After that, Claire Allen started to weep. Her loud, piercing cries seemed to cover everything in the world until they were drowned out several minutes later by approaching ambulance sirens.

CHAPTER THIRTY

One of the medics from the pair of ambulances that arrived looked over the cut on Rachels arm. After cleaning it and giving it a brief inspection, he smiled at her and started to open up a small pouch of sanitizing cream. Well, youre not going to need stitches, which is good. He lathered the cream over the cut and then wrapped a sticky gauze around it. Id rest the arm for a few days, though. Its a spot that can stretch easy and itll start bleeding in the blink of an eye.

What about Cassie McNeil? Rachel asked, sitting on the back bumper of the ambulance. Hows her cut?

Not too bad. She will need stitches but from what we can tell, nothing important was damaged on the inside. Were rolling her out soon, and her husband has already been notified and is on the way to the hospital as we speak.

Rachel looked over to their car. She watched as Jack closed the door after having escorted Claire Allen into the back seat. She had indeed confirmed that was her name, but they hadnt gotten anything else out of her yet.

Thanks for this, Rachel said, showing the medic his handiwork. She hopped down from the back of the ambulance and walked over to where Jack was making his way across the street towards her.

No stitches necessary, Rachel said. But you should probably drive.

Good, he said with a sarcastic smile. He then cocked his head in the direction of the back seat where Claire Allen wept softly, looking out to them as if she had no real idea why she was even there. Now lets go get some answers.

***

Rachel found a few bags of chamomile tea in the precinct break room. Even though she was usually not a fan of tea, she needed something to calm her nerves. She had what she assumed was some sort of adrenaline headache, her bodys response to the tension, nerves, and excitement of the last two hours or so. At least she hoped it was just from the adrenaline. She had no idea what shed do if the tumor caused another episode while she and Jack were right in the middle of interrogating Claire Allen. Not that there was going to be much of an interrogation. This was all just for the sake of formality; shed pretty much admitted to everything during the tense stand-off theyd had in the McNeils kitchen.

I hate these interrogations, Jack said as they met in the hallway.

What…the ones where we basically gloat about our victory? Rachel asked.