Emily Kenyon 01 - A Cold Dark Place

right now.”
    “You know I can’t. You found the vic. That’s the first question anyone is going to ask about”
    “How much time do I have?” she asked.
    Christopher hesitated. “I don’t know. We’re trying to track down her family.”
    “All right.”
    “You know where they’re at?”
    Emily turned the Accord onto the freeway headed west toward the hospital. “I didn’t know she had any kids.”
    “The pictures in the hall. The baby pictures.”
    Emily remembered. A trio of black-and-whites of a newborn were framed among a montage of other photographs. Some of Bonnie. Some of her pets. They hung in a row of cheap drugstore frames, the golden finish tarnished and flaking.
    “Sorry,” she said. “Can’t help you” Her mind throbbed with worry for her daughter and what might have happened to her. It was all that she could process just then. His next words snapped her back into the moment.
    “Drinks tonight? Like we talked about?” he asked, almost hopefully.
    Emily caught the vibe. And her own response surprised her.
    “Sure,” she said. “Love to. I have some things to do”
    “Jenna will turn up,” he said.
    “I’m going to see David.”
    “Right. I’d tell you to say hi, but I know how that would go over.”
    Emily disregarded the comment. There was no point in going there.
    “See you tonight,” she said.
    She called David and begged him to meet her at his office.
    “I don’t know where Jenna is,” he said. “Dani and I are busy today, anyway.”
    “Be there. I need you”
    Her message must have come through. She didn’t think she was pleading. She didn’t think his heart could open to her anymore. But for a second, the walls came down. “Okay, I’ll be there”
    Sunday, 3:30 P.M.
    “After what you said to Dani, I should never speak to you again without a lawyer.” David Kenyon was as angry as Emily had ever seen him. His face was red and his eyes were narrowed so tightly they threatened to merge into a single lens.
    “You can hate me all you want,” she said, knowing full well she’d crossed the line. Hell, jumped over it. She’d come to his office prepared to eat a bucket of dirt because what she was about to do went against everything she knew her bythe-book ex-husband stood for. She wanted him to break the law. “But this isn’t about me right now, David. It’s about our daughter.”
    David didn’t soften one bit, at least outwardly. His anger was deep and invoking Jenna’s name wouldn’t fix it. Even so, he knew that he had to help.
    “I don’t want to be like Rick Cooper,” he said. It was a cheap shot-a reference to her freefall from grace-but Emily let it roll off her. She didn’t offer a retort that punished him for something that he’d done.
    Like screwing Dani and getting her pregnant when we’re trying to raise a daughter into a decent young woman.
    She held her tongue.
    Just then, David’s assistant Lindsay McKee entered the office. She was young, single, pretty-a deadly combination for any doctor.
    “Working on a Sunday?” Emily gave David a knowing glance.
    He ignored it.
    “Doctor, I had some things to do,” Lindsay said, shashaying into the room, in a short skirt and three-inch heels. “Some problems with the insurance on your Tuesday surgery.” Lindsay rolled her big green eyes and David smiled.
    “All right,” David said, letting out an exaggerated sigh. “Did any of us think insurance companies would run our lives when we were back in med school?’
    Lindsay laughed. “God knows they run this hospital!” She nodded at Emily and waited a beat to see if Dr. Kenyon would introduce them, but he stayed mum. As soon as the girl left, Emily came around the desk to face the computer screen. David started typing his password: Dani2l.
    It wasn’t hard to see the keys he was hitting, especially the last two.
    “Is that her age?” Emily’s words were drenched in sarcasm.
    David made a face, but said nothing.
    “Kidding
    David hit the Enter key and the system flashed into life. A blue-and-white screen displayed various fields for names, socials, addresses, and insurance information.
    “Okay, to search the database is pretty easy,” he said, looking at Emily. “If I can do it, you can do it.”
    “Okay. Remember you’re talking to a woman who still thinks blackberry is a pie filling.”
    “I remember.” He softened a little. “Records from all Seattle hospitals are held on separate servers that share the same interface and