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“Surprised?”
“A little. ”
“By the time she reaches the door, she’ll already have a backstory worked out for her character, and she’ll have some specific medical problem that fits in with what they normally see. ”
“But she won’t be sick. ”
“Doesn’t matter. A lot of people coming into these places aren’t, they just want drugs. It’s pretty much foolproof,” Joe said. Just then, Bryn’s phone rang, and she put it on the console between them and pressed the speaker button. “Riley, you’re on, we’re here. ”
Riley must have been holding the phone to ear while standing at some sort of reception desk, because she said, “Hold on,” and then, “Yeah, I need to see a doc. My back hurts real bad. ”
The receptionist sounded muffled and world-weary, but clear enough. “Fill in these forms here. Have you been before?”
“Yeah, I saw Doc—um, Ziegler, maybe?”
“Dr. Ziegler’s here,” the receptionist said. “Take a seat. We’ll call you. ”
Riley’s clothes rustled, and then she said in a low voice, “I’m on the list. Will redial when they call me back. ”
“Riley, no, don’t hang up—” But it was too late, and Bryn was talking to a dial tone. “Dammit. ”
“She’s trying to save on battery power,” Joe said. “It’s a clinic. Could be an hour before she sees anybody but homeless dudes and crying kids. ”
“It could be seconds before they drag her off, if Ziegler was a hot name,” Bryn said. “Right?”
“Not arguing that, but we have to let this play out. It ain’t Riley’s first prom. ”
“Maybe not, but this is the Fountain Group, and they’re not playing, Joe. ”
He thought about it for a second, then sighed and nodded. “Okay, you win. Check that first aid kit there for bandages. ”
“Uh—okay?” She opened the kit built into the wheel well and pulled out a roll of gauze. “This?”
“Yep, that’ll do. Spool some off and get ready. ”
“For what?”
“This,” he said, and pulled out his combat knife from a wrist sheath. Before she could ask what he was about to do, he sliced a cut in his forehead, above the eyebrow. It was about half an inch long, but the blood immediately sheeted out down his face in a shiny red stream, pooling around his eyes, snaking down his chin and pattering in thick drops on his shirt. It kept coming, a steady red rain, and she was mesmerized by it. Glad I ate, she thought, because the smell of the blood tantalized.
“Old fighter trick,” he said. “You can give me the gauze now. ”
She blinked, flinched, and handed it over with guilty haste. He pressed it to his forehead and said, “How do I look?”
“Gruesome,” she said.
“Excellent. I’m just going to lurk. This cut’ll seal itself in about thirty minutes; all I need is a couple of butterfly bandages and a cleanup, but it gives me an excuse to sit and watch Riley. ”
“Be careful,” she said.
“My phone will be on,” he said. “You hear me say the word wife, get your ass in there, because something will be on fire. Probably me. ”
She nodded, and then Joe got out and walked toward the clinic. Like Riley, he did a good job of selling his distress, but instead of looking like someone in need of a fix, he walked fast, a little unsteadily, like a man urgently in need of help.
Her phone rang when he was still outside the door, and when she put it on speaker he said, “Going in, radio silence. ”
She listened as he did the same exchange with the receptionist, who sounded just as disinterested with a bloody man as she did with drug-seekers, though at least she asked him a few more triage questions. He sold it just enough to need to see a doctor but not enough to be rushed through to the front of the line, and Bryn heard him settle into a chair. “In place,” he said in a low voice. “Riley’s secure. . . . Wait one. ”
In the distance, Bryn heard
