Wrong Exit: Nick Stryker Series, Book Four

by Vicki Graybosch

  Jen touched Nick’s arm and pointed to a rack of folded, empty blue body bags.

  Nick said, “So this is where it happens?”

  Tony whipped around and stared at Nick and Jen. The blood drained from his face. “Wha…what are you doing here?”

  Jen stepped closer and asked. “You expecting someone else?” She wanted to beat him to his last breath and stab him with whatever was in that needle. The vision of Allison from this morning was burned in her mind.

  She shoved a folded blue document toward him. “Search warrant.”

  Tony opened the search warrant and scanned the first page. His hands were shaking. “There’s going to be hell to pay for this.”

  Nick took another step closer to Tony and leaned in. “We have Sharon Perez. It’s over.”

  Tony stepped back. Lucas said he had Sharon. Did they have Lucas, too? Nick’s stare was like two ice blue lasers. The man was terrifying. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I want my attorney.”

  Nick removed Tony’s cell phone from his jacket pocket and patted him down. “You’re not under arrest, yet.” He slipped Tony’s phone into his own pocket.

  Tony took another step backwards. “I have an emergency upstairs. I have to leave.”

  Nick wasn’t about to let him out of his sight. “We heard about that. I want to check that out, too. Heather Sanford, wasn’t it?” Nick glanced at Jen, “I’m going with him. Call me when you find something.”

  Nick and Tony rode the interior elevator up to the second floor in silence. Nick watched as Tony used his jacket sleeve to dab beads of sweat from his brow.

  Tony pressed himself against the wall of the elevator and glared at Nick. He could feel Nick’s hate. “You’d better think about this. You’re making a big mistake.”

  Nick’s expression remained unchanged. Tony was a coward. A weak man that had mistakenly been given power. A thug in a suit. Nick had imagined a dozen ways to kill him since the elevator door closed. He wouldn’t do it…but he wanted to.

  Tony blurted, “This hospital performs miracles every day. We save lives that everyone else has given up on. You have no idea how much trouble you are in.”

  The elevator door opened to a hallway of chaos. Nick saw two patrol officers guarding a man in handcuffs. Yellow crime scene tape had been used to section off the hall. Hospital staff stood in small groups watching the scene with expressions of horror. The coroner’s team was in room 239 bent over the body of a young woman.

  Nick recognized Detective Graham from the 106th precinct taking notes while interviewing a nurse. A janitor stood to the far side of the crowd guarding his bucket and mop. Nick thought his expression of boredom spoke volumes.

  Tony walked up to Detective Graham. “Are you the detective in charge? I’m the Hospital Administrator, Dr. Scalla.”

  Detective Graham glanced at Tony and then noticed Nick. “Stryker? You don’t get enough homicides of your own?”

  Nick smiled, “I’m here on something else. What do you have?”

  Detective Graham pointed at the handcuffed man. “Lawyer, Gilbert Mackey. Walks in with a pistol and shoots Heather Sanford, patient.” Detective Graham frowned. “Dumbest defense story I ever heard. Go figure, a lawyer. Mackey claims he doesn’t even know the Sanford gal. Doesn’t know why he did it…doesn’t know why he’s here.”

  Nick glanced over at Mackey and thought about Dolly, Cynthia and Peter. How many people were walking around Chicago under this program’s spell?

  FBI Agent Stephen Phillips walked up next to Nick and nodded. “Hello gentlemen. Seems I’m late to the party.” He looked at Detective Graham and held up his badge. “My case now, sorry.” Nick and Phillips exchanged concerned glances.

  Phillips said, “Mackey’s story is probably true. He was probably hypnotized.”

  Detective Graham frowned. “What?”

  ******

  Jen slowly walked around the surgical table and imagined the horrors that had happened there. She forced herself to stop and focus on finding evidence. Her hopes were sinking. Every surface was sterile and gleaming. She directed the Crime Scene Technician team to swab every surface and instrument in the entire area. In addition to wanting proof that Sharon had been there, there were a dozen missing persons still unaccounted for. GPS histories from their cars and the grey van suggested they had been brought to the hospital. There had to be something.

  She walked over and sat at the desk that was in the corner. She snapped on latex gloves and carefully began to sift through the papers on the desk top. Most of the markings seemed to be unrelated doodles, dates and medical stats.

  One of the documents was a roster of surgeons. Jen took a picture of the document and exhaled. How many staff knew what was really going on? Would they be able to tell a legal donor from a victim? A surgery schedule showed Heather Sanford’s surgery was set for tomorrow afternoon. Kidney and pancreas.

  The top drawer contained a laptop computer, a bottle of aspirin and a roll of Tums. The computer was password protected. The forensic techs would mine that field later. A small drawer on the right had a variety of pens, paper clips and notepads along with a pair of scissors.

  Jen rolled the office chair back to scan the floor. A small, blue hazard bag rested on the floor and leaned against the desk leg. She slowly pulled the bag toward her and began unzipping it. Her heart quickened as she gingerly removed the contents, one item at a time.

  ******

  Nick’s cell rang. It was Jen. Her voice cracked when she said, “I found Sharon’s purse and her cut-up I.D. cards in a small hazard bag by the desk. We’ve got ‘em.”

  Nick sighed with relief. This was proof, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Sharon had been brought to Sunrise. “I’ll wrap this up. We can head to Memorial to interview Sharon.”

  Nick slid his phone into his pocket and unhooked cuffs from his waistband. Tony’s eyes opened wider as Nick moved toward him. Nick grabbed Tony’s right wrist and slapped the cuffs on it. He pulled Tony’s left wrist behind his back and cinched the cuffs tight. “Antonio Scalla, you are under arrest for the kidnapping and attempted murder of Sharon Perez.”

  Hospital staff near the crowded hall stepped back a few steps and stared at Tony in shock. His head jerked as he searched their faces. He raised his voice and pleaded to the crowd, “This is madness!”

  Nick whispered in Tony’s ear. “We found Sharon’s purse downstairs.”

  Tony’s shoulders rolled forward and his chin dropped to his chest. The purse. He hadn’t disposed of the bag! He hadn’t had time to even leave the hospital today. There had to be a way out of this.

  Tony turned his head enough to look Nick in the eyes. “You will not survive this.”

  “I almost said that to you.”

  Nick instructed two patrol officers to escort Tony to the special D.A. holding block of the jail. “Be sure to let Assistant D.A. Jones know he’s there. She’s quite anxious to meet him.”

  Agent Phillips moved from the edge of the crowd to stand next to Nick and Detective Graham. He scanned the faces of the people watching and asked Detective Graham, “Where’s her father, Dr. Sanford?”

  Detective Graham looked around, “He was here a while ago. Said he needed fresh air.”

  Phillips cell rang, it was Kevin. Nick watched as Phillips jotted something down. “Are you sure it was Sanford?” Phillips raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Nick. He said thanks and ended the call. Phillips called his team and ordered a GPS trace on Sanford’s car. This was a turn of events he didn’t need.

  Phillips motioned for Nick to move away from the crowd. He and Nick stood across from the elevator. Phillips said, “That was the reporter, Kevin. He and Darla, a friend of Dolly, followed Sanford to J.T. Barrimore’s nightclub. Kevin says it looked like some muscle men kidnapped Sanford. Kevin followed them until his car ran out of gas.” Phillips glanced at the coroner’s staff positioning Heather’s body bag on a gurney. He glanced back at Nick and said, “We need to get Sanf
ord. We have to shut down this program…fast. I have a field team chasing down the GPS signal on Sanford’s car now.”

  Nick was more interested in talking to J.T. Barrimore. Sanford going to J.T.’s place at this particular moment of crisis meant J.T. was in this hip deep. “J.T.’s place? Where’s that?”

  “I told you about this as a courtesy. Since J.T. seems to have taken a liking to you recently I thought you’d like to know. He’s my case Stryker. Stay out of it. You’ve got enough going on here.”

  Nick nodded. “So I do. Well, thanks for the heads-up.” Nick started to walk away. He and Jen would do their interview with Sharon and then he would pay a visit to J.T. at the nightclub.

  Phillips touched Nick’s shoulder to stop him and frowned. “I mean it. This software shit is worse than you think.”

  “I owe J.T. a thank you for the painting.” Nick smiled. “I’ll let you know if anything interesting happens.”

  Nick stepped into the elevator and pushed the down button.

  He heard Phillips yell, “Damn it, Nick” to his back.

  As soon as the doors closed Nick dialed Kevin. “Sharon is safe. I’ll tell you where you can go see her in trade for the address of that nightclub Sanford went to.”

  Kevin quickly gave the address of J.T.’s nightclub to Nick. “Can I go see her now?”

  “Yeah. She’s got a patrol officer guarding her. She’s at Memorial Hospital Emergency. Jen and I are heading there now. You can talk to her when we’re done.”

  Kevin was so excited he could hardly think straight. “She’s okay, right? Sharon? They didn’t hurt her?”

  Nick thought about how lucky they had all been. It had been close. Too close.

  “She looked okay and said she was fine. The doctor needs to check her out. Like I said, we’ll be there shortly. She isn’t out of danger yet.”

  ******

  Agent Phillips went back to where Gill Mackey stood. Phillips slipped his card into Gill’s pocket. “I’m having you transported to my field office. You’ll be allowed to call your attorney. Have him call me. I think we can help each other out.”

  Gill looked confused.

  Phillips said, “I think you’ve been hypnotized.”

  “How?”

  “Did you just learn to speak Mandarin from an on-line program?”

  Gill nodded. “Yes.”

  Phillips patted his shoulder. “We’ll work this out. Stay calm.”

  Phillips made arrangements to have Gill Mackey brought to the local FBI field office. He’d do a cursory interview with him now and then turn him over to the legal team. Phillips was going to need the advice of their legal team on how to proceed. Obviously, Mackey had shot Heather Sanford and killed her. Was he responsible if he was acting under the influence of hypnosis?

  Phillips entered the elevator and called the financial forensic team leader. “Anything from Sanford’s bank records yet?” Phillips wanted the proof that J.T. had paid for the program before he talked to him.

  A nurse entered the elevator at the last moment before the door closed. Phillips lowered his voice and took out a pen and small notebook. “Spell that.”

  He ended the call. The nurse smiled at him as she left the elevator. Phillips headed for his car. This didn’t add up. Who the hell was Lucas Costellano?

  ******

  Kevin hung up from his call with Nick and leaned his head back on the car’s headrest. “Thank God. Oh, thank God.”

  Darla wiped the last of her Twinkie from the corners of her mouth. “What? What happened?”

  Kevin’s face lit up with a toothy smile. “The cops have Sharon. She’s okay!” Kevin pulled his wallet from his pants. “We’re gassing up and going to Memorial Hospital. Stryker said I can see her.” He jumped from the car and began filling the tank with gas. She could see Kevin’s face through the window all excited and smiling. The hospital was only a few blocks away. She couldn’t wait to hear Sharon’s story. This reporter stuff was a blast!

  She looked in the Twinkie box, there was only one left. Suddenly she felt guilty. She would have to buy Kevin’s grandma a new box or she would forever have nightmares that the old lady died in a blizzard without any food. She opened the glove box of the car and wrote down her address from the registration papers.

  ******

  Jen and Nick raced toward Memorial Hospital to interview Sharon. Jen was unusually quiet.

  Nick asked, “What’s on your mind?”

  Jen was driving and kept her eyes forward as she answered, “How close Sharon Perez came to a surgeon’s knife. If you hadn’t noticed that grey van in traffic this morning…”

  Nick said, “We can thank the guy that let me take his bike.” Nick groaned. “Remind me to call him.”

  Jen chuckled for the first time in hours. “You did manage to trash it pretty bad. Notice I’ve been driving more lately?” She quickly turned to Nick and smiled.

  Nick’s cell rang, he didn’t recognize the number, “Stryker.”

  “Nick? This is Dr. Reynolds.” Nick mouthed ‘cop-shrink’ to Jen.

  Dr. Reynolds continued, “I hope I’m not catching you at a bad time?”

  “This is fine, Doc. I’m still working but between locations. What do you need?”

  “I might have found something helpful for you on that hypnotizing question you had this morning.”

  Nick had almost forgotten he had asked Dr. Reynolds to look into it. “Great. What did you find?”

  “Well, much more than I expected. Our government spent quite a bit of research time and money on this subject. They actually used a scientist here in Chicago for some research but eventually dismissed him. I suspect they took issue with some of his theories. He’s sort of a radical.”

  “Dr. Derrick Sanford?”

  Dr. Reynolds stuttered, “Well, yes. How in the world did you find that out already?”

  “It’s a long story, Doc. I just left a homicide scene where the shooter was probably acting under hypnosis.”

  Dr. Reynolds paused and then said, “Oh, dear. I was calling to tell you that it was a virtual impossibility that a dissociative episode could be triggered to facilitate action based on hypnotic suggestion.”

  Nick asked, “Well, you’re wrong. Where did you get your information?”

  “I have a friend, retired FBI analyst that worked on the project. They thought Sanford’s theories were bunk but they discovered other things he was doing. I think he’s been on the FBI radar for a while. Nick, Sanford’s software company has some very bad customers according to my friend.”

  “I’m finding that out. I appreciate you checking into this, Doc. I’m thinking the D.A. will be contacting you about using hypnosis as a criminal defense. Our shooter in this homicide is a lawyer.”

  “Oh great.”

  C H A P T E R 22

  Sharon sat on the edge of the hospital bed. She could see the back of the patrol officer’s head through the small glass window of the door. For the first time in hours she felt safe. Suddenly the officer’s head moved and the door to the hall opened.

  Jen walked over to Sharon, smiled and said, “We meet again.”

  Sharon remembered Jen and Nick from the Happy Burger parking lot. “Did you catch the ambulance driver? The other guys?”

  Nick stepped next to Jen. “We got the driver and one of the other guys. Sharon, we need to video our interview with you. Is that okay?”

  Sharon nodded. “Of course.” She rubbed at a small bandage on the underside of her arm. “Can you tell me where I’ve been? Why I was kidnapped?”

  Jen walked over to lean against the wall of the small room and held her phone up to video. She nodded to Nick.

  “We’ll tell you everything we can but we have to take your statement. For the purpose of documentation, I need you to state and spell your name and tell us everything you can remember.” Nick didn’t want to scare Sharon with too many details of the case. There was plenty of time for her to hear how close she had come to death after t
hey had finished the investigation.

  Sharon’s eyes started to tear up. “I was so excited! Kevin was going to let me report a story with him. He gave me the address of where to meet him but I must have done something wrong. I ended up on a wrong exit…”

  ******

  Kevin and Darla sat in the waiting room at Memorial Hospital Emergency. Nick was still interviewing Sharon. Darla glanced around the room and then whispered to Kevin, “You’d think Chicago thugs would take Monday night off. That’s the fifth gunshot wound they’ve brought in since we’ve been here.”

  Kevin was finding it impossible to focus on anything she was saying. He couldn’t wait to see Sharon.

  Darla pulled out her cell phone and called Dolly. “Girl, you won’t believe everything Kevin and I have done tonight! We started off with the FBI arresting us, then we watched a kidnapping, and now we’re at the hospital to see Sharon!”

  Kevin noticed that several people sitting across from them were listening intently to Darla’s conversation and he nudged her knee. Darla looked over. “What?”

  Kevin rolled his eyes toward the row of gaping listeners.

  Darla smiled, “Call you back later.” She ended the call abruptly just as Nick and Jen walked into the waiting room from behind two large, steel swinging doors.

  Nick walked over to them. “Jen is going to stay with Sharon tonight until we can get a security team put together. I don’t think she should go home; she’s still in danger.”

  Kevin offered, “Peter has an extra room at his place. Would that work? We could all guard her, too.”

  Jen tossed the car keys to Nick. “I’ll work something out on this end and call you.” Jen added, “Be careful, Nick.”

  “Always.”

  Jen watched as Nick left the building. She felt her gut tighten. Nick was going after J.T. alone. She had to secure Sharon quickly and join him.