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“No.” He turns on his heels with a growl, stops when he finds Doctor Kirk standing just six feet away, then he charges back toward the elevators, darting inside the moment the steel doors part.
“Get me the diary entry.” The moment the elevator leaves our level and takes the mayor away, I spin and herd Aubree back into the autopsy room. “Get it for me. Right now.”
“I left it in your office.” She tears off her disposable protective gown and jams it into the trash, then dashing out of the autopsy room, she skids on the tiles because she runs so fast.
While she’s gone, I turn back to Carlene and make quick work of tidying what we’ve started. I remove the retractor in her chest and close her Y incision. Before I can do more, Aubree skids back into the room with the diary entry wrapped in plastic.
“Here!” Her breath races as she hands it off. “What else do you need?”
“Magnifying glass.” I move to the back wall that overlooks the city, pull out a stool so I can sit and take the weight from my still-sore legs, then I use the afternoon sunlight to help me see better.
Flipping the sheet of paper over, I work on the angles until I catch sight of indentations from the later pages. “Get a pen and paper.”
When Aubree hands me a microscope instead of a magnifying glass, I adapt the plan I had in mind and slide the diary onto the stage. Pressing my eyes to the ocular lens, I slowly bring each indent into focus. “E… n… o… l… a…” Stopping, I glance up at Aubree. “You getting this?”
She presses her lips together and nods. “Every single letter. Keep going.”
“E… e… v… a… e… l…” Frowning, I skip over a small section that suggests there was a word there, but Louisa wasn’t pressing down hard enough on the paper to make a mark on this page. “T… n… a…”
My phone trills in my coat pocket, so I hold the diary entry with my left hand, and reach into my pocket with my right.
Accepting the call and setting it on speaker, I drop the device on the counter and keep going. “R… space… e… This is Doctor Mayet.”
“It’s me.” Archer’s voice is low and dangerous. “Where are you?”
“At the George Stanley. Did you find the diary?”
“No. We didn’t get to search long because we were called away.”
“Because Garry died? L…” I speak for Aubree. “C…”
“How’d you know he died?”
“Mayor Asshole was just here screeching at us. N… U… He basically acknowledged Garry hurt Louisa. Then he demanded the diary entry. We told him you have it.”
Archer pauses for a moment. “I don’t have it.”
“I know. I have it. I’m reading the other side now.”
“The other side?” Horns honk wherever Archer is. Cars idle, and music plays somewhere in the distance. “There’s a picture on the other side.”
“Yeah, but there’s also the indentations of what she wrote on the page after that. I’m working through them now, but Tribble was demanding the page and getting grabby.”
“He got grabby?” Archer snaps. “He grabbed you, Minka?”
“Then Aubree stepped in and saved the day.” Grinning, I work on the next word. “T… n… a… Mayor’s probably gonna call you to demand the page. Play dumb. Do whatever you have to do. I’m getting closer over here. W.”
“We got the weapon.”
Archer’s words suck the air out of the room, so I push up straight and look to Aubree. “What?”
“The broomstick,” he grits out. “CSIs have bagged and tagged it. It’s on its way to you already.”
“Where’d you find it?”
“That’s just it,” he murmurs. “It was on the kitchen counter inside the Thoma home.”
“What?” Aubree exclaims. “That’s ridiculous.”
