Chance Read Online Free PDF

had been coming to see her once a week. She’d begun to say no. It was working. Jackie was staying out of the picture. It had to be him.”
    “What does she say?”
    “She says she surprised an intruder on the patio of her condominium.”
    “I suppose that’s possible.”
    “Oh, absolutely,” Janice echoed, “anything is possible. Let’s not rule out alien abductions.”

     
    He went the following day. He did not visit her straightaway but spoke instead to her attending physician. She’d received a concussion but there was no evidence of bleeding into or structural damage of her brain. The surgery required to relieve the entrapped muscle was straightforward enough and he felt satisfied that she was in good hands. As to the nature of the incident, she had yet to claim additional knowledge. There was only the bit about having surprised someone at the rear of her condo and that was all.
    He considered leaving it there as the course prudent behavior then caved to the impulse to stop by her room. He found the door open and a man seated in a chair at the side of her bed. The man wore a gray suit. He was broad shouldered with thick dark hair. He had his back to the door and was leaning forward a bit, holding to one of Jaclyn’s hands, speaking to her in a low voice. Chance heard little more than a name . . . Jackie  . . . before retreating to a nurses’ station to make conversation with one of the nurses, while waiting to see if the man would leave anytime soon, and where, having identified himself as a doctor, he inquired further regarding the patient in room 141.
    “She’s been in quite a lot of pain,” the nurse told him. “Complaining of double vision. She’s scheduled for the surgery this afternoon.”
    “Has she had many visitors?”
    “Just the husband,” the nurse told him, and excused herself to check on a patient.
    Chance was still at the station when the man came out of the room. He was, as Chance had noted, a lean, broad-shouldered man of medium height, a handsome enough man, Chance thought, and fit, certainly capable of doing some damage with his fists.
    Chance had expected him to walk on by and was surprised when he stopped before him. “You one of her doctors?” the man asked. The man’s eyes were black and direct. Chance of course recalled that he was a homicide detective for the city of Oakland and he had that about him, whatever that was, some air of authority, some hint of the bully. Chance had no difficulty in believing he was a cop. He had no difficulty in believing he was a bad cop. “I’m a neuropsychiatrist,” Chance told him. “I was asked by her therapist to look in on her.”
    “You were in her room just now, why didn’t you look in?”
    “I saw she had a visitor. There was no rush.”
    “No rush? Not like the doctors I know.”
    Chance thought that perhaps the man would smile but he didn’t. Chance just looked at him. The man looked back, a moment longer, before moving off toward the elevators at the end of the hall. Chance waited till the man was gone before returning to Jaclyn’s room.
    She looked about as he had expected given the nature and severity of her injuries. One side of her face was badly swollen and bruised. She turned her head a bit on the pillow at his approach and he could see that she had been crying.
    “Jaclyn . . .” he began. “I’m so sorry . . .”
    “Please,” she said. “You should go.” She spoke through clenched teeth, turning to the wall, where a small dirty window looked out upon the city of Oakland.
    Chance put his hand on the forearm that was on the outside of her blanket. “You’re going to be fine,” he said, feeling both moved and impotent, reduced to cliché. “You will feel better when they free up that muscle and you can stop seeing two of everything.”
    He’d hoped to joke a little but she wasn’t having any. Her hand opened and closed, holding to the sky blue blanket that covered her bed. He gave her arm a