of hers and offering a squeeze. She glanced up and smiled at him. Reed’s muscles tensed. This felt all wrong. Weird.
Like he was living in one of those liminal spaces, not just experiencing it momentarily. Relax, Davies. This sucks, but you have a job to do.
“Did you see the victim right away?”
“Yes, I did.” She grimaced and shook her head as if denying the image that must be front and center in her mind as she recalled that moment. He had the insane urge to comfort her—this woman who’d snuck out of his apartment like a thief in the night and then pretended she’d never laid eyes on him in her life five minutes before—and wanted to kick himself. “I . . . I dropped my briefcase and my phone. I screamed. I was just so . . . It was . . .” She shook her head again. “Chad came running a minute later.”
Chad.
“Where were you when you heard Dr. Nolan scream?” Ransom asked.
“I was already in my office down the hall. I’d used the front entrance about half an hour before.”
“Security footage will confirm that?” Reed asked.
The doctor frowned, pausing as he looked at Reed. “Of course it will.” He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. “We’re”—he glanced at Liza—“not being considered suspects, are we?”
“No,” Ransom said easily. “We’ve just gotta cross all our t’s. Did you know the victim well?” he asked, looking between both Liza and Headley.
“Mr. Sadowski had just taken over as director of the hospital three months ago,” Headley answered. “All staff have been working closely with him since then, but it’s only been a short time.” He glanced at Liza. “Nice guy. Competent at his job. No complaints.”
“Any idea who might have wanted to target the man?”
They both shook their heads. “This is more than targeting the man, though, isn’t it?” Headley asked. “What was done to his face . . .” He grimaced. “Horrifying.”
“Any chance we’re looking for a patient?” Reed asked. “Someone highly familiar with this hospital?”
Headley shook his head. “No way. Our most violent offenders are closely monitored. There isn’t a second in the day where staff don’t know their whereabouts. There’s no possible way one of those patients could disappear for the time it would take to commit a crime like the one perpetrated against Mr. Sadowski. The fifth floor is, in essence, a high-security prison.”
“What about one of your less closely monitored patients?” Ransom asked.
Liza shook her head now. “Those patients aren’t violent.”
“People aren’t always logical or predictable, Doctor. They act out of character all the time. I’m sure you know that even better than I do.”
She stared at him a beat, two, then lowered her eyes. “Y-yes.” She cleared her throat, making eye contact again. “You’re right, people aren’t always predictable, but we’re talking about people who have never committed an act of aggression in their lives, much less a brutal murder. And while those patients have more freedom than our Ward Five patients, they’re still well monitored too. And in most cases, well medicated.”
“But they do suffer from diagnosed mental disorders,” Ransom said.
Liza’s eyes moved to him. “Yes, they do.”
Reed sat back. “Are there cameras on patients at all times?”
“No. You’d have to verify with Ms. Thorne, but I believe we only monitor the main entrance and exit doors and two back doors, via camera, and a few of the hallways near nurses’ stations. The hospital determined that constant video surveillance is unethical and intrusive to mental health patients.”
“So isn’t it possible that one slipped out for a time?”
“Not for the time it would take to do something like . . . that. And if one had, we’d have been notified by now. Chad—Dr. Headley checked in with security on each of the floors as we were waiting for you, and there are no patients currently unaccounted for, head counts from this morning don’t show anyone missing. The hospital is doing a comprehensive search nonetheless.”
Yes, that’s what Ms. Thorne had said. They would follow up with her afterward. Liza glanced at Headley and Reed allowed his gaze to linger on her a moment. He remembered thinking of her as a conundrum and now he knew why. The Liza she’d shown him had been a completely different side of her than the buttoned-up doctor he was looking at across the table now. And it made him wonder why. Was that the side of her that went out drinking and looking for random men to pick up?