Chapter 34
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Thank you, Son.” Javier Ryson sounded so tired. “Thank you for finding her.”
Carlos gripped the phone, holding it to his ear while he walked through the hall on the ground floor. He’d taken so many laps of the hospital since he left the waiting room that he had memorized most of the building while talking to his father.
“You’re welcome,” he replied in Spanish. “I’m just glad I was there.”
Never mind how he felt about the fact that the FBI hadn’t known his sister was in the house, or that the Shrine had taken over the scene, and none of them discovered her in that bathroom linen closet either.
His father started to pray in Spanish, a broken series of requests to the Lord to heal Luci and bring her fully back to them. Carlos listened, his eyes filling with hot tears. The only other time he had known his father to be this shattered was after Carlos’s mom passed away.
Lord, I don’t want him to have to lose her, too.
His route took him out to the main lobby, which stretched left and right into a wide expanse under the high ceiling.
The last time he’d been in the hospital lobby, it had been packed with people.
Right now, the place echoed with emptiness, except for the two or three people in here.
Someone behind the reception desk. Someone else over by a coffee cart that looked like a street hotdog stand.
His dad said, “Amen.”
“Amen.” Carlos dug some cash out of his pocket, stuffed it in a small plastic trashcan next to the coffee carafe, and hit the plunger until his paper cup filled.
“Are you going to get a flight here? Or do you want me to talk to the hospital about eventually transferring her back to Utah if it comes to that?”
“Right now, I don’t want either of you in Chicago,” his dad said. “But given everything that Kenna told me is happening, you need to stay there with Eliana.”
“If Eliana is going back to work, I can’t protect her and watch out for Luci. I can’t be in two places at once.”
“We know that, Son. Just do what you can for now.” His dad paused, sounding like he was getting choked up again. “Call me tomorrow if there’s an update.”
Carlos would call him whether there was an update or not, just to check in. But he said, “Sure thing, Pops. Love you. Adios.”
After his dad had signed off, Carlos tucked his phone in his pocket. Whether there were notifications or not, he needed a minute to drink his coffee and…
Right now, he wasn’t even sure if he should make a plan for what to do next. His sister’s condition wasn’t going to change in the next day or two, and until then, he was in a holding pattern.
Regardless of whether he wanted to head back to Utah, that didn’t mean it was going to happen. But Luci at least should be close to their father, as the old man would want to be the one to take care of her if it came to that.
Was Eliana going to want to stay in Chicago after everything settled back down again?
Maybe she had discovered something here that encouraged her to build a life independent of the rest of her family.
Or maybe this would always be the place where her fear lived, and where her life got swallowed up by things beyond her control.
Mostly, he figured he could be a cop anywhere.
But that wasn’t going to be entirely true.
Moving from one department to another would set him back because he would lose his seniority with every transfer.
What he really needed to do was find a place and stick there, building a life that came with a promotion to detective.
Working his way up the ranks of the department until he was willing to take a desk job as a senior officer.
Get married, again.
Build a family with someone who wanted to stick around. A person who made him want to be the best version of himself that he could be.
For a long time, he might have dismissed the idea that person was Eliana, but spending the last few days with her made him wonder if she hadn’t been right all along.
Life had never been straightforward for either of them.
Their paths didn’t always intersect. But in the here and now, he knew he wanted to spend more time with her.
Protect her. Get to know the person she was becoming.
And even see what might happen next.
“Ryson!”
He turned and spotted Halstood heading toward him through the lobby. As he approached, Carlos’s partner stuck out his hand. “Hey.”
“Hey.” Carlos shook with him.
“I heard over the wires about your sister.” Halstood lifted his chin. “How’s she doing?”
“I should go back up to the waiting room.”
“Great. I’ll come with you.” Halstood glanced over at him as they headed for the elevator. “That good?”
Right. Because he hadn’t answered the question. “She’s unconscious, and there’s swelling in her brain from the head injury. We won’t know anything for a couple of days.”
Halstood hit the UP button for the elevator. “Have CSU been here to collect evidence? There is such a thing as a live autopsy, if we want to find out if the killer left any trace on her. The medical examiner might be able to ascertain what kind of weapon was used.”
Carlos swallowed against the lump in his throat. “I didn’t even get that far. Whoever put her in that closet is long gone. And only taking down the entire Reverence Sisters group is going to bring the perpetrators to justice.”
Halstood nodded, stepping out of the elevator onto the floor.
Carlos led the way from the alcove to the waiting area, which was empty except for the staff member behind the desk.
He turned around in the middle to face the hallway so he’d see when Eliana came back.
Probably with Tony in tow, given the guy had taken it upon himself to be her bodyguard.
Carlos would’ve said he didn’t need help with that, only he’d walked away when he needed some time to himself to process Luci’s condition.
“If you need anything, I can make some calls.” Halstood stuck his hands in his pockets. “But that means you gotta let the detectives see her, and you and Eliana should give them a statement. Otherwise, there’s no way they’re gonna be able to find out who did this.”
“What detectives?” Carlos shook his head. “This should be an FBI case, but I haven’t spoken with them yet.”
“Wallace and Maloney are on their way here. They were probably hoping they could talk to your sister, but if that doesn’t happen, they should get your statement.
” Halstood’s expression softened in a way that surprised Carlos.
“None of us wants to wait for the FBI to pull their fingers out of their butts and close this case. It’s time to find out who these Reverence Sisters are, and what door we need to kick down to round them all up and bring them in. ”
Carlos looked at his phone but only saw a single text message from Eliana.
He replied,
In the waiting room. Where are you?
Then he put his phone in his pocket. “Let’s go intercept Wallace and Maloney.
I don’t want them anywhere near my sister.
” He wasn’t sure how much he could trust Halstood, given that Carlos had identified Maloney as being on the FBI’s list of possible members of the group.
But figured that if he was going to trust anyone, it should probably be his partner.
Halstood said, “What’s going on?”
In the hall, Carlos spotted two staff members in scrubs and an elderly woman in a wheelchair standing in front of the elevators. “Stairs.” He spun around.
“Sure,” Halstood said. “If you tell me why everything is suddenly on fire.”
“I’m not sure about Wallace. Maybe you know the guy pretty well.
But I’d have thought both of them were solid.
” He pushed open the door into the stairwell, and the sound of him hitting the bar echoed against the concrete.
“But Maloney has been identified by the FBI as possibly being part of the Reverence Sisters group. We can’t trust her. ”
Carlos started down, moving fast, aware of his partner right behind him.
Two hands shoved his upper back. Before Carlos could grab the rail, his foot stumbled down the next step and he started to fall. The instinct to tuck and roll had him curling in on himself.
His shoulder hit the stair, and he rolled onto the flat part of the landing between floors.
Halstood raced down, his gun now drawn.
Carlos didn’t have his weapon. “You’re one of them?”
Halstood came at him.
Carlos raised his hands in self-defense, swinging his fists. But from a supine position, he didn’t have much strength. Halstood’s pistol slammed into his forehead. Carlos grabbed the guy by the arms and tried to wrestle him down.
Halstood kicked him in the stomach.
He heard a door slam below and cried out, “Help!”
Halstood kicked him again and Carlos heard somebody running up the stairs. A second later, the sound of a gunshot exploded in the enclosed space.
Halstood’s body jerked. His gun fell to the floor, clattering on the concrete, and he slumped in half on the bottom step. His body lying at an awkward angle.
Carlos didn’t wait to see who was coming up the stairs. He scrambled over to the gun, trying to breathe. Wincing against the pain in his abdomen. Scrambling across the floor to the other side of the landing where the steps came up to meet it.
A heavy-footed boot pressed down on his hand.
Carlos hissed through gritted teeth.
The barrel of a gun pressed against his temple. “Remove your hand from that gun…or I put a bullet in your head.”
Carlos didn’t move. “It’ll be hard to explain that one away, huh, Maloney?”
“I think I’ll find a way.” She didn’t remove the gun from his head. “So long as you don’t make things complicated by trying to shoot me, I don’t think we’re going to have a problem. What do you say?”
He wanted to get up, but he didn’t say that. Instead, he was preoccupied trying to figure out if Halstood was connected to the Reverence Sisters or someone else, and why he’d pushed Carlos down the stairs just now when Maloney was the one they suspected.
Unless it was the fact that Carlos had figured it out that made Halstood do that. But then, if they were on the same side, why would Maloney shoot him?
Carlos flexed his fingers. The weight eased off his hand, and he drew it back, spotting Wallace a few steps behind Maloney. Not looking at all surprised by her behavior. “Someone wanna tell me what’s going on?
Wallace was the one who said, “It would be a good idea to have a conversation. Don’t you think, Maloney?”
Carlos didn’t like the glassy look in her eyes.
She said, “You’re coming with us, Officer Ryson.”
“Where?” He started to sit up, his head pounding where he’d been hit, and his stomach not feeling much better.
“You don’t get to ask questions.” Wallace pointed his gun at him. “Not when you’re in this much trouble.”
Carlos might have thought this was official if it weren’t for the fact that Maloney laughed at what Wallace had said. He tried to surreptitiously check for his phone, but it wasn’t in his pocket. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted it on the landing beside Halstood’s dead body.
She motioned with her gun. “Get up. Before my finger slips and you end up with your brains all over the wall.”
As soon as Carlos rose, Wallace grabbed his arm. “Let’s go.”