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Someone had to pay me, and I agreed this was the hospital’s mess, so I felt fine handing her the bill. “I’ll have it in your hands by end of the week. Also, if you suspect something like this is happening again, please just call me. I’d rather nip it in the bud.”

“Trust me, I will. This is a nightmare I do not wish to repeat.”

“Heh, truly. With that, I’m off.”

I was happy to leave the place behind. I’d never liked hospitals. The energy in them was very soul sucking with so many people in pain, some in despair of never getting better, most worried about what it would take to get better. It was a gestalt of very uneasy energy I didn’t like being in.

Phew, finally, out. I breathed in fresh air with relief. “You know how Mack and Brandon joked about Jon’s cases being both weird and difficult? I don’t think that’s a joke anymore.”

Lachlan snorted. “Too close to truth for joking. All right, last push.”

“I want a coffee before we do last push.” In fact, I insisted on a coffee. I was all out of energy.

“A coffee sounds grand.”

Oh good, he agreed.

I drove, as Lachlan was still getting used to driving on the “wrong” side of the road, and Nashville traffic didn’t seem the best option to let him practice. These people were batshit insane and the road rage was crazy. Kudos to Jon willingly to live in this place, I sure wouldn’t.

With a quick stop at a coffee shop, we got our poison of choice before continuing to the station.

Lachlan’s phone rang and he answered with a glib, “What, the ghostie done in already? Oh, well, I expect nothing else of our lass.”

Gwyn must have done the final blow or something. For a child who had run scared of ghosts, she was really coming into her own. I sensed Eli’s influence, there.

“Really? Tonight? Oh, sure, we can get you. What time? In wrap up now, in fact, we’re on our way to station to do our final report. Should be able to get out again in under two hours, long as Seiji doesn’t shank the wee bastard who caused this mess. He’s irritated enough to put shanking on the table.”

He was not wrong…

Lachlan shot me a wink, amused at his own joke. “Aye, aye, that’ll do. Bye for now.” He hung up, letting the phone drop back into his lap. “They’ll be flying back home tonight, I’ll pick ’em up from the airport.”

“Good timing. I want Gwyn for this next bit. I take it she landed the killing blow?”

“She did. Exorcised the ghost right out of existence with a punch in the face. Said the ghostie had it coming. Feels like Eli’s rubbing off on her.” Lachlan chortled like the demented creature he was. “Ah, the lass has found her spine. I pity the world.”

She’d also been forming up pretty tight friendships with Skylar and Abby, who I knew were firecrackers of their own, so truly. World? Brace yourself, they’re almost legal.

Oh, finally, our turn. I got off the exit and made the turn for the police precinct. Parking wasn’t too hard to find, the lot was big enough for it, and I squeezed in right next to a shade tree. A necessity in this heat. Between the humidity and the heat, the back of my neck was never dry.

I very much looked forward to going home. Up north. Where it’s cooler.

Getting out, I took my binder with me. I kept case notes, not only to have a record for someone in the future to use as a reference guide, but also to keep the aspects of the case clear in my memory. Especially when I had to undo this many portals, on that many people, the details were bound to blur together.

And, unfortunately, there was one more part of the job to do even after this. Something I had to handle. I’d been itching to dismantle that first power bank for days now and finally, the moment had arrived.

We entered through the front door, got visitor badges, and Borrowman was called over to collect us. Donovan came instead, but he seemed perfectly at ease here, like it was a second home. It might as well be, as he no doubt spent a lot of time here with Jon doing constant interviews.

“Jon’s wrapping up an interview with Smith,” he informed us.

Intrigued, I asked, “Was there something needing to be confirmed? I thought that was done already.”

“Jon was trying to verify how long Powell been victimizing patients, since he wouldn’t answer that question. Smith’s currently singing like a little birdie trying to wrangle some kind of plea deal, so Jon figured it was easier to ask him. Borrowman wasn’t sure if previous coma patients had died, how long this had been going on, or if Powell had tried something like this at another hospital. This was the second hospital he’d worked at. He also was verifying it was the orderly that had kidnapped that poor dude.”

Ahhh, yes, all good questions.

Lachlan pressed, “Were there other victims, then?”

“Fortunately, no, he hadn’t tried this before.” Donovan’s face rippled with disgust. “In any case, he’s only liable for the patients Seiji rescued. We did get word one of them sadly died about an hour ago.”