody doing in here? You ready to go?
Im ready, Caitlyn said, breathless as he was. Her silvery eyes stared resolutely into middle distance as one hand lifted to adjust the scarf that framed her face, wound loosely and draped over her shoulders in the style of an Afghani woman. The other hand, relaxed in her lap, cradled a video camera.
Okay, he said, a little out of breath, theyre off. Hows everybody doing in here? You ready to go?
Im ready, Caitlyn said, breathless as he was. Her silvery eyes stared resolutely into middle distance as one hand lifted to adjust the scarf that framed her face, wound loosely and draped over her shoulders in the style of an Afghani woman. The other hand, relaxed in her lap, cradled a video camera.
Jake Redfield stood behind Caitlyns wheelchair. His deep-set eyes, intent and somber, were on his wife. Okay, then-I guess this is it. He took a breath, and it occurred to C.J. that the FBI man might not be as cool about things as he looked. Eve, you know what-
Yes, love, I know what to do. Her tone was somber, too, but her eyes danced. By now, Ive made sure everyone in my crew knows about my new protégée from Afghanistan, here for a few days to learn about documentary filmmaking. Her name is Jamille, by the way-which means beautiful, I think, in one of those languages over there. Perfect, isnt it? Her smile burst forth, as if she couldnt keep it in check a moment longer.
She dropped into a crouch beside the wheelchair and placed both hands on Caitlyns arm. Softly, as if for her only, she said, Okay, just like we practiced. Ill be right beside you, youll be able to feel me touching you all the time, but if you feel lost or woozy or anything, just stop where you are and keep looking through the camera. Ill get you, dont worry.
Im not worried, Caitlyn said staunchly. You just have to keep telling me where to point this thing so I dont look like an idiot.
Eve chuckled richly. Well do the clock thing, okay? Twelve oclock is straight ahead, tens to the left, twos to the right, six is behind you. Then high or low-
So thats where it comes from, Caitlyn said in a wondering tone. Watch your six. Ive always wondered
It means watch your back, Jake said. He kissed his wife and added a husky, That goes for all of you. I dont have to tell you-
No, Eve murmured, gently smiling, you dont. Well be fine. Dont worry.
I think its best we leave the chair here, Jake said, frowning at nobody in particular. On the off chance somebody sees you exit the elevator. You okay with that, Caitlyn?
She nodded and said, Sure. She was already fumbling for the wheelchairs footrests with her toes.
C.J. dropped to one knee and folded the footrests out of her way. Then he took her feet, one at a time, and lowered them, like fragile artifacts, to the floor. She was wearing sandals, he noticed, and her ankles felt slender and strong in his hands. He rose, breathing hard and slightly lightheaded, and put a hand under her elbow.
Murmuring a polite and barely audible, Thank you, she allowed him to steady her for a second, then unfolded herself in that graceful, lighter-than-air way she had. The robe settled with a whisper around her ankles. Im okay-Ill be fine. Her voice was steady; the breathlessness was only excitement.
Two oclock high, Eve sang out, testing her, and C.J. barely ducked in time as Caitlyn swung the video camera toward him. He caught a glimpse of parted lips and silvery eyes as Eve said with laughter in her voice, Well done!
Jake was waiting with poorly disguised impatience beside the door. At his wifes nod he opened it a crack, gave the hallway a quick glance, then pulled the door wide. All clear.
C.J. stepped across the hallway to the elevator and punched a button. Counted heartbeats until the doors clunked open.
Off we go, Eve breathed from close behind him.
He turned and saw that she had linked her arm with Caitlyns. He wanted to touch her, too-for reassurance, maybe, but for whose? Anyway, it didnt matter, because he didnt do it.
When the two women were on the elevator and had turned to face the open door, Eve blew her husband a kiss, then looked at C.J. and winked. He wanted to say to her, You take care of her, now, you hear? But again he didnt.
Well be right behind you, Jake said.
As the doors slowly closed, C.J. was conscious of a peculiar hollowness under his ribs. As he and Jake made their way to the stairs and down the four flights to the parking garage, moving with a tense and silent urgency, he felt as if hed just put a newly hatched chick on a plank and shoved it out in the middle of a lake.
Something in the silence all around him made him steal a glance at the man next to him, and he saw that the FBI mans jaw looked as tense and bunched up as his was. He wondered if Jake was feeling the same way about Eve. Well, why wouldnt he? She was his wife, after all.
And Caitlyn was
My responsibility. Thats all. And he didnt know what hed do if he let anything happen to her. Anything more than had happened already.
He and Jake found a vantage point near the garage entrance where they could watch the hive of activity around the media trucks from behind a planter filled with crepe myrtle. Over by the hospitals main entrance, some of the on-camera reporters were doing their wrap-up pieces against the backdrop of the building, while others were still finding people in the crowd to interview. Quite a number of people seemed to be doing nothing in particular, while others moved with the efficiency of a colony of ants, lifting, loading, packing up equipment and preparing to move on.
There they are, C.J. said suddenly, his voice a fair imitation of a crow squawking from the top of a telephone pole. Hed picked up the glint of sunshine on Eves blond head, and next to that the flutter of the pale blue scarf draped loosely around Caitlyns. He saw Eve lean close and point, and Caitlyn swing her video camera upward toward a helicopter hovering overhead, just exactly as if she could see it there.
Jake didnt say anything, but C.J. knew hed seen them, too. There was a certain quickening, a kind of electricity, an alertness that had nothing to do with the senses. Whatever it was, he recognized it in Jake because it was going on inside himself, too, and he felt a sense of kinship with the man that didnt have a thing to do with blood. Funny thing was, he didnt even know Jake Redfield all that well-theyd run into each other at the major family get-togethers, and that was about it. Now, though, he found himself thinking about the man, wondering what made an FBI agent tick, and how it must be to feel about a woman the way he obviously did for his wife, Eve.
And then out of the blue he was thinking about his brothers and their wives-Jimmy Joe and his feisty, redheaded Mirabella, Troy and Charly, with that dry sense of humor and chip-on-the-shoulder attitude of hers. For the first time ever in his life he thought about the people he knew who were head over heels in love with their mates, and knew how lucky they were. And for the first time ever in his life he knew that there was an emptiness inside himself and that it was called loneliness.
What he couldnt figure out was why he was having those thoughts and feelings while his eyes followed, as if stuck to her by a magnet, the slow and graceful progress of a woman who was, in all the ways that counted, a stranger to him. Yeah, a stranger; she was right about that, after all.
Strange? What else would you call a blind woman with silver eyes, a hijacker of trucks, a rescuer of battered women, and a kidnapper of children-an incredibly beautiful woman who at the moment was hiding herself and her bandaged head in the all-concealing robes of a woman from Afghanistan?
Strangeor crazy, maybe?
Jake, whod been scanning the thinning crowd with eagle eyes, suddenly seemed to relax. He let out a breath and muttered, Shes something else, isnt she?
C.J. replied fervently, She sure is.
He was fairly certain they were talking about two different women, but that didnt matter. They were most likely both right.
They stayed where they were until the crowd began to thin out and they saw Eve give the wrap-it-up signal to her crew. They watched the two women make their way to the van followed by the other members of the crew, and then the seemingly endless process of getting all the equipment stowed, buttoned down and loaded up. Finally, Eve and Caitlyn climbed into the back of the van and disappeared from view. The rest of the crew sorted themselves out and found seats. Doors slammed. Nobody but the two men watching from behind the crepe myrtle paid any attention whatsoever as the van pulled slowly out of the hospital parking lot and bumped into the street.