wanted to take him to the hospital, immediately. And so Beck told her what had happened.
She’d pulled to the side of the road and parked her car. Then she looked at him, and began speaking to him in the same tones that she’d use to talk a jumper off a ledge.
“I’m sure you believe this is what happened, Randall,” is how she began.
He saw the sadness in her eyes. He knew what she was thinking. She believed that he’d finally begun to unravel, that the tumor was eating away at his ability to think, and he was suffering from delusions.
He was almost flattered that she seemed so moved. But the rest of him was angry and impatient. He didn’t have time for her sympathy. He needed to find out why someone wanted him dead.
Beck wanted to have her drive back to where the SUV wrecked to see the damage, but he didn’t want to take the chance that they were still there.
And after a few minutes, she lost her therapeutic voice and her temper, and they were both yelling at each other in the car.
“Just a minute,” Susan said. She picked up her phone and tapped the screen. A news app brought up headlines for Washington, DC. “There’s nothing here about a shooting anywhere near your office.”
“Then they must have told the police to keep it quiet.”
Susan gave him another skeptical look.
“I know how paranoid that sounds,” Beck said. “But I know what happened.”
“Do you?” she said. “Think of all the times you’ve had patients convinced that someone was out to get them. Think of how they acted. Do you see any resemblance?”
“Look, if I’m making this up, then where did I get these?” Beck snapped, and showed her the handcuffs.
“I’m not sure I want to know,” Susan snapped back. Then she got her temper under control. She breathed deeply and started again. “Please. We should at least get your head looked at. An MRI or PET scan. Maybe the car accident shifted the tumor, or increased the pressure on your brain. You could have a blood clot. You might stroke out at any moment.”
“I feel fine,” Beck said, although he didn’t. He felt tired and dizzy, but he wasn’t about to tell Susan that. “Listen to me. My patient is dead. And they want to kill me, too. I know it sounds paranoid, but you know me. You know the difference between people who are crazy and people who are not. You’ve spent your whole life doing this. Look at me: am I crazy?”
Susan took a long look at him. “All right. Let’s say this is true. Let’s go to a lawyer. I have a friend, she’s a former assistant US attorney, she could—”
“No,” Beck said flatly. “No lawyers.”
Susan threw up her hands. “You won’t go to the police, you won’t go to a lawyer, you won’t go to the hospital. So what are we supposed to do, Randall? How are we going to find out what’s happening to you?”
Good question, Beck had to admit. Then he remembered something that had been nagging at him since he got into the SUV with Morrison and Howard.
“Oh, my God.”
Susan looked alarmed. “What? What is it?”
“Scott’s wife. Jennifer.”
“You think she can help you?”
“No,” Beck said. “Think about it. If they are willing to kill me because I spent a few minutes with Kevin Scott, then what are they going to do about her?”
“Randall, for God’s sake.”
“Susan, think about it. If I’m wrong, I’ll go with you to the hospital. Quietly. I’ll get help. But if I’m right, then a woman’s life is at stake, and we’re the only people who can help her right now. They will kill her, Susan.”
Susan thought about that for a moment. Then she cranked the engine back to life. “Do you have her address?” she asked. Beck didn’t.
“Look it up on my phone,” she said, tossing it to him, then pulled out into traffic. A horn blared as she cut another driver off. Susan ignored it as the phone began giving them directions to the house of Kevin and Jennifer Scott.
Susan’s grip was tight on the wheel. For the first time, Beck thought, she looked like she believed him.
Because she looked scared.
Chapter 10
Morrison and Howard were in no mood for bullshit by the time they rolled up to the tiny auto repair shop.
The last hour had been the most humiliating of their careers.
First, the firefighters had to use pry bars to open their SUV and free Morrison.