Born Again for Blood

Jessica’s crying stopped short. Panic turned to threats.

“You’d better listen to me,” she hissed at the supervisor. “I have scandalous photos of the top brass in this hospital. If you fire me, I’ll leak them to the media!”

Oh, right. I’d forgotten about that move. I rushed forward.

“Ma’am, you remember that proposal you asked me to draft? The one about improving patient privacy protection? I finished it and sent it straight to the board. They’re taking it very seriously and are about to launch a full investigation into staff misconduct.”

The color drained from Jessica’s face. I blinked at her, all innocence. “Jessica, I just heard you mention scandalous photos and it reminded me. Did I… say something wrong?”

“You… you…” she sputtered, trembling with rage.

The supervisor waved a dismissive hand. “Just go, Jessica. The board can deal with you now.”

“Alright, the show’s over!” the supervisor yelled at the onlookers. “Get back to work! You’ve got patients waiting!”

The tables had turned. This time, Jessica’s rage had nowhere to go.

The morning she was fired, I felt good enough to whistle. But that afternoon, she came back with the police.

I was chatting with Mary. “Good riddance!” Mary was saying. “Someone like Jessica is a disgrace to this hospital! How could she do something like that?”

The door swung open. Jessica stood there, pointing a finger at me. “Officer,” she said to the two policemen behind her. “It was her. She stole ten thousand dollars from me!”

She was still coming after me. She was convinced I had stolen the cash she’d stashed in her locker.

“Officer, I was on the phone with doctors all morning, taking down orders. I was in the locker room by myself with her for a minute, but I never went near her locker.”

My explanation didn’t matter. They took me to the station anyway. On the way, I called my childhood friend, Marcus Thompson, who was now a private investigator.

By the time I sat down to give my statement, Marcus was there. He presented the hospital’s security footage, which proved I’d been running between the nurse’s station and patient rooms all day. I was only in the locker room for a few minutes, and I came out empty-handed.

If I’d stolen the money, it would still have to be in the hospital.

The two officers went back and searched. They found nothing.

When they returned, Marcus leaned back in his chair. “Officers,” he said casually, “you can’t just take her word for it. What if this is a false police report?”

Exactly!

I shot Marcus a grateful look.

The police asked Jessica why she had so much cash in her locker. She claimed she’d just withdrawn it from the bank for a shopping spree.

“That’s easy enough to check,” Marcus said. “Look at her bank records. See when she withdrew the money and if there’s any proof she brought it into the hospital.”

“Alright. Ms. Mitchell, we’ll verify this. You can sign here and go.”

I glanced at Marcus. He knew what I was thinking. We weren’t leaving until we saw the show.

“Officer, Ms. Davis’s accusation has seriously damaged my client’s reputation,” Marcus said smoothly. “I believe my client has a right to know the truth.”

The officers ignored us and left to check with the bank. Marcus and I made ourselves comfortable in the lobby and ordered a pizza.

Jessica was still being held in an interrogation room.

When the cops came back, they looked pissed. They told us they suspected the ten thousand dollars never existed. Bank records showed she hadn't made any recent large withdrawals.

They were going back in to question her again. It was clear the “theft” was just another one of her lies to frame me.

There was no point in waiting any longer. As Marcus and I left the station, I wondered how Jessica was going to explain where that money really came from.

Marcus and I had grown up together. We’d only lost touch after I married Ryan.

The next morning, his call woke me up.

“Floyd! Floyd! That ten grand Jessica had? It didn’t come from a bank. Guess where it came from.”

Marcus always loved to be dramatic.

I yawned. “Just tell me. Don’t tell me she really made it all up.”

“No, the money was real, but…”

“But what?”

“It was from a ‘client.’ Paid to her that night. What else could it be but payment for sex?”

“And get this,” he continued, “her husband, that Kevin Park guy, he has no idea.”

“That ten thousand dollars…”

“Wasn’t from her husband. I got the scoop from my source inside the department.”

Jessica had tried to destroy me, and instead, I had unearthed her dirtiest secret. Just as I was wondering how to use it, I found something strange at home.

I was cleaning out Ryan’s suit jacket when I found a cash withdrawal slip tucked into a hidden fold of his wallet. The amount was exactly fifty thousand dollars. And the date? July 25th.

A sickening, horrifying answer exploded in my mind.

I could never figure it out. What had I missed? Why was Jessica always asking me to switch shifts? Why, after she was fired, did all of her hatred land squarely on my shoulders?

A chill shot up my spine.

Jessica’s mysterious “client,” the man who made her abandon her post at the most critical moment… could it have been my husband, Ryan?