An Arrogant Black Belt Threatens a Rookie Nurse in a Rural ER — Unaware She Was a Navy SEAL Officer
Chapter 15
Theme:
Font Size:
24px
"I'm going to ask you one question. The answer is going to determine whether you go to a federal prison in Petersburg for the next 20 years, or a federal prison in Florence for the next 40." Reese leaned forward two inches. "Who told you to flag me?"Kessler looked at the door. He looked at the .38 on the bookshelf. He looked at Marsh, who was wearing flight gear and a flat expression, and at the sailor, who was built like a powerlifter and had not blinked in 90 seconds. Kessler's shoulders dropped."Six months ago," he said, "a man came to my house. Said he worked for a security consulting firm. He showed me a photograph of a woman who used to be a Navy officer. Said she might be working at a hospital in West Virginia, that if she ever showed up at Holloway, he wanted to know. He gave me a number, said he'd pay 50,000 for a positive ID and another 250 if I could keep her in the building when the time came.""And the parking lot?""What?""The self-defense sessions, the bruises, the harassment."Kessler's face turned a color that was not quite human."That was... that was you keeping her in the building," Reese's voice was very, very quiet. "You set up a system where you could put your hands on female staff every morning in case one morning the female staff was me, so you could get a positive ID by feeling for the scars under my scrubs. Yes or no, Doctor?""Yes.""How many other women did you hurt to find me?"Kessler did not answer.Reese stood up. She walked around the side of the desk; Kessler shrank into the chair. Reese leaned down, put her hand flat on the desk next to his elbow, put her face six inches from his face, and said in the smallest of all her voices:"Dr. Kessler, I'm going to give you a piece of advice: tomorrow morning, when you are in federal custody and the agents are asking you questions, you are going to answer every single one. You are going to do this because the women you hurt in this hospital are going to file complaints, and those complaints are going to land in front of a grand jury, and the federal charges are going to be the easy part of your week. Are you tracking?""Yes.""Good." She walked to the door. As she passed the sailor, she said, "No lawyer until after the FBI lands. Water if he asks, bathroom if he asks, no phone.""Yes, ma'am."She walked out. Marsh followed her. In the hallway, Marsh said, "Ma'am, the morning sessions, the bruises... were you—""Yes, Marsh.""Why didn't you—""Because I was trying to disappear. And a 5-foot-2 nurse who breaks a 6-foot-2 brown belt's elbow in the back parking lot of a county hospital does not disappear. I was going to keep eating it until I could transfer out. Six more weeks; I had the transfer paperwork in my locker."Marsh was quiet. Then Marsh said, "Permission to speak, ma'am.""Granted."