Chapter 1

1: 1

I'm an ambulance driver.

I picked up a patient, raced to the hospital, and somewhere along the way the patient vanished inside my own ambulance.

The attending nurse pointed at me, her face twisted with rage. "Halfway there, Driver Finch dumped us on the road and drove off with the patient!"

Thirty minutes later, the police found the patient's body in my home. Cause of death: poisoning.

In the end I was named the killer, sentenced to death, and two years later I dropped dead in prison from heart failure.

Even after I died, I couldn't make sense of it. I watched that patient get loaded onto the gurney with my own eyes, and the nurse was with him the whole time.

So how did the patient disappear into thin air? When did the nurse get out of the vehicle? And how did the body end up in my house?

Then I opened my eyes again. I'd been reborn.

The dispatcher in front of me spoke, all business. "Prosperity Gardens on the South Side, Building 7, Unit 3, apartment 301. Elderly man, acute attack, needs emergency transport."

I didn't hesitate. I was already getting ready to fake being sick and beg off, when—

Stanley Mason, one of the orderlies, came hurrying over. "Evan, man, you're the fastest and the steadiest behind the wheel. You have to be the one to go get my dad."

1

Stanley Mason. I looked at the man in front of me.

A hospital orderly. The old man on the other end of that call, the one needing emergency care, was Stanley's father.

In my last life, Stanley had come rushing over just like this, crying, shouting that I had to be the one to fetch his father.

"My mom said before she died, if my dad ever got seriously ill, it had to be a driver named Finch or he'd never pull through. Otherwise his life's on the line!"

Saving lives, hauling the sick, getting people to treatment—that's my job.

Last life, I thumped my chest and swore I'd have the old man picked up faster than anyone.

But this time, looking at Stanley, a chill crawled up my spine.

There were plenty of drivers on shift, and yet he singled me out by name, insisting it had to be me.

And he used his mother's dying words, so I couldn't say no.

"Stanley, I'm not feeling too good. Send someone else."

Beside me, Kent Lambert got up right away, ready to take the wheel.

But Stanley panicked. "Evan, what's that supposed to mean? You holding a grudge over what happened last time?"

"I really did misjudge you then. I thought you'd been slipping cash from the families on the side. But I apologized to you, right in front of the bosses."

I couldn't help the cold laugh that slipped out.

Stanley was a hospital orderly, and he'd been angling to take over my ambulance driver job for a long time.

He used to run to management over nothing, smearing me, claiming I took bribes from patients' families behind their backs. Fine by me—I stood straight, so a crooked shadow didn't scare me.

Last life, I let all of it go and threw everything I had into getting his father.

It wasn't until right before I died that I pieced together how strange Stanley had been.

First: Stanley, who couldn't stand me, was the one who insisted last life that only I could pick up his father, or he wouldn't rest easy.

Second: last life, when I told him to come along with me, he flat-out refused.

My gut told me one thing. I absolutely could not go.

I pressed a hand to my forehead.

"Stanley, I really don't feel right at the moment. There are plenty of drivers on duty, and everyone's good behind the wheel."

But Stanley wouldn't let it drop. "Evan Finch, so you've decided you're dragging our personal grudge into the job, is that it?"

"Don't forget, you're an ambulance driver!"

"You treat other people's lives like they don't matter, and who's ever going to trust your ambulance again?"

Beside us, the nurse was pushing us to hurry.

"With all the time you two are wasting flapping your mouths, we'd already be there. This patient's critical."

Then—thud. Stanley dropped straight to his knees.

"Evan, I'm begging you. Please, just go, now."

"You go get my dad, and I'll do anything you want. Anything."

"Evan, my mom said before she passed, if my dad ever fell seriously ill, it had to be a Finch driving the ambulance."

My heart clenched. The exact same line again.

The moment he finished, more people started pressing me.

"Quit playing sick, old Finch. You're built like an ox—I've never once seen you with so much as a headache."

"Get going, don't waste the window on him."

I looked at Stanley. "Then are you coming along?"

Stanley shook his head. "I'll stay behind. The patient I'm caring for is still waiting on me. I trust you, and I trust our hospital's people."

Seeing me give in, he started shoving me toward the vehicle.

"Evan, I'll be waiting at the hospital for you to bring my dad in. Don't you dare let me down."

At the door of the vehicle, looking at this old workhorse I'd driven for more than ten years, a guess flashed through my mind.

I think I finally knew why Stanley's father had vanished without a trace in my last life.