Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Did you see that they found another body?”
Audrey shot Brandi a confused glance as she closed the door of the fridge and propped one hip against the counter. “What?”
Nate used his fork to point toward the small flat-screen TV hanging on the wall of the break room. “Have you seen this yet?”
Brandi thumbed the button on the remote to turn up the volume. On the screen, a perky blonde reporter relayed details of a police investigation into a body that had been found along the edge of the river. Nate sat there, riveted to the TV.
“Unreal.” Audrey shook her head in commiseration. This made three—and everyone knew what that meant. For the next few moments, they watched the segment. Investigations into all three of the victims’ deaths were ongoing, but there was no mention of them being connected.
Audrey pondered that for a moment. Really, how couldn’t they be?
Maybe it was her nature to suspect the worst, but bodies weren’t just found in the woods every day, especially not so close to one another.
And she’d bet her left hand that the other remains would show the same brutality the first victim had—the amputated fingers, the missing teeth.
It could, of course, be a complete coincidence.
Maybe they hadn’t released the details so as to not spark a panic.
That made more sense than anything. She trusted the police to do their job and keep people safe.
It was hard to tell, too, just what was happening until they identified the victims and determined an actual cause of death.
Was there a connection between them—a similar motive for killing them?
The first victim had been identified only days before as Mr. Robert Tripp.
The second body had yet to be identified, as they were still working on a composite for the man.
He’d been found only two miles from the cornfield where Audrey had found Mr. Tripp, but what remained of the corpse was so badly decomposed that the police suspected the person—another male, according to the preliminary investigation—had actually been abducted and killed prior to Mr. Tripp.
Between the heat and the animals, a body wouldn’t last too long in nature, but the police had evidently found enough to piece together most of a cadaver.
According to the reporter, they had yet to identify the man.
Though she didn’t say as much, Audrey wondered if that was because, like in the case of Mr. Tripp, all distinguishing characteristics had been removed.
A searing anger shot through her. Whoever it was had medical training, probably a surgeon.
Doctors were supposed to help people, protect them—instead, someone was taking it upon themselves to hunt down innocent citizens of Miami for their own personal gain.
Black market organs went for a pretty penny—some sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Bastard,” she murmured. Three sets of eyes swiveled toward her, and she pointed to the screen. “There is no excuse for something like this. I hope they find the person responsible.”
Brandi’s eyes turned sad. “You never expect things like this to happen in your hometown, to people you know.”
That was an understatement. Bad things happened everywhere, but this was too much.
“Do you remember Mr. Tripp?” Nate asked.
Brandi shrugged. “Only vaguely. I know he was in here a couple times.”
No longer hungry, Audrey tossed her sandwich back in the fridge and headed to her office, where she closed the door and sank down in her chair.
The thought of something like this happening so close to home made her sick, and a shiver raced down her spine.
Not that it was any consolation, but the victims so far had been male.
Hopefully, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about, but that didn’t mean she would let her guard down at all until they figured out who was behind the killings and why.
She desperately hoped they would ID the second and third victims soon.
Maybe the police would get lucky and find a definitive connection and catch the killer.
That would at least give the families some closure.
She couldn’t imagine something like that happening to someone close to her.
Hannah’s incident was bad enough. It had been horrible, seeing her story on the news the morning after she and Carter had—
At the mere memory of him, her heart twisted in her chest. He’d tried to call her a couple times, but she’d ignored him each time, unable to bring herself to speak with him. The thought of him with that girl tore her heart to shreds.
He’d startled her by accusing her of being on a date, and she’d immediately gotten defensive.
Everything had gone downhill from there.
He’d stormed off at the sight of Mason, heading for the bar near the front of the restaurant.
After dinner, she’d headed in that direction to speak with him.
She at least wanted him to hear her side of the story.
As it turned out, he’d already turned his attention elsewhere.
Beautiful, big boobs, hand possessively on his thigh.
She couldn’t get the image of that woman out of her mind.
It was just like Scott’s indiscretion, but worse somehow.
Seeing them together reminded her of why she refused to let another man in.
She knew it was irrational, but she couldn’t help it. Though she’d been the one to push him away, subconsciously she wanted him to care about her the same way she was beginning to care about him.
Rising from her chair, she pushed her negative thoughts away and wandered toward the nurses’ station. Stella was headed toward her at a fast clip, her brow furrowed with concern.
Audrey lifted her brows in question. “Everything okay?”
“I just got off the phone with Mr. Cross a little while ago. He called with chest pains, and I suspected it was a heart attack. I went ahead and called dispatch and had them pick him up, then reached out to his emergency contact.”
“Good,” Audrey said, relieved. “Thank you.”
They walked back to station A side by side, and Audrey leaned her elbows on the counter. “Who do I have next?”
“McPherson, room 104.”
“Thanks.”
Audrey took care of her next patient, but she couldn’t get Mr. Cross off her mind. She could call the hospital to check with the attending physician, or… She leaned her elbows on the counter at the nurses’ station.
“Stella, what else is scheduled for this afternoon?”
Stella clicked through the system. “Dr. Kellerman has a patient at 4:20, but that’s it for the day unless we have any walk-ins.”
Audrey chewed on her lower lip. “Still haven’t heard anything about Cross?”
Stella shook her head. “Not yet.”
Audrey checked the clock hanging over the desk on the wall. “I’m going to head over, see how he’s holding up. I assume you already sent a copy of his chart to the hospital?”
Stella nodded. “Taken care of.”
“Awesome, thanks again. I’ll see you in the morning.” Audrey headed toward the back of the office and shrugged out of her lab coat, then grabbed her purse and locked up before heading toward Dr. Kellerman’s office. She froze in the hallway as the sound of angry voices met her ears.
“I swear, I never meant for any of that to happen.” She recognized Dr. Kellerman’s voice.
“Like that makes it any better.” The second voice sounded bitter and resentful.
“I’m sorry. Believe me when I say I tried—”
“That’s not good enough!”
“You’ll never know how sorry I am.”
“You think you can apologize and make all of this go away?”
Make what go away? Audrey bit her lip and leaned infinitesimally closer.
The man paused, and she imagined him seething, shaking his head. “It’s too late for that.”
“Please, I—”
“You’ll pay for this.”
The man’s parting words punctuated his exit, and Audrey jumped out of the way as he stormed out of Kellerman’s office.
He seemed taken aback to see her standing right outside, but he gathered himself quickly and continued down the hallway.
She peeked her head around the doorway and saw Dr. Kellerman with his elbows braced on the desk, head resting in his hands.
He looked more saddened than concerned by the threat, and sympathy tugged at her.
“Everything okay?”
His head jerked up, and his startled eyes met hers. “Yeah, yeah.” He waved it off. “Loss is hard. Sometimes people just…”
So, this was a patient they were discussing, someone who hadn’t survived. “It never gets easier, does it?”
He shook his head, his expression sad. “No, it doesn’t.”
Silence descended for a second, and Audrey cleared her throat. “I’ve got a patient over at Memorial. I’m gonna head out and check on him.”
“No problem.” He offered her a strained smile.
The drive to Memorial passed slowly as she battled the afternoon traffic, and she let out a little sigh of relief when she finally pulled into the multilevel parking deck.
She headed straight for the ER and took her place behind an elderly couple as she waited to speak with the nurse on duty.
She offered her a smile when she got to the window, then flashed her badge.
“I’m Dr. Audrey Stanton from over at the VA.
I believe one of my patients, John Cross, was just admitted here a couple of hours ago. ”
She checked the system, then nodded. “They just moved him up to the fourth floor. He’s in room 416.”
“Thank you.” Audrey shot her a smile, then headed toward the metal detector to pass through into the main portion of the hospital. The elevator was just getting ready to close when an older man stuck his hand out and stopped the doors, allowing her to step inside.