Furthermore, how was she staying undetected? Granted, they did not have a massive manhunt underway, but you would think she would surface somewhere with as much mayhem as she was causing. Unless she was hiding in plain sight.
“Detective Sampson,” came the voice from Lucie, breaking him once again from his train of thought. “Dr. Prince is ready to see you now.”
He pushed himself from the chair, which he had to admit was more comfortable than others he had been in, and followed the receptionist back to the doctor’s office.
“Dr. Prince, Detective Sampson is here to see you.”
“Thank you, Lucie,” the doctor said standing and extending a hand to Sampson, “Please come in and have a seat.”
Sampson shook her hand and sat in the visitor’s chair across the desk from the doctor. He couldn’t help but notice how soft her hands were.
“Detective Sampson, what can I do for you today?” she asked flashing a brilliant smile.
“First of all, thank you for seeing me on such short notice, Dr. Prince. I just have a couple of questions for you. In early December a member of your staff, Samantha Young, was murdered. A couple of months later the director of nursing, Penny Hampton, met a similar faith.”
Prince nodded in agreement with Sampson
“You’re in a peculiar situation as Samantha worked for you and you deliver babies where Penny worked,” she raised her eyebrow. “We are looking for any possible link between the two of them and –”
“And you think I have something to do with it?” she asked with a hint of irritation in her voice.
“No, not that you have anything to do with it. Just you are a link between the two.”
“A very weak link if you ask me. Samantha was a beloved member of our staff. And frankly, rehashing her death is not something I’d like to do. It was hard enough at the time and recalling how she was taken still causes me some internal pain.
Penny was well known both for her job and the work she did in the community. I met her on a few occasions but other than that I don’t know much about the woman – God rest her soul.”
“I’m sorry if I gave off the impression that you were a suspect or that you had anything to do with the murders. My question is, do you know of any connection between the two of them? Do you know of anything that was out of the ordinary prior to their deaths?”
“From a professional stance, the two would not have any reason to connect. Samantha was our receptionist, a darn good one, but aside from that she would not have interacted with Penny in a professional manner.
As for anything out of the ordinary, Samantha had been the same cheerful woman up to the end. And as I mentioned already, I really didn’t work with Penny. Sorry, detective, I know you would like more, but unfortunately the link you seek is not as strong as you’d like.”
Hedging because he didn’t have anywhere else to go, “Samantha’s replacement, Lucie, how did you hear about her? From everything I heard, she was available to replace Samantha the next morning. That was a fairly quick turnaround.”
It was clear the doctor had not expected this question as it took her a moment to answer. “She came to us via a staffing agency that we have used in the past. They gave us a call because they heard about what happened to Samantha and they wanted to send us a candidate immediately so that our operations were not affected.”
Sampson thought this was odd. He was the lead detective on the case and, to his knowledge, information surrounding her death didn’t come out until the morning. How had the temp agency reacted so fast? This was something he would need to follow up on once he returned to the office.
Feeling he obtained as much from the doctor as he could he said, “Thank you, Dr. Prince, for your assistance.” He stood, handing her a business card, “If you should think of anything that would be helpful please feel free to call my cell phone listed on the card.”
The two shook hands and Detective Sampson was escorted back to the receptionist desk. There he looked at the receptionist one good time before saying, “It was a pleasure meeting you Lucie and thanks for keeping me calm.”
She eyed him back as well and then plastered the smile back on her face, “It was a pleasure meeting you as well, Detective Sampson.”
Back at his car he thought he didn’t get much from the doctor; however, he did have another thread to pull. How had the temp agency responded so fast?
June 8th – 6:40 p.m.
Terri Buckley sat on the bench outside of the GIS headquarters. While this bench originally served as reconnaissance, she liked this location. During her visits to the bench no other person had ever come to this location. She had the seclusion she desired and she was able to take in some fresh air.
She marveled at how well the plan had been coming together. The job she was tasked to run for The Syndicate went off without a hitch. Well, almost without a hitch. She had to dispose of Marc Blackstone after that fool knocked over the metal tray alerting the guard to their location. The guard who she also needed to dispose of before closing out the op. Other than that, everything ran smooth.
With that job behind her she could now focus on the auxiliary job she had been running simultaneously. After months of orchestrating events, time was drawing close. Time for that goody-goody Dabria to get what she deserved. She had all the assets in place and prepared to play their part. Now – now it was time to activate her plan.
She pulled her phone from her pocket and placed the call. After four rings the call was answered.
“It’s time, tonight,” were the three words she spoke into the handset before she disconnected the call. With those three words, she knew everything she planned over the last several months would be executed specifically to her prescribed plan.
June 8th – 6:40 p.m.
For the second time today, Donatella found herself at Brent’s Coffee Shop. She stood in line behind an elderly man as he studied the menu. He complained about the number of choices and ultimately settled on a small decaf coffee – black.
The pink-haired girl, Margaret, waited patiently while the elderly man counted out his total in change. Typically, this inefficiency and waiting would have grated her nerves, but today it was the little comedy relief she needed. Margaret, patient by nature, was letting the chink in her armor show when she reached out and asked the old man to let her help. He bristled, stating he could do it himself and then admonished her for making him miss count. Thus, he started over.
Donatella’s phone began to vibrate. She reached in her left pocket and retrieved the phone.
“Agent Dabria,” she spoke softly into the phone.
“Special Agent Donatella. It’s Detective Sampson. Can we meet. It’s urgent. I think I have a break in the case, but I’m not 100 percent sure what it means.”
Awaken from his excitement she said, “I’m at Brent’s. Do you want me to come there?”
“No, I’m already headed to my car. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
Dabria had not seen this side of Sampson before. Normally reserved, if he was this excited, he must have something crucial.
She placed the phone back in her pocket to see the man still counting his change. Margaret stared, unsure what to do when the man finally pushed over the money and said, “Here, you count it. I lost count again.”
After ringing up the old man and giving him back the unused change she looked up at Agent Dabria as if she had not noticed her standing there before.
“Special Agent Dabria! Oh my, are you hear because you need my assistance again?”
“No, Margaret,” she responded with a tired yet genuine smile. “I’m here to clear my mind and I’ll be meeting someone momentarily. For now, I’ll have a chai tea.”
“Coming right up. This one is on the house!”
After a few moments, Margaret was back with her drink for which Donatella left a tip in the jar to cover the cost of her drink in addition to the tip. The shop wasn’t as crowded as she expected for this time of night and her
preferred oversized chair was unoccupied. She began making her way to the chair when Sampson came rushing in.
The frantic look on his face and the hurried gait in his step made him look like a wild man. She motioned him over to the chairs and they sat.
“I found something related to our first case, the death of Samantha Young. Something that we should have caught sooner.”
Chapter 18
June 8th – 7:00 p.m.
S pecial Agent Dabria sat in the oversized chair, left leg crossed over right gazing intently at Detective Sampson as he launched into his story.
“I paid Dr. Prince a visit per our discussion earlier in the day. I laid out for her the fact that she had a tangled connection with two of our victims, Samantha Taylor and Penny Hampton. She had to admit, of course, her connection with the former as she worked for the good doctor. However, she stated she only sparingly had connections with Penny. She confirmed the two women did not have any working relationship and that she didn’t know of any relationship outside of work.”
Donatella sat patiently, shifting her legs right over left. She felt this was a long shot, yet there had to be a connection.
“Once I finished this line of questioning, I asked her about her temp and how she was able to procure one so quickly. Her response didn’t add up. She stated the temp agency contacted her offering her some assistance. The problem – the news of Samantha’s death would not have given an agency enough time to find a resource and call the doctor.”
Donatella began following the thread but continued listening.
“I decided this was an avenue worth investigating. During our conversation, the doctor stated she received a call from a temp agency that they typically work with, Med Staff. I called over to their office and they had no record of sending a temp to Dr. Prince’s practice. I told the woman on the other end it had to be a mistake and asked her to check again. She did, and again, no records.
I decided to call the other two medical staffing companies in the area and neither of them had a record of sending a resource to Dr. Prince.”
Donatella nodded, wheels turning, arranging this new puzzle piece in her mind. Dr. Prince had been lying to them about the appearance of the temp. Did this mean she had something to do with the death of Samantha after all? Could she be part of The Syndicate and thus working with Buckley?
Watching Sampson, she could tell he was pondering the same things. For this to be his first case, she knew he would make a fine detective. Just as Sampson was preparing to launch into his next part, her phone rang. She retrieved the phone from her left pocket and read the caller ID, “BJ”. Considering the find from Sampson, she decided to bring him into this conversation.
The coffee shop was relatively empty, so she decided to place the call on speaker phone.
“Yes BJ,” she said in a hurried voice. “I’m here with Detective Sampson and he will be listening in.”
BJ comforted by the clip voice the Special Agent lacked in their last conversation, smiled and launched into his findings.
“I reviewed the recent GIS activity and for the most part it’s legit. There are some questionable activities that do not make sense. After Mrs. King became CEO, they took on a new client, the Cleveland Museum of Art. On the surface this doesn’t appear to be a problem except I looked into the security system being installed at the museum and it had to be out of their budget.
I decided to dig into the financials of the transaction. The security system was donated by GIS after a security breach was recognized by the museum. The offer to install and monitor the system, free of charge, came merely days before the museum was to send out the RFP – Request for Proposal.”
Donatella interrupted, “There isn’t anything criminal about giving away your services to another company.”
“How right you are,” responded BJ. “Nothing wrong with it at all until a crime is committed.”
“What!” she exclaimed.
“The reason the museum needed to update their security in a hurry is because they were preparing for an unveiling. Rumor has it they had secured some lost work of Jackson Pollock that had not been seen by the public. They had a big reveal planned once the restoration of the work had concluded. With less than a month until the show, the artwork was stolen. They suspect, the head of Security, Tim Saunders, and one of his employees, Bobby Cliff, made off with the merchandise.
Bobby was a former cop who had a love of art. He built a close relationship with Dr. Peterson, who was overseeing the restoration. Police are going with the assumption that Bobby took the position at the museum, gained the trust of Peterson to tell him about the secret show and before the show was set to open, he and his boss made off with the artwork. Neither has been seen since the heist.”
SA Dabria sat quiet for a moment. While the elements of the story could add up to be true, the pieces fit together to convey a different puzzle.
“Prior to this theft of the museum, did either man have a criminal record?”
“I knew you would ask that, and the answer is no. Both men were squeaky clean in that department. Neither man had any debt that would make you think they were bought off to commit this crime, and Bobby was a happily married man who was devoted to his wife.
Before you get too upset, I decided to dig around in the security system installed by GIS. There is some rogue code that looks to allow backdoor untraceable access – but of course I traced it. On the night of the theft a sophisticated algorithm activated, reconfiguring the pressure sensors in the room where the artwork was being held. It took me hours to find it, but it was there.
“What does all this mean?” asked Sampson.
“It means Terri, more likely The Syndicate, stole this artwork with the help of GIS. I can see Terri executing the heist but I don’t see her doing this on her own. My guess is her superiors had this assignment for her.”
“This explains the connection between Veronica King and Terri Buckley,” Sampson stated.
Donatella pondered this too for a moment but she felt there was more, “What else, BJ?”
“I looked into their other clients. The only one that stood out worth mentioning is Atrium Health. They have supplied security services for them for well over two years, so I thought they were irrelevant. However, given the nature of our special project and the fact that Jasmyn works there, I thought this would be worth mentioning.”
Donatella’s body went rigid as the puzzle pieces were beginning to fit together in her mind. She looked over to Sampson with an urgency in her eyes, “What is the name of the receptionist at the doctor’s office?”
Sampson wordlessly pulled his notes from his pocket searching for the name. After a moment he spoke, “Lucie T. Berkry. Why?”
Donatella bolted from her chair, heading for the door. Into her phone she spoke, “BJ, I’ll call you back.” To Sampson she said, “We have to hurry, follow me!”
June 8th – 7:15 p.m.
For the second time in the span of three hours Patti Jones received a call from Terri Buckley. The first was to let her know that “the patient" would be arriving today. The patient had been hand selected for this endeavor with a twist.
This patient had been given a Pitocin derivative concocted by the scientists with The Syndicate. Under normal circumstances, the patient is given an injection to aid in the contraction of the uterus. In many cases, it’s given to induce labor.
However, the derivative this patient has received worked quite differently. First, the medicine had been synthesized to a pill form. This way, the medicine could be easily passed off as anything the supplier wanted. In this case, it was a pill to aid in morning sickness for this particular patient.
Second, the medicine gave off intense Braxton Hicks contractions. It went so far as simulating water breaking. The patient would surely believe they were in full on labor and the baby was coming at any minute. After seeing the pill in action, Patti had to admit it was genius.
The second call she had received was to
let her know the patient was on the way. This was going to be by far the most dangerous part of the night. Patti, who normally orchestrated all parts of a delivery, was informed of the plan, how the night would go, and her role. She didn’t like being dictated to in this manner, but she was excited.
This patient would be her first in weeks and her first out-of-town patient. Psychologically, the women she dealt with were all the same. But this was her first southern girl and she was looking forward to it.
Unlike her previous patients, Patti didn’t get to spend time with this one. In fact, tonight would be their first official meeting. She’d seen pictures of her and read the write up, so she felt she knew her. However, it wasn’t that intimate knowledge she liked to have of her girls. She would get some time with this one before the activities started and she figured that would have to be enough.
She realized she needed to get moving so she didn’t miss the arrival. To her left sat the wheelchair she had procured earlier. She began pushing it down the hallway and out of the exit to the hospital. She turned to her left and steered the chair another 10 feet to ensure she wasn’t standing in front of the door.
She reached down and pulled the hand drawn sign from the chair – “Thompson".
She was told the make, model, and color of the car. Though she wasn’t a car aficionado, she was familiar enough with this particular vehicle.
After a few moments of standing outside she saw the blue Tesla turn into the parking lot, driving well above the speed limit. She held up the sign and waited patiently.
The car came to a stop, the doors unlocked, and the husband, Marcellous Thompson, hopped out of the driver’s seat.
“Oh, thank you so much for being out here and ready to take her inside. Wait, let me grab her bag and we will be all set to go.”
“No worries, Mr. Thompson,” Patti said with a genuine smile. “We will take great care of your wife. Why don’t you go and park the car, grab the bag and then come on in once you’re done? We will take her up to labor and deliver located on the fifth floor. You can meet us there.”
Hour of Reckoning (Donatella Book 2) Page 22