I've Died Here Before novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Hospital Coffee

I crossed the waiting room faster than Holden could catch my sleeve.

"Take those out of here," I said.

Dean turned with the lilies in his arms and the same polite smile.

"Miss Whitlow. I was just telling the desk, I heard about your friend."

"You heard about my friend because your van put her on the pavement."

Every head in the waiting room came up.

A man with an ice pack on his knee stopped talking mid-word.

"I'm sorry?" said Dean.

"The man you paid is on my phone, and so is the van he drove."

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"I filmed you."

"Addie," Holden said, behind me, low.

"I filmed all of it. I filmed you saying lots of people go into the river at parties."

A police officer by the vending machines lifted his head.

Dean's smile held for another second.

Then it went out.

"A video of a man making conversation," he said, softly, so only I could hear. "That's all it is. You'll learn how that works."

"Officer?" I called.

The officer walked over, thumbs hooked in his belt.

"Ma'am?"

"I need to report a hit-and-run. And I have a video of the man who arranged it."

Dean set the lilies down on the nearest chair.

He did it slowly and carefully.

"I was at the Hotel Courtland with my sister all afternoon," he said to the officer. "Ask anyone at the tea service."

"You left the tea service at three twenty," I said. "I watched you go."

"I walked to the garage to meet a friend."

"Which friend?"

"Ma'am, one at a time," said the officer.

I put my phone in the officer's hand and pressed play.

The whole waiting room leaned in.

Keep reading free with an account. Start I've Died Here Before from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.