Blood Game

Free Blood Game by Iris Johansen

Book: Blood Game by Iris Johansen Read Free Book Online
Authors: Iris Johansen
Tags: Suspense, Thrillers
Look, I’ve got to get back. You know I shouldn’t talk to you before we get a final.”
    “Thanks, Brooks.” He slowly hung up.
    He attacked me and stuffed a handkerchief over my face. It smelled sweet. Then he brought me here and slit my throat.
    Nancy Jo’s words during his hallucination earlier today.
    But why would he have had that particular detail in that hallucination?
    Guesswork from a hundred similar cases?
    But there was no case similar to this one. God help him. He was becoming increasingly convinced that was true. And if it wasn’t guesswork, he was left with a choice.
    Go to see the department shrink or jump headfirst into the river of no return?
    He spun on his heel and strode toward the bedroom.
    EVE WATCHED JOE DRIVE down the road before she reached for her cell phone and dialed Megan’s number. Megan answered after three rings. “I’m sorry to call this late. Did I wake you?”
    “That doesn’t matter. I told you to call me if you needed me.” She paused. “And do you need me?”
    “I might. Joe may be on his way to see you. I thought I’d prepare you.”
    “ ‘May’? You don’t know?”
    “He said he’d found out something from the Medical Examiner’s Office that he had to check out. It could be the truth or at least part of the truth. It’s a rough case, and we may be personally involved. But I have a hunch that whatever he has to check out, he wants to do it with you.”
    Silence. “You’re telling me that Joe Quinn is behaving . . . irrationally?”
    “I’m telling you that for the first time since I’ve known him, Joe is doubting his—” She took a deep breath. “There’s no one more solid or confident than Joe. That’s not what I’m seeing right now. I don’t know if it has anything to do with you or not, but I tried to steer him in your direction. It was the only thing I could think to do.”
    “You didn’t talk to him?”
    “Dammit, he would have backed away from me. If he is having any kind of weird reaction, it’s not the kind of thing he would admit, much less discuss. He calls it all bullshit. I did my best. It has to come from him.” She paused. “I’m worried. I feel helpless. If he does come to you, help him, Megan. Please.”
    “You don’t have to ask,” Megan said. “I’ll do what I can, though I don’t know what that will be. But I can tell you that it doesn’t always turn out badly.”
    “You mentioned insanity and death. I’d say that’s pretty bad.”
    “But it may have something to do with the strength of the individual character.”
    “Well, Joe has plenty of that. And it may not have anything to do with you. I just had to hedge every bet.”
    “I’ll let you know.” Megan hung up.
    Eve gazed out at the lake. Had she done the right thing? She had guided Joe toward Megan even though she wasn’t sure that she believed that Megan’s talent was at the bottom of Joe’s problem. She had been afraid to do anything else.
    She could only hope that there was a solution and that Megan would find it.
    MEGAN TURNED TO HER UNCLE as she hung up the phone. “We may have a visitor, Carey. Better put on the coffee while I throw on some clothes.”
    “At this hour? Who?”
    “Joe Quinn.”
    He frowned. “What the hell? After all the sarcastic bull he was throwing at you down at the swamp? I wanted to sock him.”
    “So did I. But you can’t blame him for being cynical about me. Sometimes I don’t believe in this psychic crap either.” Her lips twisted. “Or wish I didn’t believe it. It would make life easier.” That was the understatement of the century. “And I don’t have any right to blame him for anything now.” She whispered, “I may have hurt him, Carey.”
    “The facilitating thing?”
    “Eve thinks he’s not behaving normally. And that would be hard for her to admit. She’s very protective of him.”
    “I don’t remember him needing protection. You were the one being attacked.”
    “And that cynicism would make it

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