by Karen Rose
And then froze just as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open. ‘Oh fucking hell.’
Deacon frowned at her. ‘What?’
Goddammit. ‘We gotta go back.’ She turned and ran back to the morgue, stopping long enough to shove her phone in her pocket and grab a pair of gloves and a face mask before pushing through the doors and heading to the wall of drawers.
‘No,’ Deacon was saying behind her. ‘Tell me you are not serious.’
‘I wish I could,’ Kate said grimly, snapping on the gloves. The assistant who’d delivered the body was standing in front of a desk, typing into a computer. ‘Excuse me. Toby, was it?’
He turned, one brow lifted. ‘Yes. How can I help you?’
She pointed at the drawer next to Alice’s. ‘Can you open this one, please? All the way so that I can check the toe tag?’
Toby complied, holding the tag so that Kate could read the name. Sidney Siler.
‘No,’ Deacon said again, but much more wearily than before. ‘No fucking way.’
Kate pulled the sheet away from the dead grad student and held her phone next to the woman’s face. ‘Yes, fucking way. Meet Sidney Siler, aka, Keisha Findlay the lawyer’s assistant, aka the last person to visit Alice before she went into the exercise yard.’
Deacon’s shoulders sagged. ‘Fucking hell.’
Cincinnati, Ohio,
Thursday 13 August, 4.00 P.M.
‘Agent Davenport, wake up.’
The voice was soft, feminine. But not Kate. Where is Kate?
‘Agent Davenport.’ The voice became sharper. ‘I need you to wake up now.’
Decker came awake in a rush, lurching to sit up. And then wishing he hadn’t. He blinked hard when the room spun, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been before. He blinked again, then found himself looking into a pair of mismatched eyes – one blue and one brown. Another blink allowed him to focus on the woman’s face, framed with streaks of bright white hair on either side. The rest of her hair was jet black. She was most definitely Deacon Novak’s kin. They looked like male and female sides of the same coin.
‘You would be Dr Novak,’ Decker said, his throat dry and raspy.
‘You would be correct.’ She handed him a cup with a straw. ‘Drink.’
He eyed it suspiciously. ‘What is it?’
She looked amused. ‘Gin and tonic, what do you think? It’s water. Just drink it.’
He took several long pulls on the straw and felt immediately better. Less like something the cat had dragged in, anyway. ‘Kate trusts you.’
‘She should.’ Novak’s mismatched eyes twinkled. ‘I’m an awesome doctor.’
‘I’m sure that’s true, but she trusts you not to murder me in my sleep, and that’s better.’
She looked aggravated. ‘I’m sorry that happened to you, Agent Davenport. I’ll make sure you stay safe, to the best of my ability.’
‘I appreciate it.’ Now that he’d had a nap, he felt restless. ‘Can I walk?’
‘To the toilet and back. For now.’ She put down the rail, arranged the IV bag on a stand with wheels, then rolled a walker to the side of the bed. ‘Try your legs. See how it feels.’
He swung his legs over the side of the bed, determined he was going to walk soon and often and as many steps as he possibly could. Because he had to get back into the game.
He had to find McCord’s partner. For . . .
He faltered, gripping the edge of the thin mattress. Holy God. Had he really told Kate about Shelby, or had he dreamed it? He thought hard for a second or two. No, he’d really told her. He’d told her everything. He’d all but confessed to murdering the bastard who’d violated his sister. Hell.
And he’d cried, too, on top of it all. He couldn’t stop his wince. Way to impress her, genius. But Kate hadn’t judged. She’d shown him compassion but not pity. She’d called him a good man. She’d been glad the bastard had suffered. And she’d cried, too. For both Shelby Lynne and me, he thought.
But she hadn’t agreed to let him back in the game. That detail had not escaped his attention. He’d have to make his own way. Which started with a round trip to the toilet.
He glanced up at Dr Novak. She was waiting patiently, watching him. ‘I’m going to assume,’ she said, ‘that you’re not a coward and that if you need help you will ask for it.’
Dr Novak knew the buttons to push. ‘And she bypasses the triple dog dare, going straight to the cowardice card,’ he murmured, and she laughed, making him grin. ‘Yes, ma’am. If I need help I am not too proud – or cowardly – to ask.’
‘You’re not as big a pain in the derrière as my brother led me to believe,’ she said.
He grinned wider. ‘Sure I am. Just give me a chance.’ He gripped the walker with both hands, ignoring the discomfort in his IV hand, then hefted himself to his feet and stood there for a moment, letting his legs steady out.
It took him twenty times longer than he thought it should have, but he made it to the toilet and back, barely getting his ass into bed before the door opened and Agent Troy entered, closing the door behind him.
Dr Novak moved in front of Decker, which made Decker smile. ‘And you are?’ she asked in a tone that would make any sane man think twice before crossing her.
‘Special Agent Troy. We spoke on the phone.’ He showed her his badge.
‘He’s legit, Doc. I met him this morning. Did you find her?’ Decker asked Troy when Dr Novak had moved out of the way. ‘Nurse Evil?’
Troy shook his head. ‘Not yet. She slipped in and out one of the staff doors behind another nurse. She didn’t use her ID, so she’s not on file as having entered or exited. If you hadn’t seen her, we might not have known to look for her. There isn’t a camera in this room, and the cameras in the hall didn’t catch her face. She kept her head down. She didn’t use the elevator either – she came up the stairs – so we can’t prove she was here unless someone saw her. Which no one did.’
‘Or will admit to,’ Dr Novak said quietly. ‘This is a good hospital, don’t get me wrong, but the staff are human, just like everywhere else. Some will give the shirt off their back to help you without even being asked, but others . . .’ She shrugged. ‘Especially if they want to stay under the radar themselves because they’re using, like Eileen Wilkins. I think the public would be shocked if they knew how many medical professionals – doctors and nurses – have substance abuse issues. We work crazy hours, we need to be alert, and the stuff is everywhere.’
‘And too easy to steal,’ Troy said grimly. ‘Which is what it appears Wilkins had been doing. None of the other nurses on her shift suspected her, but I don’t know that they were telling me the truth. We’ve got a BOLO out on Wilkins and we have undercover agents at the school her son attends. If she tries to pick him up, we’ll pick her up. Apparently she also had a boyfriend – a much younger guy who got her hooked to start with.’
Dr Novak shook her head. ‘Unless he held her down and injected her, kicking and screaming, he did not “get her hooked”. She made bad choices. Let’s call it straight.’
‘Here, here,’ Decker said.
Troy looked annoyed. ‘I was trying to be considerate,’ he said, his jaw taut.
‘Don’t,’ Dr Novak said. ‘Not on my account.’ She smiled to soften her words. ‘I do appreciate your attempt to spare my tender sensibilities, but I’ve seen too many patients put at risk because a doctor or nurse is using. I don’t have many tender sensibilities left. And this one,’ she pointed to Decker with her thumb, ‘well, according to my brother he has a tougher hide than a rhinoceros.’
Keeping it light, Decker snorted. ‘I wish. I’ve had too many bullets pierce my hide and I’ve got the scars to prove it. Twelve of them, not that I was counting.’
Dr Novak turned to him, her eyes filled with horror. ‘You’v
e been shot twelve times?’
Decker started to give her a flip reply then remembered her brother was a federal agent and she probably lived with the fear that he’d be shot at some point in his career. ‘Only twice since I joined the Bureau,’ he said, and watched her tension ease. ‘And one of those was planned.’
She stared at him. ‘You let yourself get shot on purpose?’
He grimaced. ‘It seemed like a good idea at the time. I needed to get into the accounting books of the traffickers, but I was a good bodyguard and they didn’t want to move me. My handler and I decided that if I got hurt protecting my boss there was a better chance of me getting a desk job for a while. My handler was supposed to nick me on the leg, just enough to need a stitch or two. He missed, but it was a through and through. Hardly bled at all.’
‘You realize now how patently stupid that plan was?’ she said tartly.
Well, sure. Now. ‘Hey, it worked. Got me into the accounting department. Most of the other bullets I took in Afghanistan, but that was a war, so they were to be expected.’
‘Most of the others?’ she pressed.
He shrugged. ‘I had an eventful adolescence,’ he said, and left it at that.
Decker was grateful when Troy stepped in to change the subject. ‘I’ve got an orderly out in the hall with a wheelchair. We’re going to transfer you to a safe house.’
Decker’s eyes widened. ‘Already? Damn, you guys are good.’
‘Yes, we are.’ Troy handed him a plain black backpack. ‘A change of clothing.’
Decker unzipped the backpack with trepidation. Not many places had his size, and he really didn’t want to have to wiggle into something that was too tight. To his surprise, the clothes were too big. ‘Wow. This never happens. These’ll swallow me whole.’
Troy smiled. ‘Agent Triplett donated some of his clothing to the cause. None of the rest of us could have. It’s a button-up shirt and a pair of shorts. We didn’t want to paint a target on your head by wheeling you out in a hospital gown. Just in case Ms Wilkins or whoever secured her cooperation is waiting for you downstairs with a scope.’
‘That would suck,’ Decker said. Especially if they hit a civilian. Like Dr Novak.
Dr Novak shook her head. ‘Are all you guys masters of understatement?’ She started taking clothes out of the backpack and handed him a pair of boxers.
‘I’m more of a boxer-brief guy myself,’ Decker said. ‘Ma’am, could you wait outside?’
She looked up at him. ‘I’m a doctor. You got that, right?’
Decker gave her a direct look. ‘Yes, ma’am. And if I need examining, I’ll be as cooperative as any patient you’ve ever had. But this is different and I’d really prefer my privacy.’
She stepped back immediately. ‘Of course. Just don’t yank out your IV.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ Once she was gone, Decker turned to Troy, who looked puzzled at his modesty. ‘Are we putting her in danger by asking her to babysit me while I heal up?’
The wrinkles in Troy’s brow smoothed out. ‘No. If we were, Zimmerman never would have approved it. The safe house is the penthouse floor of an exclusive condo in Eden Park. There is only one elevator that goes to that level and it requires a key card to get past the floor below it. The stairwell doors are also secure. CPD has used this apartment in the past. The windows are bullet-resistant and the doors are solid. There is no access from the roof and the angle makes it unlikely that a potential attacker could rappel down. You’ll have coverage, either via CPD or the Bureau. She’s much safer with you than at the free clinic at the Meadow where she’ll be working next week. That’s in a bad part of town.’
‘The Meadow?’ Decker asked. ‘You mean that shelter? She’s working there? Why?’
Troy pulled the rest of the clothes from the backpack. ‘She resigned from the hospital yesterday.’
‘Yeah, I remember that. She came to talk to Kate when I was trying to wake up. Kate was worried about her. Asked if she had a job to go to. Why did she resign?’
‘It wasn’t because of malpractice or incompetence, that’s all I know.’ Troy held out the shirt. ‘I’ll help you get your arms in the sleeves.’
He proceeded to dress Decker with a quick competence that indicated he’d done this before, especially when it came to taking care with the IV needle. Pulling on a pair of gloves, he disconnected the IV then reattached it like he was tying his own shoes.
‘Who did you take care of?’ Decker asked him as Troy was buttoning him up.
Troy’s hands faltered for a split second before resuming his task. ‘My partner,’ he said. Hesitantly. As if he were expecting a reproof. He’d get none from Decker.
‘I’m sorry,’ Decker said, because Troy was clearly still grieving. ‘How long ago?’
‘Five years. He was in an accident and ended up in a wheelchair. Paraplegic. He got pneumonia and . . . yeah.’ Troy handed him the boxers. ‘Do you need help with these?’
‘Maybe.’ Decker got his feet in and managed to pull them up a little at a time, finally getting them on. He had to rest afterwards, though. ‘I have to get my strength back.’
‘You just woke up this morning,’ Troy said mildly. ‘Here, let me get the shorts.’
They were exercise shorts, with Crimson Tide printed on the leg. ‘For heaven’s sake,’ Decker grumbled. ‘The kid went to ’Bama? Now we’re going to have to hate each other.’
Troy laughed as he grabbed the shoes at the bottom of the pile. ‘You went to Ole Miss?’
‘No, Southern Miss, but I have to hate ’Bama on principle. Thank you,’ he added when Troy crouched to slip the shoes on Decker’s feet, tying them tight.
‘They’re not as big as I thought they’d be, but you’re still going to have to be careful walking in them. Most of the time you’ll be in a wheelchair, so it’ll be— Hold on. I just got a text.’ Rising, he scanned his phone’s screen, then sighed. ‘Fuck it.’
Decker’s smile slid away. ‘What? Please,’ he added when Troy looked like he wasn’t going to say. ‘Is Kate okay?’
‘Yes. She’s at the morgue with Deacon. They just discovered that a young woman who OD’d last night was the last person to visit Alice yesterday. Kate’s going to get us more details as she has them.’ He frowned. ‘Shit, I forgot.’ He pulled a second phone from his pocket. ‘Zimmerman told me to give you this. It’s a loaner until you can get one from the department. Evidently Coppola texted you too.’
Decker felt better about that. She was okay and she was communicating with him. But when he read the text, his gut twisted. ‘Cyanide? And ricin? Hell, somebody wanted to make sure that Alice didn’t talk. I guess I’m glad I just got hit with an opioid.’
‘Dead is dead,’ Troy muttered. ‘However you get there.’
Decker agreed with that. ‘I don’t want Dr Novak in the vehicle with me. Bring her in separately. I don’t want someone taking a shot at me and hitting her by mistake.’
‘I was thinking the same thing. She won’t like it, but she’s going to have to deal.’
Someone knocked on the door. ‘It’s Triplett. You ready to roll?’
‘Yes,’ Decker called. ‘Come on in.’
The door opened and Triplett filled the space. ‘There’s a hat, too, Agent Troy,’ he said. ‘Front pouch of the backpack.’
Chuckling wickedly, Troy found the Crimson Tide ball cap and Decker sighed.
‘Insult to frickin’ injury,’ he grumbled as he put the cap on his head. ‘You had to go to Alabama, Triplett?’
‘If I wanted to stay part of my family, I did. My dad went there. Played football.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘Ole Miss?’
‘No, but he has to hate you on principle,’ Troy said. ‘Can we get this moving, people?’
Triplett grinned at Decker. ‘Sorry.’
‘N
o you’re not,’ Decker said.
Triplett’s grin grew wider. ‘No, I’m not. You ready for the wheelchair?’
‘Hell, yeah. The sooner I get out of here, the better.’ He made sure Kate’s tablet was in the backpack. ‘When I get to the safe house, I have to work.’
Dr Novak nudged Triplett aside so that she could push the wheelchair into the room. ‘When you get there, you will rest.’
Decker noticed that both Troy and Triplett were looking anywhere but at Dr Novak. ‘Cowards,’ he muttered as he moved his body from the bed to the chair.
‘Just choosing the important battles,’ Troy corrected. ‘Like telling Dr Novak that she needs to ride in a separate vehicle because you have a target painted on your ass that can be seen from space.’
Dr Novak stared at Troy. ‘Excuse me?’
‘Yes, ma’am. You’ll be a few cars behind.’
‘But—’ she started to protest.
Troy cut her off. ‘But if you’re hurt, we won’t have anyone to take care of him. It’s not far. Fifteen minutes, tops.’
She pursed her lips. ‘Can I drive my own car?’
‘We’d prefer that you didn’t,’ Troy said. ‘It’s for your own protection. If you have to leave for any reason, we’ll take you to your car or wherever you need to go. Whoever is snipping loose ends is doing it very religiously. We won’t risk your life.’
‘All right. Let’s go, then.’ She gestured to the orderly, who wheeled Decker out of the room. She pushed the IV stand alongside him, and with Troy out in front and Triplett behind, they made their way to the elevator without incident, except for the scowl from a waiting nurse when she was told she’d have to wait for the next one.
Once the elevator doors were closed, Troy seemed to relax. ‘We’ll take the express route,’ he said, producing a master key. Sure enough, they made no stops all the way down to the basement. A windowless van was waiting at an underground loading area with none other than Special Agent in Charge Zimmerman at the wheel. A ramp allowed the orderly to load Decker directly in the back, wheelchair and all. Troy joined him, sitting on a side bench.