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Blood bubbled out of his mouth. He took in a hard breath, husbanding the last of his strength, straining against the power of his own death.
“One last surprise.” He smiled.
Chapter 101
CHIMERA WAS DEAD. It was over, thank God.
I had no idea what Coombs had meant, but I wanted to spit his words back in his face. One last surprise… Whatever it was, Chimera was gone. He couldn’t hurt us anymore.
I hoped it didn’t mean he had left one last victim before he died.
“C’mon, Lieutenant,” Jacobi muttered. He gently pulled me up.
Suddenly, my legs buckled. I felt as if I had no control over the lower part of my body. I saw the look of alarm on Warren’s face. “You’re hit,” he uttered, wide-eyed.
I looked down at my side. Jacobi peeled back my jacket, and a wet red gash appeared on my right abdomen. All of a sudden my head began to spin. A current of nausea rose.
“We need help here,” Jacobi shouted to the EMS tech. He and Cappy eased me back to the ground.
I found myself staring over at Coombs, as the female tech who had peeled away the dead man’s shirt rushed over to me. God, this was so unreal. They took off my jacket, slapped a blood pressure monitor on my arm. It was as if it were happening to somebody else.
My gaze stayed fixed on the killer, the goddamn Chimera. Something a little strange, something not tracking. What was it?
I pulled myself out of Jacobi’s grip. “I have to see something….”
He held me back. “You have to stay right here, Lindsay. There’s an ambulance on the way.”
I pulled away from Jacobi. I got up and went over to the body. Coombs’s police uniform had been peeled back off of his chest and arms. Raw wounds spotted his chest. But something was missing; something was all wrong. What was it?
“Oh, my God, Warren,” I whispered. “Look.”
“Look at what?” Jacobi frowned. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Warren… there’s no tattoo.”
My mind flashed back. Claire had discovered pigment from the killer’s tattoo under Estelle Chipman’s fingernails.
I put my hands underneath Coombs’s shoulders and rolled him slightly. There was nothing on his back. No tattoos anywhere.
My mind was whirling. This was unthinkable—but Coombs couldn’t be Chimera.
Then I passed out.
Chapter 102
I OPENED MY EYES in a hospital room, feeling the constraining pull of the IV line stuck in my arm.
Claire was standing over me.
“You are a lucky girl,” she said. “I talked to the doctors. Bullet grazed your right abdomen but didn’t lodge. What you’ve basically got is one of the nastiest floor burns you’ll ever see.”
“I heard floor burns go well with powder blue, don’t they?” I said softly, my lips parting in a weak smile.
Claire nodded, tapping the taped bandage on her neck. “So I’m told. Anyway, congratulations…. You’ve earned yourself a cozy desk job for the next couple of weeks.”
“I already have a desk job, Claire,” I said. I blinked a confused look around the hospital room, then I pulled myself up into a sitting position. My side ached as if it were on fire.
“You did good, girl.” Claire squeezed my arm. “Coombs is dead, and now safely ensconced in hell. There’s a mob of people outside who want to talk with you. You’re gonna have to get used to the accolades.”
