Page 12 of Sinful Seduction
Having a name before reaching the fridges is always better than not.
“You coming?” I switch the radio off with a fast slap of my fingers, then sweeping up my cell phone and keys and sliding them in my coat pockets, I start Benjamin’s stretcher toward the wide glass door. “I’ll lock up to maintain the chain of evidence, Detective. Or you can stay here and watch the sample jars.”
“I’ll come.” He beats me to the door and opens it wide, holding it out of the way and staring at the side of my face as I pass, then he slips his hand into my pocket—born a criminal—and locks up with my stolen keys. “You have anywhere else you need to be after you put him in the fridge?”
Fletch hangs around in the staff kitchen, making coffee and clapping a visibly beaming Doctor Chase on the back in celebration, and I… I’m an emotionally stunted weirdo. So Idon’tsniffle, but Idostart toward the elevator. “I have to swing by the lab at some point this morning to talk to Doctor Raquel. And then I’ll do rounds with my daytime staff. After that?—”
“After that, you’re legally obligated to clock out and go to bed.” He tapsthe elevator call button, glancing up when the doors immediately open. Then he meets my eyes and waves me closer.
I wheel Benjamin all the way to the back wall, the metallic thud part of my daily routine, then I flip the catch on the gurney and bring my DB swinging vertically, testing the straps and defying gravity as the sheet dangles and the bed fits inside the cube not large enough to allow our patients to remain lying flat for the short trip.
“It always stresses me out when you do that.” Archer follows me in. “Couldn’t the mayor allocate the funds to your building so the dead folks don’t have to hang like Jesus on the cross for the few minutes it takes to descend to the second floor?”
“For that, the mayor would have to finance an almost entire building redesign. And since this building is already old and structurally…” I select the second floor. “Well, it’s possible the George Stanley wouldn’t be up to code according to these new-fangled engineers that get around.”
Archer snorts.
“There’s no way to redesign this building to fit elevators twice the size of what we currently have that won’t lead to a knock-down-rebuild. And despite the mayor’s overindulgent fondness for me, I doubt he’s willing to find a few million dollars in the budget when we already have these beds.”
“The beds creep me out.”
“Good thing you’re not occupying one then, isn’t it?” Timing our trip to the millisecond, I come around and turn my back to the doors, so when they open, I hit the latch on Benjamin’s bed, bring him horizontal once more, then I reverse out of the elevator and push him toward the check-in desk. “What else did you find out about our star-crossed lovers in the last six hours? Fill me in.”
Archer follows me across the all-but-empty lobby-like area, resting his hands on his hips and his shrewd gaze on the side of my face. “All because you don’t wanna discuss Doctor Chase and the fact you’re emotionally invested in the well-being of your staff members?”
“Exactly.” I engage the brakes and stalk around the check-in desk to enter my name and password…twice, typing my details incorrectly on the first attempt. I select an open fridge from the digital offerings and assign Benjamin to his home from now until he’s released for burial or cremation, then hitting enter and accepting the new data, I log out again, walk around the desk, and disengage the brakes. Walking backwards, I bump the door open with my backside and emerge inside the massive fridge that houses dozens of temporary steel coffins. “Doctor Chase received thegood news we were all hoping he would, and more importantly, he learned an extremely valuable lesson.”
Archer follows me in and closes the door behind him. “Not to dilly-dally with an HIV-positive patient ever again?”
I bring Benjamin to a stop, then I stride to the glistening stainless steel door marked two-zero-three and tug the latch handle, releasing the pressure on the fridge with a hiss. “The lesson was that he should be more careful.” And yet, I know Archer simply taunts for the sake of a reaction. “All DBs are treated the same, Detective. All bodies that come through here are assumed infectious until proven otherwise. That means gloves. It means plastic shields. It meansnotsticking yourself and mixing blood. Doctor Chase received the fright of his life, and now the flowers are probably…” I gesture toward the wall. “Ya know, prettier. The sun is sunnier. The wind sings or whatever.”
Archer’s eyes glitter with amusement. “Really?”
“Yes, really!” I drag Benjamin’s new tray out and extend it as far as it goes, then I head back and get him, aligning the two and unsnapping straps so I can transfer him across. “People can become complacent in life. Comfortable and bored, even. But that man has spent the last few months in hell, wondering what would come of his future. Now, he’s got the all clear, I imagine he smiles at the birds and dances in the rain… or something.” I grab Benjamin’s bottom sheet and tug him across with a fast yank that, once again, surprises Archer. “He’ll be a model employee now. He’ll work hard and with enthusiasm, because he’s got this second lease on life. Financially, his incident will be a long-term positive for the building.”
Archer rolls his eyes, calling my bluff in silence, but wise enough to know he should keep it that way—silent. “I know Benjamin came from a not-so-great area of the city, but he has a reasonably solid friend group and a long-term relationship with Molly. I know Molly is fighting for her life in the ICU and may need a new heart by the time this is all done, considering the doctors had to paddle her back twice while I was there. Molly is set to attend Copeland U a year from now—she already received early acceptance and a partial scholarship. She excels in art, but she’ll be studying journalism, with aspirations for prime-time television.”
“You already called her parents and got all that out of them?” I slide Benjamin into the fridge and re-seal the door. “Even while she was dying in the trauma wing, they could give you a history lesson?”
“Nope.” He digs his hands into his pockets, tilting his head to the side. “I caught all that from her social media posts. She’s been reporting on her life since she was about thirteen years old, it seems, and no one—nother parents, nor her teachers or anyone else in her life—told her she really shouldn’t post so much personal information online. She has videos on her social media that have hundreds of thousands of views, and though she doesn’t overtly show where she lives or goes to school, it’s pretty damn easy for a local to recognize certain landmarks in the background of her footage. The statue at Copeland U. The laundromat over by the bay. A favorite corner store she frequented with her boyfriend and friends. She posted their faces. Her face.” He nods toward the fridge. “His face. I assume shethinksshe was living reasonably anonymously, since she didn’t say ‘hey, I live at one-two-three Bland Street and attend school at Blah Blah High.’ But it took me and Fletch mere minutes to figure out her life plans, her scholarship, her gentle contempt for her overprotective parents, and her stubborn streak when it came to her relationship.”
“Stubborn, how?” I guide the discarded stretcher toward the back wall, setting the brakes and leaving it for someone else to deal with.Bad me.“They fought a lot, or…?”
“Nah, stubborn, in that I figure her parents didn’t approve of the boy from the wrong side of town, and Molly didn’t agree with their judgment. Once again, she didn’t say so in so many words, but she’s about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face.”
I stop in front of him and offer my hand, palm side up, only for him to stare. To frown as confusion washes through his eyes. Then, as understanding hits, he drops my keys into the center.
“Thanks.”
He turns on his heels and holds the door open for me to pass—again. Then he closes it and walks with me, shoulder-to-shoulder, all the way back to the elevator. “I think she thinks she was cleverly discreet. Little ‘if you know, you know’ references were scattered throughout her videos. She dripped sarcasm when she spoke of her weekend plans with the boyfriend and how pleased her family was about it. She has a genuine passion for art, which was something she discussed a lot, and a burning drive for journalism.”
“Sounds like she knew which had her heart, and which would be a professional goldmine.” I scrunch my nose and stroll back inside the elevator. “Not my idea of a good job. But some might say the same about rolling dead bodies around for a living.”
Archer steps forward, chuckling, and though I expect him to hit the number seven for the labs, he taps the very, very top button and backs up again, smug eyes and a twitching smirk.
I run this building, but despite that, I’ve never stepped foot on the fifteenth floor.
“Where are we going? The lab is on the seventh floor.”
