Surrender My Love (29 page)

“I’ve spent the morning with the police and they’ve tak
en matters in hand. They are on their way to take Nurse Bennett into custody as we speak. They feel they have enough evidence to arrest her for murder.”

Brad sucked in
great torrents of air that burned the flesh in his lungs.

“
What?”
he hissed the word, feeling it rasp from his throat.

Mr.
Pancost took a deep, weary breath, then looked to Mr. Edgle from the legal team. Mr. Edgle nodded and Mr. Pancost continued.

“This is just between us Dr.
Markson, but the syringe that was found in Nurse Bennett’s locker contained potassium. We already knew this because there was a label on the syringe.”

Brad forced
air in and out of his lungs and shook his head, confused. “What? The syringe was labeled?”

“Yes. But the contents had to be
verified. This morning, the crime lab confirmed that it contained a lethal dose of potassium. You are aware that a bolus of potassium can cause sudden cardiac arrhythmias and death.”

Brad wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling the heat of the room suffocate him. “
Yes! Yes! I’m well aware of that, dammit!”

Oh, God!
I have to think! I have to think! Shit! Shit! Oh God, Chloe…

“There was unfortunately another d
eath on Four West last week. The man’s family agreed to an autopsy. The results of the autopsy helped to strengthen the evidence against Nurse Bennett.”

“Although we fully believe in innocence until proven guilty, Nurse Bennett appears to be a very disturbed individual
and may have some mental issues. It’s sad that this had not come to light before these unfortunate deaths,” Mr. Accardo said sadly, pushing up his glasses.

Brad
heard Nurse Wall huff across the table. “I always knew she had problems!”

Mr.
Accardo tossed Nurse Wall an annoyed expression and continued. “There are some details we cannot share, but we want you to know that the situation has been turned over to the police and that the rest of your patients are safe here at WMH.”

“The police conducted a search of Nurse Bennett’s home last week an
d found a syringe there as well. I’m only privy to this because I have connections in the police department. This information does not leave this room,” Mr. Pancost supplied.

The others around the table gasped and muttered aloud
, obviously unaware of those events.

“Was it the same type of syringe
found in the locker?” Mr. Accardo inquired.

Brad felt his heart buck in his chest, kicking
out splashes of blood as Mr. Pancost continued. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“
I’m not sure. The contents of that syringe have not been identified as yet, but the police feel there is enough evidence for an arrest.”

Brad swallowed against his dry throat, his heart like a runaway cart under his ribs.
He had to warn Chloe! He had to let her know!

He slowly raised his hand and dragged his
cell phone from inside his suit pocket. Mr. Pancost was now addressing another question posed by Mrs. Pardon. Brad glanced down, pretending to be deep in thought, but his fingers were frantic under the table. His mind raced a mile a minute as he sent a text to Bea, praying she had her cell phone at hand.

CAL
L ME! CALL ME! CALL ME! NOW! NOW! NOW!

He breathed a gust of relief when
, seconds later, the loud chime from his phone interrupted the fervent exchanges at the table. All eyes turned to look at him and he stared back, forcing himself to relax and breathe slowly through his nose. He loosened the tight muscles of his jaw and made a show of glancing at his phone.

“
Damn! Not now!
” he frowned. “This is about a patient. It’s urgent. I must take it. I will just need a moment.”

“Certainly.” Mr.
Pancost nodded.

Brad rose from his seat
and forced his legs not to race into the hallway. He closed the door to the conference room firmly behind him and moved further down the hall. He could already hear Bea yelling through the phone.

“C
an’t talk now!” He disconnected Bea and dialed Chloe’s number, turning and glancing back down the hall to the conference room. He wiped his forehead again as sweat trickled down his temple, swearing as the phone rang and rang. With a frustrated groan, he disconnected the call and dialed again, feeling his heart do summersaults in his chest. The phone was wobbling, suffering the effects of the fine tremors in his fingers. He hadn’t taken his medication this morning.
Damn…

Chloe! Answer the fucking phone!

Finally, blessedly, he heard her voice on the other end. It wrapped around his heart so tight he wanted to die from the news he had for her.

“Chloe.” He swallowed hard. “Where are you?”

“Hi, Brad.” He could sense her smile on the other end.

“Where are you,
Chlo?” He knew his voice was hard and strained, but he couldn’t tame it.

“I’m…I’m home.”
There was a frown in her voice. “Is…is something wrong?”

He hesitated briefly
, then turned and glanced down the hall. He didn’t have much time. He had to get back inside. He took a deep breath.

“Chloe. It was potassium that was found in your locker—a lethal dose.”

“
Oh, God. That’s impossible!”

He ran his fingers through his hair, wanting to grab
hold and pull roughly with his frustrated anger.

“There’s more. The police found something in your apartment. Another syringe.”

“No way. There’s no way,” she whispered, her voice vibrating with fear.

His words choked in his throat
, and his chest ached raw with emotion. For the first time in a long time, he wanted to weep.

“
They did an autopsy on Kaplan. I’m hearing there’s enough evidence to arrest you, Chlo…”

Silence.

“The police are on their way to take you into custody. Listen, I know you didn’t do this. I know it was Omega. We’ll prove it. I promise.”

Silence.

“Chloe?”

Silence.

“
Fuck, Chlo…talk to me!”
he hissed.

Something like a whimper came through the phone
, and he squeezed his eyes shut and swore vividly.

“I’m going to call Monty
Kleiner. He’ll meet you down at the police station. I’ll be there in a little while. Do
not
say anything to the police until he gets there.”

Silence.

“Okay?”

He heard a
sniffle and a weak ‘okay.’

“I’m so sorry,” h
e whispered passionately. “So damned sorry.”

Brad
disconnected and dialed Monty Kleiner. After a minute of explaining the situation to him, he hung up. He stood with the phone clutched in his fist, almost crushing it from the fury priming his muscles.

He wanted to march back into the conference room and unleash his violent emotions on the administrators, but he knew it wouldn’t benefit Chloe to do so. They never would have taken him into their confidence and shared the information about her imminent arrest if they knew he was on her side. If they were aware of his relationship with her, they would shut him out completely. And with the way events were quickly evolving, it would be beneficial to keep privy to inside information.

He combed his fingers through his hair, trying to think of a way to make a hasty exit from this meeting. He turned to glance down the hall again and suddenly drew up short, his gaze meeting calculating brown eyes. Nurse Wall was standing behind him. Her beady brown stare assessed him with her thick brows jumping into her forehead.

“Is everything okay?”

Brad nodded curtly, his heart slamming violently against his ribs. “Yes. Thank goodness the patient is fine.”

“Good,” S
he smiled and turned towards the door. “Mr. Daley has a few questions for you.”

Brad replac
ed the phone in his suit pocket. In a few minutes, he’d text Bea again to call him and then make an excuse and permanently leave. He needed to be with Chloe. It killed him to think about what she would have to endure.

He walked
into the conference room and took his seat, the commotion in his gut swirling to a steady bustle. Nurse Wall circled the table and sat across from him, while Brad tuned in to a conversation between Mrs. Pardon and Mr. Daley. They were discussing his patient Madame LaFontine. She’d packed up that morning and finally left the hospital, presumably in fear for her life.

“It’s a shame that this scandal has caused
sick patients in need of medical care to leave the hospital!” Mr. Daley was saying.

“Yes, that poor
, sweet woman. She must have been terrified,” Mrs. Chavez chimed in. “I hope the hospital’s reputation will recover from Nurse Bennett’s actions.”

It was all Brad could do not to explode in anger
. The hospital had been trying to get Angelique to leave for weeks! She faked her chest pain and terrorized the staff! If anything, they should be thrilled that she’d finally left!

He brought the grinding of h
is teeth to a halt and tried to check his expression, but the more they talked the more they stoked his burning ire. The two were now trying to guess where Chloe had acquired the syringe of potassium and wondered how a nurse who had such problems could have gone undetected.

Nurse
Wall chimed in to say that Chloe’s mother had mental problems and there must obviously be a family history. Brad cleared his throat, drawing everyone’s attention. The room grew suddenly quiet as all eyes fixed on him, but he found it impossible to sit and listen to these idiots pontificate any longer.

“Does it not strike anyone as odd that Nu
rse Bennett would leave a syringe filled with a lethal dose of potassium in her locker? A syringe that is
labeled
?”

The eyes darted to and fro, searching for a spot of common sense in a space that was crowded with speculations of nonsense. Sudden
ly Nurse Wall’s face unfolded with an invidious smile.

“Well, I’ve worked with Nurse Bennett for a long time, and I must say she
is not very bright.”

Nurse
Wall added an annoying tinkle of laughter to the end of her assessment, one that caused the drums in Brad’s ears to pop loudly like exploding balloons. He fisted his hands until they were straining white, his biceps bulging thick beneath his suit. Chloe had said only her supervisors had access to her locker. He didn’t trust the conniving gleam in Nurse Wall’s hawkish eyes. It wouldn’t surprise him if she somehow had a hand in Chloe’s problems. His eyes tracked her as she tittered again. He’d never hit a woman in his life and had never felt the desire stronger than right at that very moment.

Brad slipped into a cab outside the hospital and slid
across the upholstered leather seat. The midtown streets were busy in the middle of the day, with a cacophony of noise filtering into the cab. Cars honked, people shouted, and the laughter of children playing on the sidewalk mingled into the city’s symphony. His cell phone rang and he was glad to see that it was Monty Kleiner. Monty should have reached the police station by now and should have news of Chloe. Brad was desperate to know what was going on.

He’d had Bea clear his office schedule and postpone his surgical case to tomorrow morning. He’d had trouble getting out of the meeting
with the administrators. Mr. Edgle had had some urgent questions for him about Mr. Barkley and needed to set up time for them to meet again later during the week. Brad hadn’t wanted to seem uncooperative, especially since he’d been the one so insistent on the meeting.

“What’s going on, Monty?” he barked into his phone.

“I’m at the station. There’s a lot of confusion here, Brad.” Monty’s clipped voice sounded in his ear.

Brad frowned. “Confusion?”

“Yes. The police showed up at Miss Bennett’s apartment, but she wasn’t there.”

The noise from the city street filter
ed into the cab, becoming a dull drone in the background. Brad shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean she wasn’t on the premises.
A neighbor said he saw her leave with a backpack. From what I heard, the police also went to another location down town. Four forty-five Essex Street.”

“That’s her mother’s address.”

“She wasn’t at that location either.”

Brad’s head started to pound
and sweat erupted on his forehead.
What the hell was going on? Where the fuck was Chloe?

“The chief tell
s me that they’re looking into another location now. She has a brother in the city?”