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L ogic receded as if drawn by an inexorable tide. For a moment, Reese’s mind was wiped blank, refusing to grapple with an unimaginable ugliness. Then reason returned in a rush that threatened to drown her.

“You killed Ben!”

“Q and A’s over.” Gingerly, Sedgewick put the weapon in her pocket. Bent to grab Reese’s ankles with both hands.

She evaded the woman’s efforts, drew her feet back, and kicked out with all the force she could muster, striking her in the thighs. The doctor stumbled against the counter, wincing as her hip struck it hard.

“Son of a bitch!” Rubbing it with her free hand, she glared at Reese. “Your death will be slow and agonizing. But that doesn’t mean we can’t start now. I could put a bullet in your knee and you probably won’t bleed out.”

She dropped the weapon in her pocket, grabbed Reese’s feet, and hauled her backward, pushing the door open with her momentum. “Watch your head,” she said sarcastically as Reese bumped over the doorjamb and down the hall. “Wouldn’t want to chance a concussion.”

Ben is dead. Ben is dead. The thought richoceted in her mind, disbelief warring with rage.

Or was Sedgewick lying about that? No. The certainty was a venomous pool in her chest. Was that what Kervin wanted to tell her?

The pictures he’d sent. The big news. Scam.

Lies. She’d assumed he was talking about fraud but not homicide.

“Why? What possible reason would you have to murder him?”

“For heaven’s sake, why would I kill off a major cash flow?

Although he wasn’t much fun to toy with.

So deep into his delusions. So paranoid.

But after years of therapy, he did hate you even more than when he arrived.

I made sure of that.” She smiled. Deliberately took the corner to the hall short, so Reese rammed her shoulder into the wall trying to twist around it.

“But it was the NMS that got him. Maybe we waited a bit too long to get him to the hospital, but they’re pricey.

Do you have any idea what his stay there cost?

And then they wanted him to go to a rehab center.

There was no reason to waste more funds when I could hire a couple extra staff to care for him.

” She quickened her pace now, the bumping and jolting driving a knife of pain to Reese’s ribs.

Stopping before the opened door to the aquamation room, Sedgewick paused a moment, as if to catch her breath, and then tugged Reese through the doorway, unceremoniously dumping her on the concrete floor. “Good God, you haven’t started yet?”

Blake turned away from the shiny metal vessel. “Just about ready.”

Kervin lay crumpled on the floor only feet away from her.

Reese looked from him to the machine with growing horror.

When Hayes and she had checked inside earlier, the room was dark.

The machine still. But now a red light glowed brightly.

Clock-faced dials were illuminated. “You can’t possibly be thinking… He’s still alive! Feel his pulse!”

“Not for long. Blake is a quick study. He can learn just about anything when he puts his mind to it. The dark web. Identity theft. Purchasing poison. Aquamation.”

The man threw Sedgewick a look filled with dislike. “Why are you telling her all that?”

“She’s throwing you under the bus.” Maybe if Reese could turn them against each other, she could save Kervin and herself from hideous deaths.

“She’s planning to leave you holding the bag for all of this.

Ask yourself why she’s wearing gloves and you aren’t.

Her prints won’t show up anywhere. Have you considered your blood is all over in here?

Even if you clean it up, the police can find evidence of?—”

The doctor scooped up the thick bloodied paper towel pad from the floor that Chen had discarded.

Wadded it in her hand and bent to shove it in Reese’s mouth.

“She’s just babbling. There’ll be no reason for them to suspect a crime ever occurred here, so why would the police look for prints?

I’ll give you a hand lifting him onto the gurney so you can get him into the vessel. Then I have a phone call to make.”

It took longer than it should to reach the rear entrance to the building.

There was a disconnect between Hayes’s brain and his nervous system.

His foot refused to rise when he came to the curb.

He tripped and went sprawling. Reese. Her name rapped at his skull in a dull drumbeat.

Get to Reese. He crawled the rest of the way to the structure.

Pulled himself up by grabbing the knob. Cracking the door open, he peered inside.

The room was dark. He recalled the desk they’d run by earlier.

Tried to remember what side of the room it was on.

Hayes stepped inside. Swayed and slapped a hand on the doorjamb to steady himself.

Lurching to the right, he found the desk he’d recalled.

He searched the surface with his hand and discovered a phone system.

A single button began to glow. He stabbed it with his index finger and lifted the receiver. Heard it ring multiple times.

“Yeah.”

“It’s time, Stephen. Your time. Come now. To the place I showed you.” The call ended, but Hayes remained frozen. Even with the fog in his brain he knew who Stephen was.

The woman who’d attacked him was summoning Stephen Thorne.

He ran his fingers over the system. Found multiple buttons, which meant multiple lines.

There’d be cordless headsets scattered through the building. Pressing a different key, he tapped in three numbers.

“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”

“Officer down.” What was the address? He squeezed his eyes shut, searching his memory, but failed.

“Cremation and Aquamation funeral home. Outside Escondido. Officer outside in cruiser. Back lot. Rear entrance to building open. Victim inside. One or two suspects.” Hard to know at this point if Kervin had turned on Reese, or if both of them were at the woman’s mercy.

His brain backed up. Woman suspect. Dr. Sedgewick? The dispatcher was speaking. He interrupted to add, “The policeman is Nolan Starr.”

“What’s your name, sir?”

“Hayes Moreland.”

“What is the officer’s condition?”

Condition. His mind blanked for a moment. Hayes shook his head to clear it. “Overdose likely. He was injected…GHB? Unconscious but has a pulse. Can’t find Narcan.”

“Sir, are you inside or outside?”

“Inside.”

“Are there any other police involved?”

“No. But at least one victim. Critical danger.” His thoughts were doing cartwheels in his head. He pressed the receiver to his chest, trying to collect them, to organize a cohesive message.

“Are the suspects armed?”

“One for sure.” Both Starr and Hayes had their weapons stolen. “Trace last call from here. One suspect summoned another to help.”

“Sir, what’s your location in the building? Do you know where the victim or victims are being held?”

Was that a sound outside the room? Hayes froze, barely daring to breathe.

When he heard nothing else, he whispered, “Contact San Bernadino Deputy Enrico Mendes. Tell him Stephen Thorne is headed here. Hurry.” He hung up.

If someone looked at a phone again, he didn’t want the lit-up line to give him away.

And he’d already wasted too much time. Reese. He had to get to her.

He strode toward the door, running into a chair, and grabbing it before it could topple over and give away his presence.

There was an adjoining exit. It took longer than it should have to find it in the shadows.

Easing it open a wedge, Hayes peeked into the hallway.

It’d been illuminated earlier, but was now dark.

When he drew his weapon, his hand had a tremor.

He cursed silently. The drug was doing a number on his nervous system.

The hallway was long, he recalled with some difficulty.

Lined with doors on either side. Reese had been in the front of the building when he’d left her.

But where was she now? He stepped into the shadowy space and sidled against the wall to the next door, which he opened to listen.

Heard nothing. He repeated the action, sweeping the room beside it.

On his way to the next one, snatches of sound drifted to him.

He practically lunged inside to get out of sight.

“I’m sure as hell not dragging you all the way. Up on your knees. Crawl.” A woman’s voice. Although Hayes strained his ears, he couldn’t hear a reply. “You think you have a choice? Crawl or get shot. Easy decision.”

The wait was interminable. Hayes leaned against the doorjamb, peering through the tiny crack afforded by the door. He didn’t dare open it farther. After a minute, he could hear a slight sound heading his way. Holding his breath, he waited until it grew nearer. Then closer still.

Reese came into view. It was everything Hayes could do to restrain himself from springing out of his hiding place to go to her side. Something was in her mouth. Her hands were bound behind her. Probably ankles, too. A woman followed, weapon in hand. Lisa Sedgewick.

He let them go by before pushing the door wide enough to scan the hall.

Empty. Where was Kervin? Was Sedgewick acting alone?

There was no time to find out. Reese and the doctor continued straight, past the office he’d placed the call from.

He ordered his fragmented mind to focus. They were headed for the garage.

“Stop,” the doctor commanded Reese. She moved in front of her to unlock the door. Pushed it open. Reese lurched against the woman, knocking her off-balance. “What a pain in the ass you are. But not for much longer. Your death will be hideous. Thorne will make sure of that.”