Down the long hallway of the third floor, past the nurses’ station, Elise Maddox was pushing a yellow cleaning cart. The cart had a squeaky front wheel. It made a little chirping sound every three feet. Chirp. Chirp. Chirp.
She was passing under the honor banner.
The banner hung from the ceiling in the main corridor of Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. Navy blue. Gold letters. HONOR. COURAGE. COMMITMENT. Below it, framed photographs of corpsmen and nurses and surgeons who’d served in combat. Some of them had died there.
Kayla framed the shot so the banner was right over Elise’s head.
“You missed a spot,” she said again. Louder.
The nurses at the station laughed.
Tyler Brooks laughed the loudest.
He was a nurse too. Twenty-six. Big shoulders. He’d played football at Old Dominion. He leaned over the counter of the nurses’ station and pointed toward Room 314.
