Nurse Blood (The Organ Harvester Series Book 1)

by Rebecca Besser

  Jack sighed. “Fine, don’t tell me.”

  “Light’s on,” Roger said, nodding toward the house and writing in a notebook.

  “The time is exactly 5:03 AM,” Jack said, looking at his watch. “That’s probably the mom, considering it’s too early for the kids to be getting ready for school.” He turned his head slightly and looked at Roger, who was again watching the house. “So, is she good in bed?”

  Roger’s head spun in Jack’s direction and he stared at him for a long moment.

  “As if it’s any of your business,” he snarled. “I’ve never had sex with Sonya, and I don’t ever plan to. I slept on her couch.”

  “Whatever ya say, man,” Jack retorted.

  Roger opened his mouth to set Jack straight once and for all, when the door of the house opened and a woman in a robe stepped out to retrieve the newspaper from the stone steps leading to the front door.

  He quickly turned his attention back to the task at hand, jotting down the action in his notebook.

  “Time?” he snapped.

  “Uh, 5:09 AM,” Jack said, glancing at his watch again. “Couch, huh? She shut ya down…maybe threaten to stab ya in the balls or somethin’?”

  “For fuck’s sake!” Roger screamed. “I’m not interested in Sonya. Besides, she and…” He stopped short and shook his head.

  Jack looked at him and raised an eyebrow in question. “She and…what?”

  “Nothing,” Roger barked. “Just leave it alone.”

  “Fine,” Jack mumbled, and wiggled around in the driver’s seat of the van, trying to get more comfortable. “What do ya want to talk about then?”

  “Nothing,” Roger said.

  “Fine,” Jack mumbled again.

  They sat quietly for a few minutes before Jack broke the silence.

  “So, are ya gonna help with this one or sit it out?” he asked.

  “I’m going to help,” Roger said, watching the neighborhood come to life.

  “What changed your mind?” Jack asked. “Ya seemed pretty against it yesterday.”

  Roger shrugged.

  “Did Sonya convince ya to do it?” Jack asked. “She had ya chained up in her basement all night, didn’t she? Threatenin’ to torture ya ’til ya agreed?”

  Roger laughed, nearly doubling over in the passenger’s seat with mirth. “No. Damn, you need get your mind on another subject.”

  Jack shook his head. “Why did ya change your mind then?”

  “Let’s just say that I’m seeing things beyond my own concerns,” Roger said, and sighed. “The reasons to do it are greater than the reasons not to.”

  Jack turned and stared at Roger’s profile for a few moments, wondering what was really going on. The group of people he was working with were a tight-knit, confusing group of people; it didn’t help that they’d been working together for years and were as close to each other as family members. He felt like an interloper at times, unsure of what was going on, because the surface actions didn’t always show what was truly going on between them. The secrets around Sonya disturbed him the most; it seemed like Roger and Jennings did nothing but indulge her every whim, and he didn’t understand why they catered to the sadistic bitch. After all, neither man seemed the slightest bit scared of her.

  Sighing heavily and shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the house they were watching, and to the comings and goings of the people all around them.

  They watched the residence with persistent concentration, making note of when each light turned on, and when the family left the house for school. They all piled into a sedan and the mother drove the three children to school and returned home; the two girls—who seemed to be fraternal twins—went to a middle school, and the boy an elementary school.

  Roger kept track of everything, writing down the names of the schools, the exact times the children were dropped off, and the street names along the route they took to each. He didn’t know what the plan was going to be, so he wanted to make sure he had all the information Jennings might want.

  “How long do we have to do this?” Jack asked, wiggling in his seat again. “I’m gettin’ tired of sittin’.”

  “Not sure,” Roger said. “We usually don’t do stake outs. I’ll call Jennings and see if he wants us to get a full twenty-four hours.”

  “What the hell?” Jack exclaimed as Roger extracted his cell phone from his pocket. He paused before dialing, looking at Jack quizzically. “I gotta take a dump, and I’m hungry.”

  Roger laughed. “If you need some down time, I can do this alone for a while, and then you can come back and give me a break. But let’s find out if we need to stay a full twenty-four hours first.”

  Jack grunted and nodded while Roger dialed Jennings’ number.

  “No answer,” Roger said a few moments later as he ended the call. “Look, if you want a break, I think it’s safe for us to leave for a few minutes. You can take me to Sonya’s and drop me off so I can get my truck, or we’ll go to your place and I’ll take the van and come back.”

  “We’ll go to my place and ya can have the van,” Jack said, shifting in his seat again—leaning forward and turning the key in the ignition; the van motor came to life.

  Just as he was ready to pull out into the street, the woman—the late Bill’s wife—came out of the house and climbed into her car.

  “Shit!” he exclaimed. “How am I supposed to take a dump with that damn woman interruptin’?”

  Roger chuckled and shook his head. “I guess you’ll have to hold it a little longer…unless, of course, she goes somewhere close to your house.”

  “I can hope,” Jack muttered, pulling out of the curbside parking space they’d been using for hours.

  Jack’s hopes of returning home were smashed when the woman headed in the opposite direction than where he lived.

  “Bitch!” he barked, and continued to follow her car.

  “It’s not her fault…she doesn’t know we’re watching her,” Roger said, amused by the whole situation.

  “Don’t ya have to go to the bathroom?” Jack asked.

  “Yes,” Roger said, “but apparently not as badly as you. Let’s hope she stops somewhere we can both use the restroom.”

  Luckily for them both, the woman stopped at a grocery store.

  “Oh, thank God!” Jack exclaimed, practically jumping out of the van and rushing into the store—Roger followed close behind. “Food and a bathroom.”

  Roger laughed.

  Upon entering the store, Roger was pleased to see that the woman had gotten a cart and was heading off down an aisle with a long list; her shopping would give them the time they needed.

  The men quickly found the bathroom and relieved themselves. When they came out, they separated and browsed through various aisles, keeping an eye on the woman, but making sure to steer clear of her. They also made sure to check out before she was done, so she wouldn’t take more than a passing notice of them. They were waiting in the van when she came out twenty minutes later.

  “Still want to go home?” Roger asked as they followed the sedan out of the parking lot.

  “Nope,” Jack mumbled around a bite of candy bar. “I’m good now.”

  Roger laughed. “Okay, I’ll try calling Jennings again anyway.”

  Jack nodded, concentrating on traffic as he shoved the rest of his snack into his mouth and threw the empty wrapper behind his seat.

  Roger glared at Jack, but said nothing as he pulled out his phone to call Jennings—he answered on the second ring.

  “Hey, did you want us to watch the house for a full twenty-four hours?” Roger asked, getting right to the point.

  “Just until eight,” Jennings said. “We’ll meet at eight-thirty to go over the info you collect.”

  “All right—we’ll see you then.” He hung up.

  “We don’t need to watch for a full twenty-four hours, just until eight PM.”

  “Why eight?” Jack asked, checking his blind spot and changing lanes to ke
ep up with the woman in the traffic.

  “Because we’re having a meeting at eight-thirty.”

  “That makes sense.”

  “I’ll text Sonya and let her know—I think she’s still at work,” Roger said, focusing his attention on his phone. They were very careful when they sent texts about meetings and business, keeping them as brief and vague as possible.

  They followed the woman while she ran a few more errands, and back to her house.

  “She doesn’t seem to be grievin’ all that much,” Jack said. “Ya’d think she’d be more upset that her husband is gone.”

  Roger laughed. “Maybe she doesn’t know yet. I mean, if he traveled for work on a regular basis, she might not know there’s anything wrong yet. You just think she should be upset because you know her husband’s dead.”

  “True,” Jack said thoughtfully. “I didn’t think of it that way.”

  “I wonder if we can get this done without them ever knowing,” Roger said. “That would save the family some trauma.”

  “I don’t really care as long as I’m makin’ money,” Jack said.

  “I’m well aware of that fact,” Roger said, and yawned. “I’m going to try to take a nap—wake me if you get tired or if something else happens.”

  “Didn’t get much sleep last night?” Jack teased.

  Roger paused as he reached for the handle to recline his seat and looked at Jack.

  “Don’t even start that bullshit again,” he snarled.

  Jack put his hands up in supplication. “Sorry. Have a nice nap. Geez.”

  Roger laid back, closed his eyes, and soon drifted off to sleep.

  Jack watched the house for hours, waking Roger when the woman left to pick the kids up from school. After they returned home, nothing eventful happened, and soon it was time to head to the building for the meeting.

  ***

  Agent McCoy was back at work bright and early the next morning. He’d barely slept; his mind had been too busy trying to process everything he’d learned and the possibilities of what he didn’t know. Despite his lack of rest, he was energized. He handled his current caseload at the bureau while he continued to do research.

  Toward the afternoon, he found more case files that matched his search specs in Nashville, Tennessee. And they were more recent. The most recent one was a month old.

  In a mad fit of excitement, he rushed to Agent Harmon’s office to give him the news and nearly collided with him as he came out the door on his way home for the day.

  “Sorry,” Agent McCoy said, “I just found case files that match the other missing person cases I have.”

  Agent Harmon sighed and asked, “Where?”

  “Nashville, Tennessee and they’re only a month old!”

  Harmon’s annoyance at being held up when he wanted to leave evaporated. “Really? That’s recent. How are your other cases going?”

  McCoy frowned. “My other cases?”

  “Yes, your other cases,” Agent Harmon said, folding his arms and waiting for an answer. “How are your other cases going?”

  “You said if I found more compelling evidence you would let me investigate it full time, so why are you asking me about my other cases? Are you going back on your word?”

  Agent Harmon stared at McCoy for a couple moments before his lips curled into a smile and he unfolded his arms.

  “I’m not going back on my word,” he said, putting a hand on McCoy’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “I need to know how your other cases are going so I know how to reassign them while you go to Tennessee and check out this fresh lead.”

  “Oh,” Agent McCoy said, and the muscles of his body relaxed as a half-smile spread across his face.

  Harmon removed his hand from McCoy’s shoulder and opened the door to his office, going back in.

  “Come on,” he called over his shoulder to McCoy. “Let’s get this all ironed out so you can get going sometime tomorrow.”

  David sighed with relief and rushed in behind his boss to have the most important discussion of his life.

  ***

  Jennings and Lloyd were talking when Roger and Jack arrived at the meeting room.

  Jennings nodded to them and laughed at something Lloyd said.

  “We’re just waiting for Sonya. When she arrives, we’ll get started,” he called out to them as they took seats in the decaying metal folding chairs.

  Roger nodded and yawned; he was still tired, even after his nap. Truth be told, he hadn’t slept much at all on Sonya’s couch. They’d talked over supper and then she’d gone to bed, leaving him in the living room with a pillow and blanket. The little spans of sleep he had gotten were plagued by nightmares and glimpses of his past—some of them entwined with what Sonya had shared with him of her memories.

  Jack joined in the conversation with Lloyd and Jennings—something about a TV show or a sporting event—but Roger wasn’t interested, so he closed his eyes and tried to sneak in another nap before the meeting.

  Minutes later, Sonya walked in. The three men participating in the animated conversation paid little attention to her. She put her hand on Roger’s shoulder and squeezed gently, bringing him fully back to reality with a jolt.

  He jumped and looked up at her, smiling faintly.

  “You look tired,” he muttered.

  “I didn’t sleep much and work was hell,” she said. “You look tired too. Didn’t my couch agree with you?”

  Roger laughed. “It wasn’t the couch that wouldn’t allow me to sleep.”

  Sonya nodded.

  “Okay, since Sonya’s here, we’ll get down to business,” Jennings said, standing and moving to the front of the small group. “What did you two find out today?” He looked at Jack and Roger. “Did you get a feel for the family? Schools? The stores they shop in? Anything?”

  Roger leaned forward and extracted a folded sheet of paper from the back pocket of his jeans; he handed it to Jennings as he sat back.

  “That’s the times they did things, the names of the schools, the route they took to each, and anything else you might want to know,” he said.

  Jennings read over it and handed it to Sonya.

  “Do you know where that store is? Or any of the other places she stopped?” he asked her.

  She nodded. “Yeah, I know where these places are.”

  “Good. I want you to befriend the woman,” Jennings said.

  Sonya’s head snapped up and she stared at Jennings for a moment.

  “What?”

  “I was thinking about it last night and I’ve decided the best way for us to get close to the family is for you to befriend the woman.”

  “When am I supposed to have time to do that?” Sonya asked. “Between work and doing this, I’m pretty much tapped out.”

  “Find time,” Jennings said. “It’s not like you have to spend every waking moment with her or anything, just become her friend. Hell, talk to her on the phone once in a while, do what women do.”

  Sonya sat back with a scowl on her face.

  Jennings waited for a couple of minutes, watching her—the rest of the room was completely silent, caught up on the edge of tension between the two.

  “Are you going to do it?” Jennings finally asked, ending the standoff.

  “If I have to,” she snarled. “I’m doing it under protest though.”

  “She’s about as grumpy as Roger was today,” Jack mumbled under his breath to Lloyd. “I think they were up all night bangin’ each other, but Roger denies it.”

  “What?” Lloyd practically screamed.

  Everyone turned to look at him with shocked expressions on their faces.

  “Um, er…” Jack sputtered. “He spent the night at her house…”

  Lloyd stood and glared at Roger.

  “You stayed at Sonya’s? Why?” he asked in a heated tone.

  Roger got swiftly to his feet, holding his hands up in front of himself.

  “It’s not what you think,” he said. “I slept on the
couch. Nothing happened.”

  Lloyd punched Roger in the face, sending him sprawling to the cement floor—chairs clattered and screeched as he bumped them on the way down.

  “Lloyd!” Sonya screamed, charging forward, getting between the two men. “I can explain.”

  “Please do!” Lloyd yelled. “Or else I’m going to kill the bastard here and now!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Jennings stepped forward and stood behind Sonya, further blocking Lloyd’s access to Roger.

  “Go get yourself cleaned up,” he said over his shoulder to the injured man, who now had blood running down his chin.

  “Lloyd, nothing happened,” Sonya cried, stepping forward to cup his face in her hands.

  At first he fought the contact, but eventually gave in.

  “Why did he stay at your house then?” he asked, still tense and ready to lash out.

  Sonya sighed and glanced at Jack, and then over her shoulder to Jennings.

  “Let’s go outside and talk,” she said, nodding toward the door and taking one of his clenched fists in her hand.

  He looked at her for a moment, finally let his hand relax, and twined his fingers with hers. He nodded.

  They silently left the room, heading for the exit of the building.

  “Lloyd is fuckin’ Sonya?” Jack asked as soon as he was sure they were out of earshot, standing up from his chair with a bewildered expression on his face. “That little, skinny punk? What the hell does she see in him?”

  “You really aren’t that bright, are you?” Jennings asked, shaking his head. “Don’t underestimate Lloyd. He’s as crazy, if not crazier, than she is. They’re both deadly and you’ve just pissed them off. I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes right now.” He chuckled.

  “How was I supposed to know?” Jack reasoned, dragging his hands through his hair. “No one told me.”

  Jennings shook his head again. “Some things aren’t meant to be shared without cause or thought. Sonya and Lloyd’s previous relationship was mutually intense, but they split—I wasn’t sure they were back together until now. She didn’t even know he was coming to help us, but apparently they wasted no time taking up where they’d left off.”