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“Thanks,” shesaid, before returning her attention to Gaston, “Are there criminals onthis floor?”
“I’m not atliberty to comment on patients,” Gaston informed her humorlessly. “You need toturn around and go back to the nurses’ station. Frankly, I’m tempted to haveyou escorted off the floor, maybe even out of the hospital entirely.”
"What's thebig deal?" Hannah teased, hoping she was properly affecting 'brat' mode,"Is there someone in here so scary that I can't even know who he is. Imean, come on, are you protecting me from him or him from me? Am I thatscary that I can’t even see who’s there?”
“It’s okay,Officer Gaston,” a voice called out. “You can let the girl in.”
Hannah immediatelyrecognized it as Ash Pierce, though her voice sounded slightly different thanshe remembered. It was somehow less biting, softer than before. She wondered ifthat was due to the knife to the neck she’d given her or some actual change inthe woman’s personality.
Even with thevariation in vocal tone, the woman’s words sent a shiver of anxiety throughher, followed by surge of excitement at the realization that she was actuallygoing to be in the same room with Pierce. She did her best to hide bothreactions. After all, she wasn’t supposed to know who was in there.
As she waited forOfficer Gaston’s response, another thought popped into her head. She wonderedwhy Pierce was letting her in. The woman had clearly heard their conversationin the hall. If she was faking the memory loss, was she offended that Hannah askedif she was scared of her? Or if the amnesia was real, was she just curiousabout all the ruckus in the hall?
“It’s a woman?”she managed to blurt out, remembering that she wasn’t supposed to know who wasin there at all.
Officer Gastonignored her comment as he poked his head in the room. “Are you sure you want tolet her in? She’s a lot.”
“Truthfully, I wasgoing to take a nap,” Pierce said, “but it’d be nice to talk to someone who’snot a cop, a nurse, or a psychiatrist for a change.”
Hannah watched asOfficer Gaston turned the idea over in his head. She was stunned that he waseven considering it. Ash Pierce was a dangerous killer, whether she rememberedit or not, and to let any civilian into her hospital room would be adereliction of duty.
But it was adisturbing testament to Pierce’s personal power of persuasion that he looked onthe verge of saying yes. Hannah suspected that the woman had been diligentlyusing her time since waking up to create a rapport with those tasked withwatching her and wondered if it was sincere or just a manipulation. Either way,the fact that she’d convinced the lead officer in charge of guarding her thatsuch an interaction might be safe was beyond troubling.
“Let’s keep itbrief,” he said tersely before glaring at Hannah. “You can stand just insidethe doorway, not one step closer. Do you understand?”
Hannah noddedpliantly.
"What's yourname, by the way?" he asked as he stepped to the side.
"Hannah,"she replied, moving forward, hoping he wouldn't ask for the last name. Shepeered into the room and even before she saw Pierce, took note of the fact thatthere was a third, female officer seated in a chair in the corner. She eyeballedHannah suspiciously. Hannah waved as dorkily as she could before turning herattention to Pierce.
The woman wassitting at a forty-five degree angle in her hospital bed wearing aloose-fitting, floral hospital gown. In most ways, she was much as Hannahremembered her, though there were some changes. Her black hair had been cutshort. Her skin seemed even paler than before.
She'd always beena diminutive, narrow-framed woman, but she appeared even more slight thanHannah remembered. She wondered if that was because Pierce had been fed througha tube for so long. Her left arm was cuffed to the sidebar of the hospital bed,and her right ankle had a monitor on it. There was a small bandage on her neck.Hannah knew she'd had surgery to fix the damage done by the stabbing. Thedoctors had held off until recently because they didn't want to do theprocedure while she was in a coma.
She turned to faceHannah more directly and smiled warmly at her. Her sharp, brown eyes werebright and animated. There was no overt sign that she recognized the youngwoman in front of her as the person she'd tried to kill twice and who had givenher the injury that landed her in here. Hannah made sure to keep her own faceexpressionless.
“You said yourname was Hannah?” Pierce asked innocuously.
“That’s right.”
“And you’re herebecause you want to be a nurse like Jenny?” Pierce confirmed. “She’s a friendof your family?”
“Yes,” Hannahanswered, suddenly realizing the danger the nurse would be in if Pierce wasfaking all this and suspected that Jenny was a part of the plan to get in.“That’s what I told Officer Gaston.”
She hoped that noone would follow up on that, but if they did, her phrasing would allow Jenny tosay later that Hannah had lied about their connection and that she didn’t knowwho she really was. Realizing that she likely didn’t have much time before thisall fell apart, she decided to cut to the chase.
“Why are youhandcuffed?” she asked as naively as she could.
“Because they sayI’m dangerous, Hannah,” Pierce replied, betraying no hint that she acceptedthat proposition.
“Are you?” Hannahpressed.
"I think Iused to be," Pierce replied. "They say that I was a contract killer.But I was stabbed in the neck when I was supposedly trying to kill some youngwoman and I ended up in a coma. When I finally woke up, I had no recollectionof that or anything from the last few years.
Hannah thought shemight have seen the slightest twitch on Pierce’s face when she said, “stabbedin the neck,” but she couldn’t be sure.
“I thought thatkind of thing only happened in the movies,” Hannah said, with just a hint ofskepticism in her voice.
