A Heartbeat Away by Harry Kraus

other VCU doctors to get involved. If it gets around that I’m snooping into this, it can’t be good. I’m already against the ropes on my career. I can’t risk another black mark.”
    â€œOkay, I’ll enter their names and do some Internet searches, and I know an ex-cop who had a transplant who may be able to help us out.”
    â€œThat’s cool.”
    â€œGive me the names of the possible donors,” he said, snatching a pen from his shirt pocket.
    â€œCharlene McDonald was the accident victim.” Tori lifted another article. “The stabbing victim was Nancy Chan.” She slid the article toward Phin and lifted the third. “And the jumpers were Dakota Jones and …” Tori scanned the article. “Here it is. Christian Mitchell.”

12
    Emily stepped slowly toward her farmhouse beneath a condemning night sky. The planned rendezvous had been a disaster. What was supposed to be a night of exploration and ecstasy had turned bitter. A separation. Hurt feelings and disgust.
    Her plan had failed. A rescue, once visible on the horizon, had vanished. She was stranded on the same island of tension.
    She entered through the back door, wincing at the squeaking sound of the screen door. She froze, standing barefoot in the kitchen.
    Above her, the floor creaked. She heard water running through the pipes. Her father must be in the bathroom. She tried to slow her breathing. It would not be pretty if he found her up.
    She waited, listening to the night sounds. A toilet flushed. The groan of weight on hardwood floors and the muffled creaking of her parents’ king-sized bed.
    She waited another five minutes, a century in the darkness, before climbing the stairs. She only needed to get to the top and across the hall to her room.
    At the top of the stairs, a lone figure stepped from the shadows. Her father, Billy Greene, stepped out of the darkness with a baseball bat.
    Emily gasped. “Oh, Daddy, you scared me.”
    â€œEmily?” He lowered the bat but continued forward. “Where have you been?”
    â€œI couldn’t sleep. I was just getting a snack.”
    He shook his head and frowned. “Since when do you sleep like that?” He was inspecting her clothes. “You’ve been outside.”
    â€œI just wanted some air.”
    â€œYou were meeting that boy, weren’t you?” He grabbed her shoulder and pulled her forward, stretching open the neck of her flannel shirt. “What’s this?” he said, reaching for her chest. “No bra!”
    â€œDaddy, I don’t sleep in—”
    â€œEmily, tell me the truth!”
    Emily pulled back, but her foot slipped onto the stairs. Her arms flailed in an attempt at balance, a fight that was hopeless against gravity. Her head struck the banister on the way down. Was I pushed?
    Bumping and rolling, she bounced down the wooden steps. Pain assaulted her, stabbing her foot. She gripped her ankle.
    â€œBilly?” It was her mother’s voice.
    Her father towered over her. “She snuck out to meet the neighbor boy.” He snapped on the lights. “Look how she’s dressed.”
    â€œEmily?” Her mother’s voice was soothing. Quickly, she came to her side.
    Emily stared at her right foot that pointed in an unnatural direction different from her knee.
    â€œYour foot!”
    Billy backed away. “She slipped. That’s all there was to it.”
    Emily seethed. “I was getting away from you !”
    â€œOh, my baby,” Carolyn Greene cried. “We need to get you to a hospital.”
    Thirty minutes later, Dr. Dan Mitchell watched every suture over the shoulder of the ER physician on duty as he carefully reapproximated the edges of the wound on Christian’s right knee.
    The doctor cleared his throat. “Why didn’t you just stitch him up yourself?”
    â€œI don’t keep the instruments I need at home,” he said. “The