“Harper, I’m sure you’re aware your husband is in custody,” Eli said.
“And he’ll be stayin’ there. No way I can bond him out.”
Couldn’t or wouldn’t bail him out?
“One thing that has always confused me is who dropped off the hit package to Ryder’s parole officer.”
Harper chewed her nails, taking a seat on the threadbare, Kool-Aid–stained love seat.
“I should thank you,” Eli said. “For doing my job for me.”
“How do you figure that?” Harper asked—her voice a pitch higher.
Julia stopped her browsing and turned to face the two of them.
“You’re the one who delivered the hit file to Ryder’s parole officer. Once you found out what Ryder was involved in, you wanted to save Julia. You probably assumed Ryder wouldn’t be so stupid as to leave his prints all over it. But since they are present, it diminishes his ability for plausible deniability.”
“Look, mister, Ryder has made his bed and now he has to lie in it. I just want Miles and me to be free of him. I don’t want what’s left of our family to be caught in his shenanigans no matter how much money we’re...”
Eli let her wallow in the mud of her confession for a few moments. “Can’t say that I blame you.” He could see Miles tiptoeing down the stairs.
Julia snagged a photo from the mantel and pulled it close to her face. With the other hand, she gripped the edge of the fireplace.
What did she see in that picture?
Eli kept Julia in his peripheral vision as he directed his comment to Harper. “On our last visit you mentioned you’d seen too much death. Do you know a boy by the name of Jason Montgomery?”
Harper grabbed the edge of the couch with both of her hands and leaned forward as if she was going to topple over—a soft mewing escaped her lips. Julia turned the picture Eli’s way—pointing to a photograph of two young boys. It was a large eight-by-ten. The youngsters each held a fishing pole and a string of fish between them. Julia tapped her finger against one of the boy’s heads and mouthed Jason.
All of a sudden, missing puzzle pieces snapped into place for Eli. Jason Montgomery had to be related to Miles and therefore related to Ryder. That bolstered credibility for a personal vendetta as a motive for the Hangman—taking out those who had cared for this boy and didn’t prevent his death.
It meant Heller could be telling the truth.
Eli didn’t believe Ryder had enough intelligence to be the head of the snake. A competent partner—even that seemed to be a stretch.
A knot formed at the base of Eli’s throat. It meant...the Hangman was free. What he needed most at that time was to have Julia near him—to wrap protective arms around her to keep her from the coming danger.
But from which direction was the threat coming?
“Both of you need to leave,” Harper demanded.
Miles parked himself in front of the screen door. His head swiveled from side to side like that of a watchdog guarding the perimeter.
“Right now,” Harper seethed. “Get out of my house. I don’t want you here anymore!”
Julia set the photo back on the mantel and walked to the door. Were puzzle pieces falling into place for her, as well? Or did she just want out? The tension too much for her? Then again, ER nurses functioned under a mountain of stress every day. Miles blocked Julia’s exit from the house.
“Harper, please,” Eli said. If he didn’t clear this up now, he wouldn’t be convinced he could ward off the coming onslaught against Julia. “How is Jason related to you? I know that Julia took care of him in the hospital. That he died as a result of an equipment failure. Do you and Ryder know Jason? Is that why he’s participating in this murder-for-hire plot against Julia?”
Miles shot out the door, and the screen door slammed like a bullet from a gun. Now Julia hovered there with her pediatric nurse’s eyes watching over his safety, since Harper seemed unconcerned about his egress from the house.
Harper stood from the couch. “Do I have to call the police? Get out of my house!”
Julia exited, calling Miles’s name.
* * *
“Miles—come back here!” It was clear that Harper wasn’t in any position to keep an eye on her charge, and Julia knew a child’s unmonitored exuberance was usually a ticket for admission to the ER.
The boy pumped his legs to their car where Ben sat and pounded on the window. When Ben didn’t immediately respond, the boy grabbed the handle and pulled the door open, and something tumbled to the driveway.
Julia narrowed the distance and found Miles yanking items out of what appeared to be Ben’s wallet. Credit cards. A driver’s license. Several photos.
“Miles, give it back to me,” Ben ordered.
Ben knew Miles? Julia’s heart fell into her hands as she gathered the faded photographs Miles carelessly let fall onto the driveway. Ben and Jason together. Julia plucked them from the cement more quickly. Ben hugging Jason. Ben with Jason at a five-year birthday party.
“Uncle Ben! Uncle Ben! When is Cousin Jason visiting from heaven? You said I would see him again someday. Please, please—can today be the day?”
The strength in Julia’s hands left her, and the pictures fluttered to the ground. Without standing, she looked up. Ben towered over her. “Miles, you won’t see Jason today, but I think Miss Julia will be able to say hi for you.”
Julia’s heart thundered in her chest, her body frozen as she riffled through the options her mind presented to her.
“Will you do that for me, Julia?” Ben asked.
Julia reached up and placed a protective hand on Miles’s shoulder.
Ben is Jason’s father—or stepfather, since their last names are different, but he’s the one seeking vengeance on behalf of this child. Ben Murphy is the Hangman!
* * *
Eli walked through the front door and headed for the car. It was clear Harper had closed down answering any more questions. His phone buzzed in his pocket. He grabbed it and stopped in the middle of the lawn. Julia was picking something up from the driveway—Ben hovered over her.
“Miles! Come here right now!”
Julia lifted her face to Harper but kept a firm hand on Miles’s shoulder as if to keep him from leaving her side.
“Cayne,” Eli snapped into his phone.
“Eli, it’s Shawn Jaeger from FBI Forensics. I’m calling in regards to your request to have me test the blood found in the Hangman’s case for the special preservative used in donated blood to keep it from clotting.”
“And?”
“The blood that has Heller’s DNA is definitely from a donated pint of blood—likely whole blood, which is why the DNA yield was so high.”
Eli’s heart jumped into his throat.
Shawn continued. “Your request raised several issues for our lab, as this information puts into serious question whether or not Dr. Mark Heller could have been present for any of these crimes, and so I initiated an internal investigation.”
“Have there been any conclusions?” Somehow the words still came through Eli’s constricted throat.
“It appears one of our own agents, Ben Murphy, paid a lab technician a good sum of money to alter the report and stand by it in a court of law.”
Eli swallowed hard. “Shawn, do you know if Ben ever lost a child?”
“I do...his stepson, Jason Montgomery. He was completely devastated.”
Ben and Eli locked eyes and at that moment—an understanding of their roles clarified in a nanosecond. No longer partners in the fight against evil, but lawman against criminal with the hunter’s prey within his grasp.
Was there any other easier person to suspect as a hit man than someone who had a criminal background and was also having a financial crisis? When Miles said the word uncle
, he was signifying Ben’s relationship to himself. The picture of the two boys together—they were cousins. That made Ryder Jason’s uncle. Add that to a financial crisis, like losing a house, someone who had a personal vendetta against a health-care team for a child’s death and it was the perfect mixture of morality lost and evil filling the vacuum.
Ryder wasn’t the only one trying to take Julia’s life. A witness only identified him near Julia’s neighbor’s house.
Ben had tried to kill Julia, as well—his saving her life a ruse to keep Eli and his team from discovering his true intentions.
The first morning Eli met Julia, Ben had not been on the doorstep clearly to stay out of the line of fire. Ben’s foot pursuit a cover for his involvement. The carbon monoxide poisoning—would evidence place him as the one who’d tampered with the furnace? The remote control of Eli’s car—and Ben’s computer expertise.
How could I miss this? Everything was right there before me. And he’s not a partner... Ben is the Hangman.
Ben shoved Miles to the ground and advanced on Julia—unholstering his gun. Julia’s hands drifted up in the air as she looked back at Eli.
Ben grappled Julia around the upper body, lifted her up and backpedaled her to the front passenger’s side of their car—rounding it more quickly than Eli thought possible.
Eli drew his weapon, but with the way Ben’s head bobbed back and forth behind Julia’s, he couldn’t get a clear shot. The front end of the car providing additional cover.
“Ben! Stop right now. Killing Julia isn’t going to accomplish anything. Let her go!”
“This is for my son. This is for Jason!”
Ben aimed his weapon at Eli and fired off a round. Eli ran toward Miles, who had crawled away from the car but was positioned between the house and the driveway, and tackled him into the grass, covering the boy’s body with his own.
Ben continued to fire shots, a startled scream tingling Eli’s ears as he anticipated the iron-hot spindle of pain hitting his own body at any moment. His heart hammered in his ears—almost as loud as the gunfire. He covered Miles’s head with his hands and turned to see Harper lying on the front porch, her hands holding her belly.
The car door slammed. Eli looked back to see Ben rounding the front end of the car and scurrying inside. The engine turned over, and Ben threw the car in Reverse.
Eli couldn’t believe leaving the keys in the car for Ben’s comfort had just aided the escape of a madman.
Eli stood up and aimed his gun at the car as it reversed down the driveway. Julia heeded his earlier warning, as he couldn’t see her sitting upright on the passenger’s side. That or Ben held her head down. For what purpose? What was the point in keeping her alive for the moment when he’d hired Ryder to kill her?
Eli squared his stance and fired a couple of shots at the windshield—hoping against hope the flying metal would hit its mark. The windshield starred, but the car continued to move backward. Eli ran after it. As the car slowed slightly as Ben put the car in Forward, Eli fired his remaining rounds at the tires. Nothing took.
Eli raced back to the house and approached Harper. Miles cried as he kneeled next to her in the grass. She was cringing, rolling side to side as blood pooled from the wound in her abdomen. Eli removed his suit coat and rolled up one sleeve.
“This is going to hurt.” Eli pressed the bundle into her abdomen and then spoke into his wrist mic. “Shots fired. Shots fired.”
His heart pounded in his chest. The next words were ones he didn’t want to speak. “Agent Murphy has taken Julia Galloway hostage.”
“Copy that.” The dispatcher sounded distant.
“I need a rescue unit and...everyone. He’s in a late-model...”
“We’ve got the car’s make and model. We’ll get a BOLO to local PD.”
Once he knew help was on the way, he placed his free hand behind Harper’s head and lifted it gently off the ground. “Harper, where would Ben take Julia?”
She clenched her eyes closed and moaned.
“Please, Harper, if you don’t want to go jail, then you have to tell me right now where Ben might go.”
Her eyes flared open, wide and glassy, as the blood oozed from beneath Eli’s sleeve into the grass. “I don’t know, but take my car. Ryder knows where Ben would go.”
What could he do? Leave Harper here to bleed out? Leave her with her son providing her care and then she dies anyway and the boy lives with the guilt of his mother dying at his hands?
Neither option was viable.
He’d have to wait for the ambulance. Eli buried his face into the crook of his arm and did the last thing he could do on Julia’s behalf until Harper was safe.
Lord, protect her. Help me find her before it’s too late.
SEVENTEEN
The gunshots stopped, and Julia raised her head from the seat. Ben drove with his head shifted to the left because of the starburst caused from Eli’s bullet hitting the windshield. As Julia braced her hands against the top of the seat, shards of safety glass felt like rocks under her palms. Looking at Ben, she could see a circular mark of blood under his left arm.
Evidently, Eli was a good marksman.
“Pull over, and I’ll help you,” Julia said.
“Above all things, I don’t need your help. You’ve helped my family enough.”
What would Eli do? Could he save her? She knew he could, but would he figure out this last remaining piece of the puzzle? Where was Ben taking her? What was the last part of his plan?
He switched to steer with this right hand and braced his gun low against his abdomen with his left and pointed it at her side. Even though he was bleeding, Julia guessed at best it was a grazing shot. The bleeding wasn’t brisk enough to be anything serious, and Ben’s adrenaline was better than any dose of morphine she could have given him.
They stopped at a light, and a police officer pulled up next to them but had his face turned the other way typing at his computer.
Julia’s heart thumped wildly in her neck. Would he see it—the starred windshield that obstructed Ben’s view? That had to be reason enough to pull him over.
“Don’t think about signaling that officer. If you do, I’ll not only kill you, but I’ll kill him, too. And who’s he going to believe anyway—an FBI agent or some crazy woman he’s bringing into custody who wrestled his weapon free at one point and shot through his windshield?”
Julia decided it best not to argue the illogical scenario he proposed. Why would the officer believe him when she wasn’t in handcuffs? Then again, why give Ben any more thoughts on how to detain her? Right now, with her arms and legs free, escape was possible if she could find the right opportunity.
The light turned green and the police officer turned right without so much as glancing their way.
Julia folded her hands in her lap and began to pray but kept her eyes on the road before them.
Lord, I don’t see any way out of this without someone dying. I pray that You be with Eli—keep him safe and help him to find me before it’s too late. Whatever has caused this vengeance in Ben, let me be able to break through it. I know he can love if he loved his son so much that he’s willing to kill other people because the loss was so great for him.
“What did I do? What did any of us do to deserve death?” Julia’s heart told her not to challenge him. What was the wisdom in antagonizing him? ER nurses were used to asking pertinent questions but not always at the right time.
“You didn’t stop it when you could have.”
Stop what? The more she thought about it, the more she remembered Jason Montgomery’s case. The patient’s history stated he’d been found by his stepfather, hence the different last names, hanging by a belt in his closet. Trouble had followed Jason like a shadow he couldn’t shake. Depression. Oppositional defiant disorder. The psy
chiatric team theorized it stemmed from his unresolved conflict surrounding his parent’s divorce.
Jason also exhibited a high level of risk-taking behavior—coming home drunk and high on marijuana. So the trouble with the nature of his injury was no one really knew if it was accidental or intentional.
“What did you want me to stop?” Julia asked.
It was one of those rare times she could say and ask a parent whatever she wanted to, because if her death was as imminent as Ben insinuated, then she might as well know the truth.
“You and your coworkers were talking about the ventilator. How another kid had died and you let them use it on my son. Your job was to speak up for him when no one else would.”
Julia exhaled slowly, trying to ease the growing ball of anxiety in her belly. It was a common problem in health care—a parent overhearing unit gossip and not understanding what was true and what wasn’t. What was just blowing off steam and what was the hallmark black humor they used to deal with stress.
She didn’t excuse it—she wasn’t perfect.
In the previous patient case Ben mentioned, it wasn’t clear to the nursing staff if the newfangled machine was at fault, but there was worry among the staff about the possibility. Doctors assured them that one death did not a suspicious series make.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”
Ben turned off the road and angled his car into a wooded area. Julia’s body felt numb. Was this it? He would just shoot her dead among the trees and leave her body for scavengers? And then what would he do? Did he imagine that he’d be able to escape his way out of this?
“Why don’t I remember meeting you?” Julia asked.
“Because we never met. You worked days and I visited at night after work, but the one conversation I overheard happened at shift change—so many of you felt the same thing and never spoke up. You failed Jason.”
He positioned the car to the side of the dirt road, threw his door open, ran around to her side of the car and then pulled hers open. “Get out.”
Fractured Memory Page 18