There were a handful of men she could not discount. That could be him, she thought, as a doctor passed. And him, she thought, as they walked up to a male nurse.

Paz said, “She’s the one taking Jana. Do you have the papers for that?”

His nametag read matt. He handed Izabel a clipboard and pen, and told her she could sit behind the nurses’ station if it helped.

Izabel shook her head and began filling out the forms standing up. She felt like Matt was looking at her, and the longer he spent looking at her, the more convinced she became that he was the killer.

“Are you feeling okay?” he asked. “You look a little green.”

The next thing she remembered, she was on a bed with smelling salts under her nose.

“That’s it. Another big breath.” It was still Matt.

She started to take in the curtained-off hospital bed. On her next breath, she coughed and coughed.

“There you go. That should do it.” He smiled at her.

“You fainted,” Paz said. “Why’d you faint?”

“Was I out a long time?” Izabel asked.

“No. This guy caught you before you hit the floor. He got the smelling salts. You’re all caught up.”

Maybe he isn’t the killer, she thought. “Sorry. I guess it’s a little overwhelming.”

“We’re not done yet. Can you handle the rest of the day?”

“Let me get her some juice,” Matt said.

“I can handle it,” Izabel told Paz.

“On the plus side, the more weak shit like this you pull, the more I’m starting to think you’re not the killer.”

“I’m not the killer,” Izabel said.

Paz shrugged.

Matt insisted Izabel go in a wheelchair until she left the hospital. When he went to look for one, she labeled him too nonthreatening. She knew that meant nothing—nothing about whether he was capable of killing privately, in some lonesome way—but it was enough for her to calm down around him.

As Matt pushed her through the hallway, Paz trailed behind, shaking her head. Around the corner came another nurse, pushing another patient, a woman who looked too cheerful to be sick. The nurses began chatting with each other. The woman looked familiar to Izabel but she couldn’t place her.

She knocked her arm gently against Izabel’s and said, “Check us out.”

Izabel smiled at her.

But then the woman said, “Oh, sweetie. Oh, you saved something?”

“What?”

“Someone’s very grateful that you saved something.”

Paz told the nurses to shut up.

“Or someone! Is that what happened?” the woman said.