“She’s taking him to the storage room,” Chloe realized.
Her face stayed averted. But Chloe was noting the woman’s shoes. High heels. Elegant. Expensive. Shoes she’d seen before.
“There aren’t cameras back there,” Kingston noted.
“But you recognize her.” Chloe was still leaning forward.
“I think so.” His fingers were poised over the keyboard. “I’d like to see her face to make sure.”
“Then why don’t you pull up the feed from the night of the bombing?” Chloe advised him helpfully. “Go to the security room. Bet she didn’t realize that you had a camera in there, so she wouldn’t have been trying to hide her face.”
His head turned toward her. “How do you know about that camera?”
“I know you—as I said before, you don’t trust anyone easily. Thus, this entire set up.” She waved one hand to indicate the room. “You would have wanted to make sure no staff members tried to erase anything important or that they didn’t try to break in on your blackmail scheme.”
Kingston winced. “Can we not call it a scheme? And do we have to use the word ‘blackmail’ to describe things? You make it sound dirty.”
She thought they had to use both the words ‘scheme’ and ‘blackmail’ in this instance. “If you don’t want to be described in a dirty way, then don’t be dirty.”
Muttering, Kingston turned back to the computer. After more tapping, she soon saw the footage from the night of the bombing. The blonde hurried into the office. Chloe noted that she was still wearing the same expensive heels. She went to the monitors in the security room. Worked on the computers a few moments. “Probably trying to delete the footage of her and Reese.”
Kingston didn’t speak. He’d seen the woman’s face. So had Chloe. It had confirmed her suspicions—suspicions that had been born as soon as she got a look at the woman’s shoes. She’d seen those shoes before. She’d actually gotten an up-close view of them.
“She’s setting the bomb,” Kingston said. “But she’s staying in the security room. Does she have some kind of death wish?”
They could see the first explosion. The blonde must have triggered it remotely. Her hand seemed to curl over some object. Then the woman on the footage hurried behind a heavy filing cabinet.
“Oh,” Chloe said as she understood. “She thought it would protect her from the blast, but she could still play victim.” The second explosion rocked the Serpent. The woman waited a moment and sprang up, completely unharmed. She started to run for the door.
Chunks of the ceiling rained down. Parts of the wall fell in. The cabinet slammed down. The blonde turned toward it—too late.
The cabinet took her down. Her legs were trapped beneath it.
“Amateur mistake,” Chloe murmured.
“She…works for me.” Kingston’s voice was hollow. “I-I thought I was helping her. She’d had a bad break. Her father was in the military. One of those career guys. He…he got hit by a bomb on a tour. He was an explosive ordnance disposal specialist. Poor bastard got blown to hell on the mission.”
Her father had been a hero. And she’d been…
The one to set the bombs.
“This explains why the sprinklers didn’t work. I’m sure she deactivated them.” Chloe watched as the woman kept struggling to get out from beneath the cabinet. She was screaming for help.
“Did she get out?” Kingston growled. He forwarded the footage. When he saw Chloe rush in, he stiffened.
“She got out,” Chloe replied simply. “And I know where she is.” With her injured legs, the woman wouldn’t be going far. “Give me her name. I need to dig into her life.” She also needed to get to the hospital and talk to the woman, ASAP.
“Kelly Addams,” he bit off. “Victim.” His tone mocked the word.
She knew what he really meant. Kelly Addams…killer.
And I think Joel may be with her now…Because he didn’t know the truth about Kelly. Because he thought he was a monster and he’d be looking for proof that he wasn’t. He’d think Kelly was that proof. Only…she was something altogether different.
“Send that footage to Cedric. Now. Get backup copies for us. Then we have to get to the hospital.” Her words flew out even as she spun for the door. “She couldn’t have moved my brother on her own. She’s working with someone. We have to make her tell us who that person is.”
***
“You’re still here?” Cedric shook his head when he saw Joel lingering near the hospital’s entrance. He’d figured Joel would have been gone. Or maybe, he’d hoped Joel would be. Why hadn’t the guy taken his advice and gone after Chloe? “What the hell were you doing, waiting for me?”
“Is Kelly still out?”
“Dead to the world,” Cedric assured him as he raised his hand to shield against the sun’s rays. “Doctors said she was in a lot of pain this morning. She should be more coherent around dinner. I’ll be back then so I can ask her questions. Maybe she saw someone last night who can—” He broke off when his phone gave a little peal of sound. “Excuse me.” He looked down at his device. Didn’t recognize the number.
The text read.
You have to watch this.
Shit. Just what he needed. This better not be porn or some shit that a joker had sent to—
Another text appeared. Chloe wants you to see it. Coming to hospital.
He pressed the screen to play the video.
“Uh, Cedric?” Joel’s voice was halting. “Everything okay?”
As he watched, he recognized Kelly Addams. And immediately realized what she was doing. “Fucking hell, she’s not the victim.” His head whipped up and he gaped at Joel. “Kelly Addams set those bombs!”
He saw the same shock he felt reflected on Joel’s face. They both turned at the same time and ran back for the hospital doors. Maybe it was crazy to run back in there.
Kelly had been completely out of it when he’d stood in her room moments before. Even if she’d been faking her unconscious state, it wasn’t as if the woman could run from the hospital. Not with her injuries.
But he needed to see her again. He wanted to make sure that the uniform on duty got the order that she was not to be trusted. She wasn’t a victim. Kelly was a dangerous perp. Three people had died in that bombing.
He and Joel rushed into the elevator together.
“How do you know?” Joel asked quietly. “How do you know the person you thought was the victim is guilty?”
“Chloe found a video. Just had it sent to me.” Could the elevator be fucking slower?
Finally, finally, the doors opened, and he leapt out. Even as he ran down the corridor, he could see that the fresh-faced uniform wasn’t at his post. No, the kid was down at the nurse’s station, leaning over the counter, and flirting with the pretty staff members on duty. The sight of that unguarded door caused a premonition of dread to weigh down Cedric’s shoulders.
Cedric shoved open the door to Kelly’s room.
It was the silence he noticed first. No beeping machines. No rustle of bedding. No…breath? “Jesus,” he whispered. She was completely still on the bed.