Nurse Blood (The Organ Harvester Series Book 1)

by Rebecca Besser

  “I don’t know; it will depend on how my day goes.”

  “Okay,” he mumbled, “call me later if you can’t come back.”

  She forced herself to smile.

  “I will,” she said, opening and walking out the door.

  She rushed toward the elevator like she was being chased by something sinister, and, in truth, she was. Her brain was working overtime, taunting her with all the possibilities—few of them good. The likeliness of the authorities still being in the building was high, especially if Miles had made them suspicious.

  She pressed the button beside the elevator door and stepped inside the small box when the doors slid open. After she pushed the button to go up to the next floor, the urge to text Lloyd or Jennings almost overwhelmed her. She knew she couldn’t though, because her hands were shaking too badly to even consider it. Besides that, she wanted to have some kind of solid information before she contacted them.

  When the doors slid open with a ding—which grated on her nerves and made her clench her jaw—she stepped out into the openness of the hallway and looked around.

  The only person she saw was a man that looked like he was in his late twenties or early thirties…in a suit…in the waiting room slightly down the hall. He looked familiar, but didn’t hold her gaze when their eyes met. Something about him bugged her—every hair on her body stood on end with alarm. She felt a strange sense of déjà vu about the man…like they’d met before. She couldn’t place where though.

  Just in case her fears were playing tricks on her, she acted like she was fine and walked away calmly. But once she knew she was out of his sight, she double-timed back to the nurse’s locker room. She collected her stuff out of her locker and wiped down every surface she could ever remember touching.

  Once she looked out the door to make sure the man wasn’t waiting for her in the hallway, she headed out, leaving the building through the main entrance, and circled around to her car parked on the other side of the building close to the ER.

  She didn’t know if she was overreacting, but she was spooked bad enough that she wasn’t going to stay and take any chances. She didn’t want to go to prison.

  After she was driving down the road and she couldn’t see anyone following her, she started to calm down. That’s when she realized why the man was familiar. She’d harvested him in Los Angeles. She remembered because he’d been handsome and she’d actually liked him. That hadn’t happened but a few times.

  “He can’t be alive,” she muttered to herself, frowning.

  They’d definitely killed him.

  She wondered if her stressed-out, overly tired brain had imagined the man. She wondered if she’d panicked and overacted for no reason. She also wondered if she should even mention it to anyone else—they might think she’d gone completely crazy.

  ***

  David got up after he was sure the woman wasn’t coming back and peeked around the corner. He frowned when he noticed she wasn’t anywhere in sight.

  “Damn it,” he said, rushing down the hall.

  No matter which way he turned, or where he looked, he didn’t see her.

  “Damn, damn, damn,” he chanted, trying to find her.

  He pulled out his cell phone and called Croce.

  “She just left the elevator, but I’ve lost her,” he said. “Can you guys see if you can track her? She exited the morgue elevator onto the main floor maybe a minute ago, if that.”

  “We’ll look and I’ll call you if we find her,” she said.

  While he waited, he headed back toward the ER, thinking that if she’d tried to run, she’d head back to her car. She’d entered through the ER, so she had to have parked close-by.

  He was just stepping into the ER lobby when Croce called and opened the door of the security room at the same time.

  “She just left through the main entrance,” Croce said, ending the call on her phone and slipping it into her pocket.

  “You follow her,” David said. “I’m going to head out into the parking lot and see if I can catch her getting into her car.”

  She didn’t ask any questions, but nodded and jogged off down the hall back the way David had come, toward the main entrance of the hospital.

  David continued outside through the automatic ER doors to see a fluff of blonde hair disappear into a blue sedan halfway across the parking lot and three rows to his left.

  He headed in that direction at full speed.

  He wasn’t fast enough.

  The car pulled out of the parking space and then out of the parking lot at the far end before he was even a third of the way to the parking space that had just been vacated. He had a strange sense of déjà vu.

  He’d been in almost the same exact situation before with her, except last time she’d had his brother.

  ***

  Roger smiled to himself when he heard Butch’s truck start; he wanted the bastard gone. He frowned, however, when Jennings came strolling into the building with a scowl on his face.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” the old man scolded.

  Roger rolled his eyes.

  “You’ve made that clear…” he said snidely, “…can we get past it now?”

  Jennings glared at Roger for a few moments and then nodded; he looked around at the setup of the equipment.

  “Everything looks good,” he admitted grudgingly. “You seem to have everything in good order.”

  “Yeah,” Roger said sarcastically. “I’ve done this a time or two.”

  “What’s with you lately?” Jennings asked, crossing his arms over his chest and watching Roger while he put away the few things he’d already unloaded from the truck. “Have you been spending a lot of time with Lloyd? He’s a bad influence…” He shook his head and sighed.

  Roger laughed. “I’m a big boy. I don’t need someone else telling me what to do or what to think. Butch pissed me off. I’m just not in the mood to deal with anyone’s shit today. I’m human. I have bad days too, you know.”

  “Okay,” Jennings said, frowning. “I know we’re all getting tense about everything. The family harvest is tomorrow and having the FBI breathing down our necks isn’t helping any of us relax.”

  Roger nodded and kept doing what he was doing, hoping Jennings would go away.

  “Did you need something?” he finally asked, pausing and looking over at Jennings when the old man remained silent.

  “No, not really,” Jennings said. “I just wanted to see how things were going and I found you two acting like children.”

  With a snicker, Roger turned fully to face the old man.

  “Well, that bastard you hired deserved what he got,” he said.

  “I’ve had about enough of your attitude,” Jennings said with a huff. “You can just burn up some of that negative energy unloading the damn truck and cleaning up at the old building alone.”

  “Fine,” Roger said, shrugged, and resumed what he’d been doing. “Have a nice day.”

  Jennings huffed again, turned, and left the building.

  Roger didn’t look up again until he heard Jennings’ car driving away. He smirked and shook his head. He found all the drama amusing, especially since Jennings didn’t even know he was being played, or that he would soon be dead. Or that they knew he’d put a hit out on Lloyd. If he was a betting man—and sometimes he was—he would bet that Lloyd and Sonya came out on top, and he was glad he’d thrown his lot in with them.

  Steadily, he worked on unloading the truck and setting up and putting away everything as he did so. When he finally looked at his watch, he was shocked to see that it was a little after ten o’clock.

  “Shit!” he exclaimed and picked up his pace, locking up the new building so he could head back over to the old one to clean.

  Chapter Forty

  David was frustrated beyond belief. They’d almost had the woman who’d taken his brother. They had a picture of her. He’d looked her in the face, for crying out loud, and she’d slipped away, right through h
is fingers.

  Croce rounded the corner of the building as he stepped back up on the curb outside the ER.

  “Where is she?” she asked breathlessly, having run the entire way.

  “She got away,” David said flatly. “I saw her get in her car and drive away, but she was too far away for me to get there in time on foot.”

  “Did you get her plate?” Croce asked, half-bent over trying to catch her breath.

  “No,” David said with a sad shake of his head. “She was too far away.”

  “I wonder if the building’s camera got it,” Croce said, standing. “If she’s been working here, surely she has come and gone quite a few times. Now that we know where she normally parked we can have Adam look for her car and get us her plates.”

  “That’s going to take time,” he said, frustrated.

  Croce laughed. “I know, but it will take less time than any of our other options. And we have the medical examiner, unless he was smart enough to slip away as well, which I don’t think he was.” She headed back into the building.

  David followed, heading back to the morgue to ask more questions and make an arrest.

  ***

  Roger was lost in thought as he drove into the abandoned industrial park where the old building was located. He wasn’t paying close attention to anything around him, because he’d never had to before—no one was ever around. But when he saw a police cruiser coming down the street toward him, he was slammed back into reality.

  His heart started pumping double time and his palms began to sweat as he passed them. He didn’t know what to do.

  “Think, think, think,” he muttered to himself under his breath.

  He knew he had to pull some kind of misdirection trick so that if they were watching him, he wouldn’t lead them where he’d been planning to go. If he was lucky, they would just think he was lost and he could head away without them following. He wouldn’t get any cleaning done at the building, but if they didn’t know where to look, it wouldn’t matter.

  The best idea he could come up with in mere seconds was to lead them to a different building and pretended disinterest in the area. He knew that the magnetic sign he’d put on the side of the van that gave a fake mechanical service’s company name and number might be enough for them to think he belonged there or was looking for the address of a client. He thanked his lucky stars he’d driven the team van back over and not the moving truck they’d rented.

  He continued on and pulled into a parking lot half a block down and on the opposite side of the street from the building they’d been using. He used the lot to turn around in and pulled back out onto the street, heading back out of the manufacturing development toward the heart of the city.

  The cop car had pulled off to the curb at the edge of his vision—he could still see them, so he knew they could also see him. Once he passed the cruiser once again, they pulled out behind him.

  “Shit,” he grunted, and tightened his grip on the van’s steering wheel.

  Roger wasn’t sure if they were following him or if they just happened to be in the area for some other reason; they hadn’t tried to pull him over or done anything overtly threatening. He didn’t want to take any chances though. He headed for the busiest section of city that he could think of and thanked his lucky stars, again, that it was close to lunch time; the increased traffic would work in his favor.

  He watched the cruiser behind him as he changed lanes and went through a couple of intersections. They mimicked his every maneuver, which confirmed his fear that he was the target of their curiosity.

  He knew he would have to lose them fast, before they had a chance to call backup and really cause him trouble.

  As he approached the next intersection he slowed down until the light turned yellow, then he changed lanes to get around the car in front of him and gassed it through the light as it turned red. He heard squealing tires and honks all around him, but he didn’t pay attention to them. All he was focused on was the police cruiser following three car lengths behind him that had gotten caught up in traffic.

  Roger took a couple random turns and zig-zagged through the city for a little while before he pulled into a busy grocery store parking lot, removed the mechanical company logos from the sides of the van, and changed out his license plates with a mini-van. After doing so he headed home to call Jennings and let him know that he hadn’t gotten into the building to do any cleaning, and that the local cops seemed to be looking for them. The authorities were getting way too close for comfort. He didn’t like that they had gotten so close to him, even though he’d gotten away…this time.

  ***

  Sonya stopped at a small, out of the way market that had a parking lot in a back alley and changed out her license plates with another vehicle’s. She then headed home to pack her things and get ready to move. She had all her stuff in her car before she stopped to call Lloyd, to get a second opinion and make sure she wasn’t going completely insane. Besides, if she was right, they all needed to watch their asses—Miles had probably been arrested. He knew where she lived, their names, and where they’d been running their operation. She doubted he would be able to keep his mouth shut for long.

  “I should have just killed the bastard,” she mumbled while she was waiting for Lloyd to answer.

  “Now who do you want to kill?” Lloyd asked in an amused tone.

  “Miles,” she snarled. “The FBI was poking around at the hospital today. I just took off and headed home.”

  “What were they looking for? Did they see you?” he asked in a rush. “Did you change out your plates? What do they know about you?”

  “Yes, yes,” she said, rubbing her forehead and closing her eyes, “I changed out my plates on the way home. I’m really freaked out. And slow down, I’m only getting about half your questions.”

  “Are you being followed?”

  “Definitely not,” she said, “but they probably have Miles and possibly my work records with my address. I’ve packed my stuff and it’s in my car.”

  “Burn down your house,” he said, “and meet me across town—you know where.”

  “Are you sure that’s necessary?” she asked, looking at her house.

  “Yes,” he said. “Hurry!”

  Chapter Forty-One

  With a bolo alert out on the woman’s license plates and Miles in custody, McCoy and Croce were on their way back to the FBI office when David received a call from Detective Jones.

  “Hello?” he said, hoping for good news.

  “A patrol car spotted someone driving around one of the abandoned manufacturing districts,” Detective Jones said. “The vehicle—a white van—had decals for a mechanical company that didn’t pan out in an internet search. They followed the vehicle, but got separated in traffic. It’s the only occurrence, so I thought I should relay the information to you. A patrol is currently searching around the buildings in that district. The buildings are only five miles from where Housen’s car was found.”

  “Did they get the license plate?” he asked. “Are you checking for the vehicle on traffic cams throughout the city?”

  “They did and we are,” Jones assured him. “But we haven’t found anything yet.”

  “Text me directions to where the vehicle was seen,” he said. “We’ll head over there.”

  “I’ll send it your way in just a second,” Jones said, and they ended the call.

  “What’s going on?” Croce said, glancing sideways at him.

  “One of the patrols spotted a vehicle at an abandoned manufacturing district five miles from where Housen was taken—they lost it in traffic.”

  “Damn,” Croce said. “Do you need me to drop you there? Or do you want to wait until we get back to the field office—I can take care of him,” she nodded to the backseat, “and you can take the car, if you want.”

  “Yeah, we’ll do that,” he said. “I have to wait for Detective Jones to send me the address anyhow.”

  Croce sped up so they would make it
to the office sooner.

  David’s phone received the text from Jones just as they were pulling into the parking lot. After they’d parked, he helped get Miles, all the files they’d brought from his morgue, and the nurse’s—Sonya’s—employee file from the hospital into the building.

  Before he headed out to where they’d seen the vehicle earlier that day, he texted Detective Jones the Sonya-woman’s supposed home address, asking her to send someone over to pick her up. He knew Croce was going to be sending someone too, since they’d discussed it briefly at the hospital when they’d gotten her employee file.

  The entire stop took fifteen minutes and he was cursing every damn one of them.

  ***

  Roger drove straight back to his house, and once he was safely inside, he called Jennings.

  “Cops showed up when I went back to clean,” he said as soon as the old man answered. “They followed me, but I lost them in traffic.”

  “Did you get a chance to clean anything?” Jennings asked.

  “No,” Roger said, and sighed. “I didn’t even get out of the van. They were cruising the area, I spotted them, and turned around in a different parking lot. They followed me as I headed back into the city, but I lost them.”

  Jennings sighed. “You did great, but this is the last thing we need today…the FBI was sniffing around the hospital where Sonya worked and they more than likely have Miles in custody.”

  “What?” Roger exclaimed. “They were at the hospital today? Do you think we should cancel the harvest tomorrow?”

  “I’m not too concerned—we’ll probably be long gone before the authorities figure out enough to do anything about it. We’ll proceed as planned.”

  “Okay…” Roger said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I guess.”

  They confirmed the time Roger and Butch would need to be at Jan’s house for the “move” and then ended the call.