BELONGING: Hope, Truth And Malice (Beauty 0f Life Book 3)

by Laura Acton

  “Who’s Brett and what reactions?” Blaze asked. Bram explained it to the unit guys and more laughter followed.

  “So where do we put him to rest? Any ideas?” Loki inquired.

  “Has to be where I can see him, watch over him,” stated Blaze firmly and all business. “Do you have a cot or something we could put in the briefing room? Blondie can’t leave my sight. He’s under my protection.”

  That got everyone’s attention. Looking at Blaze, Nick asked, “Does this have to do with the new situation you referred to earlier? We were wondering why you were here so early.”

  “Yes, it does. The Corporal and I have officially been assigned protection detail to Blondie. I was told to meet with Commander Gambrill at zero six hundred to assume command of his protection detail.”

  Everyone turned to look at Commander. He drew in a deep breath then directed, “Let’s get Dan settled then we can deal with the rest. First up, do we have a cot?”

  Tia hadn’t moved off with the rest of TRF members. She offered, “We have that gurney in the storage room we use for training. Would that work?”

  “Perfect,” said Patch.

  Ray tapped Winds’ shoulder, “Come with me.” They went to get the gurney.

  “I just wish I had some medical supplies. Blondie looks dehydrated and he’s gonna need pain meds here soon. Shouldn’t be out of the hospital, but I know full well that no one can keep him there when he wants to leave, even when it’s not in his best interest to leave. Hospitals freak him out,” Patch stated.

  That garnered looks from Alpha Team.

  One more thing to add to the Proper Care and Feeding manual, Loki thought,

  Lexa couldn’t stop herself from continuing to gently stroke Dan’s hair. She asked, “Think if we contacted Dr. Fraser, he’d send over what you need?”

  “Worth a try—the guy was mired in guilt last night. I think he’d do anything to try and make up for that. I’ll call him.” Patch rose, walked a little away, and placed a call to the hospital to get a hold of the doctor. He doubted the doctor was there still, but maybe they would give him his home number.

  After a few very frustrating minutes of conversation he had no success. “Dammit, stupid regulations. They won’t give me Dr. Fraser’s home number.”

  Loki heard Patch grumbling and said, “Give me a few seconds, I’ll get it.” He went over to the computer at Tia’s desk. “Mind if I used that?” he asked giving Tia a smile as he raked his errant lock of hair off his forehead.

  He thought, Wow, Tia looks really pretty today and she smells real nice, too. Loki wondered what perfume she wore as Tia scooted out of his way. Within seconds, he had the doctor’s number.

  “Success,” Loki hollered then cringed as he realized he’d shouted. He handed the number to Patch. To Tia he said, “Thanks for sharing.” Then he got up and walked back to where Dan was still laying on the floor. Loki glanced back at Tia. Man, she’s so far outta my league it isn’t funny—but a man can dream. Yeah, I can dream—very interesting dreams. Loki sighed.

  Patch spoke to the doctor and told him exactly what was needed. It turned out that Dr. Fraser was more than happy to help and told Patch that he would personally bring the necessary items. Patch hung up and turned to the group. “Dr. Fraser will be here in about twenty to thirty minutes depending on how long the pharmacy takes to fill the order.”

  Ray and Winds returned with the gurney, a pillow and blanket. Jon, Blaze, Patch, and Winds carefully lifted Dan from the floor and settled him on the gurney. Loki put the pillow under Dan’s head.

  Bram noted that Dan was bootless and asked, “Where are his boots?”

  “Hospital, I suspect. No way he could get them on himself,” Patch said.

  Lexa nodded as she covered Dan with the blanket as she took a long look at the man who confused her so much. She was glad he’d smiled. Lexa tried to look away, but she couldn’t. Her gaze focused on his bruised face—she wanted to kiss his pain away. Lexa took a quick step back as if burned. My God! Dan truly caused her to have wild thoughts. This didn’t bode well for her at all.

  TRF HQ – Briefing Room – 6:20 a.m.

  As they moved Dan into the briefing room Nick suggested, “We are all still very disconcerted by all the events of yesterday. I suggest that we wait until after the doctor gets here with the meds and Patch gets Dan settled before we begin our discussion. We could all use the time to sort our thoughts.”

  “We could all use some coffee that doesn’t taste like boiled boots, too,” Loki added, drawing a smile from Patch. “I suggest that we make a Timmy’s run. Maybe grab something for everyone to eat? I’ll go, anyone want to join me?” Ray and Winds offered to go with him.

  Just as they were about to leave, Lexa piped up, “Hey, Loki, get Dan his favorite iced capp. He might not be awake to drink it for a while, but don’t want him to feel left out when he does wake.”

  “Have them make it with decaf. I don’t want to flood his system with caffeine right now. Blondie needs his sleep,” Patch added.

  “Copy that,” Loki stated and then three started towards the elevator.

  Timmy’s – 6:50 a.m.

  Loki, Ray, and Winds were finally next in line at the busy Timmy’s. As they’d waited, Loki had kept glancing at Winds. He finally had to ask. “Why was Dan assigned a military protection detail?”

  Winds shook his head. “I don’t rightly know yet. All Blaze could tell me was that it was an undefined threat that had some connection with yesterday’s events. The damned General will be here to brief us later today.”

  Loki heard the venom in Winds’ voice. “Dan hasn’t said much about his father. He’s never come when Dan’s been in the hospital. Is he that bad?”

  Winds clenched his jaw and fists. Was he that bad? Hell yeah, the General was that bad and more. But it wasn’t his place to talk about Blondie’s relationship with his father. He relaxed his muscles as he said, “Let’s just say … respect for the position has nothing to do with respect for the man.”

  Loki was about to ask something else when Ray put his hand on Loki’s shoulder. “Not our place to pry. Dan will share with us what he wants.”

  Venetia finished with the customer and then turned up her smile several watts to greet the next one. Most her customers were grumpy until they got the first shot of coffee in them. So a happy smiling face in the morning helped everyone’s day get off to a better start.

  Her smiled waned when she saw it was Loki and Ray. They weren’t wearing their uniforms like normal so she hadn’t recognized them right off the bat. Her voice was soft and sad as she said, “I’m so very sorry for your loss. Aaron was a really nice guy. It was terrible to hear that Aaron died and Dan was hurt yesterday. How’s Dan? I hope he wasn’t hurt too badly. The news only said he was air-lifted by a military helicopter.”

  Ray quietly replied, “Thank you, Venetia. Dan is going to be fine.”

  Taking a cleansing breath, Venetia brightened her smile for them and asked, “What can I get you guys today?”

  Loki answered, “Alpha Team special, but make Dan’s iced capp with decaf.” He turned to Winds and asked, “What do you guys want?”

  Winds grinned at the young lady. “Three large, strong, black coffees.”

  Venetia smiled back at the Army Corporal, he was handsome. Tall, dark brown hair and the most amazing amber eyes—they were a deep, rich yellow-copper color—that held her spellbound a moment. Finally, she shook off the spell and turned to Loki. “Decaf iced capp? I didn’t think Dan liked decaf. Are you trying to pull a prank on him? That wouldn’t be nice after yesterday.”

  “No.” Loki’s expression sobered thinking about the reason for the decaf.

  Winds saw the deflated look. Loki was so easy to read, just like Patch. He patted his back. “Blondie’s gonna be okay. He just needs some rest. Patch will take good care of him—he’s kept our little brother alive for years. Patch knows exactly what to do to help Blondie physically. He’ll heal quickly—alwa
ys has.”

  Ray turned to Venetia and added a few things to the order then pulled out his wallet to pay. When Winds pulled out his own wallet, Ray stayed his hand and said, “We got this. A small way we can say thanks for all you did last night.”

  Winds put his wallet away and said, “Thank you, though it isn’t necessary. I’d—we’d—gladly do that and more for our little brother. Been a long year without him. I just hope he still trusts us and can forgive us for losing him.”

  Loki opened his mouth to ask, but caught Ray’s slight shake of the head. He closed it again and pulled out his wallet to leave a generous tip for Venetia. The guys gathered the trays of coffees and bags of food then headed out.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  July 16

  Toronto’s Special Victims and Homicide Division – 7:00 a.m.

  Inspector Davis was still troubled by the incident last night at the hospital. Sitting at his desk several questions niggled at him. Most would simply chalk it up to a deranged man picking a target and attacking. But there was more to it. He had many, many questions.

  What was the connection between Broderick and Donner? Why did Donner first point the gun at Broderick, but then turn it on himself? Why did a General care if pictures were taken of a crime scene?

  The flimsy excuse about being a problem for security didn’t hold water. It seemed more like a father trying to protect his son. But it was truly odd.

  Why was Broderick’s boss so concerned? Wait, one answer, Gambrill called Broderick his godson.

  What was that business about Sara? Who was Sara? Who was this driver that killed himself after killing her? How was that connected to Broderick?

  Who was this Brody that Broderick referred to before he passed out? He could see that it had totally freaked out Commander Gambrill every time he heard Broderick say the name.

  Davis had so many questions that he couldn’t sleep last night so he’d just headed to his office and started digging to see what he could find out. His digging led him to several things.

  He found that Richard Donner had a blog, and from it, the inspector learned that Donner was seeing a psychologist, Dr. Carter. The blog stated that Richard had moved to Toronto from Ottawa to live with his aunt after being orphaned at thirteen.

  On Donner’s site, Davis also found a scanned copy of an old newspaper report on a car accident in Ottawa where seven-year-old Sara Broderick was killed. That answered the Sara connection, Sara was Dan’s sister. With that piece of information, he’d contacted an old buddy in the Ottawa Police Department, which led him to the police report. His buddy had scanned and emailed over the entire file to him. It contained several photos, one of which he suspected was the cause of Gambrill insisting no photos be taken.

  With the details in the report, he’d found a follow up news report about the suicide of the driver, West Donner. That led him to another police report, which his buddy sent to him as well. However, try as he might, Davis hadn’t found anything about anyone named Brody.

  Davis hoped that the call he would make in a bit—he’d waited for a more reasonable time of day—would shed the final light on this incident. It was tragic, truly tragic, and so many had been hurt by it. Davis would try to put the pieces of this puzzle together and maybe, just maybe, it would be helpful to Broderick.

  Last night, he could see Constable Broderick was confused and hurt deeply by all this—he saw it in the officer’s eyes and heard it in the words he’d voiced. Davis also remembered that Gambrill had said Dan didn’t know anything about the suicide of the driver. Depending on what Davis concluded, maybe Broderick needed to know.

  Before making the call to Donner’s psychologist, Davis reviewed all the facts he’d discovered. Nineteen years ago, a car accident had killed seven-year-old Sara Yvonne Broderick. The girl was hit so hard she was knocked out of her shoes. Daniel William Broderick, nine-years-old, was with her and saw his sister die after she was wrenched from his grasp at the crosswalk.

  The driver of the car was West Donner. Richard Donner was his son and he was thirteen at the time of the accident. West was cited for driving under the influence, but it turned out he wasn’t drunk as was thought at the scene.

  Toxicology reports instead showed a high level of anti-depressants—still grounds for citation, though. West was a paramedic. His wife, who was six months pregnant, had been killed in a car accident two weeks prior to the accident that killed Sara. Sadly, West was the first responder to her accident and his wife and unborn daughter died in his arms when she bled out.

  The day of Sara’s death, Richard Donner was in the car with his father. West Donner had to pick his son up from summer camp early that day because Richard had badly injured a kid after that boy had teased him about being a momma’s boy. Ouch, that had to be harsh having just lost his mother only two weeks earlier, Davis thought.

  Back to facts. Okay, so the officer in charge of investigating the accident was … Inspector Walter Gambrill. Dang, that had to be hard to deal with—especially with Dan Broderick being his godson. He would’ve known Sara, too.

  Davis flipped through some papers to find the information he needed. Records showed that Gambrill transferred to the Toronto Police Department two years later. Okay, so there was the connection to Gambrill.

  So now about the pictures. One of the crime scene pictures got leaked to the press and a damned tabloid printed it. Looking at the picture, Davis wished that he could find the idiot that decided to print it—he’d punch their lights out—no kid should be photographed like that. It was bad enough the kid had to experience something so horrific, but for it to be immortalized in a photo—that was just cruel.

  The picture in question showed a little boy kneeling next to his little dead sister—two golden blond heads. The little girl’s blood covered the boy’s arms, hands, shirt, shorts, and face. He was clutching a pair of pink sandals to his chest. The boy must’ve hugged her just before the picture was taken to get that much blood on him, Davis thought.

  However, the most disturbing thing about the picture was that the photographer caught the little boy in the moment of an agonizing scream. His blond little head was tilted slightly up, looking at a man. The little boy’s face was contorted with unfathomable pain. His tear filled big blue eyes were so tormented and lost. Shit, it hurt just seeing those expressive eyes in a photo. This explained why no photos were allowed last night, Davis thought sadly.

  The follow up article said that West Donner left a suicide note. Inspector Davis read the copy of it in the police report. West Donner’s suicide note was very lengthy and extremely detailed.

  He had included exacting descriptions of how he felt in the week after the girl’s death. He’d written down the things he’d said to the boy on the day of the accident. West Donner said that he couldn’t live with himself for causing that kind of pain and torment to a little boy. He’d written that the boy’s eyes had pierced him to the soul and Donner was consumed with guilt for ending a beautiful little girl’s life

  West wrote repeatedly that she had deserved to live and he tried to beg forgiveness from the little boy by telling the boy that he wished he’d died instead. His letter repeated that several times, Donner wanted to trade places with the little girl, but he couldn’t.

  His suicide note also indicated Donner had told the boy that he wasn’t worthy, that he was supposed to save people—he was a paramedic—and saving people was his job. West pleaded for mercy from the little boy because he’d failed to save the little girl and he was so sorry.

  Donner went on to say that he had begged the little boy not to cry, to stop crying. The crying was tearing West apart. He kept saying, ‘no please stop crying, no crying, I’m sorry, it’s all my fault’.

  But the little boy was inconsolable and in a total state of shock as he kept screaming for Sara. The police report noted that no one could get Daniel Broderick to respond to them. Daniel was so locked in his anguish over his little sister that he wouldn’t let anyone touch him o
r take the shoes. Donner said he was devastated at seeing what he had done to the little boy.

  Donner’s suicide note also detailed what happened when the children’s father, General William Broderick, arrived on the scene. The grief West saw on the General’s face was so intense—both for his little girl and his little boy.

  Donner said he felt so bad that no one could get the boy to stop screaming or to let go of his sister. The boy only stopped and let go after his dad yelled at him in a booming voice and ordered him to let go. It was the only thing that worked. The dad had tried pleading, crying, and soft-spoken words, but nothing except the yell got through the boy’s grief barrier. The pain he saw on the dad’s face as he yelled at his son and then tried to console him ate away at West Donner’s soul.

  West couldn’t live with all of that so he decided to end his life. He shot himself in the head late one night. The police report said his thirteen-year-old son had woken from a nightmare and went to his dad for comfort. Richard walked into the room just as his dad shot himself.

  “Aw hell, that would screw anyone up,” Davis said. This was such a tragic situation. He looked at the clock—it was still early, but hopefully Dr. Margaret Carter was in her office now. He looked up the number for the psychologist and placed a call.

  When she answered, Davis explained who he was and generally why he was calling, leaving out specific names other than Donner’s. At first, she was reluctant to discuss a patient, but once Davis reminded her that Richard Donner was dead, Dr. Carter offered information.

  Richard had been a long-term patient. She’d started seeing him when he was thirteen after his father’s suicide. The boy was racked with guilt. His father wouldn’t have been driving that day if he’d hadn’t gotten into a fight at summer camp over his mother.

  The boy felt he had destroyed his family that day. Richard had eventually seen the photos that were published. After seeing all the blood on the little boy, Richard developed a fixation on gory details. For the most part Richard was able to operate in the world. He mostly had suicidal thoughts of ending his life in the same manner as his father.