before.'
'If Renata doesn't lose that nurse she was following.'
'I don't believe Renata has a habit of losing what she's going after,' he said dryly. 'Call her.'
'After 911.' She was already dialing. 'The patients.'
He nodded. 'By all means, after the patients.'
RENATA'S CELL PHONE WENT immediately to voice mail when Megan called. She tried three other times and got the same result.
'She has her cell phone turned off.' She bit her lower lip. 'Or someone else turned it off for her.'
'The nurse?'
'If she worked for Molino she could be as bad as he is. For God's sake, the least she did was stand by and let three people be butchered.'
'I don't believe she could take down Renata. From what Harley said she's remarkable.'
She dialed again. 'Renata is wounded. And she doesn't know for certain that the nurse was-She's picking up. Thank God. Are you okay, Renata?'
'I'm fine,' Renata said. 'I was just a little busy. It was a trap?'
'Yes. Dr. Gardner, the head nurse, Madge Holloway, and Jordan, the guard were murdered. Phillip is gone. Molino has him. The woman you followed is a phony.'
'I'd already gotten that far. Well, a little more actually. The name of the woman I followed is Hedda Kipler. She does work for Molino and she's pretty good at his brand of ugliness.'
'How do you know?'
'I told you I was busy. We're at her motel room at the Fairfield Inn on Highway 40. Come and get her.' We re on our way.
'Take your time. We're having a nice chat, aren't we, Hedda?'
Megan hung up and turned to Grady. 'Fairfield Inn on Highway 40. She said that there's no hurry, but I'm not sure that's true.'
'Why?'
'She already knows the woman's real name. I don't know how much Cousin Mark has taught Renata about interrogation methods.'
THE FIRST THING MEGAN SAW when Renata opened the door was Hedda Kipler tied to a chair with a drapery cord. She was gagged and her face was bruised and bloody.
Megan glanced at Renata with a frown. 'Renata.'
'I didn't do that while I had her trussed up like a turkey,' she said quickly. 'She jumped me when I got out of the car here at the motel. I had to defend myself.' She made a face. 'She got in a few licks herself. You're going to have to restitch me.'
For the first time Megan noticed the bloody patch on Renata's shoulder. 'You opened your wound. Sit down and I'll fix it.'
'Not now,' Grady said. 'We need to know about her orders from Molino before he finds out we have her.' He glanced at Renata. 'How much did you get out of her before we came?'
'I need to tend to that wound,' Megan said. 'And she said she was only defending herself.'
'To start off with. I imagine she's not totally innocent, are you, Renata?'
She met his gaze. 'No, I'd already shaken her up. I had to follow through or it might have taken hours or days to pump her. Mark would have thought it 'inefficient.'' She turned to Megan. 'I didn't do any permanent damage. Just enough to make her know I was serious. She helped them take your Phillip. Would you rather I let her lie and make up stories until it was too late for him?'
She wearily shook her head. 'No, but I don't like it that it was you who did this. There has to be damage to you too.'
'What did you find out?' Grady asked again.
'She's worked for Molino in Paris, Athens, and Miami in the past ten years. She's done everything from transporting drug money to be laundered to jobs like this one tonight. She thinks he's got a hideaway in Tennessee, but she's never been there.' Shit.
'But she has been to an apartment he keeps in Miami. 1230 Ocean View. Last month she delivered a package to him there from Central Africa.'
'He's not in Miami now, dammit.'
'No, but you can get the CIA to go to his apartment and get me that personal object I need to find him. They don't seem to be able to get anything from anywhere else.'
'Are you sure there's something you can use in that apartment?' Megan asked.
Renata's lips twisted. 'Oh, yes. Hedda Kipler says he keeps the things she brought him in the second drawer in the chest by the bathroom door. Tell them to bring me any object in that drawer and I'll be able to find Molino.'
'You seem certain.'
Renata's gaze shifted to meet the malevolent glare of Hedda Kipler. 'Absolutely.'
'Megan is supposed to meet with Molino at Redwing, Tennessee, tomorrow night. Redwing could be a starting point for you.' Grady shrugged. 'Or maybe not. He could have chosen a place to meet at the opposite end of the state from his headquarters.'
'I'll try Redwing. If you can make the CIA move fast, I'll be out there on the road tomorrow.'
'I'll call Venable right away,' Grady said. 'He can send someone to pick up Hedda Kipler and get a man out to Molino's Miami apartment. Will Molino be expecting a contact from her?'
Renata shook her head. 'She phoned Sienna when she left the hospital. Darnell had left over an hour before with Phillip in an ambulance. He'd pretended to be delivering a new patient to the annex and he and another of Molino's men were sent into Phillip's room to see Gardner. After that it was all over.' She glanced at Megan. 'You did know that Gardner was in Molino's pay?'
Megan nodded. 'Molino told me.'
'Gardner had it all set up. At that time of evening there are only two nurses on duty at a time. There's not much to do for coma patients after they're tucked in for the night. Gardner said he didn't need them and to save money he sent both of them back to the main nursing home. Hedda's job was to stay until Megan was inside the room and Molino could contact her.'
'Cold bitch.'
'She's foul. I was almost hoping she'd give me an excuse to put her down,' Renata said. 'But she has guts. Anyone could have come in and questioned her right to be there. She obeyed orders and stayed.'
'And she didn't make any other calls?'
'She would have told me if she had.' Renata sat down in the chair. 'Now patch me up, will you? My damn shoulder is starting to bleed again.'
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
HARLEY ARRIVED AT THE HOTEL while Megan was still stitching the wound.
'Tsk-tsk.' He shook his head. 'All my excellent first-aid work going down the drain because you got careless.' He grimaced as he saw the gaping wound. 'It looks worse than it did before. I hope you're not going to ask me to do your rebandaging again. I hate wasting my time.'
'I wouldn't think of it,' Renata said. 'I always knew you were squeamish.'
'True. Where's Grady?'
'He took Hedda Kipler to the Publix parking lot a few blocks from here to turn her over to the CIA agents Venable sent to pick her up,' Megan said.
'Good idea. He was telling me on the phone that the Kipler woman was a little worse for wear and he didn't want them to have to enter Renata prominently in their report.' He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a
