Page 31 of Diagnosis Attraction

It didn’t take long to find what he was looking for. The afternoon news was on several of the local channels. When he stopped at one, a reporter was standing in front of the house where they had recently escaped from Polly’s killer.

“Polly Kramer, a local woman who worked as a nurse at Memorial Hospital, was found dead in her laundry room. Responding to a 911 call, police arrived to find the victim alone in the house. Wanted for questioning are Doctor Matthew Delano and a woman known only as Jane Doe, who was admitted to the hospital with amnesia. Ms. Kramer volunteered to take the discharged patient home while she tried to regain her memory. Apparently, the Good Samaritan gesture led to her death.”

Elizabeth stared at the television screen in shocked silence.

Matt reached to comfort her. “It’s not your fault.”

“You said that before, but of course it is. She’d be alive if she hadn’t volunteered to help me out.”

“Don’t blame yourself. You had no idea what was going to happen.”

“But I knew I was in some kind of danger.”

He rocked her as she shivered in his arms. “If you want to assign blame, think about how they knew where to find you. It wasn’t through Polly, and it wasn’t through me. It must have come from one of the other nurses.”

“But why?”

“Maybe she thought she was being helpful.”

Elizabeth wanted to believe she wasn’t to blame, but she couldn’t stop her overwhelming reaction.

“We have to find out what’s going on. We have to find the guy who killed her and turn him over to the police.”

“Is he the same guy who pulled you out of the car?”

She brought up the face of the first thug. “No.”

“If I had to guess, the I’d say they are both working for someone else. In fact, I think you stumbled onto a criminal conspiracy.”

She dragged in a sharp breath.

“I think you knew that already,” he went on. “I think you figured the cops were in on it.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Because I’ve seen a lot of government corruption in my travels.”

“Your diagnosis is that it would be unhealthy to go to the cops, doctor?”

He laughed at her turn of phrase, then sobered. “I think we might end up dead in a jail cell. But even if we didn’t, if they took us into custody, we wouldn’t be free to figure out what’s going on.”

Not too far away, in the Dulaney Valley mansion of Derek Lang, Gary Southwell and his boss were watching the same newscast.

Lang was sitting in a comfortable chair in his TV room. Southwell was standing a few feet away, shifting his weight from foot to foot and keeping his hands at his sides—away from his battered face.

“Tell me again how she got away?” Lang asked.

Gary cleared his throat, hoping his nerves didn’t show. “I had a gun on her. Then she threw herself to the ground, and a guy jumped me from behind.”

“Curious that she knew to get out of the line of fire.”

Gary had thought about that. “He must have given her some kind of signal.”

“Which would mean they had something prearranged.”

Gary nodded.

“And you weren’t aware of him in back of you?”

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