Survival Instinct

by Declan Conner

  “They found your police car, so he’s switched vehicles. There’s blood everywhere and look at this,” he said showing Hogan his notes.

  “Hell’s teeth!” Hogan shouted. “Those are the Crossword Killer’s messages. It must be him, for Christ’s sake. Don’t tell me Frank passed on Jake’s scribbles and that’s why internal affairs have him. I need to study what they mean. Look, Jeff’s having a coffee with Madge. As soon as we have the warrant, I’ll have him go meet your guys at Brake’s Lodge with his bag of tricks.”

  “Moody will be waiting; I don’t want him to suspect we’re still chasing Jamie. Are you with me on this one? He says the Governor’s going to call you to tell you to back off.”

  “I don’t give a shit if the President calls me, I ain’t stoppin’ now! Don’t worry, Greg, I’ll have Madge give him the run around,” said Hogan. He called Madge to his office.

  Hammond walked out and made his way to the conference room where he found Agent Moody waiting.

  “This way, Agent Hammond.”

  “What’s CIA got to do with this?” Hammond asked. “And why do you want us to call off the search? He’s still a suspect. And we have a witness putting him at the scene of the last murder.”

  “Please call me Eric. Listen err...”

  “Greg,” Hammond said. “You can call me Greg in private.”

  “Listen, Greg, I hear what you’re saying, but we have to consider the bigger picture. We have something we’re working on, and we don’t want uniform and FBI trampling all over it.”

  “Well that may be, but neither can we have a killer on the loose in the city with our hands tied behind our backs.”

  “Greg, we’re not talking about a few bodies scattered here and there around the city, we’re talking about our operation saving tens if not hundreds of thousands of lives.”

  “What? Hundreds of thousands? Is Jamie CIA, is that it? Is that why you’ve censored his army record?”

  “Not exactly. He’s... Let’s just say he’s motivated, or he could be soon. He could finish something for us that we don’t want our fingerprints on.”

  “You mean he’s a renegade deniable entity? Where does Frank Andropov fit into all this?”

  “Sorry, I can’t tell you that.”

  “Has he been passing information on the murders?”

  Agent Moody remained silent, so Hammond just assumed. That’s a Yes!

  “I’m sorry Eric. You have your operation and I have mine.” Hammond stood up to leave.

  “Wait... all I’m asking is call off your search for two hours.”

  Agent Hammond looked at his watch

  “Six-fifteen, that makes it eight-fifteen. Well then, can I just ask one thing? Does this involve a terrorist bomb or some other catastrophe?” Hammond tried to look into Moody’s mind.

  Moody hesitated and shook his head in the negative.

  “It’s not that, but I can assure you, if we fail, tens of thousands will die in the fullness of time.”

  “Two hours you said?”

  “Say nine, to be on the safe side.”

  “Okay, nine o’clock,” Hammond replied. As he was leaving the conference room, he noticed Moody take out his cell phone. Hammond ducked into the recording room next door and switched on the audio camera. Putting the headphones over his ears, he began to eavesdrop on the telephone call.

  “I’ve managed to get them to cooperate. . .two hours. I hope there won’t be any delay on the ship arriving?”

  Ship? Hammond thought. He was annoyed he couldn’t hear the caller.

  “Good, everything’s in place. With a bit of luck our friend will find the target and take him out. If not we’ll have to think of a way of pointing him in the right direction. After that, he’ll probably be locked up and they’ll throw away the key. Another poor shmuck trying to plead his cause.” There was a long pause before he continued.

  “Frank’s on his way to witness protection. He’ll plead guilty to a trumped-up charge, receive an insignificant punishment and disappear later today. The police will think he’s being dishonorably discharged, so they won’t miss him.” There was another pause until he answered again.

  “Okay, I’ll go to the docks right now.”

  Hammond watched and waited as Moody left. He sat back against the chair, removed the headphones and waited to give Moody time to leave the building. This is some heavy shit! He tried to consider both the implications and his own conscience. The evidence was building against Jamie and they already had enough to prosecute, but what if he was the so-called “friend” or “poor shmuck” of the CIA? What if he was being set up? He won’t be the first to find himself wrongly convicted. Distracted, he heard the sound of his cell phone.

  “Greg, have you finished with Moody?” Hogan asked.

  “Yeah, he just left. I’m coming.”

  “Okay, I’ll save it for when you get here.”

  Hammond hustled back to his office.

  “I’ve organized everything,” Hogan said. “The warrant should be here in fifteen minutes, but it’s these messages. Look at the one at Jamie’s house. If the neighbor hadn’t phoned it in, Jamie would’ve found it. I think the message was aimed at him, ‘Your Bitch next.’ I had Madge phone Margaret at the singles’ club, and she knows Susan and can remember Jamie leaving with her hand in hand at the Hawaiian night party. Therefore, if someone from the club were involved, they would think she was his girlfriend. Then the message from the Lodge says ‘we have all three.’ Uniform have phoned from the address you gave me. There are signs of a struggle with blood in the bedroom. The neighbors say a Mary, who lives there, works at the same company as Jamie, but she’s not there. So either, Jamie’s abducted her, or someone else has, and Jamie’s on their trail?”

  “Yeah and. . .”

  “Then there’s the girl’s cell phone that Jamie’s using,” Hogan continued. “Maybe she was at the Lodge and Jamie or someone has abducted her too. There are signs of a fight there and a weird message. ‘Kitchen intruder.’

  “Wait a minute; didn’t I see a report in the file that Frank was at the Hawaiian night?”

  “Yeah, but listen to this. . .” Hammond relayed all he had just heard from Moody’s phone call.

  “So you’re saying Frank could’ve been passing information?”

  “Let’s say it’s a possibility. It looks like someone is leading on Jamie, because he’s a step ahead of us so far. It could even be the CIA, or it could be someone with a grudge that CIA is monitoring. Or there again Jamie could still be the killer. Someone’s gone out of their way to follow his movements. We found the tracker bug on his car at the hospital.” Hammond’s cell phone rang, and he answered the call from one of his surveillance team.“He’s made another call. This time he sent a text message from the address I gave you to a phone at the hospital. He was stationary and switched the phone off. We don’t know whose phone it is at the hospital. Unfortunately it’s a pay as you go.”

  “Keep monitoring and stay there in case he returns. You’ll have the warrant in forty-five minutes,” he advised. Hammond turned to Hogan. “Jamie’s phoned the hospital from Mary’s house. That gives us an excuse to carry on our search, on the pretext of investigating a possible kidnap. We should see if there is any sign of Ellie and Steve being ready to talk.”

  “Don’t forget Bill,” Hogan reminded him.

  “I haven’t, but until we talk to Ellie and Steve, there’s nothing we can do about him. At least he’s not going anywhere.”

  Hogan phoned the guards watching Steve and Ellie and put the call on speakerphone for Hammond to listen. One of them answered.

  “Hello.”

  “Any signs of them waking up yet?” asked Hogan.

  “Nothing, Chief. All’s quiet.”

  “Have you looked?”

  “No but...”

  “Just go and look, damn it.”

  “The chief wants to check if they're awake. You check the boy and I’ll check the girl.”

&
nbsp; The phone went quiet, then they heard a voice cry out.

  “The friggin’ bed! But how?”

  “Oh fuck, we’re in trouble!”

  “Chief Hogan, the girl is not here!” the guard said panting. “Even the bed’s gone.”

  “Don’t be stupid, man! How could Ellie and a bed disappear from under your noses? Have you left your posts?”

  “No, we been here all the time except...”

  “Except when, for Christ’s sake?”

  “Except, just the once, when we were told to check our cars.”

  “What, and you left together? What about the head nurse?”

  “Haven’t seen her since. She’s probably napping.”

  “Well, send the other guard to find her. Maybe they took Ellie to surgery.”

  “Jim, see if you can find the nurse.”

  Hogan Waited patiently until he heard a commotion.

  “Jesus fucking Christ! Her throat’s cut! The nurse is dead!”

  “Chief Hogan, she’s been murdered. Oh my God, Jim, the elevator, remember the doctor and the orderly?” he said.

  “What about the elevator?” asked Hogan.

  “When I went down with Jim to check our cars, there was a doctor coming out of the elevator with an orderly. When we returned to the ground floor, they wheeled a patient out on a bed.”

  “I don’t believe it! You lose a car, and now a freakin’ patient, and a bed? I’ll send SOC down. The Coroner’s tied up. Contact someone at the hospital after SOC finish, and they can put her in the hospital morgue for now.” Hogan ended the call.

  “So Ellie’s gone,” Hogan said to Hammond in dismay.

  Hammond felt his face turn red, but said nothing. I should’ve told the guards check their cars separately.

  “Hmm...I gather that... it looks like she could be our third person.”

  “I just don’t know what the hell’s happening. I mean do we have any spare SOC boys? Greg, explain to Jeff and see if he can get the day shift in. How many more bodies are we going to have today?” he said and opened his drawer, retrieving his stress ball.

  Hammond explained to Jeff, who telephoned to bring in the day shift and split them into two. Hammond asked Madge to find the Port Authority web site.

  “What are you looking for?” asked Madge.

  “I just want to see if they have any arrivals and departures this morning.”

  Madge opened the site and followed the links.

  “Here we are. Is this what you’re looking for?”

  “That’s it, Madge. Check for arrivals between say now and eight thirty.”

  “There’s a tanker due in from Liberia at seven thirty on East dock, a Columbian cargo ship at seven fifteen and a Russian cargo ship at eight on West dock. Another cargo ship from Brazil arrives at eight fifteen on the same dock. That’s it.”

  “Thanks Madge, you’re a darling. Could you print it off for me?”

  “Sure no problem. You know something? I don’t think you’re nearly as bad as Chief Hogan makes out.”

  “Really?” said Hammond. He raised his eyebrows and collected the copy from the printer tray with a smile. Then he returned to Hogan’s office. “John, there are four ships due to dock at the Port before the time Eric Moody wanted us to call off the search. God knows what their operation is; it could be an illegal arms shipment. I can’t see them getting involved in narcotics. Whatever it is, Jamie could be heading there. We can’t send in SWAT teams, the CIA will have their own people there. Besides, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Say, John, would you like to take a stroll?”

  “Why not Greg? Your car or mine?”

  Contents

  Countdown

  The commotion on Ward 15A stirred Steve from his sleep, and he could hear the guards outside his door raging on and on about something. He listened out of curiosity to the muffled exchange.

  “Why didn’t we think to go separately? We could lose our badges for this!”

  “Agent Hammond, remember? He gave the order. We were simply following orders. I just can’t believe someone could’ve walked in here pretending to be a doctor and slit the head nurse’s throat.”

  Slit her throat? Steve gasped. His ears perked up at that.

  “Yeah, and bold as brass to abduct the girl too.”

  What girl?

  His head was throbbing, but otherwise he felt okay and pulled his legs out of bed to sit up. Was I dreaming? The two rooms were merely partitions, and Steve climbed onto his bed to look over where he had last seen Ellie. The room was empty, not even a bed, and loose wires dangled to the floor. He sat down on the bed quickly and felt dizzy with shock. Where is she? Steve could hear the faint sound of his phone beeping to signal an incoming message. Reaching into the bedside drawer, he took it out. There were two messages, one from his mother and one from his dad. He opened his mother’s first.

  “Sorry to hear you’re in the hospital. Can’t make it, but I’m thinking of you. Hope you’re better soon.” Why bother? Steve opened his dad’s message. “Hope you’re okay, tell Ellie the police are still hounding me, and I can’t visit for now.” Steve tried to return the call, but his phone signaled his dad’s phone was off. He typed a message asking his dad to phone him. Then he made his way to the door pushing his IV stand.

  “Officer, where’s my sister?”

  The guards looked at each other.

  “Sorry, but she’s been moved.”

  “Was that before or after the nurse’s throat was cut?” he asked. Not waiting for a reply, he closed the door, pulled the needle out of his arm and started to dress. Removing his head bandages, he looked in the mirror. The areas around his eyes were black and purple. Feeling a lump on his head, it was rough from the stitches the doctor used to close the wound. Carefully he placed his baseball cap over his head and made for the door. Thank heavens Ellie told me what happened, or I’d really be confused. Now where the hell is she?

  As he opened the door, he could see the guards were occupied, and an orderly was busy wheeling out patients to clear the Ward. Steve stepped out and grabbed the side of a passing bed. He simply walked past the guards who never gave him a second glance. Making their way to the elevator, Steve peeled off, hurried down the flights of stairs to the exit, and saw his dad’s car. Walking through the parking lot, he pulled out a packet of cigarettes and lit one.

  He wanted to get as far away from the hospital as he could, fearing he could be a target after Ellie. He knew his dad kept a spare car key on a magnet holder under the seat, but there were too many people about for him to dare smashing a window. As he stood contemplating his next move, a van pulled up next to his dad’s car with Hospital Security written on the side. A guy jumped out with a wheel clamp and Steve shouted at him.

  “Wait! My dad’s lost his key and he’s gone for help.”

  “He shouldn’t park here, it’s for doctors only. Sorry, I’ll have to clamp it. If he’d reported it to my office earlier, I could’ve opened it for him,” he said and threw the clamp down towards the wheel.

  “Look, if you can open it for me, I can use the spare key and move it,” said Steve. He fished in his pocket pulling out a hundred-dollar bill and thrust it towards the man. “Please?”

  The security guard looked around and then took it, slipping it in his shirt pocket.

  “Just wait here,” he said walking back to his van and returning with a length of wire and a screwdriver. Slipping the screwdriver between the rubber and the glass to lever it, he threaded the wire through, caught the door lock catch and opened the door. “It’s all yours. Now, don’t let me catch you parking here again. Have a nice day,” he said and hastily grabbed the clamp and returned to his van.

  Steve headed off toward the exit and decided to head for home. His cell phone rang. Seeing his dad’s number appear on his screen, he pulled over and answered.

  “Dad, where are you? They have Ellie, and I don’t know what to do?” he said with panic in his voice.

&nbs
p; “What do you mean they’ve got Ellie? You mean the police are guarding her?”

  “No, she’s been taken from the hospital. The head nurse is dead. She was murdered on the Ward.”

  “Oh my God! That’s what he meant by, ‘We have all three.’ Where are you now? We need to meet.”

  “I’m outside the grounds of the hospital and I’ve taken your car.”

  “Oh no, how... never mind. They’ve put a tracker device on it. Head west from there to find a gas and energy station with an automatic carwash. Drive into it for cover and look for a module attached to the chassis at the rear. Take it off and find something moving to put it on. Switch your phone off and don’t use it again. Then double back and I’ll meet you at the Church Hall where you give your self-defense lessons.”

  “Got it. I’m hanging up.”

  Steve turned off his cell phone, did a U-turn and headed west until he found a station with a car wash. Following his dad’s instructions, he located and removed the tracking device and disposed of it. Jumping back into his car, he headed back east toward the Church Hall.

  ***

  Jamie said a silent prayer, thanking God for the fact that Steve had answered his call. He was fortunate he had tried to phone Mary and seen Steve’s message. He worried about Ellie. Who has her and where is she? He took a detour from the docks to meet up with Steve, conscious of the message on the mirror that time was ticking. His mind was in emotional turmoil at the thought of Ellie’s abduction and Mary and Stacy. He tried to think who could be behind such a plot.

  ***

  Steve arrived at the Church Hall just as dawn began to break. Parking down a side street, he made his way to the Church Hall door. There was a cold nip in the air as he rubbed his hands to keep them warm. Suddenly, a hand grasped him on his shoulder and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

  “Steve,” he heard a voice from behind and recognized his dad.

  “For God’s sake, dad, you scared the shit outa me!”

  “Forgot your lessons then? I half expected you to try to throw me. Quickly, my car’s parked at the back,” he ordered as they hurried away. “How’s the head?”