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She lifted her other arm and touched her face. “Is it bad? It feels bad.”
“You’ll heal.”
“Wow. It must be bad.”
“Don’t worry. There’s no one here you need to impress. Can you tell us anything about what happened?”
“I got a message saying they knew who I was and would tell. You can check my phone. It’s still on there. If I still have my phone.”
“Yes,” Turner said. “We recovered it at the crime scene.”
“Sounds like it’s connected to our current job, then,” Will said. “Unless you have other secrets you’re keeping?”
“I have a lot of secrets. I’ve been doing this job a while. But it doesn’t make sense. If they wanted to blackmail me, why beat me up?”
“They found a piece of paper at the scene,” Turner said. “It said, ‘Thanks for your help. Sweet dreams.’ Any idea what it means?”
She thought for a moment. “Yeah. That’s right. He handed that to me before the attack.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know. I couldn’t see his face. There were others there. I think three others. But only the one guy spoke. I didn’t see any faces.”
“Do you know what the note meant?”
“No. None of it makes sense.”
“Maybe it’s simpler than that,” Turner said. “Maybe it was all about luring you there so they could kill you, and the note was someone’s idea of a sick joke.”
“But someone called an ambulance?” Will said.
“Yeah.”
“If they wanted her dead, why not shoot her? Why beat her up and then call an ambulance to save her life?”
“Maybe they thought the job was done, and they wanted to make sure someone found her.”
“Then why not dump me somewhere?” Maddy said. “I know my brains are a muddle of drugs, but nothing is adding up.”
“Could be someone got cold feet and called the ambulance,” Turner said. “Antonio would have wanted you to suffer if he found out the truth of who you were.”
“No,” Will said. “That’s not his style. He’d want to look her in the eyes. And why her? Why not me too? None of this looks like Antonio.”
“I agree,” Maddy said.
A phone on the nearby table rang. “You want me to get that?” Will asked.
“Sure. But I don’t know who it could be.”
Will looked at Turner. “It could be whoever did this wants to gloat.” He picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Who are you?” The voice on the other end was high-pitched in panic. “Where’s Maddy? She’s dead, isn’t she? I knew it. You have to tell me. Is she dead? Is it bad? Tell me. Please. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Whoa, slow down. Who is this?”
“Tell me if she’s okay. Unless she’s not. I don’t know—I can’t—”
“I’ll answer all your questions if you tell me who you are.”
