by Rick Mofina
The words continued.
“We were on a plane taking a prisoner to Seattle. We crashed up there. Prisoner escaped that’s him, Yacine. Dangerous. Put him custody. Alert FBI Seattle.”
Garrett repeated his regimental number.
Again, the paramedics tried to quiet him. The trooper’s eyes were green, intelligent. Absorbing his words, she reached for her radio.
Garrett lost consciousness during the ambulance trip to the county hospital. When he came to, a woman in a white coat was with him. Now she had his wallet; was studying it and flipping pages on a clipboard.
“John you’re in Ice Lake Memorial Hospital. I’m Doctor Niki Burton. Nod if you understand.”
Garrett nodded and Doctor Burton moved her clipboard closer. His ID, driver’s license, medical card, business card and a card with numbers he’d penned on the back; records of his life.
“You’re hurt too badly for us to fix everything here. We’re going to airlift you to Seattle, is there someone back home we should call?”
Garrett touched his detachment number and the card with his ex-wife’s numbers. Then he brushed his license and medical card until the doctor understood then she glanced to someone; a nurse, holding another clipboard, who nodded and left.
Soon thudding shook the air.
The helicopter had arrived.
As they wheeled Garrett out, he glimpsed Yacine, on a gurney in the hall, complaining about tight handcuffs on his wrist and ankles to the half dozen deputies and troopers guarding him.
One of them looked back at Garrett with a sudden glance that telegraphed a mix respect and sadness.
The helicopter landed on the front lawn and a medical crew wearing helmets and headsets loaded Garrett through the clam-shell door.
Inside the hospital, Doctor Niki Burton was in the quiet of her office, studying a computer screen displaying Garrett’s vital information, accessed with the help of officials in Canada. Then she called a twenty-four-hour hotline for a national organ donor network, discussed Garrett’s situation, blood type, tissue type, age and consent. The network in turn, searched its databases and alerted a local transplant organization in Seattle, who assessed their waiting lists for a match.
Then Doctor Burton, thirty-five-year-old mother of three children, and local soccer mom, steeled herself to make another call.
As the helicopter ascended, Garrett saw buildings shrink into oceans of green forest, then the majestic slopes of the Cascade Range.
The sky cleared and he saw snatches of stunning blue sky then felt the warmest sensation of flying and falling through his life.
He smelled fresh baked bread, like when he was a boy and his mother took him to the bakery in his hometown and bought him jelly donuts, so fresh they were still warm.
Then the sky turned azure like Ocho Rios in Jamaica, where he and Cathy had spent their honeymoon.
Somewhere over the edge of metro Seattle within sight of the Olympic Mountains in the east, Garrett’s heart stopped beating.
At an elementary school, in a southern suburb of Calgary, Alberta, the vice-principal left her office and phone off the hook so Garrett’s ex-wife could take an emergency call in private.
“Yes, this is Cathy Pearson. Yes, John Garrett is my ex-husband.”
Cathy stared hard into the painting of the Rockies on the vice-principal’s wall as Doctor Niki Burton explained. The snow-capped peaks blurred through Cathy’s tears, she squeezed the phone hard, wishing she could reach John Garrett’s hand, she swallowed air and she found her voice.
“Yes, I can confirm he would have wanted that. We discussed it when we were marr- yes, you have my consent.”
In the adjoining office, the principal and vice-principal heard the thunk of the phone hitting the desk top, and a loud sob and rushed to comfort Cathy.
In Seattle, as the helicopter approached Harborview Medical Center and the specialists with the rapid organ recovery team prepared Craig Dawson for a kidney transplant, Garrett’s life slipped from him.
He’d found peace and the joy that comes at the end of a heart’s pursuit. His open eyes were staring, but at nothing of this world.
Billy Dolan and his little sister, Daisy, had been waiting for him. Smiling, they each took Garrett by the hand.
Buy THREE TO THE HEART, the Anthology
If you liked this short story, I invite you to drop me a line.
Rick Mofina, Rmofina @ gmail.com
Please visit by my official FaceBook page and let us know if you like it.
You can also follow me on Twitter @RickMofina
or at my Website http://www.rickmofina.com
Of course, please consider these other short stories by Rick Mofina that are also available online to add to your e-Library:
From the anthology
Dangerous Women & Desperate Men
Blood Red Rings
Lightning Rider
As Long As We Both Shall Live
Three Bullets to Queensland
Buy DANGEROUS WOMEN & DESPERATE MEN
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Rick Mofina is a former journalist and an award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. His reporting has put him face-to-face with murderers on death row in Montana and Texas. He has covered a horrific serial-killing case in California and an armored car-heist in Las Vegas, flown over Los Angeles with the LAPD Air Support Division and gone on patrol with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police near the Arctic. He has reported from the Caribbean, Africa and Kuwait’s border with Iraq.
Rick’s true-crime articles have appeared in the New York Times, Marie Claire, Reader’s Digest and Penthouse while his thrillers have been published in 21 countries and praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Sandra Brown, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Heather Graham, Peter Robinson, Allison Brennan, David Morrell, Linwood Barclay and Kay Hooper.
Rick is a two-time winner of The Arthur Ellis Award and the International Thriller Writers, Private Eye Writers of America and The Crime Writers of Canada have listed his crime fiction as being among the very best in the genre. For more information visit:
http://www.rickmofina.com
http://www.facebook.com/rickmofina
http://twitter.com/#!/RickMofina
Also by Rick Mofina
THREE TO THE HEART (Anthology)
DANGEROUS WOMEN & DESPERATE MEN (Anthology)
THEY DISAPPEARED
THE BURNING EDGE
IN DESPERATION
THE PANIC ZONE
VENGEANCE ROAD
SIX SECONDS
A PERFECT GRAVE
EVERY FEAR
THE DYING HOUR
BE MINE
NO WAY BACK
BLOOD OF OTHERS
COLD FEAR
IF ANGELS FALL
Praise for Rick Mofina’s books
In Desperation
"A blisteringly paced story that cuts to the bone. It left me ripping through pages deep into the night." -- James Rollins, New York Times bestselling author
"Hell hath no fury like a mother wronged. In Desperation is a "A superbly written thriller that plumbs the depths of every parent's nightmare. Timely, tense, and terrifying, this book is sure to be a big hit!" -- Brad Thor, #1 New York Times bestselling author
The Panic Zone
"The Panic Zone is a headlong rush toward Armageddon. It's brisk pace and tight focus remind me of early Michael Crichton." -- Dean Koontz #1 New York Times bestselling author
Vengeance Road
"Vengeance Road is a thriller with no speed limit! It's a great read!" -- Michael Connelly, #1 New York Times bestselling author
"A gripping no-holds barred mystery ... lightning paced ... with enough twists to keep you turning pages well into the wee hours." -- Allison Brennan, New York Times bestselling author
Six Seconds
"Six Seconds should be Rick Mofina's breakout thriller. It moves like a tornado." -- James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling aut
hor
"Six Seconds is a great read. Echoing Ludlum and Forsythe, author Mofina has penned a big, solid international thriller that grabs your gut -- and your heart -- in the opening scenes and never lets go." -- Jeffery Deaver, New York Times bestselling author
"Everything we need from a great thriller." -- Lee Child, New York Times bestselling author
"A perfect thriller in every way. Very powerful and very very clever." -- Nick Stone, international acclaimed bestselling author
"Filled with chills and thrills ... don't miss it." Heather Graham, New York Times bestselling author
"An essential read for thriller fans." -- Library Journal, Starred Review
"Suspense-packed rush." -- Publisher's Weekly, Starred Review
A Perfect Grave
"A lightning-paced thriller with lean, tense writing . . . Mofina really knows how to make the story fly!" -- Tess Gerritsen, New York Times Bestselling author of The Mephisto Club
"Swiftly paced . . . a story of slow-simmering revenge." -- Adam Woog, The Seattle Times
"Mofina writes family tragedy as powerfully as Ross McDonald with a modern twist." -- Jennifer Jordan, Crimespree Magazine, Milwaukee
"Mofina has woven an intriguing tale about how the past always catches up to you, sooner or later . . . does a wonderful job of creating suspense." -- Sandra Ruttan, Spinetingler Magazine
Every Fear
"Pushes crackling suspense to the breaking point and beyond... a must read!" -- Kay Hooper, New York Times Bestselling Author
"Mofina does a terrific job with suspense and pacing. The characters are well-drawn and the Seattle-Tacoma setting works well. Don't read this one if your kids aren't safe at home in bed." -- Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
"Mofina shows his strength at creating gripping plots enhanced by realistic characters and social awareness in Every Fear." -- Oline H. Cogdill, Mystery columnist South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The Dying Hour
"Don't start this book late at night because you'll find yourself staying up to finish it." -- The Mystery Reader
"The Dying Hour starts scary and ends scary. You'll be craving Mofina's next novel." -- Sandra Brown, New York Times Bestselling author
Be Mine
"Rick Mofina is writing a fine series of thrillers: Swiftly paced, entertaining, with authentic details of police procedure." -- Dean Koontz, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of The Face and Fear Nothing
"Mofina continues his string of gripping, tense thrillers that explore the intricacies of crime reporting, the culture of a big-city newsroom and the fallout of what happens when those who report on the news become the news." -- Orlando Sentinel
No Way Back
"No Way Back is my kind of novel — a tough, taut thriller — Mofina knows the world he writes about." -- Michael Connelly, New York Times Bestselling author of Lost Light, Blood Work, City of Bones
"A tightly wound spring of suspense and terror." -- David Morrell, author of The Protector
Blood of Others
"Tense, realistic, and scary in all the right places." -- James Patterson, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
"This is urban grit with a vengeance." -- The Globe and Mail
"Drawing on his experience as a journalist and crime writer, Rick Mofina (Cold Fear) brings a gritty realism to the printed page in Blood of Others... Mofina's flawed but sympathetic characters draw readers into the action." -- Publisher's Weekly
"Mofina is a very talented writer capable of creating not only exceptional characters but a plot that is so riveting that pages fly by. The pacing is especially impressive. The story starts out quickly, slows down for character development then accelerates to a rapid, yet satisfying climax. Rick Mofina is a news reporter and his writing skills are immediately apparent. His first book has been nominated for the Arthur Ellis award in Canada. So he is well regarded there. He deserves a large following in this country, as well. Highly recommended." -- Deadly Pleasures, REVIEW OF THE WEEK, by Larry Gandle
Cold Fear
"A powerful gut wrenching thriller." -- The Midwest Book Review
"Bursts with suspense. The action is so intense, the writing so realistic, it's as if we are there during the search. This is a book to cause icy shivers." -- Toby Bromberg, Romantic Times Magazine
"Mofina's chilling tale is one of the best mysteries you'll read." -- The Ottawa Citizen
"An entertaining, suspense-filled ride." -- Quill & Quire
If Angels Fall
"If you buy it for the flight, you'll be reading it on the escalator." -- National Post
"Guaranteed to keep readers flipping the pages." -- The Toronto Sun
e-Formatting by Carrick Publishing
Table of Contents
Praise for Rick Mofina’s books
Title
Introduction
The Last Pursuit
Contact Rick Mofina
Other Short Stories
About the Author
Also by Rick Mofina
