A Deadly Twist by Jeffrey Siger (free novel reading sites .txt) 📕

Toni sat quietly, drifting between joyful memories and abject fears for the future. She was deep in thought when a nurse bolted into the room, each startling the other.

“What are you doing in here?” the nurse demanded.

“He’s my boyfriend. I’m just sitting here, not touching him, not saying anything. Just being here for him.”

The nurse raised her voice. “I don’t care who you are. You’re not allowed in here. I don’t know how you got in here, but if you don’t leave at once, I’ll call the police.”

Toni gestured with her hand for the nurse to lower her voice.

“Don’t tell me what to do; just get out of here.” She pointed toward the door. “And I mean now.”

Toni smiled and spoke softly. “Let’s look at the situation. I’ve been in here for a good hour. Perhaps you can explain to the police how you allowed a complete stranger to gain access to a critically injured one of their own and remain undetected long enough to have done only God knows what sort of harm to him.” Toni shook her head. “Come to think of it, I guess the police aren’t your main concern. After all, how are you going to explain to your superiors what happened? This just might rise to the sort of thing that justifies terminating your job. Is that the kind of risk you want to take in this horrible economy? And for what?”

“You don’t—”

Toni held up her hand. “Let me finish, please. I’m trying to help you out here. Why get into a fight that you can only lose? After all, the worst that happens to me is my boyfriend’s buddies escort me outside, thank me for caring so much for him, and tell me to come back to see him tomorrow.”

Toni raised and dropped her shoulders. “So, what’s it going to be? A confrontation you can only lose or an act of compassion allowing all of us to win?” She pointed to Yianni. “Especially him.”

The nurse closed her eyes and stood perfectly still—as if counting to ten—then abruptly turned and walked out of the room.

“I don’t think I won a friend in that exchange,” she whispered in Yianni’s direction. “But I don’t care, as long as I won the battle.”

Toni went back to sitting quietly by Yianni’s bedside, watching him sleep, and taking care to do nothing to disturb him. She noticed that his hand closest to her had begun to twitch ever so slightly. She reached over so that his twitching hand touched the top of hers. She felt him weakly grip her hand and lightly squeeze.

She struggled to fight back tears.

This battle she lost.

* * *

Andreas heard his cellphone ring. “Honey, would you grab my phone please? It’s on the kitchen counter. I’m in the middle of changing the baby’s diaper.”

He tickled Sofia’s belly. “Promise you’ll never tell any of your tough guy daddy’s buddies what you just heard him say.” He tickled her again. She giggled. “I’ll take that as a yes.” Andreas finished securing her diaper, kissed her belly, and snapped up the bottoms to her onesies jumpsuit. “They wouldn’t believe you anyway.”

I can hardly believe it myself. He smiled. And I owe all of this to the nanny’s night off.

“It’s someone from Naxos named Dimitri,” said Lila.

“Coming.” Andreas carried Sofia from the nursery across the apartment to the kitchen. He handed Sofia off to Lila in exchange for his mobile.

“Hi, Dimitri. How are our cops?”

“No change, which I’m told is a good thing.”

Andreas clenched his jaw. “Let’s hope so.”

“I have news from my guys at the accident scene. That boulder was a lucky break for them for more than one reason. If the pickup hadn’t hung up on it, they wouldn’t have had such an easy time determining the cause.”

“Easy time?”

“Like a neon sign announcing, ‘Look here,’ is how they described it. The driver side of the truck was caved in from the front wheel to beyond the door. Something hit it and sent it on its way off the road.”

“What kind of something?”

“Likely another truck, or at least something big enough to inflict that much damage without its driver also losing control on impact. The place where it happened and timing were ideal for knocking them off the road. It was in the middle of a sharp left-hand curve, meaning momentum already had the pickup moving toward the edge when the collision occurred.”

Andreas rubbed at his eyes with the thumb and forefinger of his free hand. “How can they be sure the damage wasn’t caused by the pickup rolling over before hitting the boulder?”

“Indentations along the side of the pickup indicated impact with a bumper, and though the paint color on the impacting vehicle was close to the color of the pickup, it wasn’t quite the same.”

Andreas dropped his free hand down to his side. “How could Popi have missed a truck swerving into her lane?”

“That’s one of many questions I hope each of them will soon be able to answer.”

Andreas paused. “So, what’s your gut telling you on this one? Another coincidental accident?”

“I’d sure like to think so. Otherwise, someone’s out there targeting cops just for asking questions about the reporter.”

“Can you think of any other reason why Popi might be a target?”

“Nope.”

Andreas nodded. “Same with Yianni. At least not a target for anyone who’d bother to go to the trouble of making it look like an accident.”

“That sort of thinking is what has me worried.”

“Me too, and why I’m on tomorrow’s morning flight to Naxos.”

“By then we hope to have an ID on the dead tourist whose description matches the one Yianni obtained of the guy in the bar watching the reporter and her interview. It’s not easy identifying foreigners like him unless they’re in an accessible database or have been reported missing.”

“Let me know as soon as you hear anything.”

They exchanged goodbyes.

“How’s Yianni?” asked Lila, still holding Sofia.

“No change.”

“What about Toni?”

Andreas shook his head. “I don’t know. I