The door opened and a nurse entered. “Mr. Cooper?”

Jesse stood. “Yes?”

“You are next of kin, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Would you follow me, please?”

The others rose from their chairs, and Mancini stepped forward. “Is something wrong?”

“No, sir. The patient would like to consult with her next of kin regarding treatment options. You’re welcome to wait until he returns.”

Jesse and the nurse walked through two sets of secured doors to a section of patient rooms visible from a monitoring station.

“I’ll be at a desk right outside.” She stepped back and let Jesse enter.

Ethel lay in a slightly reclined bed, a sheet tucked up under her arms but not so high as to conceal that she wore a hospital gown. Wires disappeared to electrodes that lay hidden underneath. The monotone beep from some kind of high-tech equipment and the subtle whisper of air-conditioning were the only sounds.

Jesse hesitated. Ethel looked so frail. Her eyes were closed and her breaths shallow. He realized how near he’d come to losing her, the only family he had left. And he was the only family she had left. Two double-first-cousins-twice-removed.

Her eyes opened. “Well, stop gawking and get over here. I’m not dead yet.”

He hurried to the bedside.

She tried to prop herself up. “Raise this thing so I don’t have to look at you sideways.”

Jesse found the control and adjusted the bed’s upper half to a vertical position.

“That’s better.” She looked beyond him. “Are you by yourself?”

“No. Hauser, Bradshaw, and Mancini are in a waiting room.”

“Are Hauser and Bradshaw grilling you?”

“Not too hard. I think they’re working out a consistent story. Mancini is our ally. He’s basically told them they can have a tidy closed case or a messy open case.”

Ethel laughed. “That’s Frank. I love him. Rudy and Cory were all about climbing the power ladder in their careers. All Frank wants to do is solve cases. If I were twenty years younger, I’d jump his bones.”

Jesse blushed.

“Well, I’m not a nun. I’ve had my flings in my time.”

“Um, that’s, um, good,” he stammered. “I mean Frank’s a good man.”

She winked at him. “And a widower. But back to Rudy and Cory. What have they told you?”

“They think Jonathan’s computer and phone have been destroyed.”

“They’re probably right about the phone, but unless they’re playing games, they haven’t searched my car. Do you have the keys?”

“I gave them to Curt Foster before we boarded the helicopter.”

Ethel reached out and patted the back of his hand. “Perfect. He and Pete can get my car to the house. I guess Rudy and Cory still have your computer and drive.”