“Stunned.” His mouth twisted. “Who wasn’t stunned? The director wasn’t pleased that I had the premier serial killer of the past decade working in my office. I’m a laughing stock. It’s going to take a long time to get back in his good graces. The only saving grace is that we caught her.”
“Yes, isn’t it lucky we did. But I asked about the dream team.”
“What you’d expect,” he said carelessly. “Heartfelt relief expressed in their characteristic manners. A bit of disappointment from Suber. He wanted to be there to document Zachary’s death.”
“No, he wouldn’t. I didn’t behave at all like a cool, scientific professional.” She moistened her lips. “I was savage, Griffin.”
“Self-defense. You were under severe stress.”
“Savage,” she repeated. “Not like myself at all.” She finished her coffee. “What about Metcalf? Is he okay?”
“Why shouldn’t he be? Having your partner exposed as a serial killer is a shock, but they weren’t working together that long.”
“I guess you’re right.” Evidently Metcalf hadn’t told anyone about his intimacy with Gina, and she wasn’t about to do it. How he was going to deal with the memory of that bizarre relationship was up to him. She went back to her main objective. “You won’t find a way to get me in there to sit with Lynch?”
“Nope. Doze in that chair until visiting hours and then go home and go to bed.” He threw his empty cup in the trash bin and turned toward the door. “You did a good job, Kendra. Exceptional.”
“No thanks? No gratitude?”
“You cancelled that out when you had Lynch call and ask for that favor for the Walkers. You owed me.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“Oh, yes. And you’ll owe me another one if I choose to persuade those detectives not to mention you when they’re giving interviews to the media.” He added softly, “How much is that worth to you, Kendra?”
He didn’t wait for an answer but left the waiting room.
She wanted to follow him down the hall and push him down the elevator shaft.
But she was too tired and Griffin would always be Griffin, and she had to accept it. Well, no she didn’t, but she had to accept it until she found a way to punish him.
She leaned back and closed her eyes again. Relax. At least, if she was thinking of ways to revenge herself on Griffin, she wouldn’t be worrying about Lynch.
*
SHE WASN’T ALLOWED TO see Lynch until after breakfast the next morning. But it seemed the rules didn’t apply to Griffin. She saw him coming out of Lynch’s room when she was walking down the hall from the elevator.
“Good morning.” He smiled. “You look exhausted and a bit like a street kid hanging out in the charity ward.”
“There’s nothing wrong with that. I give a lot of my time to street kids. They fight harder. What are you doing here?”
“I got a call from Lynch at the crack of dawn ordering me to come and see him. He objected to hospital garb and wanted his own clothes and the chance to interrogate me. I decided to oblige him. God knows he’s useful and I might need him.” He held up his hand. “I can’t help it if he finds me more interesting than he does you. And he hadn’t even seen that tacky tee shirt yet. See you later, Kendra.” He strolled toward the elevators.
She opened the door. “Lynch, what did you want with—” She stopped as she saw him propped up in the bed across the room. He was not as pale as he had been the night before and his features looked almost normal. His blue eyes were bright and he was smiling at her. “Lynch?” She cleared her throat. “You look almost … You look … better.”
“Thanks to pain pills and my fantastic stamina.” He held out his hand. “But I have an idea I’m not going to last long. You’d better come over here and sit down.”
She came slowly across the room. “Yesterday I thought you might be dying.”
“Yesterday you might have been right.” He grimaced. “But I hear there was an annoyingly persistent woman who kept insisting I stay alive. According to Griffin, she was ready to take anyone down who tried to tell her I wasn’t going to make it.”
“Rumor. Pure rumor.”
“I don’t think so. I remember bits and pieces and she was just as hardheaded as Griffin said.” He took her hand. “It’s a wonder I survived her.”
His hand was warm and strong and she felt another rush of relief at that additional sign of recovery. “I don’t appreciate you calling Griffin at dawn to discuss me. Particularly when you probably had been told I was already here at the hospital.”
“That was a risk I took. Because as soon as the first drugs wore off, I knew I was going to be having trouble.”
“I’m not giving anyone trouble. I just thought since you risked your neck taking Zachary’s knife thrust for me that I should make sure you were going to be all right.” She jerked her hand away from him. “And now that I know you’re going to be as healthy and as obnoxious as you usually are, I can leave you on your own.”
“No, you can’t. I’d immediately fake a total collapse and you’d feel guilty as hell. No, you’ll have to stick around for a while.” He smiled. “I believe I’m feeling weaker even as I speak about it.”
“Blackmail?”
“Why not? Everyone knows that I’ll do anything to get what I want.” He paused. “But this blackmail will have to be very curtailed because I don’t have any idea how long I can keep up all this bullshit pretense that you feel so comfortable with. I have to take care of the problem before the pain medication totally wears off.”
She was immediately alarmed. “You’re hurting? How stupid can you get? I’ll go tell the nurse you need to—”
“See?” He was smiling. “You’re a pushover. Right now you don’t know whether I’m playing you or not.”
But she was afraid that he had not been playing her. She knew how strong he was and what he’d gone through over the years. He might be in severe pain and not let her see it. “I’m never sure if you’re manipulating me or not,” she said quietly. “But I do know you wouldn’t be suffering at all if you hadn’t stepped in front of that damn knife to keep Zachary from killing me. I don’t think it’s unusual for me to be concerned.”
“No, particularly not for you.” His smile faded. “But because of who you are, you tend to go overboard.”
“Not true.”
“Very true. Griffin said that you were taking this whole thing too hard. So let’s deal with that problem first. It could have been serious and it’s going to inconvenience me for a few weeks, but it’s nowhere near as bad as what I’ve gone through before.”