my efforts. And then months later he ends up in a fucking panic. One of his co-workers had stumbled onto evidence of the illegal trades, wanted to take it to the SEC. Healy was trying to manage him, trick him, but then the guy suddenly admitted that he’d put all the evidence on a flash drive and some girl he’d screwed had stolen it. He swore there could be nothing about me on the drive, but I couldn’t take any chances.”
“And he told you my name. That’s why you called me that Friday, to set up an appointment.”
“Someone had to take charge. Healy was out of control. Losing it. I had no idea why you took the drive, but I had to get it.”
“But first you followed him to Florida.”
“He vowed he was going to try to shore up the situation. But I couldn’t trust him to do it. I parked by the place he was staying, asked him to come out and chat in my car. I could tell from what he was saying that he’d be more than willing to throw me under the bus to save his own hide.”
“And so you ran him down,” she said. The words emerged in little more than a whisper.
“Do you think I was going to let him ruin me?” She saw his hands clench, still in the brown leather gloves. “Make it so I could never practice medicine again?”
He paused, curling his lip malevolently. “And I wasn’t going to let you ruin me either, whatever your game is. You left me no choice than to hack my way into your apartment.”
“But I never planned to ruin anyone, I swear. I took the flash drive by mistake. I didn’t know anything about the trades.”
“Oh, is that right?” he said snidely. “The day after the break-in you were practically gloating that the thief hadn’t gotten what was most important. It was like you were sitting there mocking me as I fixed you a fucking espresso.”
She remembered the moment suddenly. She’d begun to sense at that point that the thieves had wanted more than her iPod speakers and she’d made a vague comment to that effect.
“I didn’t—”
“It was all I could do to resist reaching out and smashing your face in.”
She felt a fresh surge of panic. Had Kelman called the police by now? Couldn’t they trace her location through her phone?
“You killed Avery, thinking it was me.”
“Let’s just say you gave me quite a shock when you called my office the next morning. But I’ve said enough. I want to know what your little game is. Were you planning to blackmail Healy, or anyone else you could find?”
“No, like I said, I—I just stumbled into the whole thing. The flash drive was in a pen and I took it by mistake.”
She was scrambling now, trying to figure out how to buy more time. How to save herself.
“Oh, please. What do you take me for?”
“If you want the flash drive, I can give it to you,” she said hurriedly. “I have the pen with me.”
He narrowed his dark eyes, studying her intensely.
“All right,” he said, eerily calm now. But that wouldn’t be enough, she knew. He would try to twist her neck the way he’d done to Avery. That was why he’d worn the gloves.
“Let me get it,” she said. “Let me get it right now.” She jabbed her hand in her purse and started rooting desperately. Holt yanked one side of the purse toward him and peered in.
“Don’t tell me you’ve got something like a gun in there.”
“No, I just want to find the pen for you.” He let the bag snap back toward her. Finally, she felt the smooth, cool barrel of her father’s Mont Blanc.
“Here it is,” she said, yanking her hand from the bag. She held it out, showing him. He started to reach for it. And when he did, she stepped back and flung the pen in his face.
He jerked back defensively, but the pen still caught him in the left eye, then bounced off. His hand flew to his face.
In a split second Kit reached down and grabbed one of the paint cans by the handle. It was half full, still heavy. She hoisted it up and swung it hard at Holt’s head.
It hit with such force that it made a huge thwacking sound and ricocheted, almost hitting her, too. Holt moaned in pain. As he reeled back, Kit dropped the can with a thud, stepped around Holt