Page 84 of Wild Fever

“Crypto.”

“Online wallet?”

“Yeah.”

“Where’s your phone?”

His face wrinkled. “Why?”

“I need access to your crypto wallet.”

“Hell no! I ain’t giving you access to that.”

“I need to find out who paid you.”

He glared at me with uncertainty.

“You’re running out of time, buddy.”

After a beat, he said, “Babe, give him my phone.”

Her brow knitted. “No!”

“Babe, do it!”

She grabbed his phone from her purse and handed it to me. It didn’t have biometrics enabled. A keypad appeared when I tried to access the device.

“What’s your passcode?”

After a reluctant moment, Rick told me, and I tapped it in. The screen cleared, and I thumbed through his device until I found his crypto wallet and opened it. I scanned the recent transactions. Sure enough, there was a BTC transfer that coincided with the date of the murder.

“They never paid the rest,” he grumbled. “Bastards.”

“Should have gotten it all upfront,” I said. Then I muttered aside, “Shouldn’t have taken the job.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he muttered. “You said I was poisoned. Where's this antidote?"

It was a bit problematic. I knew there was no way Dr. Parker would administer a stolen drug, off-label, and unproven. Yet, Kara was living proof the antidote worked.

I pulled out my phone, launched the camera app, and framed Rick up.

His face twisted. “What are you doing?”

I ignored his question and snapped a photo, then texted it to Isabella.

I pulled Dr. Parker aside, and we stepped into the hallway. He’d been there for Rick's confession. I told Dr. Parker about the poison and the antidote, omitting the part that we stole it.

His reply was not surprising. "Under no circumstances can I allow an off-label drug to be used in this situation. I’d lose my license, and it would open the hospital up to liability.”

"He's going to die.”

“I can't disagree with that. He's on the fast track.”

"Didn’t you take an oath to do no harm?”

Dr. Parker's face tightened. "Where did this drug come from?"

"You don't want to know. But it's in clinical trials now."