The Witness by Sandra Brown Read Free Book Online Page B

eyes adjust, then began moving stealthily down the corridor.
     
If she could make it to the intersecting hallway without being discovered, she'd be home free. But for about thirty feet she would be exposed. If one of the nurses glimpsed her out of the corner of her eye, she had an explanation ready: Kevin had gas and was fretting. She had decided to Walk him.
     
They would believe her without question, but her plans would be thwarted. She would have to try again tomorrow night. Each hour counted; tomorrow might be too late. She needed to disappear tonight.
     
She concentrated on keeping her footfalls silent and quick.
     
Eyes trained on the two nurses, she calculated the distance to the corner. HA much farther? Ten feet? Fifteen?
     
Kevin belched.
     
To Kendall's ears it sounded like a cannon being fired. She froze, her heart knocking against her ribs. But apparently no one else heard the burp. One nurse was still reading. the other was still talking, obviously warming to her conversation.
     
"So I said that if he went bowling three nights a week anyway, why did he care if I pulled some Light duty? He says, 'That's different." And then I said, you're dawn right.
     
Bowling doesn't pay for shit."
     
Kendall didn't stick around to hear the outcome of-the domestic dispute As soon as she reached the corner, she side stepped into another hallway. She'd made it!
     
Flattening her spine against the wall, she closed her eyes, breathed deeply, and slowly counted to thirty. When she was certain that She hadn't roused the nurses, she opened her eyes.
     
He, however, had been roused.
     
Chapter 3
     
She clamped his hand over her mouth.
     
Not that it was necessary. She was too dumbfounded to scream. Nor would she have done so anyway. On the night she fled Prosper, she had been shocked by circumstances much more frightening than this, and she hadn't screamed then.
     
Nevertheless, she was startled. It seemed he had materialized out of the walls. How had he managed to get within inches of her without her sensing his approach?
     
In his weakened condition, he shouldn't have been intimidating. He leaned heavily on a pair of crutches. His complex ion was ashen; his lips were practically colorless. Obviously he was in tremendous pain.
     
There was nothing weak about his eyes, however. They glowered at her from their sunken sockets. Kendall felt her heart in her throat.
     
She gave a firm, negative shake of her head, trying to make him understand that she wouldn't utter a sound that would give them away. Gradually he lowered his hand.
     
The nurse on the telephone had continued her litany of complaints without a glitch. The other nurse at the desk hadn't raised her eyes from the novel she was reading. There was no indication that either of them was aware that one of their patients had left his bed.
     
He had dressed himself in a pair of green OR scrubs. The right pants leg had been ripped apart to accommodate his cast.
     
The tear was so ragged, it looked as though he'd chewed through the fabrics. Kendall wouldn't have put it past him.
     
He looked haggard, but his jaw was set with determination.
     
He would have gone to whatever extremes necessary to get out of bed and clothe himself.
     
Kendall signaled him to follow her back toward his room.
     
He eyed her mistrustfully, but he didn't stop her when she began to tiptoe down the hallway. As the doctor had said, he maneuvered quite well on crutches. Their rubber tips made virtually no sound as they struck the floor tiles.
     
Passing the room he had occupied, they continued toward the exit where the corridor came to a dead end. Red stenciled letters above the depression bar warned that this door was for emergency use only and that an alarm would sound if it was opened.
     
Kendall reached for the bar. In a motion too fluid and fast for a human eye to track, he raised his right crutch horizontally and placed it in front of her at chest level.
     
She frowned at him,