Page 75

"I can come by. What's your address?" He made a mental note of it and then said, "I'll be there in ten minutes."

"Thank you."

"What was that about? Where are we going?" Rachel asked. "You need to put your phone on speaker when you get calls about the case. And why do you have two phones?"

"That's a lot of questions. First, that was Dr. Prescott looking for David Burke. I had given the number of my second phone to Waverly Health. She says it's urgent that I speak to her before I start the program, and she wants me to come to her house."

"Her house? That seems wrong. This could be a trap, Tyler."

"It could be, but she sounded very tense, stressed, and I can't help but remember what Jack said about her coming to warn him. Maybe she wants to give me the same warning. Maybe she's starting to realize what she's involved in."

"That could mean she'll be willing to tell you everything that's happening. But doesn't that seem a little too easy?"

"It does. But I need to talk to her, so we're going to Chelsea."

"Okay. Maybe we can end it all today."

He wanted to believe that was possible, but like Rachel had just said, it felt too easy.

Ten minutes later, he found a parking place in Chelsea on a block filled with matching two-story brick townhouses. As he turned off the engine, he put his gun and holster on under his jacket, and said to Rachel, "If I tell you to stay here, are you going to do that?"

"No," she said. "But I will promise to stay behind you when we get to her apartment. Honestly, I feel safer going with you than sitting here defenseless in the car."

He let out a sigh. "All right. But stick close to me until we know what we're dealing with."

He took a moment to peruse the street for anyone sitting in a car or lurking in a doorway, but it felt like a quiet, ordinary afternoon in the neighborhood. They walked quickly down the block together and then opened an iron gate leading down to a first-floor garden apartment, which had a separate entrance from the upper townhouse.

When they got to the front door, it was open, and not just open, there was a splash of what looked like blood on the door.

"Stay back," he told a wide-eyed Rachel, who'd clearly also seen the blood. He pushed the door open. "Megan?" he called out. "Are you here?"

Chapter Twenty

Rachel clung to Tyler's back as he stepped into the apartment. It was very quiet until she heard a deep moan of pain.

"Megan," Tyler said, as he rushed forward to the woman lying on her back, covered in blood, in the middle of the living room floor.

Rachel went into doctor mode. She grabbed towels from the kitchen counter and rushed to Megan, falling to her knees next to her. She quickly assessed the situation. Megan had been stabbed multiple times, and there was blood gushing from a wound on her abdomen as well as a gaping wound on her arm.

"I—I think I'm dying," Megan gasped.

Tyler was already on the phone to 911 as Rachel pressed a towel against the wound on Megan's abdomen.

"Hang in there," she told her.

"Ambulance is coming," Tyler said. "What can I do?"

"Keep pressure here, Tyler." She guided his hand down on the towel pressed against Megan's abdomen. Then she jumped up and grabbed a sturdy wooden spoon off the counter and unbuckled her leather belt. She looped the belt high around Megan's upper arm, slipped the handle of the spoon through the loop, and twisted it hard. Megan cried out in pain, but her makeshift windlass brought the arterial pumping down to a trickle.

"You're going to be okay," she told Megan, holding the windlass locked in place.

Megan looked from her to Tyler. "You're Tyler, not David. I thought I recognized you from a photo I saw in Jack's apartment. You served with him, didn't you? Is he alive?"

"Who stabbed you, Megan?" Tyler asked, ignoring her questions.

"He had a mask on. I tried to fight. I couldn't…" Her eyes were starting to roll around in her head.

"Stay with me, Megan," she said forcefully. "Look at me. We're going to help you."