Return of the Reaper novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Brewery

The Gaslight Brewery stood at the end of Perry Street, a block of black brick with its windows boarded up on the first two floors.

Noelle parked her gray Honda wagon at the loading dock at 1:58 and left the engine running for a second.

"Are you in?" she asked, without turning.

"I'm in," Doyle said from under a mound of folded sheets.

The laundry cart was a blue canvas bin on wheels in the cargo space.

He lay curled in it with his knees to his chest and his stitches pulling.

Noelle got out, opened the tailgate, and rolled the cart onto the dock herself.

A guard in a black coat stood under a bare bulb.

He looked at her badge, at the cart, and at his watch.

"You're early, Nurse."

"The kid's been coughing for hours. I'd rather be early than wake up the whole building."

"Boss said bring the kit."

She lifted the red pediatric bag from the cart's top shelf and held it up.

He waved her through.

The elevator was a steel freight car with a gate door that rattled.

Doyle lay in the dark under the sheets and counted floors by the sound of the cables.

One.

Two.

Three.

The gate slid open on a long hallway that smelled of old hops and bleach.

"Cooper's room," a second guard said, jerking his chin. "End of the hall."

Noelle pushed the cart past him with a steady hand.

Doyle felt every crack in the floor through the wheels.

A door opened and light fell across the sheets.

Then he heard it.

A small, hoarse cough, and a voice he'd have known through a wall of concrete.

"Are you the doctor?"

Doyle bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood.

"A nurse," Noelle said. Her voice was perfectly warm. "My name is Noelle. Can I look at your throat?"

"I have a cough."

"I heard. Open wide."

The cart stopped moving.

Doyle heard the click of a penlight and a long, patient "ahh."

A guard shifted by the door.

"You got ten minutes," he said. "Then the boss wants her asleep."

"Fine. I need clean sheets for the cot. Leave the cart by the wall, please."

The wheels rolled once more and settled with a bump against plaster.

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