An Eternity in a Moment

by K Carothers

  “You called me cousin,” Jenna said, her eyes brightening with pleasure. “I like the sound of that.”

  Nolan chuckled. “Well, me dear cousin, I hope ye like the look of me face too, since ye’ll be seein’ a lot of it after this.”

  Erin gave Jenna a grin. “Oh boy. It looks like you’re stuck with two doctors now.”

  * * *

  After lunch Erin and Jenna decided to visit Jesse at the hospital. They weren’t getting rid of Nolan, though. He gathered up a handful of his retired cronies, along with some of that Irish coffee, and headed over to Jenna’s house to help James with the sunroom. “Those dry shites ain’t doin’ much more than tryin’ to kick the bucket anyway,” he’d said of his friends. “This’ll give ‘em somethin’ worthwhile to do. And another reason to drink.”

  Erin smiled at the thought of them as she and Jenna walked through the hospital lobby. She had a feeling Nolan and his friends were going to make James regret offering to work on a Sunday—and he might leave with even less hair than he’d had before.

  Then they neared the elevators, and she came to a halt.

  Jenna stopped alongside her, following the direction of her gaze. “Do you want to get on?”

  Erin turned to her, and it was on the tip of her tongue to say no. But then she glanced down at the cane in Jenna’s hand, and an idea occurred to her. “You would really like to see me finally take the elevator, wouldn’t you?”

  “If you’re ready, then yes, I would love for us to get on it together.”

  “I think I need some motivation, though,” Erin told her with a slight smile. “I’ll take the elevator if you’ll do one thing for me.”

  Jenna chuckled. “I have a feeling I’m not going to like this. What is it?”

  “I want you to get radiation therapy on your hip, and on a few of the other places that are causing you pain.”

  Jenna’s expression immediately sobered. “Erin, we’ve already been through this. I don’t—”

  “I’m not talking about trying to cure you, Jen. This is about reducing the pain you’re in. And you’ll be able to walk longer. I’m sure you’d rather not have me pushing you around in a wheelchair if you can help it.”

  Jenna softly sighed. “Going back and forth to Madison all the time would be such a hassle, Erin. And it probably wouldn’t help that much anyway.”

  “You’re wrong, Jen. There’s a good chance the pain will get significantly better within weeks. And you’ll only have to go once. A single dose of radiation can be just as effective as a series of treatments in a case like yours, with few side effects. Didn’t your oncologist talk to you about all that?”

  “I suppose…maybe,” Jenna hesitantly responded.

  Erin grinned. “It sounds like maybe someone wasn’t listening very well.” She squeezed Jenna’s arm. “Do one treatment for me, and I’ll get on the elevator.”

  “Oh fine,” Jenna said in resignation. Then she limped over to the elevator and pressed the up button, adding, “I’ll bet you just want to see me get nuked as payback for last Friday when I told you to go screw yourself.”

  A bubble of laughter started to escape Erin—but it was quickly popped.

  “Ladies, this is a hospital!” a nurse said, frowning at them as she walked by.

  Fortunately for Erin and Jenna, the elevator doors opened right away, and with guilty looks on their faces they hurried inside.

  “I suppose she wouldn’t find it amusing if I told her to blame it on the morphine,” Jenna muttered under her breath.

  Erin did break into laughter then. “We just got yelled at…because you told me to go screw myself.”

  Jenna hit the button for the third floor. “I did not actually tell you to go screw yourself.” Then her lips quirked up into an impish grin. “I just kind of told you that a week ago.”

  Erin leaned against the elevator wall, and it barely registered that the doors had closed as she continued to laugh helplessly, grabbing her stomach. “I still can’t believe…a nurse actually yelled at us…”

  But in a matter of seconds the doors started to open again, and she abruptly stopped laughing. “What happened?” she asked, her eyes widening in fear. “Didn’t we go anywhere?”

  It was Jenna’s turn to laugh. “We’re on the third floor,” she said, stepping out. “Congratulations, my friend. You just took a ride in the elevator.”

  Erin hesitantly followed her out, glancing back as the doors closed behind her. “Wow, that’s all there was to it.” She slowly grinned and walked with Jenna down the hallway. “Now I know exactly how I’m going to distract myself every time I get on an elevator. I’ll think of that nurse yelling at us because you told me to—”

  “Shush, Erin, this is a hospital!” Jenna said, prompting them both to dissolve into a fit of giggles.

  In Jesse’s room they found a full-blown fiesta going on, with very little room to move. The boy looked a thousand times better, Erin noted. And he had a lighthearted smile on his face.

  Then he saw her, and his smile widened. “Papá, Mamá, this is Doctora Pryce,” he said to the couple standing next to him.

  As soon as he made the announcement the room erupted with happy exclamations, mostly in Spanish, and a path immediately opened for Erin and Jenna to walk through.

  “Muchas gracias, Doctora Pryce,” Jesse’s father said, enthusiastically shaking her hand. “It’s a miracle, un milagro increíble, what you have done for mi familia. Jesús told us how you saved him yesterday, and also when he got shot. ¡Es simplemente un milagro!”

  “I didn’t say anything about you until today. I tried to keep you out of all this,” Jesse said. “But Detective Mathis was here this morning, and he knew everything.”

  Erin grimaced slightly. “Did he treat you okay?”

  “Yes, and I think he believes me about not hurting the other cop or the mayor’s wife. And we talked a lot about what happened between me and Wayne. He said Wayne is going to have to pay for—for certain things.”

  A lump of emotion formed in Erin’s throat, and she felt her love for Luke deepen even more. “Yes, he will have to pay.”

  Mrs. Torres took hold of her hand. “I want to give you my thanks too, for everything. Jesús said he promised you he would go to church, and he asked the pastor to come and pray with him this morning. And you are right about making judgements—we should not use the Bible to judge others.”

  “Sí,” Jesse’s dad agreed. “We will all pray for strength and guidance, and leave some things in God’s hands.”

  Erin glanced at Jenna, who was staring at her in utter shock. “You know, Jen,” she said. “I’m getting really good at making you speechless.”

  Her friend chuckled in response, and for a while they joined the fiesta.

  Chapter

  22

  Ed Finks was completely off the grid, and it made Luke nervous. The man probably always kept himself invisible when he went on his Mexican “vacations,” but it was still possible someone had tipped him off about the drug ring being broken up. And if that was the case, he’d have gone right back to Mexico, and they’d never see him again. Frank had been very thorough in his recordkeeping, not to mention his implication of Ed on tape. As things stood, the assistant chief of police was going to be a very old man before he knew what freedom felt like again—if he ever did. But they had to catch him first.

  Ed had a live-in girlfriend—one young enough to be his daughter—and they’d brought her in for questioning after locking Frank up. Her face had lost all color when she’d been read her Miranda rights, and they’d had her full cooperation after that. She’d denied any knowledge of Ed dealing drugs, or even using them, but thought he might be cheating on her. And based on her panicked responses during the interview, Luke was pretty sure she’d been telling the truth—either that or she’d gotten some really good acting lessons
from Frank. But she expected Ed back early that afternoon, though she had no way to reach him either. He always left his phone at home when he went to Mexico because he wanted complete solitude—to get away from the pressures of being a cop, he’d said.

  Luke was sure Ed had a disposable phone, but so far they hadn’t found a contact number in any of the files. Frank probably knew how to reach him, but after his breakdown at the Sheriff’s Office he’d completely stopped talking—although when agents from the FBI and DEA arrived, he did ask for his lawyer back.

  So now it was a waiting game. Sheriff’s deputies and detectives throughout the county were on alert for Ed’s black, heavy-duty pickup, while federal and state agents, along with members of the regional SWAT team, were discreetly positioned near Ed’s house. An ABP hadn’t been put out, though, given the delicacy of the situation. Instead, they’d wait for Ed to drive into their net and haul him in when he got home. It gave them a more controlled environment for the takedown. And it would be a fitting ending anyway.

  Luke wanted to be the first one to greet Ed when he pulled into his driveway, so he and Scott had staked themselves out inside the assistant chief’s million-dollar house down the street from the mayor’s, with their tactical gear at the ready.

  “This is a pretty nice spread. Maybe it’ll go into foreclosure,” Scott said, admiring the lavishly decorated living room as they stood on alert by the front windows. “Not that I could afford it even then.”

  “You wouldn’t want this house anyway,” Luke told him. “I’m sure there’s a lot of bad karma here.”

  Scott laughed shortly. “I didn’t know you believed in shit like that. You think there are ghosts here too?” He wiggled his fingers in front of him and made a spooky noise.

  Luke shook his head with a wry smile. “After some of the things Erin’s told me, there just might be.”

  “Christ, she’s really got you by the balls, doesn’t she?” Scott said. “But then, who am I to talk? I’ve already had mine pretty much cut off—and that was before I got the vasectomy I probably didn’t need.” The smoldering anger that had been in his eyes most of the time lately burned especially bright. “But with my luck it would turn out that we never even needed IVF when number five came along.”

  Before Luke could respond, his cell phone started to buzz. Pulling it out, he saw the call was from an unknown number in Minneapolis. Shit, he thought. Someone probably told the chief what was going on. “Hello?”

  “Is this Detective Mathis?” an unfamiliar male voice asked.

  “Yeah. Who is this?”

  “It’s John Kilbride, Jeff’s son. I got your number from his phone. I’m really worried about my dad, and I thought you might know something.”

  “What has you concerned?” Luke asked, glancing furtively out the window.

  “He was acting really strange all weekend, almost like I would never see him again, and it’s scaring the hell out of me. But he won’t tell me what’s going on. Do you know if he’s sick or something?”

  “He doesn’t have any health issues I know of,” Luke said. “We are in the middle of a murder investigation. Has he mentioned that?”

  “Yeah. And maybe he’s just stressed out about it. He and Frank have been good friends for as long as I can remember. In fact, he was talking about that yesterday. But then he muttered something about how they’d both made a lot of mistakes, and that it was all a big mess.”

  “What mistakes?”

  “I don’t know,” John answered with frustration in his tone. “He wouldn’t say.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “He should be on his way back to New Dublin. He just left a few minutes ago.”

  “I’ll talk to him when he gets home. In the meantime, if you think of anything else he said that might be important, I want you to call me right away.”

  “Alright, I will. Thanks for your help, Detective Mathis.”

  “No problem, John.” Luke ended the call and put his phone away, shaking his head.

  “What was that about?” Scott asked.

  “It was the chief’s son. He’s worried because Jeff hasn’t been acting like himself.”

  “Hah! He’s probably feeling guilty since he should be working on a Sunday too.”

  Luke glanced out the window again. “Jeff’s heading back now, so I hope Ed shows his face in the next few hours, or things might get a lot more complicated.”

  But almost as soon as he said it the voice of one of the sheriff’s deputies came across their portable radios. “395 to 28. We have eyes on the prize, heading north on I-94, about eighteen miles from your location. We’re shadowing now.”

  Luke picked up his radio and responded on the encrypted channel they were using, “Copy that 395. Keep us updated.”

  “10-4,” the deputy returned.

  “It looks like the party’s about to get started,” Scott said with a slight smile. Then they quickly put on their tactical gear and readied their guns.

  Multiple units called in with updates as Ed got closer, and when he finally pulled into the driveway a swarm of police vehicles closed in behind him.

  Luke and Scott rushed out the front door at the same time with guns drawn. “Step out of the vehicle now, Ed!” Luke shouted, running toward him.

  Ed Finks looked out the open window in shock. But as realization quickly dawned he didn’t get out of the truck. Instead, he hit the gas hard and drove straight into the garage, splintering the overhead door he’d started to open when he pulled in. Then he rammed through the back wall, sending all his neatly arranged tools flying in every direction, and continued to speed down the long backyard.

  There were thick woods farther back, and he jumped out of the truck right before it slammed into a tree. But he was surprisingly agile for a man in his mid-fifties. He rolled on the ground to break his fall and immediately got to his feet, dashing toward the cover of the trees.

  He might have chosen a different course of action, though, if he’d known the MVP of the police force was there, the one who could intimidate, overpower, sprint, and sniff far better than any of them—and the one who also happened to be the most beloved by children. While Luke and Scott ran as fast as they could in their gear, with a slew of officers behind them, Bandit easily sprinted past them all and caught up to Ed before he’d made it more than a handful of steps.

  The dog leapt up, clamping his powerful jaws on Ed’s right arm, and tackled him to the ground. Then he continued to pull on the arm, vigorously yanking it back and forth, while the man screamed, “Call him off! My arm! Goddamn it, call him off!”

  Melinda, the second fastest member of the force, outran Luke and Scott as well. “Aus!” she commanded, prompting the dog to back off as she jumped on Ed herself and quickly put him in handcuffs.

  Luke reached them a moment later, and Melinda grinned up at him. “It looks like a woman had to catch the criminal again, Mathis. You’re having a bad weekend.”

  “You have an unfair advantage, Mann, and you know it,” he gasped, pulling his helmet off.

  “What, that I don’t run like a grandma?” she teased. Then she patted Ed down, removing a knife from his belt and a gun from a leg holster before she hauled him to his feet. “Our dirty cop is going to need some stitches.”

  Luke glanced at Scott. “You can have the pleasure of reading him his rights since he can’t read them to himself. Melinda and I will take Bandit over to the truck—or what’s left of it anyway—and see what Ed’s brought home for us.”

  A handful of the other officers had already gathered to inspect the truck when they approached. “Check it out, Luke,” one of the Sheriff’s deputies said excitedly. “There’s white powder all over the ground in front—”

  “Get back!” Luke immediately yelled. “Everyone get back! You could inhale fentanyl!”

  He pulled his radio out as they all re
treated, switching the channel to one used for general communication, and called in, “New Dublin 28 to Comm Center.”

  “Go ahead 28,” the dispatcher responded.

  “Have the fire department send the hazmat team to 1419 Woodland Trail immediately. And we need an ambulance for another possible fentanyl exposure.”

  “28, please confirm you need the hazmat team and an ambulance dispatched to 1419 Woodland Trail for a possible fentanyl exposure,” the dispatcher said, not quite able to hide the surprise in her voice.

  “10-4,” Luke answered.

  “Shit,” Melinda said as they came to a halt in the front yard. “If I have to go through the decon trailer again, I’m going to shoot Ed in the other arm.”

  “No, we were far enough away. I think we should be fine,” Luke told her. “And leave Ed with one good arm. He’ll need it to protect his ass in prison.”

  “No doubt,” Melinda agreed. “I’m just glad you learned your lesson from yesterday. Your girlfriend isn’t here to give you CPR this time.”

  Luke smiled ruefully. “No, she’s not. But that’s one lesson I’ll never forget. And I learned a few more today, like how I should wait for the suspect to turn his vehicle off before trying to apprehend him—not to mention it would be a good idea to unplug the garage door opener.” He looked at the mess Ed had made of his house and could only shake his head.

  “Was there another lesson?”

  “Yeah, that I need to run more sprints.”

  Melinda laughed. “You’ll still never catch me, Mathis. Not in a million years.”

  * * *

  Later that evening Luke shut his computer down at the police station, ready to call it a day and forget about all the madness for a while. Both Frank and Ed were safely tucked in at the county jail, each blaming the other for everything. But they were only hurting themselves with their lies.