Page 59 of In the Bones
It was adrenaline, fierce and unextinguishable, that carried her to the hospital room door.
There was a state trooper stationed in the hall, and the gratitude Mac felt to Shana for having appointed security knew no bounds. For all her fretting over Nicole spending time alone in other people’s houses, Mac was sure the attack was no random event. Homicide investigations were like bug bombs: set one off, and the insects scattered in a panicked daze. She couldn’t fathom how her sister had become a target, but with the search for Angelica’s killer reaching its breaking point, someone must have seen her as a threat.
Before Mac could bust through the door to Nicole’s room, Shana opened it and gathered her into a hug.
“You should prepare yourself,” she said, nodding over her shoulder. “The concussion is mild, but there’s some swelling on her face where the skin split. The doctors say it’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Who?” Mac forced the word out through her teeth. “Who did this to her?”
“We don’t know.” Shana explained what she’d learned, the details of which made Mac queasy. “By the time the troopers reached the house, the perp was gone. Nicole didn’t see the assailant because he grabbed her from behind and slammed her against the wall.” She paused to give Mac a sympathetic look.
“He,” Mac repeated.
Shana nodded. “The only thing Nicole saw was his hands.”
“I have to state the obvious,” said Mac. “Nicole worked for Helle. The guy had a dead woman in his basement. Do we know he’s not our perp?”
“First question out of my mouth too. I asked Nicole if she thought the guy could be Mikko, and she’s certain it wasn’t. It’s the tattoos,” said Shana. “They go right down to his wrists. This guy’s skin was clean.”
“I should call Woody.” Mac hadn’t spoken with him since his interview. She’d been expecting Nicole to call with an update, but of course she couldn’t. Nicole had been too busy fighting for her life. It struck Mac that it had been her idea for Nicole to go to work in the midst of the investigation. What the hell had she been thinking?
“Let me handle Woody,” Shana said. “He’s already been released.”
“You’re not charging him?”
“We have nothing to hold him on. Not yet, anyway. He’s still claiming innocence,” Shana explained, “though he lacks an alibi for a big chunk of the night. Woody says he blacked out and can’t remember anything apart from taking Angelica upstairs. Did you know about the party?” she asked. “Mikko Helle hosted a big house party the weekend Angelica Patten disappeared. That’s where Woody and Angelica met, and this supposed sexual encounter happened.”
House party. Supposed sexual encounter. The jumble of words was disorienting. Shana would follow a lead to the ultimate ends of the earth if she thought there was a chance it might exonerate Woody, but Mac hadn’t been expecting this.Somehow, Shana seemed to have real doubts about Woody’s involvement.
“I don’t know anything about a party,” Mac said. “Nicole never told me the details of what happened, just that Woody slept with some young tourist over the holiday weekend. It always seemed out of character to me,” she added, “for what that’s worth. He’d never cheated before. If there were other people around that night—”
“Way ahead of you. We’re working on getting a list of every attendee, though that won’t be easy. This thing took place nine months ago, and it sounds like Mikko only knew a few of the guests who came. Molly Kranz was one of them, for all the good that does us right now. Man, what I wouldn’t give for five minutes with that woman.”
“Same.” Mac’s brain was in overdrive, scrambling to process what she was hearing. “This explains how the vic ended up in that basement. It explains a lot of things.” Murderers didn’t usually move bodies unless they’d planned ahead. Those types of criminals were known as organized killers, but that’s not what they were dealing with, not if the murder had occurred at an impromptu party full of guests. It was the disorganized killers, those who acted on impulse, that left their victims at the crime scene, and the location of the party and the bones were one and the same. It was sounding to Mac like Angelica Patten’s killing had been spontaneous, maybe even unintended.
Shana said, “Honestly, this party reframes the whole investigation. We’re dealing with a new crop of suspects now. We’ll figure this out, Mac. We will.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Not sure what I’d do without you.”
“You’d do just fine,” said Shana. “But I don’t intend to let you try.”
Mac gave herself a moment to clear out the emotion that was clotting her voice before opening the door, though the attempt was pointless. As soon as she saw Nicole, her throat closed like a fist.
Mac’s younger sister was propped up in bed, eyes eerily blank and her dark hair matted. The left side of her face was a mess of bloated purple pulp, and a bandage stretched acrossher cheekbone, protecting the stitches underneath. According to Shana, she was lucky her nose wasn’t broken. Mac knew the comment had come from a place of love, but nothing about Nicole’s condition looked lucky to her.
Nicole squinted in Mac’s direction. “Hey,” she said, trying for a smile. When the pain hit, her eyes filled with tears.
“You’re OK,” Mac told her thickly. “You’ll be OK.”
“God,” she replied, “I’m always telling the girls to be careful. How am I going to explain this?”
“You don’t have to explain anything. There was nothing you could have done differently. This house you were in,” Mac said. “Nobody was home when you got there?”
“No. It was empty. I locked the door behind me once I was inside. The police said he came through a window.”
Mac spotted the chair in the corner of the room and dragged it to Nicole’s bedside. “I don’t know how yet, but this has to be related to the case.”
“But I have nothing to do with the case,” her sister said. “All I did was find that woman in Mikko’s house. Who could be angry with me about that?”
