Iris Johansen - Pandora's Daughter

"Because you're both cold as ice."

"I wasn't cold about my son. And there's nothing cold about my hatred of you, bitch. It's white hot and eats at me every minute of the day. I could have sent in Darnell and a few other men to take you down once I knew you were going to Bellehaven. I thought about it. Then I realized that there was no way I was going to do it. It would have been chancy with Grady and Harley, but that was only one reason. I want to see you die slowly." His voice was thick with malice. "I want to hurt you as I did Edmund Gillem. I want to do it myself. I want to watch your face and know you're in pain."

"It won't happen."

"Yes, it will. Because I have this disgusting zombie you appear to be so fond of. Of course, he won't be as well cared for as Dr. Gardner and his nurses have been doing. No warm bed. I'm putting him in the cellar and it's a little cold and damp down there."

"That could kill him. His immune system isn't functioning as-"

"Then come after him."

"Will you let him go if you have me?"

She heard a curse from Grady.

"It's possible. I've no use for him."

Her hands tightened on the phone. "Where?"

"Redwing, Tennessee. Isn't that a pleasant name for a town?"

"You're staying there?"

"Of course not. Come to the graveyard on the hill and we'll discuss an exchange."

"Discuss? I'm not a fool, Molino."

"But you have a strange mind-set where the helpless are concerned. Come to the graveyard tomorrow night at eleven. If you're lucky, one of the corpses won't be Phillip Blair." He hung up.

"An exchange?" Grady asked.

She nodded jerkily. "Redwing, Tennessee. A graveyard on a hill. He wants to discuss terms. Tomorrow night at eleven."

"It's a trap. He won't give up Phillip. He wants to hurt you and he knows it will hurt you if he kills Phillip."

"I know that." Her gaze went to the blood-soaked bed. "Gardner was a Judas. He killed him to keep from having to pay him. He killed Jordan and the nurse just because they were there."

"We have to leave, Megan," Grady said gently. "If the nurse shift changes anytime soon, we don't want to be caught here. There would be too many explanations and explanations will bog us down."

She didn't want to leave yet. Gardner had betrayed Phillip and she cared nothing about him. She didn't care how idealistic his reasons were for doing it. For once she felt no empathy for another's pain. He could have found another to get his funding. But Jordan and the head nurse had also died in this room. It seemed callous to just walk away from them.

"Megan."

"Okay, okay." She got to her feet and headed for the door. "I know what you're saying. I just don't like it." She strode down the hall toward the front entrance. The corridors were as dim and quiet as they had been when they had walked toward Phillip's room.

Dead quiet.

And so were those three people who had been alive and well and full of purpose only hours before.

She took out her phone as they reached the car. "I'm calling 911 and telling them that there's an emergency situation in this annex. I can't leave this place unattended. There are helpless patients that might need urgent care."

"Go ahead." He started the car. "We'll be blocks away before they get anyone over here from the main building." His phone rang and he picked up. "We're leaving the grounds, Harley. You and Renata get out quick." He listened for a moment. "Okay, we'll get back to her." He hung up. "Renata has been following the nurse who ran out of the annex. She didn't like the fact that she was in such a big hurry and that her car had no hospital parking ID. She tried to call you but wasn't getting an answer. So she called Harley and told him to get in touch."

"Did Harley spot Darnell or any other Molino men here?"

He shook his head. "But he found a truck that met the description. Darnell might have had to transport Phillip in an ambulance to avoid suspicion and been forced to leave his truck. Harley's going through the glove box now."

"If Darnell's as smart as you told me, he won't have left any evidence."

He shrugged. "You can never tell. At least, we have two threads to Molino to work on that we didn't have before."

"If Renata doesn't lose that nurse she was following."

"I don't believe Renata has a habit of losing what she's going after," he said dryly. "Call her."

"After 911." She was already dialing. "The patients."

He nodded. "By all means, after the patients."

RENATA'S CELL PHONE WENT immediately to voice mail when Megan called. She tried three other times and got the same result.

"She has her cell phone turned off." She bit her lower lip. "Or someone else turned it off for her."

"The nurse?"

"If she worked for Molino she could be as bad as he is. For God's sake, the least she did was stand by and let three people be butchered."

"I don't believe she could take down Renata. From what Harley said she's remarkable."

She dialed again. "Renata is wounded. And she doesn't know for certain that the nurse was-She's picking up. Thank God. Are you okay, Renata?"

"I'm fine," Renata said. "I was just a little busy. It was a trap?"

"Yes. Dr. Gardner, the head nurse, Madge Holloway, and Jordan, the guard were murdered. Phillip is gone. Molino has him. The woman you followed is a phony."

"I'd already gotten that far. Well, a little more actually. The name of the woman I followed is Hedda Kipler. She does work for Molino and she's pretty good at his brand of ugliness."

"How do you know?"

"I told you I was busy. We're at her motel room at the Fairfield Inn on Highway 40. Come and get her." We re on our way.

"Take your time. We're having a nice chat, aren't we, Hedda?"

Megan hung up and turned to Grady. "Fairfield Inn on Highway 40. She said that there's no hurry, but I'm not sure that's true."

"Why?"

"She already knows the woman's real name. I don't know how much Cousin Mark has taught Renata about interrogation methods."

THE FIRST THING MEGAN SAW when Renata opened the door was Hedda Kipler tied to a chair with a drapery cord. She was gagged and her face was bruised and bloody.

Megan glanced at Renata with a frown. "Renata."

"I didn't do that while I had her trussed up like a turkey," she said quickly. "She jumped me when I got out of the car here at the motel. I had to defend myself." She made a face. "She got in a few licks herself. You're going to have to restitch me."

For the first time Megan noticed the bloody patch on Renata's shoulder. "You opened your wound. Sit down and I'll fix it."

"Not now," Grady said. "We need to know about her orders from Molino before he finds out we have her." He glanced at Renata. "How much did you get out of her before we came?"

"I need to tend to that wound," Megan said. "And she said she was only defending herself."

"To start off with. I imagine she's not totally innocent, are you, Renata?"

She met his gaze. "No, I'd already shaken her up. I had to follow through or it might have taken hours or days to pump her. Mark would have thought it 'inefficient.'" She turned to Megan. "I didn't do any permanent damage. Just enough to make her know I was serious. She helped them take your Phillip. Would you rather I let her lie and make up stories until it was too late for him?"

She wearily shook her head. "No, but I don't like it that it was you who did this. There has to be damage to you too."

"What did you find out?" Grady asked again.

"She's worked for Molino in Paris, Athens, and Miami in the past ten years. She's done everything from transporting drug money to be laundered to jobs like this one tonight. She thinks he's got a hideaway in Tennessee, but she's never been there." Shit.

"But she has been to an apartment he keeps in Miami. 1230 Ocean View. Last month she delivered a package to him there from Central Africa."