Inside Out by Unknown Author

nodded. But Nat knew Rachel didn’t believe that for a second. Who could blame her? Nat certainly couldn’t. She’d been through it herself. When Ethan had walked out on her, she’d thought she’d never get over the pain, the anger, the shame, the terrible feeling of having failed to hold on to her man. It had happened over a year ago, and even now Nat couldn’t really say it was okay. Just that it was more okay than it had been twelve months ago.
    Certainly, twelve months ago, Nat wouldn’t have imagined she’d ever let herself risk getting so emotionally involved with another man.
    And look where that involvement had gotten her.
    “You’d make a good surgeon,” Nat said as she watched Leo meticulously extract the folded sheet of paper from the plain
    white envelope using a pair of eyebrow tweezers.
    “It’s the rubber gloves,” he said, trying to inject a lightness into his tone. He didn’t succeed.
    They were alone in the doctors’ lounge just outside the ICU. Leo had locked the door so they wouldn’t be disturbed. After putting the now-empty envelope in an evidence bag, he unfolded the sheet of white business-size paper. Nat was standing right beside him, already picturing in her mind the words of warning.
    A gasp escaped her lips as she saw the open sheet of paper. There were no words written on it. Instead, Nat was viewing something far worse. A crude ink drawing of a woman’s face. Only, where the eyes should have been, there were empty sockets colored in with red ink. A half-dozen red lines had been slashed across the nose. And the mouth—the mouth was yawning open. And the tongue—what was left of it—was indicated by a very jagged red line.
    “It looks like something a demented child might draw,” Nat said once she’d gotten over the initial shock and horror of it.
    Leo looked over at her. “You okay?”
    “Fine,” she lied, glad she was wearing a long-sleeved blouse so Leo wouldn’t spot the goose bumps decorating her arms.
    Leo eyeballed her. “Will it do any good for me to tell you to back off?”
    “Come on,” Nat said. “Let’s go check on Lynn.”
    Leo grabbed her by the shoulders. “At least be careful, Natalie. Don’t go off on your own, half-cocked. Can you promise me that much?”
    “I promise.”
    Leo didn’t look convinced. Smart man.
    Lynn’s status remained critical and she was still unconscious, but the surgeon felt it was a good sign that there had been no further deterioration since the second surgery. Leo took off, anxious to get Nat’s missive to the lab for analysis, but the truth was neither of them was holding out much hope that they’d get a lead from it. Nat was about to head off as well when she spotted a familiar face over at the ICU nurse’s station. She walked over.
    “Hi. Do you remember me?”
    The pretty young Asian nurse looked up from a medical report she was reading and gave Nat a distracted look. But within seconds* recognition dawned.
    “Superintendent Price.”
    The last time Nat had seen Carrie Li was over a year ago when the nurse was working in the emergency room. She’d had the misfortune to be the nurse who’d tended to Dean Thomas Walsh after he’d slashed his wrists at Horizon House. Carrie had walked into his cubicle to administer a hypodermic injection for pain and ended up being grabbed by the inmate and taken as his hostage. It was only after Nat had managed to convince Walsh she was a much better hostage than the terrified young nurse, that he had made the exchange.
    Nat could see from Carrie Li’s expression that her sense of gratitude remained as fresh now as it had been on that fateful day.
    After a brief bit of chitchat, Nat asked the nurse if she was. due for a coffee break anytime soon. Carrie checked the large clock on the wall behind the station.
    “I can meet you down in the cafeteria in fifteen minutes.”
    Carrie cupped her slender hands around her mug of tea. “I took a call at a little past eight this