“I understand.” She glanced at the clock. “I should go.”
“All right. Remember.” He waited until she met his eyes to continue. “If at any time you feel physically threatened, you say ‘I’ve had enough’ and we’ll be in there in seconds.”
“Okay.”
He stared at her, but he didn’t get out of the car as she’d expected he would. Instead he grabbed her face in his hands and kissed her. Soft at first, then harder, desperately. Her heart reacted.
“Be careful,” he murmured against her lips.
She nodded. “I will.”
He got out of her car and headed toward the van one of his friends had lent him for this impromptu sting.
Sting. CJ had never been involved in a sting. She closed her eyes a moment to clear her head. She couldn’t screw it up.
“You can do this,” she mumbled as she started her car. She drove the short distance to the clinic and parked. No other vehicles were in the parking area or on the street near the clinic. Relief washed over her. The point of arriving early was to ensure Nash didn’t get here first. The listening device and the videotape were in her bag. She grabbed the bag and headed for the front entrance.
Stay in the lobby, she reminded herself. Hand shaking, she unlocked the door and went inside. She left the door unlocked. She wanted Tyrone to enter that door as well.
After a quick survey of the lobby, she placed the listening device on the reception desk. It was no larger than a credit card. With the calendar and sign-in board on the desk, the device wasn’t even noticeable.
She thought about taking the video out of her bag but decided to wait until Tyrone demanded to see it before doing that. On second thought, she figured she’d better take a look at the VCR control. Maybe even turn it on. The last thing she wanted to do was stick that tape in there and press the wrong button.
Her nose wiggled. What was that smell?
As if all other thought had vanished and her cognitive powers had zeroed in on the smell, her brain instantly analyzed the scent.
Blood.
She moved toward the corridor that led past the exam rooms and ultimately to the back door. Braddock had told her to stay in the lobby, but this was ... weird. Once she entered that narrow corridor the smell was overpowering. A dim light glowed from the last exam room on the right, the one where the X-ray machine was.
She flipped on the corridor’s overhead light. Her heart jolted hard. Bloody shoe prints led from that exam room to the back door.
“Oh God.”
She was moving, walking toward that end of the corridor before her brain kicked into gear. This couldn’t be happening. Not again. Tyrone wasn’t here yet. There were no cars in the parking lot. No one else was supposed to be here.
She stopped at the door to that final room on the right. A bloody handprint on the doorframe at her eye level caused her to blink. Her heart stumbled. Then she looked into the room, toward the exam table in the corner.
“Jesus Christ.” The floor shifted beneath her feet. She grabbed the doorframe.
Juanita Lusk, her body stripped naked, lay on the exam table. A lateral incision had been made across the lower part of her abdomen.
CJ rushed to the exam table. Slipped. Almost fell. Blood was all over the floor, had dripped down the end and sides of the exam table to create a wide pool. It was thick. Coagulated. Had been there a while. More of those shoe prints.
Juanita’s body was cool to the touch. Grayish pale. Her arms were restrained above her head with layers and layers of gauze. Her feet were stationed in the stirrups and restrained in the same manner.
CJ knew she should call Braddock, but she couldn’t move. Couldn’t respond. A section of lower intestine drooped between the poor woman’s spread legs.Dear God, who would have done this?
As if the talons of fear had suddenly released her, CJ started to move, backing away from the horror in front of her. She lost herbalance. Fell backward, hitting the tile floor on her hands and butt. “Braddock,” she whispered.
Scream.
She couldn’t.
Her hands and feet scrambled for purchase on the blood-slickened floor.
Get up! Get out of here!
