Lethal People: A Donovan Creed Crime Novel Read Online Free PDF Page B

exposing you to some wonderful children who deserve compassion, friendship, and encouragement.”
    “Friendship?” I said.
    Kathleen smiled. “Could happen,” she said. “And if it does, it will change two lives: theirs and yours.”
    “But …”
    Just keep an open mind,” she said.
    Kathleen escorted me through the double doors and into a viewing room that put me in mind of the ones in police stations—only instead of overlooking an interrogation room, the burn center viewing room overlooked a play area. She asked if I was ready. I took a deep breath and nodded, and she pulled the curtain open.
    There were a half-dozen kids in the play area. We watched them interact with toys and each other for several minutes, and at some point, I turned and caught her staring at me. I don’t know what Kathleen Gray saw in my face that evening, but whatever it was, it seemed to delight her.
    “Why, Donovan,” she said. “You’re a natural!”
    I assumed she was referring to my casual reaction to the kids’ severe disfigurement. Of course, Kathleen had no way of knowing that my profession had a lot to do with it, not to mention my close friendship with Augustus Quinn, a man whose face was singularly horrific and far more frightening than anything going on in the playroom.
    Kathleen took me by the wrist and said, “All righty then. Let’s meet them.”
    I have a soft spot for children and rarely find it necessary to kill them. That being said, in general I’m uncomfortable around kids and expect I come across rather sti ff and imposing.
    These kids were di ff erent. They were happy to see me. Or maybe they were just happy to see anyone new. They giggled more than I would have expected, and they seemed fascinated by my face, especially the angry scar that runs from the side of my cheek to the middle of my neck. All six of them traced it with their fingers. They were truly amazing, all of them.
    But of course, there was one in particular.
    Addie was six years old. She was covered in bandages and glossy material the color of lemon rind. She smelled not of Jolly Ranchers or bubblegum but soured hydrocolloid.
    I knew what I was seeing.
    According to something I’d read in the waiting room, fourth-degree burns a ff ect the tissues beneath the deepest layers of skin, including muscles, tendons, and bones. This, then, was Addie.
    Except for the eyes. Her eyes were unharmed, huge and expressive.
    Though relatives were told that Addie and her twin sister Maddie would not survive the initial treatment, amazingly they did. They were ordinary kids who should have been running around in a yard somewhere, playing chase or tag, but sometimes life deals you a shit hand. Around noon the second day, while Addie stabilized, Maddie took a turn for the worse. She alternately faltered and rallied all afternoon as a team of heroes worked on her, refusing to let her die. Kathleen wasn’t there but she heard about it, what a special, brave child Maddie was.
    In the end, her fragile body failed her. A nurse said it was the first time she’d seen a particular doctor cry, and when he began bawling, it caused the rest of the team to lose it. They were all touched and personally a ff ected by the fight in these little twins, these tiny angels. They said they’d never seen anyone quite like them and didn’t expect to ever again.
    “Want to see the picture I drawed?” Addie asked.
    I looked at Kathleen. She nodded.
    “I’d like that,” I said.
    Before showing it to me, Addie wanted to say something. “All the camera pictures of me and Maddie got rooned in the fire, so I drawed a picture of Maddie so all my new friends could see what we looked like before we got burned up.”
    She handed me a crayon drawing of a girl’s face.
    “That’s Maddie,” she said. “Wasn’t she beautiful?”
    I couldn’t trust myself to speak so I just nodded.
    When we left the burn unit, Kathleen said, “I love them all, but Addie’s the one who got me