“It’s okay,” Hawk told them. “Let her go with you.”
“Thanks Hawk. Oh… before I forget. Someone on the party boat shot Tony. You need to let the chief know. I think it could be Milo, so don’t let him get away.” I hoped that was vague enough to sound like a premonition.
Hawk’s eyes widened. If that was true, they might still have a chance. “Sure. I’ll tell the chief.”
I sent him a relieved nod and stepped into the back of the ambulance with the paramedics. There wasn’t a lot of room, so I did my best to stay out of their way while they started an IV and put an oxygen mask over Tony’s nose and mouth.
As they examined him, I could see that he’d been shot three times, once in the chest and twice in the stomach. I closed my eyes and tried not to let the blood get to me. One of them said that Tony’s pulse was weak. Without immediate attention, he wasn’t sure Tony would make it.
I focused on Tony, but his thoughts were still blank, and I despaired that I’d get anything else from him.
A few minutes later, we pulled up to the hospital emergency entrance, and I followed them through the doors into an emergency room. While they worked to stabilize him, I slipped into a back corner to stay out of the way and hoped they wouldn’t kick me out.
The room flooded with more medical personnel, and I caught sight of a familiar face. Ella focused on Tony and worked hard to help keep him alive. I studied her movements and noticed her touching him and stroking his arm. His erratic pulse rate leveled out, and his heartbeat strengthened. As she continued her ministrations, his breathing improved, and his skin color went from chalk white to pink.
Was that because of her, or was I just imagining it?
He stabilized, and the doctor decided to take him to surgery, thinking there was still a chance he could make it. As they moved his bed to rush him to the operating room, Ella stayed beside Tony, gently squeezing his hand.
I still couldn’t read her mind, but she must have sensed me there. Our gazes met, and her brows dipped together. After another soft touch for Tony, she stayed behind, telling the doctor that she needed to talk with me, but that she’d head to the OR as soon as she was done.
As Tony disappeared down the hall, I listened real close to his mind. Hearing nothing, I knew my chance to find out anything more was over, and I’d have to hope that he survived. Ella motioned me to follow her and led me down the hall to an empty exam room. “Is he a friend?” she asked.
“No, he’s not,” I said.
She raised a brow, asking me to continue. Knowing she wouldn’t like the answer, I kept my mouth shut. She must have picked up on that, because her eyes narrowed. “Wait. Does he have something to do with your case? With Taylor’s death?”
When I still didn’t answer, her gaze caught mine, and her eyes widened. “Son of a bitch. It’s him, isn’t it? He killed her and the other women.”
I didn’t deny it, and she let out an anguished groan. Her jaw clenched and she wrenched off her gloves and threw them into the garbage. She slapped her hand against the wall before resting her forehead on the cool, tile surface. Tears gathered in her eyes, but she sniffed them back and glanced at me.
“You’re sure it’s him?”
“Yes. I’m afraid so.”
“This is wrong. Taylor wasn’t supposed to die. And now I’m supposed to save her killer? I’m not going to do it.”
The door opened ,and one of the nurses who’d worked on Tony poked her head inside. “I’ve been looking all over for you. What are you doing? We need you in surgery. Come on.” She was thinking that, without Ella’s healing touch, the guy was going to die.
Ella hesitated, then licked her lips and straightened. Looking straight at the nurse, she shook her head. “Uh… I can’t help right now. There are other people who can do my job. You don’t need me.”
The nurse’s eyes widened. “But… you could get fired over this… you know Ron won’t like it.” She was thinking about the hospital administrator who liked using Ella’s ‘healing hands’ to get the best ratings in the city.
Ella shrugged. “I know, but I just can’t do it.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Just tell them I’m helping someone else right now.” She glanced in my direction, then back at the nurse.
The nurse studied me, thinking that, besides the sling, there was nothing wrong with me. It was just an excuse. But she knew better than to try to persuade Ella to change her mind. Still, this would not end well with the administrator, and no one would cover for her this time. “Fine. It’s your funeral.” Shaking her head in disapproval, the nurse hurried away.
Whoa. That was intense. “Are you going to lose your job?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I hope not. But you know what?” Her eyes gleamed with determination. “I don’t care. Not right now.”
My brows rose. “Okay. I don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t want to be the reason you get in trouble. I probably shouldn’t have told you who he was.”
She shrugged. “You didn’t really tell me anything, right? But I’m glad I know. Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.” That came out a little flippantly, so I figured it wasn’t exactly true. Her gaze landed on my arm and the sling I wore. “What happened to you?”
“Oh. Someone tried to kill me with a knife earlier. I got it stitched up before he came at me a second time. In the scuffle, the stitches tore out, and my shoulder got wrenched, so the doctor thought I should wear a sling for a while.” For some reason, telling her the truth felt right.
Her lips twisted, and she shook her head. “You’d better let me take a look at it.” When I hesitated, she continued. “You don’t want to make a liar out of me do you?”
“I guess not.”
She helped me get the sling off, followed by the lifejacket and the blue NYPD jacket. She pushed the sleeve of my shirt above my shoulder and gently felt along the joint, carefully rotating my arm while massaging the muscle. “Yeah, it’s a little swollen, but not too bad.”
Next, she got to work removing my bandage. “Oooo, that doesn’t look so good. It will leave a scar for sure unless I make some adjustments.”
“What kind of adjustments?” The thought of getting stitches all over again filled me with panic. “I’m not sure I like hearing that.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “You’ll hardly feel a thing.”
I let out a breath and closed my eyes. She knew what she was doing. Why not let her take care of it, especially since I didn’t relish having a big scar on my arm. “Okay. Go ahead.”
She had me sit down on a chair and retrieved some supplies. While she got to work, I kept my gaze averted, grateful that I didn’t have to worry about answering her thoughts like the other doctors. She warned me about a sting, and I barely felt the prick of a needle to numb the area.
She worked quickly, and I only felt a few tugs as she repaired the stitches. “There,” she said. “That’s much better. I’m going to put some salve on it before I bandage it up. Be sure and use this salve when you change the bandage.” She slipped a small tube of ointment into my hand and finished giving me instructions on how to take care of my arm.
“All done,” she said. “You need to let your shoulder rest for a bit, so let’s get the sling back on. You can take it off as soon as you can rotate your arm without a lot of pain.”
“Okay.” I let her help me slip it over my head. From the way she’d taken care of me, it was easy to believe she had ‘healing hands.’ My shoulder felt better after her ministrations. Of course, that might have something to do with the numbing shot she’d given me.
“You’re good to go.” She picked up both jackets I’d come in wearing and handed them to me. “Don’t forget these.”
“Thanks. You know what? It feels better already.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. I followed her to the door, but before stepping through, I hesitated. “I’m really sorry about all this. I hope you’ll be okay.”
I sighed. “Uh… no… we’ve still got a lot of loose ends to tie up. It would help if Tony pulls through, but I’m not holding my breath.”
Her eyes widened. “So keeping him alive would have helped your case?”
“Maybe… maybe not.” I didn’t want her to feel bad. If Tony died, it certainly wasn’t her fault, and I wasn’t about to put the blame on her like that nurse had.
She let out a heavy sigh, then a dark gleam came into her eyes, and her jaw tightened. If I could hear her thoughts, I’d say that she’d made up her mind, and she wasn’t about to help Tony, no matter what the consequences were. She met my gaze. “Well, good luck then. I hope you get it all straightened out.”
She motioned me into the hall ahead of her.
“Thanks… uh… there’s something I’ve wanted to ask you.” Now that I had her attention, I wasn’t sure how to ask why I couldn’t read her mind without giving my secret away. Her brows rose expectantly, so I plunged ahead. “You know that I have premonitions, right?” At her nod, I continued, “The thing is… I can’t pick up anything from you. This has never happened to me before, so I’m a little confused.”
She pursed her lips and shook her head. “That’s funny, because I’ve noticed that there’s something different about you too.” She shrugged. “I don’t have an answer for you. All I know is that you’re a good person. Don’t lose that… all right?”
“Sure,” I said. “And… just for the record, I know you’re upset by all of this, but try not to let it get you down. Okay?”
She held my gaze before answering. “I’ll try.” Sending me a sad smile, she walked quickly down the hall and disappeared from view.
Letting out a sigh of my own, I retraced my steps through the double doors and into the emergency waiting room. I glanced around the room, and relief washed over me to see Hawk. He caught sight of me and stood while I hurried to his side.
“How is he?”
“It’s touch and go. One minute, they think he’s going to die, and the next, they think he’ll make it.”
Hawk nodded and motioned toward the seats. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”
“Did you tell the chief about Milo?”
“Yes. Right now, he’s questioning everyone onboard before letting them leave, so if Milo’s there, he’ll find him. But other than that, there’s not much the chief can do.”
“Yeah… I guess he can’t make an arrest without evidence.”
“Right. And without probable cause, he won’t be able to get a search warrant either, so he’s taking a chance. There were four undercover agents onboard, so they may have seen something.” Hawk shrugged, thinking it wasn’t likely. Milo would go free unless they could persuade Tony to turn on him.
“What about your informant? Did you hear anything from him?”
“No. Not a peep. And there’s no sign of the rendezvous boat with the drugs. Right now, all we have is Tony and the duffel bag full of money. If he dies, even that won’t help much.” He thought that it hadn’t gone well, and the chief wasn’t too happy. Hell, none of them were.
Oops. “Are they blaming me?”
“No. It’s not your fault. It’s just too bad that we missed the drug drop. But if Tony pulls through, maybe we can get him to cooperate. Did you pick up anything else from him on the way over here?”
“Uh… not really.” I sighed. “But I’m pretty sure that Milo shot Tony. He must have caught him in the act and killed him for revenge. And… maybe there’s more to it.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Tony was set up?”
“Is that what he told you?”
“No, but it makes sense, right? He couldn’t talk much, so I’m trying to piece most of it together. I think if I sat in on the questioning with Milo, I’d get a better idea of what went down.”
Hawk huffed out a breath. “How? Milo’s not going to admit to anything.”
“I know that, but sometimes I pick up things… with my premonitions.”
“Oh… right. Then I guess we’d better get back to the pier.”
“Yeah.” Crap. Did I really want to talk to Milo right now? How was that going to work? Uncle Joey might not appreciate my interference, and it might escalate things with Milo. “Maybe we should wait to see how Tony is first. The chief’s going to be there for a while, right?”
“Yeah,” Hawk said. “I guess.”
“What time is it?”
“Almost eleven,” he answered.
“Oh… I need to let my husband know I’m going to be late.” I sent a quick text to Chris, telling him I might be a little longer, but I hoped to be home by midnight.
Ramos and Uncle Joey were probably worried as well, so I sent a text to Ramos, telling him that I’d let him know as soon as I was done, but it would probably be close to midnight. I felt a little guilty that I didn’t go into any detail, but it was just too complicated for a simple text.
Ramos texted back, let me know when you’re done, and I’ll come and get you.
Before I could answer, the emergency doors opened, and a doctor stepped through. He recognized me and came to my side. “Are you with the police?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, picking up the bad news that Tony was dead.
“How’s our suspect?” Hawk asked.
“I’m sorry, but he died. We did all we could.”
Hawk nodded while disappointment flowed over him. “Thanks. We’ll notify next-of-kin and take it from here.” The doctor left, and Hawk glanced at me. “I guess we might as well head over to the boat.”
“Okay.” I followed Hawk out to his car, knowing I needed to listen to Milo’s thoughts if I were to get to the bottom of this. But just thinking about seeing him brought a wave of nausea over me. On the bright side, at least Uncle Joey couldn’t kill him. Grandfather Manetto should be happy about that.
The ride to the pier passed more quickly than I liked. From the quantity of police cars parked at the docks, it was easy to tell something major had happened. Hawk got us through the surrounding officers, and we soon crossed over the same gangway onto the boat as we had before. Was that just last night? It seemed like a lifetime ago.
Several detectives spoke to the passengers, releasing them after they’d satisfactorily answered their questions. In the thinning crowd, Hawk spotted the chief sitting at a table, and we hurried to his side. Hawk had given the chief a heads-up that we would be joining him, so he wasn’t surprised to see us. But the person sitting beside him could hardly contain his shock.
Every vile swearword I’d ever heard shot into his mind, and I cringed a little. Milo’s eyes narrowed, and his lips turned into a thin line. Anger didn’t even come close to what he felt. I’d say it was a combination of anger, rage, and utter contempt, with a large dose of animosity thrown in for good measure.
“What is the meaning of this?” he asked Chief Wallace, pinning me with a glacial stare. “I think we’re done here.”
Chief Wallace’s brows rose. What was going on? He glanced between us, and his eyes widened. “Do you two know each other?”
Oh hell. This was bad.
Noticing my hesitation, Milo saw his opportunity. “Yes, we’ve met. Shelby came to my club the other night. I wouldn’t say it was a pleasant experience.”
Now both Hawk and Chief Wallace looked at me with widened eyes. What the hell was going on? I opened my mouth to refute his claim, but I didn’t know what to say. My past experience working simultaneously with a mob boss and the police did nothing to prepare me for this moment.
Needing time to settle my nerves, I slid into a chair next to the chief. Everyone focused on me, waiting with bated breath to hear my explanation. Knowing that wouldn’t help me at all, I went on the offense and glanced at Milo.
Trying to appear cool and unruffled, I began. “We know you shot Tony. You want to know how we know that? It’s because he to
ld us. Yeah, he’s still alive.” Sure it was a lie, and, considering how bad I’d been at lying lately, I hoped Milo fell for it.
Milo was thinking that this wasn’t his first brush with the police. He could do that dance routine with his eyes closed, and he was pretty sure I was bluffing. Besides, he’d shot Tony three times in the chest and stomach. He’d placed the shots just right so Tony wouldn’t die right away. He’d earned the name Milo “Crack Shot” Bilotti for a reason, and it was important that Tony suffer for what he’d done.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I love my nephew. Of course I want him to survive. And you need to find the person who did this.”
Damn. He was good, but so was I. “What did you do with the gun?” I listened, hearing that he’d thrown it overboard, and my hopes fell. “Did you know Tony planned to leave? Is that why you shot him? What about the money? Why did you let Tony keep it?”
He was thinking that he didn’t care so much about the money. What he’d needed was revenge. Shooting a double-crosser like Tony had been sweet. It also didn’t hurt that the money made it hard for the police to pin Tony’s murder on him. He was proud that the exchange had gone off without a hitch. Right under our noses. We had nothing, and he could sit there and take this as long as we could.
Dang. Now what? “How did you manage to pull off the drug deal?”
Milo shook his head. “Again… I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is a party boat. We are in full compliance with the New York licensing division, and there are no drugs involved.” He was thinking that his operation had been working for years, and he was too clever to fall for my accusations. “Now… is there anything else? If not, I’d like to check on my nephew.”
Desperate, I continued, “Merilee saw the drugs on your boat last week. That’s why you ordered Tony to kill her.”
Milo’s eyes widened with surprise, but he shook his head and made it look like I was making things up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He wondered how I knew that. Tony would never confess to it, not when he’d pulled the trigger.
So what was I up to? I couldn’t prove any of it, especially with Tony dead. But what if I was right, and they’d managed to save Tony’s sorry life? He’d just have to make sure Tony didn’t survive, no matter what it took.
Ghostly Serenade Page 24