In the next room, which was smaller, a woman lay on a metal hospital table. She was thin and pale, with short blonde hair, and she appeared to be receiving a transfusion.
She opened her eyes as we came in, and then she closed them again.
"Her name is Åsa," Dr. Lee said. She pronounced it "Oh-sa." "And this is Nikolai."
The tattooed man inclined his head in acknowledgment, and Jan introduced herself. He gestured at the woman on the table. "She's lost quite a bit of blood."
My employer limped forward and leaned over to regard Åsa. "How did she lose the blood?" she asked. Nikolai pulled down the collar of Åsa's shirt, showing two punctures on her neck, but Åsa reached up to cover them again, turning away from us.
"Leave me alone," she mumbled. "I'm fine."
Dr. Lee motioned for us to follow her back into the outer office, closing the door. Nikolai remained with Åsa. My employer lit a cigarette as Dr. Lee spoke.
"She was found by her roommate, unconscious, in bed, bleeding. It was raining that night, and her boots were wet, so she'd been out."
"What was she wearing?"
"She was naked, but her clothes were on the floor, damp. She was very pale, and nobody had seen her eat in a day or two, at least."
"Where are the clothes?"
"I'll take you," Dr. Lee said. I was surprised again that she wasn't delegating this to someone else.
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