Fear Nothing (Detective D.D. Warren #7) - Lisa Gardner Page 0,121
was handing her freedom. Why would she stop? After this, she would walk out the door, Dr. Adeline Glen. Fulfill her deepest fantasy of taking over my life. My car, my condo, my office. I had handed her everything.
Shana Day. The most notorious female killer in the entire state. Who had ruined Mrs. Davies’s life. And the Johnsons’ and the Sgarzis’, before talking three men to their own deaths.
And yet she’d saved her fellow inmates and still mourned a five-year-old boy.
My big sister. The monster I was releasing upon the world.
I reached out, placing my fingertips against her cheek, even as she continued to draw the razor across mine.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, though I wasn’t sure why. I was the giver; she was the taker.
Yet I could see in her eyes, positioned so close, this was costing her, too. Shame, because she was hurting me, combined with an unholy glee, as some part of her reveled in it. Her nature and her nurture. Just like mine.
My sister drew a fifth line, and I tasted blood upon my lips.
The last edge of the window frame gave way, the entire panel collapsing with a shatter of glass. Then they were upon us, men in black armored suits screaming at me—Shana—even as others jerked Shana—Adeline—away, and I heard my sister cry, high-pitched, distressed:
“Help her, please, help her. She smuggled in a razor somehow. I think she may have cut her throat. Dear God, please help!”
A big man loomed over me, visor down, face obscured as he shouted.
“Hands, fucker. I wanna see your hands!”
I merely smiled, picturing the sight I must make, with the red blood rimming my white teeth.
A Shana-worthy moment to be sure.
Then I was grabbed and hustled away.
As my sister, Dr. Adeline Glen, staggered into the hall, still inside the prison but already on her way to freedom.
Chapter 33
WHEN D.D. SAW PHIL’S NAME appear across her call screen, she snatched up her cell phone, fully expecting to hear that he’d finally located Samuel Hayes. Instead:
“Shana Day has escaped.”
“What?”
“Shortly after nine this morning. Attacked her sister with a razor, then swapped their clothes so that Adeline was dressed in her prison jumpsuit, while Shana appeared to be Adeline. After that, it was a simple matter of walking out the door.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Phil sighed. “That sums it up nicely. Adeline is still in the prison infirmary, getting treated for her injuries. I’m heading over there now to talk to Superintendent McKinnon—”
“I’ll be ready in thirty minutes,” D.D. answered quickly.
She could nearly see Phil’s smile across the airwaves. “See you then.”
He ended the call. She flung down the phone and bolted off the sofa.
“Alex, Alex! I gotta shower and change. Help, please. Help!”
• • •
SUPERINTENDENT MCKINNON MET THEM in the MCI’s lobby. Given the big doings for the day, D.D. was surprised that the place looked much the same as usual. Other than the armored guards standing out front, of course, and an occasional helicopter conducting a flyby overhead.
“The perimeter team has already been activated,” Superintendent McKinnon informed them briskly, the immediate response team being the go-to unit for prison escapes. “They found Adeline’s vehicle badly damaged several miles down the interstate, but still no sign of Shana.”
“Badly damaged?” D.D. asked.
“Shana hit several other cars attempting to exit the parking lot, let alone what she might have done on the freeway. She’s been locked up since she was fourteen, remember? Most likely, this was her first time behind the wheel.”
D.D. blinked. She hadn’t even considered that fact. They were basically searching for an institutionalized lifer. A woman who’d never owned a cell phone, driven a car, let alone experienced the full frenzy of the modern world. Shana might as well be a cavewoman, suddenly freed from a block of ice.
“She have computer experience?” D.D. asked now.
“Shana’s taken several continuing ed classes. Depending on her behavior, she’s sometimes had a radio in her cell. She also reads a lot, meaning she may know a lot, she just hasn’t . . . done a lot.”
“Our best odds are to catch her now,” Phil muttered. “Before the learning curve sets in.”
Superintendent McKinnon escorted them back to her office. “I’m assuming you will want to speak to Dr. Glen.”
“Absolutely.”
She nodded. “Adeline is in the infirmary. The cuts to her face are mainly superficial, but given her inability to feel pain, doctors are worried about her wounds becoming infected. In particular, there’s significant damage to her hands. They’re pumping her full of antibiotics now.”