Page 148 of Forever Dead
“Let me know what they tell you.”
“I will.”
The FBI badge was in the dresser drawer beneath a folded sweater. Her service pistol sat locked in the small travel safe beside the bed.
She opened it.
For five weeks the weapon had remained there except when she checked it after changing rooms. The weight felt familiar when she lifted it.
Selena secured the holster beneath her jacket and slipped the badge into her pocket.
She was still medically inactive. Carrying either item did not change that.
At that moment, she did not care.
The drive to the county hospital took twelve minutes.
Selena could not remember most of it afterward.
She kept both hands on the wheel and forced herself not to drive faster than the knee could manage. Every red light seemed deliberately long. Every vehicle ahead of her seemed to choose that morning to travel below the speed limit.
Connor was alive when the news report aired.
That was all she had.
Alive enough for surgery.
Alive enough to be called critically injured instead of dead.
The distinction did not calm her.
*
The hospital parking lot was busy. Selena found a space near the side entrance, got out and nearly left the cane behind.
Pain caught the knee on the second step.
She went back for it.
Inside, the woman at the desk began asking who Selena wanted to see.
“Connor Chase.”
“Are you family?”
Selena hesitated. “I’m FBI. I work with him.”
She showed the badge.
The woman checked the computer. “He’s still restricted to approved visitors.”
“Can you tell me if he’s alive?”
“I’m sorry, ma’am, I can’t release medical information.”
A familiar voice came from the corridor beyond reception.
“She’s fine.”
