The Gender Experiment: (A Thriller) by L.J. Sellers

feel small and hopeless in comparison. What if they didn’t believe anything she said?
    Inside the department, they led her to a small room with no windows. Her worst fear! Miller uncuffed her hands, then recuffed them in the front. She almost cried out with relief. After he searched her pockets, he took her cell phone pouch, the only thing she’d taken into the clinic. She knew her rights and forced herself to speak. “You’re not legally allowed to search my phone.”
    “Don’t worry. We’ll get a warrant.” Miller pointed to a wooden chair on one side of a metal table. “Sit down. We’ll be back in a minute.”
    They were gone much longer. After a while, she stood and paced the room. What were they doing besides an illegal search of her phone? Breaking her down. That was probably the point. To make her so anxious she would tell them anything.
    After what seemed like an hour, the two men came back. Detective Miller put a cup of water on the table in front of her. She noticed for the first time that he was handsome with a wide face and thick dark hair. His partner had sagging skin, a shaved head, and a mean expression. Blunt would probably play the bad cop. She would ignore him, as though he weren’t important—a strategy that had gotten her through some tough times with one of her mother’s boyfriends.
    Detective Miller, seated across the table, told her the session was being recorded, then moved quickly to the real questions. “How do you know Bonnie Yost?”
    “I don’t.” Taylor paused, hoping to steady her voice. “Except that she was a receptionist at Carson Obstetrics. I talked to her on the phone once.”
    “You were seen at her house around the time she was murdered. What were you doing there?” Miller kept his voice deadpan.
    Should she tell them about the experiment? Would they think she was crazy? The list of subjects was in her satchel, which she’d left in the car. She would give the information to them slowly and test their reactions. “I wanted to ask her questions about my birth. My mother was a patient at the clinic in 1995.”
    “Why now? What prompted that?”
    “I work in the Denver morgue. A guy my age came in a few days ago, and he had drowned.” Taylor reached for the water with her cuffed hands and managed to take a sip. “The man was also a Carson clinic baby from the same year. It made me curious about my birth. My mother’s dead, and she never talked about it.”
    Detective Miller blinked, jotted down a few notes, then asked, “Did Bonnie Yost refuse to give you information? Is that why you got angry and killed her?”
    “That’s absurd.” Taylor shook her head, hoping to sound sincere. “I went to her house because she abruptly retired after I called the clinic. I thought maybe she’d been forced out, so I went there to follow up.”
    Miller scowled. “Why would a medical clinic force her to retire? Maybe you were the one who intimidated her.” He leaned forward, his voice intense. “
You
were the last person to talk to her at the clinic.
You
were the last person to see her before she died. What were you
really
hounding her about?”
    A flash of guilt. Had she harassed the old woman with her questions?
No.
The receptionist had sent her an email with a list of names. Bonnie had wanted to help her. Had the cops searched the old woman’s computer? If so, why hadn’t they asked about the list? “It wasn’t like that.” Taylor tried to explain. “I called and asked a few questions. Bonnie wasn’t free to talk at the clinic, but she emailed me that same evening. She sent me a list of babies born that year to clinic patients.”
    Miller leaned back, perplexed. The other detective slapped his hand on the table. “Bullshit! Bonnie Yost didn’t have a computer in her home, and I doubt she violated patient confidentiality just because you were curious about your birth. What the hell are you hiding?”
    Taylor’s lips trembled. “She emailed me. I have the