Banged up? Hadn’t he been knifed as well as beaten?

He tried to feel for any bandages on his stomach and chest, but the nurse on the other side of the bed caught his hand before he could move it much. “Don’t touch anything. You could yank off your monitors or pull out your IV, and you wouldn’t want that,” she said. “That’s how we’re administering your pain meds.”

Yeah, well, the pain meds weren’t doing their job. He wished he could tell them that, too. He hurt everywhere, felt as though he’d been run over by a bus. “Where am I?” he croaked, but the question didn’t come out as he’d intended. He heard only a bunch of unintelligible grunts.

What was going on? Why couldn’t he talk?

“Shh.… You have a broken jaw. We had to wire your mouth shut. Don’t try to speak,” the nurse said.

But he had to communicate. He had to have answers, to at least learn if he was expected to survive. What else was wrong with him? Being stabbed could easily be worse than a broken jaw and yet she hadn’t mentioned it.

He struggled to sit up, but the doctor forced him back. Then darkness encroached, and he closed his eyes again, wearily surrendering to it.

23

Minneapolis, MN—Tuesday, 7:50 p.m. CST

“What did you find?” Phil asked.

“It’s a receipt,” Amarok replied.

“That’s what I thought you said. But for what?”

Amarok wished Edna Southwick had written an address or any other details on the receipt she’d sent to John Edmonson in care of Emmett Virtanen. But the only thing he’d found in the envelope he’d taken from Emmett’s apartment manager was a preprinted receipt from a standard receipt book, like one would buy at an office supply store, with the words “June Rent” written on it and an amount—five hundred dollars. Who was John Edmonson? Was he Emmett? If so, what could Emmett have rented for only five hundred dollars? That figure didn’t seem large enough for a house or an apartment.

Was it a storage locker?

God, he hoped not. He hated the thought of what that would likely mean.

“We need to find out. Head over to the address I’m about to give you right away and speak to an Edna Southwick. Ask her how she knows Emmett Virtanen, what she rented to him and where it’s located.”

“Will do.”

Amarok thought of Bridget’s refusal to share any information with him or Lewis. “And just in case she’s a friend or an extended family member, don’t tell her why. Just say that we’re looking for Emmett because we have a few questions we’d like to ask him about an accident we believe he witnessed.”

“I’m happy to drive over there, Amarok, but if it’s in Anchorage, wouldn’t Anchorage PD be able to get there quicker? Are you planning to involve them?”

Amarok didn’t want to let the investigation get out of his control. He couldn’t afford to have someone mess it up now that he had a solid lead. “No. It’ll only take you an hour or so.” He gave Phil the address. “Head there now and call me as soon as you can.”