Edge of the Heat 3 Read Online Free PDF

the corner.
    She wore a long white coat, a red skirt, and red high heels, with a stethoscope around her neck. Blond curls bounced around a pretty face and red-lipsticked mouth.
    She stopped at the door and knocked on the outside of it. When she saw him looking at her she smiled. Norman hadn’t seen a smile in over a month.
    “Mr. Foster? Hi, I am Dr. Thorpe. I am the California prison system’s Neurologist. May I come in and examine you?”
    Norman wasn’t sure what to say. Someone was asking his permission? Treating him like a human being? He nodded.
    Dr. Thorpe walked in the room, bringing the scent of vanilla with her.
    She walked to his bedside and put her hands on his side.
    “How are you feeling today?”
    “Like shit.”
    Dr. Thorpe didn't raise an eyebrow but pushed on. “I’ve read your file and you have no feeling or movement in your arms or legs, is that correct?”
    “Yes.”
    “But you can shrug your shoulders?” She lay a cool hand on his neck, where it met his shoulder. Norman shivered at the kind touch.
    “Yes.”
    “I’m going to roll you onto your back for this exam. Is that OK?”
    Norman nodded, swallowing around a lump in his throat.
    Dr. Thorpe removed the pillows from behind Norman’s back and started to help his body gently roll that way. Her eyebrows furrowed and she stopped and lifted up the side of his gown.
    “Oh my Lord,” she exclaimed. “Do the nurses turn you Mr. Foster?”
    “Yeah, in the morning.”
    “They only turn you once a day?” Her gaze locked on his, and he saw fire in her eyes. But it wasn’t meant for him. It was about him.
    “Yeah, just once usually.”
    Dr. Thorpe walked around to the other side of the bed and peeked under his gown there. She sucked in her breath. Norman didn’t even want to know what it looked like.
    Someone walked by the room. Dr. Thorpe spun around and ran out, calling for the person. “Hello, guard? Nurse?” She caught up to him in the hall. Norman could hear pieces of the conversation.
    “Bedsores ... horrible ... he deserves ... you must take care ... I insist... I’ll be filing...”
    Norman stared at the ceiling, miserable in his waiting. How did things go so bad for him? Where did he go wrong? He had been a police officer. He had been married to a lovely, sweet woman. He’d been respected and even liked. And now he was here, in a hole, shot by that lovely, sweet woman, charged with kidnapping and attempted murder, and covered with bedsores that made a prison doctor gasp.
    The doctor walked back and gave him a sweet smile. Norman read the truth in it, read her pity and heartache for him, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. In his former life he would never have stood for pity from anyone, but then he’d never needed or taken anyone’s help either.
    “Mr Foster, I’ve spoken to the nurses. You are to be turned every 2 hours when you are awake, without fail. It may take a few days for all of them to get the message, but I will ensure they do.”
    He nodded, knowing he should thank her, but unable to bring himself to do it.
    She walked back to the bed and started her examination. She grasped his hand and did something to it that Norman couldn’t see.
    “Can you feel that?”
    “No.”
    She talked as she worked. “Mr Foster, you are scheduled for an EMG to see if there is any electrical activity left in your limbs at all. Your spinal cord was not severed, just injured, so it is possible that someday you could regain partial function in at least some of your limbs. The 5 Western state prisons have to share one EMG machine, and it won’t rotate over here for 2 more weeks. But when it gets here, we will bring it to you.”
    Methodically, she checked all four limbs. When she got to his left foot, Norman felt wings of excitement beat in his chest. He could feel something! He could! A strange pressure. He knew she was touching his left foot.
    Dr. Thorpe clucked her tongue and said “Hmmmmm ”. Then she asked, “Mr.