for him to know that neither man was going to win the Nobel prize for rocket science. Grimes's right-hand man, a hard-nosed sergeant named Steve Valenti, faced the drivers from a seat beside the desk, his eyes narrowed as if probing their account for inconsistencies. As Matt approached the office door, Grimes caught his eye and held up a hand for him to wait a moment. Then, after a few words with Valenti, he motioned him in. Even before Grimes spoke, it was clear from his expression that he held Matt somehow responsible for what had happened.
'Rutledge, I warned you to be careful with that woman.'
'I didn't do anything except go on a house call,' Matt replied flatly.
'I also told you to stay at the hospital.'
'Well, I don't handle being told what to do. That's why I went to med school. What's with you, anyway? Did Solari say something kind to you at the funeral? Is that what's going on?'
'Don't push me, Rutledge.'
'Don't go ordering me around, Grimes. Hey, hi, guys.'
'Hi, Dr. Rutledge,' the Stiths said in unison. 'We're sorry about this.'
'I'm sure there was nothing you could have done about it.'
'No, there wasn't. We got a flat on 29. One of the bastards drove up and — '
'Gerald,' Grimes snapped, 'we've already covered all this. It's Dr. Rutledge's turn to answer some questions. Listen, why don't you two wait outside. I'll call you back when I need you again.'
Heads down, the brothers shuffled from the office. Valenti closed the door behind them and took his seat again. This time, the probing, eyes-narrowed stare was fixed on Matt.
'So,' Grimes began, 'you say you never ordered any MRI on Nikki Solari, but the ambulance people say they saw the order.'
'It was a telephone order, called in by someone other than me.'
'Not you, but using your name.'
'That's right.'
Matt felt the warmth building in his face — historically the first sign that some sort of eruption was imminent. Grimes's snide, supercilious tone was pushing a number of hard-to-reach buttons.
'So, where were you while all this was going on?'
'I was making a house call.'
'To who?'
'I don't talk about my patients to anyone. It's unethical.'
'And you, of course, are Mr. Ethics. So while you were caring for a victim of a brutal attempted murder, you decided it was the perfect time to make a house call.'
'Back off, Grimes,' Matt warned, the red warmth creeping up a few degrees. 'I had been with her for more than twelve hours when I left the hospital. She was reasonably stable, and I had other people to attend to. Besides, if you had sent someone else out other than that lump Tarvis Lyons, they might have thought to have me paged to check on what was going on, since I didn't say anything about ordering an MRI.'
'I don't know what in the hell is going on, Rutledge, but I can't shake the sense that you're right in the middle of it.'
Matt pointedly ignored the remark. 'What happened, anyway?' he asked.
'Sounds like the same two men who went after her before.'
'If at first…' Valenti interjected, sounding like Ed McMahon.
'One of them probably shot out a tire on the ambulance, then both of them pulled silenced revolvers on the drivers. The whole thing took two minutes at the most. Dark sedan is all we can get out of the Stiths.'
'You know who the men are?'
'Do you? Jesus, Rutledge, how could you go and let this happen to that woman?'
'Grimes, instead of trying your best to connect me to what happened, why don't you have every man on your so-called force out there looking for her.'
'You tend to your friggin' business, Rutledge, and I'll tend — '
'I know, I know. You did that one before.'
'Just don't go on any more house calls until we have this business cleared up. Got that?'
'Okay, okay, I got it.'
'Good. Now scram. Tell Lyons to get on over here.' Grimes turned his back on Matt. 'Steve, let's get an APB out on Dr. Nikki Solari.'
Valenti picked up a clipboard.
'Out,' Grimes said.
Matt slowly gathered up his denim jacket and keys and headed for the door.
'White female, thirty-six years old,' Grimes dictated to Valenti.
'Thirty-four,' Matt said over his shoulder.
'Out! Make that thirty-four. Medium-length dark hair, five-seven, slender build, may be wearing surgical scrubs.'
'Green.'
'Dammit, Rutledge. Okay, green surgical scrubs. Now get out of here. What a dick,' Grimes muttered, loud enough to be easily heard from where Matt was.
Matt left the office. The door swung nearly closed, but remained slightly ajar. He turned to finish the job, then realized that neither policeman had noticed. Instead he lingered off to one side, where it was easy for him to overhear the ongoing conversation.
'So,' Valenti asked, 'is the jerk right? Did she come on to you?'
'None of your business,' Grimes replied with a sly smile.
'Rollins was at the funeral service. Said the girl was looking pretty interested in you.'
'So, maybe she was. I got enough goin' on around here, believe me I do. Come on, now, let's get this over with.'
'Marks or scars?' Valenti asked.
'How should I know?' Grimes replied. 'Wait, I do know one. Get this. She's got this weird tattoo on the top of her foot. Some sort of lizard. Can you believe that?'
'Top of her foot, huh? Women don't go around showin' me the top of their feet.'
'They wouldn't show you their face, either, if they didn't have to.'
'What kind of lizard?'
'An orange one. How in the hell am I supposed to know what kind?'
Matt, who had turned toward the exit, stopped still. Nikki had been wearing sneakers when he intubated her at Crystal Lake. How did Grimes know about the tattoo? He had been there at the ER, but as far as Matt could remember, Nikki was covered up by the time he arrived, and stayed that way. Could someone on the staff have mentioned it to him? Possible, but doubtful. He had no trouble believing that Grimes had come on to Nikki in some way, but he hadn't even considered that she might have flirted with him. Immediately, he discarded the notion. The reason Grimes knew about the Gila monster wasn't because Nikki had shown him.
Bewildered, Matt headed out to his bike. The only logical explanation he could come up with was that Nikki was wearing some sort of strapped shoe at the memorial service. As he approached the hospital, still another explanation occurred to him — the possibility that Grimes was with Nikki after she had been abducted.
Tarvis Lyons, looking balefully about, was still at his post by the doorway to Nikki's empty room.
'Any word?' he asked.
'Nope. She's gone.'
'Shit. Is the chief pissed at me?'
'He wants to see you over at the station.'
'Shit. Ledge, you gotta tell Grimes I didn't do anything wrong.'
Without responding, Matt went to the small closet in the room. Nikki's clothes were hanging up to dry rather than being stuffed in the usual plastic bag. Her sneakers were there, too — New Balance, a fairly new pair, still damp. She must have been wearing hospital slippers when the Stith brothers wheeled her away. They could have easily fallen off or been removed during or after her abduction. If Grimes was involved in the kidnapping, that would certainly explain his choosing Tarvis to guard the room.
Nikki had jeans, sneakers, and a T-shirt on when she went into the lake, but it was unlikely they were the
