Chapter 26

I explained my suspicions,as best I could, on the way to the hospital, but I don’t think Ida Belle and Gertie were as convinced as I was. I just knew. Knew without a doubt that Devin had played everyone, and he thought he was going to get away with it. The only loose thread he had left to destroy was Holly Beech, whose sketchy memory was threatening to return after a decade of remaining locked away.

But even though they didn’t have my confidence, they trusted me. Ida Belle drove the SUV like a NASCAR driver at Daytona. By the time we arrived at the hospital, she’d already sent five pedestrians sprawling for the sidewalk, terrified a group of pigeons so much they’d probably fled the state, and acquired more middle fingers than Gertie had given her in a lifetime. But none of it mattered.

The only thing that mattered was getting to the hospital before Devin eliminated the last shred of evidence against him.

Ida Belle pulled into the valet lane at the main entrance of the hospital and tossed the keys to the guy at the valet stand as we ran inside.

“Scratch it and I’ll kill you,” she yelled as the startled young man caught the keys.

I slowed only long enough to pin down the path to the psychiatric ward and ran for the stairs that led to it. If the elevator even let us off on that floor, I knew it would be in a locked-down lobby, with nurses behind a solid sheet of bulletproof glass. But the law required them to have another exit.

When I got to the third floor, I stopped in front of the entry.

“You need an employee pass,” Gertie wheezed from the landing below.

“I’ve got a pass,” I said and pulled out my gun. “Cover your ears.”

I fired a single round into the card slider and the door popped open. We rushed inside, and a man pushing a laundry cart stared in shock.

“What was that noise?” he asked.

“Something ruptured in the wall,” I said. “Maybe old pipes blowing.”

“It sounded like a gunshot,” he said.

“It did. I’m looking for Holly Beech,” I said and described her.

He shook his head. “She’s not on my wing.”

I spotted the sign indicating the second wing and sprinted off.

“Hey, you can’t be up here?—”

I was already around the corner before he finished his statement. I heard hospital employees yelling and scrambling behind me and I knew they would sound the alarm, but I didn’t care. The more people I had in a frenzy, the better.

I dashed down the hallway, slowing only long enough to look in the windows to the locked rooms. Ida Belle and Gertie checked the other side, but when we made it to the end of the hallway, there was no sign of Holly. Had Alexander gotten the wrong hospital? No way. He didn’t make mistakes, either.

“Ma’am, I’ve called security,” a nurse said as I spun around at the end of the hallway. Two nurses and an orderly hovered behind her.

“Where is Holly Beech?” I demanded.

“Only employees are allowed in this area of the hospital,” she said.

I pulled out my ID and shoved it in her face. “I’m a private investigator and Holly Beech’s life is in danger. She’s supposed to be in one of these rooms and she’s not.”

A nurse standing behind her glanced into the room next to her and gasped. “She’s not there.”

The head nurse whipped around and rushed to the door. “That’s not possible.”

“Someone let her out,” I said.

“She’s heavily sedated,” the head nurse said. “She can’t have gotten far.”

The nurses in the hallway started peering inside all of the rooms, which was a complete waste of time, but then one of them pulled open a storage closet, and a man fell out into the hallway.

The head nurse’s eyes widened. “The laundry worker.”

“He got her out in the laundry cart,” I said. “Where is the laundry room?”

“In the basement.”

“Does it have an exit outside of the hospital?”

“Yes. There’s a loading dock,” she said, her panic building. “The service elevator next to the stairs. It goes all the way down.”

“Send security to the basement and tell them to cover every possible exit. Call the police and tell them to send Detective Casey to assist Fortune Redding. There’s a kidnapping in progress.”

I pulled out my pistol as I sprinted for the service elevator and motioned to Ida Belle and Gertie to get in before yanking open the door to the stairs. “Get the SUV and block the exit to the loading dock. I’ll be faster on the stairs.”

I burst into the stairwell and took a flying leap onto the landing below, not wasting a second before sprinting forward and leaping again. I hit the basement level and pushed open the door, not bothering to listen or attempt a peek. There was no time. Devin had a jump on us, and if he got away from the hospital with Holly, I knew we’d never find the body.

The laundry room was completely empty, but I spotted the exit to the loading dock on the far end of the room and ran for it. I burst out of the door and onto the dock, just in time to see Devin’s white Mercedes squealing backward out of a parking space. The rear exit was clear, and I cursed. Ida Belle wasn’t going to make it in time. I couldn’t shoot inside the car. He was driving too erratically, and I had no idea where Holly was.

But by the time I got the rear wheel sighted, he rounded the corner and a delivery van blocked my line of sight. I bolted for the end of the loading dock, leaping over a delivery cart of pastries and startling the driver, who fell backward and lost his grip on the cart at the top of the ramp. The cart shot forward, but I was faster. And I had a clear view of the Mercedes.

As I leveled my nine at the rear tire, I saw movement ahead and then locked in on Gertie, standing on top of a van and pointing a huge gun at the front of the escaping vehicle.

Good God, she had the Desert Eagle out.

I yelled for her to hold fire, but it was too late. Sound boomed from the gun, and Gertie let out a whoop, then promptly fell off the van and rolled right into the path of the speeding Mercedes.

The round hit the windshield of the car and I heard a scream as it exploded and pink paint splashed across the windshield. But my relief was short-lived because there was no way the car would stop before it hit Gertie. I aimed at the right tire and fired. The car veered away from Gertie, missing her by inches, and crashed into a barrier. Ida Belle slammed her SUV to a stop across the end of the loading dock drive, and I sprinted for the car.

Praying that Holly was uninjured, I yanked open the driver’s door. The airbag had deployed, protecting Devin from the wreck, but he wasn’t safe from me. I reached into the car and yanked him out onto the ground, then planted one foot squarely in his back. He groaned and clutched his shoulder, which was clearly dislocated, maybe broken. I spotted Holly in the back seat, looking dazed but otherwise unharmed.

I heard a crash behind me and whirled around just in time to see the pastry cart smash into Gertie and send her sprawling again before the cart flipped over beside her. Gertie sat up and removed a croissant from her chest and took a bite.

“It’s pretty good,” she said.

I laughed as relief coursed through me.

Sirens approached, and I heard running behind me. Ida Belle moved her SUV and Detective Casey’s car swung into the loading dock drive. Hospital staff hurried over now that my gun was back in place, and I waved at the back of the car.

“Holly’s in the back seat. She’s alive, but you’ll want to check her out.”

The head nurse nodded as she motioned for the others to help Holly out. “Thank you,” she said to me.

“Looks like I’m too late for all the action again.” Detective Casey walked up, grinning.

“You’re in time for pastries,” Gertie said.

“I didn’t figure you’d make it here in time for the action,” I said, “but you’re just in time to arrest Devin Roberts for the murder of Lindsay Beech and kidnapping with intent of Holly Beech. Maybe it will improve the captain’s opinion of me.”

She laughed and clapped me on the back. “It just might.”