by Paige Tyler
When Dane had met up with Lexis at her apartment last night, she’d been waiting for him at the door. He’d taken one look at her face and immediately realized something was wrong. It had taken her a while to get it all out, but as soon as she had, he knew why she was so freaked. Not only was there a doctor at the local hospital getting high while on duty, there was also a good chance his drug use had ended up getting three people killed—maybe more. Stuff like this wasn’t supposed to happen, not in a city like Dallas.
Unfortunately, they had absolutely no proof, unless you counted Patton’s dilated pupils and pale, sweaty face. But the thought of not believing Lexi never entered Dane’s mind. Not only did he trust her medical judgement, he trusted her instincts, too.
The first thing he’d done was call the station and tell them to download the memory card on Rescue 58’s cardiac monitor. Then he agreed they had to tell someone—fast.
They’d gone back and forth between calling the cops and formally reporting their suspicions to the hospital. Finally, they opted for the police. With nothing to go on, neither one of them could imagine the hospital taking their accusations seriously.
They’d called Logan Maxwell because they didn’t really know who else to turn to. They figured, if nothing else, the guy owed Lexi a favor for the tip that had helped Logan take down the street racing crew. Logan hadn’t made any promises, but had told them he’d look into the situation. At the minimum, he could poke around and see if he picked up any rumors on the street about Patton’s drug use.
“I have to admit, I didn’t think I’d find anything when I started snooping,” Logan said now. “But I think you two may have stumbled onto something bigger than even you imagined.”
“You already found something about Patton’s drug use?” Lexi asked.
“The drug use didn’t take long to confirm, at least informally,” Logan said. “You’d think a doctor would get his drugs from the hospital, but I’ve talked to a number of local dealers who admit to selling Patton a medicine cabinet full of opiate-based drugs.”
“I’m sure he’s probably stealing them from the hospital, too,” Lexi said. “But if he’s using heavily, I doubt he can skim enough to keep up with his habit without someone catching onto what he’s doing.”
“No doubt,” Logan agreed. “But while confirming Patton is on drugs was useful—and will certainly get us a warrant to search his home and locker at the hospital at some point—it’s not nearly as interesting as the fact that I can’t find the bodies of those three deceased patients.”
Dane frowned, sure he’d heard wrong. He glanced at Lexi to see her sitting there with a stunned look as well. Okay, apparently he’d heard right after all.
“What do you mean, you couldn’t find the bodies?” Dane asked.
“I can’t find them because they’re missing. I stopped by the hospital this morning to see if they’d requested an autopsy on the three patients. Hospitals rarely do that in those cases where it’s deemed natural causes, but it turned out they had, something to do with the fact that the deaths followed possible criminal activities—a fire and two street racing accidents. The only problem? While the hospital showed me transfer paperwork, the medical examiner insists the bodies never arrived at the Forensic Institute.”
“How is that possible?” Lexi asked. “Bodies aren’t socks. You don’t lose them.”
“I agree,” Logan said. “If this was one body missing, I’d assume it was a clerical error like an idiot filling out the transfer paperwork wrong and sending the body to a funeral home instead of the ME’s offices. But with three of them missing, that’s not a clerical error. There’s something weird going on.”
“Logan, do you think there’s a chance Patton is selling the bodies on the black market for parts?” Lexi asked. “I mean, other than the injuries that supposedly killed them all three of the people we treated were healthy.”
“Damn, I never even thought of that,” Logan said. “I’ve been working under the assumption Patton killed them because he was negligent and they’re missing because the doctor is trying to clean up any evidence of his mistakes. Your theory is as feasible—and a whole lot scarier.”
“It might be even more likely,” Dane said, a sudden uncomfortable thought coming to him. “It can’t be a coincidence that all three of the people who died on his watch happen to be people with no direct family members around to ask questions.”
Logan was quiet for a long time. “Huh. I didn’t realize that. So either we’re dealing with an incompetent drug addict, or a serial killer. Either way, I gotta start pushing the warrants as fast as possible. I hope to have something in a few hours.”
They talked a little while longer, with Logan promising to keep them up to speed on his investigation before he hung up.
“Do you think Patton really targeted these three people because they had no family?” Lexi asked.
Dane shook his head. “Who can guess how a psycho thinks? The thing that scares me is how do we know he hasn’t done this before? We’re not the only fire station that uses the hospital. There could be a lot more than three deaths involved here.”
“Crap,” Lexi muttered. “You’re right.”
Dane opened his mouth to say something else when the station alarm went off. It was quickly followed by the announcement, “Engine 58, Truck 58, Rescue 58, residential structure fire at 155 Plymouth.”
He and Lexi jumped to their feet and ran for the vehicle bay.
“Be careful out there,” she called to him as she headed toward her rescue vehicle.
“You, too,” he said as he reached for his turnout gear and started getting dressed.
He slipped his feet slipped into his boots and quickly pulled up the heavy pants then looped the suspenders over his shoulders without even thinking about it. That was probably a good thing since his mind was swimming at the possibility that this fire might send someone to the hospital staffed with a frigging serial killer.
Chapter Twelve
AS LEXI AND Trent pulled up in front of the hospital, her heart was thumping a thousand miles an hour, and it had nothing to do with the five-year-old kid they had in the back with first degree burns to his legs and hands. Instead, she was freaked out over the possibility of having Dr. Patton get anywhere near their patient. She’d left half a dozen messages with Logan, praying the detective had already arrested the doctor, but the detective hadn’t called back yet. She knew it was wishful thinking to hope the legal system worked that fast.
Lexi had told Trent everything she knew about Patton on the drive to the hospital. He’d been shocked as hell, but he’d agreed to help her, first by trying to get dispatch to let them take the kid to a different hospital claiming there was excessive traffic, then promising to stay with the little boy until the parents arrived when the dispatcher refused to reroute them.
“This isn’t like the other patients,” Trent reminded her. “This kid has family to keep an eye on Patton. He’s not going to try anything with witnesses around.”
Lexi knew he was right. Wayne, Debra, and Jessie had all been on their own with no one to make a fuss when they turned up dead. But that still didn’t make her feel any better, especially since they were still only guessing when it came to how the doctor chose his victims. She didn’t feel good about the fact that the three victims they knew about had all died at night, well after visiting hours. The kid would be as alone then as all the others.
So when she saw Melinda in the hallway leading to the ER examination area, she pulled her roommate aside. Melinda hadn’t come home last night until late and Lexi had left early, so she hadn’t been able to tell her friend anything about Patton yet. That needed to change.
“Is Patton working tonight?” she asked urgently.
Her roommate nodded. “Yeah. The guy practically lives here. Why?”
“Have you seen the police talking to him recently?” Lexi prodded.
Melinda looked at her in obvious confusion. “What? No. Why would the po
lice be talking to him? He’s a rude asshole, to be sure, but I don’t think they can arrest you for that.”
Lexi sighed. That really wasn’t what she’d wanted to hear. She grabbed her friend’s arm and pulled her farther away from the crowd of people streaming through the ER.
“Melinda, I don’t have time to get into the details, but I’m pretty sure Patton is addicted to pain meds. The police are currently investigating him in the deaths of those three patients I brought in. It’s also possible that he stole the bodies to hide the evidence of what he did to them. Or, worse, to sell their body parts.”
Melinda gaped at her.
Lexi would have liked to give her friend a moment to process that bombshell before hurrying on, but there wasn’t any time for that.
“The police should be showing up soon to arrest Patton,” she continued. “But until that happens, you have to be on him like a shadow. Don’t let him give anyone any drugs unless you know what it is.”
“What? Lexi, I’m a nurse. How am I going to stop a doctor from giving a drug to a patient?”
“I don’t know, but you’re going to have to figure out something,” Lexi said urgently. “We can’t let Patton kill anyone else.”
Melinda took a deep breath then nodded. “I’ll do what I can, but what we really need to do is get a senior doctor involved. Someone who has the authority, knowledge—and the nerve to stop Patton if he tries something.”
Lexi wasn’t sure if that was a good idea. What if one of Patton’s fellow doctors asked why the police were investigating him? Who knew what Patton would do then?
But they had to try something.
“Is there a doctor on duty that you trust implicitly?”
“Dr. Lambert,” Melinda said without hesitation. “He’s the best doctor we have. If you tell him what’s going on, he’ll help.”
Lexi nodded, remembering their meeting the other day. “Where is he now?”
Melinda gave her directions to an office complex on the second floor. “He runs his research projects out of there, so you might have to look around in some of the labs.”
Lexi turned and ran for the stairwell. She found Dr. Lambert in one of the labs down the hall from his office. He was studying a rack filled with test tubes and medicine vials, humming to himself as he wrote down some notes. On the table beside them was a small cage with two mice in it.
She knocked on the open door then walked in. “Dr. Lambert, may I talk to you? It’s urgent.”
He turned, a warm smile spreading across his face. “Ms. Fletcher, isn’t it? The paramedic?”
Lexi nodded, relieved he recognized her. That might help when it came to believing the insane story she was about to tell him.
“That’s me,” she said. “Melinda introduced us.”
“I remember.” His smile broadened. “What can I help you with?”
“I think one of the doctors at the hospital is murdering patients,” she said without preemption.
Okay, considering the alarm that crossed Dr. Lambert’s face, she probably could have come up with a better way to start this whole thing. But it was out now.
“Perhaps you had better start from the beginning,” he said in a tone that was far calmer than Lexi would have expected. “This sounds like something I should definitely hear.”
Lexi nodded, telling Dr. Lambert everything she knew as he turned his attention back to the test tubes in the rack. She tried not to talk too quickly, but she was intensely aware Patton was downstairs right this second, likely looking at the kid she and Trent had brought in. There wasn’t a lot of time to do this.
Dr. Lambert must have realized it, too, because his eyes widened in concern. “You’re sure the police will be here soon to look for the missing bodies?”
“I assume they’ll take Dr. Patton into custody first, but then they’ll probably start questioning all the people who are normally involved with handling the bodies here at the hospital,” she said. “At some point, I’m sure they’ll find someone who knows something.”
“I’m sure.” Sighing, Dr. Lambert set down the clipboard he’d been holding and picked up a syringe from the table. He glanced at her as he took out a medicine vial from a drawer and plunged the tip of the needle into the rubber stopper then filled the syringe with the clear liquid. “Why don’t you go back down to the ER? I’ll meet you there shortly.”
Lexi nodded and started for the door. She took two steps then stopped and turned back to him. “Thank you for believing me.”
“Actually. I’m the one who should be thanking you for the warning.”
She opened her mouth to tell him she was simply doing her job when she felt a sharp jab in her left arm. Startled, she flinched and tried to pull away, but Dr. Lambert grabbed her elbow and held on tightly. She looked down and saw the barrel of the syringe he’d filled pressed against her triceps.
She jerked her head up to demand an explanation when a wave of dizziness washed over her and everything went fuzzy, making it impossible to get the words out. Suddenly, her legs felt like Jell-O.
Crap. She’d been drugged.
She was vaguely aware of Lambert dragging her back into his lab and closing the door behind them. She shoved feebly at the hand holding her arm, but her muscles were complete mush. Humming to himself, Lambert lowered to the floor as her legs gave out. Then everything went black.
* * * * *
“Have you found her yet?” Dane demanded as he met up with Trent and Logan in the middle of the hallway leading to the ER.
His gut clenched when both men shook their heads. He cursed, torn between punching the wall and letting out a string of even more colorful expletives. Instead, he resisted the urge to do either and took a deep breath.
“Tell me everything again,” he said to Trent. “When was the last time anyone saw Lexi?”
Dane had still been working clean-up at the residential house fire, when Trent called him to say Lexi was missing. Dane had been so busy fighting the fire, he hadn’t even realized Lexi had left to take anyone to the hospital. He’d immediately checked in with his lieutenant, dropped his bunker suit with Jax then grabbed a ride to the hospital from a PD officer.
“Lexi’s friend Melinda saw her about two hours ago,” Trent said as Logan moved to the side to answer his cell phone. “When Lexi told Melinda her suspicions about Patton, she suggested Lexi talk to a doctor named Lambert. He’s the attending physician in charge of the residents, so Melinda thought he might be able to help.”
Okay, that was new. “So had Lambert seen her?”
Trent shrugged. “I don’t know because he’s missing, too. According to Detective Maxwell, neither one of them was caught on the security cameras anywhere in the hospital.”
Shit. “What about Patton?”
“He’s in custody,” Logan said, coming back over to join them. “He’s claiming he had nothing to do with the three deaths we’re investigating, or Lexi’s disappearance. Unfortunately, he’s also starting to go through withdrawal symptoms from whatever drugs he’s been taking, so I don’t know if we can trust anything he says.”
“Did anyone see Patton leave at any point before Lexi and Lambert went missing?” Dane asked.
Logan shook his head, but before he could say any more, his cell rang again. “I gotta get this.”
“They’re going to find her,” Trent said as the detective answered his phone. “Detective Maxwell told me they’re scouring the entire hospital for any sign of her or Lambert and they have BOLOs out, too. She’s going to be okay.”
Dane nodded, his chest tightening more with every passing second. He had no idea where Lexi was, but his gut told him she was in trouble. And all he could do about it was stand here and pray Logan and the rest of the cops found someone who might have seen something useful. Dammit, he hated standing around like this!
“We’ve got something,” Logan announced.
Putting his phone away, he ran down the hallway. Dane followed, Trent right on his heels.
<
br /> “What is it?” Dane demanded. “Did you find her?”
Logan shoved open the metal door to the stairwell and headed down the steps. “No. But we found the man who appears to have been the last person to handle those three missing bodies.”
Dane wasn’t sure what any of that meant for Lexi, but right then, he was willing to take what he could get.
When they reached the basement level, they found two uniformed officers standing beside a nervous-looking hospital employee in a white uniform. The guy was slim with a mustache and beard and curly dark hair.
“This is Jacob Taper,” one of the officers said as they approached. “He an orderly who works in the hospital morgue. He’s responsible for bringing down the bodies from the upper floors and managing them until the attending physician signs off on the necessary paperwork. He also handles most of the transfer paperwork and occasionally transports the bodies to funeral homes or the ME’s office if they can’t pick the bodies up themselves.”
The other officer slanted Taper a hard look. “He also seemed damn eager to leave when he realized what we wanted to talk to him about.”
“I wasn’t eager to leave,” the man protested. “I was heading to dinner, that’s all.”
Logan ignored the man. “Did you read him his rights?”
When the two officers nodded, Logan turned to regard Taper.
“You’re completely within your rights to stand there and say absolutely nothing, Mr. Taper. You may call a lawyer as soon as we’re done booking you.”
The man’s eyes widened. “You’re arresting me? For what? I haven’t done anything!”
Logan continued as if he hadn’t interrupted. “But if you remain silent, or you invoke the right to counsel, then we’ll have no choice but to charge you as an accessory to the doctor’s crimes. Forget all the stuff related to the desecration of a corpse, abuse and illegal transport of a corpse, and black market organ harvesting. That’s chump change compared to the three counts of accessory to murder you’re looking at. Those charges by themselves will put you in prison for life. And if we find out you were involved in the disappearance of a paramedic and a doctor, you might be looking at the death penalty.”