Murder Deja Vu

the gun to protect himself after Carl pulled it. We’ll have to wait and see. But Reece is wanted for double murder. Going for the gun would be the act of a desperate man, and desperate men resort to desperate measures. Believable to anyone who didn’t know him.”
    “Well, shit.” Jeraldine put her arm around Dana. “Come on, honey. If Clarence says Carl’s story won’t hold water, it won’t.”
    Dana marveled at Jeraldine’s confidence, but nothing Dana heard made her feel any better. Reece lay in a hospital bed with a guard at his door. The police or the FBI were probably ready to charge him with both murders to close the case and look like heroes.
    “I know he made an effort not to show preference,” Clarence said, “but the one cop I talked to went to school with Reece. If I had to judge, I think he’d be on our side. ’Course that means shit. They’ll go with the facts, and right now Reece looks guilty as sin.”
    “We’ll see what Reece says when he can talk,” Jeraldine said.
    “If anyone listens to him,” Dana said.
    “You’re Reece’s lawyer, Jeri,” Clarence said. “Demand to speak to him as soon as he’s able to talk. I’ll be in there with you. I think I know what happened. I want Reece to confirm it.”
    “He knows not to say a word to anyone until he speaks to me. God knows, he’s had enough practice.”
    “For sure. We might as well get something to eat, get some rest, and be here first thing tomorrow.”
    “And I want my drink,” Jeraldine said.
    Dana followed them to the hotel in a daze. Reece was alive. Please, God, don’t let him die .

Chapter Fifty
Hidden Meaning

    R eece blinked his eyes, rolled them left to right. Where was he? His last conscious moment came slowly. Carl’s gun aimed at his chest. The gunshot. Searing pain.
    A glance confirmed an IV inserted into the vein of his right hand, the clear liquid drip bag above. A handcuff secured his left wrist to the metal bed frame. He shook it. He wasn’t going anywhere, not that he wanted to. He’d run long enough, and he felt like shit. So much for freedom.
    “You’re awake.” The speaker, a pudgy woman in a nurse’s uniform, bustled around the bed, checking the monitors.
    Reece nodded. His mouth felt like he’d eaten a bucket of sand. “Water, please.” The words came out in a dry croak.
    She moved toward him, poured water into a glass from the bedside pitcher, and stuck in an accordion straw. He sucked as much as he could before she pulled it away.
    “Not too much now.”
    “Thanks. How long have I been here?”
    “Since yesterday.” The nurse checked his IV.
    He looked out the window. From the position of the sun, he judged it to be early morning. “How bad is it?”
    “You’re one lucky fellow. Could’ve been a lot worse if the bullet hadn’t been deflected.”
    Deflected? How?
    The nurse waddled to the door to speak to someone outside. A tall, stocky man entered. He had a badge clipped to his belt and looked vaguely familiar.
    “Remember me, Reece? Dennis Tobey. We were in school together. You graduated a year after me.”
    Reece squinted. He could barely remember yesterday. How did this guy expect him to remember thirty years ago? He dug back in time. Tobey, Tobey. The image took form. Not clearly, but sharp enough to put the name to a face. The man had changed. “You were captain of the basketball team.”
    “Yeah, though I carried less weight back then.” Tobey patted his belly. “Quite a bit less. And you—you were a few pounds heavier. I almost didn’t recognize you.”
    Reece snorted. Pain pricked his chest. He took shallow breaths, spoke slowly. “I’m surprised, considering I’ve been on every newscast recently.”
    “Yeah, well, there’s that. First, though, I thought, who in hell is that? Reece Daughtry was this big, quiet mountain of a man. And I see this lean, mean, grizzled-looking guy with grayish hair.”
    “Mean and grizzled,” Reece said. “Haven’t heard that one. Never thought of myself as mean or grizzled.”
    “You know what I mean.”
    He stared at Tobey. “No, I don’t.” He forgot, took a deep breath, and burst into a fit of coughing. His chest exploded in pain, and he growled like a wounded animal. “Damn, that hurts.”
    Tobey took a step forward. “You need the nurse?”
    Reece gasped a few times. “No, but I’ll remember not to cough again.”
    “Yup, a bullet in the chest will do that to you.”
    “Mind giving me some