Doctor's Orders

Deciding to ignore the brittle undercurrent between the two men for the time being, Mandy waited until Stankowski had taken a seat opposite her, where he arranged a stack of folders and then popped open a slim laptop computer and tapped a few keys. Turning toward Radcliff—she wouldn’t think of him as Parker because that was a name he reserved for his friends and she was feeling far from friendly—she narrowed her eyes. “Okay, we’re here, so let’s have your explanation, and make it good. How about starting with why you followed me tonight?”

Radcliff leaned back in his chair. “You’ve got it backward—I didn’t follow you. I headed for the alley after work for the same reason you did. Lucky for you, we were on the same schedule.”

“You—” Mandy broke off, confused. “Why would you care about that alley?”

“For the same reason you do—because that’s where Irene Dulbecco was attacked a few days before she died.”

“You read my notes?”

He nodded, expression still giving nothing away. “I was in a meeting when she came in, or I would’ve grabbed her case. As it was, I didn’t hear about her until it was too late.”

A chill chased its way down Mandy’s spine as she began to add it up.

“You’ve seen something like this before.” She glanced at the detective, who was watching her as if expecting—what? What sort of response could she possibly have? “You’re working together,” she finally said. “But why? Radcliff isn’t a cop. At least he wasn’t back when—”

“I’m not,” he interrupted quickly, making her think he didn’t want the detective to know about their past history. He continued, “I dug a bullet out of Stankowski here a few years ago. Ever since then, he’s called me when he gets a case that involves something medical.” He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “It’s a nice change from grant writing. But I work very hard to keep this stuff separate from BoGen.”

“Until now,” Stankowski said. He spun the laptop around to face Mandy. On the screen was a computer-generated sketch of a figure wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and a surgical mask. Above the mask, his eyes were light gray and coldly calculating.

Or maybe the calculation was in her mind, borne on the shiver that started in her gut and worked its way through her body, squeezing the air from her lungs until she was almost unable to breathe. “Oh God. That’s him. That’s the man who attacked me in the alley.” She closed her eyes, trying to blot out the fear of memory. “But you already knew that.”

When she opened her eyes, the detective had closed the laptop. He nodded.

“How many other people has he attacked?” she whispered through a suddenly dry throat.

“Four including you,” Radcliff said, his voice resonating with the deadly sort of calm she’d heard from him only once before, when he’d told her it was over between them. “Of the other three, two are dead and one is missing.” He paused a beat. “You know what that makes you?”

Fear spiked, followed by numbing disbelief, but she nodded, glancing from Radcliff to the detective and back. “That makes me your star witness.”

“As far as we’re concerned, you’re a witness,” Radcliff said. “As far as the killer is concerned, you’re a liability.” His voice changed, roughening. “Damn it, why didn’t you listen to me? I told you to leave the Dulbecco case alone.”

“I couldn’t,” Mandy whispered. Her breath backed up in her lungs when she remembered the syringe, and that terrible moment when the man had held her down and aimed the needle. If he’d managed to inject her with the clear fluid…

She thought of Irene, who’d writhed in pain despite heavy doses of morphine, and the battery of tests she’d run, only to have all the levels come back within normal limits. Her brain spun with terrible questions, like what in God’s name was in that syringe? What would have happened to her if Radcliff hadn’t gotten there in time to save her?

More importantly, what was going to happen next?

Chapter Three

“I want you out of here starting now,” Parker said. “Take a couple of weeks off. Go someplace nice and chill out.” He managed to dredge up what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “I’ll clear it with your boss.”

But instead of jumping at the chance, as any other member of his staff would have, she shook her head, her face set in familiar stubborn lines. “Not on your life. I’m a doctor and Irene Dulbecco was my patient. If there’s any way I can help figure out what was done to her and prevent it from happening to someone else, then that’s what I need to do.”

And there it is, Parker thought on a bite of temper. He’d once warned her that her damned wide-eyed idealism was going to get her in trouble. He hadn’t figured on being there to watch it happen, though, and he hadn’t expected the trouble would be of the life-or-death variety.

Maybe he should’ve known better. Mandy was the sort of person who attracted controversy and chaos—heck, as far as he could tell, she went looking for it. Why else would a prominent surgeon’s daughter become the sort of doctor who’d rather prescribe acupuncture than antibiotics? And that was only the latest incarnation of her hidden rebellious streak as far as he was concerned. Back during her rotation through Boston General, she’d driven him crazy by…well, that was just it. She’d driven him crazy at a time when he’d needed to concentrate on himself, and the job.

Now, she was just plain crazy herself. Only a whacko would’ve gone into that alley alone. If he hadn’t been there—

His mind locked on the image of Mandy hospitalized, writhing with a pain he couldn’t control, couldn’t cure, and the hell of it roughened his tone. “The time off wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order. I want you out of here, and I’ll see that it happens if I have to load you on a plane to California myself.”

“Why California, so I can hide at my daddy’s place?” Instead of looking angry or defensive, or any of the half-dozen other emotions he’d been trying to provoke, she rolled her eyes. “You’ve always been far too impressed with my father and his reputation. Why is that, I wonder?”

Parker gritted his teeth. “What part of you couldbe dying right now do you not understand?”

“I understand it just fine. I’m just not letting it chase me off.”

Her words might be defiant, but she paled as she said them, and the pallor brought out the dark smudge of a bruise high on her cheek.

Instead of marring her classic beauty, the injury only enhanced it, reminding Parker that she might be tough enough to stand up to him in the hospital, but she was no physical match for a madman determined to do her harm.

Knowing it, he stood up and leaned over her, bracing his hands on the arms of her chair and crowding her with his body until she leaned back to avoid him. “You’re too smart to be this stupid, Mandy. You saw Irene Dulbecco. Do you really want to end up just like her?”

In the wake of his shout, angry silence vibrated in the room.

Stankowski finally stepped in. “Okay, that’s enough. Parker, sit down and stop being a jerk. And you—” he turned to Mandy “—don’t try to be a hero. Parker and I have this under control, and we’ll have a better chance of finding this guy if he’s not worrying about your safety.”

She snorted, but didn’t contradict him, instead saying, “I know it’s probably no use telling you guys not to worry about me, given the circumstances. But you’re not considering the other option.”

“There is no other option,” Parker said flatly.

“Of course there is,” Mandy countered. “In fact I see two.” She ticked them off on her fingers. “One, you let me help you. I assume you’ve tested the bodies for the most common pain-inducing toxins?”

Parker nodded reluctantly. “Yes, we have. That doesn’t mean we’re looking for an herb, though.”

“Aha!” She stabbed a finger at him. “That means you’ve thought it might be a botanical, or you wouldn’t even mention the possibility. Since I know far more than you do about traditional medicine, I can help, and I’m darned well volunteering whether you like it or not. It’s my job to heal my patients, and if possible prevent them from becoming patients in the first place.”

Parker wanted to argue the point but couldn’t, because that was pretty much what he’d told himself when he’d first started taking time away from his duties at BoGen in order to help Stankowski. That, and it had appealed to his sense of duty. He’d never wanted to be a cop like his mother had been, but somehow he’d wound up in that world accidentally, and had found he liked it. It had filled a void, offering a challenge he hadn’t known he was looking for until it had appeared.

But that was him, not Mandy. She didn’t belong in this world any more than he belonged in hers.

“You said there were two options,” Stankowski said cautiously. “What’s the second?”

“It’s simple,” she said, though Parker noticed that she’d knotted her fingers tightly together in her lap. “You said it yourself, I’m unfinished business. I’ve seen the killer’s face, at least some of it, and he has my purse and keys. You want to catch him, and there’s a pretty good bet he’ll come for me sooner or later. Why not use me—and my apartment—as bait?”

Mandy braced herself for Radcliff to erupt. Instead the very air around him seemed to drop a few degrees in temperature. He gritted his teeth and growled. “Not. An. Option.”

Under any other circumstance, with any other man, she would’ve snapped at the dictatorial tone. As it was, she found herself hesitating.

The Radcliff she remembered hadn’t possessed such chill control. He’d been loud and domineering, but she’d quickly learned that a big chunk of it was a shield, that beneath the prickles and bluster was a man of fiery temper and a rare but wonderful humor. At the time, he’d said that wasn’t the real Parker Radcliff, that she’d brought out something in him that he couldn’t explain. Before things between them had fallen apart, she’d tried to help him believe that the other, warmer man was the real him.

Now, she realized she’d been the one living in a delusion, or maybe he’d made his belief into a reality, because there was no warmth in the man looking at her now. There was no fire, practically no life in his cold, dark eyes.

A huge shiver crawled up the back of her neck, but she kept her voice even. “I’m not leaving. I think you know I can be as stubborn as you. You can either accept my help, or…” She trailed off, then said simply, “Please let me help. I want to do this. I need to do this. I know how it feels not to have answers.”

Though there had been plenty of evidence in her mother’s death, the LAPD had been unable to make an arrest. Eventually they—and her father—had just let it go.

Mandy, however, still saw her mother’s body in her dreams.