Page 47 of Booked for Murder

“Probably. That’s one hell of a debt to repay.”

“That’s cool. So, case number three.”

“You were in physical therapy at the time. The killing happened two weeks after I mistakenly suggested you should come back when you were back in your prime.”

“You’re an idiot,” his mother muttered.

“Yes, yes. I’m an idiot. I meant to challenge her, not goad her into running off and becoming a librarian.”

Beatrice leaned close and whispered in my ear, “After being with them all morning and through the afternoon, I would have run away and become a librarian, too. They’re nuts.”

No kidding. I whispered back, “This is only scratching at the surface of their crazy.”

“You poor thing. I’m so sorry I’ve been rude to you. I had no idea how much bullshit you’ve dealt with in your life.”

“Don’t you dare change a thing, bitch.”

She grinned at me.

“All right. Challenges or goading aside, it is easily confirmed I could not have committed the first three of the murders. Number six I wasn’t close enough to do it, and there are a lot of witnesses who saw me elsewhere at the time of his death, correct?”

“Correct. Your abilities are documented sufficiently that you couldn’t have killed him. You would have been in visual range within a single block of the site of the killing. You were at least six blocks away at the time of death, possibly farther away,” Bradley confirmed.

“I might have still been in my apartment for that matter.”

“It’s possible, although I suspect you had already left for work at the time of the killing. The police response time was very short, and I was near the Met when I got the call, so it didn’t take me long to get there. We can walk through the specific timeline later, but you were eliminated as a suspect within ten minutes. You just don’t have the right skillsets, and you as your new alias simply was not present at the scene of the crimes.”

“That leaves two more murders.”

“Those are the hairy ones, as there is no documented record of where you were with both of them. The kill style essentially eliminates you, as there is zero evidence that you can kill someone in the same fashion. Your kill method is rather unique even among exsanguinators. You are precise, but you have honed your skills to positively influence blood, for all you’re skilled with effectively dispatching people. If they’re trying to frame you, they either neglected to consider your medical training and interest or didn’t know about your work at the hospital.”

“Which implies if I am a target, they are getting their information purely from the media.”

“And the media, in a rare show of good faith, has kept silent about your hospital work. You have a mention in the paper for saving a cop’s life, but you are literally listed as a good Samaritan who happened to be at the scene and had medical training. Your rank and talent weren’t mentioned. The police requested it of the media, and for whatever reason, the media agreed. The media is aware of your activities at the ER, but they have kept quiet about it.”

I found that to be odd. “But why?”

“I don’t know. It’s definitely unusual for the media to ignore a good story like that. I suspect it has something to do with you being an exsanguinator. The public might become afraid of making use of the ER if they’re aware there are exsanguinators who just hang out in the lobby looking for bleeding people.” Bradley grinned at me. “There are a lot of people who still think you drink blood.”

Ew. “That’s disgusting. If the blood hasn’t gone through the liver or spleen yet, it’s dirty. Why would anyone want to drink dirty blood? And even after it’s gone through the liver or spleen, it becomes dirty again really quickly. Blood is not exactly clean, Bradley.”

“Do I want to know?”

I nodded. “Blood carries nutrition through your entire body. With the exception of the digestive system, your blood is involved with all processes of your body. The bone marrow? Produces your blood. Your brain? Takes oxygen from your blood to survive. Glands and minor organs? Either work with your blood to fight off infection or disease. People like saying the brain is the main and most important organ of the body, but without your blood, you’re fucked. A blood disease? That will hurt your entire body in one fell swoop. If your blood isn’t healthy, you’re not healthy—and there’s a lot of stuff that can get into your blood. If you have an infection, evidence of it can be found in your blood. Sometimes, the hospital would get me and take me upstairs to help somebody who wasn’t in the trauma ward because of infections. I can help with stuff like sepsis in the blood. Once sepsis is in the blood, people go downhill fast, and their odds of survival plummet. I can purge someone’s bloodstream in about an hour. I can also fast track transfusions because I can moderate how the body reacts to the sudden increase or decrease of blood volume. My record is five minutes per pint, and I can prevent all symptoms of transfusion. It usually takes one to four hours depending on volume and patient.”

“What I don’t get is how you learned how to do this,” Bradley’s mother admitted. “You never did get to go to medical school.”

“Cows,” I announced, unable to hide the pride in my voice. “I learned on cows, horses, and farm animals. I started at a slaughterhouse. They wanted to know if an exsanguinator could improve conditions for the animals. The answer is yes, we can. Once I mastered better blood control on farm animals, I got vets to let me work with pets and other domesticated animals. After I mastered that, I worked up to humans. I piggybacked on the experiments Bradley wanted as part of my general bodyguard training. If he was injured while on duty, I wanted to be prepared.”

Bradley’s mother raised a brow. “That’s where you were going on your days off? To a slaughterhouse?”

“That’s right.”

“You learned how to save human lives butchering cows.”

“Correct.”

“You brought home those steaks and roasts you sometimes got from the butcher, didn’t you? You weren’t going to the grocery store.”