Chapter Twenty #2
Tanner winced. “No offense to you or your team, but that’s not the news I wanted. The longer Jeter is out in the open, the more people involved with his recovery, the more of a chance there is somebody working to break him out.”
“No argument here. But we are aware of the situation and we’re going to be on top of it the entire time.”
“I would consider it a personal favor if you would keep me posted concerning any changes or concerns you have. I have friends in law enforcement throughout the country, both state and federal. We are willing to help out any way we can.”
Pinfield reached up and squeezed Tanner’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry. I’m committed to making sure that man spends the rest of his life in prison.
That bastard lying in that hospital bed is not going anywhere.
I’m going to make damn sure of it.” He then stopped outside the door that had two guards stationed at it.
Tanner nodded and reached for the door. “Thank you.”
“Thank you for getting Jeter here in the first place. I’ll give you a few minutes to say your piece. Like I said, I don’t think he can hear you. But everything in this room is recorded anyway, so I’d be more than happy to play it back for him later.”
Tanner walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Immediately he could see why Pinfield had warned him that Jeter wouldn’t be providing Tanner any sort of discussion.
The man lying in the bed was barely alive.
He had so many tubes and monitors attached to his body it was almost impossible to notice the restraints that kept both wrists attached to the bed.
Honestly, the cuffs seemed like overkill.
The idea that Jeter could inflict harm on others was almost ludicrous.
In this state he didn’t look like he could even get out of bed.
Tanner reached into his pocket and pulled out the small fingerprinting kit. Greg Lightfoot said he had watched the officers do it, but Tanner couldn’t see any harm in doing it himself to be sure.
It took him less than a minute to manipulate the fingers of the unconscious Jeter into the formation he needed to get the prints. And less than another minute after that to be comparing them to the set he’d brought with him. He even used a magnifying glass.
It was definitely a match.
Tanner wiped off Jeter’s fingertips and folded the set of prints he’d taken and put it in his back pocket. Maybe they would reassure Bree. In some ways he wished he’d brought her. Seeing Jeter like this—so hopeless and pathetic—might help heal something in her.
Jeter let out a groan like somehow even under all the drugs he was still in pain.
However much pain he was in, it wasn’t enough.
“Did you ever give her anything when she was in pain, you son of a bitch? When you broke her bones or cut her or didn’t let her sleep for days at a time?”
Jeter didn’t answer. Tanner hadn’t expected him to. “I hope part of you can hear me, although I’ll still get Pinfield to deliver the message later just to make sure. Bree—Bethany—she’s not yours anymore. She’ll never be yours.”
Tanner’s hands balled into fists. “She’s not alone and she’ll never be alone again. If you want her, you’ll have to go through me. And that’s not happening. So I hope you live a nice long life in your prison cell. Not for what you did as a terrorist, but for what you did to her.”
He stared at Jeter’s unconscious form for a long minute.
There was more he wanted to say but he realized that he’d rather get back to Bree and start their future than spend time here fighting ghosts of the past.
“I’m going to ask her to marry me,” Tanner whispered. “I’ve got the ring right here. She will never be alone and defenseless again. So remember that if you decide you’re coming for her. People have her back now.”
He turned and walked out the door. Pinfield was still standing outside.
“Say everything you needed to say?”
“Yep. I suppose I should feel bad about what shape he’s in. But I don’t, not even the smallest bit.”
“I assume you fingerprinted him with that kit you had in your pocket?”
Tanner raised an eyebrow. “You don’t miss much.”
“That would be why I am a US Marshal. And also, this.” Pinfield pulled out a file and handed it to Tanner. He opened it and found multiple sets of fingerprints, which had been taken by hand and run against a master set that was attached to the inside of the folder.
“We take fingerprints at the beginning of every shift, after any sort of medical procedure where Jeter is taken out of this room, or if anybody just gets the heebie-jeebies. We’re all aware that the first thing someone trying to assist Jeter would do is change his fingerprints in the system.
So we always use the hard copy. Those fingerprints have not changed since that prison bus accident.
And we’re going to make sure no one tries to switch them out under our watch. ”
Tanner shook the man’s hand. “Thank you. Thank you for taking this seriously. Thank you for making it so that I can sleep a little better at night.”
Pinfield smiled. “Just doing my job.”
Tanner left the hospital feeling much better than he had when he’d arrived. He shot a text to Whitaker letting him know that he was on his way back.
Pinfield had this under control. Tanner wasn’t sure there was anything he would be doing differently if he was in charge.
But more important, it was good news for Bree. Soon Jeter would be in prison where he belonged.
He opened his car door and got inside. They still had a few hours before their flight. Maybe he would see if Bree wanted to come back here. She hadn’t gotten her closure on the stand like she wanted. Maybe this could be the next best thing.
He was about to pull out of his parking spot when a knock on his window stopped him. All Tanner could see were the scrubs of a doctor. He rolled down his window a little.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m sorry. I’m Dr. Arnold. Are you Tanner Dempsey? Deputy Tanner Dempsey?”
Tanner rolled his window the rest of the way down. “I am. Is everything okay?”
“Oh, yes. I just wanted to see...”
The doctor shifted and Tanner felt a sharp pinch at the side of his back. He was reaching for his weapon as everything began to blur.
The doctor leaned down so that he was now gazing directly into Tanner’s window and Tanner could see his face.
“You...” His voice sounded distant and foreign to his own ears. The fingers reaching for his sidearm wouldn’t seem to work.
“What were you just saying about how if I wanted to get to Bree I was going to need to go through you?”
Michael Jeter’s face without any burns at all smiled out at Tanner.
And then everything faded to black.