Free Wicked Lies by Lisa Jackson, Nancy Bush Page A

exactly two bites when her cell phone rang. Frowning, she picked it up and saw it was Byron. She didn’t want to answer, but he would just keep calling. The more she ignored him, the more he kept after her. “Yes?” she answered carefully.
    “Get back here. What are you doing? All hell’s broken out.”
    “I’m eating dinner.”
    “There are reporters here. I’m about to talk to Pauline Kirby. Another ambulance is coming. Two-car head-on collision.”
    “If the hospital needs me, they’ll call.”
    “Damn it, Laura, check in with your radar thing. Don’t wait!” He hung up.
    Laura’s “radar thing” was her uncanny ability to have a sense of danger. It was really an internal alarm that went off when someone was trying to hammer at her brain from the inside. Sometimes it wasn’t him. Sometimes it was another person’s panic that somehow breached her defenses for a millisecond.
    She hesitated for a moment, then climbed to her feet, wrapped up her sandwich in plastic wrap, and headed to her car. The hospital called as she turned onto Highway 101.
     
     
    Dr. Byron Adderley was holding court with Pauline Kirby outside the front doors of Ocean Park Hospital, and it was love/hate at first sight. Harrison went from mild interest to out-and-out enjoyment as Adderley’s responses to Pauline’s questions grew shorter and shorter. He stayed just inside the hospital reception area and watched through the glass front doors.
    “We’ve learned that the patient who escaped Halo Valley Security Hospital is Justice Turnbull, from right around these parts.” Pauline moved her handheld mic in an arc to include the area as she looked into the camera, even though she was speaking to Adderley. “Halo Valley Security Hospital,” she repeated. “How do you think that happened?”
    “I’m an orthopedic surgeon at Ocean Park Hospital,” Adderley said tightly.
    “But surely you have some thoughts on that—as a doctor yourself, who treats the public at large. It must be disconcerting to see how easily one can be ‘taken in’ by someone like Mr. Turnbull.”
    “I wouldn’t know.”
    “I understand that Justice Turnbull was supposed to be on his way here to see one of your internists, but he attacked one of your drivers and stole the Ocean Park van, which has still not been recovered at this time. That victim, the driver, underwent surgery earlier this evening, as did one of Halo Valley’s most prominent doctors, who was Justice Turnbull’s primary physician at Halo Valley, correct?”
    “I can’t speak for Halo Valley.” Adderley’s lips were practically turned in on themselves. However he’d thought the interview with Piranha Pauline would go, he wasn’t prepared for reality.
    “Can you speak for Ocean Park?” Her smile was meant to appear benign, but nothing about the woman was safe.
    “I’ve been with the hospital a little more than a year. It’s an excellent institution.”
    “Meaning?”
    “That . . . the care here is first rate,” he stumbled.
    “Dr. Adderley, the truth is, if Justice Turnbull had made it to your hospital earlier today, it doesn’t matter whether the hospital’s first rate or not. You would have ended up with a determined killer inside your walls.” She turned from him and regarded the camera lens with a serious expression. “That’s what we’re all wondering here. Are we safe? Can we be safe? It wasn’t that long ago that Justice Turnbull went on a killing rampage in this area of our fair state, and the Tillamook County Sheriff’s Department chose to keep silent about it until it was over. And now, forewarned, what can we do to prevent the same terrifying situation from arising? How can we keep ourselves safe?” She turned back to Adderley, who was trying to sidle away. “Will the hospital be taking extra precautions tonight?”
    “I can’t speak for the administration.”
    With a quick movement of her hand under camera range, she cut the taping. “Didn’t you just