Deadly Reckoning

by Robin Mahle

  “Right. See you all in the morning.” Walsh continued to his room.

  Kate walked inside, quickly followed by Nick. The door closed, leaving Quinn standing alone.

  Walsh was several feet away but stopped and turned to him. And with a keen eye, he began, “Be careful.”

  Quinn peered back at him, silently acknowledging his thinly veiled warning. He unlocked his door and walked inside.

  Anna Holmfirth was the nurse who ran the skeleton crew graveyard shift at the hospital. The job was usually quiet, except now there was a killer among them and Anna feared for her safety as much as anyone. Word had reached her too, that the Floyds were essentially under house arrest, but that didn’t put her mind at ease; not one bit. Anna made the rounds at the start of her shift. It was a small hospital, only two floors, and there weren’t many patients at the moment. She made her way along the first floor. Just four patients checked in and it was quick and painless. Waking them up to take their vitals was the worst of it. Anna started up the stairs and toward the second floor. She preferred taking the stairs to help keep her in shape. The chart she held in her hands indicated a young woman by the name of Lori Stewart had been brought in earlier in the day for a drug overdose. Not surprising. There were usually a handful of OD patients in the hospital at any given time. And she’d heard this girl was somehow related to the latest murder victim, which left her feeling even more anxious.

  She gently pushed open the door of the dark room and walked inside, her penlight illuminating the way. Her brow creased upon reaching the woman’s bedside. The monitors were dark, but no alarm had sounded to denote a problem. Anna flipped on the overhead light and looked at the woman. “Oh my God.” She grabbed her wrist and checked for a pulse. “Oh no. No, no.” She placed two fingers on the woman’s neck. Still no pulse. With her penlight, in one last vain attempt to confirm what she already knew, she shined the light into the woman’s eyes. No reaction. The woman was gone.

  Anna pressed the emergency button, but it would do no good. Lori Stewart had been gone too long.

  The chief’s cell phone rang next to his bed as he lay sleeping. He roused and reached for his reading glasses to identify the caller. “Tate here.”

  “I’m sorry to wake you, Chief. It’s Doc. Our OD patient from earlier? She’s gone. Lori Stewart passed away between the hours of 10pm and midnight tonight.”

  He sat up in bed. “What? How?”

  “Right now, it appears as though she died from asphyxiation. Possibly having choked on her own vomit. We’ll need to do an autopsy to confirm, but that’s my suspicion. I know she was part of your investigation and I thought it best to get in touch with you first.”

  “Good Lord. Why weren’t resuscitation measures used?”

  “I wish I could answer that for you, Chief. It appears the patient’s monitors weren’t in operation.”

  At this, the chief grew suspicious. “What do you mean, they weren’t working? What the hell happened?”

  “I—I don’t know yet. We’re looking into it. The battery might have died. I just can’t say with any certainty yet.”

  “I tell you what, Doc, you’d better get certain real quick, cause if this starts to smell of homicide, we got an even bigger problem on our hands.”

  “I understand, Chief.”

  “I’m coming down. Best get the Feds down there too.” He ended the call.

  “What’s going on?” His wife turned to him. “Henry, is everything all right?”

  “I wish to hell I knew.” The chief quickly dressed. “I’m going down to the hospital. Just go on back to sleep. There’s nothing you can do.” He leaned over to kiss her. “I’ll call you later. I want you to stay put and keep the doors locked.”

  He walked downstairs and into his office, where he retrieved his weapon, which was locked in a case at the top of a closet. His children were teenagers now and had been trained on using guns; nevertheless, he kept it under lock and key at all times.

  With a coffee in his hand, Tate stepped out into the chilly midnight air. The sun was still hours from rising and it seemed he’d only just found sleep, but he knew something bad had happened to Lori Stewart. On the one hand, he felt this vindicated the Floyds, but on the other, it meant someone was still out there killing the people he was supposed to protect. He walked to his Tahoe, stepped inside, and made the call. “Agent Scarborough, it’s Chief Tate. Can you meet me at the hospital?”

  “What’s going on?” Nick asked.

  “Our OD victim is dead. And the doc can’t tell me what happened. We best get down there and find out.”

  “Okay. Yeah. I’ll be right down.” Nick ended the call and turned to Kate, who’d been awakened by the conversation. “That was the chief. Lori Stewart is dead and the doctor doesn’t know what happened.”

  “How could he not know?” Kate rolled out of bed and pulled on her shirt. “Should we wake the others?”

  “Let’s get Walsh for now. We might need the others to head up a search. I have a bad feeling about this. Walsh was with me when we stopped by the Floyds’ house earlier tonight to check in on Lazaro.”

  “A search for who? And what’s it got to do with Walsh?” She pulled on her pants.

  “Lazaro said he saw Slocum’s personal vehicle at the hospital. At the time, it didn’t seem important, but in light of this…Kate, what if all this time, we’ve overlooked the obvious? What if all of us were wrong?”

  The agents entered the hospital and spotted Chief Tate in the lobby. Nick headed straight for him. “Any new information from the doc?”

  “I think we’d better head on back.” The chief turned on his heel and headed into the corridor. “They’ve moved her already. Doc’s waiting for us.”

  Inside, Nick, Kate, and Levi Walsh entered the same room where the other victims had been held.

  “Thank you for coming down so quickly.” The doctor offered his hand.

  “Doctor Powell.” Nick returned the greeting. “What can you tell us? What happened to her?” He peered at the lifeless body of Lori Stewart.

  “I’ve been talking to the chief, but he wanted to wait until y’all arrived before we got too far along. I had the opportunity to review the charts and speak to the nurses. Including the nurse on the previous shift. She was the last one to see Ms. Stewart alive.” He turned to the young woman. Her lips were purple, her skin already greying. “As I’ve just relayed to the chief, I believe this is a case where the monitors were turned off—intentionally. We checked every other possible scenario. Now why that alone didn’t raise an alarm, I can’t say just yet. But what I can tell you is that on further examination, it appears asphyxiation was the cause of death.”

  “And the doc doesn’t think it was vomit. You know, from the overdose,” Tate added.

  “That was my initial opinion. However, it appears her oxygen supply was cut off.”

  “She was suffocated?” Kate asked.

  The doctor aimed his pinky finger at Lori’s hands. “It appears there could be skin under her nails as well.”

  “Like she was struggling,” Walsh added.

  “Yes. Like she was fighting off an attacker.”

  “Lock this place down. Now,” Nick said. “I want everyone on shift and those on the earlier shift in the lobby ASAP. Doctors, nurses, orderlies. Everyone. I want to know who was the last person to see her and,” Nick paused for a moment, “Chief, we need to get Eric Slocum down here too.”

  “Why?”

  “Because Lazaro saw his truck here a few hours ago,” Walsh replied.

  20

  A dark cloud hung over the team’s collective head as the idea took root that they’d missed a crucial piece of the puzzle. While no one had come out with a direct accusation, the fact that Eric Slocum had been at the hospital only hours earlier was far too coincidental. And what might happen in the coming hours would confirm or rebuff their suspicions.

  Walsh was already on the horn to Fisher. “Scarborough, Reid and I are gathering t
he staff.”

  “Do we know if the hospital has surveillance?”

  “We’re looking into that now. How do you want to handle this? Technically, we have no proof Slocum’s our guy. Unless we can get him on camera entering and leaving Lori Stewart’s room.”

  Fisher paused for a moment on the other end of the line. “I understand where Scarborough’s coming from, but until you speak with the staff on the earlier shift, I don’t want to jump the gun. How’s the chief handling this?”

  “Honestly, I think he’s in a state of shock. But I also think he wants answers as much as we do. We won’t get any more resistance from him. Not after this.”

  “Get me Slocum’s address. Duncan, Quinn, and I will run out there now. If he’s there, we’ll bring him in for questioning.”

  “And if he’s not?”

  “Then it’ll be all hands on deck to find him.” Fisher ended the call, returning his phone to the bedside table. He gazed at the window, where a streetlamp shone between the two drawn curtains.

  “What’s happened?”

  He glanced over his shoulder. “Lori Stewart is dead. They think Eric Slocum might’ve had something to do with it.” Fisher turned and placed his hand on Eva’s cheek. “You should go back to your room and get dressed before I wake Quinn.”

  Eva rolled on her side and sat up. “You know, if Scarborough and Reid don’t have to hide their relationship, I still can’t figure out why we do.”

  “You know why.” Fisher stood. “I’ll meet you outside in twenty.”

  Walsh returned to the lobby of the hospital to find Scarborough huddled in conversation with the chief. He could only speculate what that talk must’ve entailed, but right now, he had word on the rest of their team. “Just got off the phone with Fisher. I’ll need Slocum’s address. They’re going to drive out to his house and bring him down if they find him.” He turned to the growing crowd of nurses and doctors. “What about these guys? We ready to talk to them?”

  “We are.” Nick turned to the staff. “I appreciate those of you who’ve returned from your earlier shift. I know it’s late and I know you’re all very concerned about what’s been happening around here. We need an account from everyone present as to their whereabouts from 10pm to midnight.”

  Murmurs sounded among the people.

  “First of all, is there closed-circuit television in use?”

  A doctor stepped forward. “I’m the attending,” Dr. Rhys began. “Unfortunately, the only surveillance the hospital has in use is on the exterior. Nothing inside the hospital.”

  “Okay. I’ll need to see those tapes and the register for visitors tonight,” Nick continued.

  “I did see Deputy Slocum here earlier. He said Chief Tate misplaced something and he came out to find it. I’m sorry, but I didn’t pay attention after that. I don’t know when he left, or if he found what he was looking for,” the nurse said. “I left shortly after and Anna came on shift.” She looked to her colleague.

  Anna appeared shaken. “I don’t know when he left. I—I didn’t realize he was here. I should’ve looked at the register.”

  “That’s on me. I didn’t ask him to sign in. I’m sorry.”

  The chief raised his hands. “No one’s done anything wrong here. We’re just trying to gather the facts at the moment.”

  “Look, I don’t want to keep you all from doing your jobs. You have other patients who need your attention. And I’m sure the rest of you have families to tend to. If you’ll all just have a quick word with these agents here and Chief Tate, we’ll let you go about your business.” Nick looked to Anna Holmfirth. “I’d like to have a word with you, ma’am. Dr. Rhys, would you track down Dr. Powell? And I’d like to get those tapes ASAP.”

  “Of course.”

  Agent Fisher was behind the wheel as he pulled onto the driveway of Eric Slocum’s house. It was Quinn, sitting in the passenger seat, who spoke first. “No car in the driveway. That’s not a good sign.” He stepped out onto the concrete drive, riddled with cracks and weeds, and opened the rear door for Agent Duncan.

  “It’s the middle of the night. Bars are closed. If he’s not here, then I think we’ll have our answer.” Fisher took the lead and knocked on the door. No lights shone inside and there was no answer. “Let’s try this again.” He knocked harder this time.

  “Damn,” Quinn said. “He’s not here.”

  “If that doesn’t point the finger of guilt at him, I don’t know what will,” Duncan said. “The only woman who could talk, who knew even the slightest bit, is dead. And the last person who likely saw her alive is gone. Looks like we missed the boat on this one. Even you, Quinn.”

  “Maybe so. But if he did kill her and the others, what’s to say the Floyds won’t be next?”

  “Get Lazaro on the line and make sure he’s okay. We’ll go out there, but I want to split up first and have a look around. I want to be sure that son of a bitch isn’t hiding out here somewhere.” Fisher started around to the side of the house.

  Quinn was already on his cell as he and Duncan made their way to the other side. “I’m not getting an answer from Lazaro.”

  The agents searched the exterior and where they could see inside, shined their lights into the dark home. No sign of anyone.

  “We’re wasting our time. He’s not stupid. There’s no chance he stuck around waiting for us to show up.” Duncan spotted Fisher in the backyard. “He’s not here. Lazaro could be in danger.”

  “Yeah. Okay. Let’s go.”

  They returned to the SUV. Fisher reversed out of the driveway and put his foot down on the accelerator, racing down the dark and quiet street. “If that kid’s dead too…damn it. We should’ve seen this coming.”

  “Nothing pointed to Slocum. We couldn’t possibly have known,” Duncan replied.

  “This entire investigation, we’ve been trying to play catch-up,” Quinn said. “Trying to get ahead of the killer and all we were really doing was falling behind.”

  “Because the bodies were piling up every day, Quinn. We can’t beat ourselves up over this. Shit happens. This isn’t the first case like this and it won’t be the last. Now we know what we’re dealing with and we’ll find him.” Fisher peered into the rear-view. “Duncan, when we get to the station, let’s cross-reference the numbers on the victim’s cell phone with Slocum’s phone. We make that connection, we’ll be golden.”

  “I’ll call Reid and give her the news.” Quinn reached again for his phone. “And let them know we’re heading out to check on Lazaro and the Floyds.”

  “Then what?” Duncan asked.

  “I think it’s time we find out if our deputy has any ties to the Floyds.” He returned his attention to his phone when Kate answered. “It’s Quinn. How’s things going over there?”

  “Scarborough’s talking with the nurses on shift at the time Slocum was here. No luck on your end, I assume?”

  “He wasn’t at his house. We’re on our way to check up on the Floyds and Lazaro. There’s a chance Slocum went to see them.”

  “Why would he do that if he just killed someone?”

  “I don’t know if he did, but at this point, we have to assume he has no place else to turn. And, given that our victims share a connection to Jenny Floyd, it’s not outside the realm of possibilities that Eric Slocum does too. If he’s our dealer, he might also be our killer. Listen, Reid, can you get with the chief and ask him to give us anything he can on his boy?”

  “Yeah. I can do that.” Kate returned her phone to her pants pocket and approached Chief Tate. “I just got off a call with Quinn. No luck at Slocum’s house. They’re on their way to check in on the Floyds and Deputy Lazaro.”

  “You look like you want to ask me something, Agent Reid. Shoot.”

  “Quinn believes Slocum might have known the Floyds’ daughter, Jenny. He’s asked that I request Slocum’s files. Anything you have on him.”

  “I won’t disagree with the idea, but I can tell you with some degree of certainty t
hat I don’t believe he knew Jenny at all. And all his files are going to show you is that he’s been an excellent officer here at Crown Pointe for several years.”

  Nick and Walsh approached.

  “What’s the good word?” Walsh asked.

  “Just got off the phone with Quinn. They’re heading to the Floyds. No luck at Slocum’s place. He asked that I get some background on him, though.”

  “What’s he thinking?” Nick asked.

  “That my deputy had some sort of history with Jenny Floyd. Something I honestly can’t confirm or deny. He keeps to himself mostly,” the chief said.

  “Then we’re going to have to search his house. Probably should’ve had Fisher and those guys do it. But I know they’re concerned for the Floyds and Lazaro, and of course, they need to find him, if at all possible,” Walsh said. “These folks here don’t have anything for us and all we have on the tapes was that Slocum entered through the front doors at around 8pm.”

  “Right. Would’ve been nice if they’d had cameras around the back. Nothing showing when he left,” Nick replied.

  “Reid and I will go there now.” He already started toward the exit but stopped and turned. “Well?”

  Nick looked at Kate. “Go. Let me know what you find.”

  Kate quickstepped to catch up with Walsh. “You don’t waste time, do you, Levi?”

  “No, ma’am, I do not.”

  “You don’t mind if I call you Levi, do you?”

  He stopped and turned to her. “You can call me anything you like, Reid. You’ve earned the right.”

  “And feel free to call me Kate. I don’t mind.”

  “Okay, Reid.”

  He pushed outside and hurried to the car, opening the driver’s side door. “Better get there quickly. We have no idea what the others will find when they reach the Floyds’ place.” He stepped inside and started the engine, waiting for Kate to buckle in. “Let’s roll.”

  “Turn off the headlights,” Quinn began.