Friend or Foe

by Liz Turner

  friend or foe?

  a lily wilkins medical

  cozy mystery

  Book 3

  Liz Turner

  Copyright © 2020 by Liz Turner.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Contents

  Prologue Stick ‘em Up!

  Chapter 1 An Inside Job

  Chapter 2 A Mother’s Intuition

  Chapter 3 A Lover’s Broken Heart

  Chapter 4 An Unexpected Visitor

  Chapter 5 Plan B

  Chapter 6 Undercover Operation

  Chapter 7 Up in Flames

  Chapter 8 The Betrayal

  Chapter 9 The Duplicate

  Chapter 10 The Handshake

  Epilogue The Rescue Mission

  Prologue

  Stick ‘em Up!

  “Everybody, get down on the floor!” a harshly distorted voice ordered through a voice changer. The command was followed by a gloved hand rising into the air, pointing an impressive Glock at the ceiling.

  On this particular day, Douglasdale Bank had been its usual bustling with its usual daily activity, having attracted a variety of characters from the community. Housewives were going about their mundane transactions, shoveling wages into their bulky handbags. Businessmen, clad in dark suits, dashed in through the revolving glass doors to attend to urgent financial concerns before their lunch breaks ended. College graduates wearing Levis either three sizes too big or three sizes too small slouched in waiting chairs, hoping to acquire loans for new business ventures.

  Unfortunately, this was also the day another distinct character decided to make an appearance at the bank as well.

  The robber was dressed all in black, his frame hidden inside an enormous hoodie that appeared to be bulked up by a bulletproof vest, and his face hidden under a black Darth Vader helmet. “Get down on the floor, now!” he yelled again, annoyed by all the stunned faces simply staring at him rather than cooperating.

  Suddenly, everything came to an abrupt halt from the realization of what was happening. All eyes fixated on the gun waving menacingly through the air, and everyone dropped to the floor, praying to not be singled out.

  The robber threw his backpack across the counter at a female bank teller. Terrified, she looked up at the robber, trying to comprehend what he was saying to her.

  “Money, now!” he commanded. His helmeted head turned towards the maze of bodies carpeting the polished granite floor. “Otherwise, I’ll start killing people one-by-one, and I’ll begin with this one…” He dragged a young blonde up from the floor.

  Lily’s fierce, gray eyes filled with anxiety as she tried in vain to see through his reflective black helmet. She knew better than to try fighting someone with a loaded gun. Still, she had to suppress every instinct inside of her to maintain control. She watched the bank teller return with a massive backpack filled to the brim with cash, finding it odd the cashier could access that amount of money, and even odder that she hadn’t sounded the alarm. Douglasdale Bank was small and relatively understaffed—the perfect target for a robbery.

  The teller tossed the bag across the counter towards the robber and placed her hands back in the air.

  The robber relinquished his grip on Lily and threw her back to the floor.

  Lily looked up to see him swinging the backpack onto his back. Then, in one quick motion, he raised the gun and leveled it at the bank teller. His gloved finger tensed, and the teller’s eyes widened in confusion, her brow creasing.

  Realizing what was about to happen, Lily made a desperate attempt to lunge at the robber’s ankles, but it was too late. As she crashed uselessly at his feet, she heard the deafening sound of the gun fire above her. His carefully aimed bullet propelled through the air and into the bank teller’s chest.

  A small-town bank robber had evolved into a cold-blooded murderer.

  Lily screamed, as did most of the people suddenly surging up from the floor.

  The robber looked down at his feet and pointed his gun once more, this time at Lily’s face. “Anybody move, and I’ll shoot her next!” he warned, forcing everyone to submissively return to the floor.

  There was a moment of silence as a frozen Lily stared up the barrel of a loaded gun, her heart pounding in her throat and her head threatening to explode with the pressure. The distant sound of police sirens seemed to sway the bank robber’s mind, and he quickly backed out the door, waving his gun from person-to-person.

  Lily stayed lying on the ground for another second, her ears still ringing from the gunshot and her mind unable to process the series of events she’d just experienced. A glint of gold caught her eye, and she noticed a tiny gold-plated piece lying on the ground, inches from her hand. Instinctively, she pocketed it in her jeans. She then raced to the teller and kneeled at her side. “Call an ambulance!” Lily shrieked at the pale-faced, quivering bank manager, who’d just emerged from his office.

  Lily pulled off her scarf and pressed it to the bank teller’s wound, trying to stop the bleeding. But it was futile; the bullet had killed the teller instantly, puncturing her heart and causing her to bleed out within seconds.

  Not before long, uniformed officers surrounded the premises and burst onto the scene in all their heroic glory, and ambulance sirens blared from a distance.

  Lily took out her phone and dialed with trembling fingers. “Hello? Ryan?” she said, her tongue numb with shock. “There’s been a robbery at the bank. And a murder…”

  Chapter 1

  An Inside Job

  “Lily?” a voice penetrated throughout the bank.

  Ryan looked left and right, scanning through the traumatized hostages being interviewed by uniforms. Eventually, his clear blue eyes settled on Lily’s. A wave of relief washed through his features, and he quickly covered the distance between them in a few short steps. He then pulled Lily into his arms.

  Trapped in Ryan’s hug, Lily looked helplessly over his shoulder toward Detective Garcia, whose dark eyebrows were raised with a small smile playing across his lips.

  “Are you okay?” Ryan jerked Lily away and held her at arm’s length, studying her with what felt like x-ray vision.

  “I’m fine.” Lily shrugged him off, her cheeks hot with embarrassment.

  Detective Filippo Garcia approached and gave Lily a gentle side-hug. “Glad to see you’re okay, Lily.” He smiled warmly at her, though his eyebrows twitched naughtily. “We’d hate to have to find another consultant. I mean, we don’t really have time to wait for another sassy young woman to barge into the station and demand she is put on a case.”

  Ryan laughed, and Lily scowled at him, her cheeks still red.

  “You guys don’t even know the half of it,” Dr. Banks, the station’s medical examiner, said, idling up to the group with his medical kit. “She wormed her way into my lab and started ordering me around in no time flat.” He maintained a severe expression for a few seconds and then erupted in an awkward laugh. With his pale, plaster-like complexion, it was rare to see Banks’s dark, sunken eyes and thin lips animated with laughter. The group highly respected him, though they were all secretly terrified he might slice the
m into chunks in their sleep one day, given his unpredictability.

  Stunned, Garcia and Ryan stared at Banks for a second before joining in with the pleasant, yet jarring sound of his merriment.

  “Well, I’m glad you all find this amusing,” Lily said tersely, her hands on her hips.

  “Oh, Lily,” Banks focused his dark eyes on hers, slight tears glistening in the corners from his laughter, “we’re just relieved you’re not harmed. Now,” he continued, his composure restored, “I believe we have a dead body to tend to?”

  Banks offered Lily a pair of latex gloves and followed her behind the counter where the teller lied.

  “Is it just me,” a confused Ryan said, “or does Dr. Banks actually seem to have a fond spot for Lily?”

  “You’re right, detective,” Garcia said. “I think you’ve correctly deduced that it’s in fact possible for Dr. Banks to like another human being. You’d better watch out.” He winked at Ryan before heading to the counter.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ryan demanded, following his mentor.

  “I’m going to talk to the bank manager,” Garcia said, ignoring Ryan’s question. He flicked his head in Lily’s and Dr. Banks’s direction. “Why don’t you keep an eye on these two?”

  “… so as you can see,” Lily was saying to Banks while kneeling next to the dead teller, “cause-of-death was obviously a gunshot to the heart. By the time the bank robber left, she had already bled out.”

  “Yes, I can see that quite clearly, but thank you for pointing out the obvious,” Banks retorted.

  Lily, sensing she needed to work harder on convincing the good doctor that she was more than just a med-school dropout, proceeded to her next point of interest. “All right, perhaps this will give us more insight into the victim’s life.” She shifted the teller’s hair slightly, revealing a small lightning bolt shaped tattoo above her left ear.

  “Hmm, a fetish for electricity perhaps?” Banks reasoned.

  Lily rolled her eyes. “I was thinking that maybe it has some kind of connection to a local gang or something? Aren’t there guys on the street who call themselves the Flashes?”

  Ryan kneeled beside Lily for a closer look and pulled out his phone to take a picture. “I’ll scan it through our database, but I think you’re right Lily—it could definitely be a local gang symbol around here. Not that we have that many gangs though…”

  Lily threw Banks an I-told-you-so look and moved onto her next finding with a subtle smirk on her face. “There was something else really interesting that I noticed,” she continued, raising the bank teller’s arm and pulling her sleeve up. “These smudged numbers underneath of her forearm. They look like a code she tried to rub off. If you look at her right thumb, it’s stained the same blue as the numbers.”

  Banks used his magnifying glass to examine the digits. “Yes, these are definitely numbers. It looks like pen ink, if you ask me. And I agree with you—it’s the same ink that’s on her thumb, so it must be from earlier today.”

  “It looks like 865392 to me,” Lily read aloud, holding the code inches from her face.

  “What did you say?” a trembling voice behind them asked.

  The group spun round to see the bank manager and Detective Garcia standing behind them.

  “Is that you, Lily Wilkens?” The manager adjusted the glasses on his pudgy face.

  “Uh, yes, Mr. Morgan.” Lily jumped up, freeing a gloved hand to shake his. “I was actually here to see you before the…” She hesitated, seeing the bank manager’s face crumple with sadness. She followed his gaze to the young woman lying on the floor. “I’m sorry, Mr. Morgan…”

  “Candy Wilheart was a wonderful employee,” Mr. Morgan said, wiping his nose with a crisp white handkerchief. “She was always waiting with a cup of coffee for me in my office as soon as I arrived in the mornings. She went beyond her role as a teller. She even tidied my office for me…” His pale blue eyes filled with tears.

  “Mr. Morgan, can you tell us more about Candy as an employee? Garcia asked gently. “Do you know anything about her background?”

  Mr. Morgan sniffed. “Well, Candy was very rough around the edges when she first arrived.” He chuckled at the memory. “But she soon adapted to working in the professional world. She came from a rough home and seemed to be trying to start her life over. I gave her one shot and—well, she far exceeded my expectations.”

  “Do you know if Candy had connections to any of the local gangs in town?” Lily asked on a hunch, moving closer to him.

  Mr. Morgan shot her an inquiring look. “Not that I’m aware of. Why do you ask?”

  “We’re trying to form a background picture of our victim,” Garcia explained. “A bank robber doesn’t usually shoot one of the bank employees unless provoked or threatened in some way.”

  “I was here through the whole incident, Mr. Morgan,” Lily said, looking at him earnestly. “The bank robber had everything he needed. He had the cash and an easy way out, but he stopped.” Lily paused, forcing herself to relive the awful moment. “He stopped and raised his gun, and fired it at Candy Wilheart, who was completely defenseless. There was no reason for him to shoot her unless there were other motives, perhaps unconnected to the robbery.”

  At some point in Lily’s speech, Ryan had moved to her side. She hadn’t noticed until she felt his warmth radiating onto her cold skin.

  “There were rumors among some of our other employees about Candy’s past, saying she was involved in a gang. But I never looked into these stories much,” Mr. Morgan answered. “Now, if that’s all the questions for the moment, I need to start making some phone calls.”

  Lily nodded, her mind jumping back to the bank manager’s initial reaction to the numbers she’d read aloud. “Uh, Mr. Morgan, do you recognize these numbers? 865392?”

  Mr. Morgan’s face grew paler at each digit, sweat droplets forming on his forehead. He stepped close to Lily, looking around furtively. “Those are the digits for my computer password today!” he hissed.

  Lily’s eyes grew wide with realization, and she looked to the detectives uncertainly.

  “Do you think we could have a look at your computer, Mr. Morgan?” Ryan asked. “We might be able to determine the extent to which your system was hack—”

  “Shh!” Mr. Morgan interrupted and then proceeded to hustle them into his office. He slammed the door behind them before continuing. “Do you understand what my clients would do to me if they realized this robbery could have been an inside job? No one, and I mean no one, should have that password except me!”

  Ryan put on gloves and leaned over the manager’s computer, examining it closely. “What would Candy have been able to access if she gained entry into the system?”

  Mr. Morgan swallowed and dabbed his forehead with his damp handkerchief. “She would have been able to get the daily codes for the safes generated for us by the system.”

  Ryan tapped away on the keyboard, inserting the code from Candy’s arm. The manager stared on in horror as the detective accessed the banking system with ease. “What time do you arrive at the bank usually?” Ryan asked, watching the results from a scan pop up on-screen.

  “Around nine, just before we open. Why?”

  “Well, the first login of the day was at seven this morning.”

  “That’s impossible!” Mr. Morgan spluttered. “Check the security footage!” He pointed to a small camera above the door that recorded the entire office.

  He muttered instructions to Ryan, who opened the various windows in response. Ryan backtracked the video footage until just before seven. They could clearly see the office door open, but instead of a figure entering, something moved in front of the camera and concealed it for ten minutes before disappearing again.

  The manager stared, shocked.

  Lily made her way out of the office and returned a couple of minutes later with a feather duster attached to a long pole. “Perhaps this is what cut off the security camera,” she said, positioning the dus
ter in front of the camera.

  “And this is what she accessed,” Ryan said, leaning back in the desk chair. “It looks like the codes to one of your lesser safes.”

  The manager’s eyes widened to the point of threatening to pop. He bolted out of the room, and Garcia and Lily duly followed him.

  “She cleared this safe…” The manager’s voice was barely a whisper as he stared at the few notes left abandoned in an otherwise empty holding.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Morgan,” Garcia said grimly, his dark eyebrows adding to the severity of his words, “but it seems it was an inside job. An inside job that went horribly wrong and cost Candy her life. We’ll need to know the serial numbers from these notes, and exactly how much was stolen.”

  “There was fifty thousand in here,” Mr. Morgan muttered. “Fifty thousand.”

  Chapter 2

  A Mother’s Intuition

  Her hair a mess of dark brown curls falling in waves over her shoulders, Mrs. Wilheart sat on her sofa, staring into the far distance. She was so numb, an explosion could trigger on the seat next to her and she wouldn’t even flinch.

  Garcia, always the comforter, prepared to take on the impossible task of gathering information from a grieving parent whose world had just fallen apart. “Mrs. Wilheart, we’re terribly sorry for your loss.”

  “Mrs. Wilheart?” Lily touched her arm gently. “I know this is hard—”

  “You know this is hard?” Mrs. Wilheart snapped. “How could you possibly know what it feels like to lose a child?” Her voice was harsh, but her eyes were pools of pain as they scanned Lily’s face in the desperate hope of understanding what was happening.

  “I’m sorry.” Lily lowered her eyes. “You’re right. I don’t know your pain…”

  “Lily was in the bank at the time of the robbery,” Ryan spoke up—something he didn’t often manage when dealing with heartbroken family members. “She was the first one at your daughter’s side after the shooting. She tried to save her, but the bullet had killed Candy instantly.”