The person by the patient said nothing.

  Easing Noah to the side, Emily reached toward the white sleeve. “Back away. Now.”

  A very slight movement was the only indication that anything might happen right before the woman in white lowered her head, spun, and plowed directly into Emily, sending her staggering.

  Noah lost his footing when she careened into him, hit the elevated bed and fell to the floor. This time, when Emily landed on top of him, she was out of control and smashed against his injury.

  He yowled. Nurses came running. Bedlam reigned. And the suspect in the dirty sneakers made a dash for the door.

  By the time Emily had regained her feet, the uniformed officer from the hallway was coming through the swinging doors, hunched over and leaning against the jamb. Both hands were pressing against his stomach. His eyes were wide, his skin pale.

  Limping, Emily sprinted after the escaping suspect. As she passed Anderson, he took one step forward and collapsed against her. Instinct helped her catch him before he hit the floor.

  She gripped his arm to support him, knowing that if she let go he’d fall, and shouted at the nursing station through the partially open doorway. “Call security. Lock down the hospital. There’s a killer loose in here!”

  NINE

  At first glance, Noah thought the fresh blood on Emily’s arm and shoulder was hers. It only took a couple of heartbeats for him to reason that the young cop from the hallway was the one who had been injured.

  Noah cast off the sling so he could better assist two nurses who had stepped up to tend to Anderson, and when he next looked for Emily, she was gone. His heart leaped and so did he, bursting into the hallway. An elevator door was just closing. He caught a glimpse of a police uniform.

  The stairway was faster than waiting for another elevator, so he ran down two flights and reached the lobby just as the doors of the elevator in question were sliding open. There were two Paradise police officers on board. Neither of them was Emily Zwalt.

  His head swiveled, his nerves jumping and his pulse a runaway train. “Did you see her?” he shouted at the cops. “Emily Zwalt. Did you see her?”

  Instead of responding as Noah had expected, the officers separated, approaching on either side of him. One had his hand on his holster while the other began to speak. “Easy buddy. Simmer down and tell us what happened.”

  Incredulous, Noah raised both hands in front of him—and realized they were bloody. No one had to tell him what was about to happen. Nevertheless, he tried to explain.

  “I didn’t hurt anybody. I swear. A suspect did something to the officer on duty on three.” Names whirled through his mind. “Anderson. Steve Anderson. That was his name.”

  One of the burly officers was close enough to grab Noah’s wrist. He didn’t resist.

  “I’m telling you. Emily Zwalt took off after the assailant. We have to find her. She could be in trouble.” And she’s having trouble walking, let alone running, Noah added to himself. That would have slowed her down, especially if she’d taken the stairs.

  As they turned him to cuff both wrists behind his back, Noah realized the pain in his arm had returned. He winced. “Easy, okay? See the bandage?”

  One of the officers was on his radio. The other kept hold of Noah’s good arm, listening to his partner’s conversation.

  Everyone heard a shout echo through the otherwise quiet lobby. “No! Not him.”

  Noah’s senses absorbed Emily’s presence before registering her words. She was safe! That was all that mattered. “Thank you, God.”

  She was at his side in seconds. “Let him go. He’s with me.”

  The other officers were slow to comply, probably because she was once again sporting a stained uniform, although this time, Noah noted, it wasn’t nearly as bad as before.

  Emily was flushed and out of breath. “Let him go. Did either of you see a woman in a long white doctor’s coat?”

  “She wasn’t on the elevator by surgery,” Noah volunteered. “I saw these guys and thought it was you, so I ran down.”

  She pointed. “That stairway?”

  “No.” He shook his head. “The one on the other end. Over there.”

  “Then we’ve covered them both,” Emily said, nodding and apparently considering alternatives.

  “She might have gone up instead of down,” Noah offered. He was holding his hands away from his body, wishing he could wash, when he noticed Emily looking at her own share of poor Anderson’s blood.

  “Okay, here’s what we’ll do,” Emily said with authority. “The hospital is locked down, so if she’s still in here, she can’t get out. We need to clean up and join the search since we’re the only ones who know exactly what she looks like.” She turned to the other two PPD officers. “See that the word is passed to all floors. Female, medium height, approximately a hundred thirty pounds, dark, stringy hair, worn jeans and dirty white shoes. She’s probably shed the doctor’s coat by now.”

  “What about Laura’s husband?” Noah asked.

  “That description is already being circulated. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.”

  Noah arched an eyebrow. Emily shook her head. “I’ll rephrase that. Maybe we can catch two perps with one search party. How’s that?”

  He had to smile despite the difficult situation. “Better.” As the others walked away to join newly arriving officers, Noah eyed her clothing. “You need another fresh uniform.”

  “I’ll work on this one with a little peroxide. Catching the woman who caused it comes first.”

  “You’ll be all right if I just duck in over there and wash?” He gestured toward a restroom sign.

  The smile she gave him felt both warm and cynical. “I’m the one with the gun, remember? I’m safe.”

  Feeling his cheeks heating, he turned away. It was hard to keep from feeling protective toward her, no matter how well armed she was. That was ridiculous, of course. It was also an apparently ingrained reaction, because it kept popping up.

  As Noah shouldered open the swinging door to the main floor restroom, he looked back at Emily. She, too, was moving toward a place to clean up. Instinct made Noah want to call out to her, to stop her from getting out of his sight.

  Sensibility and a touch of embarrassment stopped him. She was right. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. He didn’t have to shadow her everywhere she went. That was not only foolish, it was unnecessary, and he knew it. He really did.

  A shiver shot up his spine as she passed out of his sight. One thing was certain. Now that he’d gotten to know her again, he was never going to stop worrying about her. The only saving grace was the fact that once Max got well, he could go back to a big-city job and forget this brief interlude in Paradise. Hopefully, he’d then be able to put Emily Zwalt out of his thoughts. How anybody could stand being part of the stressful daily life of a cop was beyond him.

  Standing at the sink, soaping his hands, Noah looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. He’d thought he was in love more than once, and the idea that any of those women would choose to live in peril all the time was unthinkable.

  That Emily did so was so unacceptable, it caused him actual physical pain.

  * * *

  Most of the blood was on her forearm and one shoulder, so Emily concentrated on those areas, managing to get herself clean enough for the present. She had one more change of uniform stored at the station, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment.

  As she scrubbed and blotted with paper towels, she muttered to herself, “A woman attacker. Twice now.” There was no doubt this time, and the hand that had been holding the knife could definitely belong to the assailant they had faced there in the hospital. Was it the same woman? Maybe. Probably. Time would tell. If prints lifted from her bedroom matched ones in the recovery room, it would do a lot to ID the assailant.

  “If they know to look,” she added, reaching for her radio and keying the mic. “This is Zwalt. Whoever hurt Anderson may have left fingerprints on medical equipment near the Bright woman’s bed.”

  Affirmative replies overlapped each other. “And tell the chief I’m in the lobby. I’ll be back up to the third floor ASAP.”

  It was Rowlings himself who answered. “Copy. Where’s that lawyer you had with you?”

  “He’s down here, too.”

  “You have eyes on him?”

  “I did when all this went down,” Emily replied. “He’s in the men’s room, washing up. He’s not involved other than that the Bright woman is his client.”

  Rowlings paused and cleared his throat. “I’m not convinced,” the chief said flatly. “Don’t turn your back on him.”

  She wanted to reassure her boss but refrained. There was no way Noah Holden could be responsible for this crime spree, yet he might be unknowingly involved. Anything was possible, given his profession and the history he had with the serial killer’s victims.

  For the first time since she’d seen him again, Emily began to wonder if there was a connection to Noah that encompassed everything. Suspecting that was stretching a point, she knew, and yet...

  She dried her clean hands, used the damp paper towels to wipe dry the sink area where she’d splashed water, then balled up the towels to throw them away.

  Upon entering the restroom, she’d checked to make sure she was alone before relaxing enough to wash. Now, she felt a shiver shooting up her spine. That was ridiculous, of course. Nobody else had entered after her, and the place had been deserted before. There was no reason for uneasiness.

  “So what’s wrong with me?” she asked herself, looking around for threats.

  A sudden urge to return to Noah and make sure he wasn’t in danger came over her. Hurrying to the door, she pulled it open. A member of the hospital maintenance staff had placed a portable yellow-and-orange caution sign on the floor just outside and was waiting to push her cleaning cart through the door.

  A mop and brooms partially obscured the woman’s face, and Emily was so intent on reaching Noah, she dropped her guard for a split second. “Sorry. Excuse me.” She started to sidle past.

  The cart slammed into her side, driving her body into the door jamb. Her injured knee buckled. She tried to reach her gun and found it pinned behind the edge of the metal door frame.

  Someone screeched. Running footsteps mingled with shouting in a cacophony of sound.

  As the pressure of the metal cleaning cart eased, Emily was able to reach her sidearm and draw it. The scene was a montage of dark police uniforms and hospital scrub outfits in green and blue. Everyone blurred together, so Emily kept her gun pointed toward the ceiling.

  “Get her!” a man shouted. Noah! That was Noah.

  Emily tried to sort out the crowd, focused on his face, and felt a jolt of relief. “Where is she?”

  Following the line of his gaze and the way he was pointing, she gasped. The guards who had been watching the nearest exit had left their posts to come to her aid. Nurses and hospital employees had gathered around her—all except one.

  A slim figure wearing soiled white shoes had pressed a handicap release for the automatic doors and was hurrying out of the hospital.

  Emily grabbed her radio and broadcast. “All units in and around the Paradise hospital. Suspect escaping wearing green scrubs and dirty shoes. East door.”

  Breathing was painful enough to keep her from giving chase herself. She holstered her gun and clasped that hand hard to her side, angry at herself as well as at her attacker. Whoever this was, the woman was taking her out of the fight one injury at a time, and Emily was not happy.

  She was also not about to give up.

  * * *

  Noah tried to support Emily with an arm around her, but she shoved him away. Judging by the way she’d winced at his touch, her unwelcome reaction was more about pain than personal rejection.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No,” she snapped, grimacing.

  He knew better. She was hurt all right. Not enough to slow her down the way her sore knee had, but she was in pain nonetheless.

  Despite his misgivings, Noah gave ground. “Okay. What now?”

  “Beats me.”

  Following at a short distance, he boarded the elevator with Emily and several other cops, remaining silent to keep from calling attention to himself. As long as they overlooked his presence, he’d be allowed to stay close. Nothing else mattered to him, at least for the present. Too many elements were unknown for anyone to relax, especially somebody like him who was outside the loop of vital information. The more he could pick up by listening to official sources, the better.

  Chief Rowlings was waiting for his officers on the surgery floor and led them into an unoccupied room. Noah knew he’d been spotted when the chief gestured at him. “Close the door behind you, Holden.”

  The command had been ambiguous enough that Noah chose to interpret it to his advantage and closed himself inside with the police instead of staying out in the hall. Although Rowlings did raise a bushy, graying eyebrow, he let Noah stay.

  “All right, here’s what we know for sure,” the chief began.

  Listening, Noah was watching Emily instead of her boss. She was moving a little stiffly but seemed otherwise uninjured. Judging by the way the edge of that heavy cart had hit her—and the way she’d jumped away from his light touch—she could be nursing bruised ribs. Not that she’d admit to anything that would put her out of commission when there was a dangerous escaped attacker, maybe a murderer, to pursue.

  The chief mentioned Emily’s home, capturing Noah’s full attention.

  “The prints on the window frame at Zwalt’s look like a match for what we just lifted from the recovery room, and we’re processing the cleaning cart in-house, although it appears the perp wore gloves when she handled that.”

  Noah saw Emily nodding and was pleased to hear her ask, “Since she was after Ms. Bright, have we cleared the husband?”

  Rowlings said, “Yes. Jim Bright has been exonerated by his wife’s testimony. He may be a lousy husband, but he apparently didn’t stab her.”

  “What about a possible link to the other blonde women? Anything there?”

  “Not that we can tell,” the chief said. “I’ve decided to request FBI assistance. They aren’t ready to send a team yet but are standing by. Time will tell.”

  Noah hoped he didn’t flinch when someone else asked about the body he’d found in the park.

  “So far, there’s no evidentiary connection,” Rowlings said. “That’s one thing the FBI is doing for us. I’ve sent them all our evidence in the hopes they can uncover some clues we’ve missed.” At that point, his gaze sought out Noah and stayed.

  Raising both hands, palms toward the group, Noah shook his head. “I’m not a bit worried. I told you I rolled her over to see if she needed first aid. I trust the evidence to prove I’m innocent of anything else.”

  Although there was a murmured undertone of dissension from the others, Noah felt well prepared to refute any suggestion of his closer involvement.

  His fondest hope was that Emily would believe in him regardless. Choosing to avoid analyzing that desire didn’t alter the truth. Her opinion mattered more than that of anyone else. And that was scary.

  TEN

  What Emily had yearned to do was hop into the first available patrol car and pursue her escaping suspect as far and as fast as necessary to apprehend her. She wanted to fix her mistakes and redeem the good reputation she’d earned in the Paradise Police Department. Unfortunately, her chief didn’t give her that option.

  “I don’t need leave time. I can recuperate on the job,” she argued.

  Rowlings was not swayed. “If you’d been at the top of your game when these latest attacks came, you’d have handled things differently. I want you to take the rest of this week off, then get a doctor’s release before reporting in on Monday.”

  The aching in her head was so bad she could almost take her pulse in her throbbing temples, which was why Emily didn’t continue to object. So far, she had a lump on her head, an injured knee and now sore ribs. And her sidekick, whether she wanted him to be there or not, was nursing a cut on his upper arm. Even acting together, they lacked the motor skills of one able-bodied cop.

  She scrunched up her face and directed it at Noah. “Don’t look so pleased.”

  “I’m only happy because I was worried about you,” he said flatly. “You may be a great cop, but...”

  “What do you mean, ‘may be’?”

  “Okay, okay. You are a great cop, but you still need to be in top form to do your job.”

  “My brain works just fine.”

  Rowlings cut in. “Good. Then pull up the files on your laptop and spend your time off figuring out what has been going on. That should keep you occupied.”

  “And out of trouble. I get it.” Emily almost gasped when the chief followed up with, “And you, Holden, work with her and fill in the blanks. There has to be more you’re not telling us.”

  Noah held up his hands as if his arm had already healed, although she did see a small spot of red on his bandage. Truth to tell, it would be better if both of them rested and healed before anything else drew them deeper into this puzzle.

  “I promise you, Chief, I’ve been totally honest about those women. I barely knew them. Not like I know...” He broke off, but Emily got the idea. Even though they had never been romantically involved, they did know each other pretty well on a platonic level, not that she’d been the one to keep it that way when she was an impressionable teen.

  Sighing, she pictured Noah as the young man she’d once admired. Not knowing how difficult his home life had been, she’d mistakenly assumed he had kept her at arm’s length for other reasons. Her childhood had been a picnic compared to his, hadn’t it? And later? Later, she’d decided that handsome cop Jake Barnes would make a perfect husband and had accepted his engagement ring. That was right before her life had nose-dived into a pit of despair, thanks to a judge and a defense attorney, she added silently.