Jesus Christ.
“Wh-what did you do?” she gasped. She was going to be sick. Bile crawled up her throat, threatening to break free.
“Murder-suicide,” Helen said calmly, as if it made perfect sense. “Things need to be wrapped up, and I can’t risk Briar sharing my involvement with anyone.”
“I don’t understand.”
Helen removed the magazine and checked the bullets in the gun. “Well, Clara, seeing as you’ve got about a minute left to live, there’s no harm in sharing that Malcolmreallypissed me off.”
“You had an affair with him, too?”
She scoffed. “Fuck no. You know that revolutionary sepsis protocol everyone keeps congratulating him on?”
Clara frowned. “Yeah.”
“Ideveloped it.” Helen finally looked at her, fire in her eyes. “I spentyearsrefining the approach through direct patient work. There’s documentation, emails, meeting minutes—all proving it wasmyoriginal idea. Malcolm made a couple of minor contributions and received not only all the credit but consulting opportunities, speaking fees, andallthe recognition.”
“Why didn’t you tell anyone?” she whispered.
“Idid. But he was louder, and then it was too late because of the press, and hospital politics prevented any correction.”
Clara shot a look at Briar and immediately regretted it. Blood…there was so much blood. “How does Briar fit into this?”
“I knew what happened between them. I knew how angry she was that she’d divorced her husband for Malcolm, only for him to leave her for that massage therapist. She’s always been stupid,so I floated the idea of making his patients sick to discredit him and get her payback. At first, she didn’t go for it. Then she learned that Lauren was due to come in for surgery. Suddenly, she was all in.”
Jesus, they were sick. Both of them.
“I made it sound like we were ateam,” Helen continued. “And I guess we kind of were. We covered for each other. Took turns stealing patient drugs so no one knew who was responsible.”
“Butyoutried to kill Malcolm,” she whispered.
“Because even aftereverything, he was still getting congratulated for my fucking protocol! Do you know how many times I tried to talk to him about it? Reason with him? He wouldn’t bend. I knew it wouldn’t end untilhedid. And yeah, he’s not dead…yet.” Helen aimed her gun. “I’m sorry about this, but I can’t afford to keep you alive.”
Clara dropped behind the counter a second before a bullet exploded into the wall behind her. She grabbed a pair of scissors off a shelf, opened them, and held one side like a knife.
“Clara…you’re just making this harder than it has to be.”
Blood roared between her ears as she heard Helen’s footsteps grow closer.
Calm, Clara. You can do this.
The quiet words in her head made the shaking in her fingers lessen.
The second Helen’s leg appeared, Clara kicked.
Helen cried out and dropped, and the moment she was on the floor, Clara lifted the scissors high and plunged them into her shin.
As Helen screamed, Clara pushed to her feet and lunged toward the gun. She’d just grabbed it when Helen snatched her ankle and yanked her down. Her cheek hit the floor hard, thepistol falling from her hand and sliding across the shop as pain radiated through her skull.
Immediately, she rolled to her side and kicked Helen, getting the other woman in the shoulder, then the nose.
A loud crunch sounded, and Helen dropped, suddenly unmoving.
Was she unconscious?
Clara didn’t wait to find out. She pushed to her feet and scanned the floor, quickly searching for the gun, but when she couldn’t see it, she ran, sprinting toward the door.
When she reached Briar’s body, her foot slipped on blood and she hit the floor again. Blood coated her front, the wet, sticky liquid slipping between her fingers as the metallic smell hit her nose.
