The Scorekeeper: A Suspense Thriller (A Reed & Billie Novel Book 6) by Dustin Stevens

Author:Dustin Stevens [Stevens, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Five

“What happened? Did we get disconnected?”

Sweat lined Reed’s face as he looked up at Dr. Mehdi, his stomach drawn in so tight it felt like it was rubbing against his backbone.

Her focus still aimed at the phone between then, Mehdi shook her head slightly. “No.”

“The battery ran out?” Reed asked.

“I don’t think so,” Mehdi replied. Gone was the placating tone she’d adopted with Della. In its place was the same professional cadence Reed had always known her to employ, her eyes glazed slightly as she stared straight ahead.

Even with so much bubbling up within, so many things that he wanted to ask, find out about, Reed recognized the look enough to let them wait. Instead, he forced himself to remain quiet, giving the doctor the time she needed to process.

Which ended up being two of the longest minutes of his life.

“What do we know about Della Snow’s mother?” Mehdi asked.

Again, Reed felt the scorn he’d had a few moments before rising up, anger over his overlooking something so basic.

“Nothing yet,” Reed said. “She didn’t mention her the previous times we spoke.”

He let his voice trail off for a moment, considering adding some form of apology or confession, before letting it go. Doing so would only deepen the feeling of frustration he felt. He’d made a mistake, there was no use ducking it, especially with someone that was trained to spot such behavior.

“I’m going down now to ask the captain to dig into it,” Reed said.

Nodding slightly, Mehdi raised her attention to him. “And you?”

“I’m going to grab Officers McMichaels and Jacobs down there and make another site visit,” Reed said. “Right before you got here, we got an address on the person that might have bought the phone Della’s been using.”

As before, he didn’t bother filling in the rest, Mehdi not needing the full litany of information.

The look on her face even seemed to indicate she wouldn’t be all that interested in hearing it anyway.

“How would you like me to proceed?” she asked.

Releasing one hand from the chair, Reed extended it to the side, pushing out a short breath. “However you best see fit. We asked you here because you’re the professional.”

Sliding her top teeth over her bottom lip, Mehdi seemed to contemplate things for another moment.

“The girl is slipping into a secondary state,” she said. “Her subconscious is forcing its way to the surface, revealing things she likely wouldn’t say otherwise.”

Making no effort to pretend he had any idea exactly what the doctor was alluding to, Reed merely nodded.

“That’s why she hasn’t mentioned her mother before,” Mehdi said. Adjusting her attention, she looked at Reed and said, “Things like terror, anger, all the things she gave you, those are surface responses. Her brain’s way of fighting through the situation directly in front of her.

“It wasn’t until she was able to – as you put it – detach, that she got past those things. She’s no longer worried about being in a box or having a hurt hand. Her mind is starting to really sift through the rubble.

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