Alpha #3
Shawano was a decent-sized town. It had stoplights, drive-thru banks and fast-food restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, hotels.
There was even a municipal airport. And there were several urgent care centers.
They easily found the one Valerie Butler worked at.
In the lot behind the building, which was loosely designated as the employee parking lot, they found her 2022 black Jeep Cherokee.
Wilson backed into the parking spot beside it so they could keep eyes on the building.
“Tessman and Burke,” Wilson said. “Go inside and take a look around for our client.”
“If we find her, do you want us to make contact with her?” Burke asked.
“Sure, why not?” Wilson said. “But don’t let on that the team consists of more than the two of you.”
Burke and Tessman got out of the vehicle and walked around to the front entrance of the urgent care center.
Burke took another look at the client from the file on his phone, from her Wisconsin Driver’s License photo.
His gaze swept over every woman in scrubs in sight, assuming Valerie Butler would be wearing scrubs because she worked as an advanced nurse practitioner.
“James Winter,” a husky woman’s voice called.
Burke’s eyes went to the woman with dark hair and oversized glasses on her face. He was staring at Valerie Butler.
“James Winter,” she called again.
No one in the seats in the waiting area answered, nor did anyone stand. “Here, sorry, ma’am,” Burke said, and then he quickly walked towards her, Tessman in tow.
She led them through the doors into the treatment area of the clinic and into a private room half-way down the hallway. Tessman closed the door behind himself after he’d entered the small room. She merely glanced at him, not really questioning why he was there or why he’d closed the door.
“Do you go by James or Jim?” Valerie asked.
“Actually, it’s Rich,” Burke said.
A confused expression settled on her face, and she glanced down at the name on the tablet she held. “You’re not James Winter?”
“No, ma’am,” Burke said. “We’re here because of the online form for help you completed,” he said in a whisper. “I’m Rich, and this is my partner, Carter.”
“You can’t be here,” she said in a near-panic that seemed genuine. “The real James Winter is going to approach the desk when he realizes his name was called.”
Burke and Tessman exchanged side glances.
“Did you or did you not file a request for help?” Burke asked, his voice very soft.
“I did,” she said, still appearing to be in a panic. “It’s not safe to talk here.”
Tessman was getting annoyed. He didn’t understand why it wouldn’t be. They were in a private room. “If not here, then where and when?”
“Out by my car in the back parking lot. I get my lunch break at noon. Now get out of here,” she said, and then opened the door.
Without another word spoken, she left the treatment room, pushed through the door that separated the lobby from the treatment area, and returned to the waiting room.
Once there, she called out again. “James Winter.”
A man, just exiting the men’s room, raised his hand and walked towards her. “Here.”
Burke and Tessman slipped through the door as Valerie Butler led the man to it. Once outside, they returned to the car Wilson and Rogers waited in. They told the two men about the conversation with her. “It was the weirdest thing,” Burke said.
“Yeah, and when she did acquire the right patient, she passed us without a glance, and unflustered as she had been in the treatment room before we identified ourselves,” Tessman added.
“I would think the treatment room would be the safest place for her to talk to us,” Burke said.
“Did she tell you which car was hers in the lot?” Wilson asked.
“No, she didn’t,” Burke replied, suspecting they’d been played.
“And there’s no real employee parking area back here designated with signage beyond the entire back area, which is the entire length of the building and about eighty cars, not all employees.
” He shook his head, pissed off that the supposed client had basically given them the brush-off.
“Yeah, so what? She’s going to come out the back door and stand by her car waiting for us to find her?” Tessman said. “It's unlikely that would be safe if inside a treatment room wasn’t.”
Mike Rogers opened his car door. “I’m going to surveil the front door of the clinic. Five will get you ten, our girl slips out the front door.”
“What the hell kind of game is she playing?” Burke thought aloud as he watched Rogers’s back move away from them.
“She’ll need to answer some hard questions,” Wilson said. “And she better have the right answers, or we walk. This could turn out to be the fastest case ever.”
Burke agreed, and he was glad Wilson was on the same page. His phone vibrated a new incoming message. Checking the display, he saw it was from Donna.
I passed. I can’t believe I passed! Can you talk?
A smile pulled at Burke’s lips. He tapped out his reply.
Congrats! I knew you could do it. Sorry, can’t talk right now. On a case. I’ll call as soon as I can. I’m proud of you, Donna.