When Questions Abound

by Lorana Hoopes

  “If we can get this Rico, the Chicago chief would be very grateful,” Stone said joining the conversation.

  “We’ll keep doing our best,” Jordan said.

  Chapter 7

  Jordan stopped by the hospital on his way home in hopes of catching Brody on his way out. Until he was sure Tia was innocent, he felt safer sharing his intel with Brody and letting him decide how much to pass on. He obviously had a better idea of who Tia was since he saw her every day.

  “Detective, did you find out anything more about the flowers?” Brody asked as he approached.

  Jordan pushed himself off Brody’s car and glanced around the empty lot. “Unfortunately not. They were purchased at the gift shop here, but paid for in cash. The clerk couldn’t remember who purchased them, and there’s no camera that points that direction. We do have some new intel though. It appears Rico Rearden may be involved in drug trafficking over in Chicago. He didn’t come up on our initial radar because he doesn’t deal here, but it looks like he might hold meetings here and use his publishing business as a front.”

  “Do you think Tia was helping him move drugs?” Emotions struggled across Brody’s face as if he didn’t want to believe Tia could be involved in criminal behavior.

  While Jordan didn’t believe Tia was a criminal, he had worked on the force long enough to know that sometimes people weren’t as they seemed. “We don’t know what to think. It’s possible she was involved though nothing in her background suggests it. It’s more probable she was there for the meeting she had scheduled and may have stumbled across a secret meeting. Either way, we need to keep a close eye on her. She may not be as innocent as we think.”

  Brody shook his head. “Okay, thanks Jordan, I’ll do my best.”

  Jordan nodded and returned to his car. He had another late shift tonight at Fire Dreams, but Cassidy had promised to stop by after her shift and he was looking forward to seeing her. He felt like he hadn’t seen her in days.

  “Well, I didn’t think I’d beat you in here,” she said with a smile as he stepped behind the counter area. The restaurant didn’t serve alcohol, but he and Graham had wanted a counter area where people could sit and be served quickly.

  He leaned in and placed a quick kiss on her lips. “I’m sure glad you did. How was work?”

  “Slow thankfully,” she said. As a firefighter, her job was a lot like his, nicer when it was slow. “I cleaned the truck today, broke up a bickering argument between Luca and Deacon, and avoided kitchen duty, so all in all, a good day.”

  “That’s good. I’m glad to hear it. When this case gets settled, how about we plan a movie night?”

  She smiled at him. “That sounds delicious, Detective Graves. So, how is your case coming along? How is the woman?”

  Jordan glanced around to make sure no one else was listening to their conversation, but thankfully tonight the counter area was slow. Most of the patrons had chosen booths or tables out in the main restaurant, and Cassidy was the sole patron at the counter.

  “She is recovering though she has memory loss. Someone’s already tried to kill her, and I don’t think the accident was an accident. I just worry something worse is going to happen, but I can’t be at the hospital all day to protect her either. I asked for a security guard for her, but I worry that it still isn’t enough.”

  Cassidy laid a hand on his arm. “I am sure you are doing all that you can.”

  He hoped so, but if he was, why did it still seem as if it wasn’t enough?

  Chapter 8

  Jordan sighed as the fingerprint report came across his computer. Nothing. Just as he’d expected. This case was a plethora of questions with no answers.

  “Nothing?” Al asked.

  “No fingerprints,” Jordan said as his phone rang. He pulled it out and punched the answer call button. “Detective Graves.”

  “Jordan? It’s Brody Cavanaugh at Fire Beach Hospital. We are in lockdown. A code silver was reported a few moments ago in the ICU. I am locked in the bathroom in room six with Tia.”

  Jordan sucked in his breath surprised at how calm Brody sounded. “I’m on my way. Do you know what the weapon is?”

  “No, I haven’t seen anything. I locked the door per protocol as soon as the announcement was made.”

  “Understood. I’m going to transfer you to a dispatch operator, and I want you to stay on the line until I get there.”

  “I’ll try, but we’re in the bathroom and I only had two bars. I don’t know if they’ll hold…..”

  “Brody? Brody?” Jordan held the phone out and looked at the screen. “Grab your stuff, Al. We need to get to the hospital.”

  “What’s going on?” Stone asked entering the room.

  “Brody just called. There’s a cold silver at the hospital.”

  “Go,” he said with a wave of his hand.

  Jordan rushed out of the room with Al close on his heels.

  “Do we even know what we’re getting into?” Al asked as they climbed into his car.

  “I’m not sure. Brody couldn’t see the weapon or the perpetrator, so we go in carefully, and we check with security first. Hopefully, they put someone outside her room.” He flicked the button to turn on the lights and siren and pressed his foot on the accelerator.

  The parking lot looked no different when they arrived, and Jordan wondered how they handled Code Silvers. Did everyone lock down in individual rooms as Brody did? Or was there another procedure for other areas? He realized he had no idea, and he probably should. After this case, he would familiarize himself with the hospital’s procedures.

  The main hospital entrance opened for them, but the security guard there accosted them before they got very far. “Are you here about the Code Silver?”

  “We are. Do we need to do anything special?”

  The security guard shook his head. “Tom is covering the door from inside. I’ll radio him when we get there to let you in.”

  Jordan and Al followed the security guard, whose nametag read Roger, down the hall to the ICU. The doors were indeed locked, but after a quick conversation with the guard inside, the door opened and the security guard ushered them in. Jordan scanned the area as he stepped in.

  Most of the patient room doors were closed. A doctor, a nurse, and another security guard hovered around a patient who held a scalpel in his hands. Was this the code silver?

  Cautiously, he and Al approached the small group. “Is there anything we can do to help?” Jordan asked.

  At the sound of his voice, the patient turned to look at Jordan, and the nurse jammed a syringe in his arm. The patient cried out in surprise or pain, Jordan wasn’t sure which, but he dropped the scalpel and folded to the floor.

  “Looks like you already did,” the doctor said. “Thank you.”

  “Was that it? That was the Code Silver?” Al asked.

  The doctor turned confused eyes on her. “Did you want it to be worse?”

  “No,” Jordan said jumping in, “It’s just we received a call from Dr. Cavanaugh. Since there had already been an attempt on his patient’s life, we assumed it was another one.”

  “Thankfully not. We’ll make the announcement that the Code Silver is lifted, but you can go rescue Dr. Cavanaugh now,” the nurse said.

  Jordan wasted no time. He hurried over to Tia’s room, but the door was locked. “Dr. Cavanaugh,” he hollered pounding on the door, “you can open up.”

  Al tapped him on the shoulder to grab his attention. “Hold on there, Hulk. Let me get the key.”

  Jordan watched her walk over to the nurse and return with the woman a moment later. The nurse produced a master key from her pocket and opened the room for him. Silence greeted them, and Jordan wondered if there had been more to the Code Silver that maybe the doctor and nurse didn’t know about.

  Then he remembered Brody stating they were hiding in the bathroom. He crossed the room in three strides and pounded on the bathroom door. “Dr. Cavanaugh? Open up. It’s Detective Graves.”


  A moment later, the lock clicked and the door opened. Tia lay in the bathtub with her injured ankle propped up on the side, and both she and Brody blinked against the bright lights.

  “Is it safe to come out then?” Brody asked.

  “It is,” Jordan said, “Evidently, it was a patient who suffered a psychiatric break and grabbed a scalpel off a tray.”

  “I’m sorry,” Brody said, “after our conversation-”

  “You were right to do what you did,” Jordan assured him. “We still haven’t found the driver of the black truck or who sent Tia those flowers, and what you did made perfect sense. However, unless you need further assistance, we’ll get back to work on finding the suspects.”

  “Wait, Detective Graves?” Jordan turned to Tia and waited. “I remembered more. I was there to see Rico about a publishing opportunity, but I turned it down when I found out he was married and looking for an affair. He kicked me out, but I had forgotten my purse. When I returned, he shoved me in a closet. I heard men’s voices arguing, and I thought perhaps they were reporters out for a story on me which is why I ran when I did.”

  “Did you see any of the men? Do you remember anything about them?”

  “Not their faces. When I stepped out of the closet, I looked left. They were on the balcony, but it was dark outside. I couldn’t see their faces, but I felt the icy hatred in their gaze when they saw me. I didn’t think they had followed me at first, but then lights blinded me on the road. I slowed down thinking maybe it was just teenagers out for a joy ride, but when they didn’t pass me, I figured they had followed me after all. Then the truck hit me.”

  Jordan’s face hardened and he exchanged a glance with Brody. “Okay, thank you, Tia. We’ll look into all of this and let you know what we find. Do the two of you need anything else?”

  “I think we’ll be fine,” Brody said. The look he flashed Tia held more than concern, and Jordan wondered if a relationship might bloom between the two of them.

  “Do you think we’re looking for two cars then?” Al asked as they exited the room.

  Jordan shook his head. “I have no idea, but I suppose we have to assume so. Everything we learn about this case just brings more questions.”

  “That’s true, but we haven’t even found the black truck yet. How do we find a second vehicle when we have no idea what it was?”

  Jordan didn’t know. He just didn’t know.

  Chapter 9

  Jordan had just pulled into the parking lot of the police station when his phone rang again. His eyes widened as he looked at the number. “It’s Brody. Again.”

  “What? We just left.”

  Jordan nodded at her and then answered the phone. “Brody? What’s going on?”

  “Sorry to bother you, Jordan, but Tia just informed me she had a new nurse yesterday.”

  “Okay, I’m not following,” Jordan said.

  “I didn’t assign a new nurse. Maybe it’s nothing, but it’s the second time I’ve heard about this new nurse. One of our volunteers told me a new nurse tried to keep her from reading to the patients the other day, and Tia confirmed it was the same woman.”

  With any other case, Jordan might consider this information innocuous, but he wasn’t going to count anything out in this case. “I’ll be right there.”

  He ended the call and turned to Al. “Go tell Stone what we’ve found. Brody says there’s a woman I need to check into – might be nothing but definitely suspicious.”

  “Be sure and watch your back,” Al said as she stepped out of the car.

  “Always do,” Jordan said before she shut the door. Then he pointed the car back to the hospital.

  “So, tell me about this woman,” Jordan said when he was back in Tia’s room.

  “She’s got shoulder length dark hair, olive skin, and brown eyes. She wasn’t wearing a name tag when she came in, so I don’t know what name she is going by, but she looks young. Under thirty probably,” Tia said.

  “All right, we’ll inform the guard to let no one in,” Jordan began.

  “We need to allow one nurse,” Brody said, “to check on Tia if necessary.”

  “Okay, one nurse, but no one else,” Jordan agreed though it didn’t sit well with him. “Not until we find this woman and get her story.”

  “Agreed. Sit tight, Tia. We’ll be back soon.”

  Even Brody’s words didn’t erase the apprehensive look from Tia’s face, but she agreed.

  After a quick stop to inform the security guard not to allow anyone but Sophie into the room, Jordan and Brody set off in search of the mystery woman. Jordan wished they had a picture of the woman, but Tia couldn’t travel quickly enough and the volunteer wasn’t at the hospital.

  They started in the ICU first, but after a glance into every patient room and the break room, no dark-haired unknown nurse appeared.

  “Where to next?” Jordan asked. Brody was much more familiar with the hospital than he was.

  “Let’s check the surrounding areas and their break rooms. If she’s after Tia, I doubt she will wander too far from ICU.”

  They moved to the department closest to ICU, but it did not reveal the woman in question either. However, as they turned the corner to the break room, a dark-haired woman exited and headed away from them.

  “Stop,” Jordan called.

  The woman glanced back at them, and her eyes widened before she took off running down the hall. Jordan bolted after her, turning his head just long enough to holler back to Brody, “Go check on Tia.”

  As he ran, he grabbed his phone and punched the number to reach Al. “Al, get over to the hospital and bring backup.” He hung up before she could ask questions and shoved the phone back in his pocket. The woman was fast, and she had just burst through the stairwell door. He pushed it open behind her, hoping the woman wasn’t carrying a gun. She looked up as the door opened, and it caused her to miss a step. She stumbled down the last two, falling into the wall and allowing Jordan to catch up with her.

  “You’re under arrest,” he said pulling her hands behind her back and slapping on a pair of handcuffs. “Want to tell me why you ran?”

  She shot him an icy glare but pulled her mouth into a tight line.

  “Fine. You’ll talk to us soon, although anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.” He continued spouting the Miranda rights as he led her back toward ICU.

  “Detective Graves, we have another one for you,” the security guard said as Jordan entered the ICU.

  “Another one?”

  “Yes, a man tried to take out Tia’s security guard and then her with a syringe full of insulin. Thankfully Dr. Cavanaugh arrived in time. They are both recovering.”

  Jordan shook his head. How had this gotten so crazy so fast? “Where is he?”

  “In the security office,” the man said, “waiting for you.”

  Al and Stone appeared before Jordan could head that direction, and he filled them in.

  “Let’s pick him up and get them processed,” Stone said taking charge of the unknown woman.

  Jordan pulled out his phone when they reached the security office and snapped a picture of both the man and the woman. “I’ll meet you guys back at the station. I’m going to see if our clerk can identify either of these two.”

  Stone nodded and Jordan headed back toward the gift shop. Relief filled him when he found the same young man from earlier still behind the counter. He wasn’t sure what the hours of the gift shop were or how long his shift was, but God was on his side today.

  “Hey, remember me?” he asked as he approached the counter.

  He looked up, stashing his phone under some papers. “Yeah, sure, what can I do for you?”

  “I want to show you two photos and see if either of these people might be the ones who bought flowers for room six.”

  “Okay, I can try.”

  Jordan pulled up the picture of
the man and then turned his phone toward the clerk. He scrunched his eyes at it but shook his head.

  “Sorry, he doesn’t look familiar.”

  “All right, how about her?” He flicked to the picture of the woman and repeated the process.

  The clerk nodded. “Yeah, she looks familiar. Only she wasn’t wearing a nurse’s uniform. I would have remembered that.”

  “Thank you. You’ve been very helpful,” Jordan said before exiting the gift shop. Whoever the woman was, she was involved in this case somehow.

  “I’ve got names,” Al said, a note of triumph in her voice. She stood and walked over to the white board. “Meet Adrian and Susanna Petrov.” Al scribbled the names quickly above the pictures. “Adrian Petrov is the leader of a large gang in Chicago, and Narcotics believes he is the head of a drug organization.”

  “I’ve got an address too,” Jordan added as his computer pulled up the information. “233 Palisades Drive. Oh, and guess what Adrian drives?”

  “I’m going to go out on a limb and say a black truck,” Stone supplied. “Okay, you two go check out the place. Take Albright and Givens with you. I’ll stay here and see what I can get from the Petrovs.”

  The four cops nodded at each other and headed out. Jordan was beginning to feel as if he spent more time on the road than at his desk lately.

  233 Palisades Drive was a large two-story house on the outskirts of town. Jordan doubted they would meet resistance, but they went out with guns drawn anyway. They didn’t have a search warrant yet, but the garage had windows and the view inside revealed a black Ford truck. Enough probable cause for a closer look.

  Albright got the side door opened and they stepped inside. “I’d say this is your vehicle.”

  Jordan stared at the dented front end and smiled. Adrian had obviously tried to have it fixed, but there was enough damage and a few conspicuous flecks of red paint remaining that he was sure this was the vehicle they were looking for. He’d finally be able to tell Tia it was over.