She tucked her hand in her pocket and touched her phone but didn’t pull it out, conscious of a small video camera in the corner of the ceiling that might or might not be active.
Donning gloves, she flipped open the phone to dial the number on speaker.
Silence. Then a familiar voice. “Hello, Jane Cannon. Miss me?”
She smiled. “Why yes, Phillip. I do.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
“You know,I was beginning to think you’d never find me.”
“I still don’t know where you are,” Jane said. “But I know we didn’t get to finish our discussion. You had more to tell me.”
“Have you ever lost anyone, Jane? Can I call you Jane?”
“Sure. And yes, I have.” She needed to keep him talking while she let Rapp know she had Phillip on the phone. Yet she was loath to pull out her cell if he could see her, worried he might stop talking. She could try to hide her actions but couldn’t chance making him suspicious.
“I lost my parents in that horrible crash.”
“But you didn’t go after the person who hit them. And that puzzles me.” Not that she wanted to give him a new target, but there had to be a reason Phillip had no interest in Anton.
“Oh, I did. At first. But the kid had just turned sixteen and was drunk off his ass. He’s my cousin several times removed, if you can believe that.”
“Really?” Maria had been wrong. Phillip did know about his relation to the Kaminskis.
Phillip tsked. “Please, Jane. Give me some credit. I was a medic in the Army, did you know that? I served and planned tocontinue to serve once I left the service. I’d finish at UW and go on to medical school.”
“So I heard.”
“I’m intelligent. I get that from both of my parents.”
Jane could feel his terrible grief in the pregnant pause. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“I think you mean that.” Phillip sounded both sad and elated at the same time. “It’s refreshing to know that not everyone in law enforcement lies.” After a pause, he continued, “I couldn’t kill my cousin. No matter how Uncle Kyle and my dad felt about Mom’s family, they’re blood. Heck, Dad was the one who instilled that loyalty in me.”
“He was a healer, Phillip. And so were you. ‘Do no harm.’ Isn’t that the first rule of medicine?”
“Yes, it is. And those doctors, nurses, and medical people broke it when they killed my parents. They could have survived the crash. But not what was done to them in that excuse for a clinic where they werebutchered.” His breathing grew choppy.
“That was wrong.”
“It was. I tried to let it go when my parents were killed. I would have probably. Maybe. I don’t know. But when I found out that they were used for body parts, and that the police and FBI covered up the crime, I had to fight back. That’s not right. That’s not justice.”
“You’re right. Completely.”
He sat with that a moment. “Thank you.”
“But Phillip, you’re killing innocent people to get revenge. Why do that? You’re not punishing the guilty.”
“But I’m making sure people know. It took you so long to realize it’s all connected. We had to make you see.”
“Who iswe?”
“He tells me what to do. I do it.”
“Who ishe?” Was Phillip delusional or did he have an accomplice? “And how do you know who to punish, Phillip? Why Dr. Ryan Daniels and Dr. Julie David? Anna Field, Tom Polsun, Mike Stevens, Tony Alvarez? Those were people just like your parents who have families left crying over them.”
“They’re gone for a greater purpose. So that we remember, so that these mistakes won’t ever happen again.”
