She wanted to stay with him, to watch over him as he had done so many times when she was a child and sick, but she knew it wouldn’t be allowed in this unit. She had to trust his well-being to people who’d been trained to care for critical patients. She fought back another rush of tears as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before she stepped outside and stopped next to the marshal. Before she could speak, an alarm sounded, and two nurses who’d been at their station when she entered earlier suddenly ran to a cubicle several doors down from her uncle’s.
Her eyes grew wide. “What’s happening?”
The marshal nodded in the direction of the commotion. “It looks like one of the other patients is having some problems.”
“Then I’d better leave. Thank you for watching over my uncle, Marshal White. Maybe I’ll see you again.”
“We’ll have a marshal on him until the shooter is caught. Don’t worry about him. Go on home and get some sleep.”
She smiled, turned and walked out of the unit. As she headed toward the elevator, she thought of Seth waiting downstairs and was glad he said he’d drive her to collect her luggage from Uncle Dan’s car. Getting in his house shouldn’t be a problem because she still carried a key to the front door on her key ring. She punched the button for the elevator and froze in place.
Her purse. It was still in the chair at the end of Uncle Dan’s bed. She must really be tired if she hadn’t realized she’d left without it.
With a groan, she retraced her steps to the Critical Care Unit. She glanced in the waiting room as she passed by and came to a sudden stop. Marshal White stood beside the vending machine, drinking a soft drink. He glanced her way and smiled. “What are you doing back?”
She frowned. “I forgot my purse. Why are you out here?”
He swallowed a sip of his drink. “One of the nurses needed to check Judge Lattimer’s vital signs and said it would be okay for me to get something to drink while he was busy in the room.”
Callie frowned. “I didn’t see a male nurse while I was in there.”
Marshal White shrugged. “I think he’d just come down to help them since that other patient was having problems.”
Callie nodded. “Do you think it would be okay for me to step in and get my purse?”
“I think so. Go ahead.”
She walked to the entrance into the unit and only hesitated a moment before pulling the door open. Once inside, she looked toward the room where the nurses had been working earlier. Since there was no one at the desk, she assumed they were still busy with the patient, and she eased toward her uncle’s room.
The curtains had been pulled around the cubicle, blocking sight into the room. Her first thought was that it was probably standard procedure when they were working with a patient, but she frowned when she noticed that the curtains hadn’t been pulled in the room where the nurses still worked. She tiptoed to her uncle’s space, pulled back the curtain and slipped into the room.
A nurse was bent over his bed and didn’t seem to hear when she entered. She spotted her purse and was about to reach for it when she froze in place. Fear shot through her body like a bolt of lightning. The nurse wasn’t administering any kind of aid. Instead, he was holding a pillow over her uncle’s face.
With a loud scream, she sprang on the man’s back and grabbed him around the neck. His body jerked in surprise, and he twisted to free himself. “What...?” he yelled as he reached up and grasped her hands.