Page 189 of Forever Dead

Connor let out a breath. “Jesus, Selena.”

She moved to the chair beside him. “That seems to be everybody’s reaction.”

“I heard Foss was dead.”

“He is.”

“And you killed him.”

Selena settled the cane against the wall. “Let’s not make tonight any more exciting.”

“I’m lying in a hospital bed. This is about as exciting as my night gets.”

“Good.”

Connor studied the bruising near her temple. “He hit you.”

“Apparently I have a very hard head.”

“This I already knew.”

His hand shifted across the blanket. Selena placed hers over it.

For a while neither of them spoke. The events inside Foss’s house felt farther away here. The mask. The darkness. The laboratory floor. Foss bleeding beneath stitched pieces of skin.

Connor broke the silence. “I keep thinking about that first visit.”

“To Foss?”

“Standing in his house while he explained the evidence.”

“Blethan sent it to someone he trusted. We had a reason to listen.”

“We still missed him.”

“For a while.”

“Long enough for Nora to die.”

Selena tightened her hand around his.

“I keep coming back to Ray Cutler,” she said. “The records were real. I wanted them to explain Eleanor, and I pushed harder than the evidence justified.”

“We both pursued it.”

“I know. But Foss understood what I wanted to find. He was toying with us. Building connections just to watch us tie ourselves in knots.”

Connor shifted against the pillow and stopped when it hurt.

“What gave him away?”

“He knew the skin had come from Nora’s left flank. The photograph didn’t show that, and Blethan hadn’t consulted him.”

“And then he attacked you.”

Selena nodded.

“Did he tell you why he did any of it?”