Meg did. Then she reached down and helped Lara get Adrianna onto the dock.
Lara dared to look back. Help was nowhere in sight. How had they missed the shot from Meg’s Glock?
The music. It was the music.
“Meg, Adrianna needs help—now!” They bent over the woman together, Meg counting and Lara trying to breathe life into Adrianna’s lungs.
“It’s time to go,” the voice said.
“Go where?” Meg demanded tersely.
“Ten steps, other side of this little sandbar.”
Lara was sure she knew that voice, and she tried to place it. There was something so familiar about it, and yet...different.
“I’m not sure Adrianna is okay yet,” Lara said between breaths. “God only knows what you pumped into her.”
“Not enough to kill her, though perhaps the water took care of that.”
At that exact moment, Adrianna coughed.
“Come—now! Or she’ll be dragged into this, too.”
Lara looked at Meg. Neither of them moved.
“I can down you both in two seconds.”
“Then, do it. You’re planning on killing us anyway,” Meg said.
“Don’t you want to buy time?”
“Yes, we’ll buy time,” Lara said, looking at Meg and then nodding meaningfully at Adrianna, who was sputtering but breathing.
If she regained full consciousness, the killer would undoubtedly carry out his threat, and then she would end up dead, too.
“Do you want me to shoot her after you went to all that trouble to save her?” the man asked.
Lara stepped over the platform and started across the little sandbar. Meg followed her.
A small boat with three occupants was waiting on the other side. A fourth man was waiting to hop aboard. He had to be the man who’d been watching. Threatening them.
She saw who it was. And she knew him. But she didn’t understand why he was involved.
Life—and apparently death—could be deceiving.
*
“They were all at the hospital? Ely Taggerly, Grant Blackwood and Mason Martinez?” Brett said, heading out to the car.
“Taggerly was there to visit an employee, a man named Jackson Baum. Martinez was visiting a sick sister. And Blackwood was having some tests done,” Matt said. “We have officers tracking down both patients now, making sure the men actually visited them, and we’re verifying that Blackwood did indeed get those tests. And,” he added, “I’ve already sent officers out to Sea Life. But—”
“We have to go,” Brett said. “We need to get there. Whether or not they’re guilty, all of those men are there. Now. And while the doll may have been a vindictive prank, someone may still want Lara dead for her part in retrieving those body parts.” He was already striding down the hall toward the exit.
As they hurried out of the building, Matt said, “Meg is there, and she’s a great agent.”
Brett nodded distractedly. “Money. I did say whoever was behind this had to be someone with money.”
“We’ll get there, but let’s stay grounded. This isn’t proof that any of those men are guilty,” Diego reminded him. “This just tells us that they were at the hospital the day Randy Nicholson died.”
They’d reached the car. Brett had his phone out, trying to reach Lara.
No answer.
“Give me the keys, amigo,” Diego said.
Brett tossed them over; Diego was an ace driver, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to focus on the road. “Lara isn’t answering,” he said.
Matt frowned, sliding into the backseat, his phone out, as well. After a minute he frowned. “Meg’s not picking up, either.”
“They had their big event for the vets today,” Diego said. “They’re probably just busy. They probably can’t even hear their phones.”
Brett glanced at his watch. “It should be over. It’s after five.” He looked at the other two men. “Taggerly is old and runs a drug company. Martinez has focused his entire business on getting people to lead healthful lives. And Blackwood...”
“Is a rich asshole,” Diego said.
“You think one of them is hooked up with the Barillo crime family?” Matt said, his tone skeptical.
“This could have created all kinds of strange bedfellows,” Brett said. “In the meantime, we’ve got to reach someone there. We have to find out what’s going on.”
“Try the main number,” Diego suggested.
“That will probably get us some kid in the gift shop,” Brett said.
“I’ll call Grady,” Matt told them. “I got his cell number from Adam before I came down here.”