Page 111 of Hard Evidence
“You invited us.”
“We didn’t inviteyou.”
Grey leaned forward.“No, because presumably you thought it would be easier to browbeat me if I came alone.My tribute was a mixed bouquet, by the way.”
“We thought we could have a civil discussion.”
What was wrong with Serafina?The AC was barely adequate, but she was still sweating far more than she should be, plus she’d gone quite pale.
“Wearehaving a civil discussion,” Brax told Holtz.“Mostly.”
Zach cursed under his breath, and Nolan put his head in his hands.Nolan didn’t deal with pressure well, and he hadn’t wanted to come today, period.
“Why don’t we all calm down?”Dawson said, and it sounded like a plea.
Jez spoke through gritted teeth.“I’m perfectly fucking calm.”
On the outside, at least.Inside, she wanted to punch someone; she just wasn’t sure who yet.
CHAPTER41
JERRY
Serafina struggled to her feet and took a wobbly step toward the door.She was trying to escape?Well, she wasn’t doing a great job of it.Her knees gave way, and Dawson put those Navy SEAL reflexes to good use and caught her.
“Easy, easy,” he said as he dumped her back in the chair.“Just breathe, sweetheart.”
“Go away.”
“Her pulse has to be a hundred and fifty.”
Was she having a panic attack?Jez ran through the symptoms in her head and concluded that was the most likely scenario.Five years of law school, and the woman couldn’t handle a simple Q&A session?
“Sera?”Holtz showed genuine concern.“What’s wrong with her?I’ll call an ambulance.”
“No,” Serafina choked.“No ambulance.”
“She’s having a panic attack,” Jez said.“Just chill.”
“Chill?What’s wrong with you?”
“Or maybe it’s a heart attack?”Grey suggested.“Norm Billings was holding his chest like that in the House last year, and it was a heart attack.”
Congressman Billings was a weapons-grade jackass, and Demelza—Jez’s boss’s boss—had sounded uncharacteristically gleeful when she told them the story.Unfortunately, Billings had been shipped off to the hospital in double-quick time to have a stent fitted.Jez was ninety percent sure Serafina wasn’t having a coronary, but if the woman was Justin’s alibi, they needed to be one hundred percent sure she stayed alive.
“Zach, get the first-aid kit from the car.”When Zach didn’t move, she added a, “Now!”
The first-aid kits the Choir carried as standard were good for everything up to minor surgery, so Jez ignored Serafina’s whining, laid her out on the floor, and hooked her up to a Wi-Fi-enabled ECG device.The squiggles on the strip looked fairly uniform, but Jez wasn’t a doctor, so she called the medical facility they used in Vegas and interrupted Doc Martinsson’s lunch break.
“Doc?I have a subject hooked up to an ECG, and we’re going to play a fun game—it’s called ‘heart attack or panic attack?’”
“Dare I ask?”He answered his own question.“No, no, I don’t.Does the patient have a history of heart problems?”
“Serafina, do you have a history of heart problems?”
She shook her head.
“She doesn’t.”
