“Brian, you should lose your job for nearly killing people,” Sloan said.
“But I didn’t mean to! Hey, Sloan, I’m a good guy. Really. Sure, I wanted to look for the gold. That’s all anyone talks about now. But I never—I swear I never meant to hurt anyone.”
Jennie came into the hall then and confronted Brian, her face twisted in a mask of fury. She pointed a finger at him. “You tried to get in before. There was another nurse in here and she sent you to tend to another patient. God help that patient! How could you, Brian? How could you?”
“Jennie, please, believe me! I came to beg your forgiveness!”
Sloan was relieved to hear the sound of a siren. “Jennie, go back to bed. Brian, move!”
He prodded Brian to the front, pulling him through reception where stares and whispers followed his every move.
As he drew Brian outside with him, he was surprised to see Betty getting out of the car.
“Hey, what are you doing here? I told you to send Lamont or Chet.”
“Lamont was breaking up a bar fight and Chet was dealing with some kid who was higher than a kite. He’ll probably be in here in a few minutes. Talked to Scotty and he was on his way in. It sounded urgent when I talked to you,” Betty said.
Sloan nodded. “Betty, get him back to our offices, put him in lockup, make sure he’s secure. And stay there. Scotty will be manning the office alone, since the other night guys will be back in town. It won’t be that long. I’ll be back as soon as I’ve gotten the Hough family and Jennie calmed down enough for me to leave.”
“If he calls an attorney—” Betty began.
“I don’t care if he calls in all the gods on Olympus, I can have him for twenty-four hours and I want him there when I get in,” Sloan told her.
“I’ve got it, Sloan. But...Brian? Brian Highsmith? What the hell were you doing, young man? And to think I enjoyed your performances!”
Brian groaned. “Yes, I knocked Jennie out by mistake. Okay, and the agent. But I didn’t kill anybody. Honest to God, I’m not a killer! I just thought I’d look for gold, too. I mean, I hear so much about it!”
“Betty, get him out of here,” Sloan said, irritated. Betty took Brian by the arm. “Wait!” Sloan said, accosting Brian head-on. “What about the bones? The skull? Did you put the skull on the wig stand?”
Brian turned red and pursed his lips, nodding. “Sheriff, I...found the trapdoor, the body. I should have reported it, but... I set up the skull. You weren’t supposed to come. When Valerie screamed, I was supposed to save her. I was just trying to get lai—” He broke off, looking at Betty. “I was trying to make Valerie see me more as a date than a coworker. The woman in the floor had been dead forever. Yeah, I figured it might be Sage McCormick. Sheriff, I know she was...that you’re like her great-great-whatever grandson, but come on, she’d been dead for years. More than a century. I didn’t kill anyone, I swear it.”
“You never went near Caleb Hough? Or his wife or son?”
“Never! I’m here because I had to try to tell Jennie I’m sorry!”
“In a nurse’s uniform—dressed up as a woman?”
“I am an actor!” Brian reminded him with wounded dignity.
“Whether you did or didn’t hurt anyone else, you almost killed Jennie and you assaulted Agent Everett. You’re in it deep, Brian, and when I get back, you’re going to tell me everything—step by step. Betty, get him out of here!”
He watched while Betty put Brian Highsmith in the backseat of her patrol car. Then, trying to get a grip on his anger, he walked back into the hospital. He called Newsome and told him what had happened, then called Logan to give him the latest and was glad to hear that Logan was nearly at the hospital. As soon as he’d finished that conversation, he phoned Jane.
“So that’s it?” she asked. “Brian—Brian Highsmith—knocked me out and put Jennie in a coma. And he claims he didn’t want to hurt anyone?”
“That’s his story.”
“And he started the whole thing by putting Sage McCormick’s skull on the wig stand?”
“He said he was trying to scare Valerie into sleeping with him when he became the hero who saved her. Apparently, I ruined that by showing up.”
“What about Jay Berman—and the corpse in the desert? Do you think Brian killed Caleb Hough?”
“He denies it—but as he just reminded me, he is an actor.”
“Well, there’s also the fact that two people went into the Hough house and attacked Jimmy and Zoe Hough,” Jane said.
“I’m going to talk to Jennie and the Hough family—calm them down, calm myself down.” He sighed. “I was pretty sure that Jennie was being paranoid. Once Logan gets here I’ll go back to talk to Brian.”