Read Online Humpty Dumpty: The killer wants us to put him back together again (Book 1 of the Nursery Rhyme Murders Series) by Carolyn McCray, Ben Hopkin - Free Book Online

façade cut with green-tinted glass. But as he and Agent Cooper walked through the doors, the inside was just like any other hospital: drab, off-white walls that spoke of sterility and healing to most, but screamed nothing but germs and suffering to Joshua.
    Plus, the alcohol was starting to wear off.
    What was he doing here? He’d never allowed someone to drag him to a hospital before. What made tonight different?
    Joshua observed his captor as she checked in at the desk of the ER. She still seemed to be as put-together and fresh as she’d been when he first saw her. There was no attraction here. Some men went for the young ones, but that had never appealed to Joshua. But there was something about this agent that was getting itself wedged underneath his skin in a big way.
    He didn’t like it.
    There were several people ahead of them, but none as serious as his possible concussion. Shocking for Queens. When a pert young nurse in braided pigtails called for him to come back for an initial evaluation, Joshua noticed more than one pair of eyes glaring at him out of dark faces. Look at whitey, going up to the front of the line . At least having Coop with him mitigated the race card a slight bit.
    Following the nurse back to triage, Joshua called back to Coop, who was three steps behind him, “If I die from something I catch here, I’m taking you down with me.”
    The nurse turned with a flip of her braids. “Oh, we take hygiene very seriously here at New York Hospital, Queens.”
    “I bet you do,” he replied. “Probably douche after sex, too, don’t you?”
    “Excuse me?” Every ounce of politeness the nurse had radiated vanished in those two words.
    “Joshua,” Agent Cooper growled from behind him. Hey, he had warned her not to take him to the hospital. She should learn to pay attention.
    “Sorry.” He smirked at the nurse, her badge proclaiming her to be Nurse Jensen. “It’s the concussion. Can’t help it.”
    Coop moved forward, speaking to Nurse Jensen. “It’s the fact that he’s an asshole. And he’s right, he can’t help that.”
    The nurse gave Agent Cooper a smile and a nod, fixed Joshua with a glare and then turned to prepare the blood pressure cuff. She gestured with a free hand to a chair in which he could sit.
    Oh, this was going to be fun.
    * * *
    Sariah watched as the nurse fumbled with the cuff, struggling to get the Velcro open, then dropping it twice before she managed to get it around Joshua’s arm. As she maneuvered around to try once more, she bumped into Joshua’s side, grazing the place on his side that Sariah had bandaged up earlier that night.
    Joshua hissed in pain. “You have done this before, right?” He fixed her with a steady gaze. “How old are you? Have you even had your first period?”
    The gasp told Sariah that the former agent had struck a nerve. The roughness with which she grabbed his arm to reapply the cuff told her he’d struck true. The combination of the alcohol burning off and his being in a hospital had turned Joshua into a rabid dog.
    “And those pigtails. Really?” He snorted in disdain. “Are you trying to fit into some old lecher’s porn fantasy? Might as well be wearing a school girl uniform and sucking on a lollipop.” The nurse’s breath came faster and her bottom lip started to tremble.
    “Joshua,” Sariah warned. “Whatever you’ve got going on in that sick brain of yours, keep it there. This girl’s done nothing.”
    “Nothing? Oh, that’s not true, now, is it, Nurse Jensen?” He winked at the nurse. “She’s screwing her boss. Aren’t you, precious?”
    The poor girl managed to hold on for another few seconds, then burst into tears and fled the room. The sound of her sobbing could be heard down the hall.
    Joshua stretched, groaning as he pulled on the area of his side that had been bruised. “There. That should work to get someone competent in here.”
    Sariah stood up from the chair where she’d been watching this scene play