DIAGNOSIS: ATTRACTION by REBECCA YORK Page B

go to work. At least that’s what she’d told Elizabeth, who hoped the nurse hadn’t made special arrangements to stay home and watch over her.
    * * *
    S O FAR SO GOOD , Derek Lang decided. Hank Patterson, who had posed as Jack Regan, returned with valuable information.
    “Elizabeth Forester is staying with a nurse who was on duty yesterday.”
    Derek swung to his computer and consulted one of the many databases he had access to.
    He quickly came up with the personnel files of Memorial Hospital and found out who was on the nursing staff. Next he used a hacker program to get into the hospital work schedules and was able to zero in on the medical unit that had treated Forester.
    A few moments later, he looked up from the computer. “There were three nurses on duty in her area. We know it’s not the Price woman. That leaves two others.” He gave Patterson the names. “You and Southwell check them out.”
    When Patterson had gone, Derek went back to the computer. It might be good to know what doctors had been on duty, too.
    * * *
    E LIZABETH FOUND P OLLY folding laundry in the bedroom.
    “I’m going to be out back, doing some yard work.”
    “You don’t have to do anything like that.”
    “I want to.”
    “All right, dear.”
    “Do you have some gardening gloves?”
    “In the shed.”
    Elizabeth took a plastic grocery bag from the kitchen. She could stuff weeds inside it and then periodically empty the bag at the side of the shed. And then she could ask Polly what she wanted done with the mess.
    She slipped out the back and stood on the cracked concrete patio for a moment before crossing to the shed. As soon as she stepped inside, she started thinking about what she and Matthew had been doing in here last night.
    Banishing that intimate scene from her mind, she located the gloves, exited the shed and looked around. The garden had been laid out with several flower beds, although it seemed that Polly had lost interest in keeping the place up. But really, it could look much better. Elizabeth crossed to the far right corner, got down on her knees and began pulling at the various weeds that had taken over. She didn’t know the names of them, but she knew which were the plants that were choking out the flowers.
    She’d been working for a half hour when the back door opened. Expecting to see Polly, she looked up. Instead of the nurse, a man was standing in the doorway staring at her. A man with a gun that had a strangely long barrel.
    She gasped.
    He gave her a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Let’s go.”
    “No.”
    “You want me to shoot you here?” he asked.
    She raised her chin. “You won’t. You want information from me.”
    His face registered surprise and annoyance. “Yeah, but what if I shoot you in the kneecap?”
    “Are you going to risk it?”

Chapter Six
    Elizabeth was shocked at her own audacity, yet in the back of her mind, she had been expecting something like this all along. Men had been chasing her, and she’d been sure they were looking for her. Now she wasn’t really surprised that one of them had caught up with her. They’d been desperate to find her, and it had been bound to happen.
    A horrible thought struck her. The man had come through the house, and Polly had been in there. Had she hidden from him, or had he found her? And what had he done to her?
    She clenched her teeth, holding back the questions. Perhaps he hadn’t seen Polly and she’d gotten to the phone to call 9-1-1.
    Stalling for time, she said, “What if I still don’t know who I am?”
    “We’ll find out if you’re telling the truth.”
    The light behind the man changed, and she saw another figure standing there. Was it the other man who’d been chasing her in the car? Then he shifted to the right, and she saw it was Matthew Delano.
    Her heart leaped—with relief and fear. Matthew had arrived, but what good was that going to do either one of them against a man with a gun?
    She tried not to look directly at