Unknown Means Read Online Free PDF Page A

see him move, then she remembered that this was a hospital and not the ME’s office. “What happened?”
    “I was first on scene, a little after one. The doorman in the apartment building told 911 that she stumbled in from the parking garage, clutching her throat and trying to scream. Then she collapsed. They had to intubate her to keep the swelling from closing off her air.”
    “Someone attacked her?” Evelyn tried not to picture her friend with a tube in her throat, but the image sprang to her mind and stayed there. “Any description of the guy?”
    The young patrolman took her elbow and guided her down the hallway. “The doorman didn’t even look. He’s not the intrepid type, I guess. My partner cleared the garage while the ambulance loaded her up, but he didn’t find anything. The guy was long gone.”
    She had to force herself to ask the next question. “Did he rape her?”
    “No. She had all her clothes on and no other injuries.”
    Evelyn let out the breath she’d held. “Where was her fiancé?”
    “Working.”
    “At one in the morning? Where?”
    “Here. He’s on call tonight up in pediatrics.”
    “Of course. I wasn’t thinking.” Marissa had been complaining about her boyfriend’s irregular hours since she’d moved in with him.

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    “He was waiting for us when the ambulance arrived. I guess the doorman called him—one of the perks of high rent. They keep their tenants informed. Apparently they were getting married next month?”
    “They are getting married.” No past tense. Not yet.
    “I know a lot of guys who are going to be mighty grieved over that. Do you think this is the same guy?” Cops never used the word perp—the guilty party was just the guy. “The one that killed that rich girl?”
    “Who? Grace Markham?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why would it be the same guy?”
    “Well, the strangling bit and all. And it’s the same building—the Riviera.”
    She blinked at him. “You mean La Riviere?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What was Marissa doing there?”
    “She lives there. With her doctor boyfriend.”
    Evelyn absorbed this. Marissa had told her about the new apartment, but Evelyn hadn’t visited yet. She and Marissa saw each other every day at work, but life as a single mother was just too busy to allow for many nights out with friends. If Marissa had mentioned the name of the building, she’d missed it. Then, by the time Evelyn had returned to the lab to log in the evidence from Grace Markham’s scene, Marissa had left for the day; there had been no chance for the coincidence to surface.
    She pressed herself to the wall to avoid getting run over by a patient and two nurses. “Is it always like this around here?”
    “They’re still behind after that bunch came in from the salt mine.” Evelyn and Billy entered the elevator, and the doors closed, sealing them in blessed quiet.
    “Oh, yeah. I had to go to that.”
    The young officer shuddered as he pushed the 4 button. “I don’t

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    envy you. My cousin worked there one summer, but he can’t take enclosed spaces.”
    Evelyn wished she could sit down. She also wished she’d brushed her teeth before leaving a note for Angel and peeling out of the driveway. It would be a long night, and she would have liked to have felt as together as possible. The elevator doors slid open.
    “You! Evelyn James.”
    A stormy-faced Mama Gonzalez sailed down the antiseptic hallway like a tall ship with sheets unfurled. Evelyn felt like letting the doors drift shut and riding the small box to another floor, one where she wouldn’t have to confront her friend’s anxious mother.
    She stepped out into the hallway. “Mrs. Gonzalez.”
    “You will find out who did this to my Mareesa.”
    “I will.” She didn’t dare say anything else. Rotund as well as tall, Mama Gonzalez could have snapped her in half.
    “You will bring him to me.”
    “I’ll . . . do my best.”
    “You will bring him to