“Exit wound,” Mario responded.
“And what’s missing?” Niyah quizzed.
His brows knitted with confusion. “A second exit wound?”
Niyah turned to look him in the eye. “Is that a question or an answer?”
“It’s an answer,” Mario replied, returning his attention to the X-ray.
“What does that mean, Dr. Limon?”
He smiled as if proud of his discovery and placed the X-ray on a nearby table. “It means there’s another bullet in there somewhere.”
He was right. No bullet from a handgun could cause that much damage. Niyah smiled at her exceptional intern. “Good call, Dr. Limon. Let’s fish it out with the least amount of damage. Hopefully, it’s structurally intact for ballistic testing.”
“Yes, Dr. Reed.”
Niyah peeled the gloves from her fingers. “Did you run the tattoos?” she asked.
“Yes, Doctor. The results are on your desk.”
“Thank you. I’ll be in my office if you need me.” Niyah tossed the gloves in the trash and left the exam room. Her office wasn’t far, only a few feet from the examination room. She looked down at the photo in the file, trying to find any reason why the man one of the twins had left with half a face had tried to kill them. Niyah was wondering if his intent had been to kill one or both when she ran into a solid wall wrapped in a lab coat.
“Oh shit!” she swore as the papers in her hand flew everywhere.
Strong hands grabbed her shoulders to hold her steady.
“Are you okay?” The deep English accent came from the wall of a man that she’d run into.
Niyah pushed a few locs out of her face and looked up into the eyes of a ridiculously handsome man. In fact, he was the finest Asian man she’d ever laid eyes on. “I’m so sorry,” Niyah whispered.
She could have kicked herself for the breathy apology. She didn’t even want to imagine what she sounded like from his perspective. Gathering herself and what dignity she had left, Niyah stepped out of the man’s grasp. “Thank you,” she said in her normal voice.
“No worries,” he responded, kneeling with her when she bent to retrieve the contents of her file.
After gathering the last sheet of paper, the man handed her the photo of the shooter’s remains. While he was staring at the picture, Niyah glanced at his nametag. Dr. Ayoki was his name. He had to be new because there was no way she would've missed him walking the halls of the county hospital. She tucked the photo inside the file and stood.
“Thanks again,” she told the handsome man before continuing down the hall.
Within a few steps, Niyah was facing her office. She wanted to look back and get another glance at the hot doctor.But with a demonstration of self-restraint, she opened the door and stepped inside.
Niyah dropped the autopsy report on her desk and retrieved the file that Mario had left on the keyboard. She sat and flipped through the pages. As expected, the ink covering the shooter’s skin was much more than a display of his artistic expression. In his world, every tattoo meant something. According to the FBI database, it was highly likely that the man in her exam room was in some way associated with the organized crime syndicate that originated from Japan known as Yacuza.
Niyah dropped the file on her desk and grabbed one of the folders containing information on her south side, gangbanger homicides. She had done the preliminary exam, but Mario was responsible for following up with the state police for DNA results. With results still pending, Niyah dropped the file on her desk and returned her attention to the body on the table.
For twenty minutes, Niyah did her best to catch up on her insane case load. She rubbed her tired eyes and looked down at her watch. It was eight-thirty in the morning, enough time for Mario to have extracted the bullet from the shooter's skull.
Niyah stood and pulled her cellular phone from the pocket of her lab coat. On the way out of her office, she tapped the key to call Bella.
“Hey, Niyah,” Bella answered when she entered the hall.
“Hey. How’s Lucas?”
Bella exhaled. “He’s out of surgery. He’s stable, but he hasn’t come to yet. Except for me and his mom, nobody’s allowed in.”
Niyah sighed with relief to hear that Lucas was stable. “What did they say about the surgery?”
“Ugh, too much. His mom was the only one who understood all the doctor talk. But I guess it went well. He’s outof the woods. He needs another surgery, but they have to wait for some of the swelling to go down to go back in.”
