Read Online No Good Deed by Lynn Hightower - Free Book Online Page B

witch?’
    â€˜I’m a witch with a badge.’
    â€˜I don’t like cops.’
    â€˜I hate doctors.’
    â€˜Really? What do you do when you’re sick?’
    â€˜Suffer.’
    â€˜What about lawyers?’
    â€˜Lawyers are okay.’ Sonora noticed that his eyes were very blue, and his face was tanned.
    â€˜I thought all cops hated lawyers. What are your thoughts on realtors?’ As an afterthought. As if he really wanted to know.
    â€˜I don’t have an opinion.’
    â€˜Sell your house, you’ll change your mind.’
    â€˜Tell me about the finger. Tell me how you keep your tan this time of year. Didn’t your mommy tell you that tanning beds cause skin cancer?’
    â€˜I spend a lot of time outdoors. And the finger is gone. What’s to tell?’
    â€˜The wound, then, any thought on that?’
    He cocked his head to one side. ‘They have real coffee down in the dungeon by the CAT scan machine.’
    â€˜I’m on the clock,’ Sonora said.
    â€˜They pay you by the hour?’
    â€˜You been up all night like me, or you just stupid?’
    Gillane smiled. ‘I’m always like this. Focus, Gillane. People tell me that all the time. Ex-wives, professors, my cleaning lady. My last wife said that to me every day before she left.’
    â€˜She left because you were unfocused?’
    â€˜No, she left because she said she could no longer stand being married to a cross-dresser, and would I please return her lingerie.’
    â€˜She must have been a big girl,’ Sonora said.
    He smiled at her. Warmly. She liked him suddenly, except he was a doctor. It took a lot of self-confidence for a man to make a cross-dresser joke, in a town like Cincinnati. People might believe you and send you to the sinning side of the river.
    He winked. ‘Just kidding, of course.’
    â€˜Darn, and me on my way to call Vice.’
    â€˜You’re funny,’ he said. Frowning. ‘I’m funnier. I do my best standup in surgery.’
    â€˜Go operate on somebody, you’re wearing me out. I was up all night looking for a missing fifteen-year-old girl, and that’s where I need to be right now. Looking. So—’
    He put a finger to his lips and pointed upward to an imaginary sign. ‘This is a no-whining zone. But if you want to get into it, I got a kid upstairs in pediatrics—’
    â€˜Dr Gillane?’
    Sam. Laying a heavy left hand on Sonora’s shoulder and shaking Gillane’s hand with his right. His smile was lopsided, engaging the right side of his mouth, and Sonora recognized the universal good ole boy. ‘Nurse Roth tells me you worked two shifts straight, and we sure appreciate your staying extra to talk to us. Most doctors would have headed home and to hell with the cops.’
    Gillane looked at Sonora. ‘He’s good.’
    â€˜Damn right he’s good, he’s my partner. Don’t patronize him.’
    Sam held up a hand. ‘Like I said, good of you—’
    â€˜Do you always repeat yourself?’ Gillane cocked his head to one side.
    â€˜Over and over, till I get your attention.’
    â€˜In that case, I’m yours. Here’s my official diagnosis. The lady’s finger was cut off.’
    â€˜That official?’ Sonora said. She was about to add ‘moron’, but Sam squeezed her shoulder.
    Gillane waved a hand. ‘I’m about to use big words, so pay attention. Whoever it was had a bloody sharp knife with a thick edge, not serrated. It went clean through the tissue and bone, no tearing, which puts to mind some kind of a post-mortem knife.’
    â€˜Or scalpel?’ Sonora asked.
    â€˜I don’t think so. Most scalpels have a finer edge to them. Which means you should be on the lookout for a butcher, a surgeon, a soldier of fortune. Which a rude person might say exactly describes me.’
    Veterinarian, Sonora thought. That’s what