The Chemistry of Death

Chapter 44

The sun beat against Joe’s closed eyelids. He shuddered in the warmth. His heart raced so fast he knew he would die. His heart would explode soon.

He tried to raise his hand to shield himself from the light, but his arm was attached to something. He lifted the other arm and pressed it tightly against his face. The red light on his eyelids gave way to green and then black. The darkness brought him back. In the darkness he could think.

His immobile hand ached, and a dull pain pressed against his wrist. His ankle throbbed, too, and his head. His body was a catalog of pain.

He struggled through the pain, grasping at something in his memory, but his thoughts were gray and shapeless. His mind felt heavy with sadness and despair. That must have been from the drug that Leandro had given him. He must fight against those effects. He moved his injured ankle. The sharpness of the pain made him nauseous, but after riding it out, his head cleared.

With his eyes closed, he took stock of his body. His right wrist was bound to the wheelchair, and his hand ached. His ankle was broken, still encased in its warm cast. His head throbbed with each heartbeat. His mind felt pixelated and out of focus, as if it had been taken apart and jammed back together by an angry toddler, but at least he could move again.

The air smelled of flowers and bleach like a hospital, not like a subway tunnel or the fume-laden air of New York City. He must be indoors. He would have expected Leandro to kill him underground in the tunnels where the women had died, but this didn’t smell right.

He accepted his body’s distress and began to listen. A distant hum of traffic, New York’s pulse, underlay the stillness. A faraway motor kicked in with a rumble, and a wisp of warm air touched his face. A heater had turned on. He was definitely inside.

A low murmur came from somewhere nearby, then a tinkling laugh, as familiar as his own heartbeat. Before, that sound had always made him smile, but now it filled him with dread. It came again.

Celeste’s laugh.