Amen to Love

Chapter 1-2

Marshall tapped three dots, four dashes with a dot, and ended with three dots. SOS. Bond laughed as he recognized Morse code for Save Our Ship. Opening the door just long enough for the almost too thin form of the shorter Marshall to slip inside, he closed it quietly behind him and stuck a twenty and ten in his pocket to cover the cost of their food. Marshall didn’t protest.

“Bud’s cold. Pizza’s hot,” his guest said, handing him a huge pizza box. Weatherton wasn’t particularly good-looking, but there was something arresting about the irregular features of his face. What he had going for him was charm.

Bond set it on the counter of the mini kitchen and motioned to the refrigerator for the two extra beers. “Thanks.” Flipping the box open, he closed his eyes and sniffed. “This smells wonderful. It’s amazing how hungry a really rough day can make a person.”

After popping the tops off their beers and dividing up a giant pizza loaded with bacon, anchovies, jalapeño peppers, pineapple, and sausage onto paper plates, they sat in recliners, feet propped beside their drinks on the glass-topped coffee table in front of them.

“Nice place,” Marshall said. “I like the black leather furniture. I see you have a dart board and a pool table.”

“As if I have time to use them. Bought it furnished. It’s comfortable. If it gets too hot upstairs in the summer, I can sleep down here on the couch.”

Soon the empty pizza box looked forlorn, stained with sauce and the discarded stems of jalapeño peppers. Marshall wiped his mouth with a paper napkin. “Ah, but that tasted good. You know, I’ve been here two years, and we’ve never had a shooting. Mostly domestic violence or an occasional knife wound by drunks fighting in the Black Bear Mountain Bar, but, despite this being hunting country, no GSWs. Not even accidental ones. That all happens on the other side of the mountain.”

Bond shrugged and sipped his beer. “I’ve only been here six weeks and wouldn’t know. To be honest, I thought this kind of thing was over for me when I left LA. After working there and then doing tours in Afghanistan, I’ve had enough violence and death.”

“Why do you suppose someone shot the guy?”

“Who knows.” Unease spread through him. Since the investigation of the shooting had just started he didn’t feel he should be handing out information. He’d known Marshal long enough to figure out he was straight, but not long enough to know if he gossiped. The less Bond said, the better. Let the sheriff sort it all out. Plus, he knew nothing beyond what had happened after he arrived on the scene.

Over second beers, they tossed about ideas for proposals to expand the hospital’s reach by opening a new clinic for patients who now had health insurance under the Affordable Health Care Act. With the shortage of medical doctors in California, the hospital planned to recruit osteopaths, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners.

Fatigue reasserted itself. Bond stood and stretched. “I think we’ve about covered that subject. I’d invite you to stay to watch something on TV, but I’m too beat.”

Marshall stood. “I need to go, too. I have a facial reconstruction conference this weekend and need to leave early tomorrow. It’s in the flatlands. Think the news crew is still here?”

Bond crept upstairs and peeked out to see if they had vanished. They had. Downstairs again, he said, “They seem to be gone, but you might want to exit the way you came. Who knows if some reporter will be lurking behind a tree.”

At the door, Marshall said, “Glad to know you’re still with us.”

“Believe me, so am I. How ironic it would be to have survived the worst streets of LA and Afghanistan only to be killed in this quiet town. Thanks for bringing the food.”

They shook hands, and Marshall slipped out the door.

Bond locked it after him, then tossed the empty beer cans into the recycle trash and discarded the messy pizza box and napkins. He headed upstairs, grateful he wasn’t working the next two days. Monday, as the new chief of surgery, he had a lot of paperwork to clear before his patient visits and surgeries scheduled the rest of the week.