Chapter 6 #2
She covered her head with her hands as she crouched on the ground, the glass falling on her. What happened? A gunshot? Ducking, she scampered across the hall and into the shelter of the nurse’s station.
The door opened, and the nurse exited, turning to glance around before dashing down the hall. Why was the figure dressed for surgery? With hair covered under a cap and a mask covering the lower half of the face, Emma couldn’t identify the individual. Was that the point?
Emma’s heartbeat thundered in her ears. She had to get back to Owen. She hurried to his room. Maybe there was an explanation for the door. Maybe he was okay. She swallowed, fighting the rising bile of her instincts telling her what she feared most.
“Owen, what’s going on? What did you mean? Why did you ask us to return? Why did you want to hold the reunion?”
She heard no response. A metallic scent lingered in the air.
One noise rise above all others, a solid, consistent beep. Flatline.
“No, no, no.” She raced to his side, clutching his hand. But his fingers were cold, and his arm was heavy as she tried to lift it.
His head lolled on the pillow, blood pouring out from a shot to his temple.
Owen was gone.
Daniel forced himself to focus on the deputy and not on whatever may or may not be happening at Owen’s bedside. In the SUV, Emma had tensed, but the defense mechanism didn’t look strong. It made her look brittle and easy to fracture.
“Okay, boss?” Deputy Chip Jones asked as they waited outside Owen’s room.
“Sorry?” Daniel asked, schooling his features into an expression of chagrin and not annoyance. Resting mad face was both a gift and curse in his career.
“Frank is coming to take the next watch. He’ll wait for you to return to the camp,” Chip repeated.
“Very good.” Daniel needed help watching Emma, the Thomases, and Owen. He traced the edge of a tile under his boot, physically expressing the gnaw of futility that clawed into his chest. He hated how easy it was to spread his team too thin.
Shaunitoc wasn’t a hotbed of illicit activity.
He wasn’t worried about drug cartels operating in broad daylight with law enforcement occupied elsewhere.
But summer was a busy time. Youthful antics turned into crime quickly.
Vandalism calls popped up. Daniel liked to have a steady presence in town to discourage stupid behavior.
But the accident and threat against Margaux added up to the most serious case he’d ever handled. Any screw-up would make their department look weak, potentially on a national stage.
“Deputy,” Daniel began, “does your cousin’s husband still work at the FBI?”
“Sure does. At the field office in Chicago. Why? What’s up?” Chip asked.
A nurse wheeled a patient down the hall.
Daniel gritted his molars, unsure how to answer.
A senatorial campaign for Margaux’s husband potentially hung in the balance.
For all Daniel knew, the campaign had their own security and protocol.
Margaux could have already shared her concerns with her husband and his team.
Daniel’s concerns might be overblown. But he would feel better if he took some action on his end, too.
“Not at liberty to divulge?”
“Something like that,” Daniel muttered. “Could you send me his contact info? I’d like an opinion on something.”
The deputy nodded, producing a cell phone and tapping at the screen. “You’ve got it, boss. Keep me in the loop if you need me.”
A ding from the cell phone in Daniel’s pocket echoed down the corridor. “Thanks.”
The door to the room opened, and a harried looking Mr. and Mrs. T stumbled out.
“Oh, sorry,” Mrs. T apologized into Chip’s back.
“I’ll get the car,” Mr. T grumbled, hurrying past.
Mr. T’s gruff tone wasn’t unusual. He wasn’t an effusive man who cared much for social niceties. But leaving a hospital room with such an expression hinted at trouble.
Chip straightened Mrs. T on her feet. “Is everything alright?”
“Issues with the generator at the camp,” Mrs. T replied, her voice thick and scratchy.
“Can the deputy take a look at it for you? Frank likes to tinker,” Daniel said.
“The whole thing is held together with electrical tape and constant prayers,” Mrs. T offered, chuckling under her breath. “Only my husband is qualified to deal with his handiwork.”
Daniel frowned, not liking the implication of poor oversight on electrical systems at the camp. He ought to double check that the buildings weren’t at risk of a spontaneous explosion.
“We’ll be back,” Mrs. T said, wobbling.
Daniel shot the deputy a look.
Chip offered Mrs. T his arm.
She blushed and accepted it. “Thank you.”
Daniel was glad Emma had a chance to speak with Owen alone.
Now that she understood the situation better—the complex dynamics of what action he could and couldn’t take given his job—he prayed she’d get some answers.
Daniel remained anxious to interview Owen, but this meeting was vital, too. Patience must win.
At the automatic doors, Chip and Mrs. T exited together. Mr. T parked the car out front. Daniel waved to the trio as they drove off.
A bulb flickered in the fluorescent light overhead. The tube popped. The rest of the lights on the floor darkened. Then every machine beeped and booped as a hazy red light illuminated the floor. The emergency system came online.
A nurse pushed past him.
Daniel stood in the corridor, scanning up and down the long hall as doctors and nurses scrambled to help patients. He strode back to Owen’s room, not wanting to impede any of the caregivers but needing to be present.
At the door, he heard the too loud continuous beep of the heart monitor. Owen coded.
Daniel crunched glass under his shoes. The window had been shot out? Was Emma safe? He darted his gaze into the room. She stood at Owen’s side, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Are you okay?” he shouted.
“Yes,” she answered.
But Owen wasn’t. Daniel strode down the hall, scanning for any suspicious behavior.
A nurse glanced over their shoulder, fully masked like they should be in an operating room but wearing dirty shoes.
“Hey, wait!” Daniel shouted at the retreating figure.
The out of place nurse broke into a run, something tucked into the back waistband. A firearm?
Daniel tore off after the figure, scratch that, suspect. He couldn’t be sure if the slight person was a man or a woman, but they moved with speed and precision. Like they’d planned and practiced this event.
“Dispatch. I’m in pursuit an armed suspect up the south stairwell of the hospital,” Daniel yelled into his radio. “Requesting backup.”
He needed to lock down the building. Nothing could be done for Owen. Emma was in danger. Was she okay? Had she been the target of the shot through the glass?
Daniel focused on the chase. He burst through the door to the stairs and followed the clattering footsteps echoing from above. He raced to the top, panting heavily. On the fifth floor, the top, he came upon nothing. Still under renovation, the level better resembled a construction site.
Drawing his weapon, Daniel prowled, pulling aside every plastic curtain, peering into every corner, and finding nothing.
“Sheriff, this is dispatch,” a voice called over the radio. “Deputy Jones is en route. Hospital security has been alerted.”
“I lost the suspect,” he radioed back. “We have an armed and dangerous killer on the loose.”
“Description?”
“Approximately five foot three inches. White. Possibly connected with the red sedan from the hit and run.” He sighed and holstered his weapon.
Yep, in this case the description of bumbling country law enforcement fit him.
If he could find the car, he’d be that much closer to answers.
With so many undeveloped patches of land, and no traffic cameras, he couldn’t have eyes on every inch of his patch.
Could this all be to draw attention and protection off Margaux?
“Dispatch, alert Deputy Wells. Tell him to stick close to the congressman’s wife. ”
“Got it.”
Daniel needed to focus and eliminate the distractions.
Get to what was really happening. Determine the motive and stop following three steps behind the killer.
He grabbed his phone and called the new contact.
He wasn’t too proud to call in help, and he was in over his head here, dealing with a level of pre-meditation and sophistication he hadn’t fathomed.
“Agent Reynolds.”
“Hello, this is Sheriff Daniel Goodwin in Shaunitoc, Wisconsin,” Daniel said.