This isn’t about pain for me. Really. I have no reason for you to suffer. The others—they had to pay for what they’d done. An eye for an eye, you understand?”
No, he did not—
Laughter. “Sure, you understand. You killed the man who came after you. If anyone gets me, it’s you.”
Joel twisted his mouth. He pulled back his lips. Worked that stupid tape. Got it loose enough to rasp… “I’m…g-gonna…kill you…”
“I’m afraid that will be quite impossible. You’ll be dead soon. I’ll make sure of that. I learned from the mistakes of your last attacker. When you go in the ground, I guarantee that you will not be breathing.”
***
“She can’t be back here!” A woman with salt-and-pepper hair jumped into Chloe’s path. “She can’t be here—and neither can you!” She glared at Cedric.
He flashed his badge. “We can be anywhere.”
Her mouth snapped closed.
Chloe’s gaze darted around the exam rooms.
“Who are you looking for?” The woman took a step back.
Chloe’s attention immediately swung to her. She scanned the ID badge. A nurse. Nancy Ferra. “Nancy, my partner came back into this area a few moments ago. Tall man, very handsome.”
And over the intercom—per Cedric’s orders—a page went out for Joel Landry. A page asking him to immediately check in at the ER desk.
Nancy’s head tilted as her gaze jumped between Chloe and Cedric.
“The man that’s being paged right now, he’s the one we’re looking for. Joel Landry. He’s a doctor, but he wasn’t wearing scrubs. He—”
“Oh, wait, do you mean Dane’s friend?”
Dane. Her lungs froze. “Yes. Yes, that’s exactly who I mean.” Once more, she scanned the area. Didn’t see Joel or Dane. “Can you tell me where they went?” Cedric already had men looking for Dane, per her orders. Because before they’d burst through those ER doors, she’d realized exactly why Cinnamon had been brought to that hospital.
Because Dr. Dane Ambrose works here.
Dr. Dane Ambrose…the same man who had also worked at the Serpent. The same man who could have come into contact with Donnie Adams. I don’t believe in a coincidence.
She and Cedric hadn’t wanted to page Dane, though, because they’d feared that might tip him off. But the search had started. Uniformed cops and hospital security.
“If you’re looking for those two, I think they were going to the labs. At least, that’s what I thought I heard them say.” Nancy turned away. “I’ve got patients to see. Excuse me—”
“Show us exactly where you saw them go.” Cedric’s voice boomed with authority.
Nancy stopped. “Um, okay.” She motioned down the hallway. “See that door at the end? They were going that way. Don’t really know why. I mean, you can get to the labs on this floor by using that corridor, but it takes forever. The corridor leads to a wing that isn’t really used anymore, so you have to cut through the old rooms. But maybe they just didn’t want to deal with…” Her hands waved to indicate the packed exam area. “All of this.”
Chloe was already running for the door Nancy had indicated. Her hip bumped an exam tray. She glanced down. Saw shining instruments.
A scalpel.
Don’t mind if I do. She scooped it up and didn’t even slow down. Chloe beat Cedric to the corridor door by seconds. She shoved open the door.
An empty hallway waited. One that branched off with way, way too many doors. And even though light spilled from the ceiling in the hallway, all of the doors appeared to lead to dark rooms. Some of the doors were open, and the darkness snaked into the hallway.
“Chloe, are you sure about this Ambrose guy being the perp?” Cedric had pulled out his gun.
“Dane knew Donnie Adams. They would have crossed paths at the Serpent. Donnie gambled there, and Dane patched up the players.” Had that been when Dane noticed Donnie’s ring? One night, at a game?
The Bad Deeds killings had started so recently. Something must have set off the killer. Something that had stirred up the past.
It could have been seeing Donnie. A blast from the past. Right in front of Dane. Smug, brutal Donnie still wearing that ring…
She filtered through details as quickly as she could. “The killer made sure that Gregory, Ray, and Donnie all suffered the same kind of injuries that Portia did.” And now I think he has Joel. “But the killer doesn’t want to go down for the crimes. He wants to give the cops someone else as a fall guy.”
“Joel.”
She’d already counted twenty different doors, and the hallway branched