“Oh, it’s far from simple.” She let loose a small laugh. “It’s messy as hell, but it’s our mess.”
Jenna popped her head around the corner. “There you are. I’m all done with Ollie’s cast. He’s eager for some signatures and I told him I’d find a cool superhero sticker for him. There’s one in my office I know he’ll love.”
Cody fed his dollar to the machine and got the paper cup then hurried with Katherine down the hall.
“Knock, knock,” Katherine said, stepping inside.
He lingered in the hallway, not wanting to intrude.
She glanced over her shoulder. “Come on in. We’ll get the best spots for our names and piss off my family even more.”
“Perfect.” He entered the room, and his stomach sank at the sight of Ollie in the big hospital bed. Bright red scratches marred his face. “How you holdin’ up, bud?”
“Good now. I’ve got this cool cast and a new stuffy. I think his name is Snitch. Maybe like Lilo and Stitch,” he said, lifting his shoulders nearly to his ears.
Frowning, Katherine rounded the bed and ran a hand over the brown stuffed rodent of some kind sitting on Ollie’s lap. “Did Grandpa bring you this?”
Ollie shook his head. “No. Some other guy. I think he works here, but he wanted me to have it.”
Intuition tingled the base of Cody’s spine, but he tried to keep the fear from his face. “Can I see it?”
Ollie handed it over.
Cody turned the fuzzy toy over and spied a name tag stuck to the fur. The wordSnitchwas written in large block letters, the same as the threat attached to the clock thrown into Katherine’s living room.
He cleared all traces of emotion from his throat and handed the toy to Katherine. “Katherine, while you stay here with Ollie I’m going to find your brother. Lock the door behind me.”
Understanding lit her eyes, and she pasted a tight smile on her mouth.
He fled the room then ran down the hall. Katherine’s attacker was inside the hospital, and he had to figure out where he’d gone before he slipped right through Cody’s fingers.
14
Cody’s pulse raced faster with each barreling footstep down the wide, hospital hallway. He was looking for a man who could have slipped into Ollie’s room unnoticed. Someone Ollie thought worked for the hospital.
A doctor at the end of the hallway turned in the opposite direction, and Cody picked up his pace. He ignored an irritated gasp from a female nurse who pushed an older woman in a wheelchair. He couldn’t worry about proper etiquette right now.
He rounded the corner and closed the distance between him and a tall man dressed in blue scrubs. Reaching out, he grabbed the back of the man’s shirt and yanked him backward.
“What the hell?” the man yelled and spun around, fists raised high.
The familiar face of Dr. Manning met him, and Cody took a step backward, shoving a hand through his hair. “Sorry. I’m looking for a guy pretending to work here.”
“Sorry. I actually do work here and have a patient to see.”
Cody glanced up and down the hall and spotted a janitorial cart abandoned by the wall. He ran to it, peeking into the room beside it to see if anyone was inside.
Empty.
He studied the cart. A black-tipped marker rested on top of a crumpled sheet of waxy paper—the kind of paper peeled off the back of a name tag.
Shit.
A quick scan of the hallway showed a camera mounted in the far corner. He needed footage, and he needed it fast. He sprinted to the security office by the emergency waiting room.
Gus sat at the desk and kept an eye on the screens in front of him. He dipped his fingers into a glass dish and plucked out peanuts, popping them into his mouth as he watched.
“I need you to pull up footage of the south hall.”
