Page 47 of The Perfect Crime

After a long pause, Kat spoke.

“I’ll try,” she said quietly.

Hannah wanted to believe her.She really did.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Jessie was lost in thought, trying to come up with some alternative theory that wouldn’t lead them down another dead end.She circled back to something that Marcus Vega had said from his hospital bed, about how the killer didn’t like them “flaunting” themselves.

It felt like there was more meat on that bone.She wondered if they should call Vega back to get more on that detail.Was it too late to call?Maybe she’d check in with his nurse when they got home.

Ryan clearly knew she was thinking because, after they’d checked in with the rest of the HSS team, he’d driven in silence most of the way home.She thought back on the group call they’d had only minutes earlier.

When they’d called in after getting back in the car once they realized Forrester likely wasn’t their guy, they got more bad news from Susannah and Sam.

“We’re at the hospital,” Susannah said.“Turns out that Dr.Ethan Blackwell is on call tonight, and he had to come in for some emergency surgery.”

“Are you sure he didn’t get someone else to cover for him and sneak out?”Ryan asked hopefully.

"We thought of that," Susannah said."Sam even went into the surgical department to double-check.He's still in there now, just in case, but he caught sight of Blackwell in scrubs, entering an operating room.We'll stick around for a while just in case, but it looks like the guy's here legitimately."

“Wonderful,” Ryan grumbled.

“One more piece of bad news,” Susannah added.“While he was waiting, Sam followed up on whether Blackwell and Forrester might have spoken before the latter’s emergency appendectomy.The nurses pretty much laughed in his face.They said they don’t keep records of that sort of thing and that besides, sometimes the anesthesiologist just pops in briefly to introduce themself.Often, there’s no one else there but the patient.Basically, we’ll never know for sure if they met.”

“Well, it sounds like it might be moot, anyway,” Jessie said, disheartened.

After the call ended unceremoniously, Jessie and Ryan had agreed that there was no point in going back to the station tonight.They’d already called in multiple units to break up the illicit block party where Forrester had gotten his coke.There was nothing more to do tonight.So they headed home, hoping that they wouldn’t get a call about another victim sometime in the next few hours.

They were just pulling into the driveway, waiting for the garage door to fully open, when Jessie heard Ryan grunt softly beside her.

“What’s wrong?”she asked.

“Nothing,” he said as he eased the car into the garage, “I just feel a little woozy.I think it might be because I haven’t eaten in hours.Between that, the coffee, and the lack of sleep, I feel like my body’s giving me a little payback here.”

“Well, maybe we can get a few hours rest,” she suggested.“Hopefully that will reset things for you a bit.”

“I hope so,” he said as he parked the car.

Once it was no longer in motion, his whole body seemed to slump.He groaned quietly.

“Jeez,” Jessie said, mildly concerned.“That didn’t sound good.Do you need to take something when we get inside?”

He nodded weakly.

“Maybe an antacid or something,” he rasped.“I feel like I have the worst heartburn ever.”

“Okay,” she said, getting out of the passenger seat and moving around to help him.“Let’s just get you inside and we’ll figure something out.”

She opened the door for him and was stunned to find that he needed her assistance to get upright.She threw his arm over her shoulder and guided him to the side door.She pushed the button to close the garage, then entered code on the panel to unlock the side door.It clicked.She opened it and then eased Ryan inside.

As she flicked on the light in the laundry room, she felt a strange shudder run up her spine.Something about this situation felt both alien and familiar at the same time.She looked over at Ryan, who was sweating profusely.His skin was ashen, and he appeared to be on the verge of collapsing.

And in a flash, she knew.He wasn't just tired or hungry or over-caffeinated.Somehow, some way, he'd been poisoned.

Without explaining why, she pushed him toward the washing machine and spun around.She was already unholstering her gun as she reached out to close the side door.But she wasn’t fast enough.She barely had time to process what she saw in front of her.It was their own shovel from the garage.And it was coming toward her face.

CHAPTER THIRTY ONE

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