Into the Night(56)

Macey fumbled in the dark. She zipped up the body bag. Pushed it back into the freezer so that it would stay safe and—

Had she just heard the shuffle of a footstep?

Macey straightened. “Is someone there?”

Maybe the ME had come back.

“Dr. McKinley?” Macey called. “Is that you? Do you know what happened to the lights?” A short. Could have just been a short. But her gut was tight, her muscles were battle ready and her instincts were screaming at her.

There was no answer to her call. Macey pulled out her weapon, not about to take chances. Her eyes had adjusted a bit to the darkness and she could make out the exam tables. She could see the desk up ahead. She could also see...

A man. A tall shadow. Blocking the door.

Her eyes narrowed as she tried to see better. And her gun aimed dead at him. “Identify yourself!” Macey yelled at him.

Instead of answering, he turned and ran out the doorway.

Shit. Macey lunged forward, but her feet hit a box that was on the floor. She hit it hard and stumbled, but then she straightened and ran into the hallway.

The lights flashed on right then. Bright, and she blinked, momentarily blinded. But then...then she saw the man in the hallway.

Not some masked man. Not some killer.

Dr. McKinley was at the end of that hallway and his desperate eyes were on her. He had his hand to his throat, and he was trying to stop the blood that pumped out so quickly from the deep wound in his neck. He tried to call out to her, but no sound broke from his lips.

Macey raced to him even as her gaze swept the long hallway. There was no sign of the attacker. She knew he’d been there moments before. They were on the basement floor. Had he taken the elevator back up? Gone up the stairs?

She fell to her knees beside Dr. McKinley. He was bleeding—so badly. She put her hands to his throat, trying to staunch the blood flow.

The elevator dinged and the doors started to open.

Macey grabbed for her gun. She’d just put it down when she reached for the ME. Her hands curled around it, and she brought it up in one fast arc, aiming right at those opening doors.

Jonah stood there. Wearing a black shirt and dark jeans, and blinking nervously behind his glasses. “Macey?” Alarm flared in his eyes and he yanked out his own weapon as he took in the scene and saw the blood on her—and Dr. McKinley. “What happened?”

“The perp was just here,” Macey snapped out. “He took the stairs or the elevator—”

“Not the elevator,” Jonah immediately denied. “No one else was up there.” He yanked out his phone and called for backup even as Macey struggled to tend the ME’s wounds.

She was still wearing the white exam gloves. Macey realized that fact dimly. His blood was smeared all over the gloves.

“Keep him alive, Macey!” Jonah yelled, and then he was running for the stairs.

Macey stared into Dr. McKinley’s pain-filled eyes. “Did you see the person who did this?”

Tears leaked from his eyes. He managed a weak nod.

“What did he look like?” Macey demanded. “Tell me, tell—”

Mask... His lips formed the word but no sound emerged.

Then his body slumped to the side. Macey grabbed him, holding tight. “No, you are not dying, do you hear me? I won’t lose someone else. I won’t!”

*

“WE NEED TO go door-to-door with these cabins,” Tucker said as he stared at the cops and local FBI agents they’d just assembled for the search of the mountainside rental community. “We think our perp may have a base nearby—he’s getting the signals from the devices he planted so he can’t be that far away. We need you to look—”

Bowen’s phone rang. Frowning, he looked down at the scene, wondering if the perp was calling again for another of his taunts.

But, no, Macey’s image was on his phone.

Bowen turned away from Tucker and the crowd, and he hurried a few feet away. He put the phone to his ear. “Macey? What’s happening?”

“He struck again.” Her voice was flat.

Bowen stiffened. “What?”

“I was at the ME’s lab. He went after Dr. McKinley. Cut his throat—”

He was about to shatter the phone. “Is McKinley dead?”

“No, I don’t know if the guy counted on me being here or what, but he didn’t finish.” Her voice was weary. “He didn’t get a chance to finish. McKinley was just rushed to the hospital. Jonah is here. He tried to find the guy, but it was too late. The perp is like a shadow, he can just vanish as soon as you try to shine light on him.”

There was something about her voice. “Macey, are you okay?”

“He was in the room with me, Bowen. The lights went out. I was in the lab, standing right over Harwell’s body. And I—I heard a footstep. I turned around and he was there. He was just...watching me.”

The way he’s been watching for a while. “I’m on my way.”

“No, you’re supposed to stay with Tucker! Look, I have to secure the scene here, okay? I’ll check the area. I’ll find out how the guy got access to what should have been a monitored lab, and then I have to brief Dr. Lopez when she arrives.” Her breath rushed over the line. “We need her now more than ever. And until we can figure out how the security failed at this place, we need to make sure a guard is here with her.”