The Mourning Missed Read online

  “Yes, my...fiancé was in that room yesterday,” she said, pointing her thumb over her shoulder. “Has he been moved out of ICU?”

  Glancing at her charts, Lilly watched the nurse’s facial expression darken for a moment before she turned a cold stare on her. “I’m not at liberty to divulge the status of patients to other than relatives,” she said flatly.

  “I told you...” Lilly began, but the nurse cut her off.

  “I know who you are, Ms. Jackson. I also know you’re not what hospital policy includes as family. You’ll need to leave the floor or I’ll have to call security.”

  “Where’s Jenny?” Lilly asked, undeterred.

  The nurse reached for a phone and dialed a number. “This is Carmen in ICU. I have a person who refuses to leave the floor. Can you come and escort her out right away?” When she hung up, she looked back to her charts and ignored Lilly.

  “Carmen?” Lilly tried politely. When the nurse continued to ignore her, she slapped the top of the counter with her flat palm. It created a report which rang through the ward like a firecracker. “Look at me, bitch,” she snapped in a harsh whisper.

  The nurse’s head snapped up and her eyes flew wide open. She opened her mouth to speak but Lilly never let her.

  “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, or who has control over you, but I will find out. I don’t know what you think you know about me and quite frankly I don’t give a damn. But when I do find out, I will correct it. And then you will no longer work for this hospital.” Pulling her badge from her purse, she held it up for the nurse to see. “Did you really want to get sideways with the DA’s office? Because you just picked the wrong Cajun to screw with.”

  “SAMUELS,” PHILLIP SAID when he snatched up the phone on his kitchen counter after the fifth ring. He had been in the middle of layering Lasagna noodles and Ricotta cheese into a dish.

  “Do you have any idea where Clint is?” Lilly asked without preamble.

  “He better still be in ICU,” Phillip growled.

  “I wish,” she replied. “Carmen in ICU gave me the bum’s rush; even called security to escort me from the building. Jenny has disappeared. When I started making noises about interfering with a judicial investigation, she and all the security staff clammed up.”

  “Where are you now?” he asked.

  “I’m calling from the hospital security office so I can observe whoever makes a phone call,” she explained. “I have a feeling as soon as I leave, someone will call whoever has masterminded the abduction of a critically-wounded police officer. I’m going to reverse that if I can.” She said all this overly-loud for the benefit of the four men standing within earshot. “I couldn’t bring Carmen along because I wouldn’t want the ICU left unattended and she was the only one up there.”

  “I’ll be there in ten,” Phillip assured her. “Do not let anyone from that security office leave. Promise them I will prosecute them for obstructing an investigation if they don’t start talking.”

  “LILLY JACKSON WAS JUST here and threatened to arrest me for obstructing an investigation,” Carmen said frantically. She had dialed the number from memory as soon as Lilly had left with the security team.

  “She has no arrest authority because the Academy isn’t investigating Parsons,” the Dark Man replied. “In fact, the Academy doesn’t investigate anything except what happens at the Academy. You need to just calm down, Carmen.”

  “I’m telling you, she has an investigator’s badge from the DA’s office,” Carmen said frantically into the phone.

  “Now that is an interesting turn of events,” he remarked. “It would appear Ms. Jackson is much more resilient than we gave her credit.”

  “What do I do right now?” Carmen asked again.

  “Leave,” he replied. “Kill the nurse you have tied up in the janitor’s closet and get out of there. If you’re arrested, you might very well decide that suicide is your only option.”

  “I didn’t sign on for murder,” Carmen shrilled into the phone. “You said all I had to do was drug her and take her place.”

  “Well that’s all changed now, hasn’t it?” The Dark Man shot back. “Unless you want me to send someone to kill both of you, do as you’re told.” The line went dead.

  “KALICHEQ,” THE MAN said upon answering the phone during the first ring. He had no accent and spoke no more than necessary.

  “Don’t you ever sleep or go to a movie?” The Dark Man asked.

  “I’m on active retainer,” he replied. “You pay me a lot to be available.”

  “Go to the ICU at the hospital. Find Carmen, she’s the nurse. Kill her and the one in the Janitor’s closet. If Jenny is on the desk, kill her and go find Carmen. Then make her die, slowly.”

  “ASSISTANT DISTRICT Attorney Samuels has instructed me to arrest all of you for obstructing a criminal investigation,” Lilly announced when she hung up the phone. “If Officer Parsons dies while being held by whomever has abducted him, you all become accessories after the fact to second degree murder or manslaughter charges. He assures me he will press for maximum sentencing.”

  She paused for them to reply. “If one of you hasn’t answered the question by the time he arrives in,” she paused, checking the clock on the wall. “Seven minutes, you’ll all be spending at least the night in county lock up.”

  A very young-looking security guard stood up and opened his mouth. “Mica, sit down and shut your pie hole,” the oldest of them shouted. More conversationally he added, “We aren’t going anywhere. This stupid bitch doesn’t have any idea who she’s dealing with.”

  Lilly strode across the room and stood 18 inches from the sitting man’s pot belly. “On your feet, you’re under arrest,” she ordered.

  “Fuck you, you stupid twat,” he replied.

  “Last time, then we add resisting arrest to the list,” Lilly replied calmly.

  “You work for the DA’s office; you’re not even a real cop,” he replied snidely. “I heard the real cops kicked you off the force. I also heard you were really good with your mouth.”

  He never saw the punch coming. Her fist broke his nose on contact, watering his eyes and sending his brain into spasms. As his hands flew to his shattered face, he leaned forward, trying to stand up. Lilly’s hip toss was picture perfect and he landed flat on his back. All the wind came out of him. He began gagging and choking as his spasming diaphragm struggled to unclench so his lungs could draw air.

  Yanking her cuffs from her back pocket, she grabbed the nearest wrist and slammed the bar against it, forcing it through the ratchet. It sprang around the wrist and snapped closed loosely. She grabbed the two sides of the ring and locked it painfully tight against the still-struggling man’s carpal bones. She then used the hard-edged metal arc to roll him over forcefully. Flipped over onto his stomach, she dropped a knee viciously into his spine. As his back arched, his free hand instinctively sought out the source of his pain to protect himself. She caught the free hand and snapped the other cuff onto that wrist, cranking the ratchet down as hard as she could clamp it.

  Pulling the guard’s handcuffs and shock-stick from their holsters as she stood, she surveyed the room. “Who else wants to resist arrest?” At that moment, the door burst open and Carmen rushed in.

  “You have to protect me,” she cried to the men inside. She hadn’t even seen Lilly as yet.

  “What seems to be the problem, ma’am?” One of the older officers asked, resorting to his job description in hopes it might diffuse the tension in the room.

  “I was just supposed to drug the nurse on duty in ICU and take her place,” she confessed. “I really needed the money and that’s all he said I had to do. Now he says kill her and run. I can’t do that. When I told him so, he said if I got arrested, I would commit suicide in my cell the first night. You have to help me,” she wailed again, looking around the room. It was only then she saw Lilly. “Mierde,” she said, completely deflating. Sinking to the floor, she began to sob. “Yo soy muerto.�
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  “What did you do with Jenny?” Lilly asked as she crossed the room.

  The nurse continued to sit on the floor and wail. Fisting a handful of hair, Lilly levered her head back and slapped her hard across the cheek. “Where the fuck is Jenny?” She screamed in her face, spittle flying onto Carmen’s cheeks and forehead.

  “In the... janitor’s... closet,” the distraught woman sobbed.

  “Mica, you and... you,” she added pointing to the nearest guard. “Go get her, now.” When both hesitated, she drew her PPKS from the Small-of-the-Back holster she wore. “Go get her now, motherfuckers, or I swear to God I will shoot your cowardly asses where you sit.” Both men leapt to their feet and flew from the room. “And do it quickly,” she commanded to their retreating backs. Turning to the remaining guard, Lilly slid her pistol back into its holster. “Do you have a holding area?”

  “We have an office in the back with a deadbolt on the door,” he replied. “It unlocks from the outside only.” The look on his face said he didn’t know whether to follow his boss’ lead or knuckle under like the other two.

  Lilly gave him no time to decide. “Put her in there, now.” He stood, hesitating longer than Lilly allowed. “Where’s the key?” She demanded. He silently pointed to a wooden ruler hanging from a nail on the door frame of a closed door. There was a single key wired to it. “Pick her up and help her back there; drag her if you must,” Lilly commanded in a no-nonsense tone. He did so without further hesitation.

  “Give me your cuffs and your tazer,” she said after he had unlocked the door and helped Carmen inside. When he started to argue, Lilly tapped him with the tazer already activated in her hand. The short burst dropped him to his knees and he grunted in pain.

  “Now, take them out and slide them across the floor to me,” she ordered. He sat flat on the floor, allowing his legs to splay out in front of him. Reaching behind, he pulled the shock-stick and cuffs from his belt and slid them across the floor. She pocketed them as she stepped out and locked the door.

  Twelve

  “JENNY, WAKE UP,” MICA yelled. He and the other guard were standing in the open doorway, looking nervously all around while they tried to decide the best way to get the semi-conscious nurse on her feet. Finally Mica committed. “Keep your eyes open,” he told the other as he stepped into the closet. Grabbing her roughly under the armpits, Mica hoisted her to her knees and tried to lift her.

  He was rail thin and not very tall. All his adrenalin-infused strength couldn’t lift the drugged nurse. “Come on, Jenny, we have to go or we’re all gonna die,” he cried into her face. The words must have sunk in because she struggled successfully to her feet. She wobbled enough when she was upright that Mica wasn’t taking any chances with her mobility. “Help me,” he told the other guard. They each hooked one of her arms around their shoulders and walked her to the elevator.

  Moments after their door closed the other car opened and a bald man with no facial hair stepped out. He carried a silenced pistol at his side and his dark eyes darted around the entire area. Moving to the janitor’s closet, he found it empty and immediately made his way back to the elevators. Noting the other car’s number passing from four to three, he ran to the stairwell and pounded down the stairs.

  LILLY HAD JUST STEPPED out of the security office toward the elevator lobby when Phillip burst through the main doors coming in. She had her weapon at low ready, and stopped herself just shy of pointing it at him.

  “Is it that bad?” he asked. His question spoke volumes of his growing respect for her and she registered the compliment in her mind as she gestured behind her with her head.

  “Two guards and Carmen the nurse are in their holding room. Dead-bolted door with key access from the outside only. Want a tazer?” She asked, holding out the second one she had taken from the guards. Raising a questioning eyebrow, he pocketed it after checking to ensure it was deactivated. “Carmen confessed she was paid to drug Jenny and take her place to run interference while someone took Clint,” she choked on the last for a moment.

  Pulling herself together, she continued. “She came screaming into security claiming the man who paid her had ordered her to kill Jenny and then disappear. Said he threatened her suicide in her cell if she didn’t do so. She believes someone is on the way, or at least may be. I sent two guards up to ICU to find Jenny and help her down here. They’ve been gone too long already.”

  “You take the stairs, I’ll take the elevator,” he instructed. As they approached the elevators three things happened. The elevator doors opened; Mica, Jenny, and the guard stepped out into the lobby; and Kalicheq burst out of the stairwell.

  “Get back,” Phillip yelled to the trio coming out of the elevator.

  “Drop it,” Lilly screamed at the assassin, holding her tiny Walther at ready, finger on the trigger.

  Kalicheq raised both hands out to his side and crouched as if to set the pistol on the floor. As he bent low, he suddenly gripped the pistol firmly and swung the barrel toward the pair as he fell to the side. Lilly’s pistol barked three times in rapid succession as the assassin’s silenced pistol coughed once. Three holes appeared in a six inch spread across the center of the man’s chest, even as he fell twisting. One struck dead center, exploding his heart. He was dead before he finished falling to the floor. The bullet from his gun hit the trash can lid two feet to Phillip’s left and blew the cover off.

  “Damn, you’re fast,” Samuels breathed, walking cautiously over to the assassin’s gun to slide it away with his foot. He bent and placed two fingers on the man’s carotid artery; there was no pulse.

  Nodding detachedly to either the comment or an interior monologue, Lilly walked over and picked up the lid to the trash can. Looking bemusedly at the hole the bullet had made in the flapper, she holstered her weapon. Walking to the base of the trashcan, she bent over and softly set the lid on the floor. Swinging her bent torso over the receptacle, she vomited violently.

  “YOU’LL HAVE TO SURRENDER your weapon for the IA investigation,” Samuels informed her. “And you’re on paid leave of absence until the shooting is cleared. It’s a formality. I witnessed the entire thing and it was a righteous shooting.”

  “What do I do in the meantime?” she asked. “I can’t just go back to Clint’s apartment and wait.”

  “IA has agreed to wait until tomorrow morning to take our statements,” he supplied. “Go home and get some sleep, if you can. I’ve found vodka causes the least hangovers should you decide you need to partake. You can even rack out on my sofa tonight if you don’t want to be alone. It won’t be the first time someone has used my couch. My wife fully understands and agrees.”

  “I don’t drink alcohol. I watched my father destroy all our lives with it. I’ll be fine, I just want to go home for a while and decompress. What do we know, if anything?” she asked.

  “The FBI is now involved, as this is a felony kidnapping,” he explained. “All four of the guards and Carmen are singing like mockingbirds, but they know surprisingly little. Carmen worked in the NICU and was chosen because she was off-duty for three days. The hospital has already terminated her based on her confession.”

  “The guards were following the orders of their company owner, which is no legal excuse, especially as he’s quite suddenly and mysteriously out of town. His secretary says he called in from a payphone in Texas,” Samuels continued with a wry grin. “That’s all the caller ID said. He wouldn’t say where he was, where he was going, or when he’d return. There’s now an interstate flight to avoid prosecution BOLO out on him and his Eldorado.”

  “We still don’t know who has Clint,” Lilly emphasized.

  “Correct. The FBI has asked for MCPD’s assistance in the manhunt. They’ve also asked specifically that you be ordered to stand down and not interfere. It seems your reputation precedes you.” He said it with a smile, but Lilly was not in a smiling mood.

  “How long before my PI license is approved?” she asked quietly.

&nbs
p; “Oh, that was done this afternoon. Your card is probably on your desk. Ah, come on now, Lilly,” he chided as realization struck. “I told you we can’t use them in the county, especially if there’s been no warrant issued.”

  “Will it work just like any other PI license does?” she insisted.

  “Yes,” Phillip said, the cold finality in her voice sinking in. “Don’t do this, Lilly. If you go rogue on me, I can’t help you anymore.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said quietly. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

  THE IA REVIEW AND STATEMENT-taking was indeed a formality. Samuels insisted on going first. When Lilly entered the room after him, she was mildly surprised to see the same IA detective who had first questioned her on the Arana incident.

  “Good morning, Investigator Jackson,” he said formally but warmly. “I won’t ask if you slept well, because if you did, there’s definitely something wrong with you.” His attempt at light-hearted camaraderie was lost on Lilly.

  “I slept like a baby,” she replied in a monotone.

  “Please detail your actions as pertaining to the events on the night of...” and so it began. The transcript of the interview would serve as her report. The only good thing that came out of the process was that she didn’t have to file any more paperwork. She would be surprised when Phillip informed her she was cleared later the same afternoon.

  As the interview came to a close, the IA man caught her eye and asked a different question. “I realize the press of action has kept you very busy the last week. I’m asking simply for your informational purposes as a professional courtesy. Have you seen, and if not would you like to see, the final IAD report on the Arana investigation?”

  “Do IAD investigations usually resolve in less than a week?” Lilly asked, surprised.