Chapter 8
Dr. Marlena Evans-Brady was pissed, there was no other way of putting it. Mad, angry, irate- no other word could sum it up quite as well as ‘pissed’. It had been five days and the only word from Roman they had heard were the platitudes from the New Orleans P.D. assuring them that he was fine. Marlena was pissed and now she was going to do something about it.
She rested her chin in her hands and stared at the case files before her. She was stalling and she knew it- but opening these files took more courage than she currently had. Her finger trailed across the name on the top file- ‘John Black’. She knew every word in the thin manilla folder. She had, after all, been the author. Still, to open the file was to open her memories- and not all of those memories were good ones.
Of the other two files, one she shouldn’t have had access to and the other she shouldn’t have known she needed. Marlena had Bo to thank for both files. Roman’s little brother was no better at lying than he was. Bo had cracked like a walnut when she had cornered him at the pub and demanded to know what was happening with her husband. She understood now why Roman hadn’t wanted to tell her the truth about New Orleans. She would have never let him go if he had.
Dimera. Stefano Dimera. She had managed not to think about him at all over the past few years. At least, she had managed to pretend not to think about him. Her jaw clenched and she slid the file with Dimera’s name on it away from her, it’s very existence distasteful.
The third file. The last file. Roman Brady’s file. With a certain sense of foreboding, she realized that this was the file she knew least about. She had written the file on John Black. She had lived many of the events depicted in Dimera’s file. But the file on Roman Brady.... Police department psychiatric notes were sealed. No one had access to them- not the mayor, not the IAD, not the chief of police- no one. Not unless they were very sneaky. Luckily, Bo Brady was very sneaky. It hadn’t been hard to guilt him in to ‘borrowing’ Roman’s file.
Three files. Three keys. She simply needed to decide if she really wanted to unlock the past. Now she was lying to herself. The past was something she had no interest in. The future was what mattered- her family’s future. But the past was intruding on that future, endangering it in ways she could not explain. Before she could change her mind, the first file was already open.
November 7, 1985
Patient Name: John Doe
White male; approximate age mid-20s
Patient was admitted by police officers. Patient was only semi-coherent, there were signs of recent injuries and concerns he was suffering from dehydration and exposure. As the psychiatrist on call, I was brought in due to the extreme anxiety displayed by the patient and his refusal to communicate with the hospital staff.
Contact was too brief to form an assessment. Though the patient seemed defensive with other staff members, refusing to allow an examination or the removal of the bandages that covered his face, he was receptive to my intervention. Given his response to hospital personnel, I had expected the bandages to conceal a disfigurement of some type- that was not the case. However, the patient left the hospital without permission almost immediately after the bandages were removed- I did not have time to develop a rapor with him. There is currently insufficient information on which to make a judgement regarding this client. I have asked to be notified immediately if the patient is readmitted. He was somehow- intriguing.
Short and to the point- and woefully inadequate when it came to describing her feelings at the time. Then again, perhaps ‘intriguing’ was the best way to have summarized it. She flipped past the admission sheet, plunging deeper into the past.
A handwritten note- random musings to herself over the new head of security. She wondered briefly why she had included it in the file.
John Black has to be the most irritating man ever born! If he tries to give me orders one more time, I swear I will tell him exactly where to put that hospital sign-in sheet. Why the Hospital had to hire him as the head of security, I will never understand. The man is abrasive. He’s secretive. He is ALWAYS watching me- I wouldn’t be surprised if he put security cameras in the lady’s restroom! He can’t fool me, though. The man is most definitely hiding something. There are secrets lurking behind those blue eyes of his- my instincts are never wrong when it comes to secrets. When he was first admitted as a ‘John Doe’- with those bandages all over his face and jerking like a frightened rabbit every time someone went to touch him- well, he didn’t look like some ‘old pro security expert’ then. If I could just get that man on my couch for 5 minutes.....
Marlena’s laughter bubbled up and she wondered if she had realized the implications of the ‘couch’ comment when she had written the note. Probably not. ‘John Black’ had had the rare ability to drive her from rational thought with his mere presence. She would have discovered his secrets much sooner if all of her energies hadn’t been focused on catching a glimpse of him strolling the hospital corridors in those tight jeans he used to wear. Of course, John had done his fair share of looking too. Still smiling, she rifled through the pages, stopping when she reached the first set of session notes.
November 8, 1986
Patient name: John Black
Pre-session notes:
He finally told me his secrets. To be more accurate, he confirmed my guess. John Black is an alias. A created identity meant to fool the men who are chasing him. I suspect it was also created to give him a sense of self. Every human being needs that- needs to know who they are and where they belong. Aside from a few shattered fragments, John has no such identity of his own. Finally, he has agreed to let me help him piece together the images in his mind, to hopefully dig up new images to complete the picture. This first session, I plan to induce a light hypnotic state. If nothing else, we need to make sense of the few memories he does have.
Session summary:
It should not have been dangerous. I’ve put hundreds of patients under, and never have I seen a reaction such as the one I saw today. A few cases I’ve read about- torture, brainwashing, repressed memories- but I’ve never personally seen it. The sessions need to stop. I need to be more certain of what I’m doing. He needs to be more grounded. He wants to continue- but I think it’s too risky. It could be dangerous. I’m afraid ‘he’ might be dangerous.
The session started routinely. John was a little nervous, but I’ve noticed he tends to be a little nervous around me. He went under easily enough. He’s either very susceptible to hypnosis or he’s done it before. The images came quickly, though there was little he didn’t already know. It’s disturbing somehow- to watch a man I met a few short weeks ago talk about me, my friends, my family. He talks about the intimate details rather than the big picture. He knows my favorite color, my favorite flower, my favorite song. It would be kind of sweet if it weren’t for the other things he knows. He knows Dimera’s hideouts, the places he did his dirty work. He knows the cases Roman used to work and the men who grew to hate him for it. He knows where money is hidden- or at least, he knows that he should know. He knows how to pick a lock and field strip a rifle- and he knows he’s done both things many times before. He remembers nothing clearly, yet he knows too much, and I’m not sure why. But all of those memories, they are on the surface. They shouldn’t be on the surface. They are too scattered, too disparate, too fragmented to be surface memories. There is no coherence to them. It’s as if someone took all of his thoughts, chopped them up into tiny unrelated pieces, and then drew out a random few that he would be allowed to keep. None of it makes any sense. The only thing that is certain is that all of the memories seem to touch on me in some way.
The memories were disquieting, but the danger didn’t arise until I tried to push below the surface and make him look into the dark places in his mind. He didn’t want to go there and I shouldn’t have pushed him. If I had known....
The change was sudden. I walked him back through his thoughts until he reached the door to the hidden memories. He seemed afraid to touch the door, and I don’t think I’ve seen him afraid before. But I told him to open the door and he did. He had reason to be afraid. I tried to bring him out of it. The moment he opened the door, I knew something was wrong and I tried to bring him back. His entire body contracted, one big knot of muscle. His breathing was strained, and I believe the danger of a heart attack was real. I did the only thing I could- I slapped him hard across the face. Three times I had to hit him before he responded and when he did.... I don’t think I was afraid of him, I’m not certain I could be afraid of him. But when he grabbed my arm, I thought he was going to break it.
He doesn’t remember any of it, not once we tried to go below the surface memories. He wasn’t even aware that he had grabbed my arm. I didn’t tell him, he’s already hesitant about letting me help him. He wants to try again. I told him it was too soon, though I’m not sure how long that will hold him off. I’ll have to study the journals, see if I can find another case like this one. I need time to think before I decide what to do next. I’m tempted to tell him it might be for the best if he stopped trying to remember. He’s stubborn, though. I doubt he would listen. He seems almost driven to find out about his past. I know that he’s worried that people are after him. He needs to know who he is if he’s going to protect himself. There’s more to it than that, though. I think he believes he needs to control the memories so that they don’t control him. I think he may be right.
They had both been right. Through the glory of hindsight, she knew that there had been no other choice but to pursue the memories, to follow where they led. Back then, the path had not been nearly so clear. The closer they had come to discovering the truth, the less certain she had been that she wanted to. Marlena’s eyes skimmed down the pages of the file, seeing how the words had become more hesitant, the reports more brief. She had started to believe that John was really Stefano. She had started to believe in the possibility long before they had fled into the mountains of West Virginia and she had seen the tatoo that marked him. Her old reports were rife with unfinished statements and undrawn conclusions. If she had allowed her pen to complete its work, the words would have been undeniable. By denying the words, she had tried to deny the truth she had feared.
Marlena shook her head, impressed with her own ability to delude herself. But in the end, even that had failed her. The last notation in the file was hurried, the words jotted down as if she had been in a rush. Perhaps it was her panic that had forced her to complete this one last report, for to Marlena’s trained eye, it looked less like a set of session notes and more like a prayer.
November 12, 1988
John Black
He’s close to the breaking point. Too close to stop now. He says he has to go and there is no way I can let him go alone. He’s volatile. Explosive. If he were threatened, if he thought he was in danger.... He might be capable of violence. I know he’s capable of it. The other day in the nurses’ lounge, something snapped. I walked in just as he smashed the glass. I could see the pain on his face, the aftermath of the memories that had visited just moments before. I didn’t like the look on his face. I didn’t like the way he held those shards of glass. I can’t let him leave like this. Not alone.
The doctor who performed the plastic surgery will meet us in West Virginia. We’ll find the answers to John’s past there. If he finds out he’s really Dimera.... It doesn’t matter who he is. I owe it to him to be there. I owe it to myself.
At the very end of the file, tucked in almost as an afterthought, was a picture. The picture. She suddenly found it curious that the file should end with that- as if all of the problems in their lives had been solved and ‘happily ever after’ was at hand. Nothing could have been further from the truth, yet the file had nothing more to offer. Roman had never regained all of his memories. She doubted he had regained most of them. For years, she had known he pretended that he remembered more than he really did. When some old friend would say ‘hi’, when Caroline would ask if he remembered how happy they were on some holiday, when Abe would refer to an old bust- all the times he would nod and smile and mutter agreement, she alone had seen the truth. But after West Virginia, Roman had never come to her. He had never tried to regain his own memories, content to fill in the gaps with remembrances that had belonged to others. She had let him do so. She had been glad. Had she been afraid to press her luck, to risk her perfect happy ending? She stared down at the picture in her hand and wondered if she was risking it now.
The picture was of a handsome young man with laughing blue eyes. Thick brown hair worn a little too long curled about his face and added to his image as a prankster. So young. So long ago. So very different than he was now. Marlena had almost forgotten the physical differences. Stefano must have paid a small fortune in order to change Roman’s face. He had gotten his money’s worth- no one would have seen ‘Roman Brady’ in the guise of her mysterious ‘John Black’. The entire structure of Roman’s face was different now. The cheekbones were higher, the nose aquiline. Even his hair seemed darker than it had been. Of all of the changes, though, it was the eyes she noticed most. John Black’s eyes had been colder, harder, darker- and John Black’s eyes hadn’t laughed. Not until the day she had found this picture, the day she had told him the truth of who he was, had his eyes truly laughed. A chill ran down her spine and she wondered what Stefano must have done to drive the warmth from a man’s eyes.
Her anger flared and she slammed the file shut, the bad memories suddenly outweighing the good. Avoiding Dimera’s folder, she flipped open the psychiatric file from the Salem P.D. The first few pages were from Roman’s entrance exam, required of all incoming cadets. The tension eased and she found herself smiling, confronted with the fact that her husband had not always been such a complex man. Honest; intelligent; persistent; a strong sense of duty and loyalty; out-going; linear thought patterns; strong leadership skills.... Seeing the words in black and white, Roman sounded like the original boy scout. It was amazing how misleading words could be. She chuckled aloud, even as she substituted ‘blunt’ for ‘honest’; ‘conniving’ for ‘intelligent’; ‘stubborn’ for ‘persistent’. All of the traits that had made him such a good cop had nearly driven her crazy when they had first met. The way he had simply insinuated himself into her life and refused to leave, no matter how many times she had insisted she could take care of herself! If he hadn’t been so darn cute, she might have strangled him. He had also been the best thing that ever happened to her.
She paused when she came to the fitness report concerning his return to active duty. Given the gaps in his memory and his missing year, the department had insisted on the evaluation. Roman had been too good a cop to lose, but too many things had happened to him for the department not to have been leery. She skimmed down the page, struggling to identify why the test results seemed ‘off’. Granted, there were differences in Roman’s profile after his return- but that was to be expected. The test revealed a personality ideally suited to police work and well within the norms of the general population. So why were alarm bells going off in her head? It was in the general summary that she found the answer to her question.
Summary
Based on the objective test scores and the interview with the client, I recommend full reinstatement to the police force. The subject’s readjustment to his return is nothing short of remarkable, especially given the loss of memory and the trauma that caused it. Though the subject was somewhat reticent in his interview, he answered all questions calmly and completely. His responses to my questions revealed no underlying emotion trauma, nor did it reveal in any identity issues as might have been expected given the circumstances. The MACCP test supports this conclusion. The respondent’s results are text book.
Text book. Roman’s psychiatric profile was text book. It was too text book- no one was as ‘normal’ as the test showed Roman to be. It was as if he had given the answers he knew would be expected, no more and no less. After all he had been through, Roman Brady should have been anything but ‘text book’.
Uneasily, Marlena continued her study of the file. She had the feeling that she was spying on him, betraying him in some way she didn’t realize. The feeling deepened, and she pulled out a sheet of paper from the time she had been gone. This was a version of Roman she hadn’t known- a version he had refused to share. Now she saw why.
Required psychiatric exam (Departmentally mandated) 1988
Post-shooting review
Incident summary: Subject was involved in an on-duty shooting. After a short foot pursuit, officer shot and killed a robbery suspect. Suspect was shot 4 times at a range of approximately 40 feet. Suspect was DOA. Two shots were fired by the suspect, the officer was uninjured. Witnesses support officer’s contention that the suspect turned and raised his gun prior to the officer opening fire. **Note- shooting has been cleared by the department.
Interview summary: Subject is currently dealing with the emotional aftereffects of the shooting by repressing his responses. Though willing to discuss the events of the shooting, he has so far avoided any emotional reaction. This is a fairly typical response, and not unusual in officer-involved shootings. When asked how he feels about the shooting, subject focuses on the legality of his actions rather than on moral issues. His only concern appears to be that it ‘Was a good shoot’. What is less typical in this particular response pattern is the subject’s failure to be in any way defensive concerning his actions. Most officers who focus on the necessity of the shooting appear to be trying to convince themselves as much as they are trying to convince me. This officer evidences no such need and appears indifferent to the incident beyond the actual facts of the case. No doubt, the emotions evoked by the shooting will come to the fore with the passage of time. I recommend but do not require further counseling when this occurs. Based on the interview, I have certified the officer fit for duty.
Marlena grimaced at the brevity of the report. Roman hadn’t wanted to talk about the shooting and the department had been willing to leave it at that. Of course, this had always been the standard response. Until very recently, police departments had been notorious for their failure to recognize the psychological costs that came with being a police officer. Knowing Roman, she could well imagine that getting him to discuss his ‘feelings’ with a stranger would have been next to impossible. Discarding the report as largely useless, she returned her attention to the file.
Required psychiatric exam (Departmentally mandated) 1989
Post-shooting review
Incident summary: Subject was involved in an on-duty shooting. Officer was serving as a sniper with the SWAT team. SWAT was deployed in response to a hostage situation resulting from a domestic disturbance. The suspect had opened fire after police responded to reports of a woman screaming. Suspect held a gun to his girlfriend’s head and demanded his release. When officers refused to vacate the area, the suspect cocked his revolver. At that point, the subject of this interview opened fire, killing the suspect with a single shot to the head. No other injuries occurred. **Note- officer on leave pending departmental investigation. **Note2- shooting has been cleared by department.
Interview summary: The subject currently shows little emotional response to the shooting incident. This is not unusual, especially among snipers- an outgrowth no doubt of their training. This case is atypical in that it is the second shooting the officer has been involved in in less than a year. However, the justifications in both cases seem clear-cut. It is unlikely that the shootings occurred due to overzealousness on the part of the officer. The response to this shooting mirrors the response to the first shooting incident- he is detached and concerned only with the legality of his actions. Any feelings he has on the matter are buried too deeply to be drawn out in a single interview. What is surprising is the officer’s complete dismissal of the first shooting. Given the amount of time since that shooting took place, I expected him to express either anger or remorse- if not for the shooting itself then for its necessity. As before, the officer evidenced a complete emotional detachment. I’m not certain he even remembered the incident when I first brought it up. Such a psychic break with the consequences of his actions is alarming. However, all reports indicate that the officer’s abilities have been in no way impaired by either of the two shooting incidents. It may simply be that the subject has not developed a bond of trust with me as a counselor and thus refuses to discuss the emotional impact the incidents have had on him. I am recommending continuing counseling, but I am not mandating it, as the officer shows no behavioral manifestations of a problem. Based on the interview, I have certified the officer fit for duty.
Two shootings in two years. Marlena knew that most officers spent their entire careers without ever firing their weapons outside of the practice range. Roman had repeatedly told her that being a cop was more about paperwork and pulling cats out of trees than it was about shooting people. Of course, her husband had always had a nose for trouble- but two shootings in two years.... She flipped to the next page in the file and tried to be surprised by what she found.
Required psychiatric exam (Departmentally mandated) 1990
Post-shooting review
Incident summary: Shootings occurred during an undercover investigation into organized crime. As part of a special task force, officer had been operating under deep cover for over 3 months at the time of the shooting. Officer was not wearing a wire nor was backup on-scene. According to the officer’s statements, he was acting as a bodyguard for a mid-level drug trafficker. In that capacity, he was present at a meeting with the man in charge of all drug distribution in the city. During this meeting, the two participants became suspicious of the officer. According to the officer, the two suspects attempted to draw their weapons at which time he opened fire. Both men were killed, suffering from multiple gunshots at close range. No other shots were fired, though responding officers found handguns carried by both men. Note: Officer on leave pending departmental investigation. Note2: Officer on leave pending continuing psychiatric evaluation. Note3: shooting has been cleared by department.
Interview summary: Subject’s reluctance to discuss his record regarding the use of lethal force verges on defiant. The officer talks about this shooting and two prior shootings only in terms of their legality. He avoids any question that is not a direct question and what answers he does give are brief to the point of nonexistent. The initial interview was cut short when the officer became angry. Though no identifiable verbal or physical threat was evidenced, the officer’s body language suggested an increasing likelihood of violence. The anger was triggered when I pointed out that his records indicated a rising use of force, both lethal and nonlethal, following the death of his wife several years prior. Though the subject remained seated, his hands clenched into fists and his voice was- dangerous. He replied ‘My wife is none of your damn business, little man. You won’t mention her again.†At that point, I terminated the interview. I refuse to certify the officer fit until further sessions can be completed.
Addendum: Prior to the second interview, the officer was required to take the MACCP and DDH personality tests. The results of both tests indicate a perfectly stable personality profile. During the second interview, the subject expressed remorse for his prior behavior citing the fact that the case was still under investigation by IAD. I pointed out that this was not unusual given the undercover nature of his assignment and the fact that the shooting had involved known organized crime figures. The officer made no attempt to dispute this, and claimed to be ready to discuss any issues I felt necessary. He suggested that the stress of being under deep cover for such a long period of time had made him more edgy and suspicious than usual.
For the first time, the officer expressed remorse over the first two shooting and explained that he had yet to reconcile his feelings concerning this last incident. The response was exactly what I would have expected from an officer in his situation- and all the more surprising given his prior interviews. The sudden change was- suspicious. When I again broached the subject of his wife’s death, the officer simply said, ‘I miss her. It’s something that’s hard for me to talk about. I hope you can understand.’ Though he continued to be polite, he completely avoided any further discussion of the matter. The interview, though unsatisfying, revealed no reasons to reject the officer’s request to return to duty. I am mandating continuing counseling sessions, though it is unlikely that the officer will be more forthcoming in the future. Based on the interview and tests results, I recommend the officer be returned to active duty. Given the length of time the subject was under cover and the number of incidents, legitimate or not, in his file, I also recommend that the officer be assigned to desk duty. Greater supervision of this officer in the field is also recommended.
**Confidential note. Though the officer has been cleared for duty, I am still vaguely uneasy. All of the tests indicate a normal personality profile, and his responses to the final interview are exactly what would be expected of any other officer faced with a similar situation. However, the answers are all too pat. My sense is that the only time this officer has been truly honest with a therapist was the one incidence in which he expressed anger over the mention of his deceased wife. Such a reaction was markedly absent today, and if the incident hadn’t made such a strong impression on me, I might dismiss my concerns as an overreaction on my part. The officer’s willingness to use violence is clear. I am coming to suspect that his indifference to the consequences of such violence is real and not due to repression of such feelings or a reluctance to discuss them. During the final interview, I had the distinct impression that the officer was telling me what he knew I wanted to hear. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no objective reasons for refusing to reinstate this officer- especially given his scores on the standardized personality tests. This officer is either the most centered and stable man I have ever met or he is an extremely intelligent sociopath. In fact, I have my doubts that the current shooting incident was justified (see notes on transcript). Given the lack of witnesses, no one but the officer involved may ever know what really happened.
Marlena pushed the file away, sorry now that she had decided to read it. She regretted even more that she had never made Roman talk about their time apart. He had wanted to let that period of his life go and she had let him. She really hadn’t wanted to know how he had lived his life without her. She hadn’t wanted to hear about the women he had dated, the Christmases she had missed. She should have known how hard it had been on him. Deep inside, she had even wanted it to be hard on him. But she hadn’t known....
Her own memories of the time she had spent away were hazy and indistinct. There had been evidence of old trauma, no doubt from the explosion of the plane, and the doctors had finally concluded that much of that time had been spent in a coma. For years, she must have lain still- trapped within the confines of her own mind. When she had talked with Roman about her own fears, her own uncertainties about what had happened to her, he had been gentle and caring and open. Anything she had needed to say, he was willing to hear. He had held her, he had consoled her, he had whispered that everything would be alright. His words had always been kind- but his eyes had been icy. Gradually, she had stopped talking to him about it at all. Without realizing she was doing it, she had tucked that part of her life away and pretended it had never happened. Ignoring her missing years was better seeing the coldness in her husband’s eyes. Ignorance had been so much better than the fear she had felt when she saw how hot the rage inside him still burned. She couldn’t ignore that rage any longer. She couldn’t pretend it was gone. Stefano Dimera was back and if she was not very careful, she could lose the only man she had ever loved to him.
Marlena gathered the files up and reached for the phone. She was sick of waiting, it was time to act. Roman might not want her help, but she knew that he needed it. If Dimera was back in the picture, he needed her more than ever. Bo or Abe would go with her or she would go alone. Either way, she would be on a plane to New Orleans in the morning.
She waited impatiently for Abe to answer his phone, her attention diverted by a knock on the door. Sherri, her secretary, peeked around the corner, a broad smile on her face. “This just came through on the fax machine, Dr. Evans. I thought you would want to see it immediately.â€
She glanced at the paper and then allowed the phone to settle back down into its cradle. One look had been all it she needed to know that the handwriting was Roman’s.
Doc,
Sorry for the worry I know I have caused you, but there was a lead I had to check out and where I am staying, there is just no way to safely call you. I passed this to an undercover agent, who swore he would see it gets to you. I miss you and the kids so much, but this thing is about wrapped up. I’m not sure if I’m pleased or disappointed, but this seems to have been a wild goose chase as far as the lead I was checking out. It wasn’t the man we were looking for- just your typical street punk causing trouble. Anyway, I should wrap-up the case tonight, and I was hoping you were still up for that second honeymoon we were talking about. I’ve made reservations for you on the first plane out tomorrow, and the Captain has kindly agreed to have you met by one of his officers. I haven’t had much time for site-seeing, but I did discover a little place down here where we can… well, I leave it to your imagination. I had forgotten how beautiful New Orleans is, and I can’t wait to share it with you, my love. Give my love to the kids, tell them I am fine and we will call them tomorrow after you have arrived and I’ve finished up the paper work on this case. See you tomorrow,
Love always,
Roman
Marlena laughed aloud, aware of the slightly hysterical tone. All of her sleuthing gone for naught- and few things could have pleased her more. A weight she didn’t know she carried was lifted and she breathed easy for the first time since Roman had left. Dimera wasn’t back. He was dead and buried in the past where he belonged. Roman would never let her come to New Orleans if there was the slightest chance Stefano was nearby. And if Roman had found Dimera… then too, he would not have wanted her there. The danger was over- it had never been. But for the worrying she had done- Roman would most definitely have to pay for that!
The sudden realization of all of the packing she had to do if she was wanted to make a plane out in the morning hit her and she grabbed her bag and headed for the door. She was already planning what she would take- definitely the new sheer white nightgown she had purchased in the hopes of just such an occasion- as she pulled the door shut behind her. The files were left forgotten and with a smile on her face, she considered what Roman was capable of doing to get back in her good graces. With a spring in her step, she hurried home.
“Dr. Evans?†A young man wearing the dress blues of the New Orleans P.D. called to her from beside the exit gate. “Dr. Evans. I’m Officer Ramie. Captain Hale sent me to escort you. He was hoping to meet you at a local diner. He told me to tell you that there would be someone there you were looking forward to seeing!â€
Smiling, Marlena allowed the officer to relieve her of her carry-on baggage. “Well, Officer Ramie- lead the way.â€
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