Free Vanished in the Night by Eileen Carr Page A

time.
    One of the real problems with working the emergency room was how few actual emergencies they got.The car crashes and gunshot wounds were few and far between; the vast majority of the cases barely even qualified as urgent care.
    Nothing really got the heart racing like someone showing up in full cardiac arrest.
    Or looking up from your paperwork to see Sergeant Tall, Dark, and Dangerous striding through your emergency room.
    “Ooh, even better than a code. Armed and hot and coming straight at us,” Tina whispered.
    “Ms. Osborne,” McKnight said as he walked up to them.
    Tina shot her a look. “Holding out on me, Osborne?”
    Veronica gave her a quick shake of the head. “Sergeant McKnight, how can I help you?”
    He glanced around the nurses’ station. “My sister works night shift, too. Up in cardiology.”
    “Your sister?” She ran through the possibilities in her head. There was a nurse named McKnight she’d met at an in-service training. “Your sister is Rhonda McKnight?”
    “Yep. That’s her.” He smiled. He had a nice smile. “Bossy as hell.”
    Veronica loved a nice smile. She had a soft spot for broad shoulders and well-developed biceps, too. Not this one, though. This one thought her father mighthave killed her brother. This one would need more than a nice smile and a well-developed set of guns to impress her. “We’ve met.”
    “I came to return your picture.” He handed her the photo of Max.
    Tina was looking back and forth between the two of them, wide eyed. Veronica turned, glared at her and made a shooing gesture. Tina backed away slowly, but not without pointing to her own eyes and then to Veronica. She was being watched. Whatever.
    She stared at Zach. He had a lot of nerve, doing this where she worked. “You’re done using all the information I gave you against my family, then? Gosh, thanks.”
    He clenched his jaw. “I’m sorry you feel that way about it. We’re trying to find out what happened to your brother. I know you want to know, too.”
    “I do. I just don’t want to have to hire legal representation while you do it. Especially because of something I might have said during a moment of great emotional distress.”
    “I don’t know what you want me to say. I’m sorry. I really am. Even you have to admit that we would have been derelict not to look into your father as a suspect.”
    “Is he still a suspect?”
    McKnight didn’t answer.
    Veronica took in a deep breath and blew it out slowly.So her father was still a suspect. What’s worse was that McKnight was right. It didn’t make her feel any better, though. Especially since she was the one who had made the police look at her father in the first place.
    McKnight broke the silence. “I’ll be going, then. You know where to reach me if you think of anything else that might help.”
    “Yeah. I’ll be real sure to do that.” Every word dripped more sarcasm than a leaky IV dripped saline.
    McKnight walked away.
    Tina was back in a second. “I thought you’d given up cops.”
    “And paramedics. I’m thinking a nice accountant would be restful.”
    Tina took the ponytailer out of her hair and shook out her curls. “Too nitpicky. You sure you don’t want to make an exception for Tall, Dark, and Handsome? He’s got a nice rear view.”
    She hadn’t missed that. It was nearly as impossible to miss as the way his shirt stretched across his shoulders and chest. “I’m sure.”
    “So what was he here for?” Tina asked as she rewound her hair into a messy bun.
    Veronica shook her head.
    “Are you going to make me guess, or are you going to give up and tell me? You know I won’t stop until I know.”
    That was true. There was no point in trying to keepanything from Tina. “They found my brother’s body. McKnight caught the case. He wanted to ask some follow-up questions.”
    Tina sat on the rolling stool next to the counter, her eyes wide. “I didn’t even know you had a brother.”
    That stung. In a lot