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Charlotte’s fingers drummed against her leg as she bent over to scan the unit prices of the plastic cups. She was in a hurry, but she wanted the best deal. Then the sick feeling from her dream pushed back into her thoughts, and she straightened. It was still nagging her. She rubbed her stomach, and a prickle of fear ran up her arms, but it was impossible to identify and made no sense.
She looked up and down the empty aisle. Once she was at church and around people, it would go. It was too easy to get stuck inside her head when she was alone.
She snatched up four packs of twenty-five cups and headed for the checkout. She’d get herself through this day in a good mood if it killed her.
* * *
“Oh!” a nurse howled in alarm when Will careened around the corner, almost slamming into her.
He gripped both her arms, steering her around so he could get past her. “Sorry. I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
She gave him a scolding look, but he didn’t give her a chance to say anything before he was off again.
Around the next corner, he saw Special Agent in Charge Colin Turner speaking with a doctor.
“Hey,” Will said, joining them. “How’s she doing? Any change? Can I see her? Is she going to be okay?”
“Agent Fitler,” Turner said. “Dr. Peterson was filling me in.”
“I’ve got to see to another patient. But I’ll be by later,” the doctor said.
“Thanks.” Turner pulled Will aside. “I’ll tell you what, Agent Rochedale is one lucky lady.”
Will let out a breath. “So she’s okay.”
“More or less.”
“What’s that mean?”
“She’s better than they expected. When they brought her in, it looked bad.”
“Do you know what happened?”
“I haven’t spoken with her yet. She’s recently come out of surgery. From what we can tell, she was very badly beaten up. The only reason we found her was an anonymous phone call to 911. She might not have made it otherwise.”
“Where was she?”
“The roof of a building.”
“On a roof?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t know why?”
“No. Like I said, I haven’t spoken to her yet. Forensics are going over it now, but so far, they’ve found nothing.”
Will ran his hand through his hair as he leaned against the wall. “But she’ll recover.”
“Eventually. She’ll be out of action for a good long while. The doctor said she’s got a long, hard road ahead of her.”
Will chuckled to release some tension. “You know Maddy. She’ll probably be walking out of here in a week.”
Turner frowned. “I wish that were true. She has two broken legs, a few cracked ribs, and a concussion. They thought her back was broken too. She was lucky. Whoever did this to her went to town.”
Will blinked at the floor, attempting to clear his head. Letting anger get the better of him wouldn’t help Maddy. “And you don’t know what she was working on?”
“No. You guys have been working solely on your current job for close to a year, so there’s nothing recent, unless you think your cover has been blown.”
