by Dale Mayer
“And when you ran away, did they shout at you? Did they tell you to stop? Did you hear them get into a vehicle? All those little details are important.”
She lifted her gaze to him but wasn’t seeing his features, only the nightmare she’d tripped into. “I do remember the one man grabbing the mayor’s arm and saying, ‘Step back out of the way.’”
Dakota stepped closer to her. “Did you hear anything other than that? Did you feel anything? A jolt to your body, a burn, a sense of pressure, anything?”
She stared at him, feeling his confusion and angst pouring over her. “Not really. I almost fell, twisted my knee a bit. There was a weird sound, but it all blends into the nightmare.” She frowned and put down her pen to rub her temple. “My headache is back. I can’t tell you how ugly it is,” she joked. “Feels like a major renovation is going on inside my brain.”
He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. I let my guard down. I’m still shocked I actually hit you.” He walked toward her and said abruptly, “Stand up, please.”
“I had the headache … before, I think.”
He motioned to her to stand up.
She did, then twisted slightly to look at him. “Why?”
Even just that movement made her head pound. She gasped and reached for her temple. “Damn that hurts.”
“Take off your coat.”
She raised her gaze to him and again asked, “Why?”
He stepped behind her and gently helped her drop the coat from her shoulders. As soon as it was off, she heard his gasp.
In a hard voice, he demanded, “I need to lift your shirt.”
She turned and reached for the table as support when the room spun. “No.”
“I won’t hurt you,” he said quietly. “I need to see why blood is all over your back.”
She stared up at him in shock. “There’s what?” She twisted, trying to see her back, only to shudder as waves of pain washed over her. “It can’t be,” she whispered. “No way I wouldn’t know.”
“Sometimes it takes a while.”
She snorted. “There’s no way. Not without actual blood showing.”
He pulled up a chair and had her sit down on it backward.
When she leaned over the back of the chair, he checked out her back. “The blood soaked through your sweater and has partially dried. I’ll get a dishcloth to soak the material again so I can lift it up without much pain to you and see just how badly hurt you are.”
She protested, but he wasn’t listening. He opened one of the drawers she pointed out, turned on the tap and ran warm water over the dishcloth. He came back and gently pressed it against her lower back. Instantly she cried out.
He did it several times, his face grim, until he placed the dishcloth, now very bloody, beside her. “Now I’ll lift it up.”
She could feel him gently peeling the material off her back. He tugged and pulled but it wasn’t as painful as it could’ve been.
“Okay. Now you need to grab your coat and come with me.”
She shook her head. “I’m too damn tired to go anywhere. It’s nothing. Now that you’ve washed my back, it will be fine. I want to stay here and go to bed. I just need to rest.”
He stepped around in front of her and crouched down so they were at eye level. “What you need are stitches. That wound is from a bullet that cut into the flesh. It needs to be cleaned, and you need stitches to close it.”
She stared at him in shock. “How is that possible?”
He shrugged. “I’m thinking the man with the mayor turned to shoot you as you ran away.” His voice hardened as he added, “And you’re damn lucky. The bullet could have caused a lot more damage.”
And then her back burned like fire. She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling nausea working through her. “This is so stupid. I made it home with no pain. Sure I was tired and sore, but I figured it was from the stress. At the time I stumbled and almost fell before racing away. I just figured it was nothing.”
“Well, that stumble saved your life,” he said. He gently nudged her upright and draped the coat around her shoulders. “Let’s go take care of this.”
He led her out the door, making sure she had her purse, report tucked inside, and then used her keys to lock the door behind them.
She shook her head. “I still don’t believe it.”
“When you see the doctor, and he puts in stitches, I’m sure you’ll believe it then.”
*
Dakota helped her into the SUV and drove her down the winding back roads toward the main street and headed to the closest hospital. He wasn’t sure a twenty-four-hour clinic could handle a bullet wound. He also knew this would look exactly like what it was, and he didn’t know if they would have to let the police know. Given the circumstances, he figured a hospital report of a gunshot wound was probably a good thing. It would give some credence to her story.
He pulled up beside the emergency entrance and walked around to help her out. She was still protesting. He smiled at her, tucked her arm through his and walked her toward the door.
“You can protest all you want, but there’s no getting out of this.” He cracked his lips at her. “I only nudged you with the vehicle but, to think that you were already shot and bleeding when I did it, just makes me feel all that much worse.”
“Don’t,” she said, her voice getting fainter.
He watched her, seeing the color wash out of her skin as they got closer to the hospital door. “Are you going to faint on me?” he asked sharply. “I can pick you up and carry you, but I don’t think it’s the best thing for your back.”
She shook her head and, in a grim voice, said, “I’ll be fine.”
Only she wasn’t. Then he remembered the memories of her loss, and how many times she must have gone to the hospital to see her dying husband. This hospital visit would trigger so many of those memories. Still, she was stalwart as she moved forward. And he had to respect that. Hell, he had to respect her. She’d shown herself to be nothing but admirable thus far.
“How long?” he asked the triage nurse.
The woman gave him a harried look. “We have to treat those with more serious injuries first.”
He nodded. “She’s bleeding, and she’ll pass out on us very soon.”
She glanced over at Bailey and nodded. “I’ll get her to see a doctor in the next few minutes.”
He returned to Bailey’s side and waited. Sure enough, about ten minutes later the nurse called Bailey over. She was led into one of the small treatment rooms. The white curtains closed around them. He sat at the side of the bed and waited for a doctor. Dakota wouldn’t leave her side until he was pushed out.
They had to wait another ten to fifteen minutes before another nurse looked at the injury, frowned and disappeared.
A doctor came to see Bailey within minutes. He was efficient but casual as he studied the wound. “Do we need to call the police?”
Dakota nodded. “It would probably be a good idea.”
The doctor stared at him. “Are you her husband?”
He shook his head. “A friend.”
Understanding, the doctor said, “You need to wait outside while we treat her wound.”
Bailey reached out and grasped Dakota’s hand. “Can’t he stay with me?”
“It can get a little busy and crowded in here,” the doctor said gently. “As soon as we get you cleaned and stitched up, he can come back in for a few moments.”
She nodded and let go of Dakota’s hand. He stepped out and carried on right out to the front door. It was well past time to call Levi. Dakota should be home from his errands by now. Instead of being early, he wasn’t sure he would make it back today at all.
Ice picked up the phone. Dakota quickly explained.
“What? The mayor?”
He heard the shock in her voice. She’d never been a big fan of politicians and had no patience for any of the double-dealings going on in their world, but, at the same time, Ice was a trooper. And she’d
bend over backward to help anybody who needed it.
“What have you still got to do on your list?”
“Hang on.” He pulled his list from his pocket and read over the four items left. “I’m not sure she’s in any shape to go home. I can pick up the rest and make it back if need be.”
“I can send somebody else in, but we’re a little short-staffed now.” She was distracted. “But I can also grab one of the other vehicles and come transfer the gear over.”
“Wait until I hear what the doctor has to say. If she’s okay and can stay overnight at the hospital, which I doubt, I could run home. Otherwise she’ll need somebody to take her back to her place, and I’m not comfortable leaving her all alone.”
“Does she have any friends and family to look after her for the night?”
He explained about her husband.
Ice was sympathetic. “There’s an easy answer. I have a medical clinic, which is almost always empty. Bring her here, and we’ll get her settled onto a bed, and, if we need to do anything for her, then we can look after her here.”
Dakota smiled. “Ice, you have a soft heart.”
“Don’t you tell anybody else that,” she warned. “Keep me informed. If you get a chance to pick up the rest of the stuff, great. If not, we’ll make a second trip tomorrow.”
“Will do.” He put away his phone and walked back into the emergency waiting area. With the nurses coming and going, he finally stopped one to ask, “Is she likely to stay overnight?”
The nurse shook her head. “I don’t think so. The doctors aren’t done in there yet. It’s clean, but it’s deep. She’ll need to rest and not move for the next few days. We can’t have her ripping the stitches open.”
He nodded. “I have a place where she can stay.”
The nurse shot him a bright smile. “Good. She’ll need looking after.”
Dakota nodded. At the same time, he realized he forgot to ask Ice about any cops here who they could count on. He hadn’t been in town long enough to know who were their allies and who weren’t. But Ice would know. She’d spent the last couple years cultivating goodwill among all their neighbors. They would have a certain number of police they counted on.
His phone rang just then. He walked back out the front door and answered it. “Hello?”
“This is Detective Mannford. I just got off the phone with Ice. She told me a pretty far-fetched story.”
“I heard the same story. Bailey has a bullet wound across her back in confirmation as well. I have her account written down of what she saw.”
“You have that in your hands?”
“No, it’s in her purse. She’s currently being treated in emergency, so you can’t speak with her just yet.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe that the woman I found was in shock and dealing with some major trauma. I got her hot coffee and a meal. Then I took her home. That whole time she wasn’t quite there. She was still dealing with a shock reaction. It was only as I got her home and heard her story that I realized something much more serious could be going on. I took off her coat, and that’s when I saw her back was covered in blood.”
“Damn. The mayor?”
“Yes, that’s who she said it was.”
“Did she have reason to know exactly who the mayor is? Enough to recognize him from a distance?”
“He’s been extremely visible lately, so it’s certainly within reason that she would. Also his face is on a lot of the billboards around town, and he’s been lobbying for his latest bill to pass. Not to mention, with the re-election coming up, his campaign posters are everywhere.”
“Yeah. Did she give a description of the other man?”
“All she remembers is he was taller than the mayor, and all three men were dressed in suits. She did see him pull the trigger and saw the third man collapse.”
“We don’t have a dead body. I need the location of where she saw this happen. There’s got to be a blood trail or forensic proof of some nature there.”
“I don’t have a street name.” Dakota stared at the blue sky. “You have to wait, like I said, and talk to her. I know the general area because I saw her running, but I don’t know exactly which alleyway it happened in.”
“Okay, how long do you think she’ll be?”
“Probably an hour. The doctor is working on her right now. I don’t know if they are shooting her up with painkillers, and I don’t know what shape she’ll be in, so you’re likely better off if you’re here as soon as possible, just in case.”
“Or I could catch you tomorrow at her apartment …”
“I’m taking her back to the compound. Ice can keep an eye on her there.”
“She lives alone?” the detective asked in a sharp voice.
“Not only alone, she’s a widow, still dealing with the grief of losing her husband eighteen months ago.”
“Friends? Family?”
“Not that I know of.”
“That makes her easy to get rid of, as not too many people would kick up a fuss. But they’d have to find her first.” His voice turned thoughtful. “The mayor has a lot of resources, including access to the traffic cams if he wanted to track her movements. So it wouldn’t be hard to find out where she lived.”
“Exactly. She does work, but I’m not sure where.”
“Well, let’s get her full name for a start.”
Dakota gave her full name and her home address. “We had coffee at a little tiny diner around the corner. I think it’s called Nexus Café.”
“I know the area. Which direction was she coming from when she ran into the street?”
He explained and added, “My take is it happened fairly quickly. She wasn’t super soaked at the time, though it was raining hard.”
“Okay. I’ll drive around through a couple of those blocks and see if I find anything, then I’ll come to the hospital.”
Feeling better, Dakota pocketed his phone and headed back in. He sat down in the waiting room and sent Saul a quick text, explaining what had happened. Saul was up north, probably wouldn’t get the message immediately. But he liked to be kept in the loop.
Eventually the doctor came back out and walked over to Dakota. “I still have some paperwork to do.”
“Detective Mannford is on his way,” Dakota said. “He’ll be on point with this one.”
The doctor looked happy. “Glad to hear that. It could’ve been much worse. Even if that angle had just been slightly different, she would be dead right now.”
His face grim, Dakota nodded. “I was afraid of that. She sat all through lunch without any sign of pain. It was only after I got her home and I started asking questions about exactly what had happened that I realized there could be so much more to this.”
“Shock is a powerful thing. She wouldn’t have been aware until it started to wear off. Then the pain would have hit, and she’d have been in agony.”
“She started complaining about a bad headache.”
The doctor nodded. “That happens too sometimes.” He pulled out his pen and paper. “I presume you will be looking after her?”
Dakota nodded.
The doctor wrote a prescription for painkillers and another for antibiotics. He handed them to Dakota. “Both are necessary. That shot went deep. She’s to see her doctor in seven to ten days to get the stitches removed.” And with that he turned and walked away.
Dakota pocketed both prescriptions. As he crossed to head where Bailey was, a man strode in. The look on his face, his back and shoulders straight, all said cop to Dakota. He stepped in front of him and asked, “Detective Mannford?”
The detective nodded and held out his hand.
“Dakota Languor.” The two men shook hands. “I told the doctor you would be point on this case. He said he’s still got to write up a report and file it.”
Detective Mannford said, “No problem. We’ll take care of it.” He looked around. “Where is she?”
“I’m right here,” Bailey sa
id in a weak voice.
Dakota turned to see Bailey, standing on her own two feet but looking ready to collapse at any moment. He raced over and gently placed an arm around her. “Easy.”
She gave him a lopsided smile. “The nurse did say they’d give me a wheelchair, but I refused. I can walk, but I’m not so sure about sitting.”
She nodded to the detective but dropped her gaze to the floor.
Dakota leaned forward and whispered, “He’s clear.”
She gave him a shuttered look and nodded. But he realized just his word wouldn’t make her believe it. And that was the way it should be. She had to make her own decisions as to what she believed for her own safety.
The detective looked at her closely. “Can you answer a few questions for me? I’ve already heard a general accounting from Dakota.”
“If it’s fast,” she said. “I want to go home and lie down.”
Dakota stayed quiet. This wasn’t the time to tell her that she wasn’t going home.
“I need the location where the shooting occurred.”
She closed her eyes and described where she was and what she’d seen. Dakota watched as the detective wrote it down.
Finally he put away his notepad. “I’ll contact you tomorrow to see if you can remember anything else.”
She smiled and nodded.
Dakota took that cue and led her gently out the front door back to his SUV. “We need to get your prescriptions filled.”
“There’s a little drugstore around the corner from my place that I have an account with,” she said.
He nodded. When she was safely buckled in, her back stiffened as she leaned forward. It must hurt, he thought. He carefully drove back to where she lived and her local drugstore. “I need to go inside too. They don’t just give the prescriptions to anybody.”
“If you think you can.” He helped her from the vehicle and led her slowly into the pharmacy.
When they made it to the counter, the woman looked up and smiled. “Bailey, obviously you haven’t had a good day.”
She shook her head gently. “Nope, but I’ll be fine.” She paid for the prescriptions, and he took her back to the SUV. She whispered, “Thank you for doing this. All I want to do now is go to bed.”
