Love on Call Read Online Free PDF Page B

far to his residence, but he suddenly turned and headed toward the shelter on Thirteenth Street. The hospital maintained a clinic there, and he was one of the primary doctors. He would look in and see what was scheduled for morning.
    Brad drove through the city, watching the neighborhoods go from well-maintained, to unmaintained, to boarded-up buildings with concrete front yards. The streets were deserted and few cars patrolled the area. Behind these doors, Brad knew, thrived a drug world that wasn’t obvious from the outside. He often found himself in places like this, especially on nights he couldn’t sleep. This was where he’d thought he would find his mother. Not this exact neighborhood, but one like it. His mom had left him and his brother, Owen, when they were young, and had never returned. Brad believed the reason she hadn’t comeback had to do with drugs. Yet she hadn’t been an addict. The drug story was just something a little boy could cling to for understanding. Brad wasn’t a little boy anymore, yet he still thought of her in this kind of place.
    He stopped in front of a derelict house with boarded-up windows and no door. Silently he sat looking at it, the car engine running and the lights on. Lots of people had searched for his mother. Child welfare had looked also, but she seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth.
    Brad’s eye caught something moving in the beams of his headlights. He squinted in the gloom, but could no longer see whatever it was. Time to leave, he thought. This wasn’t the best section of town and he didn’t need anyone hijacking his car. Putting it into gear, he pulled away from the curb.
    That’s when he saw her, thirty feet away. A kid. She walked slowly, slinking against the buildings, trying to make herself inconspicuous. Brad pulled up beside her and got out of the car. She didn’t stop walking.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” he asked, following her on foot. “Where do you live? Do you need help?”
    She said nothing. While the buildings were all dark and deserted, one streetlight glowed brightly. In the light he could see she was about twelve. Memories flooded his mind. He’d been abandoned at age nine.
    The child’s pants were torn and dirty, her blousefit poorly and her shoes were too big. One of them was missing a heel, making her limp.
    â€œLeave me alone,” she said in a defiant voice. Brad had heard it before.
    â€œI won’t hurt you.”
    â€œThen go away and leave me alone.”
    â€œDo you have someplace to sleep?”
    â€œYes,” she snapped.
    â€œFood?”
    She glared at him.
    â€œI’m a doctor. I’ll take you to a shelter.”
    â€œDo I look like I’ve lost my mind?”
    Brad gazed directly at her. He shook his head. “You look like someone in need of help. I’m offering it. You’re too young to be out alone, especially in a place like this.”
    He took her arm to lead her away, but she screamed. Then things got out of control. Red and blue lights whirled behind him. He looked around to see a black-and-white patrol car roll to a stop. The girl wrenched her arm free and took off as if death was chasing her. She disappeared into one of the abandoned buildings with the surefootedness of practice. Brad knew she’d been there before, but he had no time to think about it. A cop, with his gun drawn and pointing, shouted at him to put his hands in the air.
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    Drinking coffee to stay awake at three o’clock in the morning was something Mallory had done many times before, but she didn’t think she would have todo it tonight. After a year her hours at the hospital had settled into a routine. Most of the time they were predictable and she had plenty of energy after a full day or even a full night on her feet. Tonight, however, she had been bone tired and looking forward to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep. That had been her goal when