She opened her mouth to chip some more, because a good detective never gave up—Ryan had taught her that—when he stopped her with a hand on her arm.
As she peered into his face, he nodded toward the far side of the street. Something moved in the shadows of the tall building. They were chasing an informant who they’d been told might have information relating to their investigation. But for some reason—like the rest of her contacts lately—he really didn’t want to talk to her about this case. He’d scarpered as soon as he’d spotted them approaching in the bar.
“Okay, I’ve got him,” she said. “Let’s go.”
She took a deep breath and dashed across the street. The man glanced up, terror on his face as he saw her coming for him. He really didn’t want to talk to her.
Why? What was it about this case?
She was nearly across the road when a sharp pain stabbed her in the back of the skull. She stopped abruptly. For a second, she thought she’d been shot or bludgeoned. But there’d been no sound of gunfire and no one close enough to touch her. Then the pain came again, like molten metal poured into her skull, and she crashed to her knees.
Ryan called her name, but he sounded far away. She squinted, trying to focus, but everything was hazy. Darkness was closing in. Her brain filled with nothing but agony until her mind snapped and the blackness swept over her and sucked her under.
Chapter One
Two weeks later
“You do understand how serious this is, don’t you, Ms. Connolly?”
Faith was trying her best not to, but that probably wasn’t what the doctor wanted to hear.
“It’s Detective Connolly, actually. And does it make a difference?” she asked. “I mean whether I take it seriously or not. Will that improve my chances?”
He pursed his lips as though he wasn’t pleased with the question. “Probably not, though there is some evidence that excessive excitement and extreme emotions can exacerbate the condition.”
“Well, I promise not to get excited.” That shouldn’t be too hard. “How long before you get the results?”
“A couple of weeks, maybe less. I’ll hurry them through.”
She didn’t like the sound of that. “You think you’ll have to operate?”
“At this point, I’m not sure we can operate. The test results will show us more.”
“And if you can’t?”
He shrugged. “Wait until we have the results. In the meantime, I’ll give you a prescription for some painkillers for the headaches, but if you get anything else—blurred vision, dizzy spells—I want you to come right back.”
She nodded. Right now, all she wanted was to escape the confines of the hospital.
As she came out of the main entrance and into the open air, she realized the doctor was right. She wasn’t taking this seriously. She was in denial. But a goddamn stroke? At thirty-two. Who had a stroke at thirty-two?
A brain aneurysm, they’d called it. A weakness in the blood vessels inside her skull. But worse, they believed that the minor attack she’d had was merely a precursor to something bigger. She had a time bomb in her brain, waiting to go off.
The tests she’d had today weren’t so much to see what was wrong, but to see what they could do about it. If anything.
She tried to make herself think about dying. But it didn’t seem real. All she could do was concentrate on living right now. Try and put it out of her mind and focus on solving her case.
Six weeks ago, the body of a young girl had been found abandoned on the embankment by the river. She’d been exsanguinated, drained of blood to the point of death. Puncture wounds in her throat, wrists, and thighs had made them speculate that it was some sort of cult death or vampire wannabes. Her team had been interviewing every weirdo in the city.
A little while later, a second girl, fifteen-year-old Jessica Thomas, had gone missing. She’d been found alive, but with the same wounds and totally traumatized.
Ryan had located Jessica, and Faith still had no clue how he’d done it. But there had been a woman with him that night Ryan hadn’t introduced to any of the team.
After her ordeal, Jessica had given an initial statement but now refused to say any more unless they took her to the mystery woman. Faith would love to, but unfortunately, she had no idea of her identity.
She had seen nothing of Ryan since he’d left. He’d taken her to the hospital the night she’d blacked out and been there when she woke, but she hadn’t seen him in the two weeks since. It was as though he’d cut his old life away and that hurt.
And pissed her off.
She’d believed they were friends as well as partners. And she’d been toying with the idea of forcing the issue. Going to see him, though she wasn’t sure where. He’d moved out of his old apartment without leaving a forwarding address. That only left his new place of work, CR International.
“Detective Connolly?”