Storm

by Lagomarsino, Giulia

  “That’s what Sean is going to find out,” Sebastian said as he looked at his phone. He typed out something and then looked back to me. “Sean’s on his way up. We should find out some more in just a few minutes.”

  Five minutes later, Sean was going over government bureaucracy that was holding up the process of getting answers.

  “Frankly, there are a lot of bodies that we need to identify. Families need to be notified. We have to go through all those files and find out exactly what happened at the facility, but the fact that we collected jars of brain matter and-”

  “What?” I interrupted, baffled by what he just said. “What did you find?”

  Sean looked wide eyed at Sebastian and then back to me. “Uh, it appears that the doctors were doing testing on patients down there. There are notes and body parts that are labeled. All of that has to be processed and then thoroughly investigated.”

  “So, what you’re saying is that this is going to take a long time.”

  “What I’m saying is that I wouldn’t hold your breath on finding out what happened there. It’s probably going to take years to go over everything. And there are a lot of family members to interview. But since most of the people that would have been held responsible are dead, I’m not sure that you’ll ever find out exactly what you’re looking for.”

  I sat back in my chair, disappointed as hell that this was all for nothing. And on top of that, I was still considered an escaped patient from the clinic. The only reason that I wasn’t locked up again was because Sean was friends with Sebastian and he had conveniently forgotten that I was even around.

  “On a different note, two days ago we received a flash drive from Dr. Abner’s widow. Apparently, he had hidden it in a safety deposit box that she was to receive in the event of his death. We’ve only started going through it, but it appears that Dr. Abner was collecting evidence for the past year.”

  “Does that mean…”

  “It means that we have names of doctors and what crimes they were committing at the clinic. The police are on their way over now to make arrests.”

  “But what does that mean for me? They’ve labeled me as an escaped mental patient. How do I move on with my life if I can’t even leave this facility?”

  “I took care of that before I came over. I’ve called the clinic and sorted it all out.”

  “How?”

  “Basically, I pretended that I had a lot more authority than I do and I threatened them,” Sean grinned.

  “Wow. Isn’t that illegal though? Can’t you get in trouble for that?”

  “I would say that they’re in enough trouble and they’re not going to be making any waves over this. Besides, I’m friends with Sebastian. Did you really think I was a saint?”

  “Thanks, man.” Cap nodded sarcastically.

  “Any time. One last thing that I know will make you extremely happy.”

  I was practically sitting on the edge of my seat as I waited for the good news.

  “We were able to trace the phone call that you received a week ago. His name is Dr. Adam Schiller. He’s the grandson of one of the doctors from the asylum. His father worked at Brookdale and is caught up in this whole scandal.”

  “Was he involved?”

  “From what we can tell from the flash drive, he had nothing to do with what happened at the clinic.”

  I was confused. “Then why was he threatening me?”

  “We brought him in for questioning yesterday after the flash drive arrived and asked him that very question. He didn’t answer at first, but when we told him about the evidence we had, he didn’t hold back much. And as sad as it is, the only reason he called you was because he was trying to save his family’s reputation. His father was the one behind you being taken to the clinic. He knew that Dr. Abner was working with you and he was trying to prevent a scandal from happening. Dr. Schiller knew that if the scandal at the clinic got out, he would most likely lose his medical license.”

  “So, he threatened Jessica, hoping that she would back off,” Storm concluded.

  “It didn’t matter. He didn’t know about the flash drive. He would have been taken down with or without Jessica cooperating.”

  “So, it’s over? No one’s after me?”

  “I think I can safely say that you’re in the clear,” Sean grinned. “With those doctors being arrested, they’ll be more concerned with finding the right lawyer than shutting you up. There’s too much other evidence. You’re basically a secondary witness at this point.”

  I smiled and tucked my hand in Storm’s. It was all over. I could live my life again. I would never go looking for anything like this again. Maggie could have her fun digging for answers to the unexplained, but my time as a detective was officially over.

  “So, that about concludes all the information I have to share. I would suggest at this time that you don’t wait around for further information, because it’s not coming any time soon. What are you doing with the property?”

  “Well, I heard that there was some kind of thumb war to win the property from me, so I was kind of thinking I would see if I could catch the second showing of that,” I shrugged.

  “It’s going to be a while before the house is released from the department as a crime scene.”

  “I guess I’ll just have to stay at the hotel in town.”

  “Bullshit,” Storm said from beside me. “You can stay with me. Besides, these are really good beds and the pillows are fantastic.”

  “You can thank Chance for that,” Sebastian said. “I swear, the man could retire and make his millions selling beds and pillows.”

  “Are you sure you’re okay with that? Isn’t that like…making things official?”

  Storm wiggled uncomfortably. “Well, I mean, as long as you realize that it’s just temporary.”

  “Nice,” Sebastian said, nodding his head and grinning. “Way to smooth that over.”

  “Hey, I never said I was pussy whipped like the rest of you.” Storm shot me an apologetic smile. “Sorry, but-”

  “We’re not there yet. You don’t have to explain things to me. I was feeling a little wiggly myself.” Turning to Sean, “Is it okay if I go back to the asylum and grab a few things? Just clothes and toiletries.”

  He looked at his watch and grimaced. “The guys are gonna be gone already. Technically, I shouldn’t let you back on the property, but as long as you have Storm with you, it should be fine.”

  “Thanks.”

  We were just walking out of the conference room when Becky stopped Storm. She was looking at me funny, so I moved further away, thinking that maybe she didn’t want me to overhear. It looked like a pretty heated discussion and Storm didn’t look too happy when he caught up with me.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “We’ll talk when we get back.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Elsie

  I turned out the lights and made my way to the bedroom. Turning on the nightstand lamp, I sat on my bed and picked up my wedding picture that sat framed next to my bed. I kissed the picture like I did every night since the night I lost Samuel.

  The phone rang in the other room, so I placed the frame back on the nightstand and headed into the other room. It had to be a prank phone call. I didn’t know anyone that would call me at ten o’clock at night.

  “Hello?”

  “Elsie, it’s Matthew.”

  “Matthew, it’s so good to hear from you. What are you doing calling at this hour?”

  “There’s a woman that came to town that you know. Her name is Jessica Finley.”

  “Wallace’s granddaughter. Yes, I’ve met her. Why are you calling about her?”

  “You need to get her protected. Someone’s after her.”

  “But I-”

  “Just do it. Now.”

  He hung up before I could say anything else. I quickly went to my drawer and pulled out the number I had been given and dialed. The phone rang and rang, but no one answered. I hung up and tr
ied again. He answered on the third ring.

  “Who is this?”

  “It’s Elsie. Jessica’s in danger. You need to get to her.”

  “Do you know who’s after her?”

  “No, I just received a phone call from an old friend in the FBI, but he hung before I could get any answers.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  I hung up the phone and pressed my fingers to my lips. I hoped that he could save her. I didn’t think I could take another loss from that family.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

  Storm

  We drove over to her house in silence. What Becky had told me…it was bad. And now I had to figure out how to tell Jessica. We pulled into the estate and I parked in front of the house. It only took Jessica about five minutes to grab her stuff, and since I was there, I grabbed a few things of my own. But, I should have been paying attention. I was distracted, thinking about all the different ways I could bring up the subject. If I had been alert, I would have seen the man standing out by a pickup truck with a gun pointed at us.

  “Stop right there.”

  My head jerked up and I immediately stepped in front of Jessica to protect her. The man looked like he was around sixty, in shape, and obviously knew how to handle a weapon. He was government trained, if I had to guess.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “You can call me Agent Schneider. Do you know who I am?”

  “No.” But based on what I just found out, I had a feeling I knew why this guy was here.

  “For the last twenty years, I’ve worked for the FBI on human trafficking cases. I had a good partner too. One that worked up the ranks and eventually became my boss. But he was killed last year, and now it just so happens that I have one of the men that did it.”

  Jessica gasped from behind me and gripped onto my shirt. Now wasn’t the time to pull my gun and start shooting. I had to try and talk this guy down. Besides, my gun was tucked away, while his was already pulled and aimed at me.

  “I didn’t kill your boss and neither did my teammates. Your boss was killed by someone that was setting him up to take the fall.”

  “Don’t give me that bullshit!” he shouted. His face was red with anger, but his arm was steady. If I made a move, I wouldn’t stand a chance. “He was killed because your teammates broke into his apartment and beat the shit out of him while he was tied to a fucking chair! He might have actually escaped if you hadn’t done that shit to him!”

  “What is he talking about?” Jessica asked from behind me.

  I glanced over my shoulder out of the corner of my eye and saw that Jessica was still hiding behind me, but was trying to work her way out from behind.

  “I’m talking about someone that meant a lot to me, sweetheart,” Agent Schneider said. “I’m talking about someone that should have meant a lot to you.”

  My eyes slid closed as Jessica stepped around me and started advancing on the man. I grabbed her by the arm and hauled her next to me.

  “What are you talking about? Who should have meant a lot to me?”

  “Agent Finley. Your father.”

  It dropped like a fucking bombshell all around me. I felt Jessica stiffen next to me, but I held her tight. I couldn’t allow her to go to this guy. He was a loose cannon.

  “You know who my father is?” The man nodded. “How is that possible? I don’t even know who he is. And how do you know me?”

  He shook his head sadly and lowered his weapons slightly, for that I was grateful. “He didn’t know about you. Your mom never told him.”

  Jessica shook her head next to me and barely looked at me out of the corner of her eye as she tried to process what she was being told.

  “Back when your dad was dating your mom, he was so fucking in love with her. But one day, she told him to leave her alone and never come back. He never knew why, but he never got over her. Even years later, he still talked about her. One day, he looked her up and found out that she had died a few years before. If he had known about you, he would have gone to find you.”

  “But how did you find out about me then?”

  “Someone ran a search on you, and it turned out that your DNA was a match to your father’s. See, after he died, I set up an alert system for any searches on him or related to him. I didn’t believe his case was closed. Turns out, it was just a few weeks ago that the search was run.”

  Jessica turned to me, confusion in her eyes, and shook her head. “I don’t understand. What’s going on?”

  I turned to her, but kept an eye on Agent Schneider. I didn’t trust him not to shoot me. “When you were taken to the clinic, I was trying to find out why someone would have you committed. I figured that it had something to do with whatever you were looking for, but I didn’t have the slightest clue what that was. I figured that maybe your family knew something about it. I had Becky run a DNA check on you to find any family that might be in the system.”

  “But how did you do that?”

  “Your hair. Remember you brought me the hair that day that you said someone was in the room with you.”

  “Okay, I’m going to skip over the fact that you kept a clump of my hair. That’s just creepy. When did you find out about this?”

  “Right before we came over here. I swear, I was going to tell you about our connection to your father, but I didn’t want to do it while we were driving.”

  She looked at me intently. “Why was your team after him? Why did they attack him?”

  “Tell her, you pussy. Tell her how you killed my partner in cold blood.”

  I glanced at Agent Schneider again, not really wanting to discuss this in front of him, but I knew I had to tell her.

  “We were working on breaking up a human trafficking ring. Well, shit, it’s such a long story. Basically, someone we never suspected set up your dad to make it look like he was helping traffic women and children. The night we went to talk to him-”

  “Kill him,” Schneider interrupted.

  I bit my tongue and took a deep breath. “The night we went to see him, Chance’s girlfriend, Morgan, was taken. But we thought she had died in a house fire. Chief, the man who set your dad up, had been feeding us information about your dad, but we never suspected Chief. He used to be one of us. He was former military. We just didn’t think…”

  She was staring at me, trying to understand. This wasn’t something you explained in three minutes.

  “Chance took off to find your dad and get answers. He thought that your dad was responsible for Morgan being caught up with the human trafficking ring. Some of the other guys followed him to keep him from killing him. Yeah, they beat the shit out of him, trying to get answers.”

  “They shoved a fucking knife in his leg and in his shoulder,” Schneider shouted. “Is that how former military does it? Is that how you handle things with honor?”

  Jessica watched him for a second and then turned her attention to me again.

  “Before we could get anything out of him, he was shot, by a team hired by the man that betrayed us. It was meant to look like your dad was a snitch. He was being taken out before he could say anything.”

  “But he wasn’t working with human trafficking,” Jessica said.

  “No, he was a good man. I swear to God, Jessica, Chance was out of his mind with grief and he wanted answers. He never would have done that if he wasn’t fucked up inside.”

  I prayed that she would believe me, but this was her father we were talking about. He was taken away before she could ever meet him. What were the chances that she would believe me?

  “Don’t believe him,” Schneider snarled. “His team killed your father whether they did it themselves or not. He was shot because they went after him.”

  “Jessica, please believe me,” I pleaded.

  She slowly turned to me, and she nodded slightly. “I believe you.”

  “What? Don’t do this, Jessica.”

  “Stop,” I yelled at Schneider. “She doesn’t need this. She’s never m
et her father and now you’re trying to turn this into something it’s not. We never meant for him to be killed.”

  “Don’t you dare fucking say that to me!” I saw his finger move and time stopped. I shoved Jessica to the ground and dove just as a shot was fired. I never made it to cover her. Pain coursed through my right shoulder, my shooting shoulder. I fumbled to get my gun, but the grip was facing to the right. Agent Schneider walked up to me, kicking dust in my face and pointed his gun at my head.

  “On your knees.”

  I glanced at Jessica and shook my head just slightly, hoping she would get the hint to stay on the fucking ground.

  “Now!”

  Moving slowly, I got to my knees. Jessica went to stand, but I glared at her. “Don’t.”

  “Agent Schneider,” she pleaded. “If you really were friends with my father, you would know that this is not the way to avenge him. Killing a man that wasn’t even there isn’t going to make this better.”

  “I should fucking kill you too. He was your father and you’re standing with this guy? Finley was a good man and he at least deserved a daughter that believed in him.”

  “I didn’t know him,” she stressed. “I’ve never met the man and you’re asking me to ignore a man that’s been good to me because you came here and held a gun on us and told me what you think I should know. Don’t you see that it can’t work that way? If you want to talk about this, then let’s sit down and have a discussion.”

  “With him whispering in your ear about how it’s all lies? They were behind him being killed!”

  Jessica continued to plead with him and I took the opportunity to slip my left hand behind my back as discreetly as possible. I couldn’t grip the gun without torquing my shoulder and making it obvious what I was doing. I was just about to go for it and use the distraction to my advantage when he thrust the gun against my head and his finger moved to the trigger.

  “No!” Jessica screamed. But this was in my favor. He was stupid enough in his rage to come close to me. I could grab his weapon. Better to be close to the gun than further away with no way to grab the gun, but close enough for a kill shot. His finger started to squeeze the trigger. I flung my hands up, smashing my right hand into the back of his right as I used my left hand to shove the gun away from my face. He pulled the trigger and I felt the breeze of the bullet as it just barely missed my skull.