The Cavanaugh Code Page 18

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14 C learly terrified, Linda Morrow began to whimper. Her trembling became almost violent, as if she were undergoing a seizure. Huge, frightened brown eyes shifted from Laredo to Taylor and then back again, like dark marbles that couldn’t come to rest. They fairly pleaded for help. “Shut up,” the young woman snapped when Linda continued to whimper. She raised the wet strip, holding it in front of Linda like an unfulfilled promise. “It’s time for you to pay for what you did.” Trying to divert her attention from Linda, Taylor asked the young woman, “Did you kill that homeless man they found in the alley yesterday?” Dark, malevolent eyes shifted toward Taylor. “You mean ‘Daddy’?” The woman’s mouth twisted in a sardonic smile. “Yeah, I did.” She paused, as if reliving the experience. “I probably did him a favor, really. The miserable drunk was so out of it, I don’t even think he knew what was happening.” Realizing that Taylor was stalling, Laredo followed her lead. “Why did you kil

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15 “R eally, people, you are going to have to clear the hallway!” The edict was delivered—not for the first time—by Celia Roberts, the no-nonsense, heavyset head nurse who was a twenty-year veteran at Aurora Memorial. She addressed the overwhelming throng that filled the cheerfully decorated surgical waiting room to its maximum capacity and now spilled out into the passageway before the first-floor operating room. Every adult member of the Cavanaugh family had been there, marking time the entire afternoon. Ever since word had gone out that Taylor had been shot while trying to bring in the “leather strip strangler,” as the killer had been dubbed within the department. Years of practice had the crusty nurse selecting the most authoritative-looking member of the group and making her appeal to them. In this case, she made a beeline for Andrew Cavanaugh, who had arrived with his wife shortly after Taylor had been taken into surgery. “Sir, can’t you pick a spokesperson or a go-betwee

  Chapter 15

  Epilogue