Busted by Karin Slaughter Read Free Book Online Page B

cauterize and disinfect the wound. A low-velocity shot opened up the body to all kinds of infection.
    Amanda said, “He wasn’t in the best of health to begin with. Brittle diabetic, pack-a-day smoker, high blood pressure, overweight, and then there’s the melanoma he’sbeen fighting for the last four years.” She stopped outside a closed door where a GBI agent stood guard. “He knows he’s going to die without treatment. Let’s pray he wants to unburden his soul.”
    Faith started to go in, but Amanda stopped her.
    “Mr. Walker has made it clear he’s not going to waste the last few hours of his life explaining himself to a woman.”
    At least Will finally understood why Amanda had let him come to the hospital. He pushed open the door. Sunlight flooded the room, probably some doctor’s or nurse’s attempt to bring in some UV rays and kill the infection.
    And there was no mistaking that an infection was raging inside Wayne Walker’s body. The blankets covering him were soaked through. He shivered like a parody of someone who was freezing to death. His teeth chattered. What was left of his hair was stuck to his head like pieces of moldy straw. His eyes were wide with panic. Sweat dripped down his face, pooled under his chin. He looked exactly like what he was: a man who was in the process of dying.
    Still, Will took his time. Under Walker’s watchful gaze, he dragged over a chair, letting the legs scrape the floor. Will stopped a few feet from the bed. He tried to keep his expression passive. In Will’s experience, deathbed confessions weren’t all they were cracked up to be. On the one hand, there were the people who held out a tiny sliver of hope that a miracle would occur. On the other were the people like Wayne Walker, who seemed ready to not only embrace death but give it a big, wet kiss.
    Will sat down in the chair.
    “You.” Walker’s teeth clicked around the word. He blinked rapidly, like he wasafraid to close his eyes too long. “You’re a cop.”
    Will guessed Wayne Walker had seen a lot sitting in that truck outside the convenience store. “That was a good shot,” he told Walker. “Taking out Pierce like that. Right through the center of the head.” Will didn’t have to work to sound impressed. Walker was some kind of marksman. “I don’t know a lot of cops who could make that shot.”
    Walker didn’t respond. He just lay there shaking like a paint mixer. The pain must’ve been excruciating. Will could make out the cast covering his entire lower half. Both arms had been broken. Pins and bolts stuck out of the casts, which were frozen in a permanent Hammertime. His neck and face had been belt-sanded by a motorcycle tire. The shattered ribs alone must’ve been torturous. Will had broken his share of ribs. Just breathing could cause a knifelike stab to your lungs. Every movement put you in deeper agony.
    Will said, “You know you’re going to die if you don’t let the doctors give you treatment.”
    Walker’s shoulder jerked up, which Will guessed was voluntary. “Rather die than go to jail.”
    Will had heard these words before, but he’d rarely met someone who was ready to go through with it. “You got Doug-Ray Pierce the job at Spivey.”
    Walker’s mouth worked, but it took a few seconds for him to make words. “Worthless cocksucker.”
    Will could see why people called this man an asshole. “He must’ve been your friend at some point.”
    “Fuck him. He was—” Walker was racked by a violent shudder. He called out from the pain. “Oh, God!”
    Will knew he should feel some kind of compassion. The man was a killer, but he was a human being in pain. Still, there was something so pervasively off-putting about the guy that all Will could do was sit back in the chair and wait for the episode to pass.
    Walker clenched his jaw to stop his teeth from chattering. Will thought he was going to keep up the silence, but he hissed out, “It was Billie.”
    So, the teenager was at