13

After assuring Mike they were on their way, Alex told Logan that Nettie was asking for her. “We’ve got to go down there.”

“Sure. I have everything I need with me, but you might want to change first and—”

“You’re right. Give me a minute.”

Alex hurried into the bedroom and shut the door. She pulled off her hoodie, sweatpants, and T-shirt, then kicked off her slippers and grabbed her jeans, a sweater, and boots. After dressing, she went into the bathroom, where she quickly brushed her hair and tied it back into a ponytail before applying a little mascara.

Why did Nettie want to talk to her? Did she know the person who attacked her and killed Willow? When she walked back into the living room, Logan looked surprised. “That was fast. I don’t think I could have gotten ready that quickly.”

“That’s because you’re so vain,” Alex said.

“Yeah, someone once wrote a song about me,” he said with a grin.

Alex folded her sketch into the pocket of her jeans before grabbing her jacket, making sure she had everything she needed in those pockets as well. Then they hurried downstairs to the car the FBI had rented for them. Alex was grateful the SUV had four-wheel drive. Safer on snowy streets. It was coming down pretty good now. The streetlights highlighted the large flakes, making them look like brilliant bursts of luminescent prisms. As Logan drove, Alex had to tear her eyes away from the beauty around her and concentrate on what lay ahead. The dichotomy of nature and the evil in the hearts of humans made her ache inside. It was a reality that people in law enforcement had to balance every day. Sometimes they were successful. Sometimes they weren’t.

It didn’t take them long to reach the hospital. They parked in the large covered parking garage and strode through a walkway to the main entrance. As they entered, they found Mike waiting for them.

“Hi,” he said. “You’ve beat the KCPD. I had to call them too, of course. She’s in ICU on the fifth floor. Come with me.”

The three of them got into an elevator and headed upstairs.

“How is Nettie doing?” Alex asked. “Will she be okay?”

“Her sister-in-law, Barbara, drove in from Independence as soon as she heard. She told me the doctor said Nettie’s chances of recovery are good. But it’s hard to be sure with the kind of head injury she has. There was some internal bleeding too, and they had to remove her spleen. Hopefully that will be it.”

“Are you keeping a guard on her?” Logan asked.

“She’s safe. No one can get into ICU without the nursing staff questioning them. If and when Nettie’s moved to a regular room, someone will be posted outside her door. Meanwhile, I’m gonna hang around.”

It felt as if the elevator was barely moving, driving Alex crazy. When an orderly got on at the fourth floor, she wanted to yell at him. Silly. She felt uncomfortable. Worried about something she couldn’t put her finger on.

When the doors finally opened on the fifth floor, they got out. Mike led them to the ICU nurses’ station.

“These are the folks I told you about,” Mike said to an older nurse who didn’t seem happy to see them.

“You can take only one person in with you,” she said, her tone leaving no doubt she meant it.

Alex glanced down at the woman’s badge. “Ruth, we’re also with the FBI.” Alex took her creds from her jacket pocket and showed the crotchety nurse. “I’d like my partner with me when I question Mrs. Travers.”

Ruth nodded at Mike. “Then you have to stay out here.”

“Not a problem,” Mike said, then turned to Logan. “But Nettie made it pretty clear she would talk only to Alex. I’m not sure she’ll want you in there.”

“Let’s try it,” Alex said to Logan. “If she objects to having you in the room, you can come back out here. I’d like you there for backup. I don’t want to miss anything.” Having two behavioral analysts was better than one in Alex’s mind. The truth was she’d been shaken by Willow’s death, and she hadn’t slept. She felt the need for another set of eyes and ears.

“Is Nettie’s sister-in-law still here?” Mike asked.

Ruth shook her head. “Once Mrs. Travers was conscious, she went to a hotel to rest a bit. She’ll be back a little later.”

“Okay, let’s go,” Alex said.

Ruth gestured toward a large door. “Come with me.”

Alex and Logan waited for her to step in front of them, then they followed her through the door and past several rooms before she finally stopped in front of one. She pushed the door open and waved Alex and Logan inside. Nettie was hooked up to both an IV and a heart monitor. Her face was bruised so badly Alex wouldn’t have recognized her. Both her eyes were swollen almost shut.

“Come . . . closer . . .” Nettie croaked as soon as she saw them. “Who are you?”

Alex had stopped a few feet from the bed, trying to acclimate herself. Years of working with the FBI had placed her at quite a few horrific scenes with mangled bodies and the evidence of man’s hate. But this was the first time she knew the person lying in the bed. Nettie was such a kind, gentle woman that somehow the realization that someone had this much cruelty in their heart struck her like a slap in the face.

She walked up next to the bed. “Nettie,” she said softly, “it’s Alex. How are you feeling?”

Nettie blinked several times as if she couldn’t see clearly. “Alex?” she whispered through her bruised lips. It sounded more like Aless, but Alex nodded.

“Yes, it’s me. I was told you need to talk to me.”

Nettie sighed deeply and nodded. Then she reached for Alex’s hand and mumbled something Alex couldn’t understand. She leaned closer, trying to hear.

“Say it again, Nettie. I missed what you said.” She looked back at Logan, who’d been staying back so Nettie wouldn’t see him. Now he took a step closer.

“He . . . he . . .”

“He?” Alex repeated.

Nettie nodded slowly. “Here.”

Alex looked around. Here where? Wondering if Nettie meant there was something she wanted her to hear, she said, “I’m listening.”

Nettie suddenly thrashed in the bed as if in frustration. “He . . .” she said again. “He . . .”

“Not much longer,” Ruth interjected. “She needs to rest.”

Frustrated by her inability to understand whatever Nettie was trying to say, Alex reached into her jeans pocket and took out her sketch of the man she’d remembered. She held it in front of Nettie’s face.

“Do you recognize this man?” she asked Nettie.

Her eyes grew wide, and she nodded.

“Who is he, Nettie?” Alex asked. Even if she didn’t know his real name, anything she could tell them might help to determine who was responsible for the attacks.

“No . . . no . . .” She started to breathe quickly as if she couldn’t get enough air. “He . . .”

“I think you need to go,” Ruth said. Alex noticed her watching the numbers on the monitor next to Nettie’s bed. It was obvious she didn’t like what she was seeing.

Alex, not knowing what else to do, leaned down once more, putting her ear next to Nettie’s mouth. “I can’t understand you, Nettie,” she said quietly. “Try one more time.”

Nettie was trying to talk, but she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. “He . . . here. He . . . here . . .” Suddenly, she bolted upright in the bed, her eyes full of some unseen terror. “He’s here!” she gasped. “He’s here!” Then she collapsed back on the bed, and the machine next to her began to beep loudly.

“Out now!” Ruth commanded them. She pushed a button near the bed, and immediately they heard a voice coming from a loudspeaker in the hall. “Code blue, room 7. Code blue, room 7.”

Ruth pushed them into the hall. Several medical personnel ran into the room and pushed a large cart next to the bed. Alex and Logan hurried toward the ICU’s exit to the waiting area. Mike had come in from the front desk, and when he saw them, he jogged over.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Is Nettie okay?”

Alex shook her head. “I think she’s in trouble, Mike.”

They stood off to the side, waiting to see what would happen. A few minutes later a doctor walked out of Nettie’s room. Behind him, the same medical personnel who’d rushed in came out and walked past them.

“You’re the FBI agents who spoke to Nettie Travers?” he asked.

“Yes,” Alex said. “Is she okay?”

“I’m sorry, no.” His eyebrows knit together in a tight frown. “Can you tell me how she acted before we were alerted to a problem?”

Was he blaming them? “She was trying to tell us something,” Alex said. “It seemed important. Then she sat up. It was like she was . . . I don’t know. Shocked?”

“In pain?”

“Not really,” Alex said slowly, “but it’s possible. I had the feeling she was reacting to something that happened suddenly.”

“Okay, thanks.” He grunted. “She shouldn’t have died. She was getting better.”

“Will there be an autopsy, Doctor?” Logan asked.

“I’m sure there will be. Her sister-in-law is already here from out of town. I’m about to call her. Relatives can say no to an autopsy, but I’m sure they’ll want to know what happened too. She only left after Nettie regained consciousness because I said she was improving.” He sighed softly. “This isn’t a call I want to make. Excuse me.”

“We’ll want to see that autopsy,” Alex said.

“You’ll have to go through proper channels.”

He pushed the door to the ICU open, leaving them standing there.

“I don’t like this,” Alex said as they made their way back to the front desk and waiting area.

“What do you mean?” Mike asked. “People don’t make it sometimes. It happens.”

“But he said she was supposed to recover. Maybe whoever wanted her dead came back to finish the job.”

“In the ICU?” Logan said. “That would be difficult.”

“Yes, it would,” Alex said. “But not impossible.”

Ruth returned with a piece of paper in her hand. “I found this drawing on the floor in Mrs. Travers’s room. Does it belong to you?”

“Yes, it’s mine,” Alex said. “I must have dropped it when the monitor went off.” She took the sketch from the nurse. “Ruth, how difficult would it be for someone to get into one of these rooms without your knowledge?”

“Not possible,” she said without hesitation. “We watch who goes in and out very carefully. If you’re thinking about Mrs. Travers, no one went into that room who wasn’t supposed to be there.”

Alex thought for a moment. “Do you check every doctor who enters the ICU?”

This time Ruth hesitated a moment, obviously uncomfortable with Alex’s question. “No,” she said slowly, “but we know our doctors. We’d notice if a strange one went into a patient’s room.” She pulled her shoulders back and straightened her spine. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

As she walked away, Mike said, “I don’t like the way she answered that question. It seems clear to me that someone could get past them if they were wearing a doctor’s coat.”

“I agree,” Alex said.

“Do you think Ruth recognized the man in the sketch?”

“I don’t think so. She didn’t display any signs of dishonesty.”

“Excuse me.”

Alex turned around and found a young woman in blue scrubs. Her name tag indicated she was a nurse. “Can I help you?” Alex asked.

The woman looked around her. “I . . . I doubt it, but I might be able to help you.” She moved a little closer to Alex. “We really thought Mrs. Travers was going to make it.”

“Do you have any reason to suspect that someone . . . helped her along?” Alex wanted to be careful. She didn’t want to spook the girl.

“A man came to the desk asking about Willow LeGrand. She was friends with Mrs. Travers, right?” Alex nodded. “Well, I couldn’t give him personal information about a patient, but I did tell him the survivor from the attack wasn’t Ms. LeGrand. He was very, very upset. He hung around out here for a while”—she gestured toward Mike—“but he left around the time you arrived. It’s possible he got through the ICU entrance when we had an earlier code blue. Everyone was concentrated on that. He might have slipped into Mrs. Travers’s room unobserved.”

Alex held up the sketch she still held in her hand. “Could this be the man you saw?”

The nurse stared at the drawing for a few seconds before nodding. “Yes, that’s him. I’m certain of it.”