Julie was on the ground, trying to get her bearings, trying to get to her feet, but she was too disoriented even to stand. Jordan lowered his shoulder and charged the guard at a sprinter’s pace. He slammed into the guard’s exposed side, and momentum carried them both into the cart holding Albert’s body.
The cart toppled over with a loud clatter, spilling Albert to the floor. Somehow both men managed to stay upright. The pair bounced off the cart and stumbled into the exam table where Julie had laid out her instruments for the biopsy.
With his left hand, Jordan grabbed hold of the guard’s right wrist, effectively pinning the hand holding the gun. The guard pushed back, his arm shaking as he struggled to position his gun in front of Jordan’s face. Jordan’s back was pressed up against the exam table. He latched his right hand to the lip of the table, which improved his leverage considerably. Even so, the guard was still overpowering him. The gun continued to inch closer to Jordan’s face.
Jordan turned his head to get maximum distance from the gun barrel, when he caught a glint of something silver in his peripheral vision.
In a leap of faith, Jordan let go his grip on the table so he could reach for the silver object. In doing so, Jordan’s grip on the guard’s arm weakened. The barrel came swinging toward his face. Jordan clutched the curved seven-inch needle holder in his hand like a talon. He brought the surgical implement toward the guard’s left eye with force.
A bullet exploded from the gun barrel and a searing pain erupted near Jordan’s temple. Even so, Jordan’s strike was on target. There was some resistance at first when the tip of the needle holder hit the eyeball. The resistance did not last long. Jordan felt something give and then heard a pop as he drove the instrument through the guard’s eyeball and deep into the skull.
In an instant, the guard’s knees buckled. The gun tumbled from his hand. Then the guard crumpled to the ground, where his body went into spasm. The guard flailed for a moment before he came to a full stop alongside Albert’s perfectly still body.
CHAPTER 47
Jordan slumped to the floor, exhausted and breathing hard. Sweat mixed with blood where the bullet had grazed his temple. The bleeding came briskly, and Jordan’s dazed expression suggested he was in shock.
Julie was not faring much better. Her face and head throbbed where she had taken blows, and the taste of the killer’s blood continued to foul her mouth. With great effort, Julie stood, wobbly on her feet, and staggered over to Jordan. She did a quick visual exam and used the flashlight feature on her phone to check his pupils. They reacted briskly to light and constricted consensually. Good sign.
Her senses and balance returning, Julie found a box of gauze, which she applied in generous quantities to stanch the bleeding from Jordan’s head wound.
“Keep pressure on it,” she said, while wrapping a bandage around Jordan’s head to hold the gauze in place. “We need to get you to a hospital.”
Jordan actually laughed. “Aren’t we in one?” he said.
Despite it all, Julie could not suppress a little smile. It dimmed, though, when her gaze traveled to the security guard with the needle holder sticking up grotesquely from his eye socket.
“I don’t mean this one,” Julie said. “We have to get out of here. Now.”
“I can’t hear very well from my left ear,” Jordan said.
“The ringing should go away with time, but we have to go.”
Adrenaline coursed through Julie’s veins like a river. She could not quiet the shaking of her body.
“No,” Jordan answered.
Julie looked at him, bewildered. “What do you mean?”
“Give me the badge.”
“Why?”
“Because if we both go down for what happened here, nobody is going to get the sample tested.”
“What story could you possibly give?”
“The truth. I got the badge from Allyson Brock, who I know through Lucy. I came here to do some research in the lab. I was here with her permission and the security guard attacked me.”
“The police aren’t going to believe you,” Julie said. “You have a record.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
Jordan clutched his bandaged head and winced in pain. Talking hurt. So did standing, which Jordan could do only with Julie’s help. Jordan retrieved the specimen jar and handed both the jar and the cooler to Julie.
“Whatever is in Albert’s tissue is worth killing us over,” Jordan said. “If we don’t do this now, whoever is behind it will go underground. They’ll hide the evidence the way they did hives in the victims’ medical records. Get the sample to Dr. Abruzzo and get it tested. Call Allyson Brock and make sure she knows what’s coming her way.”
As much as Julie hated to agree, Jordan made good points.
“Who do you think he really is?” Julie asked, pointing to the guard. “He’s been spying on me, following me.”
“I don’t know,” Jordan said. “But I got a feeling that Dominick, the punk who tried to carjack you, he knows. He kept saying someone paid him to scare you. What I think is someone paid him to try and kill you, and when that didn’t work, whoever is behind this got us both kicked out of White and set the trap here.”
“You think Allyson is involved?”
“I don’t, but that’s just my gut. Same as I don’t think Lucy set us up. She wouldn’t. But how did he know we were going to be here?”
Julie thought it over and pointed at the dead security guard. “He’s been watching me. Maybe he’s been listening to my calls as well.”
She held up her phone and showed Jordan the call she received from Allyson.
Jordan agreed. “These days, with all the spying and whatnot, it’s not that hard to do. I’m not going to be able to check into it, but maybe Trevor can. Tell him to look for root type programs. If he doesn’t know what that means, tell him to Google it. He’s smart like you. He’ll figure it out.”
“Jordan, I can’t just leave you.”
“I’m putting Albert’s body back where it belongs, and then I’m pulling the fire alarm. Go. I’ll be all right. I’m going to be arrested and I’m not going to get bail. I know that. But I have faith in you. I trust you and I want you to trust me. We have one chance at this. Let’s not blow the opportunity.”
Julie bit at her bottom lip and held Jordan’s gaze a moment. Then she hugged him and gently touched his cheek. Her vision was watery from the gathering tears.
“I’ll come through for you,” Julie said. “That’s a promise.”
THE ONLY person Julie knew who might be at home and alone on Thanksgiving was Dr. Lucy Abruzzo. Lucy made her dislike for the holiday known every year when it came around. She would say it was gluttonous and complain it memorialized the genocide of an indigenous people. Julie would jokingly call Lucy a “Debbie Downer.” She would also invite Lucy for Thanksgiving dinner, an invitation invariably declined, but always with a show of thanks.
Julie was not about to call Lucy to announce her pending arrival. Phones were not to be trusted. Her attacker had spied on her, perhaps using her phone as a window into her life.
Julie’s nerves crackled for the entire drive into Boston, while her thoughts swirled. What was happening to Jordan? What were the police saying? Would they come looking for her? Every police car Julie came upon sent an icy chill down her spine. Who set them up? Everything, she believed, hinged on the test results-meaning everything hinged on Lucy.
Julie found street parking and rang the buzzer to 6C. Lucy lived in an apartment building on Commonwealth Avenue within walking distance of Kenmore Square. The apartment, which Julie had visited on several occasions, featured a lighted glass staircase, a clear-sided Jacuzzi tub resembling an aquarium, and a marble steam room with an intricate inlaid mosaic design, all of which enthralled everyone except for the apartment’s lone occupant.