I applied more pressure to her windpipe, but didn’t challenge her on it. It made no difference, anyway. The cops would find out who she was in due time. Realizing her time was short, the woman began to fight again, kicking desperately in hopes of knocking me off my feet. I yanked her off the wall, twisted her around, and took her down, pinning her to the floor. My knees dug into her back to keep her there. My hand automatically went to my side for cuffs, before I remembered I no longer carried them; meanwhile, the woman bucked and twisted under me like a rodeo steer. I palmed the back of her head and drove it into the floorboards, the sound her head made against the hardwood unmistakably brutal. She yelped, quieted, and the bucking stopped, but I knew I only had seconds before her head cleared and she came back at me again. It was times like these that I missed having a partner. This was definitely a two-person job. I frantically searched the room for a substitute for the cuffs, my eyes finally locking on an unused length of IV tubing. It would have to do. I leaned over, grabbed it.

“You almost got away with it,” I said as the woman began to slowly stir. “She’s dying. It wouldn’t have taken much. It would have looked like she just passed away on her own, right? Spada’s going to be very disappointed in you.”

As the woman groaned beneath me, I wound the tubing around her wrists, prepared to tighten it, when Stella began to gag and wheeze from the bed. It was a horrible, desperate sound. I turned to see, and realized instantly that I shouldn’t have. I turned back, but it was too late. My one moment of inattention gave the nurse the chance to jerk her arm free and twist around onto her back. Before I could make the adjustment and flip her back, she hauled off and clocked me in the side of the head hard enough that I saw stars. I fell back, taking the tubing with me, watching helplessly as she scrambled to her feet and took off. I stumbled to my feet, the room spinning, and took off after her.

Down the stairs we went, the evil nurse well ahead. If she got away, I’d never find her. She hit the bottom step, raced through the front room, and then bolted out the door, bursting out onto the porch. She ran like a frigging cheetah. In heels. I wasn’t going to catch her. I burst out onto the porch just in time to see her trip on the last couple steps. I managed to gain a few strides on her, but she quickly recovered and sprinted for the Ford.