Luck of the Devil (9 page)

“Right,” Detective Kastellero said. “So you got the report and talked about your patients. Then what happened?”

“We followed the standard procedure and went into the medication room to count our pharmacy stores. That’s when we found the morphine missing.”

“And your statement is that it just suddenly disappeared?”

“I don’t know if it suddenly disappeared or if it was stolen,” I said. “All I’m saying is that the morphine was in the locker when I counted it out with Bernice three nights ago, and when I counted the next morning it was gone.”

“So, if the morphine was there when my client left, and wasn’t there when she returned, shouldn’t you be more interested in speaking with the woman who was on shift when the medication went missing?” Matt asked.

“We’ve already spoken to Mrs. Daniels,” Detective Kastellero said. “And looked at the medication dispensary system.”

“It requires you to swipe your ID badge when you go into the room and when you open the narcotics closet to log out a medication,” I said. “It keeps us from using a medication and forgetting to log it out.”

“Right,” Kastellero said. “So, it was there when you left and gone when you came back, simple as that?”

“Simple as that,” I said.

“And what would you say if I told you that your MEDTECH system short-circuited during Nurse Daniels’s shift?”

“I’d tell you security should have been notified immediately. The system is hardwired to their department in case of malfunction,” I answered.

“But they weren’t. It seems no alarm was sent out. Do you think that’s weird?”

“I think that’s very weird,” I said. “But I still don’t see what it has to do with me.”

“Do you think someone could have intentionally sabotaged the system?”

“Sure, I mean, I have no idea how, but I bet there’s someone out there if you look hard enough. MEDTECH probably has someone on staff for just that sort of work when they’re planning a system.”

“An electrical engineer, perhaps?”

I swallowed and looked down at my hands. I knew where this was going.

“Like your ex-fiancé perhaps? He used to work for MEDTECH, didn’t he?”

“I highly doubt my ex-fiancé would have been able to sabotage the MEDTECH system at Rogers Hospital since he’s currently residing in an inpatient treatment facility in Illinois.”

His eyes widened and narrowed so quickly, I barely registered his shock. Someone hadn’t done his homework. “True, but he could have taught you how to work on one. And, if I were going to sabotage a secured system to malfunction, I would set it up to happen while I wasn’t on shift. Then I’d sneak back in to steal everything while no one was looking.”

“I don’t know anything about a malfunctioning system because it was working when I counted out with Bernice and it was working when I counted back in with her the next morning. If it malfunctioned, I didn’t notice. And neither did Bernice.” My wings tingled, and all the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Something about this wasn’t right. Meds going missing and the MEDTECH system failing?

I should have listened to the ghost and skipped Sally’s office. Even Harold’s exorcism would have been better than this group. If it weren’t for the fact that people would be suspicious to see all of them go missing, I’d just enchant Matt stupid for a few minutes and turn the rest of them into shoes. I bet Blondie would make a fabulous pair of sandals.

“This is all just speculation. You’re trying to make a case against my client based on the fact that a computer malfunctioned when she was off work?” Matt said.

“A case where two young men died,” Kastellero said. “And your client was nowhere to be found. There’s absolutely no record of her leaving that night. She left the floor at the end of her shift, went to her locker to retrieve some items—”

“I went to retrieve my purse.”

“She clocked out,” Kastellero continued, “and then she went back upstairs to the sixth floor.”

“To speak with the head of pediatric surgery about the incident,” I said.

“A man you just accused of inappropriate behavior? Why were you meeting with him alone?”

Aside from cleaning up his corpse? “Because of the missing medication. He wanted to speak about it and he needed to be completely up to date.”

“So why not discuss it somewhere public?”

“Because it involved matters of patient care,” I said. For once, bureaucracy worked in my favor. “And patient care should always be discussed privately. It’s not meant for public debate.”

“But you didn’t have a witness?”

“No, there were no witnesses. I told him about the issue, then he asked me a few questions about it, and I left.” Truth, minus the parts where Lisa ate him.

“So why don’t any of the cameras record you leaving the hospital, Miss Bettincourt?”

I should’ve known that would come back to bite me in the ass. “I have no idea. I got in the sixth floor elevator in the physicians’ wing, went to the first floor, and left through the west parking lot.”

“It seems our security was breached in more than one place this week,” Dr. Turnbow said quietly and shifted in his seat. “Whoever broke into our MEDTECH system also took down our security cameras the next night.”

Kastellero shifted in his seat. “I see.”

“It seems to me,” Matt said, “that your problem isn’t with Miss Bettincourt but with the Rogers Hospital security department. Their systems failed. Shouldn’t they be the ones you’re talking to, instead of the woman who brought it to your attention?”

“We’ve already spoken with them. Just one last question, Miss Bettincourt.”

“Yes?”

“Where were you that night? Since you weren’t here at the hospital?”

“She was with me,” Matt said, and I looked over at him in shock. “All night.”

“And were you somewhere public?”

“No,” Matt said smoothly, although I couldn’t help but notice the twitch at the corner of his eye. “We had a quiet night in.”

“I see,” Detective Kastellero said. There was a tap on the door and we all looked up. Another man in a gray suit opened the door and stuck his head inside. He looked at Kastellero and shook his head briefly.

“That must mean there was nothing of interest in my client’s locker.” Matt snagged my purse, then upended it on the conference room table. He removed a heavy, gold fountain pen from his shirt pocket and used its tip to move around the various bits of crap that lived inside my purse until they were lined up neatly on the table. “Wow. A wallet, two tubes of lip gloss, one phone, an e-reader, hand sanitizer, a bottle of Tylenol Extra Strength, and fifteen receipts. It’s like Pandora’s Box for a hardened cybercriminal capable of taking down an entire hospital’s security system. And to think she disguises herself each day as a simple pediatric nurse. What horror does lurk in the heart of men, eh, Detective Kastellero?”

Kastellero’s nostrils flared, and he shot Matt a curt nod. “Fine, but we may have more questions for you as the case progresses, Miss Bettincourt.”

“You’ll contact my office if you need her again.” Matt handed me my purse.

I shoveled things inside, silently grateful I had cleaned it out two weeks earlier and no tampons had flown out.

When I was done, Matt took my elbow and helped me stand, energy crackling down his fingertips and across my wrist. I tried to keep my cool, but couldn’t help shivering. With a brief nod at the other two attorneys, and at Doris and Dr. Turnbow, he turned and led me from the room.

“Just one last thing, Miss Bettincourt,” Detective Kastellero said quietly.

I stopped. “Yes?”

“Do you even care that two young men are dead?”

“Of course I do,” I said. “But they aren’t my patients and I had nothing to do with it.”

“Right,” Matt said. “I think we’re leaving now.”

I followed him out of the conference room and into the hallway. “Thank you for—”

“Don’t say anything until after we’re out of the hospital. That vulture is looking for a scapegoat and he’s decided you’re his best chance. I don’t know why, but he’s definitely looking to pin this on you.”

I nodded and shoved my hands into my hoodie pocket. My phone wasn’t there. I must have put it in my purse. I opened it and rooted around.

“What are you doing?”

“I left my parents at my apartment and I told them I’d call on my way home. But I can’t find my phone.”

He sighed. “Did you leave it in the conference room?”

“I must have,” I said. “Just wait right here and I’ll go get it.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said. We made our way back down the hall and past the rest of the group that had been in there with us.

“Is something wrong?” Blondie asked.

“I just forgot to pick up my phone,” I said.

“I’ll go with you,” the brunette offered.

“I don’t think that’s necessary,” Sally said. “Faith is more than capable of retrieving her own phone. And I’m sure you have other work to do.”

“Well—”

“Go on, now.” She made a shooing motion before she led me back into HR and closed the door firmly in her face.

I looked at Matt through the door’s window and smiled apologetically.

“They both give me the creeps,” she said.

I walked toward the closed conference room door. “I think they train them that way in law school.”

“Funny, that man of yours isn’t creepy at all.”

“Uh-huh,” I said and pushed the door open. Sitting in the middle of the conference table was my phone, with a plain white envelope tucked underneath it. My wings tingled again, and a fluttery buildup of energy joined the hairs on the back of my neck. That hadn’t been here before.

I walked to the table and grabbed my phone, shoving it in my pocket before I picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside was a packet of photos printed on a home printer. With shaking hands, I took them out and flipped through them.

Lisa talking with Harold.

Lisa seducing Harold.

Lisa draining the life out of Harold.

Lisa and I with Harold’s body wrapped in the carpet from in front of the elevators with me touching Harold’s obviously dead body.

Someone had seen. They knew. Oh shit, somehow we’d been exposed. I gagged and fought the urge to vomit. We were six floors up. My hands trembled and the paper in my hands rustled loudly. I opened the sheet of notebook paper stuck behind the pictures.

I will expose the wicked and they shall tremble at my wrath.

Chapter Ten

Someone knew Lisa had killed Harold. Someone not only knew Lisa had killed Harold, but they knew she’d done it by less-than-normal means. Which meant they also knew she was a demon. And by association, so was I.

Oh, this was bad. This was very, very bad. My stomach rolled, and I took a couple of deep breaths to calm down before I faced Sally again.

I stepped out of the conference room, my trembling hands shoved into the pocket of my hoodie and clutching the envelope full of pictures.

“Is everything okay?” Sally asked.

“Fine,” I said quickly, and hoped my voice didn’t squeak. “Perfectly fine. Just peachy.”

“Did you find your phone?”

“Yeah, it was on the seat cushion. You know how it is.”

“Oh yeah.” Sally laughed. “I don’t know why they make phones so slippery. Personally, I suspect they do it on purpose so they fall out of your pocket. Then you’ve got to go in and buy another one and it’s always higher priced than the one you had before because your contract doesn’t allow for another phone. It’s all a conspiracy.”

“Probably.” I pointed at the door with my thumb. “Do you need me for anything else?”

“No, no, get out of here, sweetheart. I’m just entering your extra hours.”

Like that was my biggest problem at the moment? “That’s not really necessary. It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Of course it is,” Sally insisted. “You’re supposed to be on vacation and we called you in. I’ve added four hours of overtime onto your paycheck.”

“Well, thanks for that. I appreciate it.” I smiled at her. “But I’m going to get out of here.”

Before I completely lost it.

“I don’t blame you,” Sally said. “If I were you, I’d take that cute boyfriend of yours out for a thank you lunch, and maybe see if he can’t take the afternoon off. Then you can properly say thank you.”

“Sally!”

“What?” She laughed. “It’s just us girls in here. And, honey, I have to tell you if you’re keeping something back from that man, you’re crazier than a bedbug.”

“Okay, I’m going to go now,” I said and fled HR, sliding to a halt in front of Matt.

“Ready?” His lips twitched and he covered his mouth with his fist, hiding a fake cough.

Damn it, Sally. “How much did you hear?”

He cleared his throat, which did nothing to hide the twinkle in his eyes. “Hear what?”

“You heard every word, didn’t you?”

“Every word of what?” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his side. “Your HR representative telling you how handsome your boyfriend was? Or the part about how you owe me lunch?”

“I’m not even surprised you were eavesdropping.”

“Who said I was eavesdropping? They could have heard your HR lady from down the hall. She screeches like a parrot.” When we reached the elevator, he hit the UP button. The door slid open and he led me inside. Once the door closed, he turned to me, not bothering to hide his smile as his eyes slid from my toes to my eyes.

I shuddered, my demonic half screaming at me to thank him as Sally had suggested. “You’re not just going to conveniently forget those parts of the conversation, are you?”

“Oh no, I’m not,” Matt said, his sinful lips tugging into a smile. He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms. “I had to tell my boss I was bailing on a daylong pretrial negotiation to save my girlfriend’s butt. That means you’ll be attending at least one business dinner with me to play the role you’ve cast yourself in. And if you’re charming, they may request you come to two or three. Consider it punishment.”

Amateur. “For lying about being your girlfriend? That seems a bit harsh. You could just let me buy you lunch and we could have a laugh about it.”

“Oh, you’ll be buying me lunch, but that in no way gets you out of those dinners.”

Maybe I’d just compel him to forget the whole thing. On the other hand, I would get to spend time with him. What’s a demoness to do? “Okay. Fine.”

He ducked his head and brushed his fingers through his hair, making it adorably messy. When combined with his steely glare, it made him more than adorable. It made him wicked. And sexy. “What were you thinking?”

“I don’t know. I guess I panicked.” I shrugged. What else did he want?

“Not the boyfriend thing,” he said, taking a step toward me. His weird energy billowed off him, warming my skin as he loomed over me. “I couldn’t care less about the boyfriend thing. Yes, you’re going to have to bail me out with my boss, but other than that, forget about it.”

“Like I said, I’m really sorry—”

He grabbed my face, brushed his fingers through my hair, and pulled me close, pressing his lips down on mine. My body jerked from his energy. His tongue swiped across my lower lip and it was like having a defibrillator attached to me. Not that I’d ever put a defibrillator on my face, but it couldn’t have provided much more of a jolt than the sexy lawyer currently kissing me. And it wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable. My knees buckled, and I grabbed his arms to steady myself. I opened my mouth and fought the urge to simply inhale him. He tasted like mint gum and something spicy, and I was addicted. His left hand slid out of my hair and wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer.

The elevator stopped with a jolt and the doors slid open, dinging merrily to announce our arrival. Matt broke his lips from mine and released me, his breathing heavier than normal and his eyes dark.

“Uh,” a pregnant woman with curly brown hair said quietly. “Are you two getting off? I mean getting out of the elevator?”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” he said, grabbing my hand roughly and dragging me away.

“Did you just—”

“We’ll talk in my car.” He led me out of the hospital and onto the street, not bothering to slow down.

My puny stump legs had to work double-time to keep up. “Where are we going?”

His only answer was a grunt, and he didn’t slow down as he led me two blocks to a parking garage. He paid the attendant, led me inside, and we stopped at a black Ford sedan.

“I just wanted to tell you how grateful I am that you dropped everything to help me out.”

Still not saying anything, he pulled out his keys and hit the button to activate his power locks. The taillights blinked once and he opened the door for me.

I stood there looking at him, dumbfounded, when he motioned me into the car. “How do you know I didn’t drive myself?”

“Your sister has your car today.” He motioned me into the car again.

I slid in and he slammed the door before walking around the back of the car and opening the driver’s side door.

“And how did you know that?” I asked when he sat down.

“She almost ran me down this morning on my run.”

“Hope almost ran you over? Are you sure?”

“How many blondes in our apartment building drive red Civics with a ladybug sticker in the back window? Like I said—your car, your sister.”

“Sorry about that.” I glared out the passenger-side window.

“Why didn’t you call me the minute they requested you come in?”

“I didn’t think it was that serious.”

“Faith, two kids are dead because of medicine that went missing from your post.”

“But I wasn’t on duty! Those drugs were there after I left that night.”

“So why is Detective Kastellero so interested in you? Why you, specifically?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met the man before.”

“He knows something about you that you’re not telling me.”

“There’s nothing to know.”

“Did you know the two young men who died?”

“No,” I said, more vehemently than I’d meant to. “I could have taken care of them at some point, but I don’t know. They haven’t even told me the names of the guys who died. How would I know if I’ve ever seen them before?”

“Did you ever work in the neighborhood around Presby? Maybe volunteer at a clinic where you could have met them?”

“I don’t volunteer anywhere. I’m too busy with the amount of hours I’ve already got. How would I know if I worked in their neighborhood? I don’t know anything about them. They’re just two dead kids in a hospital across town.”

“Right,” Matt said and put his key in the ignition, turning the engine over. “I’ve got to ask this, Faith, and, dear God, you cannot lie.”

I winced at his choice of words and nodded.

Matt turned to face me and looked me straight in the eyes. “Were you involved in this? Were you helping someone else steal medication?”

“How can you ask me that? Jesus!”

“I have to know, for my own peace of mind. And I need you to say it, Faith. Tell me.”

“I didn’t help anyone steal those meds. And I’m not covering for anyone. I don’t know what happened. When I left, the medication count was right. When I got back, Bernice was missing sixteen bags of IV morphine.”

“Have you ever been accused of stealing medication? Ever been terminated from a job for it?”

“No.”

“Good.” Matt nodded. “I just needed to make sure. That means the Pittsburgh PD is just looking for an obvious suspect to pin it on while they try to figure out how this happened.”

“And I’m the most obvious suspect?”

“You’re young, you had access to the narcotics, and most people who steal from their employer try to do it on someone else’s shift to throw suspicion on their coworkers.”

“If I was going to sell medication, I’d have Lisa lift it from the clinic. They’ve only got a minimal amount of security and no surveillance cameras. I’d be stupid to steal it from a hospital. With all the security in place, you’d have to be an idiot to try.”

“Or know that the security was going to fail,” Matt said. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is you didn’t steal that medication.”

“It was the creepy guy,” Harold said, floating into existence in the backseat. “I keep telling you the guy is seriously freaky, but you don’t listen to me. I keep telling the head of housekeeping she needs to quit getting her busboys from the Scary Movie Extras Union but she ignores me.”

Matt’s eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror and I wondered again if he was somehow sensing that things around him weren’t completely normal.

I flipped down the sun visor and opened the mirror, staring back at Harold. He wore his lab coat and a pair of khakis, with a red stethoscope draped around his neck. Instead of answering, I flipped the sun visor back up.

The brain inside of his corpse must have started to rot if he thought someone from the kitchen had managed to bring down the hospital’s security systems. Although it wouldn’t have been the strangest thing I’d ever heard of happening in a hospital.

“You don’t believe me, but you’ll see.” Harold faded again.

“So,” Matt said when we turned onto the expressway, “how do you intend to spend the rest of the day thanking me?”

My jaw dropped open and I turned to stare at him. Was he suggesting what I thought he was suggesting? I pinched the back of my hand to make sure I hadn’t somehow drifted off to sleep. “Excuse me?”

“I bailed for the rest of the day when you told me you needed help,” he said.

“You what?”

“I didn’t sit around and quibble with my boss over whether I was taking an hour or all damn day. I told him my girlfriend had an emergency and I had to go. He told me he’d see me tomorrow. So, how are we spending my day off?”

Panic tore through me. No way was I taking him to my place. “My family is in town.”

“I’m not normally a
Dinner With the Parents on the First Date
kind of guy.”

Oh, if only he knew.

He pulled at his collar. “But I’m nothing if not flexible.”

“Who said this was a date?”

“Who said I was asking? Now, were you thinking about a long lunch or should we just skip that and find a hotel for a nooner?” He turned to me and winked, and I fought the urge to giggle. Who knew bossy, dominating guys were one of my turn-ons? Definitely not me.

My mouth opened in a silent gasp but my lips still tingled. I wondered what else he could make tingle. “I am not sleeping with you!”

“Eh, lunch it is. Any preferences on where we go?”

“None,” I said and shook my head. If I didn’t have a major crush on him, I would have been offended by the way he was bossing me around.

“I was thinking Flannigan’s on the Square.”

“That sounds perfect,” I said. Flannigan’s was one of my favorite local pubs, the owner a Dublin transplant who believed hamburgers should fill a plate and beers came in only two sizes—pints or double pints, poured in his own specially designed glasses. “Although I think you’re a bit overdressed.”

“That brings us to my next question. Since it’s on the way, do you mind if we stop by the apartment so I can change out of my work clothes?”

“Into something more comfortable?” I asked with a wink.

“Hmm. And you were just pretending to be shocked by my suggested afternoon activities. Tease.”

“Oh, I’m the tease?”

“Yes, you are.” He pulled off the expressway and onto Carson Street and parked behind my Civic, its two passenger-side tires on the sidewalk and a dent in the back bumper. I should have known better than to let Hope borrow my car. Now my best hope was that Matt wouldn’t notice the damage and I could sneak out later tonight and fix it.

He got out of the car, raced to my side, and pulled the door open. I stepped out of the car, and he took my hand in his before closing the door behind me. For someone with an apparently infuriating streak of bossiness, he had excellent manners.

“So, five minutes?” he asked. “You don’t mind?”

“Nah.” I climbed the front steps and stepped aside as he hurried forward to open the building’s front door. “I think I’ll go ahead and change, too. I wasn’t exactly looking for something stylish this morning when Sally called.”

“I can imagine,” Matt said. He waited for me to walk inside. “But promise me one thing and we’ll drop it.”

“Okay. What?”

“No matter what, until this is handled, you talk to nobody—and I mean absolutely nobody—from the Pittsburgh PD or Rogers Hospital without me present. That means even your roommate. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“And don’t wait until you’re in a room staring down one of Pittsburgh’s Finest to call me.”