The Body Thief (30 page)

Earlier, she’d finished Phillip’s autopsy
and had entered her findings into the department’s database. The
cause of death was a massive heart attack. It must have happened
while he was behind the wheel. He’d lost control of the car and hit
a tree. He hadn’t stood a chance.

Her findings ruled out suicide and paved the
way for his family to collect on his insurance policy. That was
little comfort and certainly wasn’t going to bring their husband
and father back, but Sam hoped that knowing they had some financial
security would help a little in coming to terms with their
loss.

A hesitant knock sounded on the closed door
to her office. Sam turned with zero interest and even less
enthusiasm and unlocked the door and told whoever it was to
enter.

Angie appeared looking tense and pale. Sam
wasn’t the only one grieving over the tragic loss of a colleague
and good friend.

“Hi, Angie,” she managed quietly. “How are
you doing?”

Angie trembled. “I came into the office as
soon as I heard. I’m devastated, Sam. Like we all are. Phillip was
such a good man! I can’t believe I’ll never see him again.”

Sam sighed. “Yeah, me neither. It’s going to
be tough on everyone for a while. I guess we just have to accept
his time was up.”

Angie’s eyebrow rose. “Do you know how he
died?”

“A heart attack. He wouldn’t have felt a
thing. I guess for that we can be grateful.”

Angie nodded somberly and then looked down.
In her hands she held an iPad. She looked up at Sam and then back
down again and Sam sensed there was more the girl wanted to
say.

“What is it, Angie? Talk to me. It’s better
that way. We need to remember Phillip—how he was, and all the good
things he’s done. It’s okay to reminisce and share—”

“It’s not about Phillip. Well, it is that
too… I mean, I wanted to tell you how sorry I am. I know you and
Phillip were close. But…there’s something else. Something I think
you should see.”

She held the iPad out and Sam frowned. “What
do you mean?”

“Open Safari and go to YouTube.”

Sam did as she was told, wondering at
Angie’s strange request. The girl was once again fidgeting and had
her gaze fixed firmly on the floor. A sense of unease took hold of
Sam and all of a sudden, she didn’t want to see. She thrust the
iPad aside and shook her head.

“I don’t think this is a good time, Angie.
I’m sure it can wait until later.”

“No! Please, Sam. You need to watch it.
Trust me.”

The girl stared at her with such an intense
expression, Sam had no choice but to obey. Once again picking up
the iPad, she opened Safari. The page loaded onto the YouTube
website and a video appeared. It had been uploaded by a user less
than half an hour earlier. Sam read the heading and gasped in shock
tinged with sad resignation.

“RESPECTED DOCTOR ARRESTED OUTSIDE GLEBE
MORGUE”

The video showed Rohan and his partner
leading her brother down the front stairs of her building, toward a
squad car. Alistair was shouting obscenities as he went. When the
trio passed the videographer, Sam realized her brother was in
handcuffs. She gasped again.

Helplessness and anger burst like fire
through her veins. It didn’t matter whether Alistair was guilty or
innocent. What mattered was that the man she’d so recently declared
her love for, must have known all along what was planned. How else
had he responded to the emergency call so quickly? His station
wasn’t the closest, by far.

Her call to the emergency operator had given
no hint about the problem. She hadn’t even mentioned her brother by
name. For Rohan to have arrested Alistair, he must have had other
evidence against her brother that she was unaware of. It made her
wonder how long Rohan had been in possession of such
information.

She didn’t believe for an instant the arrest
of such a high profile doctor had been done on the spur of the
moment, or without considerable evidence gathered. Each detail
would have been planned and discussed and reviewed from every angle
and it wouldn’t have been done in the past hour—or even earlier
that day. That meant only one thing.

While Rohan had been making sweet and tender
love to her, all that time they were together, he’d known what was
in store for her brother. Rohan had left her bed and gone to work
with the intention of arresting him and sending him to jail.

And he hadn’t said a word.

Shoving the iPad in Angie’s direction, Sam
slammed her palm against her desk. The impact stung, but she barely
felt it. Rage and hurt and remorse and regret all rushed through
her head in a kaleidoscope of emotions until she didn’t know where
to turn. Snatching up her phone, she once again dialed Rohan’s
number.

As before, the call went through to
voicemail. All of a sudden, it made sense why he hadn’t returned
her calls. The coward had known that sooner or later she’d discover
what he’d done and then things would get ugly. He was right on that
score.

“You asshole!” she sobbed into the phone.
“You knew and you didn’t say a word! How could you? You blinded me
with declarations of love and all the while you were planning to
arrest my brother! You’re despicable! I hate you! I never want to
see you again!”

She stabbed at the button to end the call
and then threw the phone back onto her desk. She was so angry she
wanted to put her fist through the wall, but what would that
accomplish? She’d be left with a bruised and bleeding hand and
Rohan would still go on his merry way. He was probably even now
laughing at her as he locked her brother up in jail.

No, that wasn’t fair. The Rohan she knew
wouldn’t be so cruel, but it still didn’t change the fact he’d
known what was going to happen and he’d kept it from her.

Was it a trust thing?
Is that why he
hadn’t told her? Because he thought she might tip off her brother
and help him disappear? Did he really think she’d condone illegal
behavior? Particularly, behavior as abhorrent as what she suspected
Alistair had done. The thought didn’t make her feel any better. If
anything, it made her feel worse. She couldn’t believe she’d fallen
in love with a man who thought she was capable of such conduct.

Despite the time they’d spent together,
growing closer by the day, it was obvious he didn’t know her at
all. After everything that had happened, now she’d lost Rohan, too.
With a gasp and another sob, Sam dropped her head to her desk and
cried like her heart had broken in two.

* * *

Rohan stared at his phone where it sat on
his old kitchen table and tried for the hundredth time to find the
courage to return Samantha’s call. After his stressful day he was
totally spent, but it didn’t seem to matter. His brain wouldn’t let
up on the images of her shouting and sobbing at him into the phone.
Her parting words hurt most of all.

Of course, he’d told himself over and over
to expect her to react that way. It shouldn’t have come as a
surprise. But somehow, he’d clung to the foolish hope that she’d
realize he was only doing his job; that she knew him well enough to
accept that he’d never arrest her brother if he didn’t have hard
evidence of Alistair’s guilt; that she cared enough for Rohan to
forgive him.

But it appeared those hopes were as
substantial as a pile of ashes blown about in a stiff breeze. She
said she hated him and she never wanted to see him again.

With a heavy sigh, he pushed away from the
table and thought about finding something to eat. He’d skipped
breakfast and lunch and all of a sudden, his belly reminded him he
was hungry. Opening up cupboards, he found a tin of tomato soup and
emptied the contents into a dish. He put it in the microwave to
heat and when it was done, grabbed a spoon from the drawer and sat
down at the table to eat.

The first mouthful had barely hit his tongue
when his phone began to ring. His pulse jumped. His thoughts flew
to Samantha. He hardly dared to look at the screen. When he did,
his heart plummeted with disappointment. It was his mother. He
thought about letting the call go through to voicemail and then
changed his mind. It wasn’t her fault his life had turned to
shit.

“Hi, Mom,” he said in the lightest tone he
could manage. He was met with silence. Frowning, he opened his
mouth to speak again and it was then that he heard the sob. Concern
immediately rushed to the fore.

“Mom? What is it? What’s the matter?”

“Oh, Rohan! It’s your father! He… He’s
asleep in the armchair. I can’t wake him up! I… I think he might be
dead!”

Rohan’s blood ran cold and fear clutched at
his heart. “Stay where you are and call an ambulance. I’m on my
way.” Tossing the bowl of soup down the drain, he snatched his
wallet and keys from the table and headed for the door.

Dinner would have to wait.

Rohan sped through the night with lights and
siren blaring and prayed desperately his dad was all right. For
months, he’d been worried about his mom and all along… He shook his
head, still in shock. Cursing at yet another red light, he eased
his way through the pack. It was at times like this he wished he
lived closer to his parents. With the heavy traffic, even with the
aid of the lights and siren, it would take him the best part of
half an hour to reach home.

He’d barely finished the thought when his
phone rang again. He checked the screen and tensed. “Hi, Mom, I’m
on my way. Just stay there and try and keep calm. Has the ambulance
arrived?”

“They’ve taken him away, Rohan! They’ve
taken him away!”

“Where, Mom? Where have they taken him?” He
held his breath and prayed that she wouldn’t say the morgue.

“To the Sutherland Hospital.”

“Okay. Where are you now?”

“I’m following them. They told me to
hurry.”

He sucked in a deep breath and blew it out
and tried to get his panic under control. “Drive carefully, Mom,
and watch where you’re going. I don’t want both of you in the
hospital.”

“I will, son.”

“I’ll meet you there as soon as I can. Have
you called any of the others?”

“No, there wasn’t time. I had to leave. I
had to follow your dad. They told me to hurry.” Her voice cracked
on the last word and Rohan’s gut tightened in agony. He stepped on
the gas and wove in and out of the traffic like the devil was on
his tail. He needed to call his brothers and sisters, but that
would have to wait. Most of them lived hours away, so it wasn’t
like they could get there anytime soon, even if this were really
serious.

Denial, fierce and hot, burned through him
and he wanted to howl out his pain. His father was fit as a fiddle,
in the prime of his life. He’d never had a day off sick. It wasn’t
fair that this had happened. It just wasn’t fair his father was now
fighting for his life.

How would his mother cope if his father was
no longer around? She relied on her husband for so many
things—things Rohan hadn’t even thought of. And then there was the
emotional hole her husband’s dying would leave in her heart. They’d
spent more years together than they had apart. He couldn’t begin to
imagine what it would be like to lose the love of your life.

He thought about the pain he felt after he’d
listened to the message from Samantha. It was like his heart had
been ripped out and they hadn’t even officially been together as a
couple in the world. He shuddered to think how much worse it would
be for his mother.

Forcing the terrible thoughts aside, he
concentrated hard on thinking positive. His father was obviously
still alive. Paramedics didn’t rush to the hospital with a corpse.
He had to believe his father would pull through and that his morbid
thoughts were simply an overreaction.

It was no surprise his mind was all over the
place. He’d started the morning in Samantha’s bed after a magical
night with her in his arms. All the while, he’d been weighed down
by the knowledge that it would likely be over between them before
the next day was out. He never imagined his father would fall ill,
once again turning Rohan’s life upside down.

Thinking of Samantha and how much she meant
to him made him yearn to give her a call. He desperately needed her
support and comfort for whatever lay ahead. He swung into the car
park of the Sutherland Hospital and quickly pulled to a stop.
Across the way, he saw an ambulance outside the Emergency
Department with its back doors wide open. He glanced around for his
mother’s car, but it was nowhere in sight. He took off at a
jog.

A moment later, he burst through the
automatic doors that opened up into the ED. His gaze fell on his
mother. She sat in a hard plastic chair hunched over with her head
in her hands. Her shoulders shook with the weight of her distress.
He made his way over to her and touched her gently on the arm. Her
head snapped up. When she saw him, she crumpled over again.

Sitting down beside her, he threw his arm
around her and gathered her to his side. Tears continued to pour
down her cheeks.

“Oh, Rohan! They won’t tell me what’s
happening! All I know is that he’s been taken away!”

“Where, Mom?”

“To the operating theater.”

“Did they tell you why?”

“No, but they mentioned something about a
bleed. I don’t know what’s going on! I don’t know if he’s dead or
alive! Nobody will tell me anything!”

She sobbed harder and Rohan did his best to
comfort her with murmured words. Inside, he was just as distraught.
Gently, he disengaged his arm from around her and propped her up
against the chair.

“I’m going to talk to one of the nurses,
Mom. I’ll find out what’s going on.”

She merely nodded, as if any other response
was beyond her. Torn between reluctance to leave her alone and
needing to obtain information, he slowly walked away. A nurse with
shiny blond hair and a kind smile acknowledged him as he walked up
to the counter.