“At least he’s familiar to you.”
“I’m not dim-witted, you know.” He sprawled in her desk chair with his jacket in his lap. “Just memory-challenged.”
The corner of her mouth twitched at his show of humor. “All the more reason to stick with what you know until you’ve seen the doctor.”
“I know you, and you smell better.”
Now, why did that send a rush of heat to her cheeks? “I’d take you, but my duty is up in thirty minutes.”
Probably a good thing. JD had managed to shake her up more than a little over the course of a mere hour.
“Check that.” A deep voice announced. She recognized one of her other patrol officers. She stood to see him escorting a happy prisoner toward the back. “Brubaker, the new sheriff, has been monitoring the radio calls. Since I was bringing someone in, he told Parker to stay in the field. He wants you to take John Doe to see the doctor, and I’m to cover the rest of your duty here.”
“Who will replace me at the hospital?”
The officer shrugged. “I’m sure Brubaker will send someone.”
Right. She clenched her hands at having her control yanked away early. Brubaker had no authority to usurp her orders before midnight. But there was no use arguing.
“Okay,” she said to JD. “Let’s go.” She’d already put her box of personal items in her SUV, so she grabbed her backpack and slipped into her hip-length leather coat.
The effort it took JD to gain his feet showed as it had in the cell, but he managed it and donned his jacket without uttering a sound. He stayed silent on their trip to her hybrid Escape.
In the vehicle he braced his head on a raised fist. “So I’m a John Doe.”
“You’re familiar with the term?”
“An unidentified person or body. I watch TV, the movies. I guess that means you didn’t get a hit on my prints or you’d have a name for me.”
“Right on both points.” She stopped at a light on Main Street and three women in party hats, winter jackets and heels laughed and joked as they crossed in front of them. The light changed and she pulled forward.
“What happens if I don’t get my memory back right away?” He slowly turned his head to pin her with a pain filled gaze. “How do you figure out who I am?”