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H ayes had barely resecured the locks behind the detective when his cell rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and read the screen, his mouth flattening. “I have to take this.” He went to the bedroom, swinging the door shut behind him. Reese heard him answer. “This is Hayes.”

Intrigued, she studied the half-closed door.

A few days ago, she would have wondered if the caller was someone he was involved with.

But if there was one thing she’d learned about him in a few short days, it was that Hayes Moreland had an unswerving moral code.

She wouldn’t have been in his arms this morning if he was in a relationship.

Reese had packed a stack of the medical documents to go through, but the scene with Sedgewick was too fresh in her mind.

She thought for a moment, then pulled out her cell and scrolled through her call log until she found the contact information for the two former colleagues of the doctor’s at her last job.

Both were nurses. Sedgewick had been a faceless unknown to her at the time, but after today, Reese had more questions.

She hit redial on Bonita Price’s number.

Waited while it rang, fully expecting to leave a message.

“Hello.” The woman’s voice was wary.

“Ms. Price. This is Reese Decody. We spoke a few weeks ago about your experience working with Dr. Sedgewick.”

“I don’t really have anything to add to what I told you before.”

“I wasn’t entirely open when we spoke.” Silence met Reese’s words.

Hayes’s voice drifted from the bedroom. “No, Eden, you won’t do that. The care providers don’t take orders from you because you don’t pay their bills.”

His sister then. Her attention returned to the woman on the other end of her call.

“My interest in Dr. Sedgewick isn’t related to my work.

I’m actually on bereavement leave from my job.

” That’s how Gordon referred to her absence because her editor refused to believe she wouldn’t return to the paper.

“The reason I’m seeking more information on Sedgewick is because she’s my brother’s psychiatrist at a mental health facility near here. ”

“Well, that’s the last thing I was expecting you to say.

” The woman was silent for a moment before adding, “Call me back on a video call. I’d rather do this face-to-face.

” She disconnected abruptly, and Reese placed a FaceTime call to Price’s number.

A moment later, a middle-aged woman’s countenance filled the screen.

The nurse was short and stocky, with her straight dark hair pulled away from her face in a ponytail.

She studied Reese with equally dark eyes.

“I guess you look like your byline picture. But you cut your hair.”

“About a year and a half ago.”

“After you were rescued from that killer?”

With effort, Reese tried to banish the tension the question summoned. Price had done some of her own research since their last conversation. “Yes.”

The woman’s face softened. “That had to have been hell. Looks like you’ve recently gone through more.” Reese stared at her for a moment before recalling her appearance with the bandages and abrasions on her face. “You said Dr. Sedgewick is treating your brother?”

She was all too ready to shift from the personal observations.

“He’s been in residential facilities since he was a teen.

But she’s been treating him for a dozen years.

The conservator of his trust died recently, and I’ve applied to take her place.

I’m trying to play catch-up. Gain some insight into all aspects of his care. ”

“That’s a lot of history to go through. Okay.” Price sat down in a comfortable-looking easy chair. “What else do you want to know?”

“I was wondering if you could elaborate on what you told me before about how Sedgewick came to leave the job early when you worked together.”

“It’s not like I was in on the administrative decision-making,” the nurse replied. “All I know is what I heard. You’re probably familiar with workplace gossip.”

“But you worked directly with her,” Reese pressed. “Interacted with her patients. You formed your own impressions to go with the speculation.”

Price looked away for a moment. “This is still off the record?”

“It is.”

“Okay. It’s been over twelve years. My memory isn’t that fresh.

She was very professional. Polished, you know?

Perfectly pleasant, but I don’t think anyone really knew her well.

” Her shoulders bounced. “That’s no problem.

Not every doc is buddy-buddy with the staff.

The one thing I do still recall is that there was talk about her methods. ”

“Regarding treatments?”

She nodded. “And I heard whispers well before she was…separated from her position. Have you ever heard of aggressive role play therapy?”

“No.”

Another snippet of conversation drifted from the other room, only discernible because Hayes was speaking more loudly than she’d ever heard him.

“That’s right. And I’m not giving you the combination to it.

There’s no reason you’d need to get into the safe.

” From the little he’d said about his sister, she could imagine too well what the two were discussing.

“It’s a therapeutic technique where the patients are guided through scenarios involving aggressive behaviors in a controlled setting.

The idea behind it is to allow them to express and process their feelings with the therapist. To understand the triggers and patterns behind their behavior, develop coping mechanisms, and so on. ”

“That makes sense.”

“It can be useful. But the most crucial part of the technique is in the processing and reflection with the therapist afterward. And the rumbles that I heard were about her patients not being properly deescalated following the sessions. A few had their violent outbursts increase. They attacked staff more frequently. Now this is where I get into gossip.” Price pulled her feet up into the chair to sit cross-legged.

“I heard administration spoke to her about their concerns more than once. And whatever she told them…the incidents didn’t decrease.

Ultimately, maybe admin thought her refusal to change her techniques wasn’t in the patients’ best interests.

” She shrugged. “And that’s really as much as I can recall. ”

After thanking her, Reese hung up, staring at the wall without seeing it.

The information probably didn’t apply to Ben.

Although he’d certainly been aggressive with her when she was little, his main problems were the delusions and paranoia he’d been dealing with.

She’d assume that his treatment would focus on dissipating both.

But without access to his progress notes, she had no way of knowing for sure. And she wouldn’t be getting them until Gibbons received Julia’s iCloud and Calendar contents.

The phone on the desk under the wall-hung TV rang.

Mystified, Reese got up to answer it just as Hayes stalked out of the bedroom.

Her focus split between him and the message the front desk was relaying.

“Thanks.” She hung up and watched Hayes scoop up the beer bottles from the table and set them in the sink before returning to take a long draw from his water.

“Everything okay with your gran?”

“She’s fine. I get updates from her care providers every day. Check in with her every week.”

But he hadn’t been talking to his grandmother. And because he didn’t offer any more information, Reese swallowed her questions. He was as tense as she’d ever seen him. “That was the front desk.” She gestured toward the phone. “They’re holding some deliveries for you.”

He set the bottle down and strode toward the door. “I’ll get them.”

She followed him to close and lock the entrance behind him, wondering about his sister.

His twin. She knew better than anyone how different siblings could be from one another, whether minutes or years separated them in age.

Going to her computer, she used the intervening time to send an email to her insurance agent about the total loss of her vehicle.

She hoped there wasn’t a separate rider required for car bomb protection.

Julia’s Equinox was intact, so Reese could use that while she waited for the claim to be settled.

Hayes had been firm about not taking her aunt’s vehicle to the motel, choosing a rideshare instead. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to rely on a familiar car, but it made her itchy, knowing they’d have to wait on an app ride if they needed to leave here quickly.

She heard someone approaching in the hallway and got up to look out the peephole. Reese flipped the security latch and undid the dead bolt. “Looks like Christmas came early.”

Hayes was carrying some packages. She moved aside to allow him entry. “I just had them dropped at the front desk, rather than give out our room number.”

He handed her an insulated envelope and took the boxes to the table, pulling out a pocketknife to open them. Reese withdrew a car fob and two keys from the envelope and held them up. “Does this mean you had a vehicle delivered?”

“A black Suburban. It’ll be in the south parking lot.”

He opened one box and withdrew a handgun and holster. The second held ammunition.

“I don’t suppose the SDPD was too forgiving of having their loaned weapon blown up.”

Hayes expertly loaded the gun. “Mendes had that sent along. But you can be sure the agency has already relayed payment for the loss of the one today. The PD won’t incur any expenses on our behalf.”

They were tabulating plenty to investigate the mini-crime wave she seemed to have set off in the last several days. Reese left the contents she’d unpacked on the counter and threw away the envelope they’d arrived in, giving him the gist of what she’d learned from Price.