Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
May tried to keep him talking so he wouldn’t look at the injuries. The swelling along the metacarpal ridge made her uneasy. She would confirm with an X-ray. “You’re going into politics?” she asked, keeping her tone neutral while she assessed the depth of the larger split. It was deep but clean now.
“Of course I am. I’m with Kyle learning what to do and what not to do.” He swayed a bit. “That guy is serious about you. You don’t want anything to do with him, do you?”
“No,” she said honestly. “I really don’t.”
Jack blinked as if fighting to focus.
“You’re all leaving tomorrow, right?” she asked.
“Yeah. We’ve got that rafting thing tonight because we talked about it so much. Then we’re gone.” His mouth twisted. “I wish we could just get the hell out of here.”
“Ivy’s funeral will be in about a week,” May said gently as she applied antibiotic ointment to the cleaned wounds. “Her parents are still setting it up. It’s in Washington State. You could go. Or send flowers.”
His pupils were wide under the bright exam lights. Too wide.
She leaned closer. “Jack, have you taken anything besides alcohol?”
He hesitated. “Yeah. The senator’s got some decent sedatives. He can’t sleep sometimes. I took a few.”
Her stomach rolled over. “How many?”
“I don’t know.” His words were starting to blur together. “Not enough. I just can’t get her face out of my head.”
Alcohol plus an unknown sedative. Not good. “We’re going to get an X-ray to rule out a boxer’s fracture, and I need to check your vitals.”
He started crying harder, his shoulders heaving.
She rested a hand on his shoulder. “It wasn’t your fault. You were fishing that night. There was no way you could’ve known.” She wrapped the blood pressure cuff around his arm and watched the monitor as it inflated. His pulse was elevated. His oxygen saturation was holding for now. “Do you know the name of what you took?”
He shook his head slowly. “Little white pills. That’s all I know.” Mucus ran from his nose, and he wiped at it with the back of his good hand.
“Taking pills isn’t going to help. It’s terrible that Ivy died, but it wasn’t your fault. You were fishing, Jack. You have to let that go.”
His head jerked up. “I wasn’t fishing.”
May froze. “What do you mean you weren’t fishing?”
His expression turned petulant. “I didn’t go. Who told you I went?”
Her pulse rate increased. She took a slow step back. “I just assumed you did.” Had she actually asked? Lance had mentioned the senator being a jerk while they were out, but he had never specifically said Jack was there. “You and Peter didn’t go?” she asked carefully.
“Peter went.” Jack swayed on the exam table. “Peter never misses time with the senator. I stayed here. Don’t you get it?”
“No,” May said, easing backward another step. He was beyond drunk. His words were slipping over each other. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re talking about?”
When he looked up at her, his eyes were raw and tortured. “Don’t you get it?” he said again. “I dropped off Kyle and Peter before heading back to the house to work. And drink. When I was done, I went over to Ivy’s. She was tipsy, I was drunk, and I trusted her. I thought I could tell her anything.”
May’s throat went dry. “Wait. Slow down. This isn’t making sense.” She reached behind her for the doorknob, her fingers brushing cool metal, and twisted it quietly. The latch released. “You can’t be the killer. You were fishing all night with Ivy when Laura died, so it couldn’t have been you.”
Jack slid off the table and stood, wavering. “I didn’t kill Laura.”
Relief flickered through May. Maybe it was the drugs talking. The guy wasn’t making sense.
“I killed Ivy.”
The air thickened around her. “Why?” May whispered. The door was open now, just a crack. If she needed to run, she could.
“Because I told him to.” The statement came from behind her.
She yelped and jerked the door wide, ready to scream, but the sound died in her throat when she saw the gun in Kyle’s hand. It was black and unnervingly steady, with a long metal tube extending from the end of it, making the weapon look longer than it should have been. The dark opening at the front was aimed directly at her solar plexus.
“Kyle,” she whispered.
“Yeah.” His tone was almost conversational. He shifted the gun and aimed it at Jack instead.
Jack’s shoulders collapsed. “I can’t keep the secret,” he sobbed. “I shouldn’t have killed her. I shouldn’t have listened to you. Politics isn’t that important. I just can’t keep it.”
“I know,” Kyle said calmly. He pulled the trigger, and the shot made a dull, suppressed thud.
May gasped.
Jack’s body snapped backward, eyes wide in shock before he crumpled to the floor. Blood spread fast across the linoleum, dark against the pale tile.