Read Online Hotter Than Helltown: An Urban Fantasy Mystery (Preternatural Affairs Book 3) by S.M. Reine - Free Book Online
Authors: S.M. Reine
Ads: Link
machines, the clocks, the air conditioning system.
The hospital was dead. And so were many of the patients inside, if the power didn’t come back fast.
I held my breath waiting for it. Should have only taken a second or less before everything turned back on. Medical facilities should have had redundant power systems—everything they needed to survive several minutes off-grid.
But it all stayed quiet.
I pushed the button on my Bluetooth headset. Not sure what made me do it, since I didn’t have anything to report to OPA headquarters yet.
There was no responding beep.
The silence made me check my cell phone. Also powerless.
“Don’t you people have a UPS?” Suzy asked Nurse Barrow. I could barely see either of them in the darkness.
“Look,” I said, grabbing her arm to orient her, pushing my phone into her face.
The nurses were suddenly moving. Doors were opening, people were rushing through the dark hallways. As curtains opened in the rooms, barred sunlight spilled over the floors, and I could see the fear in the faces passing me.
I felt the thump in my chest, in the ground below my feet. Something had woken up—the generator, utility power, no way to be sure.
But the lights came on.
It had taken no more than a minute, maybe two, but that was a long minute for patients in critical condition to survive without power. Relief didn’t hit me. Judging by Suzy’s expression, it hadn’t hit her, either.
“Damn,” she whispered.
The clocks on the wall had stopped, even though they all must have been on batteries. They all said that it was four fifty-seven in the afternoon.
Dread crawled up my spine bone by bone. My fingers reached the Bluetooth earpiece of their own volition. The beep when I pressed the button seemed to echo hollowly through my skull, voided of thought and feeling by the aching knowledge of what must have just happened in that hospital.
OPA dispatch answered immediately, as pleasant as always. “How may I assist you, Agent Hawke?”
“We need a team at Mercy General Hospital,” I said. “I think there’s been another murder.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
THEY FOUND THE BODY in the boiler room.
The security guard who’d located the victim stood aside to let us through. He was flushed red, sweating through his shirt. “Maybe you should take a seat,” Suzy told him.
He nodded. Sank into a chair by the wall. Braced himself on the seat by gripping it with both meaty hands.
Agents were cordoning off the end of the hallway. Nurses and patients hovered on the other side of the tape, trying to see what we were about to see. Crazy assholes. If I didn’t have to see what I was going into, I would never have looked.
Suzy squared her shoulders and pushed the door open.
A short staircase led into the basement. It had already been checked by the hospital’s private security; we knew that there was nobody waiting to surprise us downstairs. It still didn’t feel right to let Suzy take the lead. I stepped in front of her, heading down into that darkness.
It was silent aside from the room humming around us. All the environmental equipment made it sound like we were inside a breathing, pulsing organism.
The basement lights had blown when the power went out, and only one of them had come back. The lone bulb painted the cement wall in a sickly shade of yellow and made the blood look glossy black.
A body waited about two feet from the wall. It was another man. He was wearing a nurse’s scrubs.
“Look familiar?” Janet asked. She was putting on a lab coat and gloves. She reeked of cigarette smoke. Must have just had one before coming downstairs.
She offered us a box of gloves. Suzy took a pair. I didn’t. No way did I plan on touching this body.
He was blond—I think he was blond. His jaw was square. Hard to tell when he was lying down, but he had probably been my height while standing up. Narrow in the shoulders. Another guy, like Jay Brandon, who looked like his favorite method of exercise was
The hospital was dead. And so were many of the patients inside, if the power didn’t come back fast.
I held my breath waiting for it. Should have only taken a second or less before everything turned back on. Medical facilities should have had redundant power systems—everything they needed to survive several minutes off-grid.
But it all stayed quiet.
I pushed the button on my Bluetooth headset. Not sure what made me do it, since I didn’t have anything to report to OPA headquarters yet.
There was no responding beep.
The silence made me check my cell phone. Also powerless.
“Don’t you people have a UPS?” Suzy asked Nurse Barrow. I could barely see either of them in the darkness.
“Look,” I said, grabbing her arm to orient her, pushing my phone into her face.
The nurses were suddenly moving. Doors were opening, people were rushing through the dark hallways. As curtains opened in the rooms, barred sunlight spilled over the floors, and I could see the fear in the faces passing me.
I felt the thump in my chest, in the ground below my feet. Something had woken up—the generator, utility power, no way to be sure.
But the lights came on.
It had taken no more than a minute, maybe two, but that was a long minute for patients in critical condition to survive without power. Relief didn’t hit me. Judging by Suzy’s expression, it hadn’t hit her, either.
“Damn,” she whispered.
The clocks on the wall had stopped, even though they all must have been on batteries. They all said that it was four fifty-seven in the afternoon.
Dread crawled up my spine bone by bone. My fingers reached the Bluetooth earpiece of their own volition. The beep when I pressed the button seemed to echo hollowly through my skull, voided of thought and feeling by the aching knowledge of what must have just happened in that hospital.
OPA dispatch answered immediately, as pleasant as always. “How may I assist you, Agent Hawke?”
“We need a team at Mercy General Hospital,” I said. “I think there’s been another murder.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
THEY FOUND THE BODY in the boiler room.
The security guard who’d located the victim stood aside to let us through. He was flushed red, sweating through his shirt. “Maybe you should take a seat,” Suzy told him.
He nodded. Sank into a chair by the wall. Braced himself on the seat by gripping it with both meaty hands.
Agents were cordoning off the end of the hallway. Nurses and patients hovered on the other side of the tape, trying to see what we were about to see. Crazy assholes. If I didn’t have to see what I was going into, I would never have looked.
Suzy squared her shoulders and pushed the door open.
A short staircase led into the basement. It had already been checked by the hospital’s private security; we knew that there was nobody waiting to surprise us downstairs. It still didn’t feel right to let Suzy take the lead. I stepped in front of her, heading down into that darkness.
It was silent aside from the room humming around us. All the environmental equipment made it sound like we were inside a breathing, pulsing organism.
The basement lights had blown when the power went out, and only one of them had come back. The lone bulb painted the cement wall in a sickly shade of yellow and made the blood look glossy black.
A body waited about two feet from the wall. It was another man. He was wearing a nurse’s scrubs.
“Look familiar?” Janet asked. She was putting on a lab coat and gloves. She reeked of cigarette smoke. Must have just had one before coming downstairs.
She offered us a box of gloves. Suzy took a pair. I didn’t. No way did I plan on touching this body.
He was blond—I think he was blond. His jaw was square. Hard to tell when he was lying down, but he had probably been my height while standing up. Narrow in the shoulders. Another guy, like Jay Brandon, who looked like his favorite method of exercise was
Similar Books
