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“I said no. She’s not for you. Where are your zip ties?”
“She split my head open! I need stitches!”
“Tie her hands and feet. Find whatever she used to cut Langrath’s bonds. Then we’ll get you taken care of.”
Reese didn’t dare move, her breathing still choppy. She could see both of his fists balled now, pent-up fury shaking him. He shoved her to the floor, drawing his foot back and kicking her hard in the side. Pain exploded. She choked and gasped, trying to draw a breath.
“That’s a fraction of what you deserve.” The words drifted over her, around her, as her chest heaved in a futile attempt to fill her lungs.
“Do as you’re told.”
She felt her arms wrenched roughly behind her. Something bit into her wrists. Then her ankles. “Now search her.”
Chen frisked her, then rolled her over onto her bound arms and repeated the action. “Nothing. Maybe it’s in her purse.”
“In the stall.” The man disappeared into the small cubicle. “Pick up all of her belongings and put them in the bag. Bring it to me.”
Sedgewick used the intervening time to drop the radio into the pocket of her spring-green suit jacket. Then she pulled several paper towels from the holder and stepped to the sink to wet them, divide them into two pads, and fold them, all the while keeping the gun pointed at Reese.
She managed a gulp of air. Chen reappeared with the purse dangling from his hand. “Didn’t find anything that could have cut through his ties. He may have broken them.”
Sedgewick stepped over her body to take the purse. Handed him the pads she’d made. “Clean yourself up. Then get Langrath out of here.”
For the first time, Reese was aware that the woman was wearing nitrile gloves. Minutes later, the toilet flushed, and Chen backed out of the stall hauling Kervin, his hands wedged under the man’s arms. He struggled with the weight, butSedgewick didn’t move to assist him. The blood smearing his temple and down one side of his face had been stanched and wiped away, but his wound was still seeping.
He was ungloved. The ramifications of that struck Reese as important but it was another moment before her oxygen-starved brain chugged to life, connecting the dots. The man had bled profusely from Reese’s attack and then had searched many of the rooms looking for her, shedding even more droplets. Yet the doctor wasn’t warning him about the evidence he was leaving behind.
Because she was setting him up to take the fall for all of this, or because he, too, was dispensable? Maybe both, she decided, sickened.
He paused, his back against the swinging door exit. “Where to?”
“The aquamation room. Did you get everything prepared?”
“I was sort of busy chasing down that fucking bitch.”
The doctor’s voice was devoid of sympathy. “Shouldn’t have let her get the jump on you in the first place. Go on, now. We’ll be there shortly.”
Chen backed out of the door, dragging the prone man. Although the CNA had seemed to rouse a bit minutes earlier, his eyes were shut.
“Kervin has been a loyal employee for years,” Reese protested. “You can’t just…”
“Oh, but I can.” The doctor’s mouth twisted. “You and I have a different definition of loyalty. Do you think I don’t know that he was feeding you full of lies that you were going to weaponize against us? I don’t take betrayal lightly.”
“Why would you think that?”
“We have a no cell phone policy in the hospital. It’s strictly enforced, no exceptions, to protect our patients’ privacy. Employees keep their phones in baskets behind the front desk.”
Kervin had mentioned that, hadn’t he? “So you…what? Stole his cell?”
Lisa’s lips curved. “Just long enough to clone it. Lorna warned me that he was speaking with you. I needed to know what he was saying.”
“He never messaged me any information.”
She kicked Reese’s calf. Hard. “No, because he wassellingit to you. In person. At this point, one would think you’d stop underestimating me.”
“Underestimate you? The woman who had Greenley killed and tried to frame me? The person who’s currently plotting another murder?”
“More than one, actually. But there’s a difference between planning and committing.”