“Take it easy,” Noel said, pulling the glass away. “You’ve had a rough morning.”
He placed her head back down on the pillow but kept his hand on her cheek. Yasmine wasn’t sure if she felt grateful for the gesture or if it made her anxious. She could barely recall what had happened after she’d left Auntie Zee’s house this morning.
“What happened?”
Noel’s eyebrows dipped with worry. “What do you remember?”
“Not much. We left my aunt’s place.” The words were difficult to form, but getting easier as the grogginess wore away. “Then, it’s blurry. We were in the car...”
“There was an accident. We got hit by another vehicle when we entered an intersection.”
In alarm, Yasmine tried to wiggle her toes and fingers. She felt them all move and the fear eased. “And I got the worst of it, obviously. You’re okay, though?”
He nodded and brushed away a lock of hair that had fallen over her eyes. “You took a direct hit, but thankfully the car I borrowed is new and has airbags and tons of other safety features. I mean, thankfully for us. Not so much for the car’s owner. I’m going to let Wayne explain that one to his friend.”
“Can I go home soon?” She wanted to crawl into her own bed, snuggle down in the warm sheets and sleep without the smell of lemon and ammonia in her nostrils. Noel didn’t react, and her heart sank. “I can’t, can I?”
“Afraid not. Your apartment is still a crime scene.”
She’d forgotten about that, but with the memory of the apartment shooting came the additional memory of the sniper at the restaurant. An image of the man swallowing something and dying before the police could take him in came too readily to mind, bringing a wave of anxiety and a sudden feeling of helplessness. “Noel...what’s going on?”
He sighed and rested his elbows on the side of the bed. “I was hoping you could tell me. We need to take you someplace safe to talk.”
“Can’t we talk here?”
He looked over his shoulder, and Yasmine followed his gaze to the door. He looked uncertain, almost nervous. “No.”
“Why? What aren’t you telling me?” The look on his face made her nerves flare again. “Noel! The bakery!”
“We took care of that already, earlier. Your aunt and my mom have it under control. You really don’t remember?” His face remained expressionless as she told him she didn’t. “Yasmine, there was an attack a few hours ago inside the hospital. Someone posing as a doctor tried to insert a foreign substance into your IV line. I wasn’t able to catch him in time, but the police are still searching for the man based on my description. I got a good look at him. He won’t be able to hide for long.”
She swallowed hard on the lump in her throat. Her stomach flared with either nerves or nausea caused by whatever had been in the IV—she really couldn’t tell which. “Here? How did he get in the hospital? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine, but I should be asking you that question.” His eyelids drooped as he looked away from her, a raw sadness clear across his face.
She wanted to reach out to him, but she wasn’t sure how he’d react. Would he accept comfort from her, or would that still be too familiar after so much time apart? “What is it?”
He shrugged. “I guess... I’m just sorry that there isn’t anyone else here with you. That you’re stuck with a childhood friend you barely know instead of...uh, never mind.”
Yasmine laughed. “Now you sound like my aunt. Trust me, it’s better this way.”
“So there’s no special someone in your life?”
“I’m unattached. Unencumbered. I have an entire business to get off the ground, and settling down would only get in the way of that. Maybe someday, but the timing is no good.”
“There wasn’t anyone in Amar?”
Yasmine felt the doors shut inside of her. Yes, there was someone in Amar, a part of the story she’d left out last night when she’d told Noel about leaving Newherst. Yes, she’d loved Marc very much, or at least, she’d thought she did. But when she caught Marc cheating on her with a superior officer, she’d walked away from him without a second thought. He’d been a liar and a cheat, and she had too much self-respect to listen to his excuses or accept his halfhearted apologies. That didn’t mean that it hadn’t hurt, or that it hadn’t left a scar of betrayal across her heart.
When she didn’t answer Noel’s question, he sighed again and leaned back in his seat. Yasmine couldn’t deny that she liked having him here. She was grateful that he’d taken the time to make sure she was all right, and under different circumstances, their reunion might have been pleasant. Welcome, even. His features, so similar to those of his younger self but now matured, brought back the flurry of conflicted emotions she’d tried to shove away last night.
“Thanks for sticking around,” she said. Suddenly the memory of their conversation in the car the day before came flooding back. “Even if I didn’t.”
Noel’s tired eyes widened and his shoulders slumped. “That’s in the past, Mina. Let’s move on. There are greater things at stake here than hashing out old hurts.”
“Even if the hurts aren’t as old as we try to claim?” She’d seen the anguish on his face. He couldn’t hide that, no matter how much he tried to.
Noel shook his head. “We can talk about all this later, okay? As soon as we get the green light to move you from this room, we’re heading someplace safe.”
“And here I thought the hospital would be the safest place of all.”
He pressed his lips together. “I thought so, too, but I was wrong, and I’m so sorry for my error in judgment. You could have been badly hurt or killed, and it would have been my fault.”
“Noel, of course not. You can’t anticipate everything.”
“There’s more going on here than either of us understands.” He lowered his voice. “I need you to tell me everything you know about Daniel’s death and your ten years overseas. Someone is trying very, very hard to kill you, Yasmine. The way things are going, these people are not going to give up until they succeed—unless I stop them first. And that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
FIVE
A few hours later, Yasmine didn’t get the sense that the doctors were planning to discharge her anytime soon. There were several policemen stationed directly outside her door, Noel kept jumping up to talk on the phone with a worried expression on his face and nurses kept coming in to take her blood or ask her how many fingers they were holding up. It was getting tedious.
While Noel was on the phone yet again, a knock at the door revealed a nurse with a tray of lunch. She set up a tray table and raised the bed so that Yasmine could eat while seated. The tray contained a barely appealing meal of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, boiled carrots, yogurt and a banana. A glass of mystery juice sat on the side.
“This is lunch?” she asked the nurse’s retreating figure. “I like bananas, at least.”
She lifted the glass of juice and sniffed. It smelled like a combination of orange and grapefruit, and the pale pinkish color suggested that it was probably a citrus-based beverage.
“Don’t drink that.” Suddenly Noel was beside her, plucking the glass out of her hands. “Do you know that nurse? Did you ask where the food came from?”
Yasmine gaped at him. “First, I wasn’t going to drink it because I’m allergic to citrus. Second, she’s been in here at least twice today, and third, no, I did not, because why would I?”
Noel grunted and crossed his arms. “We can’t be sure it’s safe. I want to know that a trusted hospital staff member had eyes on this tray the whole time.”
“I mean, I’m sure it’s not great food, but aren’t you overreacting a little?”
“Did you say you had a citrus allergy? They should know that. Why did they give you this juice?”
Yasmine sighed. As sweet as it was for Noel to be so
concerned, he’d leaped to acting overprotective in a single bound. “I wasn’t awake to fill out the meal request form, so they just gave me whatever they had the most of. And the allergy thing is probably just an oversight.”
“Don’t think so.” Noel grabbed the tray and slid the contents into the garbage before dumping the juice in the sink. “We’ll get you a fresh meal. I’ll have someone put eyes on it.”
“The police have better things to do than play food manager.”
“Then I’ll call in backup or do it myself.”
“Noel! You’re acting absurd!”
Noel stopped pacing and stared at her. His tense features softened. “I’m not. I’m trying to do the best I can to keep you safe, is all. I’m just... I’m still learning, and my hands are tied since right now, all we’ve got is a local charge of attempted murder. Nothing federal. I have no authority here.”
Yasmine understood that. Coming fresh out of training at the Academy and being immediately thrown into a situation with shots fired had to be nerve-racking. “You’re doing fine. I’m sure of it. You’ve been on the phone a lot, so I know you’re doing something, at least.”
“Oh.” His cheeks turned a light shade of rose. “Some of those calls are with my assigned FBI mentor, letting him know what’s going on here, but a lot of them are from your aunt or my mom with bakery updates. They keep asking me to tell you stuff, but I figure you don’t need that extra stress. They’ve got it under control.”
Yasmine tensed, imagining fires in the kitchen and exploded bags of flour all over her pristine countertops and floors. “It doesn’t sound like it, if they keep calling!”
“Trust me. It’s fine.”
But nothing about his comment seemed fine at all. She pushed the tray table down to the end of the bed and threw off the blankets. Before Noel could stop her, she’d pulled out the IV in her arm and swung her legs over the side. Her brain said that the movements should hurt more than they did—that the dull ache all over and especially around her ribs was being suppressed by some serious painkillers—but she couldn’t stay here a minute longer.
Noel blanched. “What are you doing? You’re going to hurt yourself.”
“You said the hospital isn’t safe. That was hours ago. If someone is out to kill me, they’ve had time to formulate a new plan, right? I mean, if poisoning my lunch wasn’t the new plan.”
“Sorry about that. I’ll send for more food if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m more concerned about getting out of here and having that talk. Why aren’t you?” She stared him down, fully aware that it would be only a matter of time before the painkillers wore off. “I need to find my street clothes.”
Noel released a deep sigh as if he’d fought hard to resign himself to her actions. “Stay here. I’ll ask them to discharge you and explain why. You’re right that it’s not safe here. We should get you to the precinct. We can set up a place for you to lie down in one of the rooms there, and I’ll make sure you get the necessary pain medication to remain functional. But if I do this and get you out of here, can you promise to take it easy? Listen to the doctor’s recommendations?”
“I promise to listen.” She smirked at him and he rolled his eyes, like they were children and teasing each other. Only in this case, it was far from a tease. Judging by recent events, it was life or death.
Although it took another hour before they were escorted downstairs to a waiting patrol car, Yasmine was surprised to find herself relieved to be heading back inside the precinct.
After they checked in with Nia at reception, Noel headed down the hall to hold open the door to a small side room with couches, a water cooler and a kettle with teabags and paper cups beside it. “You going to be okay in here? If you feel off at all, you tell me. You remember what the doctor said—it’s remarkable that you’re alive and escaped the crash with only a few broken ribs and some bruises. Don’t try to play the hero. If you think you’re going downhill, I’ll get you back to the hospital in minutes.”
“I’ll be fine.” Yasmine eased herself down onto a brown-and-orange couch that looked like a castoff from the seventies. The doctor had told her to be gentle on her body, not to move too quickly or do a lot of bending or crouching, anything that might exacerbate the fractures or shift the positions of broken bones. “I’m still not sure how you pulled that off.”
“Thank Officer Wayne and Captain Simcoe for that. They need to question you about yesterday’s events, anyway.”
“Didn’t we already do that?” Yasmine shifted a few of the throw pillows so she could lie back and rest her head. “I don’t know what else to tell them. I have no idea why people are shooting at me. I didn’t ask for this. I didn’t see anything at the crash. You saw more than I did. I don’t think I asked before, but I take it that we don’t know about the other driver?”
Noel shook his head. “I was disoriented for a few seconds from the airbag slamming into my face, and the other car was gone when my vision cleared. A large black SUV plowed right into us. It was deliberate. I already talked to the traffic guys about it. No one barrels through an intersection, makes that kind of hit and disappears without having done it intentionally. The cops put out a BOLO for the vehicle, but nothing has turned up yet. And it probably won’t.”
Yasmine didn’t like the uncertainty in his tone. “Why do you say that?”
He sat across from her and gripped the sides of the chair. “Because yesterday a man killed himself in front of us. He took what was probably a cyanide capsule in a back molar to end his life rather than speak to us. If the crash is connected—and I’m going to say it is—you think whoever’s behind it is going to be dumb enough to leave a smashed-up SUV lying around? No way. It’ll be fixed by someone behind the scenes or found scrubbed in a parking garage somewhere.”
“We don’t have parking garages in this town.”
“You know what I mean.”
Yasmine swallowed down the sudden rush of fear that threatened to sweep her away. She’d been fine managing this so far. She’d felt able to handle it. Noel had mentioned she’d cried about the bakery earlier this morning, but she had zero recollection of that and blamed anything she’d said or done on the pain medication.
“Yasmine?” Noel spoke softly and leaned toward her. With one hand, he closed the door to the room and used his foot to make sure it shut. “We need to talk. For real. About Daniel. And about you.”
She didn’t want to. She’d put the conversation off time and time again yesterday, and each time she’d felt herself ready to open up, there’d been another attack. He needed to know, though, because if Daniel really was murdered, he might be able to claim jurisdiction or at least get someone up here who could. But it was going to hurt, each and every word.
“Fine,” she said. “But can you make me some tea first? This might take a while.”
* * *
Noel listened closely as Yasmine recounted her conversation with her brother only a few days before his passing. From the sound of things, Daniel had stumbled across information at work that he wasn’t supposed to see, but her entire premise was nothing but conjecture. When she explained that Daniel had been found dead shortly after she’d recommended that he talk to his boss about the papers he’d seen, Yasmine paused and looked at Noel expectantly over her paper cup.
“It’s a great theory,” he said, hoping that she wouldn’t hate him for what he planned to say next. “But I’m afraid that’s all it is. The reports, the files and the investigation afterward all point to a workplace accident. Not murder. Officer Wayne showed me everything they have on it. I know you’re looking for someone to blame—”
Her dark brown eyes widened in disbelief, and he knew immediately that he’d said the wrong thing. “Looking for someone to blame? You think I want to believe my brother was murdered? You think it would make me happy to discover that there’s someon
e out there evil enough to take the life of an innocent man? Right here in my town?”
He didn’t think that at all. “So, why are you stuck on this? Do you believe the accident reports were fabricated?”
Yasmine took a sip of tea and lowered the cup, resting it between her hands in her lap. “Noel, I’m not sure you’ve heard everything. The way you spoke earlier, I thought you knew where Daniel worked and for whom. That you’d read the reports yourself.”
She was implying he’d missed something, and that made him feel foolish. “I’ve read the police report, but like you said, the company manufactures and tests parts for military equipment for the Department of Defense. You think there was something wrong with the numbers for the equipment? You said yourself that you don’t even know what Daniel meant by that.”
“Think about it. All military equipment is subject to stringent testing measures to ensure it operates the way it’s supposed to, so that it won’t fail in a critical moment during deployment. What if...what if his boss fudged the inspection numbers?”
It was such a ludicrous suggestion that Noel almost laughed, but he respected Yasmine too much and they’d known each other too long for him to react that way. “I’d say that’s incredibly unlikely. Aren’t military equipment testing standards handed down by the Department of Defense itself? Surely it’d take notice if equipment started to fail all over the place.”
“Yes, but not every piece of equipment will fail. That’s the whole point. It happens so rarely that surely it’s conceivable testing numbers could be faked for quite some time before anybody caught on. If they ever did.”
“You’d have to fool a whole lot of people.” Noel considered the logistics of such a scheme. “You’d have to convince some employees to be in on it, too, but you’d be able to move more parts through the line, make more cash. Does Daniel’s boss live a lavish lifestyle? Live beyond what his means should be for someone in his line of work? Take many trips?”
Outside the Law Page 6
