Page 96 of The Fix

He brought his cursor to the box and typed:

Is this Josephine Kiss?

A second clicked by, two, before a single word appeared:

Yes

Rex’s heart jumped. He was right. “Well, hello, Josephine,” he murmured.Do you need assistance?he typed.

Yes

Rex paused, trying to determine the best, most expedient way to get the information he needed. But she must have been a few steps ahead of him, because she began typing first.

Dr. Gerhard Ellingson

It took her several tries to get the name out as she paused and backed up more than once.

And then again, before he responded, she typed another line.

Broward Art Auction

Rex waited, but she seemed to be done, and he sensed that she was now waiting for him.

Waiting for him to figure out what she was communicating with those two names—one a person and one an event. And how knowing about those two things would help him help her. It must be somewhat straightforward. There was no reason Josephine would use riddles.

I’ll be right back,he typed.

Rex opened up another browser and typed in the name of the doctor. Gerhard Ellingson was a physician who specialized in spinal cord injuries and practiced in the DC area. Okay, so he was likely Josephine’s doctor? He sat there for a moment, stretching his fingers as he considered what this meant and how knowing the name of her doctor might assist him. Did she have an appointment? Somethingoccurred to him. He picked up his phone and dialed the office number, and an answering service picked up.

“Yes, hi,” he said. “I’m calling on behalf of Josephine Kiss. She has an appointment with Dr. Ellingson.”

He waited, breath suspended as the woman on the line hummed as though she was looking up that information. “Yes, sir. The house call tomorrow morning at eight a.m.? It’s the doctor’s first appointment with the patient? Is there a problem?”

“Yes, actually. I’m sorry to say something has come up, and Ms. Kiss will need to reschedule.”

“I’ll let the doctor know, sir. What date would you like instead?”

“I’ll have to call back once I have Ms. Kiss’s calendar in front of me. I just wanted to ensure the doctor knew tonight so he doesn’t make the trip unnecessarily.”

“Absolutely. I’ll make sure he knows. And he’ll look forward to making Ms. Kiss’s acquaintance in the near future.”

Rex hung up, blood buzzing as he began to understand the plan Josephine had obviously already come up with.

Rex looked up the auction next, finding that it was an event that was held every year in London. An event that happened to be tomorrow evening. Rex scrolled through the site, stopping when he got to the list of the board of directors. “Anton Kiss,” he murmured.

Her brother was on the board of the art auction that would be held tomorrow night in London. He’d have almost certainly left the country already. He would not be home.

Okay. Rex wasn’t certain why that part was important but apparently it was.

He looked up as a member of the janitorial staff exited a closet just down the hall from where Rex was sitting in the open lobby. He caught sight of a white coat hanging inside.

Rex returned to Hollis’s internal website, where the reply box was still open, cursor blinking.

I understand,he typed. And then he logged off.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Posey was good at waiting. She’d been waiting for decades now, since she was an eighteen-year-old girl. But never, in all that time, had her hope soared quite as high as it did now.