* * *
THE EMT’S WERE PUTTING Lynch in the ambulance when Griffin pulled up behind it. He and Metcalf jumped out of the car and ran toward Kendra.
“Are you hurt?” Griffin asked. “I thought you said Lynch, but you look awful.”
“It was Lynch. What are you talking about? I’m not hurt. He’s the one who’s hurt and bleeding.”
“He’s not the only one,” Metcalf said gently. “You look like you’ve been interning in a slaughterhouse. Look at yourself. You’re drenched in blood. It’s not yours?”
She shook her head. “It’s Lynch’s.” She rubbed her temple trying to think. “And maybe Zachary’s. The EMT’s were making such a fuss and wasting time trying to check on him. I told them he didn’t matter and I’d already killed him.” Him. She probably shouldn’t be referring to Gina as him. She might be confusing them. But it was how she thought of Zachary. It was as if Gina had never really existed.
“Yes, I’d imagine that would cause a fuss,” Griffin said. “How is Lynch?”
“I don’t know. They’re giving him blood. But I’m going with him to the hospital and find out.” She glared at the EMT who had finished hooking up Lynch to the equipment in the ambulance. “He says I can’t go. Take care of it, Griffin. It’s something about what I did to Zachary.”
“She said she killed this Zachary,” the EMT said coldly. “And there’s a dead man in there. But there’s also a woman inside who’s sliced full of holes. Either way we have to wait for the police to come and investigate.”
“Take care of it,” Kendra repeated to Griffin as she got into the ambulance. “I’m going with Lynch.”
“No!” The EMT stepped forward, alarmed.
“It’s perfectly in order.” Griffin stepped in front of him, his tone soothing. He showed him his ID. “FBI. We’ve been hunting for a serial killer. You might have read about him. You don’t want to stand here and argue when you need to get our agent to the hospital. I’ll send Metcalf inside to investigate the crime scene.”
Metcalf. That pierced the fog of panic enveloping Kendra. “No, go with him. It’s going to be a shock for both of you. But it’s Zachary,” she said. “I don’t have time to go into it. Call me later. You’ll think it’s Gina. But I swear it’s Zachary that I killed. Gina was Zachary. I swear.”
“Gina? Zachary?” Griffin was staring at her. “Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m telling the truth.” She glanced at Metcalf. She’d done what she could to prepare him. “I’m sorry.” The EMT slammed the door shut.
Kendra sat down beside Lynch in the ambulance.
Still unconscious. Still pale. But he was hooked up to the IV and maybe he was going to be—
“What the hell—happened to—you.”
Her gaze flew to Lynch’s face. His eyes were only slits but he’d really spoken. She stifled the flash of wild excitement and hope. “You’d better not talk. You’re on the way to the hospital. You’ve got to save your strength because you’ve got to get well. I won’t have it any other way.”
He was frowning. “Happened—to you? Blood all over your face. Tear streaks. What a mess…”
“Hush. I guess I kept pushing back my hair.” She reached out to hold his hand. “And you’re more of a mess than I am. It’s your blood, dammit. Now will you please shut up?”
His eyes were closing. “No choice … Just so it’s—not your—blood.”
He was unconscious again. That was all, she told herself, he’d just passed out. She could see the pulse pounding in his throat.
And he’d spoken to her. Only a few words, but they’d been clear and characteristic Lynch. That was a good sign. A dying man wouldn’t have told her she looked like a mess, would he?
If it was Lynch, he might. But then he would have had a twinkle in his eye.
Her hand tightened on his hand.
Stay with me. Say anything you want to me. I can always get back at you later.
Just stay with me.
CHAPTER
16
Sharp Memorial Hospital
3:30 A.M.
Waiting Room
“I SEE THEY KICKED you out of Lynch’s room.”
Kendra opened her eyes and straightened in her chair as she saw Griffin standing in the doorway. “They sedated him and they wouldn’t let me stay. They said they had a family only rule for overnight visitors.” She stared at him accusingly. “I tried to get hold of you to make you fix it, but no one could reach you. I left a message.”
“Sorry. What a shame.” He came toward her and gave her a cup of coffee. “And I do want to make your world run just the way you want it. It’s harder for me to change hospital rules than protect you from homicide charges. Though that was a nightmare, particularly when the victim was an FBI agent.” He sipped his coffee. “Besides, I thought you might go home if you couldn’t be within hovering distance of Lynch. You needed the rest. And Lynch wasn’t going to expire on you. That stab wound is serious, but he’s had worse.”
“Not since I’ve met him. And he’s never taken a wound like that for me. It makes a fairly vital difference. I have to make sure that he’s okay and stays that way.”
“I thought that was where this was going.” He tilted his head. “At least you look like you’ve managed to shower and change since you got here. By the way, that kangaroo tee shirt is not fetching.”
“Gift shop.” She smiled faintly. “The shower was a definite necessity. Everyone in this hospital kept wanting to give me treatment. And the first thing Lynch had to say to me was that I was a mess. That’s when I had an idea he was really going to live.” Her smile faded. “Though I haven’t been able to talk to him since then. They were sewing him up, x-rays, and then sedating him. But the surgeon told me the same thing he told you. He has to take care of himself for several weeks but there’s nothing that can’t be healed.”
“Then go home, Kendra.”
She shook her head. “Not yet. I have to be sure.” She changed the subject. “What did your dream team say when you told them about Zachary?”
“Stunned.” His mouth twisted. “Who wasn’t stunned? The director wasn’t pleased that I had the premier serial killer of the past decade working in my office. I’m a laughing stock. It’s going to take a long time to get back in his good graces. The only saving grace is that we caught her.”
“Yes, isn’t it lucky we did. But I asked about the dream team.”
“What you’d expect,” he said carelessly. “Heartfelt relief expressed in their characteristic manners. A bit of disappointment from Suber. He wanted to be there to document Zachary’s death.”
“No, he wouldn’t. I didn’t behave at all like a cool, scientific professional.” She moistened her lips. “I was savage, Griffin.”
“Self-defense. You were under severe stress.”
“Savage,” she repeated. “Not like myself at all.” She finished her coffee. “What about Metcalf? Is he okay?”
“Why shouldn’t he be? Having your partner exposed as a serial killer is a shock, but they weren’t working together that long.”
“I guess you’re right.” Evidently Metcalf hadn’t told anyone about his intimacy with Gina, and she wasn’t about to do it. How he was going to deal with the memory of that bizarre relationship was up to him. She went back to her main objective. “You won’t find a way to get me in there to sit with Lynch?”
“Nope. Doze in that chair until visiting hours and then go home and go to bed.” He threw his empty cup in the trash bin and turned toward the door. “You did a good job, Kendra. Exceptional.”
“No thanks? No gratitude?”
“You cancelled that out when you had Lynch call and ask for that favor for the Walkers. You owed me.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Oh, yes. And you’ll owe me another one if I choose to persuade those detectives not to mention you when they’re giving interviews to the media.” He added softly, “How much is that worth to you, Kendra?”
She wanted to follow him down the hall and push him down the elevator shaft.
But she was too tired and Griffin would always be Griffin, and she had to accept it. Well, no she didn’t, but she had to accept it until she found a way to punish him.
She leaned back and closed her eyes again. Relax. At least, if she was thinking of ways to revenge herself on Griffin, she wouldn’t be worrying about Lynch.
* * *
SHE WASN’T ALLOWED TO see Lynch until after breakfast the next morning. But it seemed the rules didn’t apply to Griffin. She saw him coming out of Lynch’s room when she was walking down the hall from the elevator.
“Good morning.” He smiled. “You look exhausted and a bit like a street kid hanging out in the charity ward.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. I give a lot of my time to street kids. They fight harder. What are you doing here?”
“I got a call from Lynch at the crack of dawn ordering me to come and see him. He objected to hospital garb and wanted his own clothes and the chance to interrogate me. I decided to oblige him. God knows he’s useful and I might need him.” He held up his hand. “I can’t help it if he finds me more interesting than he does you. And he hadn’t even seen that tacky tee shirt yet. See you later, Kendra.” He strolled toward the elevators.
She opened the door. “Lynch, what did you want with—” She stopped as she saw him propped up in the bed across the room. He was not as pale as he had been the night before and his features looked almost normal. His blue eyes were bright and he was smiling at her. “Lynch?” She cleared her throat. “You look almost … You look … better.”
“Thanks to pain pills and my fantastic stamina.” He held out his hand. “But I have an idea I’m not going to last long. You’d better come over here and sit down.”
She came slowly across the room. “Yesterday I thought you might be dying.”
“Yesterday you might have been right.” He grimaced. “But I hear there was an annoyingly persistent woman who kept insisting I stay alive. According to Griffin, she was ready to take anyone down who tried to tell her I wasn’t going to make it.”
“Rumor. Pure rumor.”
“I don’t think so. I remember bits and pieces and she was just as hardheaded as Griffin said.” He took her hand. “It’s a wonder I survived her.”
His hand was warm and strong and she felt another rush of relief at that additional sign of recovery. “I don’t appreciate you calling Griffin at dawn to discuss me. Particularly when you probably had been told I was already here at the hospital.”
“That was a risk I took. Because as soon as the first drugs wore off, I knew I was going to be having trouble.”
“I’m not giving anyone trouble. I just thought since you risked your neck taking Zachary’s knife thrust for me that I should make sure you were going to be all right.” She jerked her hand away from him. “And now that I know you’re going to be as healthy and as obnoxious as you usually are, I can leave you on your own.”
“No, you can’t. I’d immediately fake a total collapse and you’d feel guilty as hell. No, you’ll have to stick around for a while.” He smiled. “I believe I’m feeling weaker even as I speak about it.”
“Blackmail?”
“Why not? Everyone knows that I’ll do anything to get what I want.” He paused. “But this blackmail will have to be very curtailed because I don’t have any idea how long I can keep up all this bullshit pretense that you feel so comfortable with. I have to take care of the problem before the pain medication totally wears off.”
She was immediately alarmed. “You’re hurting? How stupid can you get? I’ll go tell the nurse you need to—”
“See?” He was smiling. “You’re a pushover. Right now you don’t know whether I’m playing you or not.”
But she was afraid that he had not been playing her. She knew how strong he was and what he’d gone through over the years. He might be in severe pain and not let her see it. “I’m never sure if you’re manipulating me or not,” she said quietly. “But I do know you wouldn’t be suffering at all if you hadn’t stepped in front of that damn knife to keep Zachary from killing me. I don’t think it’s unusual for me to be concerned.”
“No, particularly not for you.” His smile faded. “But because of who you are, you tend to go overboard.”
“Not true.”
“Very true. Griffin said that you were taking this whole thing too hard. So let’s deal with that problem first. It could have been serious and it’s going to inconvenience me for a few weeks, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what I’ve gone through before.”
“That’s what Griffin told me. At least, you’ve both got your stories straight.”
“Doubting Thomas? Want proof?” He carefully slid the sheet down and flipped open his shirt. His finger tapped a long scar on his abdomen. “This one was made by a tribal leader in the Congo. A bayonet. Took him two days to get it that wide.” He touched a small purple circle beside his rib cage. “Russia. A sniper shot went through the rib cage and out the back. It took a quarter inch of that lower rib with it.” He touched a pale pink scar near his shoulder. “Detroit. Goodfella with the mob decided that he’d try to drill a hole through me to impress his boss.” He met her eyes. “I’d prefer not to turn over and show you the rest. It might hurt a bit. Most of the attacks are from behind when I’ve not been aware of the threat. Unless you insist?”
“No,” she whispered. She couldn’t take her eyes off his body. So much power and strength yet so vulnerable to death and attack. It was no wonder that he’d built a stockade of a house to protect himself and allow him to relax for brief moments. She slowly reached out to touch a small circular scar on his chest. “This one is very old…”
“Yes.” He took her hand away and put it on the bed. “Cigarette burn. Not a good example. We won’t talk about it.”
Because he didn’t want to talk about that burn. He had revealed more about himself in these few minutes than she had learned in all the months they had worked together, but it seemed that cigarette burn was off limits. “Whatever you say.” She reached out and carefully pulled his shirt back over his chest. “What’s one more scar?” She stared him in the eye. “Isn’t that what you want me to say? That knife wound Zachary gave you will be just one more scar.” She took a step closer to the bed. “Wrong. That’s my scar, Lynch. It will always belong to me. And I’ll always know it.” Her hands clenched. “Just as I know that Zachary gave me scars I’m going to have to fight like hell to erase. I might never do it.”
“You’ll do it. You just may need a little friendly therapy,” he said. “Which brings us to the second problem. Griffin said that you disposed of Zachary with an enthusiasm that was well deserved but in retrospect upset you.”
“I was savage,” she said flatly. “I stabbed him five times, Lynch. Again and again. I only knew I had to kill him. You were lying there bleeding, maybe dying. Huston … all those others he killed…” She was starting to shake. “I don’t do that. That’s not who I am. Or maybe that’s who I am now. If it is, I don’t know how I can live with myself.”
“Give me your hand. I want to hold you and that’s the best I can do right now.”
“Comfort? I have to get through this by myself. Five times, Lynch.”
“Give me your hand!” he said roughly.
She slipped her hand into his grasp.
Strength. Warmth. Comfort.
“That’s better, I didn’t want to have to jump out of this bed. That would seriously impact my plans of getting out of here in a timely manner.” He drew a deep breath. “I’m not the person you should be talking to about this. I know all the words to say but you know damn well I’d probably say anything to get you into bed. Besides the fact that I can only tell you everything from my slightly skewed viewpoint.” He stared her directly in the eye. “But I’ll always be honest with you. So here it is, Kendr
a. I don’t know if what you did to Zachary changed you. It might have, just as every new experience and emotional trauma can change you. We’re all capable of reacting in ways we don’t expect when we’re brought to the breaking point. You’re gentle, you’re empathetic, and you’re capable of deeper emotional involvement than anyone I’ve met. That means you’d react accordingly, but it doesn’t tarnish what you are. So don’t give me any bullshit about what one monster would be able to do to you. Zachary didn’t do any permanent damage and neither will anyone else. You’re too damn strong.” His grasp tightened. “Understand?”
“I guess I do.” She could feel his power. She could feel the sheer intensity. She couldn’t take her gaze from his face. “You’ve been pretty verbose on the subject for someone who shouldn’t be talking to me about it.”
“You know I’ve never been able to keep from putting my two cents into the pot. But I assure you, it’s pure preparation for the main event.”
She frowned. “The main event?”
He made a dismissing gesture. “You’re smart enough to recognize the main event when you see it.” He smiled. “Though you were a little slow identifying what a total prize I am. Now you’re getting closer, but I expect to have trouble because of my extraordinary act of heroism.”
“Not because of your extraordinary modesty?” she asked dryly. “I thought that wound was nothing in your scheme of things. Remember, I got the whole show.”
“Not the whole show, but I was very effective, wasn’t I?” His thumb was tracing patterns on her wrist. “But you’re very stubborn and you’ll still have that thread of ingrained gratitude until it lessens a bit. That’s going to get in the way. Not for you, for me. I’m too egotistical to have to wonder if you’re going to bed with me because I took that knife for you.” His nail was following the life line on her palm. “I wouldn’t want to worry that I wasn’t as superb as I really am. And what if you talked yourself into that nonsense, too?”
Look Behind You Page 27
