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“Who?”
Allison gasped and clutched at her chest in mock shock. “You didnotjust ask me who.”
“Um ... sorry?”
“I thought I had educated you better than this. Josephine Baker, the famous singer and actress? Among other things, she was the first Black woman to star in a motion picture.”
“Oh, wait. I do know who she is. Sorry. I’m a little brain-dead this morning.”
Her friend waved her hand and narrowed her thick-lashed eyes. “You pulled a double. What’s up with that?”
Lainie shrugged. “Dr. Maloney asked and I said okay.”
“It’s too much,” Allison said, her voice low. “You need to learn to tell him no.” The nurses behind her typed up notes, rushed to answer the ringing phones, or hurried to patients’ rooms. As the biggest hospital in Lake City, North Carolina, there was never a dull moment.
“I’m fine. I managed to snag a couple of hours in the on-call room.” She needed a few more, but for now, she’d manage.
“Lainie...” Allison dragged her name out and raised a brow.
“I know, I know, but I don’t want to take anything to sleep.” Especially not in light of what had happened. The incident had triggered all kinds of nightmares.
Understanding flickered in her friend’s eyes. Allison knew how hard Lainie found it to allow herself to fall into a deep sleep. Getting shot in your own bed could do that to a person. “PTSD stinks.”
If only that was all it was, but she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet. Lainie pulled in a deep breath even as her fingers went to the small key she wore on a chain around her neck. “It’s been a year and a half,” she said, her voice low enough not to be overheard. “I should be over this by now.” She pressed the edge of the key against the pad of her thumb, and Allison eyed her with a knowing look. Lainie dropped her hand.
“Over this?Did you really just say that? I don’t think there’s a time limit on getting over something like that. If you ever can.”
“Okay, maybe notoverit, but...” And she found she did want to talk about the accident. With Allison. “Something happened the other day that’s caused me to have a setback anyway, so getting over it is probably not going to happen anytime soon.”
Allison leaned forward with a frown. “What are you talking about?”
Lainie told her, and although the telling didn’t take long, Allison’s eyes widened with each word.
“Are you kidding me? Someone actually did that on purpose?”
“I don’t know. The more I think about it, the more I don’t know. I was going slow, trying to find a place to pull over. I thought he got mad and was going to go around me, but his truck clipped my car and...” She bumped her palms, reliving the moment of the impact, and shuddered. “If that had been all, then yeah, I wouldn’t think twice about it, but...”
“But?”
“The guy came and looked over the edge and I—I swear it was Adam. I mean, I know it wasn’t, but it sure looked like him.”
Allison blinked, then huffed a short laugh. “Adam? As in the Adam who ... you...”
“Yes.”
“But—”
“I know. He’s dead. It couldn’t have been him, but for a moment...”
“Wow, no wonder you’ve been so spooked lately.”
Leave it to Allison to notice. “I know it was someone else, but...” She shrugged and rubbed her eyes before dropping her hand to curl it around her phone. “That means if it wasn’t an accident, then someone tried to kill me. And not just anyone, but someone who looked like Adam.”
“Could it have simply been an accident and the guy’s resemblance to Adam has you PTSD-ing?”
“I’ve asked myself that numerous times. I mean, he started to try and come down to me, but when he heard the sirens, he ran.”
“Maybe he was scared? After all, he was responsible for you spinning off the road, down an embankment. From what it sounds like, if you hadn’t landed against those two trees—”
