The Perfect Show (A Jessie Hunt Psychological Suspense Thriller—Book Thirty-Three)

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Hannah knew this was a bad idea.

But even as she stepped out of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center elevator to the fifth floor, she also knew that she wasn”t going to turn back. She”d promised Kat that she would help her, and that was exactly what she intended to do.

Of course yesterday evening, when she’d started reviewing all the research material that Kat had collected on Ash Pierce, she hadn’t anticipated that it would end up with her being on the same hospital floor where Pierce was being held. But as the hours wore on, she couldn’t tear herself away.

Kat had compiled a detailed record of the claims Ash Pierce had made over the last month regarding her memory loss. In addition, she pulled dozens of medical research articles on amnesia, with a focus on patients whose memory loss occurred after experiencing a coma, as Pierce asserted hers had.

While the studies had a wide variance in conclusions, few of them found examples of what Pierce was claiming: that she had lost her memory of the entire time from just prior to the coma all the way back to her life as a Marines Special Operations element leader, and then as a CIA assassin, covertly targeting foreign adversaries. Conveniently, her recall excluded her later work as a hired hitwoman, which included the assignment to torture and kill both Hannah and Kat.

In the end, while Hannah was extremely dubious about Pierce’s credibility, she didn’t feel confident enough to dismiss her claims outright. She decided that an in-person visit was required. Of course, she hadn’t mentioned that in her chat with her sister this morning. Jessie would not have approved.

Though Hannah wasn’t entirely sure what her plan was, she knew her ultimate goal. She would get in to see Pierce so that she could look her in the eye, speak with her, and make some determination about whether this whole thing was real or fake.

But now, as she walked down the hospital corridor toward the secure unit where Pierce was being held, she found herself surprised. She was feeling something that was so rare as to be alien to her: nerves, along with a bit of fear.

The last two times she’d been face-to-face with the hitwoman hadn’t gone swimmingly. Last summer, she’d raced to the desert just in time to save Kat, who had been duped and tortured by Pierce. The assassin had underestimated Hannah, and she’d managed to knock her adversary out with a police baton. It took everything in her power not to keep slamming the woman’s head with it until it became a pulpy mess.

Their most recent interaction, in the basement boiler room of this hospital, came after Hannah had to hide in a safe house after Pierce escaped from custody. Ultimately, Hannah got the upper hand in that encounter too, stabbing the killer in the neck with her own knife, which directly led to Pierce’s coma.

The combination of experiences had led to what Hannah imagined a soldier’s PTSD might be like, as just the thought of being in such proximity to Pierce was making her sweat and her heart palpitate wildly. But as she approached the checkpoint to the secure unit, where a guard was watching her closely, she took note of something else mixed in with her nerves and fear. At first she thought it was pure anger over what she’d been put through, but then she identified another emotion: anticipation.

She was looking forward to confronting the woman who had upended her life, and almost ended it. She wanted to face her down. She wanted to provide some payback. As she walked, she felt that old, familiar bloodlust licking at her heels.

“Can I help you?” the guard asked when she arrived at the checkpoint, which included a metal detector.

“Yes,” she said, adopting the persona of a teenager, which she technically was, who was nervous to even be here. “I’m meeting nurse Jenny Callahan. She told me to be here at ten.”

“What’s the purpose of your visit?” the paunchy, thirty-something guard wanted to know, his mustache twitching slightly.

Hannah noticed that he’d done a rushed job of shaving, missing several small patches. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was perspiring slightly in his uniform. She suspected that he’d had a late, boozy night and was now suffering the consequences. She decided to use that to her advantage.

“Yeah,” she said, switching into her most annoying, Instagirl mode, her words tumbling out her mouth fast and furious “so Jenny’s a friend of my older sister’s and when she heard that I was interested in nursing school, she said I should come by and she’d show me what it was like to be at the nurses’ station. But I’ve been in school all this time and I’m only just now finally on winter break and I can’t come in after Christmas, so this was the only day that would work. But she said she was working in the secure unit so there wouldn’t be much I could see on the ward, but I said ‘anything is better than nothing, girl.’ So she said come on down, which is why I’m h—.”

“Enough,” the guard said irritably, waving his arm to shut her up. “Just put your personal items in the bin and walk through the metal detector.”

She did as he asked, moving quickly so he wouldn’t change his mind. Once she was through and collected her items, she added one last nugget for his benefit.

“Do you want to be in the TikTok I’m doing for my class at school?” she asked. “I could totally interview you.”

“No videos are permitted in this unit,” he said, sounding exhausted to still be speaking with her.

“Got it,” she said perkily, noting that despite his obvious distaste for her, he was eyeing her lasciviously as she shoved her phone in her back pocket. She’d use that later if needed.

But for now, she hurried down the hall toward the nurses’ station, where she encountered the woman she assumed was Jenny. In truth, she had never actually met the nurse and only knew her from Kat’s description. But as soon as she saw the blonde twenty-something with the hot pink sneakers, she knew she was in the right place.

“Jenny?” she asked cautiously as she reached the counter.

“You must be Hannah,” the woman said with a warm smile. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” Hannah replied, “although if that guard out front asks, you’re friends with my sister and I asked to visit because of a college project.”

“He won’t ask,” Jenny assured her. “Ernie only does enough work to stay employed. By asking you anything at all, he’s already exceeded his typical security efforts for the day. That won’t be the case with the folks who actually watch Pierce though.”

“Right,” Hannah said, glad that Jenny seemed intent on getting down to business. “So what exactly am I dealing with here?”

“Before I answer that,” Jenny said, looking hesitant for the first time, “what exactly are you trying to accomplish here? Kat used to come to observe Pierce before that became a no-no. The only reason I agreed to let you come is because I felt so bad about what happened with her fiancé. I just couldn’t tell her ‘no,’ point blank. But this is my job, and even with Kat blessing you, I can’t just let you walk in there if you’re planning something dramatic. I could get fired.”

Hannah had been hoping to just wing this whole thing, but now that she was being asked a direct question by someone’s whose employment was at stake, she felt an obligation to give an honest answer.

“Truthfully, I’m not a hundred percent sure,” she admitted. “I’ve looked over all the studies that Kat compiled on amnesia, and I was hoping that if I could get up close and personal with Pierce, I might be able to tell if she’s legit or full of crap.”

“Good luck with that,” Jenny said cynically. “I’ve been caring for her for weeks now and I still can’t tell.”

“You don’t have a gut feeling?” Hannah asked.

“Sure I do,” Jenny replied. “I think she’s totally full of it, that she’s working everyone to create doubt because she knows what’s facing her. The longer she can make people question if she’s still the same person who murdered all those people, the better chance she has of finding a way out. That’s what I suspect, but have I seen anything that would definitely prove that? No, not a thing.”

“Well, I may have one advantage over you in that department.”

“What’s that?” Jenny asked.

“This woman tried to kill me—twice. I’ve looked in her eyes when she tried to do it. I know the real her. And if anyone is going to make her let down her guard, even for a moment, it’s me.”

She neglected to include the little detail that in both those encounters, Hannah had ended up almost killing Pierce.

“Jesus,” Jenny muttered. “I didn’t realize that you were that Hannah, as in Hannah Dorsey. I just thought you were someone who worked with Kat at her detective agency. I’m starting to have second thoughts about letting you go in. It’s almost malpractice for me to let you get in close proximity to someone you have this kind of history with.”

Hannah shook her head vigorously.

“But that’s the whole point, Jenny,” she insisted. “If we’re going to shake her out of her comfort zone, it’s by making her face someone she has history with. It’s the only way to know if she’s credible.”

“I don’t think she’d even talk to you,” Jenny said skeptically.

“Why not?” Hannah asked, coming to a startling epiphany as she posed the question. “If she’s really forgotten everything, then she’d have no reason to say no to talking with me. I’m just some girl. And if this is all a ruse, she’d betray that by refusing to see me. After all, it’d look awfully suspicious to refuse to talk to some teenage girl you have no personal history with. Either way, her response will be revealing. That alone is enough of a reason to try.”

Jenny’s skepticism had clearly subsided. In fact, she now looked as committed to the mission as Hannah was.

”In that case, however, this goes, you”re going to need more than just your personal recollection of the encounter. Telling people that she coughed or blinked or something when she saw you won”t be convincing, considering that you”re not exactly objective.”

“What do you propose, Jenny?” Hannah asked, intrigued.

The nurse glanced around, making sure no one else was in hearing distance.

”There”s a video surveillance system,” Jenny whispered. ”The security team uses it for observation when there”s no one else in the room with Pierce, as a safety precaution to make sure she”s not secretly trying to escape her restraints. The system is normally just in ”monitor” mode, but it does have a ”record” function, which isn”t typically used. But when you head that way, I could activate it. However, she responds, you”ll have a record of it.”

Nurse Jenny,” Hannah said, unable to hide her excitement, “you are an unexpected delight. Let’s absolutely do that.”

“Okay,” the nurse said, her tone more grave. “Just make sure you don’t waste the opportunity. I doubt you’ll get another chance at this.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” Hannah promised.

“She is in room 522,” Jenny told her. “The officer in charge is named Gaston. Tell him the same story you told Ernie. That’ll get you close. The rest is up to you.”

Hannah nodded, then turned in the direction of the room. As she rounded a corner and saw the contingent of officers outside Pierce’s door, her heart started pounding again. This was it—potentially her one and only opportunity to find out if Ash Pierce was on the level. She couldn’t blow it.