Once Pined

by Blake Pierce

  “I’m Edith Cooper, and I run things around here. What can I do for you? What do you want to know?”

  Riley immediately noticed something odd about the woman’s speech. She was talking very fast. And her eyes seemed rather glazed.

  “I’m here about a series of poisonings,” Riley said. “Perhaps you’ve read about them.”

  Words came tumbling out of the woman’s mouth nervously.

  “Oh, yes, absolutely. I’m so glad nothing like that ever happened here. But why are you interested in talking to me?”

  Riley studied Edith Cooper’s face for a moment, trying to make out what might be wrong with her.

  “I’d like to ask you a few questions about a freelance healthcare worker who worked here. Hallie Stillians is her name.”

  “Oh, yes, Hallie. The patients liked her, but I’m afraid the staff didn’t. We stopped hiring her about a year and a half ago.”

  Riley was taking notes now.

  “Was that about the time she treated a patient named Lance Miller?” she asked.

  Cooper’s faced twitched.

  “Yes, I believe it was,” she said. “That man needed help—the kind we couldn’t give him here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Cooper drummed her fingers on the desk.

  “Well, he kept saying he was being poisoned, and he wasn’t, it was simply impossible. It was a classic case of paranoid schizophrenia.”

  Riley was startled. After her visit to Lance Miller, she was sure of one thing—he wasn’t the least bit paranoid.

  Cooper continued, “I think Hallie was encouraging his delusions. We can’t have that kind of behavior, not in this kind of place. We never had her back to work here again.”

  Cooper stared at Riley for a moment.

  “But what does that have to do with—?”

  Then her beady eyes sharpened.

  “Do you suspect Hallie Stillians? Well, I wouldn’t be surprised. I knew there was something wrong with that woman from the start. But how did she do it?”

  “We haven’t come to any conclusions yet,” Riley said.

  “Haven’t you? Well, I hope you come to some conclusions soon. I think you’d better. There’s a killer still out there, and someone else might die, it’s almost certain. Haven’t you arrested Hallie Stillians?”

  Riley said nothing, just held Cooper’s gaze.

  Cooper said, “From what I’ve read, it sounds as if the poison that was used was thallium. Is that right?”

  Riley still said nothing.

  Cooper was certainly behaving in a suspicious manner.

  There’s something very strange about her, she kept thinking.

  Cooper kept right on talking.

  “I’m asking if it’s thallium because, you know, it’s called ‘the poisoner’s poison,’ but of course I have no way of knowing. Was it thallium? And how was it administered? Was it pure thallium? Well, if I were a killer, I don’t suppose I would use pure thallium. I’d mix it up with something, partly to avoid detection, partly to disguise the symptoms. I’m no expert, of course. I have no idea.”

  She stopped talking and stared back at Riley.

  “Agent Paige, I get the feeling there’s something you’re not telling me,” she said.

  Her tone was defensive now, and just a bit angry.

  “Am I a suspect? Because that would be perfectly absurd.”

  Again, Riley said nothing.

  Cooper scowled, and her eyebrows tightened together.

  “I think this interview is over,” she said. “If you have any other questions, I’d suggest you ask my lawyer.”

  She handed Riley her lawyer’s business card.

  “Of course,” Riley said. “Thank you for your time. I’ll show myself out.”

  When Riley stepped outside into the cool fresh air, she almost gasped with relief. The atmosphere inside the clinic had felt positively suffocating.

  She got into her car. Before she started the engine, she called Van Roff.

  “Mr. Roff, I’d like you to find anything you can about the head nurse at Reliance Rehab. Her name is Edith Cooper.”

  Riley heard a clattering of keys.

  After a few seconds, Roff said, “Wow. That clinic sure has a colorful reputation. I’m talking about malpractice suits all over the place. It’s almost as if—”

  Riley heard the sound of a door shutting.

  “Oh, shit,” Roff whispered. “We’re busted.”

  She heard a familiar voice ask, “Is that Agent Paige?”

  Riley felt a jolt of alarm. The voice was Sean Rigby’s. He had obviously walked into Roff’s office unannounced. Roff had probably put their call on speakerphone, so Rigby had immediately recognized her voice.

  Rigby said, “Agent Paige, this is an interesting surprise. How are things back at Quantico?”

  Riley gulped. She had to be careful what to say. She wasn’t concerned about herself so much as Roff. She knew it wouldn’t do to lie about her whereabouts.

  “Actually, I’m in Seattle,” she said.

  “Seattle! I don’t remember receiving any notice about that.”

  “This isn’t an official trip.”

  Rigby let out an ironic chuckle.

  “Oh. A pleasure trip, eh? Well. I’m glad you like our city so much. Enjoy your stay.”

  The call ended. Riley sat in the car and stared ahead.

  He didn’t believe me for a second, Riley thought.

  And now Van Roff was likely to get the worst of it.

  But then, Rigby hadn’t seemed to mind that she was back on his turf again. She wondered if Rigby wasn’t completely sure that the poisoning case was closed.

  After a few minutes, her phone rang again. It was Van Roff, speaking in an agitated whisper. He obviously wasn’t on speakerphone this time.

  “Hey, I’m sorry about that. He just walked in.”

  “It’s OK,” Riley said. “I just hope you’re not in trouble.”

  “I hope not too. With Rigby, it’s sometimes hard to tell. Anyway, as soon as you left, he asked me what I was doing, and I said I was looking into Reliance Rehab and its director. He seemed interested. I guess he wants to follow up on it. That’s a good thing, right?”

  Riley didn’t reply. The truth was, she didn’t know. Edith Cooper certainly needed to be investigated. But could Riley trust the local field office to handle it properly? She had her doubts.

  “I’ll try to keep you in the loop,” Roff said.

  “Maybe it’s best if you don’t. For your sake, I mean.”

  “Well, let’s just see how things work out.”

  They ended the call. Riley drove to the hotel where she and Bill had been staying and checked back in.

  *

  Later that evening, Riley was sitting in the hotel bar drinking alone. If Bill had come with her, she wouldn’t feel so terribly isolated.

  She turned the day’s events over in her mind, trying to make sense of them.

  Before her visit to Reliance Rehab, it had seemed perfectly obvious that a woman who’d called herself Hallie Stillians had killed Cody Woods. But after her weird interview with Edith Cooper, Riley didn’t know what to think.

  Cooper was certainly hiding something, but what?

  Was it possible that she was at least linked to the killer in some way?

  Riley had spent part of the afternoon doing research of her own online. Roff was right, Edith Cooper and her center had been sued for malpractice multiple times. Reliance Rehab had almost been shut down for good late last year.

  But did that make Edith Cooper a murderer—or even an accomplice to murder?

  She finished her drink and was about to go to the bar to get another when her phone buzzed. She shuddered when she saw the name of the caller. But she answered anyway.

  “Agent Paige? Chief Rigby here. I thought you’d be interested in hearing some good news. We apprehended our poisoner just a little while ago. She’s a clinic director named Edith Cooper.”
>
  Then he added in a knowing tone, “Perhaps you’ve heard of her.”

  Riley stifled a sigh. Of course he’d figured out right away that Riley was behind Roff’s research on Cooper.

  “What about Solange Landis?” Riley asked.

  “She’s still in custody. We’ve still got her dead to rights for forging documents. But she’s not our killer, after all. Edith Cooper definitely looks guilty. We got a warrant to search her clinic, and Havens and Wingert found some suspicious white powder in her desk drawer. Our lab people haven’t reported what it is yet, but it’s surely poison of some kind.”

  Riley felt a jolt of realization.

  Oh my God! Cocaine!

  A poison of a different kind, but not what they had been looking for.

  Cocaine use would explain everything that was strange about Edith Cooper. And judging from the weird behavior of her staff, the whole clinic was probably riddled with drug users. It was no wonder that Reliance Rehab had been sued for multiple cases of malpractice. The medical care they gave was probably barely competent at best.

  Riley said, “Chief Rigby, I’m not sure that—”

  She stopped in mid-sentence.

  “Not sure that what, Agent Paige?”

  Riley again reminded herself to be careful what she said, for Van Roff’s sake. The lab would find out soon enough that Cooper’s powder wasn’t thallium. Meanwhile it was just as well that Cooper was in custody.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Congratulations.”

  Rigby laughed cryptically.

  “I’ve got a funny feeling that congratulations are due to you as well. No need to be modest, I know you had something to do with this. And I’ll put in a good word for you at Quantico. We’ll be popping champagne bottles here pretty soon. I’ll let you know when, and I hope you’ll join us in celebrating. Meanwhile, you deserve a little R&R. Enjoy our lovely city.”

  He abruptly ended the call.

  Riley felt despair creeping up inside her.

  I’ve accomplished precisely nothing today, she thought.

  A murderer was still at large, and she was powerless to do anything about it.

  She wanted another drink—wanted it too badly.

  She decided against it.

  She left the bar and walked out into the dim, gray evening, surrounded by the thick Seattle mist. Even out of doors, she felt strangely claustrophobic, as if the world was closing in around her.

  As if I were bound hand and foot, she thought.

  One thing seemed certain—it was time to give up and go home.

  There was simply nothing more she could do.

  But just as she turned to walk back to the hotel, she saw a familiar figure approaching her through the mist.

  CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

  Riley felt a rush of adrenaline as the man came toward her.

  She knew that it was a fight-or-flight response. Her every animal instinct told her that danger was nearing and her body should prepare for combat.

  Or run away.

  And yet she stood frozen in her spot, unable to even breathe.

  In another moment, Shane Hatcher stood within arm’s length, fully visible in the swirling mist. This was just the second time she had seen him in person since his escape from Sing Sing. His presence here was much more intimidating than it had been when they met within the prison walls.

  Riley tried to remind herself that she was in no physical danger from this man. But deep down, her whole body knew that Shane Hatcher was the most dangerous man she’d ever met—and possibly the most brilliant.

  Shane looked her up and down, as if sniffing out her alarm.

  “Relax,” he said with a sinister smile. “If I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already. I’m just making good on that little favor we discussed.”

  His words weren’t the least bit comforting. Even so, Riley started to breathe again.

  Hatcher held out his hand. He had a gold chain bracelet on his wrist.

  “You’re not wearing yours,” he said.

  “I’ll never wear it.”

  He smiled knowingly.

  “You’ve got it with you.”

  Riley didn’t reply. She knew it was pointless to lie.

  “Walk with me,” Hatcher said.

  Neither of them spoke for a few moments as they walked along the street together. Riley heard footsteps and then braced herself as another pedestrian passed by them.

  Could that person see them clearly? If so, did it matter?

  Who could possibly guess that one was a renegade FBI agent and the other a criminal mastermind who had escaped from a maximum security prison?

  The passerby went on his way, apparently oblivious to anything odd about the other pedestrians out in the fog.

  “I hear there’s been another arrest,” Hatcher said.

  Riley nodded silently.

  “And you still don’t think they’ve got the real Angel of Death.”

  Riley was startled that he used that term.

  “I know it,” Riley said. “I interviewed that woman. She’s a mess and probably deserves being charged and locked up. But she’s definitely not the poisoner that I’m looking for.

  “And so the real assassin will surely strike again.”

  “Yes. She won’t stop until I stop her.”

  They were both quiet again for a moment, then Hatcher said, “You’ve been working with Van Roff, haven’t you?”

  “How do you know?”

  Shane let out a purr of a chuckle.

  “I’ve done my research. Roff seems to be the smartest guy in the Seattle field office. And he doesn’t give a damn about the rules. I knew that you’d just naturally hook up with him sooner or later. It was inevitable. I’d like to meet him one of these days. Perhaps I will.”

  Once again, Riley felt herself being drawn into an alliance with Hatcher. But she knew from experience that he really could help her.

  She said, “Van Roff found that three therapists disappeared, one after each of the victims died. They had different names and different addresses, but the addresses were all mail services.”

  Hatcher nodded as he walked.

  “So they’re all the same person,” he said.

  “I’m sure of it,” Riley said. “But after every disappearance, she comes back as someone else. We have no way to identify whoever she’s masquerading as now. I’ve seen photos of women that could be her, but she’s something of a chameleon.”

  Hatcher stood thinking for a moment.

  “Tell Roff to search to find out how often that has happened—Angels of Death who’ve struck over the years. We’re looking for nurses who disappeared suddenly when a patient died. Just before or after.”

  “That’s a complicated search,” Riley said.

  “Not for Van Roff. And remind him to look for addresses that are mail services rather than houses or apartments. Tell him to follow the trail back to the beginning. He’ll know when he’s really found her.”

  They walked together in silence for a moment.

  “You’re closer than you think,” Hatcher finally said. “And she knows it.”

  There was something different about his tone now.

  Did Riley detect a trace of worry?

  Then he said, “When it comes time to make an arrest, send someone else. Don’t go yourself.”

  “Why not?”

  Hatcher said nothing for a few seconds.

  “Consider the most terrible Angel of Death of them all—Josef Mengele.”

  Riley shuddered. Did Hatcher know that she and Solange Landis had discussed Mengele?

  No, he couldn’t possibly, Riley thought.

  It was simply another uncanny, uncomfortable example of Hatcher thinking along lines that she’d been considering too.

  “What about him?” Riley asked.

  “He was still doing his horrible work at Auschwitz in 1944 when he knew for certain that Germany was losing the war, that the Red Army was on its way. What did he do then? D
id he slacken in his atrocities? No, he accelerated them, became more vicious and sadistic than ever. Angels of Death are like that. When they feel threatened, they become all the more determined. They change their methods, become more deadly. They want to make sure the job gets done. This woman is no different.”

  They walked in silence for a moment.

  “Send someone else,” Hatcher said again. “Whoever makes that arrest isn’t likely to survive.”

  Their footsteps continued to echo through the mist.

  “Just keep walking,” Hatcher finally said. “Don’t bother to look back.”

  Hatcher stopped and Riley continued on.

  After she’d gone about ten more feet, she couldn’t resist anymore.

  She turned to look.

  She saw absolutely no one in the mist.

  But she heard Hatcher’s voice echoing, seemingly from nowhere.

  “Just keep one thing in mind. Everything happens for no reason.”

  Then she heard a burst of vanishing laughter.

  *

  As Riley came through the entrance into the lobby, she spotted a familiar figure standing at the desk talking to the clerk.

  This one didn’t give her chills.

  “Bill!” she called out with a gasp.

  Bill turned to see her and smiled.

  Riley rushed toward him and threw her arms around him, almost weeping for joy.

  They were back.

  CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

  It was night now in Seattle, and Riley knew they needed to enlist Van Roff’s help again. She and Bill went up to her hotel room to call the technical wizard, and a few minutes later they had him on the speakerphone.

  “I’m at home,” Roff said. “So it’s easier to talk now.”

  “But I need you to do a pretty complicated search right now,” Riley replied. She felt an urgency about catching up with this killer before someone else died.

  He laughed. “That’s not a problem. I’m well connected right here.”

  “Agent Jeffreys is here with me. We need you to track a new lead.”

  Roff greeted Bill cheerfully, then added, “I heard the office gang brought in Edith Cooper. She wasn’t the one?”

  “Edith Cooper was a good catch. Just not the one we’re looking for.”