by David Archer
“Did I stutter? Did it sound for even one second like I was making a request? This man is in need of medical attention, and if you do not get him moved to the ER within the next five minutes, I promise you that within six months, he and his wife will be getting eighty percent of your take-home pay for the rest of your life. Understood?”
She slammed the window, and the door opened less than twenty seconds later. One of the jail nurses came in and looked at Jack, then yelled for someone to help her get him ready to go to the hospital.
Jack put up quite a fight, and they finally had to sedate him to get him into the ambulance. Sam had to witness some paperwork, and then a detective named Hobson who was in charge of the investigation into Max's murder wanted to see Sam, so he got delayed for a few more minutes.
“You’re a private investigator, now, right?” Hobson asked. “How are you involved with my suspect?”
“He’s my client,” Sam said. “He came to me yesterday and hired me to find out who’s behind some ‘poison pen’ type letters that he and others who work at Animal Partners have been receiving. Your victim got one, too. I spoke with Max Hernandez yesterday, he and Jack Wilson were close friends.”
“Yeah, and most murders are committed by somebody close to you. We got a witness, there’s no doubt we got the right guy. Walked in and started yelling at the vic, then blew him away at point-blank range.”
“I’m not so sure I agree with you on that,” Sam said. “So what the hell happened with the dog?”
“Dang thing tried to attack my officer while he was trying to subdue the suspect,” he said. “I fired one time, blew that dog into the next room!”
Sam sighed. “You killed him? You stupid jackass, that dog was a decorated war hero!”
Hobson shrugged. “Who cares, it was growling at a cop. That makes it a threat and I took out that threat. Don't know if it's dead yet or not, the animal control people were lookin' for it when I left there.”
Sam shook his head in disgust and left, grabbing his phone as he did so. He called Karen Parks, a city homicide detective he had worked with on previous cases.
“Karen, it's Sam. I've got a situation, and I could use your help.” Sam explained to her what was going on and what had happened with Freddie. She was more likely to get answers from the animal control folks than Sam was, so he asked her to try to find out what she could. While the situation took place in a part of the city that was out of her jurisdiction, she didn't like what she was hearing.
“Let me see what I can find out, Sam, and I'll call you back.”
By the time Sam got parked at the hospital and made it inside, the doctor on duty had already realized that Jack was experiencing wartime reactive shock, reliving something that had happened in Afghanistan, and started the process of admitting him. The deputy assigned to sit outside his room said he didn’t have a problem with Sam going in, so he went inside and sat in a chair near Jack’s bed.
About thirty minutes after Sam got there, Indie showed up with Christy, and the nurses talked the deputy into letting them put her into the same room with her husband. Indie went to Sam and whispered, “Anything on Freddie? Christy says he ran away after he was shot, and they called out the dogcatchers to go after him.”
Sam shook his head. “Nothin' yet. I've got Karen trying to find out what happened to him.”
She put a hand on Sam's shoulder, then started rubbing his back. “God, I hope he's okay. I mean, Christy said he ran, so he might not be hurt too badly, right?”
“He's definitely a tough old soldier,” Sam said. “All we can do right now is say a few prayers.”
A couple of cops came in and wanted to talk to Jack and Christy, but Sam ran them out. Jack stirred right after they left, and woke a moment later. Surprisingly, he seemed to be somewhat coherent so Sam asked him and Christy to tell him what had happened.
“I did go and see Max last night, just wanted to ask him about getting some more hours in. We talked for a little while and he said he’d arrange it, and then I went on home.” He looked at Christy and managed a weak grin. “Me and the wife talked things over last night,” he said. “I told her about the letter, and she told me about hers, and we both knew it was all bogus. Then Christy told me we're gonna have a baby, and, well, things got a lot better. We ended up making up, and we were still in bed this morning when cops come busting down our door, sayin' I killed Max and they had a witness. I was gonna go peacefully, but one of the cops was tryin' to prove he was tough, I guess, cause he grabbed me by my neck and tried to put me on the floor. That's when Freddie—Freddie growled at him, warning him, and that plainclothes cop just pulled a gun and shot him.” Tears were flowing before he finished.
Christy took up the story, then. “Jack screamed, and then he just sat down and put his arms over his head. Freddie let out a yelp, and ran off out the back door, and that was the last we've seen of him. That cop called in the rabies people and told them Freddie was a mad dog and needed to be put down as soon as they could find him, and nobody would listen to me at all.” She stifled a sob. “I started screaming, and they were dragging Jack out by his arms and shoving him into a police car, and one of the cops grabbed onto me and started shoving me around, but I yelled I was pregnant and he backed off. I blacked out then, and when I came to, I was laying down and there were paramedics telling me they were taking me to a hospital, but I made them let me call you first. I hope that was the right thing to do—I was just so scared.”
Indie caressed her shoulder. “It was exactly the right thing to do,” she said. “Sam won't let anything happen to Jack.”
The doctor came by a few minutes later, and Sam cornered him for a private chat. “Doctor,” he began, “this man is suffering from PTSD. Don’t you think he ought to be over at the VA hospital?”
The doctor looked at him skeptically. “VA has their problems,” he said slowly, “but they probably do know more about how to treat this condition than I do. I can put in the order, but a lot will depend on how the police department feels about it.”
Sam nodded. “I’ll handle them,” he said. “What about Mrs. Wilson?”
“Well, she’s really just a little shook up. I don’t see any reason to keep her overnight, so I can go ahead and discharge her. That work for you?”
“That’ll be fine,” Sam said. He turned away from the doctor and walked over to Indie.
“They’re going to transfer Jack to the VA hospital,” he said. “Christy is going to be released. I want you to stay with her as much as you can, I don’t want anyone trying to waylay her with questions. Especially cops.”
“Don’t worry, Babe, I’ll handle it.”
No one seemed to have any objection to the transfer, so it went through rather quickly. The doctor wrote the orders and an ambulance was arranged to transport Jack to the VA facility. He caught Sam's hand as they were getting ready to wheel him out, with two cops going along. “Mr. Prichard, what happened to Max? Is he really dead? And please, please find out about Freddie for me!”
“All I know at the moment is that Max was supposedly found shot to death. As for finding out about Freddie, I’ve already got someone working on it.”
Jack sighed and let go of Sam’s hand. “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready to—”
He was interrupted by the ringing of Sam’s phone. Sam pulled it out of his pocket and saw that it was Karen Parks calling.
“Prichard,” Sam said.
“It's Karen,” she told him unnecessarily. “I found the dog. The bullet went through his shoulder, and he's been found and taken to animal control. That ass Hobson told them the dog was dangerous and attacked an officer, so they decided to go ahead and put him down….”
“Oh, jeez, no!” Sam said, but Karen wasn't done.
“Calm down! I got hold of their office manager and told him that dog is a war hero, and if anything happened to him I'd personally make all of their lives a living hell! They took him to an animal ER right then, Jefferson Veterinary Clinic
on Montrose Way. I called over there a couple minutes ago; they said the bullet went clean through without hitting anything vital. They're taking him into surgery on my authorization, and they say he's going to be fine.”
“I'm on the way,” Sam said and rang off. He turned to Jack and Christy. “Freddie's alive, and he's been taken to an animal hospital. The bullet didn't do any serious damage, and he's going to be all right.”
Both of them began crying tears of happiness.
Sam left immediately and drove to the Veterinary Hospital to check on Freddie. “He’ll have a new limp to go with the old one,” the vet told Sam, “but he’s pretty tough. We did a fairly minor surgery to clean and close the wound, and he'll be out cold until tomorrow.”
“No problem,” Sam said. “Let me know what the bill comes to and I’ll see that it gets paid.”
He gave the vet his business card and went back to his office. He called Indie while he was on the way and gave her the good news about Freddie to share with Jack and Christy.
“I don't want to leave Christy anytime soon,” Indie said after the commotion died down. “I'm gonna call Mom and see if Kenzie can stay with her and Grace tonight, okay? They could pick her up after school.”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “That might be a good idea. I'm going to try to get some idea of what's really happening in this case, see if I can figure out what to do.”
“Okay, babe. I'll be home this evening, once I know Jack and Christy are okay.”
The day wasn't even half over yet, so he made several calls and got more information. Max had been shot at fairly close range, a single shot to the heart, and there had been no signs of any struggle, so that fit with the idea that he'd known his killer and wasn't afraid. The police report said that there was a witness who saw Jack go into Max's office late the afternoon of the day before, and Max's body was discovered the next morning by Janice Cullen.
The witness was identified as the secretary, Nadine Hoyt. According to the statement she gave to Hobson, she was the last person to leave the building, and had seen Jack come in. She said he seemed angry, but that wasn’t anything new for him, so she didn’t worry about it. When he went into Max’s office and closed the door, she gathered up her things, but then she said she heard shouting from inside Max’s office. Again, she said that wasn’t unusual so she just went on home.
Sam filed all this away, but something wasn't adding up to him, and he spent the afternoon trying to figure out what it was. He was still at it when Indie came home around six.
“Christy's doing a little better,” she said, “and I've assured her that we won't give up until we get the truth. The cops are letting her stay with Jack at the hospital, and she said if we need her, she'll do anything she can to help.”
Sam nodded. “She's been through enough for today. I've been trying to get an angle on this whole thing. I mean, who on earth would want Max dead? From everything I can learn about the guy, he was almost a saint, for crying out loud.”
Indie bit her bottom lip. “Sam—Jack said he and Christy didn't talk until last night, and that would be after Max was already dead. Do you think there's a chance he might have actually done it? Maybe he flipped out and started to believe that letter was true, got jealous and killed him while he was out of his mind?”
“Yeah, I've considered that possibility, but it doesn't feel right. Just my gut, but it's done me right before, so I'm gonna go with it until I find proof the other way.”
Too stressed to bother with cooking, they ordered pizza and then sat at the table and bounced ideas around until it came. Indie was looking at pictures on her computer, and Sam realized they were the ones she had downloaded from his camera. He could see the one she had up on the screen, a picture of Rogers that he'd snapped when he came out of his building, and got up to stand behind her.
“I'm telling you, I could swear I've seen that guy before,” Sam said, and she shrugged.
“Doesn't look familiar to me. Maybe back in your cop days?”
Sam shook my head. “Maybe, but I doubt it. It'll hit me sooner or later. Let's look at the rest, see if you spot any sign of cheating.”
She turned her head to look up at him. “How would I know? What makes you think I'd know a sign of cheating if I saw one?”
Sam glanced down at her and smiled. “Like you always tell me, you're a woman.”
“Ha!” she barked in his face. “Of course I would! Men cheat, Sam, not because their woman is undesirable, but because they're wired that way. The hottest girl on earth has had a man cheat on her, or at least try to. The only reason a man ever stops cheating is when he's really, truly, absolutely in love! So let's see what we find in Mr. Rogers, here!” She spun back to the monitor and started scanning through all the pictures.
A half hour later, she looked up at him again. “Sorry, Sam. From what I can see, this guy is married more to his work than his wife. Maybe that's all that's wrong, he's just tired of the old ball and chain.”
Sam didn't have a response, so he sat quietly and just thought about what she had said. There was little or nothing he could do that night on either case, so they watched a movie and then went to bed.
They were up early the next morning and finished with breakfast by a little before seven. Sam told Indie to check on Jack and Christy, and let him know if there were any developments in that case. He wanted to go and tail Daniel from home that morning, so he kissed her and headed out.
Sam got to Daniel's street about ten minutes before he left, which was good, and followed him away from his place. He drove to a coffee shop and got a tall latte, then went on to his office.
Sam parked and waited. Indie called a couple of times during the morning hours, letting him know that she was back at the hospital with Christy and Jack. The doctors had put Jack on some new medication and were refusing to let Detective Hobson talk to him until they could see that he was responding to it. Other than that, nothing new seemed to be happening, although she said Jack did seem to be more lucid.
At lunchtime, Daniel came out and drove to a small restaurant in an old part of the city, and Sam perked up; it was the kind of spot most people would choose for a secret lunch rendezvous, so Sam waited 'til he was inside, and then put on a hat, slipped in and sat at the counter. He could see Daniel reflected in a mirror over the entrance to the restrooms, out of the corner of his left eye. Sam ordered a ham and cheese on rye and watched.
Daniel got a burger and fries, and the only person to join him was an old man of about sixty. Sam couldn't hear them very well, but the words Sam caught were about some software that wasn't doing whatever the old guy wanted it to do.
They talked like old pals through lunch, and by the time they finished up, Sam was already back in his car and waiting. Naturally, Daniel went right back to the office, and the boring waiting game began its third round.
Sam called Indie around three.
“Hey, Babe,” she answered.
“Just checking in,” Sam said. “Anything happening?”
“Nothing new. I’m going to leave about two thirty so I can pick Kenzie up from school. The nurses here are just as tough as I am; they’re not going to let anybody get near Jack right now. Not till the doctor says so.”
“Okay. I'll probably be stuck out here until late,” Sam said. “Call me if you need me for anything, okay, Baby?”
“You know I will,” Indie said. “Love you.”
At quitting time, Daniel drove straight home again, and Sam sat outside until ten. When nothing happened by then, Sam snuck out and placed a motion-activated wireless mini-camera in a bush near his car, where it could snap pics of the building entrance and the car itself, and went home again.
Sam and Indie got Kenzie off to school the next morning, then went out for breakfast to a little diner where Sam expected to find Karen Parks. She was there just as he expected, and waved them into the other side of her booth. Sam motioned for the waitress to bring coffee.
“How's your guy doing?”
Karen asked.
“He's shook up, but the fact you saved his dog has given him some strength. I think he'll be okay if I can prove he didn’t kill his friend.”
“That may be tough,” she said. “Hobson said they have a witness who's pretty solid, and knows your guy well. She says he came in looking angry about four, just as she was getting ready to leave for the day, and said it sounded like they were yelling at each other as she closed the door behind her. If you can't find anything else, that's enough circumstantial to get a conviction on murder two, at least. Anger, an emotional killing? Manslaughter might be the best deal he can get.”
“Could be,” he said, “but I’m not giving up yet. A guy like Jack looks angry all the time; PTSD will do that to you. And he always talks kind of loud, so it might have sounded like yelling, I guess. I got a strong hunch that says he didn't do it, and my hunches are usually right.”
Karen shrugged. “Your case. Let me know if I can help.”
Sam promised to call, and he and Indie went home. He had told Indie about placing the little camera outside Daniel's place, and a few minutes later she had its view up on her computer. The cameras had their own built-in data connections, and she could log onto their website, enter the ID for that camera and see whatever it had snapped pictures of all night long, or activate it and watch in real time. She scanned through its memory and found nothing but a dog peeing on Daniel’s tire, and an old couple and some kids going in and out of the building. No sign of the suspected Lothario.
Sam sighed, and went back to watching him the old-fashioned way. He left the camera where it was so he wouldn't have to sit outside his place again that evening, and followed him to work once more.
Daniel didn't go out for lunch that day, so Sam had to go without, but he always kept emergency rations in the glove box. A couple of granola bars were enough to carry him over, but by quitting time, Sam knew he'd be ready for some actual food.
He didn't get to wait that long, though, because Daniel came out at about one thirty and got into his car. Short day, Sam figured, so he followed him, expecting him to go home like always, but this time he got a surprise.