“Hold your damned horses!” Allison yelled from inside the room.
The sound of a chain coming unlocked from a clasp could be heard, followed by the hollow-sounding thunk of the door’s lock being disengaged. Jack relaxed a bit, his hand coming away from his Glock as he started to take a step forward.
The door was pulled open quickly and before either Jack or Rachel was fully aware of what was happening, someone came rushing out. All Rachel could tell for certain at first was that it was a man. He came barreling out of the room, directly toward Jack. The two men collided, sending Jack stumbling backwards to the iron rail behind him. As he struck it, the man turned to the right, in Rachel’s direction. He was still moving quickly, head lowered and shoulders just starting to come up from his attack on Jack.
He saw Rachel at the very last moment. Not expecting a second person, the man hesitated for just a moment. Rachel braced herself as he continued forward. She lowered her own shoulder and assumed a position very much like a linebacker. The man didn’t barge into her with the same force he’s used on Jack; the hesitation made him slower and weaker. The result was Rachel easily being able to stop him, thrusting her shoulder into his chest and sending him down to the concrete in an awkward tackle.
The man cried out as Rachel pushed herself up, driving a knee into his chest. Knowing she had no cuffs on her, she could only wait for Jack to scramble over. Jack helped flip the man over onto his stomach as he wrenched his cuffs from his belt.
“What’s your name, sir?” Jack asked.
The man said nothing. He wasn’t fighting against them and though he grunted and moaned a bit at the harsh actions Jack took in pulling his arms behind his back, he also wasn’t very verbal. Rachel also noticed a woman standing just inside of the doorway, making a few tiny steps further back into the room. One hand was at her heart and the other was covering her mouth in shock. She was a pretty woman of about thirty-five or so. Her hair was perfectly blonde and she had a fairly perfect figure. She watched the entire scene unfold with tired blue eyes.
“Wes Dalton?” Rachel asked.
“Yes,” the man grunted.
This confirmation seemed to put a bit more urgency and anger into how Jack handled the man. He yanked Dalton to his feet and pushed him into the room. “Sit your ass on the bed,” Jack said.
Wes Dalton did as he was asked. He was bleeding slightly from a cut on the chin but his gaze seemed cool and unaffected. He looked to the woman apologetically and then back to Jack.
Rachel walked over to the woman. “You’re Allison Kelvin?”
“Yes.”
“And recently, you’ve been placed on the waiting list for Life fulfilled, correct?”
Allison only nodded this time, as if she were ashamed.
“Leave her alone,” Dalton said. It was the first thing out of his mouth since he’d come rushing through the door, trying to make a run for it. “You can ask me all the questions.”
Ignoring him, Rachel kept her gaze focused on Allison. She nearly asked Allison if Dalton had been here to kill her. But then she saw the state of the bed, in disarray. The bathroom door behind Allison was partly open and she could see a pair of boxer briefs on the floor. A bra was also hanging from the towel rack. And though Allison was currently dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of shorts, the messy state of her hair made it clear that Dalton had not been here to kill her. Judging from the two separate bags packed over by the other side of the room, Rachel started to assume quite the opposite, actually.
“Fine then,” Rachel said, directing her gaze back to Dalton. “We can start with the most obvious question: why did you lie about going to New York?”
“You do know why we’re here, right?” Jack asked.
“Same reason you gave when you called me, I suppose,” Dalton said. There were nerves in his voice but it was clear he was trying to remain in control, not wanting to seem as if he might cower in front of them at any moment. “You want to know about the people on the waiting list. Wanting to ask me questions about the foundation.”
“Oh, it’s not quite that simple,” Jack said. “You lied about where you were and why you were there. That’s bad enough, but this lie, if believed, conveniently kept you away from Richmond while people on your waiting list were being killed. Can you follow the bread crumbs, or do I need to spell it out for you?”
He did look confused for a moment, but then the realization of what Jack was saying settled in his eyes. He leaned back on the bed, his cuffed arms behind his back nearly making him fall over. “You think I’m killing these people? Why in God’s name would I do that?”
“It’s a good question,” Jack said. “And it’s the main question we want to ask you.”
“Well, there’s another one,” Rachel said. “And I think that one answers itself by a quick glance around the room. Which of you wants to clear up what’s going on here?”
“I will,” Dalton said. “Allison has been through enough. Just leave her alone.”
“I’m so sorry, Wes,” Allison said, standing by the bathroom door. She was crying, unable to take her eyes away from Dalton.
“Allison came into the office about four months ago,” Dalton started. “I didn’t actually meet her until about a month or so into the process. She’s been diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The doctors have given her another seven months. She could maybe beat it, but she’s already beaten breast cancer, so her body is very weak.”
“He was so caring, so kind,” Allison spoke up. “Wes and everyone at Life Fulfilled treated me like any other human being, not just some poor woman who is going to die much sooner than she should.”
“There was something between us right from the start,” Dalton said. “And after the second time we met, I crossed a line I knew I shouldn’t. I stopped by her house one afternoon on my way home. I used the lame excuse of needing a form signed. She invited me in for coffee and that was it.”
“We were hooked,” Allison said.