Page 104 of Girl Betrayed

“You’re the sort who likes to say I told you so, aren’t ya?” Richter muttered, when Dana caught his eye.

Dana shook her head. “I’d much rather say I’m wrong. Life just doesn’t seem to work that way.”

They stood in the parking lot watching the sun sink lower in the sky. An hour later, the doors whooshed open, and a gurney wheeled out. The sealed body bag confirmed Dana’s fears. Heart in her throat she started toward the silent ambulance, when she heard her name being called.

Nurse Avery cut her way through the crowd, waving at Dana. The old woman was out of breath by the time she reached her.

“What happened?” Dana demanded.

“I did what you asked,” Avery said, clutching her chest as the wind swept her chin length gray hair into her face. “I switched the room number plaques just like you said, but I told you, our floor was full. No empty beds.”

Dana glanced back at the gurney being loaded into the silent ambulance as Richter joined them.

“Poor thing OD’d,” Avery sobbed. “It’s my fault.”

“Let me guess,” Richter said, “The body on the gurney was in room 241.”

Avery nodded. “Yes, but it’s not Meredith.”

All the tension seemed to ease from Dana at once and she had to fight to stay on her feet. “Who is it?” she asked.

“Sharon Thompkins. She’s a lifer. Been with us for more than twenty years.”

“How did she die?” Richter asked.

“Took a lethal dose of Lorazepam.”

“Is that even possible?” Dana asked.

Avery shrugged. “We do what we can, but sometimes patients stash their meds for this reason.”

“Is it something you would’ve expected Sharon to do?” Dana pressed.

“No, never. She was stage 5. She didn’t possess the mental capacity to do something like this.”

90

The sun wasa red ball of fire colliding with the horizon by the time Dana was back in Richter’s SUV heading toward the city. She wanted to call Jake and fill him in on everything that happened, but she was preoccupied, her mind busy trying to piece together the fragments of clues they’d gathered today.

Catching her chewing her nails again, Richter asked, “What’s bothering you?”

“What isn’t?”

“I know we didn’t stop the murder, but at least it wasn’t Miss Kincaid.”

“But if the Reaper isn’t Dvita, or there’s more than one killer, they’ll know they failed here. I’m worried someone will still try to get to Meredith.”

“I know the MO was different here,” Richter said. “But a life is a life, isn’t it? If Sharon’s death was orchestrated by our killer, we have to assume she is the fourth victim.”

“I don’t know,” Dana muttered. “This case is so twisted I don’t know which way is up, only that we’re always a step behind.”

Richter smirked. “Welcome to the BAU.”

Dana stewed on her thoughts for a moment longer, landing on one looming question. “I still don’t understand Meredith’s role in all of this,” she said.

“Neither do I,” he replied. “But we’d better get to the bottom of it if she was important enough for someone to try and tie up loose ends.”

“Someone? Don’t you mean Dvita?”

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