Chapter 40
FORTY
Sandra was at her workstation as Brice, Monica, and Gibson were at theirs.
Luis was with Neal and Kreiger at the table.
They had just watched Nurse Torres fetch two doctors.
One went into the nurse break room, while the other tended to Maddox.
Torres was still at his side when Sandra left the table. She called the nurses’ station.
“She’s going to answer,” Luis said from the table, still watching the live feed.
“Hello,” Torres answered.
“It’s Sandra,” she told the nurse.
In the background, someone spoke to Torres. “One minute,” she replied.
“Tell me what’s going on, Maria.”
“It’s…” Sniffles traveled the line. “He’s my everything. We can’t move him to surgery right now, but he can’t die.”
Sandra’s past loomed on the horizon like a hurricane. She needed to buckle down before its gale-force winds reached her. This situation was about Maria and Jordon, not Sandra and her brother. “We can see that he’s getting care from you and a doctor.”
“Yes. Dr. Bell, but Jordon has lost a lot of blood. Dr. Bell has staunched the flow and believes he can keep him stable for a while longer.”
“Not guaranteed,” a man called out, presumably Dr. Bell.
“What happened with the gunman?” Sandra asked Torres.
“Gail and I got the upper hand on him. I didn’t want to hurt him, but he left me no choice.”
“Is he still alive?” It seemed likely since she’d locked him in the storage room. A dead man wasn’t a threat.
“He’s only been knocked out. I locked him in a storage room where he shouldn’t bother anyone.”
“And his phone?” He might have an active number for the shot caller on the eighth floor.
There were a few seconds of silence. “Oh, God. It’s on him. I should have taken it from him, shouldn’t I? If he comes to, he can call his friends and—”
“Maria.” Sandra spoke in a smooth, comforting tone to stop the woman from spiraling out. She couldn’t ask Maria to risk her life trying to retrieve it. “You did a good job getting him locked away. Just remember regrets and worrying about things do nothing but rob you of your energy. All right?”
“Yeah, but it’s hard not to worry. If Jordon’s going to survive, he will need surgery to remove the bullet and stitch up the damage it caused. The elevators are locked, and the operating room he needs is on the first floor.”
Sandra glanced over at Luis. He told them he could remotely activate the elevators, but doing so would potentially put other lives at risk.
People on them might unload onto the second, sixth, and eighth floors where perps with guns were still roaming.
They couldn’t count on Feeney, on the second floor, staying in the restroom forever.
Neal’s phone rang, and he answered quietly before stepping out of the command vehicle.
“Sandra?” Maria said. “Please help him. He means everything to me.” Maria started crying, and Sandra’s heart felt like it had been stabbed through with a stake.
“I’m sorry that you’re going through this, that Jordon is, and while it might seem like this is taking a long time, we are doing everything we can out here to bring this lockdown to a safe and peaceful resolution.
” Sandra heard her words as they cycled back to her ears.
All the plural pronouns boiled down to one thing.
She assumed the outcome on her shoulders, be that good or bad.
With that weight, her thoughts went to Gail and Phoebe Chapman.
“You said Gail helped you subdue the man. Did you take his gun from him?”
“Yes, I have it on me.”
“Okay, and how are Gail and Phoebe?”
“I had to resuscitate Phoebe a second time, but she’s resting now. The man knocked Gail to the floor too. She took a solid hit, but she’ll be okay. I don’t see evidence she’s concussed. She’s with her daughter, where I told her to stay.”
“We saw that another doctor went into the nurse break room. Is someone else hurt in there?”
“Nurse Mahoney. He was shot in the arm.”
“And his current condition?”
“Stable.”
That only had Sandra breathing moderately easier. “Do you still have my number, Maria?”
“No, I…”
“It’s okay. I’m going to give it to you again. Do you have a piece of paper to write it down?”
A few seconds, then, “Yes, go ahead.”
Sandra rattled off her number. “Did you get that? I can repeat it again.”
Maria read it back to Sandra. “That right?”
“Yes. Call me if things change on your end.”
“Will do.”
“And, Maria, you’ve done a great job so far, but please, don’t play the hero. Help is coming.”
“Thank you.” Maria disconnected the call.
Sandra looked over at the table where Luis was hunched over his laptop. “Luis,” she said.
He turned toward her. “Yeah?”
“You’re doing great too,” she told him. “Keep watching the video, switching between all the floors, and let me know if you see anything we should know about.”
“Happy to help any way I can.”
Neal came back into the vehicle, and his face was pale. “That was Detective Birch with an update on his finding at Perkins’s apartment.”
Everyone listened intently as the lieutenant filled them in.
“So they’re communicating through notes tucked into a library book,” Monica said. “That’s rather clever and keeps their conspiracy offline.”
“And he’s sure about the names?” Gibson said from the end of the vehicle at his workstation.
“Yes. They are the same as the usernames we flagged from the forum. I’ve sent Detective Birch to the library to see what more he can find out. If another woman checked out the book, we might finally get the shot caller’s identity.”
Alaya Princess… “It’s time for me to try her again.
” It had been a matter Sandra had given a lot of thought.
She pushed the digits for the boardroom, and the woman answered.
She said nothing. Sandra let the silence ride for a few moments before speaking.
“Alaya, let me help you.” Sandra felt far more comfortable pulling out this name now.
“Then you know.”
“Not everything. Talk to me.”
“I just have nothing left to lose.”
“You sound sad, Alaya.”
“No, I’m angry. I should just pull the trigger and—”
People in the room collectively cried out.
“Has anyone been hurt?”
“Not yet.”
Sandra wasn’t sure whether to be assured by that response or not.
There was more chaotic noise in the background.
“Alaya,” Sandra said, a little louder to get her attention, “you say you have nothing to lose, but you came here today wanting something. Maybe it’s time to walk out, let this end.
Do you want to surrender peacefully? I can run you through all of it, how it would work, and I’d be here for you when you come out. What do you say, Alaya?”
“I’m not ready yet. Even if I’d like the nightmare to end.”
Sandra didn’t like the tone of her voice more than her words. Was she talking about her own life? And earlier when she mentioned pulling the trigger, had she meant on herself? Assumptions were fatal in negotiations. “What nightmare?”
“This one. Being here with these people, with police outside.”
“We can end this right now. You just have to say the word.” Sandra waited as the seconds ticked off. She was prepared to hold the silence until Alaya broke it.
“I’m not going to let everyone down.”
“Your friends Carmen, Tom, and Shane?” Sandra wedged their names in there, and asking this might also reveal if the woman was concerned about anyone else.
“They’re not my friends. But you must know about the forum. You’re calling me Alaya.”
“We do. Fat Cats.”
“Then you know that this hospital has destroyed our lives,” she spat with venom.
“How did it destroy your lives?” Crippling debt and the loss of loved ones, or was there something Sandra didn’t know about yet?
“You wouldn’t understand!”
The line went dead.
Sandra sat back, a little shaken by the shot caller’s reveals. The hospital has destroyed our lives… “I think motive here is twofold. This is about money and retribution.”
“Which is a scary thought,” Neal began. “They don’t get the money, they’re prepared for the other.”
Sandra nodded, recalling the shot caller’s repeated claim that she was prepared to do what she must.
“There was something in the heat of her voice when she said our lives that made me feel she wasn’t necessarily referring to her accomplices. I also got the feeling this destruction cuts real close for her personally,” Brice said.
“Me too. Possibly a loss very close to home. A spouse like Sparling, or a child?” Sandra said. “Since it seems today may have been motivated by medical debt, she likely owes the hospital money too.”
Gibson returned to his chair. “I’ve searched the system in the DC area for Alaya, but the results are overwhelming. I tried narrowing it down by referencing the vehicle registrations we looked at. No Alaya.”
“Maybe Alaya isn’t her real name,” Brice suggested.
“She answered to it without hesitation,” Sandra volleyed back.
Brice shrugged. “It’s her online name.”
“Which suggests even if Alaya is an alias, it must mean something to her for her to choose it. I’ve also been thinking more about her ‘destroying our lives’ comment.
It’s possible someone else is burdened by her situation.
Maybe she was sick…?” It was just the glimpse of a possibility, but no one in the vehicle could answer that question at this point.
Not without a name, and even with one, Luis couldn’t disclose patient records without violating HIPAA.
The act was put in place by Congress to protect a patient’s privacy.
A court order could overcome that barrier, but for right now, they were in limbo.