Blood Lies Read Online Free PDF

life.”
    She nodded solemnly. “I’m not going near that stuff again.”
    “And I’m not going to let her,” Isabelle added with a huff. “If that’s what you’re wondering.”
    I walked closer to the bedside. “Isabelle, I had no right to lay into you the way I did this morning.”
    Isabelle held the icy stare a few moments longer, but then her resolve broke, and her eyes misted over. She looked at me pitifully. “No, what you said was true. I did almost kill my sister,” she wept. “Lara, I’m so sorry.”
    Lara turned to her sister, confused.
    I wavered, knowing I’d already blurred the line of professional conduct and was on the verge of stepping right over it. Screw it! I thought. “Listen, Isabelle, you don’t know why I was so upset this morning.”
    Her throat bobbed. “Yes, I do.”
    “It’s not what you think. When I was your age, I took my brother to a party. I gave him drugs. Encouraged him to take them.”
    “What happened?” Isabelle choked out.
    On the brink of tears myself, I looked away from the girls. “Once he got that first taste, Aaron was never the same. It ruined his life….”
    Isabelle threw her arms around her sister’s neck, sending Lara into another paroxysm of coughs. When Isabelle looked up, tears streamed down her cheeks, but her jaw was clenched and her eyes burned with determination. “That’s not going to happen to Lara. I swear it!”
    I forced a smile. “I believe it.”
    I quickly said my good-byes and then headed for the elevator.
    Stepping out, I almost slammed into my colleague and close friend, Dr. Alex Lindquist. At barely five feet, Alex was more than a head shorter than me, though her diminutive size was no reflection of her fiery personality. Most of the staff loved her. The few who crossed her inevitably regretted it.
    Her hair pinned back, Alex wore a white lab coat draped over blue scrubs. I tried to ignore the impact of those expressive brown eyes, luscious lips, and high Slavic cheeks but failed as usual, and her proximity brought the expected stirrings.
    “Ben!” she practically shrieked. “You look awful!”
    I shrugged. “I told the lady not to cut my bangs so short.”
    She grabbed me by the arm. “Coffee!” she commanded.
    We sat in the corner of the hospital’s nearly deserted cafeteria with large cups of coffee in front of us. “Was your night shift that bad?” she asked.
    I shook my head. “Remember Emily Kenmore?”
    “Sure.” Her eyes narrowed, and I wondered if I spotted a flicker of jealousy. “The only serious ex I know of.”
    “She was killed last night.”
    Alex slammed down her cup on the table. “No!”
    “Someone carved her up, Alex.”
    Alex sat still, cradling the cup that looked massive in her small hand while I recounted what I’d seen at the crime scene.
    “God, Ben, I am so sorry.” She reached over and squeezed my hand just once before withdrawing.
    I nodded. “We hadn’t been together for a long time.”
    “Doesn’t matter. To see that happen to someone you loved…”
    We stared at our coffees in silence for a few moments. “I don’t get it, Ben. Why would the cops drag you down there?”
    “To ID her, I suppose.”
    She shook her head. “Don’t buy that for a second. That falls to the family. Besides, it’s done in the morgue when they’re tidied up. Not smack dab in the middle of the bloodshed.”
    “Alex, I know the Homicide detectives involved. Helen Riddell and Rick Sutcliffe worked Aaron’s case. I’ve consulted for them on a number of poisonings and overdose deaths. I consider Helen a friend.”
    Alex kept shaking her head. “Even more reason not to put you through that.”
    “Plus, they wanted me to help identify the John Doe.”
    “Did you?”
    I paused. “No.”
    “But you knew him?”
    I’d forgotten how uncanny Alex’s intuition was. “I’d met him once, briefly. With Emily.”
    Alex tilted her head expecting more, but I wasn’t forthcoming. “What now?” she