Chapter Four #2
Sam grabbed him, which was the only thing that kept him standing.
“Elin,” he said on a whimper.
“Sit.” She pushed him into a chair while she went to check the bedroom, which was clear. Sam returned to the living room and holstered her weapon.
“What the hell?” The sheer terror in his expression fueled Sam’s panic. Where the fuck was she?
“Remember not to touch anything.” Sam made a second, more urgent request for backup and then called Malone to fill him in.
“There’s blood everywhere and no sign of her?” Malone asked.
“Right, and a bloody knife on the kitchen floor. She called Freddie and said his name before the phone went dead. We found the phone in the vestibule but didn’t touch it.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Sam closed her phone and tried to remain calm for Freddie.
“What do I do?” he asked, standing. “I have to do something.”
“We’ll find her. Just keep breathing. There might be a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
“You don’t believe that any more than I do, so don’t blow smoke up my ass.” He bent at the waist, hands on knees. Then he straightened. “I’m going down to see where the blood leads.”
While he did that, Sam knocked on the neighbors’ doors. No one was home in the first three she tried. The fourth was answered by an older woman who let out a scream of surprise at seeing Sam on her doorstep. In the background, the TV was set to blare.
“You’re the second lady! Oh my God! I am such a huge fan of your husband’s!” In a low, sultry tone, she added, “He’s so handsome and sexy.”
Sam showed her badge, which shut the woman up as she’d hoped it would. “Did you hear anything in the hallway in the last hour or so? My partner lives three doors down and came home to blood all over the place.”
“Oh no! I didn’t hear a thing, but my TV is loud, so I can hear it. He’s such a sweet young guy, and the two of them are so in love. They’re adorable. Is she…”
“We don’t know anything yet. If you’re sure you didn’t hear anything, I’ll let you get back to your day.”
Before the woman could continue talking, Sam walked away, placing a call to Gonzo as she went. He answered on the second ring.
“Hey, sorry about this morning. What a clusterfuck—”
“Gonzo!”
“What’s wrong?”
“You need to get over to Cruz’s place right away. Elin is gone, and there’s blood everywhere.”
“What? What happened?”
“We have no idea. She called him, said his name in a frantic tone, and then the phone went dead. We found the phone in the vestibule along with a lot of blood.”
“I’m on my way.”
“Bring the cavalry, Gonzo. We have to find her.”
“Got it. We’re coming.”
Sam walked to the stairway as Freddie came back up, dodging the blood on the stairs as he went. “What’d you find?”
“The blood ends at the curb. She got into a vehicle.”
Sam thought about that for a second. “Do you know her phone code?”
“Yes.”
“Go get it. Bag it, bring it up and let’s charge it. We can check her activity.”
He moved quickly down the stairs and was back within seconds.
Careful to not touch or disturb anything in the apartment, Freddie plugged the phone into a charger, while keeping it in the evidence bag.
“I’ve been telling her she needs to get a new phone.
This one doesn’t hold a charge. But she’s been so busy with the wedding and everything. ”
His voice caught on the last word, and he hung his head.
Sam put her hand on his back, wishing she could find a way to comfort him. “Try not to go to worst-case. Not yet.”
He eyed the bloody knife on the floor and the blood all over the counter and floor. Then he brought his tortured gaze to meet hers. “You mean to tell me you wouldn’t be freaking out if you came home to this?”
“I would be, and I understand why you are, but she’s smart and resourceful and—”
“And she’s bleeding. Profusely.”
The two of them stood over the phone, willing it to charge.
A few minutes later, the pound of footsteps on the stairs had her running for the door to greet Gonzo, Green, McBride and Malone, noting that they too hadn’t touched the blood smeared onto the stairs. The four of them looked as undone as Sam felt.
“Holy shit,” Gonzo whispered, taking in the blood all over the apartment.
Sam’s brain finally began working again as the shock wore off.
These things were so different, from a police standpoint, when the person involved was a close friend or loved one.
“Assuming the blood is hers, Cruz was able to determine she got into a vehicle at the curb. I want you guys checking every hospital in the city to see if she’s there.
And someone call emergency dispatch to see if there was a call made from her phone. Freddie! What’s her number?”
He recited it while Jeannie wrote it down.
“We’re on it,” Jeannie said. “We’ll find her, Freddie.”
Freddie nodded in acknowledgment. “Thanks.”
Gonzo went to him, put a hand on his shoulder and spoke softly to his friend. Whatever he said brought tears to Freddie’s eyes. Gonzo hugged him. “We’re going to find her.”
Freddie nodded again and wiped his tears. Through the bag, he pushed the button to turn on the phone, but nothing happened. “Come on!”
“Give it a few more minutes,” Sam said, knowing as he did that every second counted and minutes were like hours at a time like this.
While Freddie continued to stare at the phone, willing it to charge, Sam went to speak to Malone.
Hands on hips, he took a good look around the stylishly furnished apartment.
Sam was ashamed of the fact that she’d never been there.
When they got together outside of work, they usually did so at her house where it was easier for Nick.
After the wedding, she’d make sure they came to Freddie’s place for once.
“What the hell is this, Sam?”
“I don’t know. I wish I did.”
Jeannie, who’d been in the hallway working the phones with the others, poked her head in. “No 9-1-1 call from her number.”
“Okay,” Sam said, her heart sinking. She’d hoped that Elin had called for help and had been picked up by an ambulance or Patrol officer who might’ve taken the call. “Speaking of Patrol, where the fuck are they? We called for backup twenty minutes ago.”
“They’re dealing with a huge accident over by Penn Quarter,” Malone said. “Ten cars involved.”
“What if we’d encountered an active shooter here or a crime in progress?”
“Thankfully, you didn’t.”
They passed a tense fifteen minutes with detectives working the phones while Sam tried to keep Freddie calm.
A shout went out from the hallway.
Green came to the door. “GW E.R. has her! She has a severe cut to the hand that was bleeding so hard she didn’t wait around for help. She flagged down a cab.”
Freddie covered his face with his hands as his shoulders shook. “Thank you, Jesus.”
Sam went to him, wrapped her arms around him and held on tight until he got himself together. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to her.”
“I thought…”
“I know, but she’s fine. She’s fine. Or she will be after some stitches from the sound of it. Come on. Let’s go.”
Keeping her hand on his back, Sam led him to the door.
“Thanks, you guys,” he said to his colleagues. “I appreciate it so much.”
“No problem,” Jeannie said for all of them. “We’re glad she’s okay.”
“Can you…” Sam tipped her head toward the apartment.
“Yes, of course,” Jeannie said. “We’ll clean up.”
“Thank you.” To Malone, Sam said, “We talked to the administrator at the Beauclair kids’ school. The mom never left them there alone. Worked as a volunteer every day that they were in attendance, which was five days a week.”
“That’s something,” Malone said.
“I also have the address of the Beauclairs’ recently fired maid.” She handed him the page from her notebook. “Send Green and McBride to talk to her.”
“Got it. We’ll pick it up. You stay with Cruz for as long as he needs you.”
“See you back at the house.” She escorted Freddie downstairs, noting he still stepped around the blood on the stairs like the trained professional he was. “The others will clean up.”
“They don’t have to. I’ll do it when we get home.”
“They want to help.”
“How long do you think it’ll be before my heart beats normally again?”
“It’s apt to be a while.”
“I was thinking of every perp I’ve ever arrested, every altercation I’ve ever had on the job. The list of people who’d have reason to get even with me is long.”
“Not as long as mine.”
“Long enough that it wouldn’t take much to ruin my life.” They got into her car. “We’re moving to a building with better security. If we’d had a doorman, this whole thing never would’ve happened.”
“True, but can you afford that?”
“No, but I can less afford to lose her. I had forty-five minutes to ponder life without her, and I’ll pay whatever it costs to ensure her safety.”
“Can’t say I blame you. That was pretty fucking scary.”
“Yeah.”
That he didn’t comment on her language told her how scared he’d been. It would take a while for the fear and shock to work their way out of his system—and hers.