He stomped on the brake and rolled down the window. “What’s up, Sarah? What’s wrong. Something happening in the bar?” He put his hand on the door handle to exit the car.
“No,” she took a breath, “Are you on the way to meet Perri? Have you seen her?”
“Yeah, I saw her about an hour ago, maybe less. Why?”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“She was going back to her hotel to get ready for the festival. Why? What’s wrong?” his curiosity had turned to alarm at the sight of Sarah’s stricken face.
“Do you know where she is staying?” Nick nodded affirmatively. “Take me there. Right now.” Sarah ran around to the passenger side and got in, “Go.”
“What’s going on?”
Sarah didn’t answer him. She rustled through her purse frantically and finally came up with her phone, hitting speed dial. She nervously bounced her hand on the arm rest. “George, George. Sarah here, right now, send a car and at least two officers over to the 9th Street Hotel, send more if you have them,” she swung back to Nick, “Do you know what room?”
“Yeah, um, 227.”
“Room 227, have someone call the manager now so they can be ready to let you in if they need to, if there’s no answer.”
“No answer? What the hell is going on?” Nick continually swiveled his head between the road and Sarah.
“Yes…now. This is an emergency. Ok. I’m on my way there.”
“Sarah, you have to….”
Sarah held up her phone with the photograph of the two Blackwell men where Nick could see it. “Recognize anyone in this photo?”
Nick was repeatedly glancing at the photograph, “I can’t look at it long enough to…”
Sarah grabbed the wheel, “Look at it!”
Nick leaned in and looked at the photograph while Sarah held the wheel. “Yeah, I’ve seen this one guy a few times.”
“When?” Sarah relinquished control of the steering wheel to Nick.
“I’ve seen him in the tavern a couple of times over the last, I don’t know…couple of weeks. And I saw him this afternoon, he was at the bar.”
“When? How long ago?” Sarah shouted.
“Ok!” Nick turned onto 9th Street. “It had to have been around 4:30 because I saw him when I was talking to Perri, he was sitting a few stools down.”
“And?”
Nick’s brow furrowed and he stared ahead as he drove. Sarah urged, “Did he say or do anything?”
“Well, I was talking to Perri. I had turned to pick something up, a rag, and I noticed the guy kind of scowling at me. I thought he might want another drink and was mad that I was talking to a customer. I asked him if he needed anything and he said ‘No’ and looked away.”
“What had you been talking about, I mean when you noticed him scowling at you?”
“Geez, I don’t know...”
“Think!!”
“Ok, ok, I guess it was when I asked Perri if she was going to be free for the whole weekend or was going to have to do some more work for…well, for you.”
“Damn it! How long was he there?” Sarah asked.
“I’m sorry, Sarah, I…”
“No, no, no, that doesn’t matter. How long was he there after that?”
“Let me think. I told Perri I was going to be off work at five o’clock and said she was going to go back to her hotel and get cleaned up, you know, after the drive. I asked her where she was staying.”
“And she told you?”
“Well, yeah. I told her I would call her when I was finished here and would come to pick her up.”
“Anything else?”
“I asked her what room she was in and she told me.”
“Drive faster, we’re almost there, you won’t get a ticket, I promise.” Sarah waved ahead of her, then said, “You said you told her you would call when you were finished, did you call her?”
“Yes, I did, but I didn’t get an answer.”
Chapter 36
A black and white was already parked by the lobby doors. Sarah directed Nick to stop just behind it. She flung her door open and called over her shoulder for him to park and wait in the lobby. She disappeared inside. Nick backed the car away from the police car but left it crossways behind two other cars, blocking them into their spaces. He ran into the lobby behind Sarah. He didn’t see Sarah or the officers, but the guests standing in the lobby were looking around them in surprise.
Ignoring Sarah’s instructions to wait in the lobby, Nick said under his breath, “Like hell I will,” and ran for the stairway door leaping between two startled ladies who were chatting in the hallway. He bounded up the stairs two at a time, the railing screeched as he used it to swing around the turn to the second set of steps. He yanked open the second-floor door, looking for a sign to indicate which hallway to take. He could hear pounding and shouting. He headed down the left hallway, toward the disturbance.
Nick slowed down and stopped twenty feet from the doorway. Sarah turned to look at him and set her lips in a thin line and shook her head, but didn’t say anything. Nick stood his ground and watched. The hotel manager was approaching the door with a key card, but Officer Harper got a fistful of his suit coat and pulled him backwards, “It’s busted. Get back.”
There had been no answer to loud knocking. The level style handle did not turn and the lock had been broken. With weapons drawn and everyone away from the door, Joe kicked the door. It swung open and banged against the interior wall. After checking and seeing no one, the officers entered the room one by one.
Sarah was sweating. She could feel rivulets of sweat coursing down her spine and being absorbed into the waistband of her pants. Her underarms were sweaty and the fabric of her shirt was plastered against her skin. The bathroom door was closed, but they could hear water running and splashing. “Get in there!” Sarah ordered.
The uniformed policemen stood on either side of the bathroom door; Joe Harper on the interior side, in front of the mirrored closet, and Brett Maddux on the hallway side. Officer Maddux tried the bathroom knob, which was locked. As Joe withdrew his hand from the knob, a gunshot sounded and a hole appeared through the door. The splashing and thumping from inside continued.
Brett motioned that he would break through the door. Joe and Sarah remained in place, ready to act. Brett kicked the door just beneath the handle. It made a crunching sound; Brett returned to his position. A few more seconds and he kicked again. The cheap resin molding around the latch bolt gave way and the door was open, but all three held their positions, weapons aimed at the doorway. Another shot was fired from within the bathroom; this time it was accompanied by a man running headlong through the door with a gun in his hand.
Sarah shouted, “Stop. STOP!” He didn’t. Instead he fired again, not taking time to aim, just getting off a shot by pointing the gun over his shoulder. It hit just left of Sarah and struck the mirrored door of the closet which shattered into thousands of shimmering, knife-sharp pieces that floated through the air and settled to the floor. She instinctively threw her right arm in front her face to protect her eyes, raising the barrel of her gun with her left hand. Officer Harper fired a shot at the man as he headed through the door into the hall then followed him out.
Sarah shouted, “Brett, go with Joe, get that guy!” She holstered her gun as she crunched over the broken shards of mirror and raced into the bathroom. The water was running full blast, the tub was nearly full and there was water all over the floor and walls. Sarah braced her knees against the outside of the tub and put her arms beneath the gasping, struggling mass of plastic inside it; water sloshed over the edge in waves, soaking Sarah’s shirt and slacks. She called out, “Perri, Perri, it’s Sarah, we’re here to help. Calm down, stop thrashing.”
***
Brett looked around the corner of the door to see the wounded man shambling down the hallway; he had been hit in the right arm, which hung limply, and he had transferred his gun to his left hand. ‘Good,’ thought Brett.
>
As the shooter was about to reach the T of the hallway, he man looked back over his left shoulder. As Brett and Joe both raised and aimed their guns, Nick lunged forward from the right side of the cross hallway and used the butt end of a fire extinguisher to clobber the escaping man in the head. He then stepped back, taking the extinguisher with him, and was no longer visible
The shooter reflexively threw his left arm out, the right arm still hanging uselessly at his side, and dropped to his knees. As the man kneeled, he raised in his left arm and shuffled to turn to face Nick. Officer Harper shouted, “Nick, you get out of here, now!” A couple of seconds later, the fire extinguisher came flying through the air from right to left and hit the wall just next to the shooter. The policemen heard the stairway door open and hush closed.
A door opened from another guest’s room between the attacker and the officers. Officer Harper bellowed for the guest to shut and lock the door and get away from it. The door shut promptly with no protest.
Officer Maddux gave warning, “Drop that gun right now. I will shoot if you don’t drop the gun now.” The man was nearly standing again, making for the corner.
Last warning, “Drop your weapon NOW.” The man continued and was about to disappear around the corner. A shot echoed through the hallway. Joe Harper had aimed for the left calf and squarely hit the target. The shooter dropped to the floor, the gun bouncing out of his hand.
Officer Maddux reached the man first. He kicked the gun away and stood over him with his weapon solidly trained on the man’s chest. Brett Harper applied the handcuffs and turned him face up on the floor. The shooter had gunshot wounds to the right arm and left calf, and a bloody circular abrasion on his right forehead courtesy of Nick and the fire extinguisher.
***
Sarah supported Perri’s upper body while she opened the plug on the tub to drain the water. She wasn’t going to be able to get her out with the tub while it was full. Perri was coughing, gasping, and twisting inside the plastic curtain. Sarah kept talking to her in as soothing a voice as she could muster.
With Perri in a near seated position in the tub, Sarah flipped the top of the curtain back and maneuvered her into a position where she could grasp one of the edges of the curtain and pull it away. “Perri, hold still, ok?” but Perri was as terrified as a trapped animal. One arm came through the opening and grabbed at Sarah, catching her hair.
“Calm down, stop, hold on, I’ve got you, stop, I’m getting you out of here.” Perri relinquished her grip on Sarah’s hair. She was naked beneath the shower curtain. Sarah pulled it away from her face but left it covering her body. When the water had drained away. Sarah grabbed two towels that were on the closed toilet seat and placed them on the floor right outside the tub. “Ok, Perri, I’m going to help you up, but I just want to get you out of the tub and have you sit on the towels.” There was a lot of broken glass on the floor between the bathroom and the bed; Sarah didn’t want to attempt to move Perri.
With assistance, Perri was able to stand and step over the tub onto the towels. Sarah eased her to the floor. Perri’s face was blotchy and her mouth was beginning to show signs of bruising around the lips with a small amount of blood where her teeth had scraped against the inside of her lower lip. She was hiccoughing and sputtering.
“Are you able to breathe alright?”
Perri coughed a couple more times and said, “I think so. I feel like I have water in my lungs that I can’t cough up, but I can breathe. It’s getting better.”
“I know you are cold and uncomfortable, but I don’t want to move you again until paramedics have a chance to look you over.”
As she reached for her phone, Nick’s voice came from the entryway to the room. “Oh, my God, is she ok?”
Sarah turned, “Nick, call an ambulance.” His face was taut and pale as he pulled his phone from his back pocket and dialed. Sarah motioned for him to back away from the bathroom, which he did.
Perri sniffed and coughed, “I left my phone on the dresser. I thought I heard it ring once and I was afraid maybe Nick was already headed to the hotel. That’s when I saw the bathroom door closing and...” She shuddered once and started to shiver. “The water was coming in under the curtain and I couldn’t move.” She was breathing anxiously, “But there was a little pocket of air. If it hadn’t been there, I don’t know.”
“Try to just sit and don’t talk, get your breath.”
Nick stepped back into the room, “The ambulance is on the way.”
Sarah replied, “Good. Nick, go get blankets off the bed please.”
Nick reappeared with two blankets and a pillow. Sarah took them from him and, pulling Perri forward toward her, placed the pillow between her back and the tub. Sarah turned again,
“Is it ok if I stand out here?” Nick asked tentatively from outside the bathroom door.
“Oh, my God,” Perri moaned and looked at Sarah.
“What’s wrong, what’s happening?” came Sarah’s urgent response. She rapidly looked over Perri and the floor, half expecting to see a pool of blood forming or some other catastrophe.
“Nothing, I just…” A bedraggled Perri looked forlornly up at Nick.
Nick tentatively stepped into the frame of the doorway. “Don’t concern yourself with anything right now. You just went through something terrible. I’m not afraid to admit that I was scared to death, so I can’t even imagine how you felt.”
Sarah grinned and said, “We were both scared to death, Nick.” She turned back to Perri, “While I absolutely don’t condone it, Nick didn’t stay where I asked him to. He was supposed to stay in the lobby, but here he is.”
“There is no way I was going to lollygag around the lobby. I got a good chop in on your attacker.”
Sarah whirled around to look questioningly at Nick, “You did what?”
“I just happened to have a fire extinguisher in my hand when he was hotfooting it down the hall. I couldn’t let him evade capture. How would I feel about myself if I stood by and watched him run away?”
“Are you saying our fine city police officers wouldn’t have caught him without your ‘help’?” Sarah asked.
“Nope. Just saying I’m a helpful, concerned citizen.”
Sarah gave a resigned shake of her head.
A bedraggled Perri looked up at Nick with a wan smile, “This isn’t exactly how I planned on starting our date.”
The rattle of an approaching gurney came from down the hallway. The paramedics left the gurney outside in the hallway and brought their kit from the gurney into the room. Nick stepped out of the bathroom. Sarah lightly squeezed Perri’s arm and said, “I’m going to be right outside.”
As she exited the door, Perri called out to her, “Sarah, who was the guy? Who did it turn out to be?”
She sighed and looked at the floor, then up at Perri, “I’m so very sorry, Perri. I tried to call you as soon as I realized that you were also at risk. I tell you what. Let’s get you checked out first and when we’re sure you’re alright and things have calmed down, I’ll explain the whole thing to you. I have a lot of paperwork to do and couple of things to verify, but rest assured, I will let you fill you in on the entire picture.”
***
Nick sat in one of the chairs by the window that looked out to the parking lot. Sarah sat in the other and called the station to apprise George of the developments.
Less than ten minutes later, one of the paramedics stuck his head out of the bathroom, “Can someone bring a pair of shoes? She’s going to need them to walk out of here with all this debris.”
Shortly, Perri emerged from the bathroom, gingerly walking across the jagged pieces of mirror glass. She was still swaddled in the blanket which was mostly wet by now, having soaked up water from the floor. The second medic spoke while the first packed the kit back onto the gurney, “She doesn’t want to go to the hospital, says she’s ok. She has a few contusions and abrasions, her nose is a little swollen but it isn’t broken, probably going to have s
ome bruising around the nose and eyes. Will someone be able to stay with her for a while?”
“Definitely!” piped Nick, “I will.”
The same medic asked Perri, “You will go to the ER if you have any headaches that worsen, you are unusually sleepy, or have significant increasing pain other than general soreness?”
“Yes, I will. I think the fright was the worst of it.”
He nodded and left the room. The sounds of the gurney retreating down the hallway faded away.
Nick left his chair and walked toward Perri. “You sure you don’t need to go have an x-ray or something?” he asked uncertainly.
“No, I don’t think so, I’m ok. But I will say I don’t want to be alone. I appreciate you staying with me, Nick.”
“Are you kidding me? This is not a chore. I want to stay with you.”
“Our date night is ruined, I hate that.” She smiled apologetically, “I guess I’m a wet blanket.”
“Ugh!” Nick hugged her, wet blanket and all, “It isn’t ruined.”
Perri shivered again, “I guess I need to get into something dry.”
Nick released her, his shirt now wet down the front and the inside of his arms. Sarah walked past the two, “Perri, we need to move you from this room. You can’t stay here, obviously, and we need to keep the room off limits until the investigation of this whole incident is complete.”
“No objection from me; I don’t want to stay here. Can I get dry clothes out of my duffel and put them on? The ones in the bathroom are soaking wet and I’m freezing.”
Sarah considered, “Yes, you have to have something to wear, but we need to leave the rest of your stuff here, just until we’re finished. Once you are changed, we need to leave.”
“Ok, can I take my phone? It’s just sitting right there on the dresser?”
“Yes, you can take your phone. And I’m holding Nick responsible for keeping an eye on you,” Sarah fastened a meaningful gaze on Nick who nodded in agreement. You promise me you will go to the ER if you feel at all worse?” Perri nodded.
Poison Branches Page 19