Page 27 of Her Dying Secret

Ten minutes later, Josie hung up with Dr. Feist. “Tena.m.,” she told Noah.

“Perfect,” he said. “We just had an opening on our calendar.”

NINETEEN

“Put that away!”

He stands over me. I didn’t hear him coming because he is so quiet when he moves. He says it’s from so much time avoiding the bad people.

“I’m coloring,” I say. He slept all night and all morning and didn’t give me any food and I’m so bored and sad.

I’m using my blue crayon now. The one called Robin Egg Blue.

He yanks the book out of my hands, tearing the cover. I jump up. “Stop!” Tears sting my eyes and my face.

He looks all around us and then his voice gets soft, like he’s trying to be nice. “I’m sorry, but you know that you can’t be seen with this stuff.”

“Tell me what you did, and I’ll put it away.” I’m trying hard not to be afraid of him but there are two dried reddish drops on his left boot and I’m worried.

“I told you,” he says. “I did what was necessary to protect us. You’re too young to know the details.”

Who did you hurt? Who did you hurt? Who did you hurt?

I want to ask but the drops on his boot must be blood and I want to know whose blood but if he tells me, I might die, too.

He gives me the book and I hide it inside my bag with my crayons. Tears roll down my cheeks. I can’t stop them. I think it’s because I know who he hurt and I wish I didn’t.

TWENTY

The morgue was located in the basement of Denton Memorial Hospital. Fittingly, it was in one of the most depressing areas of the building. Yellowed tile cracked beneath their feet as Josie and Noah walked the long hall leading to the suite that comprised Anya’s domain. Every other room in this section of the basement was unused, giving the space a creepy, abandoned feeling. The walls, once white but now gray from a thick coating of grime, didn’t help. Neither did the putrid odor of stringent chemicals and decomposing bodies that hung heavy in the air.

Kyle Turner stood outside the doors to the exam room, leaning against the wall with one heel tucked up behind him. His head was bent to his phone. Thick brown curls, shot through with gray, fell across his forehead. In his other hand he held a can of the energy drink he always consumed in lieu of coffee. Hearing their footsteps over the tile, he turned his deep-set blue eyes toward them. He pushed himself off the wall, coming to his full height. He towered over Josie but only had a few inches on Noah. Pocketing his phone, he stroked his thumb and index finger over his beard.

“If it isn’t the lovebirds,” he said, the snark in his tone grating on Josie’s nerves.

“Don’t start, Turner,” Noah said.

He raised a brow. “Someone’s grumpy this morning. What? You two having trouble in the bedroom?”

Josie looked up to see a muscle in Noah’s jaw tick. “Turner, keep it professional or I’m writing you up. In case you’ve forgotten, I’m your lieutenant.”

Turner eyed Noah with a wicked glint in his eye. For a second, Josie was certain that he was going to keep pushing. It certainly wasn’t the first time he’d remarked on the fact that Josie and Noah were married, but he’d never been so crass before. Josie could tell by the tension rolling off Noah’s body that he was near his breaking point with Turner.

Lucky for him, Turner didn’t press. Lowering his eyes, he mumbled a sorry.

Josie said, “What are you doing here?”

He slugged down the rest of his drink, crumpled the can and walked across the hall to throw it into a trash bin. “Apparently, I’m not working hard enough.”

“Did you come to that conclusion on your own?” Noah asked. “It’s very insightful.”

Turner kept his eyes locked on Josie. “Thanks, Lieutenant, but no, I did not. I was out doing my job yesterday and I guess someone wasn’t happy with my performance.”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response,” Josie said. “No one tattled on you, Turner. Your ‘work’ stands for itself.”

Gretchen had given the Chief a hard time for having hired him, but she hadn’t come right out and talked about his shoddy work, which meant that the Chief must have checked the files and seen that Turner had either not completed the paperwork on the bank robbery or had only partially completed it. The fact that Turner hadn’t even made an appearance at the stationhouse while Josie and Gretchen were there, in spite of still being on shift, was also obvious. The Chief had noticed without either of them pointing it out.

Noah said, “That’s between you and the Chief. We’ve got work to do.”

---