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CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

“ T he grocery store. That’s what he said,” Addie yelled to the interior of her car.

The dispatcher’s voice came through the speakers. “An ambulance is already on its way. They’ll be there in two minutes.”

“I’m already here.” Addie swung her wheel to the left and bumped over the incline in the curb into the parking lot.

She hung up the phone with a jab of her finger on the dash screen. Jake’s truck was parked in “his” spot. She thanked the man upstairs that Jake had a favorite place to park so she could find him.

But where was he? Addie drove around the front of the truck. No one was inside.

Her foot slipped off the brake. There he was.

She stopped the car with no thought about the white lines or whether she would be blocking traffic. Almost no one was out here, but someone had been. And they’d left Jake for dead on his backside, leaned against the truck.

She nearly fell out of the car but scrambled up and raced to him. “Jake.” A prayer brushed across her lips as she fell to her knees beside him. “Jake, can you hear me?”

The knife stuck out of his abdomen. Blood everywhere.

Don’t take it out.

The words rolled through her mind, and she realized that was right. She had to leave the blade there because it plugged the hole in him right now. A surgeon needed to be the one to take it out, preferably in a sterilized room at the hospital.

She realized she’d reached for the handle but held her hands over it without making contact. “Jake.” She touched his cheek. “Maybe you shouldn’t wake up and feel this. But I do want to see your eyes.”

An ambulance siren cut through the night.

Jake let out a groan.

Addie waved over the ambulance so they could get here as quickly as possible. The ambo pulled up, and two uniformed EMTs got out. One was a tiny African American woman with braids pulled back who grabbed a duffel and raced over. The other was a blonde man who retrieved a yellow backboard.

“Hurry.”

The woman got to Addie first. “Hey, you found him?”

“He’s my friend. We were on the phone when someone—” The cameras. Addie’s head whipped around to the light pole with the device mounted to it. Whoever did this would be on camera.

The woman lifted the stethoscope from Jacob’s chest and wrapped them around her neck. “I’m guessing he was stabbed.”

Her colleague knelt on the other side of Addie.

The woman waved them into action. “Let’s pack this and get him to the ED.”

Addie frowned. “Don’t you mean ER?”

The woman tore open two packs at once. “They don’t call it that anymore. It’s the emergency department now.”

“Oh.” Was that really the point here?

The EMT held gauze down on either side of the blade. Her colleague handed over more. Then they taped the gauze down tight so the blade wasn’t going to move around while they loaded him in the ambulance.

“He’s going to be okay, right?”

The woman frowned. “You did good calling us so fast, getting us out here. The rest is up to him, the doctors, and the Good Lord.”

“That’s true, I suppose,” Addie said.

Her partner’s jaw flexed. “Whatever.”

The female EMT shot him a look. “Let’s get this guy loaded.” She looked at Addie. “I’m Freya.”

“Addie Franklin.” She figured it wouldn’t hurt for them to know. “FBI Special Agent.”

The guy whistled, but she wasn’t sure he wasn’t being sarcastic.

Freya motioned. “That’s Trey. He’s always like this. It’s not just you.” She reached for the yellow backboard. “Time to roll.”

They slid Jacob onto the board, and the two EMTs loaded him in the ambulance. Freya called out, “Meet you there!”

The doors slammed shut.

Addie looked down at her hands and realized there was blood on both. She lifted her arm and used the sleeve over her bicep to wipe the tears on her face. Jacob. Back in her car, she couldn’t quite get her fingers to turn the key without slipping off. She hissed a breath and let some more tears fall.

What did it matter?

She couldn’t help Jake. The hospital staff had to do that.

She hadn’t been able to stop the cops from taking him in for questioning. She couldn’t prove—yet—that it wasn’t him who’d murdered all those women. She hadn’t been with him here, on a grocery store trip where she figured the last thing on his mind was that he’d be stabbed.

Who had done this?

Addie pulled the keys out and put them in her pocket. She retrieved her gun in its holster from her glove box, and her badge and credentials. Jacket from the backseat.

She suited up just as a black and white pulled into the lot. Addie knew how close to the edge of breaking down she was, so instead of waiting for them to get out she strode for the front doors of the grocery store.

The beat of feet on the asphalt raced up behind her. She was so mad she didn’t even turn around.

“This seems familiar.” He tugged on her arm, although it was pretty gentle. Little more than a suggestion.

Addie spun around.

“Oh.” Officer Hummet blinked. He looked down at her hands, then back up to her face. “Your friend who ditched you last time?” His eyebrow rose, as though he was unimpressed.

“Turns out he was right to, since your captain is trying to pin a murder on him.”

Hummet didn’t even blink. Beyond him was another officer, older, who’d only just caught up. Eric lifted a brow. “And your role here?”

“To see if whoever stabbed Jake is on the security cameras.”

“That would be our job.” Hummet motioned to his partner. “On account of we don’t need to be at the hospital until your friend wakes up so we can get his statement.”

“I’m not a bad person because I want to check the cameras first.” She folded her arms. “We need to know who did this.”

Hummet nodded. “Okay. You’re welcome to observe.”

Addie opened her mouth to argue.

“That’s my final answer.” He studied her. “Don’t make me call you ma’am.”

“Come on.” Addie spun to the doors and found the same office where they’d looked at the feeds what seemed like weeks ago but was actually only a couple of days.

Hummet went inside the office to talk with the security guy.

His partner, who didn’t give her his name and she couldn’t read it on his shirt as there was a smudge of something yellow on it, stood in the hall watching her. Eating an apple pie that she had no idea where he’d acquired it.

“So you’re the fed?” He took a bite that amounted to a third of the pie.

Addie said, “That’s what they tell me.”

Thankfully Eric exited the office then.

“Well?”

Officer Hummet’s expression had darkened, his young face like someone who’d seen too much. Not good. “Can’t see his face, but we’ll run with what we’ve got.”

“Or, the second you report this it’s going to get handed to some detective with six open cases on his desk. And the victim is a suspect in a murder?” She could guess who had the motive to do this, but her and Jake’s lives had never been that simple.

“I’ll make sure this is looked into. All of it above board.”

Officer Apple Pie didn’t seem to think that was a good idea. Or he just didn’t care because it would cut into his lunch break.

Addie figured that meant she needed to leave. Before she said something that would get her in even more hot water with the PD. “Find out who did this.”

Hummet didn’t promise anything, but she knew he couldn’t do that. Some cases went unsolved. Others, an FBI agent specializing in profiling who knew the local area and some of the people who lived here, were called in.

She headed for her car, all of it and the adrenaline racing through her mind. Her body wanted to break into a run to get rid of the excess energy. Her hands didn’t stop shaking.

Someone had ordered her sent here. But the second she got here, those hang-up calls and heavy breathing silences turned into actual attacks. Like the same person was responsible.

He’d herded her into danger.

Had he done the same to get her back in Benson? The FBI had sent her, officially, so how was that possible? She couldn’t help but wonder if it was the case. Whoever wanted her here so all this could happen was likely also responsible for the murders. Though, she needed proof if anyone else was going to believe her. She had to figure out who it was.

Could she find out who had been involved in persuading the FBI to send her here? Or they’d faked the request.

She needed more information.

In her car, Addie sent Zimmerman an email he would get first thing tomorrow asking for a name. Who had requested her to be reassigned to Benson? It wasn’t the Seattle office. Even with the mayor’s brother being a senator, the mayor and the cops here didn’t have that much pull. The answer seemed more than that. Someone in DC had to have put it through, pulled the strings, and done this.

And how did they connect to a string of local murders?

Then she called Russ.

He answered on the first ring. “Hey.”

“I figured you’d be asleep.”

“What happened?”

Of course, he knew something was wrong. Addie explained, then said, “I’m headed to the hospital now so I can be there when he wakes up.”

“I’ll call Hank and meet you.”

“Yes.” She hadn’t even thought of Hank. “Good idea. See you soon.”

Ten minutes later, she pulled into a spot at Benson General and raced for the front desk in the emergency department. “I’m looking for information on Jacob Wilson. He was just brought in. Stab wound to the abdomen.” She flashed her badge.

“I’ll let the doctor know you’re here.” The woman picked up her desk phone.

“Thanks.” Addie paced the waiting area. Avoided the pockets of people looking exhausted and distraught. Two people at separate corners seemed like they needed to be in bed on an IV bag, not out.

Someone had sent her here. Walking her right into a killer’s hands.

Her and Jacob.

The doors swished open, and Hank raced in. “Addie!” He hugged her, and she gave herself a second of composure.

“Officer Hummet checked the security tapes at the grocery store. He said there wasn’t enough to identify the person who stabbed Jake.”

Hank squeezed the bridge of his nose. “This is unbelievable.”

“Yeah? A retaliation crime on the same day Jake is questioned for a murder?”

“You don’t know that’s what this is.” Hank frowned.

The doors opened again, and Russ entered, followed by Mona. Her uncle squeezed her shoulder while her sister hung back.

“You wanted to come?”

Mona shrugged.

Russ frowned. “She doesn’t get the responsibility of being at home alone right now.”

“If we have time, you guys can tell me about that.”

Mona rolled her eyes.

Russ nodded. “I could use a good cop for this routine.”

“I doubt you’ll get that from me right now.” She needed good news. Then she’d be able to relax.

Mona rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

“A friend of mine was stabbed. He could die.” Addie shook her head. “Maybe you could have some compassion.”

Mona wandered to a chair and sat but didn’t pull out her phone. Grounded from that as well?

“I’ll talk to her.” Hank headed over.

Russ didn’t back down. “It’ll pass. Soon as she gets it out of her head that a twenty-five-year-old isn’t dating a seventeen-year-old that lives under my roof.”

Before she could respond that she agreed, a doctor walked over. “You’re here for Jacob Wilson?”