It was as simple and as complex as that.
At a loss as to how to respond to this awkward estrangement that had come in from nowhere and instantly taken hold, Nika was rescued by Sally, one of the day-shift nurses.
Tall, willowy and blond, Sally Nelson cheerfully thrust a coffee container covered in light blue contact paper between them. The container was filled with dollar bills and change. She shook it slightly for emphasis.
“I’m taking up a collection,” she needlessly announced.
“For?” Nika asked when nothing more enlightening followed the declaration.
“It’s for a going-away gift for Gerald—the orderly,” Sally added as if to distinguish him from all the other Geralds, except that there weren’t any.
The announcement had immediately snagged Cole’s attention. “He’s leaving?”
The nurse bobbed her head up and down. “He has to,” Sally answered, her sunny expression giving way to one that was borderline serious. “His mother’s not doing well and he told us that he’s going to have to go on an indefinite leave of absence because he wants to take care of her full-time.”
“What does he plan to do for money?” Cole asked. Taking care of an infirm senior citizen required a great deal of capital.
Sally laughed and waved her hand at the question, dismissing it. “Oh, Gerald doesn’t need to worry about that. He says his father left his mother really well-off. The old man had this huge insurance policy when he died. His mother was going to use the money to move into one of those assisted living homes, but Gerald told her he wouldn’t hear of it. What kind of a son would he be, he said, letting strangers take care of her when he was actually trained to do that kind of thing himself?”
“Very noble of him,” Cole commented in a flat voice.
Nika took out her wallet and tossed in a ten, which brought Sally’s smile back, increasing its wattage by a third. Turning away from the nurse, Nika lowered her voice and said to Cole, “You’re being sarcastic.”
“Was I?” he asked. “I thought that was my regular speaking voice.”
“It was,” she acknowledged, the corners of her mouth curving, “but it was still sarcastic. You think Gerald’s volunteering to take care of his mother to keep her from spending the proceeds from the life insurance policy, don’t you?”
“Greed does make the world go around,” he told her simply, then added, “But I don’t believe anything until I check it out.” Even as he said it, he was taking out his cell phone.
The way Cole said the last part made her feel uneasy. Suspicious. She put her hand on his wrist to keep him from making the call he was obviously anxious to place.
“Does that apply to everyone?” she asked. “Do you always check everything and everyone out?” Before he could answer, she demanded, “Did you check me out?”
She had no idea why that upset her as much as it did, but it did. She supposed that it made her feel as if he regarded her the same way he regarded everyone else.
While she subconsciously knew that it was probably true, that she was no different from anyone else to him, she didn’t want to be forced to face the evidence, at least, not yet. Not until she’d psyched herself up a little more.
“Yes, I did,” he told her after a beat. He didn’t see why this would upset her, especially considering his timing. “That was when your hospital administrator was ready to lay you on the sacrificial altar as the prime suspect in these less-than-natural deaths that keep occurring in your unit. I’m the one who cleared you, remember? That required checking you out. I couldn’t just look into your eyes and pronounce you innocent.”
Although, he had to admit, albeit only to himself, something in her eyes had made him believe in her innocence to begin with. Knowing that he’d find proof to substantiate it just helped.
“I know,” she said, but he picked up on the fact that she seemed far from pleased about his honesty.
Damn, but women were just too complicated a species to get caught up with, Cole thought. Served him right for letting his guard down and allowing himself to stumble away from his very well-defined path. He was a loner and loners didn’t get caught up in eyes the color of the sky, or lips that tasted of vanilla or killer legs that went on forever. Loners remained alone. It was a self-explanatory definition.
Nika drew her shoulders back, a soldier braced to do her duty.
“I’d better go back downstairs and see if your grandmother’s ready to be moved back up to her room,” she told him.
What she didn’t add was that she wanted to put a little distance between them until she could come to grips with this glaring reminder she’d just been given. A reminder that whatever she was secretly hoping they had going on between them, while not dead on arrival, was certainly not expected to have any kind of healthy, lengthy lifespan.
Cole nodded in response. Wanting to go downstairs with Nika to see his grandmother, he knew he needed to follow up on this new piece of information. When he’d initially interviewed the friendly orderly, the man had made no mention that he was thinking of leaving the hospital any time in the near future.
He supposed that Gerald might not have thought it was relevant, but in his experience, it was always the seemingly irrelevant pieces of information that usually broke a case.
Cole hoped like hell that lightning would strike again.
Going to his grandmother’s room, he crossed to the window—the area he’d accidentally discovered had the best reception for his cell phone—and made his call.
Dialing the number to the precinct, he didn’t bother listening to the recorded voice that was prompting him to pay attention to the menu “as it has changed.” Instead, he tapped out the extension he needed.
The phone on the other end rang three times before the receiver was picked up. Cole didn’t wait for the computer tech to announce himself. Instead, he dived right into the call.
“Cal, Baker,” he made the introduction quickly. “Did you have a chance to look into more of Gerald Mayfield’s background yet?” Taking a worn notepad out of his back pocket, he flipped it open, then found what he was looking for. For good measure, Cole rattled off the social security number he’d jotted down next to the orderly’s name. “You did?” Cole warned himself not to expect too much. He was probably just on a wild-goose chase. More than likely, the orderly was clean. “Okay, what did you find out?”
The rather high voice on the other end began to review his recent findings. “Mayfield’s worked for several nursing homes since he graduated from a two-year college fifteen years ago. They all raved about how good he was with patients. There’s a bunch of glowing references in his HR file.”
Damn. But then, Cole reminded himself, references could be forged. “Check those out for me, see if they’re legitimate. And what about the stats at these places? Did any of these nursing homes experience a higher than usual mortality rate when compared to other, similar facilities?”
“Nothing that stands out at first glance,” Calvin told him. “But I could dig a little deeper if you want.”
“I want,” Cole told him firmly. “And while you’re at it, see if you can find out how big his father’s insurance policy was.”
There was a momentary pause on the other end. “What insurance policy?”
At this point, Cole had no idea what insurance company had issued the policy. “The one he had in force when he died. I’m assuming that wasn’t all that long ago.”
“There wasn’t any,” Cal assured him. “And I don’t know what you mean by ‘all that long ago,’ but the old man’s ticker gave out ten years ago. According to what the doctor wrote in his chart, Gerald Mayfield’s father died of a broken heart because he couldn’t live without his wife.”
Cole’s head snapped up. “Mayfield’s mother is dead?”
“Yup. Has been for ten years. Died less than six months before her husband. Why?”
“Because Mayfield said he was leaving the hospital to devote himself to taking care of hi
s mother.” Bingo! “I think we just found our guy.” He cautioned himself not to get overconfident just yet. There could still be some sort of an explanation, although he didn’t see how. “Get back to me with that information,” he instructed. With that, he terminated his call.
Hurrying back to the nurses’ station, he saw that Sally, the nurse with the paper-wrapped tin can, was the only one there. Cole pressed his card into her hand. “Call me the second Gerald Mayfield turns up. And don’t let him go into a patient’s room unsupervised.”
Sally rose in her chair, confused. “Why?”
He didn’t have time to explain. “Just do it,” he told her, running toward the stairwell.
Before entering, he called Nika on her cell. He wanted to warn her to stay clear of the orderly.
Nika wasn’t picking up.
Chapter 15
When Nika didn’t pick up the third time he tried calling her, Cole told himself that there was no reason to let his imagination get the better of him. Her cell phone was probably still in her locker, where she’d put it when she’d changed into scrubs for his grandmother’s surgery.
That was what he told himself, but that wasn’t what he actually believed.
His mind told him one thing, casting its vote on the side of logic. His gut went a whole different route. It told him she was in trouble.
There was no doubt that what he’d just discovered about the departing orderly colored his judgment, but Cole definitely had a bad feeling about this. A bad feeling that had him heading for the stairwell and the Recovery Room on the first floor.
Nika stared at the Recovery Room nurse, stunned. A very uneasy feeling was spreading out all through her. “What do you mean Gerald came and got Mrs. Baker?”
“He came and got her,” the woman repeated. It was clear that she didn’t see what the problem was.
Granted, this wasn’t the ideal time to carry on a conversation, at least as far as the nurse was probably concerned. At the moment, Judy pretty much had her hands full, so to speak. One of the post-op patients had suddenly woken up ahead of schedule, obviously urged on by the churning sensation in her stomach.
At present, the groggy, moaning woman was throwing up into the pink plastic container that Judy was holding up to her mouth. The intense, nauseating smell that emerged was enough to drive anyone from the room. But Cole’s grandmother was missing and Nika needed this cleared up—as in fifteen minutes ago.
“By whose authority?” she demanded. Orderlies didn’t just come waltzing into the Recovery Room and whisk post-op patients away at whim.
The beleaguered nurse looked at Nika as if she’d suddenly raffled away her mind. “Yours,” she answered tersely.
Nika blinked. That wasn’t possible. She hadn’t authorized anything. “Excuse me?”
“Gerald said that you’d told him to bring Mrs. Baker back to her room, and that you would watch her for a while as a favor to that detective. She’s his grandmother, right?”
“Right.” Frustrated, she wasn’t even sure where to begin. “But I didn’t—” Nika regrouped and tried again. “Didn’t you think that was a little odd, his coming here and just commandeering the woman on my supposed say-so?”
Judy appeared torn between the question and holding her patient’s head. “It’s not my place to think anything’s odd. I just go by the rules unless I’m told otherwise. Keep a low profile, keep your job,” Judy recited in a singsong voice.
Considering the state of the economy of late, Nika could understand where the nurse was coming from. But even so, there was such a thing as making sure all actions were on the level. Why hadn’t she just stopped to check by placing a call to the Geriatrics Unit?
With a sigh, Nika focused on her next move, finding Gerald before, God forbid, the orderly did something that couldn’t be undone.
“How long ago was he here?” It couldn’t have been that long ago, she reasoned, because she’d been down here less than half an hour ago.
Judy set down the plastic tub and shrugged. “Five, ten minutes, something like that.” She barely disguised her annoyance. “I wasn’t timing it.”
Nika was having trouble hanging on to her temper. “Which way did he go?”
“Through the doors,” the nurse retorted, then added impatiently, “and into the elevator, I guess.” The patient began making gagging noises again. Judy grabbed the container and held it up for the woman. When she spoke, the nurse hardly sounded like herself. She was trying to talk without inhaling. “What’s the big deal?” she asked.
The answer would have to wait. Nika was already hurrying out of the dim room, pushing open the doors with both hands. She made a beeline for the first phone she saw. It was on the corner of the hospitality receptionist’s desk.
Dispensing with formalities, Nika snatched up the receiver and started dialing. “I need to make a call to the Geriatrics Unit,” Nika said when the woman looked at her in surprise. “It’s urgent.”
She shifted her weight from foot to foot, impatiently waiting for the on-duty nurse to pick up. It felt like two eternities had gone by before she heard a female voice on the line. “Geriatrics, this is Sally.”
“Sally, this is Dr. Pulaski. Did Gerald come up with Mrs. Baker yet?” She crossed her fingers, hoping for a positive answer. Hoping that she was just overreacting and that the orderly was just trying to be helpful. He always had been before.
“No,” the nurse answered, turning the single syllable word into one that had several syllables at its disposal.
“Are you sure?” Nika stressed.
“Of course I’m sure. I’ve got an unobstructed view of Mrs. Baker’s room from here. Gerald didn’t come back with her. She’s not in her bed.” And then she made a funny little noise as she remembered something. “Oh, that cute detective wanted me to tell you—”
But Nika had already hung up.
Where could the orderly have gone with Mrs. Baker, and why? At this point, the “why” seemed rather obvious, but she didn’t want to believe it. Gerald Mayfield was one of the most cheerful, most dedicated people she’d ever met. Try as she might to recall otherwise, she’d never seen the man without a smile on his face. Moreover, he was always looking to do more, to go not just the extra mile, but the entire distance if need be.
Could someone like that really be responsible for the recent rash of deaths?
She couldn’t get herself to believe it—and yet, what else could she think? There was no reason for him to take it upon himself to remove a patient from the recovery area on his own—or to lie about it.
Right now she didn’t need to think, Nika told herself. She needed to track the orderly down. He shouldn’t be that difficult to find. It wasn’t as if he could just disappear with Cole’s grandmother. The man was pushing a gurney, for God sakes. How much more conspicuous could he be?
The line, “Hide in plain sight,” flashed through her head. Seeing an orderly pushing a gurney with or without a patient in it was a common sight. No one would even notice.
Nika felt her heart inch its way up her throat. It wasn’t the kind of lump that came about when someone was being sentimental. It was the kind that fairly screamed of fear.
Where had the orderly taken Cole’s grandmother?
She tried to think like her quarry. If his intent was to eliminate the woman, his best bet was to do it in an unoccupied room. There simply weren’t any on the first floor. All the O.R. suites were booked. That meant that Gerald had to have gone up to one of the other floors.
But which one?
For a split second, Nika thought of getting on the loudspeaker and paging him, but that would only alert him. Or maybe, please God, it would make him stop long enough for her to be able to catch up to him.
Still, she couldn’t take that chance.
Going with her previous hunch, Nika began the search by dashing up the stairs to the second floor. Once there, she ran to the nurses’ station.
“Did you see an orderly pushing a gurney with
an unconscious old woman on it?” she asked eagerly.
God, did that ever sound melodramatic, she thought. Especially since she was breathing rather hard as she asked the question.
The nurse told her that she hadn’t seen anyone pushing a gurney onto the floor. Gerald hadn’t gotten off on the second floor.
She was about to run up to the next floor to ask the nurse there if she’d seen Gerald when it suddenly occurred to her where Gerald would have gone. It was the perfect place. The eighth floor could be counted on to have empty rooms. The floor was reserved for the wealthy and for visiting dignitaries who thought nothing of paying for the privilege of having a hospital room that could pass as one of the higher-end hotel suites.
Turning back to the nurse, she said, “Listen to me. I need you to call Detective Baker and tell him to meet me on the eighth floor.” She rattled off Cole’s cell number from memory quickly.
Confused, the nurse stared at her. “Who are you?”
“Dr. Pulaski. Nika Pulaski,” she emphasized, since there were so many doctors in the hospital by that last name already. At last count, besides her, there were six. “Please tell him it’s urgent.”
The nurse obviously had her own interpretation of what she meant by the word “urgent.” “If they catch you up there fooling around in one of the empty rooms, it’s grounds for dismissal,” the nurse warned her.
“How about if they catch me preventing a murder?” Nika countered.
The nurse’s jaw dropped open and she immediately began dialing the number she’d been given.
Though she really didn’t want to, Nika was forced to take the elevator. Eight floors were a bit too many to run up and still be of any kind of use once she reached the suites. She was tense the entire ride up.
She deliberately took the freight elevator, thinking that Gerald would want to avoid detection as much as he could. Getting off the elevator car, she braced herself and immediately began looking for the orderly and Cole’s grandmother. There were twelve spacious suites on a floor that could have accommodated thirty single care units. Each suite had its door closed. Taking a deep breath, Nika started opening them, peering into each suite without first knocking or announcing herself. She didn’t want Gerald forewarned.
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