by Lee Taylor
Her nerves exploded, heralding a crisis. From the moment she’d entered the area, her ears had been doing their thing. Trying to stop the blasted clanging, she breathed deeply and forced herself to relax, but her body only revved up even more. Something about that dude’s size and manner made her re-evaluate the earlier situation.
Shit! It couldn’t be! Do I want him so badly I’m hallucinating? Nope, her mind was crystal clear. As strange as it seemed, that man had been Rhondo. She took off at a run down the hospital’s corridors, gun pulled out, and down by her side.
She stopped at the junction in the hallway in time to see the gray sweatshirt disappear around the corner at the far end. Her conscience reminded her to call in for assistance. It irritated the hell of her because even those few seconds would slow her down. Later!
A quick glance told her that no one had noticed anything unusual. At such a late hour, the activity on the ward was minimal. Therefore, to yell for someone to call 911 would have ramped up the situation, not something she wanted to do on a floor full of new mothers and screaming babies.
She hurried to the next corner in time to see the elevator doors close, her suspect smiling evilly at her from inside. Now it was time to call for help.
Slowing down before the ward’s circular desk, she demanded. “Call security!” Her no-nonsense voice told the nurse that she was serious. When suspicion made the older woman hesitate, Aurora pulled her jacket aside to show off her badge. The gun in her hand came into view also. Fumbling with the receiver, the gray-haired lady nodded and finally picked up the phone.
“Tell them to check this elevator and detain anyone wearing a gray sweatshirt. He’s a felon, and he’s dangerous, so warn them to be careful.”
A quick glance at the lights, and she knew she needed to take the stairs. Aware that maternity occupied the fifth floor, Aurora hit the stairs at a dead run, hoping her assumption of him wanting to exit would be correct. That he would choose the parking area as the safest way to leave the building.
Out of breath, with her side sore and body heaving, she slowed when she got to the first parking garage. Carefully, she stepped out and swung her gun in both directions, praying to catch sight of Rhondo making his way to a vehicle.
“Damn it!” No such luck. There were only a few people in sight and no one fit his description. Though she did manage to scare the hell out of an older couple when they came around the corner. This is becoming a habit.
“Did you see anyone running past here? A man wearing a gray sweatshirt?” Her voice sounded agitated due to lack of oxygen.
Neither the gray-haired man nor the overweight woman could talk. Instead, they huddled together and stared at the gun in Aurora’s hand.
She holstered it and said, “Sorry. I’m a detective with the LVPD. There’s a suspect on the loose, and I thought he might have come this way. I guess I was mistaken.” She attempted a smile, and it seemed to do the trick, because the woman stopped crying instantly.
As she turned to go back up the stairs, she heard the older fellow muttering, his voice wavering a great deal. “Scarin’ the hell outta folks, waving a gun around? What’s this world coming to?”
Knowing it would be useless, she did try the bottom lot; it confirmed her suspicion. No sight of any disturbance whatsoever. Disappointment made her cuss in a rather unladylike way.
Finally, she worked her way back to the main floor and approached the area where three security guards were congregated. One was holding a piece of gray clothing in his hand, and the others were wearing disgusted expressions.
The oldest of the three stepped forward, his stomach protruding past the waistband of his navy-blue uniform. “Sorry, Detective. He gave us the slip. We covered the elevator as directed, but after we arrived, a woman exited carrying this.” He held up a gray sweatshirt exactly like the kind Rhondo had been wearing. “She says she found it lying in a heap in the corner and intended to turn it in to the lost and found.”
“Where is she?”
“We’re holding her in the office, in case you have some questions.” The pride in his voice made her aware that he expected some recognition for making the call.
“You were a cop?” In her mind, there was no question at all.
“Yes, ma’am, put in my twenty years. Had to quit. The wife couldn’t take it anymore.”
“It’s our loss.”
“Thanks. Appreciate that.” Walking straighter, he pointed out the room where the woman sat waiting.
Before Aurora left him, she added, “Our suspect’s name is Earl Rhondo. He’s an Elvis freak, about 175 pounds, maybe six feet tall, with short dark hair and dark brown eyes. The dude’s mean and likes to hurt people. This is the sweatshirt he was wearing when I happened upon him in the nursery. When he spotted me, he ran. You got any security tapes I can see, especially of the nursery area?”
“Sure. I’ll get that organized for you pronto.”
“I’ll send someone to pick them up, Mr. uh…?”
“Name’s Bill. Bill Ruele.”
“Right, Bill. Thanks for your help.” She shook his hand and, pulling her phone from her pocket, stopped to make the call that would bring the rest of her team running.
Entering the small space where a short woman about fifty sat waiting, she pulled out a small book and a pen. “Good evening. My name is Detective Aurora Morelli. And you are?”
“Mrs. Alice Chalmers.”
“Mrs. Chalmers, can you tell me what happened earlier?”
“Well, I caught the elevator on the third floor and joined a young man who seemed charming. He pointed to the sweater in the corner and mentioned that someone must have dropped it, but he didn’t have time to take it to the lost and found. I offered, and he gave it to me. Then he got out on the next floor.”
“Do you remember which floor that was?”
“Yes. It was the one before this stop.”
“Did he say anything else?”
“No, but he seemed very nice.”
“What did he look like?”
“A bit like Elvis, when he was a young man. Tall and dark, with brown eyes full of humor, if you know what I mean. Like he had a secret and was laughing inside. It was a bit infectious, I must say.”
The bastard! Anger gathered inside Aurora. If she’d had her punching bag in front of her, she’d have given it a full workout. Once again, her acting ability kicked in, and no one suspected.
“Thank you, ma’am. Can I ask you to wait for a few minutes? An officer will be here shortly and probably have a few more questions. I appreciate your co-operation.”
After motioning for Mrs. Chalmers to be patient, she met her guys in the hallway. Peripheral vision had caught the team meeting up in front of the elevator and striding her way. Sure enough, Ham had arrived at the same time that Kai showed up.
Kai looked perturbed and she knew exactly how he felt. To have been so close had to be eating away at the guy’s mind. “Sorry, Partner. I lost him.” She explained to both what had happened and then asked Ham how he’d gotten there so quickly.
“Drove the lieutenant over to see his son. He’d been raising a glass to the new boyo and couldn’t drive himself.” The grin totally convinced her that Ham had something to do with the celebration. Her raised eyebrow had him confessing, “A few of us took him to the Lookout to buy him a drink. He’s a father. We needed to welcome him to the Daddy Club.”
“You know what? TMI.” She held her hand up in front of the big Irishman, whose face beamed with delight. Succinctly, she described the action that had taken place and asked Ham to get the statement from Mrs. Chalmers and be sure that the security tapes would be delivered to their office as soon as possible.
Then she asked Kai how Wayne had fared.
“He’s better than might be expected. Mind you, he took a horrible beating, but he’d fought so hard Rhondo took pity on him and didn’t rape him. Said he didn’t deserve that because he was a man.”
“I don’t get this dude. I
keep thinking he’s a monster, and then he does something like this. It’s…sick. I should hate him for the beating, and I do. But darned if I can’t help being thankful that he didn’t scar Wayne with the other. Something like that could have affected the rest of his life as a man.”
“True.” The hesitation in Kai’s voice rang clear. So did the anger.
“I have to tell you, when I first saw the male approaching the maternity window to look at the babies, he seemed happy. I only caught a glimpse of his profile, but at first, his strut and smile seemed sort of prideful. Then he changed and started pounding on the glass. I’d wondered if he’d lost a child. I could almost smell his pain.”
Without thinking first, Kai asked, “You didn’t recognize him?” Idiot! He knew she hadn’t, or the prick would be in handcuffs, and they’d be home, relaxing.
Without taking offense, Aurora shook her head. “Not until he hurried away and it dawned me who he was. I could have kicked myself for having missed it.”
“Hey, don’t beat yourself up. You’ve got a lot on your mind.”
“Guess so.” Her sore shoulders slumped as weariness attacked. “First, I’m going to say hi to Deb and see the baby, and then I’m headed home.” She turned to Kai. “You coming?”
“Nope. I was there before Cory arrived. The doctor’s kicked me out of Wayne’s room when Darlene showed up and said there could only be one visitor at a time and family came first, so I went to check on the baby. See you in the morning. Will you pick me up?”
“Sure.”
Wearily, Aurora made her way to Debbie’s suite, and saw Cory passed out and snoring on the daddy’s cot at the far side of the room.
The two girls smiled surreptitiously, knowing that the man deserved to kick loose every so often. And what better time than in celebration of his son’s birth.
The baby lay at his mama’s breast, feeding blissfully. Unaware of the turmoil around her, Debbie seemed to be surrounded by a golden light of joy and comfort. The way it should be. Aurora again felt the stirrings of her secret wishes.
Maybe…one day!
Chapter Twenty
“He’s beautiful, Debbie.”
Pride rang clearly. “I know. Do you want to hold him? He is your godson, after all.”
“Not until you tell me what his name is. I need to think of him as a little person from now on, not as ‘him’ or your baby.”
“We haven’t agreed yet. Cory wants to name him Bubba, but I don’t.”
“Bubba? He’s joking, right?”
“He says not, but his eyes tease. I can only imagine the ragging the boy would get at school one day. I couldn’t let it happen.”
“That, I can understand. What do you want to name him?”
“I always wanted to name a son after my father.” The look she wore didn’t bode well for that choice.
“What was his name?”
“Earl Alexander Jackson.”
“No kidding! Frigging small world. I can see where that might be a bit of a problem.” Aurora angled a grin at the sleeping baby.
“You think? Pisses me off.”
“What was your mother’s name?” Aurora knew Debbie’s mom had passed on the year she’d started on the force in Las Vegas and it had broken the girl up.
“Connie.”
“There you go.”
“Aurora, I figure a boy named Connie might get teased even worse than if his name were Bubba, don’t you?”
“No, silly! Call the kid Con or Conrad. Then you’d have him named after someone you loved. If your dad were alive, I’m sure he’d understand.”
“It’s not my dad I’m worried about.” She glanced over at the noisy lump in the corner. Once again, his clothes were disheveled, his hair stood on end. His overall appearance was so not Cory Ashton.
The baby released Debbie’s breast with a sucking noise that drove a nail straight into Aurora’s nurturing heart. Debbie closed her nightie and re-wrapped the little guy before handing him over.
Aurora waited with her arms ready. Nestling him in close, she kissed the downy red tufts on the top of his head and searched his features.
“Cory says he has my eyes and his chin.” Aurora sensed her friend’s need for her to agree, and she couldn’t refuse the pleading look Debbie didn’t hide.
“Uh-huh. Looks that way.”
Relaxing back against the pillows, Debbie stuttered. “I-I guess I owe you an apology for putting you through hell in the delivery room. I was a bitch.” She hung her head comically.
“Whatever!” Aurora pressed her lips together to stop the smile that so desperately wanted to escape.
“No, I mean it. Rory? I’m sorry.”
“Forget it. After seeing this handsome little munchkin, it was worth putting up with you. Anyway, they figure with plastic surgery my hand will completely recover.”
“Not funny. By the way, I like your hair that way, with the French braids around the front and side and the rest swept up. It’s sexy as hell, and it shows off your perfect bone structure.” Coming from Debbie, the admiration sounded like a sincere compliment, and it touched something sweet inside Aurora. That, of course, made her bristle.
“Quit sucking up. I already accepted your apology.” Little could Aurora admit that her hair appeared to have affected Kai also, if his staring could have been used as a gauge? Getting it hacked off could be considered extreme since it had taken her months to grow it past her shoulders, so controlling the mass seemed the best option.
“Did I mention that Kai dropped in earlier for a few moments just before Cory arrived?” Lying with her shoulders against the blue pillow, Debbie waved her hand at the honkin big teddy bear on the other side of the bed.
“Cory went shopping?”
“Nope. He sent the flowers.” A huge arrangement of red roses was displayed on the side table near a baby’s cot with the blue blankets fold over the side.
Debbie laughed. “Kai must have hit the hospital gift shop. It’s cool!”
“Yeah!” A warm feeling floated from Aurora’s pink-cheeked face to get lost under the collar of her blue shirt. “It is cool.”
“You like?”
“Maybe, but don’t get any ideas. He’s messed up over this Rhondo guy and not thinking clearly.”
“Hell, aren’t we all? Cory’s very fond of Kai, says he’s one of the good guys.”
“They were rookies together, weren’t they?”
“And close friends. Cory told me that Kai lived the good life—had a nice family, a great childhood, and is smart as a whip. Women loved him, and he treated everyone with respect. When his sister died, the bottom dropped out of his world.”
Pain, slicing through Aurora’s insides, made her take a bunch of small breaths and keep her eyes shielded. How horrible to grow up feeling so entitled, and then have your world come crashing down. At least in her case, she’d never expected much and had gotten even less.
If it weren’t for the genes passed down from her stoic father, she’d have buckled years earlier. Either followed the road of least resistance and jumped on the drug circuit—or worse, ended up living as some mean sucker’s plaything.
With her drunken bitch of a mother’s example, always putting her down for being a goodie two-shoes, sometimes it shocked the hell out of her that she’d turned out as well as she had.
Gumption and hard work, together with a don’t-piss-me-off attitude, had helped. Sure, she wore a chip on her shoulder big enough to cover places where there were chinks in her armor, but through it all, she still managed to have some pretty darn good friends.
“Hey, it just dawned on me. How did you get in here so late? You just get off shift?”
“Had a few things to follow up on, and decided to sneak in and check you out. The nurses looked the other way as soon as I flashed the badge.”
“Comes in handy, doesn’t it?” Debbie’s grin said it all.
“Holding this little guy was worth the effort. He’s a real treasure.”
Aurora looked up to see if her friend had any inkling of what had gone down in the hospital that night. The calm expression of a doting mama covered her face, and no hint of worry showed in her eyes.
“Funny thing, the staff seemed perplexed and said they were under the misapprehension that a driver had been assigned to pick me and the little one up. Never mind. Aurora, you look beat. Why don’t you get some shut-eye? I can tell it’s been a wicked day even if you haven’t said anything.”
“Bloody awful.” Aurora handed the precious sleeper over to his mama’s eager arms.
“You know what?” Debbie whispered. “For the first time since I left the department, I don’t even want to know. That dark world seems so far away now, as if it can’t touch me anymore. It feels good.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Aurora arrived early the next morning with a tray of three fancy coffees, and set it down in front of Detectives Hampton and Kai. “Ham, I meant to ask you about that doctor whose office got busted into. Did she have anything interesting to add? Any patients who matched our list of victims?”
“Nah! It took a bit of convincing, but she eventually agreed to check her clients against our list, and there was nothing.”
A monitor in the corner flickered, and Aurora looked at Kai with a questioning stare that didn’t necessitate words.
“They sent over the hospital videos,” he said.
All three settled in to watch. The tapes showed Rhondo walking into the nursery, as if he owned the world.
“That… that putz is strutting. There’s no other word for it.” Kai bit back far worse expletives because he didn’t want to make a fool of himself. With his hands wrapped behind his neck, he stalked to the other end of the room. Exercising control, he breathed deeply and blinked to clear his eyes. No way was he going to let the others see how he felt at the sight of that fucker walking around as a free man.