by Cynthia Eden
They needed information, and he was going to get it. “I’m heading to the exam area. I’ll see what I can find out about Cinnamon.”
“Wait!” Reese grabbed his arm. “You can’t just walk back there, can you?” He blinked. Let go of Joel.
“I’m a doctor. I won’t be lying if I tell anyone that. Maybe I’ll get lucky and the admin fellow who wanted to give me a job the other day will be in the back—I’ll get him to help me out.”
Chloe’s head cocked. “You didn’t tell me that you were offered a job here.”
“That’s because I’m not taking it.” He stared into her eyes. “I’m not leaving you.” He waited for that message to sink in. I won’t ever leave you. Then he turned and headed for the swaying doors that would take him back to the patients. He’d learned long ago that—in a hospital—if you just walked with determination and acted like you knew where you were going, no one tended to get in your way.
“Uh, he is leaving you,” Reese’s overly loud voice followed him. “He gets that, doesn’t he? He’s literally walking away right now.”
“He’ll be back.” Chloe sounded confident. “Now tell me what you saw.”
Joel kept walking until he reached the double doors that led back to the ER. He shoved his hand up and headed straight inside.
He’d only taken two steps when—
“Hey!” A sharp voice. “You’re not supposed to be back here!” A nurse with graying hair and wide eyes bustled toward him. “Turn around and get right back outside!”
Well, so much for walking with determination. Joel opened his mouth—
“Nancy, he’s a doctor. Don’t you recognize him?” A man in scrubs and with a face mask dangling around his neck stepped from an exam area. “That’s the hero.” He motioned toward Joel. “He was the doc in here who fought so hard to save that stabbing victim. Remember? He rode with her in the ambulance. Kept his hand in her chest.”
“Oh.” Nancy’s expression softened. “I heard about you.” She advanced and patted Joel’s arm. “Sometimes, they just don’t make it. No matter what we do.”
But I thought she was going to make it.
Nancy’s brows lowered. “Did you join the staff?”
“I—”
“He’s with me,” the man in scrubs responded.
“Oh, okay, Dr. Ambrose.” She gave them a nod and made her way to a waiting patient.
Dr. Ambrose. Dr. Dane Ambrose. The doctor who’d been so chummy with Chloe before. Joel had recognized him instantly. “Glad you were here,” Joel said.
“Consider it your lucky night,” Dane returned. He moved closer to Joel and lowered his voice as he said, “Guessing Chloe sent you back here, huh? Is this about that woman who was just brought in with the head injury?”
“Yes. It’s about her. How’d you know?” His voice was just as low as Dane’s had been.
“Because I saw Reese with her. I know Chloe’s brother.” He stepped to the side and motioned for Joel to follow him. “She’s not conscious. Her skull was fractured.”
“Any chance I could see the X-rays?”
“What? Why?”
“I’d like to figure out what kind of weapon was used on her.”
“It looked as if someone took a bat to her head,” Dane whispered back. “Poor woman.” He peered down the hallway. “I will get in serious trouble if anyone sees us…but, I owe Chloe.”
“Everybody seems to.”
“She showed me how to go after what I want. Until I started watching her, seeing what she could do, I was afraid to take some chances, you know what I mean? But sometimes, you just have to do it. Have to go for what you want.”
“This seems like a great time to take a chance.” Make the move, doc. “Let me see the X-rays. Then take me to the patient.”
Dane’s gaze was unblinking. He seemed to be trying to decide…
Do it.
Abruptly, Dane nodded. “Come with me.”
***
“She had money in her bag, Chloe. It wasn’t a robbery. Someone just hit her in the side of the head. Hard. Then left her sprawled on the ground. If I hadn’t heard her moaning and calling for help, I don’t know what would have happened to her.”
“There were no stab wounds on her?”
“No, none.”
“Any defensive marks that you saw?”
“No. It just looked like she’d been standing close to the dumpster one moment, and someone hit her in the head in the next minute. Hit her right here.” His hand raised and he touched Chloe about an inch over her right ear.
Chloe stared at him. Narrowed her eyes.
“You’re not seeing me right now, are you?” Reese asked her. “You’re like in the alley or something.”
“No signs of struggle. That means she got close to him. She knew him. She chose to get close to him. Then he lifted the weapon. She saw it too late. Tried to turn away, and it hit her in the side of the head.”
“There was so much blood.” He shuddered. “It’s all over me.”
“Head wounds bleed a lot. But she was moaning. You said she called out for help.” Chloe ignored the voices and people around them. “He knew she was still alive. She was weak. She wouldn’t have been able to fight back. Why didn’t he finish her?”
Another shudder. “That sounds cold. Scary cold. Can you word that differently or something?”
Why didn’t he finish her? That one question was burning through her mind. I thought he might be in the medical field. A doctor. A nurse. Cinnamon was attacked, but left alive. And what happens to vics who are hurt? Where do they go?
To the same place Judith had gone.
“Chloe!” The sharp call jolted her to awareness. That had been Cedric’s voice.
“Oh, great.” Reese peered over her shoulder. “It’s the cops. The one we like, and the one you don’t.”
She didn’t have to glance over her shoulder to know who he meant. And, sure enough, the bark of her name came again. Only this time, it wasn’t coming from Cedric.
“Chloe!” Agent Richardson snapped. He grabbed her arm. “What are you doing here? How the hell did you know about the victim?”
She glanced down at his fingers. Then back up at his face. “My brother Reese is the one who found her in the alley.”
Richardson’s face twisted. “Found her or tried to shut her up? You knew she was the witness who’d turned on Joel. You knew—”
“I know that you need to get your hand off me, Richardson.” Chloe’s order was flat.
For a moment, his hold tightened.
“Mister…” Reese began angrily.
Richardson let her go. He pointed at Reese and his bloody shirt. “You’re coming with me. Right now. We’re having a private talk and you are going to tell me everything you saw in the alley.”
“Funny.” Reese’s smile was cold. “I just told my sister everything. Seems right that you get to come in second again, doesn’t it? Because I know all about you, Agent Richardson.”
“Reese,” Chloe warned. “Be careful with him. He’s looking for a reason to arrest Joel and probably you, too, now.”
More agents were filing in. Two men in dark suits. When Richardson motioned with his hand, they immediately took up positions next to Reese.
“Let’s take this outside,” Richardson directed.
“Sure.” Reese was all cool. On the outside. She knew it was a front. The man was a very good actor, after all. “I could use with a bit of a fresh air.” His British accent was in full effect.
He sauntered away. Richardson and the FBI agents dodged his steps.
Cedric stayed with her. She raised her brows at him. “Did he give you orders to watch me?”
“Absolutely.”
She shook her head.
“But I’m here because I wanted to update you on Ruben’s findings. By the way, he was upset about this week’s beignet date being canceled. Told me to say you’d owe him a double order next time.”
“I’ll get him
as many beignets as he can eat.” She moved with Cedric to stand behind a tall, potted plant. “What did he discover?”
“He was examining the remains we found, and, yes, dental records did ID the vic as Portia Strong. But that’s not a big surprise, is it?”
“No.” Not even a small surprise. I’m sorry you stayed in the ground so long. I wish you’d been found long ago.
“What was interesting—at least to Ruben—is the fact that Portia had suffered severe damage to her spinal column. He said to tell you…C1 to C4.”
“Oh, no.” Her gaze darted to the busy ER. All of the people in uniforms. Scrubs.
He cleared his throat. “I was hoping for a better reaction. You know, like that was some big puzzle piece that we needed to put things together.”
“It is a big piece.” She kept staring at the crowd. “Why are we here?” Her gaze darted to the doors that led back to the exam and operating area of the ER.
“Uh…because Coreen Miller was attacked? Because she was brought to the ER for treatment."
“She wasn’t killed.” Chloe began walking toward those doors.
“Judith Key was left alive, too. Well, mostly alive.” He kept step with her. “She only died here and—”
Chloe stopped. “She died here.”
“Uh, yes, you know that. We both know that. Everyone knows that.”
Her head swiveled toward him. “You need to get a cop in Coreen’s room. Now.”
“Chloe?” His face hardened. “This is the reaction I wanted, but I need you to tell me what’s happening.”
“Keep someone with her at all times. And we have to find Joel.”
“Wait…Joel, as in…Richardson’s chief suspect?”
A hurried nod.
“As in…the man I know you lied to protect?”
About that… “Cedric, I can explain.”
“Yeah, you’d better. Because as soon as I heard what went down in that interrogation room, I knew you were lying. Chloe, I was with you at the bank. You weren’t partnering with him already. The guy was as thrown off balance as could be by you. I even warned him to stay away. Not that the fool listened.” The faint lines near his mouth deepened. “You lied to protect him, and now you tell me that he’s somewhere here, running around in the same hospital where the injured witness is who can ID him?”
“Yes, but Joel didn’t attack her. I swear it! He really was having sex with me at the time. I mean, tonight.”
Cedric’s mouth opened. Closed. “Then maybe your brother attacked her.” Grim. Hard. “That’s sure what Richardson was thinking. It’s why he had Reese go outside for questioning. Maybe you had your brother go take out the witness because you wanted to protect your lover.”
“You’ve got good instincts, Cedric. You’re the best cop I’ve ever met. You want to help people, and it always shows.” Her heart raced too fast. She had to find Joel. “What do you think is going on here? Do you think I’m protecting a killer or that I’m trying to stop one?”
***
“The lab’s down this way,” Dane said as he threw open a door. “Shortcut. You know how hospitals snake all around the place. This corridor will take us to the ground floor lab. Her X-rays are in there. You can scan them, but like I said, I swear, I think the woman was hit with a freaking baseball bat. I’ve seen injuries like that one before. Had a poor kid in a few weeks ago. He wasn’t wearing his batting helmet, and he knocked himself good.” A grimace as he held open the door for Joel. “Or, bad, you know?”
Joel slipped by him. “A baseball bat as the weapon would sure fit with what Chloe and I—”
Something slammed into the back of his head.
Joel fell down. His face hit the floor.
Chapter Thirty
“Don’t panic. There’s no need to struggle.”
Joel’s eyes had just flown open. He found himself sprawled on an exam table. Strapped down. Something was shoved into his mouth. Something—tape?—had been placed over his lips.
Dane’s head popped into his line of vision. “There’s no need to struggle,” he said again. “Because you’re not going to get out of the restraints.”
Joel’s head throbbed. Waves of nausea rolled through him. He blinked a few times as he tried to figure out what in the hell—
“This is probably invoking quite a bit of déjà vu in you, isn’t it? When I saw you and Chloe, of course, I immediately recognized you. Then I had the idea for what to do with you.”
He tried to talk. A rag rolled around on his tongue. Joel nearly choked.
“I had read about what happened to you. Hard to forget that story. You were taken in your own hospital. Hidden there while you were tortured, and no one ever found you.” Sadness tinged his voice. Only to vanish as Dane laughed. “Brilliant! I realized if I could get you in the hospital again, I could make you disappear! There are so many unused rooms and forgotten corridors in hospitals. Wings that are being remodeled or closed down. I mean, they didn’t find you before. Why find you this time?”
Joel jerked at the restraints. They were so tight they cut into his chest and legs. His stomach. His—
“This is nothing personal, I assure you of that. It’s necessary, though. Someone has to take the fall for the murders, and it’s not going to be me. I don’t want to be locked up. I’m doing the world a service.” A nod. “I’m taking out the trash.”
Joel’s eyes narrowed on the bastard.
“No? Don’t believe me? I find that hard to buy. I mean, I suspect a part of you can even agree with me. A part down deep inside.” His hand pushed over Joel’s chest. “We both know that the monsters in the world need to be taken out. They shouldn’t be here. If they hurt others, they have to be stopped.”
You hurt others, you bastard! Joel was staring at a monster.
“Stop looking at me like that. I’m not going to torture you. That’s not what I do. Besides, you’re not one of my targets. You’re just necessary. I need someone else to look guilty. I thought that FBI agent would lock you up when he found the bat at your old place.” A sigh. “But somehow, Chloe got you out of that predicament. The woman can work miracles, can’t she?” Admiration glowed in his eyes.
Stay the fuck away from Chloe! He bit on the rag as he tried to yell that order.
Dane leaned over him. “I have a few friends at the PD. Okay, maybe not actual friends, but guys who owe me. See, I know what they did at the Serpent. I was there for a while. Saw all kinds of things going on. Legal. Not legal. Whatever. Those…acquaintances…kept me updated on the case. That’s how I knew to plant the evidence implicating you. I even got Cinnamon to point the finger at you.”
Joel heaved against the restraints. Immediately, pain blasted through his brain.
“You’ve got a concussion. Probably a fractured skull. Had to knock you out for a moment.” His hand was still on Joel’s chest. “I hit Cinnamon a whole lot harder, but that was also necessary. I knew that if she was injured, she’d be brought here. This hospital is the closest one to the club where she works. And if she came here, I figured you and Chloe wouldn’t be far behind.” He finally lifted his hand. “It was all about getting you here, then separating you from Chloe. Pretty good plan, don’t you think?”
If you touch Chloe…Joel snarled behind the tape. Chomped on the rag in his mouth.
“Settle down.” Dane didn’t appear impressed. “You’re not going to do anything to me. And, hey, if it makes you feel better, I have no intention of hurting Cinnamon again. When she wakes up, she’ll go along with my story that you did it. You don’t have an alibi for her attack, you see. You’ll be the one the cops think hit Cinnamon. You’ll be—why the hell are you shaking your head?”
Joel kept right on shaking his head.
“You don’t have an alibi,” Dane told him. “I was watching Chloe’s place. I saw you leave alone. You were having a fight. Arrived just in time for the tail end of it. Saw you speed away. That’s why I went after Cinnamon then. I used the perfect time to
attack—”
Joel kept shaking his head.
Dane ripped off the tape. Tore out the rag. “What?”
Shit. The bastard had taken some skin with the tape. “Have…alibi…” Joel gasped out. “Went…back to Chloe.”
“No.”
“Y-yes…”
“I saw you leave. You were mad as hell. I even followed you to that bar. You went in and I knew you’d get drunk off your ass—”
Joel smiled.
Dane’s face twisted. “You went back to her?”
“I’ll…always…g-go back to…Chloe.”
“Not anymore, you fucking won’t.” He shoved the tape back over Joel’s mouth. The tape, but no rag, and since the tape had already been removed once, it didn’t stick down as hard. Dane whirled away. Began to pace.
Joel craned his head so he could see the small room. Peeling paint. Bare light bulb. Exam tray with…
Scalpel.
The shiny scalpel was the only thing that looked new in the old room.
“You’re going to disappear.” Dane kept pacing. “No one will find you. I know where to put your body. Even Chloe won’t find you. The cops think you’re guilty. They’ll go with that story even if Chloe doesn’t. And if I can’t convince her to change her mind…” He stopped. “Then I’ll kill Chloe.”
“No!” Only his scream came out as more of a growl. Muffled behind the tape.
Dane fired a glance at him. “Your fault. You shouldn’t have gone back to her.” He crept toward the exam tray. Stared at the scalpel. “I’m going to make it quick. I promise. I couldn’t kill you in that corridor because I couldn’t have too much blood there. Too much blood would take too much time to hide. I cleaned up the spatter from your head wound. No one will notice anything left. Since no one uses that corridor, there’s no security camera in the area. See, I thought of everything.” His fingers curled around the scalpel. “This is what will happen. In a while, I’ll show up, wandering around all lost and hurt. I’ll have a head wound. I’ll say you attacked me. That you ran off. Cops will search for you. They won’t find you. Because by then? I’ll have killed you. Shoved your body into a body bag. And buried you.”