Eenie, Meenie, Miney...

Startled, Hector made a move to jump up from his cot, but when he spotted the two detectives he gave a groan and sank back down feebly. Realizing he wasn't going to resist, Tess quickly stepped over to him and checked to see if he had any weapons on or near him. She found nothing. She glanced at Harry and gave a questioning gesture at the handcuffs, but he shook his head.

"What is it, Hector. What's wrong?" he asked in an almost kindly voice.

The young man looked up and they saw tears running down his cheeks. "She's killed me. She stuck poison in me and told me she wouldn't give me the antidote unless I did what she wanted. Don't you see, I had to do it. And then she lied to me - there wasn't any antidote. So now I'm going to die," he said piteously.

"I don't understand, Hector. What did she make you do?" Harry asked, his brow furrowed.

Hector looked at the two of them. "She made me kill her," he said, and began to cry.

"The guard at the prison told us you hated her," Tess said. "Is that why you shot her?"

"No, no," Hector moaned. "She made me do terrible things, things no man should have to do. I hated her for that, but I didn't want to kill her. I just wanted to get away from that place, get away from her. But she wouldn't let me go, and now she's killed me."

They took him downtown and interrogated him for a long time. They offered him an attorney but he declined. "I'm going to die anyway - what do I care?"

After a while Tess came out and went straight to the captain. "It's the wildest thing I've ever heard," she told him. "According to Hector, Rachel Madison controlled the prisoners out there with both the carrot and the stick. Some of them she offered hard drugs; others she threatened with lethal medical treatment."

The captain looked confused.

"Apparently a favorite tactic of hers to get them to behave was to threaten to give them poison when they were due for their flu shots or other meds," Tess explained.

"In Hector's case he had to see her every day to get his insulin injection. That gave her a powerful hold over him: she told him she could give him a lethal dose any time he didn't cooperate.

"Anyway, on the day Hector was to be released, after Rachel gave him his shot she told him that this time she'd added a slow-acting poison that would kill him in a week. She told him that if he did what she wanted, she'd give him the antidote; otherwise, he'd die a slow, painful death."

"And what she wanted was for him to kill her?" the captain asked incredulously. "Why would she do that?"

Tess shook her head. "That's where we have to rely on guesswork. From what her husband told us, Rachel had a very traumatic childhood. When her father ran off with another woman, Rachel's mother committed suicide and her sister became psychotic. When Rachel learned that her husband was about to abandon her for Cece Maddux, Rachel became convinced that she would go mad as well. Apparently, she preferred death to insanity.

"So Hector showed up at her house, and when she opened the door he pulled the trigger. Then he went through her purse, which was where she'd told him she'd leave the antidote. But of course it wasn't there. That's why we think he fired the other rounds into her body."

The captain was still disbelieving. "But if she wanted to die, why didn't she just kill herself? Why make up this elaborate charade to get Hector to do it for her?"

"Harry and I think she wanted revenge on all three people she held responsible. Think about it: if she'd taken her own life everyone would have written it off as a tragedy. Any accusations she might have made against Vince, Cece and Tom would probably have been dismissed as the ravings of a deeply depressed woman. But by setting it up the way she did, she created a situation where all three of them looked guilty as hell. She figured that the murder investigation would turn into a circus that would destroy all three of them."

The captain looked at her thoughtfully. "I see what you're saying, but I don't think there's any chance in hell you're going to get a jury to believe this. It just sounds too crazy, and the only proof you have is the ramblings of a convicted felon. And speaking of the felon, where is Hector now?"

Tess shook her head in disgust. "We've got a doctor running all kinds of tests on him. It's really sad, Captain. As best the doc can tell at this point, there's absolutely nothing wrong with him. He thinks there never was any poison. I guess that was her final revenge on the kid."

The captain looked at her sternly. "Unbelievable! Well, it's too bad, but as it stands now, unless you can find something more, the DA is going to indict that boy for first degree murder."

"But Captain . . ." she started, but he waved her off.

When Tess got back to her desk, Harry had just returned from the interrogation room. She walked up and stood over him, her arms folded.

"What?" he asked.

"Don't just sit there like a lump on a log, come on. We're not going to let them hang that stupid boy for what that crazy woman did to him!" she said angrily.

"So where are we going?" he asked in confusion.

"Back to the prison," she said.

He looked at her oddly. "What do you expect to find there?" he asked.

"I'll know it when I see it," she said determinedly.

This time the prison yard was empty. When they were admitted, the warden was surprised to see them again so soon. "Is there something else I can do for you, Detectives?" he asked politely.

Harry didn't have a clue, so he stared over at Tess. "We'd like to take a look around the infirmary where Nurse Madison worked," she said.

"I guess that would be okay. Just be sure not to disturb anything."

The infirmary was not very large, just a rectangular room containing an examining table and a couple of chairs as well as a small, padlocked refrigerator for medications. A nurse's desk sat in one corner, and behind it on the wall hung a medicine chest with a mirror. There was also a filing cabinet in the other corner beside a door to what appeared to be a closet. Both the closet and the filing cabinet were also locked.

"Should I get somebody to open those?" Harry asked, pointing at the locks.

Tess shook her head. "She wouldn't have left anything there - it's the first place anybody would look." Instead, she opened the desk and quickly flipped through the contents. Then she got down on her knees and carefully felt around for any hidden drawers or false bottoms.

When that proved fruitless she stood up, turned to the medicine chest and opened it. She spotted a few over-the-counter medications, some adhesive strips and, interestingly, some make-up. Tess looked at the latter curiously. "Pretty gaudy" was her evaluation. "I would have thought she'd go for a more subtle look."

She closed the medicine chest and looked around. Then she made a circuit of the room, pressing her fingers to the walls. Frustrated, she turned back to Harry, who'd been watching her with bemusement.

Suddenly, her eyes lit up. "When you're looking for drugs or other contraband in somebody's house, Harry, where's the first place you look?"

He got a puzzled look on his face, but gave her the answer she expected. "You look in the bedroom first. Perps usually like to keep their stash close at hand."

"Exactly," Tess said with a little smile on her face. She walked back to the desk and turned to the medicine chest. Grabbing both sides of it, she began to pull.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Harry cried out in alarm. "Don't wreck the place!"

Tess ignored him and gave another tug. With that, the entire medicine chest slid out of the wall, revealing a shallow cavity behind it. Tess peered inside. "Omigod, Harry," she breathed, "come take a look at this."

Inside was a whole range of illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia neatly lined up on shallow shelves. At first glance Harry spotted painkillers, marijuana, vials filled with what he suspected were cocaine and heroin, uppers and downers and more. But this cornucopia of narcotics wasn't what had caught Tess's attention. She pointed at a rectangular metal form held in place on the back of the medicine chest by a bracket.

"What is that?" Harry asked.

Tess carefully extracted the rectangle and opened the hinged top to reveal a tablet computer. "If I don't miss my guess," she said excitedly, "this is Rachel Madison's diary!"

The two detectives eagerly sat down at the desk. Tess propped the tablet open and began booting it up. When it came on, they saw folder after folder, each labeled with a different date. Curiously, Tess opened one of the earliest ones and then clicked on the file inside. She and Harry were startled when Rachel's face suddenly filled the screen. They saw the nurse talking about her job and her patients. None of it seemed noteworthy.

Tess halted the playback and jumped to a later date. This time Rachel reappeared, but her demeanor had changed and her tone was angry. "I won't have that kind of insolence from those boys," she said. "They're going to show a little respect to me." Then her face took on a strange little smile. "And I think I know how to make them do just what I want."

Tess tried another one, and this time Rachel seemed to be making an oral notation to herself. "Joey was really excited when I gave him the X today. Too bad I can't be a fly on the wall in his cell tonight to see what happens," she giggled.

Tess was about to try another, but Harry stopped her. "Find a more recent one," he demanded. When she clicked on one dated earlier in the current year, a different kind of scene popped up. The tablet must have been set up on the desk, and it was focused on the examining table. A young man lay face down on the table, bent over at the waist with his legs hanging down to the floor. When the figure raised its head, both detectives gasped. His face was made up to look like a girl, with garish red-painted lips, dark eye shadow and powdered cheeks.

Suddenly, Rachel Madison stepped into the frame. She was wearing some kind of leather harness that left her breasts exposed. But what really caught Tess's eye was the large dildo strapped around her waist. As she approached, she reached out to fondle the young man's bare ass. He flinched visibly.

"Come on, you know you want to," she said seductively.

"No, please don't, Nurse Madison. Please don't make me do that. I'll be good - I'll do anything else you want," the man pleaded, and Harry gasped. "That's Hector Hernandez's voice!"

Rachel's voice turned icy. "If you don't hold still and cooperate, Hector, you know what will happen. Your next insulin shot will be your last, I promise you."

The frightened boy slumped on the examining table, all resistance gone. Rachel rubbed what looked like petroleum jelly on the dildo and took a step toward the boy, who began to whimper.

"I can't watch this," Harry said, suddenly stopping the video. Tess also had a sick look on her face, but she nevertheless continued to check through the jumble of computer folders. "I'm looking for one from last week," she told Harry. He nodded and watched.

"Here's last Wednesday," Tess exclaimed, and when she clicked on the file they saw what looked to be a living room. "That looks like the Madison home," Harry said in a whisper. They expected to see Rachel, but both were startled when she suddenly popped into view. Her face was wild and her eyes kept darting in all directions. She began screaming at the camera, and Tess hurried to lower the volume. The woman was raving, almost incoherent.

"I knew something like this would happen to me, just like it did to my mother, just like to Megan. That sonuvabitch is going to leave me. Oh, God, I can't wind up like Megan, I couldn't bear it. I'll kill myself before I let that happen. But I can't let my 'loving husband' and that slut Cece Maddux get away with this. They've got to be punished for their sins - and Cece's useless husband as well. He should have stopped them before anything happened.

"I know I'm going crazy, I can feel my mind slipping away. I won't live like this, I can't, I can't! But I think there's a way to pay them back before I end things. They're going to suffer for killing me. I can use the Hernandez boy to help me. I know he hates me - he'd be glad to kill me. And if I do it right, the blame will fall on those three - then they'll be the ones to suffer. I'll make Hector suffer too - he deserves it!"

The file ended abruptly, and a shaken Tess quickly opened the last entry. Surprisingly, this time Rachel seemed calmer. "It's all set up. You should have seen the hate on Hector's face this morning - I thought for a second he was going to kill me on the spot. But I warned him that if he did he'd never find the antidote, and he caved in like he always does. Now it's just a matter of time."

She gave an odd smile. "I gave him Cece's gun. It was easy to steal it - that stupid husband of hers didn't even lock the side door of his house when he left for work yesterday. Now all the pieces are in place. All that's left is to confront the three of them when Cece and Vince get back. They'll probably head to Cece's house first; I'll go over there and wait until they turn up. Then I'll be almost done."

Suddenly a distraught look came over Rachel's face and her voice changed in tone. "Momma, I'll see you real soon. I don't know exactly when - I don't want to know - but then it'll all be over and we won't have to be apart ever again. I miss you, Momma, I've missed you for so long."

Harry and Tess had to wait until the crime scene team finished in the infirmary before they could leave. On the drive home both of them were silent most of the way. Finally, Harry looked over at his partner. "You know, the ironic thing about all this was that Rachel spent her life deathly afraid she'd go crazy like her sister Megan. But the truth is she was already crazy - she just didn't know it."

Harry and Tess

Two weeks later, Tess was just finishing her make-up when her doorbell rang. When she opened the door, Harry was standing there wearing his best suit and clutching a bouquet of flowers. "Oh how nice, Harry," Tess exclaimed. "You didn't have to do that."

"Don't ever let it be said that Harry Bridgewater doesn't pay his debts," he said grandly. "I owe you a dinner, and by God it's gonna be a nice one."

"Actually," she said, "I feel a little guilty about this. If you hadn't hauled my ass out to the prison, we'd never have cracked the case."

"Maybe not," Harry said, "but if you hadn't found that hidden compartment behind the mirror, nobody would have believed us. Anyway, the husband didn't do it, so I'm paying up. Now quit yapping and let's get going before we lose our place."

Harry had made reservations at the best restaurant he could afford, and the two detectives enjoyed a good meal accompanied by a decent wine. They chatted for awhile about precinct gossip, but then Tess's face grew serious.

"I meant to tell you: Cece Maddux called me. She wanted to make sure it was alright for her to leave town."

Harry looked at her curiously. "Where's she going?"

"She's going home to live with her parents till she can get her life back together. She's resigned her teaching position here, and she and Tom are getting a divorce."

"Is Vince going with her?" he asked.

"Nope. After all the pain they caused she said she felt too guilty to stay together with him. She told me he's resigned as well and is moving out west, looking to start fresh. The full story about him and Cece never came out, but there was enough speculation that he decided it was better for him to resign before he was asked to leave."

"So what happens to Tom now?"

"He left town three days ago, and Cece hasn't heard a word from him. I guess the gossip flying around was just too much for him to take either."

Harry shook his head. "You know, even though we broke the case, in a way Rachel still got her revenge. Her scheme didn't work out the way she planned, but all three of those lives got messed up pretty badly." Then his expression brightened. "Did you hear about Hector?"

"No, what's happening with him?"

Harry chuckled. "The DA's office doesn't know what to do with his case. Murder one is off the table after they saw Rachel's video diary; now they're not sure they can even get a conviction for manslaughter." He laughed. "Before it's all over, the only charge he may face is four counts of discharging a firearm within the city limits."

"Good," Tess said. "I really feel sorry for the kid. He's no model citizen, but he didn't deserve to be treated the way she did."

Harry nodded. Then he noticed her empty plate and asked, "Hey, you want some dessert? I hear they got tiramisu to die for here."

She gave him a look like a mother scolding an errant child. "You gotta watch your calories, Harry. I told you about that before."

He gave her an exasperated look. "Why do you always have to be on me about my weight?"

"Because if something happens to you, where am I gonna find somebody else who'd put up with a bossy dame like me?" she asked with a wry smile.

Harry chuckled, but after a moment he got a pensive look on his face. "You know, this case really affected me. It's a strange thing: all four of those people lived like they were leaves that fell into a stream. They just drifted along and let the current take them wherever it would. Then one day they found themselves washed up on the shore in a place they didn't like, and they didn't even know how it happened."

Tess looked at Harry sharply. "You're not usually this philosophical, Harry. Is everything alright?"

"You don't agree with me?" he asked.

"No, no, I see what you mean," she said, not at all certain that she did.

"The thing is, you and me are sorta doing the same thing, Tess, just floating along, letting life take us wherever it wants," he mused.

Tess was alarmed. "You sure you're okay, Harry? You don't have cancer or something, do you?"

He shook his head in exasperation. "No, no, nothing like that. It's just that I don't wanna drift all my life, don'tcha see?"

With that he got out of his chair and awkwardly knelt on the carpet beside her chair. "Harry!" she exclaimed, "What in the world are you doing?"

"You stupid broad, I'm trying to ask you to marry me!"

As she gaped at him in astonishment, he reached into his pocket and clumsily pulled out a cubicle box which he opened to reveal a small diamond ring. "It ain't much, but I hope it'll do," he said.

Tess stared at him for a moment. Then she slid out of her chair and, struggling with her dress, got down on her knees in front of him. "If you're going to get down on your knees, Harry Bridgewater, I'm going to come down to your level," she said firmly. "And yes, heaven help me, I will marry you." With that she grabbed his face and kissed him, and the other patrons in the restaurant broke into cheers and applause.