Page 141 of Hidden Nature

“I get it, but that could just mean they got him out of the wreck.”

“Going back, back to February. She’d have posted on it.”

She skimmed over progress reports—she’d read them later—and scrolled back to the first post on the accident.

“Here. Just happened, she’s calling for prayers. Worked late, accident. She’s scared, not as coherent as her other posts.”

“Small wonder.”

“Concussion, internal injuries, in surgery. Collapsed lung, and bang. ‘Art’s big, generous heart stopped on the way to the hospital. They had to shock it to start it beating again. Please, please, send all your prayers that it keeps beating, that he heals and comes home to us.’”

“Son of a bitch,” Nash muttered. “Looks like you found that common denominator.”

“Three for three?” He saw those fairy eyes go fierce. “That’s not coincidence. That’s deliberate. That’s the reason.”

“What kind of a reason is that? We’re going to grab people up who’ve been dead for a minute?”

“Probably not that simple, but that’s the crux. Three different hospitals, different locations. How do they know? How do they pick? Where are they holding them? Or more likely, where are the bodies? A lot of questions.

“But this is the reason.” She nodded, tapped the screen. “This is the motive.”

“So what do you do now?”

“Talk to my captain tomorrow. Pass what I’ve got on to the investigators in each case. Start looking for more with this connection, as Janet Anderson might not have been their first. Find the answers to the lot of questions.”

“They were grabbed up about a month apart, right?”

“Yes, and yes, they’ll have another picked out.”

“You fit. It could be you.”

Tic wedged in, so she rubbed his head.

“I was in Hagerstown—the hospital. Out of their range. And it’s really risky to go after a police officer. But since I’ve been there, I can tell you they stole that second chance, wiped out all the pain and effort of healing and moving on. Killed the joy and relief of the families at having their loved one alive.

“And that pisses me off.”

She switched off the computer.

“I’ve got regular duty tomorrow, but I’ll make time for this. Hell, maybe this is another reason I came back. I’ll make time for this.”

“If you want me to take off, I’m going to need my shirt.”

She glanced up over her shoulder, then shifted her chair so she could stand up in the limited space.

“You know how I said we’d talk later about the thing we shouldn’t be doing?”

“Now you want to talk?”

“No, I think we should go back and do the thing we shouldn’t be doing again. Then we’ll have more to talk about later.”

“That works for me. I still want my shirt back.”

She smiled. “Come and get it.”

He left early, but had a chance to try out her new shower—with her in it.

She surprised him. Not just the sex, and he could admit now he’d imagined that before the reality of it.

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