Running Hot - Jacob long (classic book list txt) 📗

inside and try to find the coroner. You two, stay here.”
Angela and Devlin began to protest immediately, but Reed silenced them with a furious look.
Reed and Laurel got out and walked into the hospital. The air was cool; a pleasant contrast to the arid heat outside; but the eerie hospital lights counteracted the nice sensation with their unnatural green tinge.
Reed and Laurel walked right up to the front desk to ask for directions.
“Where’s the coroner’s office?” Reed asked.
The woman behind the counter was stout with granny glasses and hundreds of wrinkles. “If you’re looking for Dr. Peterson; he’s not in his office. People have been trying to reach him all day with no luck,” she said.
“Then where?” he asked.
“Probably in the morgue; in the basement. Do you want me to call ahead?” she croaked.
“No.” Reed smiled lightly. “We haven’t seen him in a while and want to surprise him.”
“Okay.” The woman’s stare was unnerving.
Reed and Laurel took the stairs to the sublevels; again asking for directions for the morgue. The sublevels were dark and the halls were long. At the final stretch before the morgue, a resident pointed them down a hall toward two generic double doors.
As they approached the door, Laurel stopped and put her hand over her stomach. “I don’t think I can go in there with you, Reed.”
Reed looked perplexingly at her. “Why not?”
“I don’t like dead bodies.” Laurel shifted uncertainly.
“Whatever.” Reed turned around and pushed through the doors; leaving Laurel behind.
The morgue was relatively small compared to the ones in New York. A body was indeed even now resting on a table, so Reed decided that Laurel had made the right decision. He looked over the room briefly and almost immediately noticed a dark pool of blood nearing his feet. He followed the trail with his eyes until coming upon the sight of a doctor, lying face up on the floor with a bullet hole in his head.
“Damn it,” Reed breathed.
Suddenly the rapid clicking of a key board became very distinct in the room. Reed peered over at the desk in the corner of the room to see a black-clad figure working on the coroner’s computer. Almost at the same time, the assailant’s head moved up to look directly at Reed. In the next instant a gun was in his hand. Reed ducked and dove to the desk. The person fired but the extreme angle of the shot caused them to miss. The gunman stood to get another shot when Laurel suddenly burst into the room.
“Reed, what’s happening?” she shouted.
The gunman quickly adjusted his aim to fire at Laurel. Reed grabbed the bottom of the desk and tipped it over; the contents sitting on top spilling onto the floor. The desk hit the gunman’s legs and caused them to fall backward, letting out a shout. The shout sounded unusual. Reed knew right then something was weird about this; but he didn’t stop. Quickly, Reed threw himself onto the desk and grabbed the gun still in the gunman’s hand. The extra pressure of Reed’s weight on the desk caused the gunman to let out another groan. Then Reed was sure; the grunt was feminine. Even the assailant’s strength wasn’t up to par with his own as he tore the gun out of her hand.
“Bitch,” Reed muttered as he pulled the mask off the woman’s head to reveal that she was, in fact, a woman. She was a dirty blonde with a ponytail.
Reed threw the gun over by Laurel and said, “Check if anyone’s coming!”
Laurel picked up the gun tentatively and peeked out the door. “Um, no one’s coming.”
Reed pushed himself up and stood on the desk. “Finally, I have hold of one of you. Start talking.”
The woman just let out another groan but didn’t answer.
Reed started jumping up and down on the desk; speaking in rhythm to his motion. “An-swer-me. Who-are-you?”
“Oh god,” she groaned through clenched teeth. “My name is Officer Elaine Kolden.”
“And what are you doing here?” Reed continued.
Kolden was silent, breathing deeply through her teeth.
Reed held his hand back toward Laurel. “Laurel, toss me the gun.”
When Laurel tossed it, the gun spun through the air. Reed caught it by the barrel but deftly stuck his finger into the trigger guard and flipped it to its correct position. He pointed the gun at her head and asked again.
“I was told to kill the coroner and delete all of his files.” she gave in.
“By who?” Reed growled.
“I can’t tell you,” Elaine answered. “He’ll kill me.”
Reed got a look on his face like that was absurd. “Kill you? Bitch, I’ll kill you!”
Kolden remained silent.
Reed sighed. “Fine.”
Reed stepped off the desk and walked over to the dead coroner’s body. Elaine let out a rapid exhalation of air as his weight was lifted. Reed looked at the body of the coroner for a moment; then walked over to a rack near the door and pulled two scrubs off of it.
“Oh my god. Is he dead?” Laurel asked; staring nervously at the coroner.
Reed tossed one of the scrubs to Laurel saying, “Put it on.”
Laurel knew not to ask questions and slipped it on swiftly. Reed knew what he was doing.
Reed put on a mask and walked over to the medicinal storage cabinet. “Hmm, maybe there’s something useful we can use here.” Reed scanned all of the names of the various fluids and finally selected one of the vials and a syringe.
Reed stuck the syringe into the top of his choice vial and extracted the chemical as he walked over to Officer Kolden. He grabbed Kolden’s arm, quickly squeezed out any air that might be in the needle, and stuck the syringe into her arm.
Kolden flinched as the needle entered her and asked, “What are you doing to me?”
“I’m giving you a shot of morphine to keep you compliant,” Reed answered flatly.
“Jesus, how much are you giving me?” she breathed.
“Ten milligrams. It’ll keep you delirious for quite some time.” Reed pushed down on the pump.
“How would you know anything about morphine?” Kolden asked.
“The internet is a wonderful tool,” Reed said.
Kolden rolled her eyes in despair. “Are you serious? So you’re saying that all you know about morphine is off a website?”
“Don’t worry,” Reed assured her coldly. “I pumped out the air and took the sample directly from the vial. I couldn’t find an alcohol pad but the needle hasn’t been used before. You’ll be fine. I’ll just give this a few moments to take effect and then we can go.”
Reed took the needle out of her and walked over to a table where he set it down.
“What do you mean?” Kolden asked, “Where are we going?”
“I’m just going to drop you off at the police station.” Reed answered.
Kolden suddenly shook her head; the effects of the morphine already taking a toll on her awareness.
Reed leaned up against the table and waited. Laurel went over to him, taking a cautionary glance at the body still lying on the table. It was mind-blowing to her that he could stand so close to it and remain so casual. He must be comfortable around dead bodies by now.
“Reed,” she whispered. “What do want out of life?”
Reed’s eyebrows furrowed deeply as he turned his head to look at her. “What? Why do you want to know that?”
“It’s just something David asked me once.” Laurel stared at Reed stalwartly. “We were lying on a hill and he asked me that.”
“What did you say?” Reed asked.
“Happiness.”
Reed rolled his eyes at the cliché.
Laurel shook her head at him. “What do you want?”
Reed rubbed his eyes for a moment; then took his hand away and said, “All I want I can’t have anymore. I---I want my sister to be happy. I want her to smile until her face hurts. Until her cheeks cramp up.”
“Well that’s nice---”
“And I wanted Charlotte---”
Reed choked off his words and averted his eyes to the floor. Laurel swore she saw his eyes start watering.
Laurel’s mood seemed to change then, in a small way that Reed didn’t even notice on a conscious level, but was aware of it nonetheless. She moved closer and kissed Reed, this time for the express purpose of kissing him and taking in his essence. When she pulled away, she held her eyes closed, just to savor the closeness she felt.
“And I want to help you survive this and get revenge,” Reed suddenly said in a low voice “It’s important. I’ll kill them all if I have to. The bastards won’t win.”
Laurel saw that Reed was becoming emotional and it almost seemed as if he couldn’t actually handle it. She tried to calm him down. “The revenge isn’t that important,” she said in a soothing voice. “And no matter what they’ve done; killing those men isn’t the right way to do it. Two wrongs don’t make a right--”
In an instant, Reed was furious. He growled and snatched her shirt collar into his right hand; yanking her closer. Laurel gasped in fear.
“Two wrongs…are only the beginning,” Reed growled menacingly.
Laurel’s shoulders dropped in dismay. Her eyes were wide and fearful, but her eyebrows were curved upward as if in pity.
Reed, while still holding her gaze, shouted, “Hey, Elaine!”
“What?” Kolden answered.
“Diarrhea.” Reed said.
Kolden started laughing hysterically; a snorting, nasal laugh; and she continued to laugh for some time.
Reed released Laurel and walked away.
“Why is there even morphine in a morgue?” Laurel asked after him.
“I don’t know. This is probably just a backup storage area for the whole wing,” Reed answered, walking over to the desk and lifting it off of Kolden.
“Alright, get up,” Reed said, grabbing Kolden by the hand and dragging her to her feet. He led her over to a stretcher and laid her down; then he fastened her to the bed with the straps and brought the stretcher to its upright position. “Let’s go, Dr. Jacobs.”
Laurel quickly pulled on a mask and followed Reed as he pushed his way through the double doors. They wheeled their way through the halls and went into the elevator. After Reed pressed the “1” button, a doctor snuck in as the doors were closing and took a spot in the back.
After a moment he asked, “What do we have here?”
“We found this woman in the morgue, rifling through the medicines,” Reed said immediately. “She’s injected herself with morphine already.”
The doctor took out a flash light and shined it into her eye. “Has she reported any constipation or an irregular menstrual cycle?”
“Constipation!” Kolden laughed. “Dia-heh-heh-rrhea! Ha ha!”
Reed glanced at Laurel for a moment, and then said, “Yes.”
“We should get her to a room.” the doctor stated the obvious.
Reed suddenly swung his right arm around and punched the doctor in the jaw. The doctor’s head snapped back and hit the wall of the elevator. He collapsed to the floor.
The door opened on the first floor and Reed quickly rolled the stretcher out. “I think we’ll get a second opinion,” he said as he pushed the basement floor button and wheeled the stretcher down the hall.
The elevator door closed and the good doctor was sent back down.
Reed and Laurel were crossing the main lobby on their way to the automatic doors that were their exit.
Reed was visibly nervous. “Walk, walk, walk, walk, walk…” he repeated.
The clerk at the front desk shouted to them. “Where are you taking that bed?”
“Run run run, now we run!” Reed’s pace quickened and he sped the stretcher to the doors.
“Wheeee!” Kolden yelled.
The clerk jumped out of her chair