Duke took one last walk around the deck of the Cape Rouge for the night to make sure all the hatches were battened down, so to speak. When he glanced over at the water he noticed a really large clump of something unidentifiable floating nearby. Duke hated to see trash in the water, especially a heap like, that so he lowered his dinghy and went to fish it out.
He pulled on the clump and discovered it wasn't trash, it was an unconscious woman. With difficulty he managed to get her up on the deck. He checked her clothes and everything was in place and wet, but clean. No visible blood or injuries. He felt around in her hair to see if she hit her head, but she was clean there too. Knuckling her breastbone, shaking her shoulders and lightly tapping her cheek didn't wake her up either. This was bad, especially considering the gun he found at her waist.
Reaching into the woman's pockets he found her phone, keys, and two wallets. One of them had her driver's license and the other a badge from the FBI. This was really bad, Duke thought. He quickly went downstairs and locked her valuables in his safe, and dumped out a box of rice into a bowl to submerge her phone in.
When he got back to the deck the woman – the FBI agent – was still unconscious. Duke decided to take her to the hospital. In a small town like Haven it was often faster to drive yourself than wait for the ambulance, so he wrapped her in a blanket, loaded her into the backseat, and stomped on the gas.
Duke carried the woman into the emergency room and told the triage nurse how he'd found her in the water. They took her inside to check her vital signs. It might have been June, but the nights were still cool and the water was cold. They had to be sure she hadn't developed hypothermia and rule out a head injury that Duke hadn't detected.
A battery of tests showed no obvious physical injuries and a blood test showed no drugs or alcohol. But she still wasn't waking up. For the moment the doctors decided the best thing to do was give her a saline IV for dehydration and wait for her to wake up. A nurse took off her wet clothes and put her in a gown. Since it was a small ER, they wheeled her to a room upstairs, with Duke trailing behind. The head nurse on the floor tried to kick Duke out but he refused to go.
"I pulled her out of the water," he said. "I won't leave her until I know she's going to be all right."
"Suit yourself," the nurse said, shrugging.
There was a reclining chair in the corner. Duke pushed it over to the bed, reclined it as far back as it went, draped his towel over himself, and immediately fell asleep.
Approximately an hour later he was woken up by someone shrieking.
"What the hell is going on? Where am I? The hospital? Why am I in the hospital? Who the hell are you?" she added once she saw Duke's eyes flutter open.
"Agent Parker," Duke croaked.
"How do you know my name?" she demanded.
Duke shook himself awake. "Agent Parker, yes, you're in the hospital. Please, let me go tell a nurse that you're awake. Is that all right?"
Agent Parker had been sitting up. Now she sank back against the pillows. "Fine, whatever," she said.
Duke quickly brought the nurse.
"Audrey, honey, I'm so glad you're awake," she said. "Tell me, do you know where you are?"
"The hospital," Audrey said crossly.
"What city?"
"Haven. Maine."
The nurse asked a few more general questions that Audrey had no trouble answering. But then the nurse asked, "What's the last thing you remember?"
"I was talking on the phone with Nathan. We said our goodbyes, I put my phone in my pocket. I was about to get in my car and . . . I don't remember anything after that."
"This nice man pulled you out of the water," the nurse said, indicating Duke, who smiled modestly.
"Who are you? What was I doing in the water?"
"Duke Crocker," Duke said, holding out his hand for her to shake. "I didn't see you go in, so I don't know what happened."
Audrey ignored his hand and Duke pretended like he wasn't bothered by it.
"All the tests came back negative," the nurse said. "Tomorrow morning the doctor will take a medical history but if you don't have a history of diabetes or seizures or anything like that, they'll discharge you and tell you to go see your primary care doctor for a complete physical."
"I feel fine. I'm fine," Audrey insisted.
"I'm not a doctor, honey. And they're not going to discharge a patient in middle of the night. You just get a good night's rest."
The nurse considered trying to kick Duke out again, but she decided it wasn't worth it for just a few hours more.
Duke sat back down in his chair.
"I'm pretty tired and I'm sure you are too. Don't mind me over here, I've been told I don't snore, so I won't disturb you."
"Could you get me coffee and a ?" Audrey said.
"Excuse me?"
"Does Haven have a 24-hour cupcake shop? If not, I guess hospital coffee and some cookies will have to do. I'll pay you back when I get out of here."
"It's the middle of the night, Agent Parker, you've just had some kind of medical event, why don't you rest?"
"You know, Nathan warned me about you. He said you were a criminal and generally unreliable. If you're not going to get me coffee, you can just leave."
"Nathan Wuornos?"
"That's right. You know him?"
"Yeah. We grew up together. Nice to hear him talking shit about me behind my back. I can't believe he's still angry with me after all these years." Duke chuckled. "I bulled him in third grade. He needs to get over it already."
"So far you seem unreliable to me, so he's at least fifty percent right."
"I saved your life."
Audrey took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "You're right. Thank you very much, Mr. Crocker. And if you got me that coffee I would be even more grateful."
"Call me Duke. And will you tell me why you want to drink coffee in middle of the night?"
Audrey hesitated, then said, "All right."
Duke got up and headed for the door. As he left the room, he called back, "As for the first thing, I plead the Fifth . . ."