Lainie turned toward April. “Are you okay?”
“I am. I’m a little angry. Who was that guy?”
Lainie shook her head and looked down at the liquid on the floor. “I think he was trying to kill Crystal Benton with acid.” This certainly wasn’t the peace and quiet the doctor wanted for Benton.
“I’m going to call security,” April said as she left the room.
“He did not manage to violate the IV,” John said as he double-checked the IV line. “She’s fine. No change in her vitals.” He turned to Lainie. “He gave me quite a slug.” He rubbed his jaw. “I’d like to catch him.”
“You and me both.” Lainie flexed her hand that still stung from the corrosive liquid.
“Let me see your hand.” John gently took hold of her fingertips. “Hmm, it could be a chemical burn.”
“I’m glad he didn’t get any of that into the patient.”
She looked over at Benton. The bruises on the side of her face were a faded yellowish green now. Her chest rose and fell rhythmically with her breathing. Lainie stepped close to the bed—then she sucked in a breath as if she’d been slapped.
CHAPTER 39
Ben stepped off the elevator, hands full with bags of food from In-N-Out as the double doors of the Critical Care Unit burst open. A man wearing a surgical mask and scrubs slammed the doors open, sprinted out, and rammed the door to the stairwell. Realizing that it was a pull, he then pulled it open and disappeared down the stairwell.
Snapping out of his shock, recognizing something was off, Ben leapt through the double doors before they could close.
“Lainie?” he called out as he hurried onto the floor, fear biting when he realized there were no nurses and no Lainie. Leaving the burgers on the counter at the nurses’ station, he started for Benton’s room.
Just then a nurse stepped out of the room. She was disheveled, as if she’d been in a fight. “Who are you? You’re not security.”
“Security is busy. There was a gang fight in the parking lot. Cops and security are all over the place outside the Emergency department. I’m an FBI agent. What happened up here?”
“Some guy tried to inject something into our patient. I need to call security. Did you see the man leave?”
“Yes, he took the stairs. Tried? He wasn’t successful, was he? Where’s Lainie?”
“We stopped him.” The nurse pointed to the cubicle.
“Lainie,” Ben called out as he entered the room. She had her back to him. Next to her was a male nurse. “Is everything okay?”
The male nurse turned toward him. “Who are you?”
“I’m Agent Ben Isaacs. What’s going on?”
“I wish I knew.”
“Lainie?” He stepped next to her. “What happened? Did someone try to hurt Benton?”
She turned toward him, an expression of total astonishment on her pale face. “It’s not Benton.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“This is not Crystal Benton, this is Evie.”
By the time Ben had made all the necessary notifications for Lainie, calling LBPD, San Bernardino, and his own boss, the burgers were stone-cold. He waited at the nurses’ station while Lainie sat with her sister. After he got over the shock of hearing that Evangeline Moffit was in the bed and not Crystal Benton, he watched as Lainie talked to her silent, still-comatose sister, held her hand, and apologized for taking so long to find her.
It touched his heart, and it made him want to work so very hard to bring Vine to justice. He found it hard to believe that Stan Moffit ordered his employees to kidnap his wife and hold her somewhere. Sure, it was possible. His gut was just telling him that Moffit didn’t really have it in him; he was too much of a weasel. Vine had to be the culprit.
But where was Evangeline held and why?
Was it truly because Vine wanted his money back?
