Chapter 6
“Evie, I’ve got a gunshot wound in bed three. It’s just a flesh wound but it needs to be cleaned and bandaged,” yelled Dr. Holster from the nurse’s station. Nodding to the doctor, Evie went over to the omnicell in the corner across from the nurse’s desk, punched in her user ID and password, and grabbed the equipment she needed.
“The patient is a gunshot victim and a possible suspect. A police officer is in there with him now,” Holster called to her.
“Excellent!” Evie thought to herself. In this part of town their hospital saw way too many gunshot victims.
As she made her way over to the little room with the sliding glass door that contained bed three, she passed a co-worker who was heading the opposite way.
“Are you taking the patient in bed three?” Anna asked her.
“Yeah, gunshot wound.”
Anna broke out into a mischievous smile. “Girl, there is some serious man candy in there in the form of a police officer. Try not to drool. His uniform does very little to hide that sexy body.”
Evie shook her head and grinned at her friend.
“What would Emilio say if he heard you?”
“Honey, I’m married, not dead. Why else would God put these gorgeous specimens on this earth, if not for us to admire His handiwork?” Anna countered.
“I am telling Emilio the next time I see him.” Evie said laughing.
Her friend was twenty-eight with two kids but acted like a boy-crazy teenager sometimes.
“Go on in there. You’ll see.” Anna motioned to the doors and wiggled her eyebrows.
“I am now ignoring you.” Evie slid open the door laughing, Anna’s words lost on her until she heard, “Good evening, Ma’am,” and looked up into the clearest blue eyes she’d ever seen. It was then Evie realized that for once her friend had not been exaggerating.
The man before her was tall with broad shoulders and good posture. His hair had that untamed but sort of tamed look to it, and was short and brown. It looked as if he had run his hands through it a hundred times. He was well-built and in shape as Anna had pointed out. But the thing that caught Evie’s attention the most were his eyes. My God, was it possible for people to even have eyes that color?
“Ma’am?” the officer repeated, snapping Evie out of her thoughts.
Good Lord, what was she doing? Had she actually been checking him out? She hadn’t looked at another man in that way for a long time, and for God’s sake he was a police officer—not that she had anything against cops after what happened to her husband; it was just a bit unsettling that the first man she noticed in three years happened to be a cop.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” the police officer asked.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said with slight embarrassment. Evie walked over to the patient, trying desperately to compose herself; the gunshot victim was little more than a kid, probably no more than sixteen years old. He looked somewhat out of it, but not enough to miss her initial reaction to the police office. He looked back and forth between them with a sleepy grin on his face.
Quickly sliding into a more professional demeanor, Evie asked the boy his name while she slipped on a pair of latex gloves. He told her it was Louis as she removed the temporary bandage on his arm exposing a flesh wound and begin disinfecting it.
The room was deathly silent, except for a few groans and hisses from Louis as Evie re-bandaged his arm. She was fully aware that the officer was watching her intently. When she was finally done and Louis’ eyes were starting to drift shut—a side effect of the pain medication he’d been given earlier --- she gathered up all of her materials and gestured to the officer to step outside of the room with her. He complied immediately. As soon as the door was slid shut behind them, he laid his blue eyes on her, which startled Evie for a moment. After reminding herself to breathe, she worked up the nerve to speak.
“He’s going to need to be here for a little while longer, more than likely overnight. Were you planning on staying with him the entire time?”
The officer ran his hands though his hair. “I’ll be here with him for a few more hours, and then another officer will come and relieve me.”
Evie nodded and turned to leave.
“By the way, I’m Officer Stacy Walsh,” he said in an attempt to turn her back in his direction. She turned back to him, smiled politely and took his outstretched hand with her free one.
“Your name?” he asked.
“Evelyn. Evelyn Tyrell.” She expected him to say something along the lines of, “Nice to meet you, Evelyn.” What she didn’t expect was for him to look as if somebody had just punched him in the stomach and knocked the wind out of him.
“What is your name?” he asked again, this time with his brows furrowed.
Evie stared at him. It looked as if all of the blood had drained from his face, and for a moment she thought he might pass out.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You don’t look so good.”
“Your name is Evelyn Tyrell?” he said in disbelief.
“Yes,” she said slowly. “Officer Walsh I think you had better have a seat.”
He shook his head “no” and glanced at the name badge pinned to her scrubs. “Evelyn Karen Tyrell,” he whispered.
“Maybe I should take your vitals.”
“No,” he suddenly said, some of the color coming back into his face. “I’m okay. It’s uh nice to meet you, Nurse Tyrell.”
Evie could tell he was trying to gain back some of his composure but his voice betrayed him; it came out a little strangled. She had no idea what had spooked him about her name. While she was concerned about his condition, she needed to unload the blood soaked bandages she was holding.
“I need to dispose of this,” she said, “but when I come back I’m going to take your vitals.” She turned to leave, but not before she noticed him shaking slightly. She was definitely taking his vitals when she came back.
Five minutes later when she returned to Louis’s room, Officer Walsh looked considerably better.
“Are you feeling okay now?”
“Yes I am, thank you.” Although he sounded convincing, Evie had a feeling he wasn’t telling her the truth.
“I didn’t,” he cleared his throat, “I didn’t eat lunch today, so I think I was just feeling a little bit lightheaded.”
“I can have one of the nurses grab you a sandwich from the cafeteria if you’d like,” she offered.
“No, no, that’s okay.” He was sitting in one of the hard-backed chairs next to Louis’ bed looking completely uncomfortable now, but Evie wouldn’t let the matter rest.
“Are you diabetic?”
Officer Walsh shook his head “no.”
“Are you experiencing any pain anywhere?”
“Not really.”
Evie gave him a look of suspicion.
“Not really? It’s either a yes or no.”
“Then no.”
“I think I’d still like to check your blood pressure,” she said, pulling the cuff from around the back of her neck.
“That’s completely unnecessary, Nurse Tyrell.”
“Completely necessary, Officer Walsh? And please call me Evie. You make me sound like Nurse Ratched when you say it that way.” She hadn’t meant the reference to the ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ movie as a joke, nevertheless it solicited a genuine grin from the man. Goodness, the man was even better looking when he smiled, if that was possible.
Evie approached him slowly, almost regretting that she had pushed him to let her take his blood pressure because it was going to bring her in so close proximity to him.
“Arm please,” she said, hoping she sounded completely professional.
Officer Walsh complied and held out his arm. Evie wrapped the cuff around his bicep, trying not to notice how hard it was. Swallowing nervously, she secured the cuff then began pumping air into it while simultaneously staring at the dial. She felt Officer Walsh’s eyes boring through her.
As she let the air out of the cuff and got her reading, she wasn’t surprised to see that his blood pressure was 190/100.
“Is your blood pressure usually this high?” she asked, removing the cuff and stepping back several feet as to put some distance between them.
“No, it isn’t.”
“You should probably see your primary care doctor and get that checked out.”
“I will,” he said too quickly.
“Why do I not believe you?”
“I will, I promise. But I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
“High blood pressure can be a silent killer, Officer Walsh.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Okay, well my shift is almost over and another nurse will be taking over and checking in on Louis periodically.”
Officer Walsh nodded affirmatively to reassure her that he understood.
“Nice to meet you, Officer Walsh.” With that, she made her way to the door.
“Nice to meet you too, Evelyn Karen Tyrell.”
It was odd, but Evie swore he really meant it.
Unfortunately, even though Officer Walsh was now no longer in her presence, he stayed on her mind all the way home. She couldn’t shake his strange behavior with her, or his good looks. But as soon as she arrived home, all thoughts of Officer Walsh fled as the exhaustion from her twelve-hour shift finally set in.
Stepping through the front door, she wasn’t surprised to find her mother in bed and Jamie sprawled out across her. She tried to gently lift her son off of her mother without waking either of them—she was successful.
She carried her sons little body to his room and placed him in his bed. She kissed his forehead, then left the room, shutting the door behind her. She thought about waking her mother up to let her know she was home, but she decided against it—Jamie had probably run her mother ragged; it was best to let her sleep.
Evie crept to her already lit room and without even removing her scrubs, collapsed onto the bed. Without even looking, she reached across the bed towards her nightstand. She intended to turn off the light, but her hand touched her Bible first. She grabbed it and pulled it onto the bed with her. Flipping it open, she turned through the pages until she reached the book of Psalms. There nestled between the pages was her letter – the anonymous letter from the anonymous officer.
She’d read this letter every day for the last month. Her mother thought it was foolish for her to do so and had advised her to throw it away, but the note had a grip on Evie. It was proof that Jasmine King had been right after all—indeed another officer was involved in her husbands murder. But did knowing this really change anything? Not really. He was faceless and nameless to her. And that’s how she preferred it. She’d been bitter and hateful towards Officer Timothy Walker for too long. If she didn’t know this new officer’s name and didn’t know who he was, and if she simply judged him by the contents of this letter, she couldn’t hate him. Dear Mrs. Tyrell… she read.