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So at least, she knew he was there. She drove by the front entrance, making a U-turn in the morning downtown traffic, and drove over to the parking garage. She drove up to the second level and parked. After killing the engine, she texted Jack back. Can you come to the parking garage? 2ndlevel. Might have something for you.
She then pulled up her text thread with Grandma Tate and sent another lie: Just got to library. Will text again when I leave. As usual, Grandma Tate’s little thumbs-up came through ten seconds later.
While she waited for Jack to text her back, Rachel pulled up the photographs she’d taken in Clements’ office. She was shocked to see that she had more than she realized. She knew she’d worked quickly, but not quitethisfast. She’d managed to snag sixteen different pictures, all showing the name and above-the-weeds details of each patient from Dr. Matthews’s schedule over the past three weeks.
She flipped through the photographs, checking to see if anything truly stood out to her. There were scant details here and there, little more than bullet points pertaining to the nature of the appointment. Of the sixteen pictures she’d snapped, she saw two that could possibly support her hunch that the killer was terminal.
One of the previous appointments—this one from six days ago—was for a second opinion regarding a prostate cancer diagnosis. Another was a follow-up for a man with throat cancer.
Chills raced through Rachel as she read this information; it was a little too close to home. She wasn’t sure about how fast and fatal throat cancer was, but she knew prostate cancer was considered to be among the harshest. As she eyed this picture, one other little detail jumped out at her: the patient with prostate cancer had never shown up. The appointment was listed as still open.
She wasn’t sure how long she sat there, scrolling through the pictures and trying to find more links and clues. All she knew for sure was then when someone knocked on the side of her passenger side door, she nearly shouted.
She turned and saw that it was Jack. He was grinning at how frightened she was. Rachel unlocked the doors, and Jack stepped in at once. Before she could say anything, he leaned in and kissed her. It was quick and to the point and just enough to make Rachel feel just slightly light-headed.
“What on earth are you doing here?” he said.
“Like I said in the text… I have something for you.”
“And why am I a little terrified to find out what it might be?”
Rather than give him a verbal answer, she showed him her recent galleries on her phone. He took it from her and looked at a few of the most recent pictures. “Rachel, what am I loo—”
But then he seemed to understand what the pictures were. His eyes grew wide as he looked from the phone and back to her. “How the hell did you get these?”
“That’s a secret.”
“No, I can’t accept that. I’m assuming it was something illegal. And if you’re bringing this to me to help with a case, this could cause a lot of trouble… and not just for you.”
She was slightly disappointed in his reaction. He did seem thankful but also a little irritated. Rachel sighed and told him how she’d spent the last forty-five minutes or so. The deeper into the story she got, the wider Jack’s eyes seemed to get.
“That was way too risky,” he said, handing the phone back to her. “If you’d have been caught, what then?”
“I’m not sure. So I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t get caught, huh?”
She wasn’t able to read the expression on his face; it was somewhere between anger and awe. Rubbing at his temples as if to save off a headache, he looked at her as his face seemed to soften a bit.
“Did you even get anything worthwhile out of it?” he asked.
“Maybe. Look at the sixth picture from the last one… a man named Seth Redman. Is he by any chance a match for Dr. Leery’s list? Is he one of the names you matched up from the two doctors?”
“It is, actually. Why?”
“Prostate cancer. And the appointment that he had set six days ago is still registered as open. I’m pretty sure it means he never showed up for it.”
“Okay…”
“Look, I really have a strong feeling that this killer is terminal. He knows he’s going to die and he’s acting out angrily about it.”
“What are you basing that on?”
She shrugged and said, “Experience. Sort of.” She decided to be as honest as possible if it meant really pushing her hunch. “There are these little bursts of anger I feel sometimes. I try to ignore them because deep down, it makes me feel almost childish. But there’s anger there for sure… about how unfair it is and how I have absolutely no control over it. And I think… I think if a man that is already a bit on the angry side of most of the time has to also deal with that, it could lead to homicidal rage.”
Jack thought this over for a bit. He stared through the windshield, unblinking. After a few moments, he said: “You know, if I go to speak with him and ask him about this anger you’re talking about, I can’t mention that I know he has prostate cancer.”
“I know. But he may volunteer the information. Especially if heiscontinually angry about it.”
He nodded, looking back at her phone. With a frustrated grin, he said: “I still can’t believe you did that.”
