Rita Herron - Under His Skin

Grace’s questions about the tissue transplants aroused Parker’s curiosity. Although Bradford had informed him about the Coastal Island Research Park and some unethical projects that had taken place, stealing dead bodies to remove tissues seemed far-fetched. Captain Black and Detective Clayton Fox had investigated the center for over a year. Fox had gotten too close to one case and they’d performed a memory transplant on him. For months he’d actually believed he was a guy named Cole.

Police had also exposed another experiment where children had been trained and brainwashed to be spies. A twin identity experiment had taken one of the participant’s lives, and a few months back, someone had poisoned unsuspecting people with a chemical that caused depression, delusions, agoraphobia, and eventually lead to suicide. Bradford’s wife and brother had also been subjects of a study on paranormal abilities.

Then again, the painted corpses definitely read like teenage pranks.

But worry nagged at him. He didn’t like the fact that the paper had printed Grace’s name as a possible witness to a crime. Or that they’d revealed that she was pushing the police to find her brother’s killer.

Besides, a cop would most likely eat his gun versus a bullet to his temple.

He had to know more about Bruno’s cases.

The bullet to the head fit the MO of a professional hit. Or had the killer meant to make it look that way?

Grace’s conviction that her brother had been murdered drove him to pick up the file Bradford had dropped off earlier. He flipped it open and began trying to decipher the man’s handwriting to review his past cases. Someone Bruno had arrested might have harbored a vendetta against him.

Parker jotted down the names of three convicted felons Bruno had arrested the previous year for burglary, a handful of others for petty crimes, a gang who’d robbed a bank, a woman who’d poisoned her husband with antifreeze, and a husband who’d killed his wife and kids with a gas leak.

Parker would check each of their whereabouts to see if one of them or a family member had threatened retribution after their arrest or incarceration.

According to Bruno’s notes, the brother of the man convicted of killing his own family had insisted the man was innocent and had gotten violent after the sentencing.

Parker booted up his computer, accessed the police database, and discovered the man still lived in Savannah, and that he had been arrested for carrying a concealed weapon. A .38.

The same type of gun that had killed Bruno.

Surely Captain Black had investigated the man.

He phoned Bradford and asked. “Yeah, we questioned him,” Bradford told him. “But he had an alibi for the night Bruno died. Why are you so interested?”

Good question. “His sister’s my nurse,” he admitted. “She asked me for help.”

“The sister?”

“Yeah. I know she’s talked to the captain, that she insists her brother didn’t kill himself.”

A long tense second stretched between them. “We all want the truth,” Bradford finally said. “But I’m not sure we can trust everything Grace Gardener says.”

Parker chewed the inside of his cheek. “Why not? She seems intelligent, sincere.”

“You don’t know about her past?”

“No.” But his partner’s tone jump-started his suspicions.

“Grace Gardener’s father was a cop. At age seven, she saw her parents gunned down in front of her very eyes.”

Oh, hell. “What about Bruno?”

“He was five, spending the night at a friend’s house for a birthday party. Grace went into shock and had to undergo counseling.”

“What are you saying? That Bruno’s sister is not stable?”

Another pregnant pause. “That she might be in denial. A trauma like that affected both of them. I heard Bruno say that he felt guilty for not being home during the murder.”

And that guilt could have driven the man to suicide.

“Did they find the parents’ killer?”

“No,” Bradford said. “But Bruno insisted he would.”

“Maybe he did,” Parker said. “And the killer murdered Bruno to silence him.”

And if he did, and Grace kept nosing around, the guy might come after her, too.

GRACE TRIED DESPERATELY to regain control, but lost it as she tumbled down the cement steps. She screamed, throwing out her hands, her knees slicing painfully into the sharp concrete edge, but the dark inside of the stairwell blinded her and she couldn’t see the rail. Whoever had pushed her had hit her with such force that she pitched headfirst, unable to stop until she reached the next landing, slamming into the wall.

She panted for a breath, her body trembling with shock as her muscles protested the awkward position, but she fought to rise to her knees.

She had to get up, run, escape…

But suddenly her attacker gripped her by the throat from behind. She tried to scream for help, but his fingers bit into her neck, cutting off her voice. Gasping, and struggling to pry his fingers away, she tried to remember the self-defense moves Bruno had shown her.

Lashing out, she brought one elbow up and slammed it backward into his chest, at the same time clawing at his hands. He grunted and momentarily loosened his hold. She swung backward again with her other elbow and knocked him down.

Her pulse racing, she pushed to her hands and knees, but a sharp pain splintered her ankle as she attempted to put weight on it and she nearly collapsed. Sheer determination drove her upward, though. He grunted and reached for her, but she lunged forward and stumbled down another step, pawing at the wall to guide her in the dark. The stench of stale air and sweat assailed her, making her break into a sprint. Another step. Another. She had to reach the next landing, make it into the hall…

Behind her, footsteps thudded ominously, making her chest pound with fear. Her ankle throbbed, and she hit the step edge and nearly fell, but managed to connect with the railing. Footsteps grew closer, and self-preservation took hold. She shoved the hair from her face and felt along the wall, heart racing as she stumbled to the door. Frantic, she pushed it open and fell into the corridor, tasting blood as she cried out for help.

The lights suddenly flickered on. She squinted, disoriented for a second as her eyes adjusted to the light. The hall was empty, and she jumped up and barreled around the corner. When she spotted the nurses’ station, she dived toward it.

“Help me!”

Doris, one of the head nurses on the second floor, jerked her head up. “Grace?”

She staggered toward the desk. “Someone attacked me in the stairwell. Call security!”

Doris’s eyes widened in shock, but she immediately catapulted into motion and punched the security alarm. Grace leaned against the desk, trembling and trying to steady her breathing.

Doris raced around the edge of the station. “My God, Grace, are you all right?”

She nodded and wiped blood from her lip with the back of her hand.

Doris slid an arm around Grace’s waist. “Come on, honey, you need to sit down. I’ll get a doctor.”

Grace nodded, and Doris helped her to a chair behind the desk, then called one of the ER physicians.

A security guard rushed up. “What’s going on?”

Doris gestured toward Grace. “Someone attacked Grace in the stairwell.”

“He pushed me down the steps,” Grace said.

The guard flipped on his radio and reported the attack. “Secure and check all stairwells.” He turned to Grace. “Did you get a look at your attacker?”

She shook her head no. “The lights went out and it was so dark I couldn’t see anything.”

The guard gave a clipped nod, then turned and moved to the stairwell. He removed his gun and inched inside, then disappeared down the steps.