2. Chapter 2
two
Amanda sat at the back of the ambulance with butterfly bandages on her cut, which ached like a bitch. Thank god it wasn’t as bad as it’d looked before. There was a lot of blood, but apparently that was normal from a head wound, but the EMT said it looked superficial. If anything else hurt, it was her left wrist, which the paramedic had wrapped with a cold pack.
“Can you tell me what happened, Miss Garner?” Officer Penn stood in front of her with a pen hovering over his notebook. The young officer had closely cropped blond hair and a flirty smile aimed at Amy, one of the EMTs treating Amanda.
“I was driving home from Cumming when a girl appeared out of nowhere, running across the road. I slammed my wheel to the left to avoid hitting her and tried to readjust when I saw headlights coming my way. And I went off the road.”
“Are you sure it’s not a deer?” the officer asked as he jotted something down.
Amanda frowned at the question. “No. It wasn’t an animal. It was a teenage girl. Maybe fourteen or fifteen.”
“There’s no girl in the vicinity, Miss Garner. We walked through the scene of the accident and found no sign of another person besides you and Dr. Rowland,” he said.
“But there was a girl.”
Officer Penn narrowed his eyes at her. “Have you been drinking, Miss Garner?”
“I had one glass of wine with dinner about two hours ago,” she said honestly.
“Just one glass?” he asked, looking skeptical.
“Yes. I’m not drunk.”
The officer studied her for a bit, then moved on. “The front of your car doesn’t look too banged up, except the left side where you hit the trees. You missed whatever it was you saw.”
“It was not a deer,” Amanda insisted through gritted teeth.
“You did hit your head, Miss Garner,” he said with a smirk.
“I know what I saw, Officer.” Amanda glared at him. “And I didn’t hit my head so hard I started hallucinating.”
“Okay.” He scribbled something down. “Can you describe this girl?”
“She’s skinny, maybe a little shorter than me. I don’t know. It happened so fast. But her hair is dark blonde.”
“Is she white, black or—”
“White.” Amanda knew that much. “But she was dirty. Her face, her shirt.”
“What about the color of her shirt?”
“I don’t know. Blue maybe. Again, it was dirty.”
“Blue?” The officer chuckled this time, which annoyed the hell out of Amanda. “You must’ve seen the lady.”
Amanda frowned at him. “What lady?”
“The lady in blue. You know the legend. In the fifties, a lady wearing a blue dress drove her car off the bridge. Ever since, people had claimed they saw the lady roaming the area.”
Amanda’s spine straightened at the obvious ridicule.
“It was a girl, not an adult woman. She might’ve run into the woods. Did you look there?”
They both looked at the dark line of trees on the other side of the road.
“We don’t have enough light to search the woods, Miss Garner.”
“So you’re not going to try?” Amanda demanded. “I want your full name and badge number, Officer Penn. Your superior officer will hear from me about how you refused to look for a possible hurt and lost minor.”
Officer Penn’s lips flattened. “We will try our best to look for the girl you saw, Miss Garner. But we can’t guarantee to search the whole woods at night.”
“Thank you,” Amanda said without actually feeling any gratitude.
“My partner will give you the incident report,” he said shortly before he excused himself.
“Alright, Amanda. Let’s get you to the emergency room to have you thoroughly checked out,” Amy said.
Amanda got off the ambulance. “I don’t need to go to the emergency room.”
“You need a thorough examination after an accident like that.”
“As you can see, I’m fine. A little sore, with nothing but this cut and probably a sprained wrist,” Amanda pointed out. “I barely hit those trees.”
“Are you a doctor?” Amy’s partner, John, asked with a lift of his brow.
“No, but he is.”
She pointed to Gene Rowland, who was talking to the other officer. It took Amanda a moment to realize the man who had found her in the car was her high school crush.
“Dr. Rowland said you hit your head and were unconscious.”
Amanda insisted, “I’m fine. I feel fine.”
“You may have a concussion, and usually the hospital would want to keep you overnight under observation after a head injury like that.”
“No, thank you.” Amanda backed away. “I really don’t need a night at the hospital.”
“Ma’am, you really should—” Amy reached for her.
“Don’t waste your time on me.”
Amanda retreated, but her back hit something firm.
“What’s going on?” Gene stood behind her and put a steadying hand on her elbow. “You really shouldn’t be on your feet, Amanda.”
“She’s refusing to go to the ER, Doctor,” Amy said. “As you said, there’s a possibility of a concussion.”
Dr. Rowland assessed Amanda critically. “They’re right, you should go.”
He doesn’t recognize me.
“What’s the worst thing that could happen if I don’t go to the hospital?” Amanda asked Gene.
“If you have a concussion, you could experience major headache, nausea, blurry vision, balance issues, memory problems,” Gene explained.
“Except for the headache, I don’t have any of those symptoms.”
“Some symptoms may not appear for hours, hence the need for observation,” Gene replied patiently.
“Fine, but do I need to be observed at the hospital?”
“If you have someone at home who knows enough what to look for, then they can observe you at home,” Gene said. “Do you have anyone we can call for you?”
Crap.
Jo, her best friend, was the only person she would ask to do something like this. But she was out of town with her fiancé, Ash. She hated to ask her other friends and take them away from their family just because she had a headache. There was Miss Lydia, her next-door neighbor, but she was elderly. She couldn’t possibly ask her to stay up and watch her. She needed her rest.
“No, it’s alright.” Amanda turned to see what the cops were doing. “I’m not leaving until they find her, anyway.”
Gene’s hand rested gently on her shoulder. “They didn’t find anyone, Amanda.”
Amanda shook her head. “She’s gotta be here somewhere.”
“If she were, she’s long gone,” Gene said.
“To where?” Amanda’s voice was barely a whisper.
“I don’t know. But you need to take care of yourself right now, Amanda.”
Gene stared at the woman in front of him. She had a two-inch laceration by her hairline, her temple was showing signs of bruising, and her wrist was most likely twisted. Instead of being concerned about her condition, she was worrying about a girl nobody could find.
He hadn’t seen a girl when he’d gotten there. But he’d been at least half a mile from her when the accident had happened. The girl—if there was a girl—could’ve gone anywhere. They weren’t that far from town, though it would still be a long walk.
“Amanda, let the police deal with that, okay? You really need to get off your feet and rest.”
Gene was worried she had a worse head injury than he’d thought.
“She may be injured, lost somewhere in the bushes and needs help,” she said, as if she didn’t hear him.
“Do you think you hit her?” Gene asked calmly.
Amanda looked bewildered. “No, I don’t think so. But where did she go?”
Her head injury might be impairing her memory. It was imperative for her to rest. She was full of adrenaline and cortisol at the moment, so she might not be feeling her pain.
“Hey, Amanda. What if I talk to the police again and make sure they do another sweep for the girl? Will you go to the hospital then?” Gene cajoled.
Her eyes sharpened on his face. “I told you I don’t need to go to the hospital.”
“It’s a precaution, Amanda.”
“So they can charge me thousands of dollars for the ambulance ride, the hours they would keep me in the ER, just to release me with a Band-aid I already have on?” she questioned sharply.
Gene’s lips flattened at Amanda’s argument. His back went up. He was a part of the ER—different hospital, but the same system. Though many cases that came through his ward were actual emergencies which needed immediate attention, many were small things that could’ve been handled at home. They would and could never refuse anyone who sought treatment. He especially wouldn’t. With that said, he would admit the cost could be exorbitant.
“You need an overnight neuro assessment for a possible concussion, perhaps a CT. And you need an X-ray to rule out spinal injuries,” Gene said, spelling out the reasons it would be in her best interest to go to the hospital.
“I can’t afford it,” she said plainly.
Gene sighed but understood. “You don’t have insurance?”
“I do. But even with insurance, I’d still be paying hundreds of dollars for the co-pay. I’m already up to my neck in loans for my business. And now this.” She pointed at her car. “It’s not an expense I need right now. Not if I’m not dying. Besides, I need to let my dog out.”
Looking at Amanda’s car, Gene roughly calculated what it would cost her to tow and repair it. Again, depending on the type of auto insurance she had, she would have a huge cost on her hands.
Gene might regret this, but he told her, “You can sign a treatment refusal form with the EMTs. But you still need someone with you in case you show any symptoms of concussion. And you need rest.”
The woman’s brows wrinkled as she thought of her options. Then she shook her head. “I’ll sign the form. But I’m fine. Believe me, I don’t need anyone to watch over me.”
“On a scale of zero to ten, where’s your pain level?”
“Five. Maybe four. Just my head.”
He lifted a hand. “How many fingers I’m holding?”
This time she hesitated for a second to focus before saying, “Two.”
It was the right answer, but that brief hesitation was enough to convince Gene she wasn’t being honest in order to get out of going to the hospital.
“So, I’m okay to go home, right?”
“Not alone,” he insisted.
Amanda gritted her teeth in frustration. “Fine.”
“I’m glad you’re finally listening to reason.”
He led her back to the ambulance.
“You can drive me,” she said.
Gene stopped in his tracks. “Excuse me?”
“You can drive me home and observe me tonight.” Amanda looked up at him, a challenge glinted in her eyes. “You’re a doctor. You’re qualified.”
“I—” Gene was at a loss for words.
“I won’t go to the hospital,” she said. “This is one way I can go home and you don’t have to worry about my head.”
Gene narrowed his eyes. “You’d rather go home with a stranger than going to a hospital?”
“Are you worried about me or yourself?” she asked. “If you’re uncomfortable with that idea, then just let the officers drive me home. If you’re really concerned about my head, then I give you permission to observe me overnight. Both of our names will be all over the police and EMT reports, so I’m not too worried about you trying anything funny with me.”
His eyebrows rose at her remark, but then a slow smile emerged as he tilted his head, studying the odd woman.
“Gee, thanks. I’m glad to know you’re not afraid of me because there are enough witnesses, not because of my character.”
“I hope you haven’t changed much, but I remember you were decent in high school,” Amanda said.
His smile vanished as Gene watched her walk back to the EMTs. Was he supposed to know her?
“Dr. Rowland said I can sign something to refuse transport to the ER?” Amanda asked the EMTs.
“Are you sure you want to do that, Amanda?” Amy asked.
“Yes.” Amanda smiled. “Dr. Rowland will observe me himself tonight.”
The two EMTs turned to Gene in unison, their gazes said ‘are you out of your mind?’
“We went to high school together,” Amanda supplied. “We go way back. Besides, his mother is one of my best customers.”
“Are you taking over her treatment, Dr. Rowland?” John, the other EMT, asked Gene carefully. What John was probably really saying was, ‘what could go wrong with that?”
Lots of things could go wrong. She could claim harassment or malpractice or worse. This was one of the reasons he had to have malpractice insurance. Not that he’d had any misconduct or any other complaints from a patient, but there was always that possibility hovering over a medical professional. Unfortunately, it was the world they lived in. It was why he’d taken a sabbatical from the hospital. Too much bullshit, not enough doctoring.
“Doc?” John asked again.
Gene studied Amanda, considering his options. If he said no and made her go, he would feel like an asshole for putting her into financial strain. If he said yes and went home with her, well… there were a lot of scenarios that might result from that. It would be a positive if she turned out not to have a concussion, but he could also think of numerous negative possibilities. The worst one might land him in jail.
All logic told him to say no.
“Yes,” Gene answered.
Amanda beamed at him, looking grateful.
I hope I don’t live to regret this.