When Questions Abound

by Lorana Hoopes

“Yes, she didn’t remember the woman, but she hasn’t remembered much. Why? Is that a bad thing?”

  Agitation filled Jordan. He would never solve this case if they didn’t give him all the information. “It could be. We asked her to call us if anything else happened. We need to know everything if we are going to figure this out. I can’t believe she didn’t tell us she had a visitor. Did you get the woman’s name?”

  Brody shook his head. “No, sorry, I was a little busy, but I can ask tomorrow.”

  “I’ll go over myself tomorrow to ask, but please, Brody, we can’t help if we don’t know everything. Even if it seems trivial.”

  Brody gave a curt nod. “I understand. It seems she gets a few pieces of her memory back every day. Maybe we’ll know more in a day or two.”

  Jordan ran a hand across his chin. “Let’s hope that’s soon enough, but please keep an eye on her and call me if you learn anything. I just have a bad feeling about all of this.”

  Chapter 4

  “So, I hear you had a visitor yesterday,” Jordan said as he entered Tia’s room.

  She looked up at him in surprise. “I did. How did you…?”

  “I ran into Dr. Cavanaugh last night. I thought we told you to call us.”

  “You asked me to call you if I remembered anything else. I didn’t remember Debra. She said we were friends and brought me my purse.”

  Jordan sighed as he realized she was right. Next time they would have to be more specific. “Wait, did you say she brought you your purse?”

  Tia pointed to the nearby table. “I didn’t remember much from it either before you ask. I remember buying it at a shop, and I remembered attending a movie and what kind of coffee I drink. Nothing that would change the world.”

  “I’m going to need to examine your purse and its contents,” Jordan said, plucking the purse from the table.

  Tia took a deep breath, and her eye shifted. “I did remember one more thing. Well, at least I think I did.”

  “What’s that?”

  “There’s a note in the purse with the name Rico Rearden and a time on it. I think I was visiting him and not Debra.”

  Interesting. “Why would Debra lie about that?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I was visiting them both and just remember him?”

  Jordan doubted that. More likely Debra was lying about something. The question was what? “Tia, I really need you to call me or have Dr. Cavanaugh contact me if anything else happens. We can’t protect you if we don’t know everything.”

  “I understand.”

  Jordan wasn’t sure she did, but he hoped so. There were already enough questions in this case. He didn’t need anymore. “I’ll bring this back after we process it,” he said holding up the purse. “Remember, anything else.”

  “I promise.”

  He shook his head as he walked out of her room and back to his car. He loved his job but dealing with a woman who remembered nothing was definitely proving challenging especially if someone was out to get her.

  “Nice purse,” Al said as he set the bag down on his desk.

  He shot her a smirk. “Very funny. It’s not mine. It’s Tia’s. Evidently, a visitor dropped it off to her yesterday. A visitor she neglected to tell us about.”

  “We better get to work on that name before Stone finds out.”

  She didn’t have to tell Jordan twice. “Okay, you take the name Debra and Rico Rearden. I’m going to go through the bag and see if I can get any fingerprints.” While he suspected the only fingerprints he would find would belong to Tia and Debra, he wanted to make sure nothing else slipped past him.

  “Wait, what? Yeah, I’ll be right there.” Jordan shook his head as he ended the call.

  “What was that about?” Al asked.

  Jordan sighed and ran his hand across his chin. “Evidently Debra came back to the hospital today. With a gun.”

  Al’s eyes widened. “What?”

  “Yeah, she tried to kill Tia. She’s claiming Tia was having an affair with Rico, her husband.” Jordan shook his head, not sure how this had gone south so quickly. “Stone is going to lose it. Keep digging while I go pick her up. Maybe that will at least help.”

  Jordan grabbed his keys. He felt like he had just left the hospital and here he was going back once again.

  He pulled into the lot and hurried into the hospital, heading directly for the security office. Debra Rearden sat with her hands cuffed and resting in her lap. A blank expression lay on her face.

  “Has she said anything?” Jordan asked as he signed the paperwork to take custody of Debra.

  The security guard shook his head. “Not since we dragged her from the room. She said plenty in the room though. Dr. Cavanaugh wrote up a statement already.” He handed it across the table.

  Jordan scanned it before folding it and placing it in his pocket. “Thank you. Can you get a security guard posted outside Tia Sweetchild’s room?”

  “That might be challenging,” the security guard said with an apologetic grin, “we’re short staffed as it is.”

  “Look, station someone there, and I’ll see if the police department can help with the cost.” He hoped Stone would okay the cost but figured with the attempt on Tia’s life that he would find it somehow. Jordan turned to the woman. “Let’s go, Debra.”

  She stared at him with cool eyes, but didn’t budge, forcing him to haul her up. “You want to tell me why you tried to kill Tia Sweetchild?”

  Her answer was a tilt of her chin into the air. Well, Jordan wouldn’t push her - Stone would get the information he needed when he took a turn at questioning her.

  Debra said nothing on the ride to the station. Nor did she say a word as Jordan processed her and led her toward the holding cell.

  “What the heck happened this morning, Jordan?” Stone’s angry voice filled the room after Jordan returned from placing Debra in the holding cell.

  Jordan shook his head. It wasn’t his fault, but Stone didn’t often care about fault, he cared about results. “Tia didn’t call us when the woman visited yesterday. I found out about her late last night from Brody and went in this morning to talk to her, but we were still running her background.”

  “Our job is to stay on top of this, not clean up messes.”

  Jordan nodded and shot a look at Al. She had briefed him on his way back with Debra. “I understand, sir. We’ve been working since I returned this morning, and we do have some information. Debra Rearden is clean, but she is married to Rico Rearden.”

  Stone’s eyes narrowed. “Rico Rearden? Why does his name sound familiar?”

  “Because his name has appeared on a few narcotics searches. So far, they haven’t been able to pin anything on him, but they think he might be involved in a drug trafficking ring.”

  “A drug dealer? What was our amnesic author doing with a drug dealer?”

  “We’re still working on that,” Al said, “but Rico also owns a publishing company – PressBooks, LLC. It’s possible Tia didn’t know he was a dealer and was meeting with him about a publishing opportunity.”

  Stone stalked around the board perusing the evidence. “And what about the black truck?”

  Jordan shook his head. “No luck on that so far. Rico owns a Mercedes and a Mustang and Debra drives a Firebird. No black truck registered in either of their names.”

  “So, we have nothing?” Frustration flooded Stone’s voice and his eyes as he turned back to them.

  “We’ll keep digging.”

  “You do that. I’ll talk to Debra,” he said as he turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.

  Chapter 5

  Jordan sighed as he headed out of the office for the night. He still didn’t have as much information as he would like, but he had promised Graham to help out at Fire Dreams tonight. He didn’t really feel like a shift, but a promise was a promise. Surprise flooded him as he pushed open the door and found himself face to face with Brody. “Brody? What are you doing here?”

  “I was hop
ing I could talk to you about Tia and the woman from the hospital earlier.”

  Jordan looked over his shoulder and then back at Brody. Stone wouldn’t care that he filled the doctor in, but there was no need to share where other ears could hear. “Not here. I’m headed over to Fire Dreams. Meet me there and I’ll tell you what I know, but it isn’t much.”

  Ten minutes later they sat in a booth. Jordan had procured a glass of water for each of them along with a basket of chips and persuaded Graham he would only be a minute. Still, the place was hopping, having recovered nicely from the spoiled opening a few days before; and Jordan kept glancing around, realizing he should be helping rather than sitting and talking.

  “So, the lady from the hospital is indeed Debra Rearden. If you or Tia had told us about her yesterday, we could have looked into her sooner and possibly avoided the murder attempt. She’s clean, but her husband, Rico, has a few questionable connections.”

  “What kind of questionable connections?” Brody asked.

  “On paper, he’s the head of a publishing company which might explain the connection to Tia, but we’ve found some unusual activity with some known drug dealers. Nothing that points to him being directly involved, and Narcotics has never been able to pin anything on him, but we’re widening our search to be sure.”

  Brody nodded and snagged a chip. “Drugs? Really? Tia said she had a meeting with Rico, but she doesn’t seem like the type to be into drug deals.”

  Jordan took a sip of his water. “Maybe she isn’t, but I did a little more research on her today. It appears she stayed under the radar. At least recently. Evidently a few months ago, she kind of lost it after trying to damage the reputation of a fellow romance author, Ava McDermott. She sent photos to tabloids and appeared on a few talk shows claiming the relationship Ava was in was a fake one. I don’t know why anyone would fake a relationship, but maybe if you are a public figure, it’s more important.”

  Brody nearly choked on his chip. “What? I can’t see her doing that.”

  Jordan shrugged. “Well, maybe the head injury changed her, or maybe she changed after the incident. She failed to do much except soil her own reputation. Regardless, it’s clear Tia did know Rico. There’s no other reason Debra would have come after her. Perhaps she was talking to him about new publishing opportunities. We just don’t know any more than that.”

  “Is there a chance she was having an affair with him as his wife claimed?” Brody asked before taking a drink of his water.

  Jordan hadn’t found anything pointing to an affair, but there was still so much they didn’t know. “That I can’t speak to. Yet. But we’ll be looking into Rico more.” He shook some salt on a chip before stuffing it into his mouth.

  “And what about the black truck. Did it belong to Debra?”

  Jordan shook his head as he finished chewing. “No, neither she nor her husband appear to own one.”

  “So, someone might still be after Tia.”

  “It’s possible or it could just be that the accident was just that. An accident.”

  “But you don’t believe that, do you?” Brody asked.

  “No, I don’t. It’s just a gut feeling, but I don’t. I’ve talked with the hospital about posting a security guard outside her door as well.” Jordan looked around again and waved at Graham behind the counter area who was shooting him a glare. “I have to help out here, but I promise to keep you in the loop of what we find.”

  “Thank you,” Brody said as Jordan stood.

  Jordan nodded and hurried over to Graham. “Sorry, it was about the case.”

  “It always is,” Graham said with a sigh, “but Jordan if we are going to make this restaurant work, I need your help. I need you here mentally as well as physically.”

  “Got it.” This was exactly why Jordan hadn’t wanted to open a restaurant. Maybe if the restaurant continued to do well, they could hire more help, giving him more time off. Between work and Cassidy, he just didn’t have a lot of time to spare.

  Chapter 6

  Jordan leaned back and rubbed his eyes. He had been staring at the computer screen for hours trying to find out more about Tia and the Reardens, but nothing was popping up. No other connection beside the publishing company, and even that was a guess.

  “Coming up empty over there?” Al asked from across the desk.

  “Yeah, crickets.” Thankfully, Stone had forgotten about the deadline after the attempt on Tia’s life, but Jordan was starting to wonder if his gut was wrong, and the accident was really just an accident.

  Beside him, his cell phone rang. He glanced down surprised to see a number he didn’t recognize. “Detective Graves,” he said after punching the answer button.

  “Jordan? It’s Brody. Tia received some flowers this morning, and I think you need to come and see the card.”

  “The card is suspicious?”

  “Yes, I’m going to take her for a short walk, and then we’ll be back.” Brody’s voice remained calm as if he was trying not to scare Tia any more than she already had been.

  “I’ll be right there.”

  “Back to the hospital?” Al asked glancing up at him.

  “Yes, Brody said Tia received suspicious flowers. I shouldn’t be long.”

  When Jordan arrived at the hospital, he once again declared himself before heading to Tia’s room. The flowers were on the table, but an examination of them revealed nothing out of the ordinary. However, the note left by her bed was another matter entirely. There were no words on the card, only a human face with its eyes and mouth sewed shut. It was creepy to say the very least.

  “Where do these flowers come from?” he asked when Brody and Tia returned to the room a moment later.

  “From the gift shop downstairs usually or from outside sources,” Brody said as he wheeled Tia back to the bed.

  “And how do they get delivered?”

  Brody held out his hand and helped Tia stand and get situated back in the bed. “An orderly generally brings them to the floor and then either delivers them or gives them to the nurses to deliver.”

  “Valerie brought mine in,” Tia supplied.

  Jordan glanced over at her before turning his attention back to Brody. “I’m going to need to speak with her as well.”

  “Fine, I’ll introduce you.” Brody turned back to Tia. “I’ll check on you before I leave for the night.”

  Jordan followed Brody out of the room and into the main ICU area. “That’s Valerie there, the one with the dark hair,” Brody said pointing. “Valerie? Can we have a moment?”

  Valerie looked up at them, questions in her eyes, but she made her way over to them.

  “The flowers you delivered to Tia Sweetchild this morning. How did they get here?” Jordan asked.

  “An orderly brought them up as they do every day. I distributed them to the correct rooms. Why?” Her gaze fluttered from Brody to Jordan and back again.

  Jordan shot Brody a silencing look. It would be better to keep the information on the card to as few people as possible. “I just need to investigate the situation a little more. Where is the gift shop?”

  “Downstairs,” Brody said. “I would show you myself, but I do need to check on the other patients.”

  “I’m sure I can find it,” Jordan said. “Thank you for your help, Valerie.”

  Jordan left the ICU and headed down to the gift shop. It was a small office-sized room stuffed full of baskets, animals, and balloons.

  “Can I help you?”

  Jordan looked over to see a young man, probably in his early twenties stand up from behind the small counter. He quickly stashed something in his pocket which Jordan assumed was a cell phone.

  “Yes, can you tell me who bought flowers for the woman in ICU room six today?” He pulled back his jacket so the clerk could see the badge on his jeans.

  “Um, I’m not sure, but let me look.” He tapped the screen on the tablet in front of him and scrolled with his finger. “Sorry, the person paid in cash. We only tak
e names if they pay with cards.”

  Jordan was not surprised. He hadn’t expected the person to leave a paper trail. “Do you happen to remember them?”

  The young man had the decency to look chagrined. “I’m sorry; I don’t. This is a part-time gig for me, just helping to pay for college.”

  “Is there a camera that looks into the shop?” Jordan tried to keep his patience with the young man.

  He shrugged and dropped his eyes to his lap. “You could check with security, but I just don’t know.”

  “Thank you.” Jordan was fairly certain that security would be a dead end as well, but he would be remiss if he didn’t at least ask.

  The security guard in the office today was not the same one from yesterday, and Jordan wondered briefly how many security guards the hospital employed.

  “Can I help you?” the man asked when Jordan entered.

  “Detective Jordan Graves. I was hoping to see camera footage that points to the gift shop.”

  “There is no camera on the gift shop,” the security guard said. “We don’t have a large enough budget to cover a lot of the areas, so the cameras are only in the high traffic areas - entrances and the like.”

  Jordan figured as much. After thanking the guard, he returned to the police station to see what progress Al had made.

  “Dead end on the flowers?” she asked.

  “Yeah, creepy card though.” He showed her the image nodding as she grimaced. “I’m going to send it to the lab for prints, but I doubt we’ll find any. Whoever this is, they’ve taken care to not be noticed. Paid cash too. Did you find anything else about Rico and Debra?”

  “A little.” Her eyes dropped to her computer screen. “Evidently Rico is quite the playboy. He’s had a string of women he’s paraded around places which explains why his wife was so angry. She probably thought Tia was one of those women. Narcotics said the Chicago office thinks he’s involved with some deals there, but they can’t prove any yet. They think this publishing company might be a front.”