Witness in Death (In Death #10)(96)

"I want to know the minute he can talk."

"I'll make sure you're informed. Now, I have patients to see."

"Lieutenant." Clark stepped up. "This is the nurse you wanted to see."

"Ormand," Eve said, reading the ID badge. "Talk to me."

"I had no idea he meant to try self-termination. I wouldn't have believed he was capable of it, physically I mean. He was weak as a baby."

"A man wants to do himself, he finds a way. Nobody's blaming you."

She nodded, relaxed her defensive stance. "I was in there for a routine check of his vitals. He was conscious, and he told me he wanted to confess. I thought he meant to a priest. We get a lot of that, even from patients who aren't Catholic or Egatarian. But he became agitated, and asked for you by name. Said I was to tell you he wanted to confess."

"To what?"

"He didn't say. I thought he killed that other actor. Richard Draco." When Eve didn't respond, the nurse shrugged. "I calmed him down, promised to find you. Then I told the guard after I arranged for the patient's afternoon nutrition. I don't know anything else."

"All right." She dismissed the nurse, turned back to Clark. "I need you to stand by up in the ICU. I'll arrange for a relief in an hour. If there's any change in Stiles's condition before that, I want to know."

"Yes, sir. His own sheets," Clark murmured. "That takes balls."

"It takes something." Eve turned on her heel and strode to the waiting area where Peabody had taken Areena.

"Kenneth?" Areena got shakily to her feet.

"They're moving him to Intensive Care."

"I thought he was... when I saw him, I thought..." She sank to her chair again. "Oh, how much more can happen?"

"Eliza Rothchild said tragedies happen in threes."

"Superstition. I've never been overly superstitious, but now... He'll be all right?"

"The doctor seemed optimistic. How did you know Kenneth Stiles was here?"

"How? Why, I heard it on the news just this morning. They're saying he was injured while trying to leave the city. That he's the prime suspect in Richard's death. I don't believe that. Not for a moment. I wanted to see him, to tell him that."

"Why don't you believe it?"

"Because Kenneth's not capable of murder. It's coldblooded and calculating. He's neither."

"Sometimes murder's hot-blooded and impulsive."

"You'd know more about that than I. But I know Kenneth. He killed no one."

"Do you know a woman named Anja Carvell?"

"Carvell? I don't think so. Should I? Will they let me see Kenneth?"

"I don't know."

"I should try."

Eve got to her feet as Areena rose. "You realize, don't you, that if Kenneth Stiles did plan the murder of Richard Draco, he's the one who put the knife in your hand."

Areena shivered, and the faint color in her cheeks faded. "That's only one more reason I know it couldn't have been Kenneth."

"Why is that?"

"He's too much of a gentleman. May I go, Lieutenant?"

"Yeah, you can go."

Areena paused at the doorway. "You fought to save his life. I watched you. You believe he's a murderer, yet you fought to save his life. Why?"

"Maybe I didn't want him to escape justice."

"I think it's more than that. But I'm not sure what."

"Hell of a day so far," Peabody said when they were alone.

"We're just getting started. Up and at 'em, Peabody. We've got places to go."

She turned out of the room and nearly walked into Nadine.

"Ambulance chasing?" Eve said mildly. "I thought you were too important for that routine."

"You're never too important for that routine. What's the status on Kenneth Stiles?"

"No comment."

"Come on, Dallas. I have a source in the hospital. I heard he tried to hang himself. Did he kill Richard Draco?"

"Which part didn't you get, the no or the comment?"

Nadine's fashionable heels made the rapid stride down the corridor tricky, but she managed to keep up with Eve. "Are you charging him with murder? Are there any other suspects? Will you confirm Stiles was injured during flight?"

"The media's already broadcasting that one."

"Sure, with allegedly and believed to be sprinkled all through the reports. I need confirmation."

"I need a vacation. Neither of us look to be getting our wish anytime soon."

"Dallas." Giving up, Nadine took Eve's arm, tugged her aside out of the way of Peabody and her own long-suffering camera operator. "I have to know something. I can't sleep. Give me something, make it off the record. I need to close this circle before I can move on."

"You shouldn't be on this story."

"I know it, and if it comes out that Richard and I were involved, I'll take a lot of heat for that, personally and professionally. But if I just sit around and wait, I'll go crazy. With those options, I'll risk the heat."