Thank goodness the stairs were carpeted, as I’d forgotten to shove on my clogs and hated walking barefoot. At the bottom of the stairs, I stopped at the end table and noticed myself in the mirror.

Raccoon eyes. Smudged mascara. Great. Did I look like this last night when…? Naw. Besides, it was dark. Still, I couldn’t go to work like this, so I reached into my bag for a tissue. Stella Sokol would be shaking her head right now. No tissue. Here I’d broken one of her golden bring-a-tissue, go-to-the-bathroom, and make-sure-to-wear-clean-underwear rules.

I chuckled, as I’d often wondered if the ER staff really cared or noticed anyone’s clean undies. Still in the afterglow of last night, I walked much lighter, nearly prancing, and headed into the bathroom. No tissues there either. Apparently ER Dano’s mom did not practice the same words of wisdom as Stella Sokol.

Laughing, I walked into the kitchen to look around, as there wasn’t even toilet tissue in the bathroom. Despite the Victorian setting, this was still a guy’s house. On the counter was a tissue box-empty.

“Damn.” There might be some in the cabinet above, so I opened it-to a pile of papers that cascaded out at me.

I shook my head and started to grab them to shove back in when the words caught my eye. TLC. Overcharge. Carry deceased. The fake list of EMT and paramedic’s names were listed as receiving cash from the undertakers, and no real names were given.

My eyes blurred. I didn’t need to read any further.

ER Dano had the papers that proved the fraud at Tender Loving Care Land and Air so nonchalantly piled up in his kitchen cabinet-as if he didn’t give a care in the world about them.

Dano was involved in the fraud.

After my “find” at ER Dano’s house, and knowing he was physically all right-after he insisted as much-I had showered, dressed and headed off to work, where the first thing I did, even before my morning tea, was to seek out Jagger. I found him sipping his coffee in the parking lot.

Jagger leaned back on the hood of his SUV. When I told him about my discovery and that I had been there to nurse Dano, he said, “Interesting.”

“Interesting? That’s all you’ve got? Interesting?” I leaned against the fender, as my lack of sleep was already taking a toll on me. “Come on, Jagger. Obviously ER Dano is involved. He was hiding evidence in his kitchen cabinets!” And damn, how I hated that. I mean the sex was great (great!) and I really cared for him-however, those words would never pass my lips to Jagger’s ears.

“If you talk a bit louder, all the employees will be able to hear,” he said.

I curled my lips. “I’m just so pissed.” I was really pissed at fate. Here I find a hot guy I liked, who seemed to like me, and he’s a criminal. I looked up to the clouds and shook my head. Saint Theresa must have been very busy last night and my “needs” didn’t qualify for prayer answering.

Jagger said, “Look, you don’t have any proof of why they were there. We need that.”

I bit my lips. “Are you saying you don’t think Dano is guilty? That he’s not covering up the fraud?” Please. Please say it because I believe whatever you say since it’s always true.

But Jagger merely responded, “I’m saying we need proof. Can’t close a case on assumptions. Right ones or wrong ones.” He looked past me. “Here he comes now. You’ll need to get into his house again tonight and find out more. I’ll go with you.”

“No!” I said way too loudly. He glared at me. “No need. I can handle Dano. You maybe should go see if Pansy’s any more alert.”

Suddenly I wished I could have swallowed those words.

Had I really just given Jagger an assignment? An order? Or something close to being an order?

Yikes!

He looked at me, got up off the car and walked away.

I watched his butt moving from side to side as he swaggered off, and I didn’t even get hot. Okay, I did get a wee bit warm.

I had way too much on my mind between fraud and getting back to ER Dano’s house, where who knew what would happen…again.

I hoped to hell that I wouldn’t get hot at some inopportune time.

Heading for the entrance I wondered if Jagger had agreed to my “order,” or would he show up tonight?

Dano smiled at me as we poured ourselves the usual morning drinks. The tea bags at TLC always tasted a bit stale, but I chalked that up to cheap management.

“Any word on Pansy?” I asked Dano.

He shook his head and winced.

“You shouldn’t move like that.” I sipped my tea and then I winced. Really stale.

“Damn it. I’m fine. Just the external shit hurts when I move too much. No mental problems, Nightingale.” He leaned closer. “But thanks for last night,” he said way too loudly.

Everyone in the room gave a collective stare!

I muttered, “Last night…we…Dano…ER Dano…Dan…I…” After a fast sip, which now tasted delicious, I said firmly, “You all know I had to wake him up to check his pupils and sanity.” I turned to walk out of the room and over my shoulder said, “That last part is still in question.”

The room roared.

As I reached the door I heard Dano growl-in an amazingly sensual way.

In order to get away from the embarrassment, I had headed for Lilla’s desk.

She sat there filing her nails, and I knew that all her work was already done and now her day would consist of answering the phone, directing visitors and snooping. Lilla was a dream!

“Hey,” I said, sitting down opposite her. “What’s going on?”

“Morning, chéri.” She leaned closer and smiled. Very sexy, but I knew it wasn’t as if she were flirting with me. Nope. It was more as if she knew something.

“What? What’s going on? You have some info?” I set my tea on the edge of her desk.

“No, but you do.”

“Hmm? What do you mean, Lilla?”

With her sexy smile switching to a sexy grin, she whispered, “I see you have made love.”

I blinked. Had to. Maybe her accent was confusing me, so I chuckled. “This is funny. I thought you just said I’d had sex-”

Waving a bright red polished handful of long nails in the air, she said, “You heard correctly, my chéri. Which one?”

“Huh?”

“Dano or Jagger?”

I choked on nothing. My hands, sans any long nails or bordello polish, flailed in the air, sending my tea mug spilling over. “Geez! Sorry!”

Lilla laughed, pulled several tissues from her container and said, “Relax. It only shows to women like moi, who are astute in those matters.”

“Oh, yeah. That makes me feel much better.” I took some tissue and wiped the desk. Luckily the mug had only been half full and there were no papers nearby to get soaked. The closest one only got a beige splash of a stain. “Sorry.” I picked it up and couldn’t help but glance at it. Oh, boy. I was correct.

Dano had a similar run sheet to this one-only a few of the medication charges were different-and I could swear the date, times and names were the same. I explained what I’d found to Lilla, and she showed me all the papers that recently had come in to be filed.

One more was the same. Identical information except for the final numbers-so one had to have been doctored.

“I have to go back to Dano’s tonight-”

Before I could finish, Lilla was up and wiping vigorously at my scrub’s top, which wasn’t even wet.

“What are you-” I asked.

“Don’t worry, chéri, that will come out. You use some…”

I know she kept talking, kinda wildly actually, but then I looked up to see a reflection in the glass partition behind Lilla’s desk.

“That’d be okay with Dano,” ER Dano said, standing behind me, “but he wonders what for.”

Oh, no! I smiled, Lilla wiped and then I said, “We had a date, silly, or did you forget?”

Thank goodness for Lilla’s fast actions and my quick mind!