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“Right as rain. They have her in another medical facility, and she’s being guarded well. From what I understand, the district attorney is eager to bargain with her for any information that would lead to the arrest of the killer.”
“Right. We’ll work on that today. Look, I’ll contact Lori and pick her up. We’ll be there soon.”
“What’s happening, Beau?” Lori stepped into the room, wrapping her robe around her, and tying the sash.
“Who’s that now?”
“None of your business, Larry. Find out everything you can about the latest victim. And I’ll want to talk to that nurse.”
“Got it. See you soon. Say hey to Lori for me.” He hung up before he heard the streak of cuss words that followed.
“Beau Walker. Watch your mouth.” Lori laughed at the vexation he couldn’t hide.
Grumbling, Beau told her what Larry had said.
“Don’t worry, Larry won’t say a word to the others. He’ll keep our secret until we’re ready to share.” She moved in and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Standing, he cuddled her close, thrilled that the emotions from the night before hadn’t faded. Wishing he could hoist her into his arms and carry her back to their warm, loving nest, he kissed her deeply and sighed instead.
In as few words as possible, Beau gave her the update and watched her happiness from their earlier lovemaking fade. “Honey, we’ll go and see if Jessi might be willing to share now that there’s been another killing. I had a little talk with her yesterday when she warned me to watch over you. Now that it’s her own life on the line, she might be more willing to tell us what we need to know about the prick who’s now had hisowntaste of bloodletting.”
Lori’s face filled with worry. “And wants her dead. I imagine he’s tying up loose ends.”
“Let’s just hope she sees it that way.”
***
In the office, Beau passed Larry his special coffee and dared him with his glare to say anything personal.
With an innocent grin on his face, Larry opened the discussion, his topic strictly about the case. “So, you’ll be interested to know, the hospital hasn’t been able to find any information about the nurse who went into Jessica’s room. They questioned everyone who was on shift last night. No one’s stepped forward.”
“What about the guard? Can he identify her?”
“Not really. Said he needed to hit the can badly and when he saw a female in uniform pushing a familiar cart, saying she had to take temps, he hardly looked at her face, just told her not to leave until he returned.”
“And did she wait?”
“Yep. And his replacement had arrived also. As soon as she saw him approaching, he said she waved and left him to get on with her work.”
“Okay. Is there another entrance to the room?”
“Nope. It’s on the fourth floor and the window has bars. No escape route other than past the guard who swears that he never left during his shift.”
“Which means our perp had to have dressed like a nurse.” Lori brought up the one explanation the men had bypassed.
Beau put his drink down, swung the legs he had on his desk drawer to the floor, and punched the desktop. “You’re right. Leanne, Mellie’s friend, said he was tall and on the thin side. Why couldn’t he pass for a nurse as long as he had on scrubs.”
“Exactly. He’s younger or Jess wouldn’t have bonded with him. He’s good-looking or Leanne wouldn’t have been intrigued by Jessi’s ability to form an attachment.”
“Goddammit, this murdering bastard has a lot of tricks up his sleeve.”
“Right and we only have two more days to catch him before the school massacres could start again. Only this time, he might be the one carrying the rifle. If so, I wouldn’t hold out a lot of hope for the next shooting to have such a low number of wounded and dead.”
“If your premise is correct and it’s been his need for killing that the others have fed, then unless he has more pawns he’s fashioned to stand in his place, we’ll be primarily dealing with him.”
Lori shook her head, something tickling her memory. “I’m not so sure he’s going to go into a school himself. This dude has stayed in the background on purpose. His own life matters to him. The prick doesn’t want to be killed. Which tends to be the case for most of these shooters when the police close in.”
Larry piped up. “Killed or imprisoned.”
