chapter thirty-seven
I popped upright so fast I must have come off like a jack-in-the-box because Max jerked back a step with a startled, “Gah!”
“Ha! That’s a switch.”
“Sag, are you all right? Even for you, this is strange.”
“You don’t know the half of it, Maxie!” I crowed. Shiro couldn’t handle talking to Max! So she ran like a rabbit and left him to me. Ha! And again, I say ha! “It’s been a weird day! Which is why I’m shouting! Because I have a weird job! This is a normal reaction to what’s happening in my life right now!”
“Good God.” George came in and shut the door, rubbing his (good) ear. “I could hear you screeching out in the lobby.” He showed me a business card, like I ever cared when he scored. “She wants me to text her! You’re not trying anything with Awesome Mouth, are you, doc?”
“Her name,” George said, as his eyebrow went up and the corner of his mouth turned down, “is Maureen. And no, I’m single.” He glanced at
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
me. “Painfully.”
“Perfect. Because she’s hot, and I need a wingman, so your blood clinic is gonna solve both those problems.”
“Delighted to help, and if you harm her in any way, I’ll beat you to fucking death.” He gave George a pleasant smile. “Right in the middle of my blood clinic.”
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
It is very, very wrong that that turned me on.
Even George, normally irrepressible, seemed taken aback. “Oh. Okay. I’ll keep it in mind. Listen, sorry to burst in on you like this—”
“No you’re not.”
“Guilty. Listen, here’s what we think happened with your guy Wayne, and Rita and Cindy.”
“Carrie,” I corrected.
“Right.” George shrugged off the pesky details like the victim’s name. “So here it is.”
When he finished explaining, Max’s mouth had gone thin, and the blush Shiro had started was gone. He’d gone so pale with anger, his eyes seemed to burn. It was like the doctor had drained out of him and left someone else. “That’s a goddamned abomination.”
“Welcome to the wonderful world of crime.” George had straightened to his full height. He didn’t take a step back—you never, ever did that—but he was making himself as tall as possible in the face of Max’s fury, and I’m not even sure he was aware he was doing it. “Doncha love it?”
“This—this—” The doctor fought the damaged child for a few seconds; it ended up being a draw. “This parasitical fuckhead is trolling my group for victims?”
“Prob’ly. You just got a lot more interesting, Doc. As a person, I mean. Not just as someone who can potentially help me get laid more.”
“Whoa,” I said respectfully. Those were not words George uttered lightly.
“And yes, we can get a warrant, but if you could take us through your last several meetings and who was there and who was new and who wasn’t—”
“Fuck a bunch of warrants. I’m not their doctor and the group isn’t covered by privilege and trust me, these guys would want me to help you get this prick. If I could tell them—”
George and I shook our heads. “You can’t.”
“Right, but if I could, they’d help. Barring that, I’ll help. Right now. But that’s gonna be tough because, like I said, it’s not an official group. I don’t have charts.”
“Anything you can do,” George said, and as it turned out, Max Gallo was able to do a lot, though it took a couple of days to pull it all together. But I’m positive he didn’t intend for me to get hurt the way I did.
Pretty positive.