EMBRYO 5: SILVER GIRL (EMBRYO: A Raney & Levine Thriller)

by J. A. Schneider

  She’d need a taller one…

  She tossed her cup back just as her phone chirped.

  JUST GOT CALLED FOR C-SECTION, ARENDER’S YOURS, XO, read David’s text.

  Jill bit her lip. I’m lead, she told herself. Back to unafraid, that kid with the knife was just a bad moment.

  But her hands were cold.

  She sucked in another deep breath, squared her shoulders, and headed for the elevators.

  34

  The cop outside the room nodded as Jill entered, carrying ice cubes in a tall paper cup, quick-scanning the roller gauze around Jay Arender’s head, the tubes and wires hooking him up to an IV and a beeping monitor.

  His face was averted, and his eyes seemed to be closed. She went to the monitor – a low, annoying beep beep - and turned off its sound.

  She didn’t want him to hear it.

  Slowly, as if it hurt, he turned his head on the pillow. Looked at her from under narrowed, puffy lids. One of his eyes was black and blue, and he was unshaven. He was a mess - unrecognizable from the cocksure, Oxford-collared lawyer of two days before. His arm not stuck with IV tubing was under the blanket, plastic-cuffed to the rail.

  “How can you stand that beeping?” Jill said casually. Start on friendly-neutral.

  “Can’t,” he rasped. He hadn’t used his voice much. Kept watching warily as she dumped her ice cubes into a pitcher on his bed table, then refreshed his water glass.

  “Twist of lemon?” she asked sweetly.

  “No.” Sullen, but she smiled at him. See how nice I am?

  “Why are you here?” he snarled low, kept watching her.

  “To see how you’re doing,” she said even more sweetly. “Sorry I bashed you.”

  She helped him drink through a bent straw. Watched him swallow, then put his glass back down on the table. No thank you from last night’s assailant who could have killed David. Arender’s face grew expressionless, like a mask. Behind his head, his blood pressure was a normal 124/80 on the silent monitor.

  He didn’t see her eyes flick to it.

  “Sorry about the crowbar,” he said begrudgingly, as if politesse required it. But he’d bashed David first, hadn’t asked how he was. This was not a nice guy.

  “Bygones.” Jill shrugged as if nothing, moving further into her good cop routine. She threw a theatrical glance at the door, then gave a nobody-should-hear-us look back to Arender.

  “I also want you to know,” she said, leaning on his bed rail, facing his silent monitor, “that I believe what you said last night. That you didn’t kill Jody. Or Celie.”

  No reaction to those last words. His mask stayed an unhappy mask. His digital BP readout flashed no change.

  “Now tell the cops,” he finally rasped, exhaling with the corners of his mouth turned down. “They think I’m the guy with the perfect motive.”

  Jill’s eyes flicked again to his monitor. Still no change in his numbers.

  “Well I believe you.” she shrugged. “You were just after the goodies in the doll, right?”

  Boom! His BP readout suddenly flashed 160/95. A vein throbbed on his brow. The diamonds – that’s all that pressed his buttons.

  Jill leaned closer on the rail, her heart thudding, her gaze boring into him.

  “Listen Jay, I don’t care about the diamonds. Jody was my friend and I just want to know who killed her. Ran after Celie and…stabbed her horribly.” Overkill on those last words, but Arender just blinked; peered at her with slow, wary interest.

  “You believe me.” It wasn’t a question.

  “Yes, yes.”

  His BP numbers were starting back down. “Will you help me help you?” Jill pressed.

  He looked almost surprised. Took another moment appraising her offer, his lawyer’s mind no doubt clicking cautiously. “Yeah,” he finally said.

  “Who do you think killed Jody?”

  Silence. Then a shrug. “Probably Reid.” The voice was flat, emotionless, and his BP was still coming down. “He’s incredibly clever. For weeks wanted Jody ‘gone’ – his word – he hollered about it.” Arender’s eyes met Jill’s for an instant, and slid away. “But he’d be smart enough…to wait until the party, when there’d be a truckload of suspects.”

  Jill stared at him. His words had come without hesitation, without processing. Except for his eyes sliding away, there’d been no deceptive behavior. For weeks Reid wanted Jody ‘gone?’ He actually said that around the office?

  “You were at the party?” Jill asked, sending another quick glance to the monitor.

  A slight nod. Arender’s puffy eyes were almost bored slits, and his BP had made the full trip back to normal. The monitor was better than a lie detector.

  “How long were you at Bruno’s?”

  “Not long. Just made an appearance.”

  “Were you there around ten-thirty? Eleven?” Jill’s phone vibrated. She frowned, touching it in her pants pocket. Odd. David said he’d arrange for her not to be called for an hour.

  “Came at nine-thirty,” Arender was saying. “Left after less than an hour. God, what a scene.”

  “Fighting?”

  “Yeah. Jody crying, all over Reid.” A hesitation. “That was around ten-fifteen. People were upset.”

  “Where was everyone when you left?”

  “All over, it’s a big townhouse. Robin said Deborah was crying someplace, maybe the garden. No, not the garden, too many people out there.” Arender inhaled. He spoke slowly. “Reid had gone for a contract, or so Robin said. Then…I couldn’t find Robin. Someone said she was upstairs, getting stuff ready for a breach of contract fight.”

  Some party, Jill thought. Guests all over in different rooms or the garden, and Reid had presumably gone to their midtown office.

  She thought more; bit her lip.

  “What if you’re wrong about Reid?” she asked quietly, checking the silent monitor. “Anyone else you’d suspect for these murders?”

  A long silence. Arender’s adrenalin was flat, his pain meds were kicking back in, and he was getting sleepy. “Robin,” he breathed.

  Jill looked at him. “Robin.” She wasn’t surprised.

  “I’ve seen how she and Reid look at each other,” he said snidely. “Robin was, ha, so sweet and supportive. To him and Jody. Faked friendly, called her to console, but really pumped her with questions about Reid. Had they seen each other? Was he really putting Jody behind him? Like that.”

  “How can you know this?” Jill asked, frowning slightly. Her heart pounded.

  “Her desk is in the hall. I heard because I…had my reasons.” Arender flicked a sidelong glance to Jill: the diamonds. “Two of those calls were before Jody left for Vancouver shoots, and Reid didn’t like it. See…Robin knew he still wanted her.”

  Jill’s breath caught. “Still…?”

  A slow, twisted smile. “He was addicted to Jody, anyone could see it. But he knew she was…unstable. So eliminate her and…” Arender’s voice trailed.

  “He’d be safe from himself,” Jill finished for him.

  “Or Robin could move in.” Jay smirked. “She was stable, attractive, younger than mopey Deborah, and she works it. She could have waited for the party. Planned weeks ahead. Lots of suspects to screw up the cops.”

  “My God...” It was incredible, actually hearing what Jill and the police had suspected about Robin. “So, ah, what was Reid’s relationship with Deborah?” Get Arender’s version.

  He gave a derisive snort. “They were working on it. Don’t you love it when people say they’re working on their relationship?”

  “Yeah.” Jill mimicked his tone. “It means there is no relationship.”

  His BP was down to 110/70. His eyes were mostly closed and he seemed almost asleep. Suddenly he whispered, “Reid slammed her around.”

  “What?”

  “He’s a recovering alcoholic. Backslid last January, part of February. Deborah would come in…you could see bruises through her makeup. She insisted it was from gym.
She can’t even lie.”

  Jill frowned. “Gym? I thought she had a bad back.”

  “She does. She wasn’t going to any gym, she made that up. Started taking more pills...to deal…”

  “Did you try to intercede?”

  “Yeah. I felt bad for her.” Arender exhaled. “Deborah’s…weak. Prefers denial. Would probably prefer a breakdown to facing facts.”

  Jill remembered Robin saying Deborah’s emotionally fragile. And Deborah herself this morning: “I’ve been having panic attacks. They’re horrible. I feel pulverized.”

  Footsteps sounded outside. Low voices conferring with the cop stationed outside. Jill checked the time.

  Twelve-forty-five. Kerri and Alex were here already.

  She touched Jay’s shoulder. “Will you tell me more if it comes to you?”

  “Count on it.”

  Jill scribbled her phone number on a pad by his bedside table, and pointed to it. He nodded, and closed his eyes.

  35

  “Madison Memorial Medical Center, how may I help you?”

  “Hel-lo,” said a hesitant, crinkly voice. “Is this Doctor Raney’s hospital?”

  “Is this an emergency, Ma’am?” It was a young male voice.

  “Yes, it’s an emergency.” The voice was elderly, nervous. “I can’t find Doctor Raney’s card. I’ve looked and looked.”

  “Doctor Jill Raney?”

  “Yes. Yes.”

  “Uh, would you like to be connected to the Obstetrical Department?”

  “Is that where she works?”

  “Yes, it is. I’ll see if she’s available.”

  “Thank you. You’re very kind.”

  “Glad to help. One moment, please.”

  Click, buzz, click… A five-second wait and then: “Obstetrics and Gynecology,” said another voice, a nice-sounding woman.

  “Hello.” Sounding nervous, urgent. “I must speak with Doctor Raney.”

  “Is this an emergency?” asked the voice, still nice but a little rushed. Phones rang in the background.

  “Yes. An emergency.” The elderly voice cracked and rose. “Doctor Raney’s waiting for me to remember what I saw in my dream, and I wanted her to know that I’m still trying, but I can’t find her card.”

  “Your dream, Ma’am?”

  “Yes!”

  “And she’s waiting to hear from you?”

  “Yes! Yes!”

  “I’ll…try her line. Who shall I say is calling in case she isn’t available?”

  “Mrs. Polsen. It’s about Jody Merrill’s murder and that man I saw on the stairs coming down. I must tell her that I’m still trying to remember, but I can’t find her card.”

  “The Jody… Oh, uh, hold please? I’m ringing for her now. If she isn’t available, would you like to leave a voice mail?”

  “A what?”

  “A voice mail.”

  “A what?”

  Sudden barking erupted in the background. “Oh, no, Misty’s acting up again. My voice must have made her nervous. She’s been so jumpy lately, just hopping off the chair and barking at the slightest thing. Please tell Doctor Raney I would have called sooner, but I took nasty sleeping pills that made me sleep so late and I still feel so foggy. Misty! Oh, dear!”

  “I’m ringing for her now, Mrs. Polsen.”

  “Can’t wait! Misty’s starting to cough. Oh, dear!”

  “I’ll tell her. Hope your dog feels better.”

  The line on the other end went dead.

  In the hall, Jill greeted Alex and Kerri and gestured them away from Arender’s door.

  “He isn’t the killer,” she whispered.

  Their faces screwed up. Alex turned away, his lips pressed, and Kerri protested, “He was after his diamonds. He poisoned Jody with penicillin in that glass, and then Celie came and he couldn’t get the doll - what?”

  Jill was slowly shaking her head, as if sorry to disappoint.

  “When you go in,” she said a little excitedly, “check out that monitor next to him, the flashing red blood pressure numbers. Ask him routine stuff, then ask about the murders and then about his diamonds. Watch his numbers change. A hospital monitor beats a lie detector anytime. It’s amazing. Want to borrow one?”

  Kerri and Alex argued in low, heated tones. A true sociopath registers only what he wants to register on any test because he really doesn’t feel. You find sociopaths in any office or corporation or family – they aren’t necessarily killers - they just don’t care about others. Tests only register what they do care about.

  Jill shrugged elaborately. “So who says he’s a true sociopath? Try it anyway. I didn’t see any deceptive behavior. He probably won’t even talk to you – he’s a lawyer, knows his rights – so the monitor’s better than nothing.”

  Alex said, “We searched his apartment, really tossed it. Let’s see how he reacts to that.”

  Jill thought that was amusing. “Oh, watch his numbers.”

  Kerri said, “Last night gave us probable cause thanks to you and David catching him. The CSU combed his place top to bottom. We also searched his phone records. His calls to Jody in late February and March got to be five, six a day despite her never answering. He was obsessed.”

  “With his diamonds,” Jill pressed with conviction. “He only dared trying to get into Jody’s place when he heard about the broken doors. She hated him, but never conveyed any fear of him to us. And there’s more…”

  She recounted how Arender also suspected a new Reid and Robin romance – with Robin’s problem being that Reid still wanted Jody like an addiction. She may have felt that only Jody was in the way if Reid’s marriage ended.

  Jill raised both hands. She was getting more excited, intense. “Plus Arender says Robin faked friendly to Jody, acted all sweet and supportive to her. Which means she can be added to the people Jody naively trusted.”

  She watched Alex scribble with surprise in his notebook.

  “He did some wife battering last winter,” Jill added, her mind racing, trying to remember more. “He’s a violence-prone recovering alcoholic who fell off the wagon for weeks, according to Jay.”

  They’d heard about the booze and domestic violence from other interviews, Kerri said, and watched, in the next minute, as Alex wrote the numbers Jill gave him for normal blood pressure, and really high BP.

  Kerri smiled. “You got so much from Arender. Can we go home now? Or go out to lunch? Take in a movie? Put in for vacation time?”

  “Nah,” Jill gave back a half smile. “Drop in. He looks lonely.”

  Alex turned and started to move toward Arender’s room. “We’ll try the monitor,” he said. “Hey, now I’m really liking the sound of this. He would have refused a lie detector test anyway.”

  Jill smirked at him. “Lawyers know you don’t have to take one. No one arrested has to. This is inadmissible but helps you focus. Sneaky, huh?”

  “Right!” Alex smirked back. “Chalk up another great idea, Jill.”

  “Woo hoo,” Kerri said softly, grinning, giving a little wave.

  “He was falling asleep,” Jill said, watching them go. “He’ll wake like a shot when he sees you. Watch his numbers.”

  12:52. The hour David had arranged for her to be free was almost up, so in a near waiting room Jill checked her phone.

  Surprise: a message from Administration, not the OB service: “A Mrs. Polsen called you,” said a young female voice. “About the Merrill tragedy. Something about a dream she was trying to remember.”

  Jill hurriedly returned the call; spoke with a Karen Rice, who sounded sorry. “When she mentioned Jody Merrill, I thought, yow, I’d better let you know.”

  “She called about her dream?” Jill asked.

  “Yes, her dream that she couldn’t remember. She wanted you to know that she was trying to remember, and that she couldn’t find your card. Then she hung up.”

  “Any idea why?”

  “Some emergency with her dog.”

  “Poor Misty. D
id she leave her number?”

  “No, but I’ve got it here on her caller ID.” Karen Rice read off the number. Jill thanked her and tried to call Edna.

  Nothing. Not even an answering machine. In frustration she tapped her fingers on her phone, and then thought, Edna hasn’t remembered yet anyway. Hang tight.

  Her phone pinged, and there was a text from David: several admissions like planes landing, all hands needed, you’ll be called. i just finished that tough delivery.

  “Just finished” meant he’d be free in a few minutes, and Jill probably wouldn’t.

  She started to text him back.

  Then stopped. Thought, hey, stupid. Her mind was careening, forgetting there was too much to put into a text, so she started an email; spewed about her encounters with Arender, Alex and Kerri. “They got a warrant thanks to last night. This a.m. searched Arender’s apt. HE thinks Robin Abel…” she was writing, when her phone chirped.

  She checked the readout. Deborah Wylie?

  “Can we come earlier, like before two?” she asked tensely. “We’ve got a break in the craziness here and Reid has a meeting at three.”

  Jill’s free hand clutched the arm of her chair as she brainstormed. The Wylies no doubt wanted to avoid running into the police.

  “Sure, a little before two is okay,” she emphasized to Deborah, calculating that Kerri and Alex would be gone by then.

  “Thanks. Uh, please wait a sec?” From the sound of it, Deborah covered her phone and conferred with a muttering, low male voice. Then she was back.

  “Reid says that’s good, thanks again.” More muttering in the background. Deborah was again gone and then back. “Er, have you seen Jay?”

  “I stopped by briefly. He’s on the surgical floor,” Jill said, thinking, I’m getting so good at non-answers.

  “Reid wants to know if Jay needs anything. Is it okay to call him?”

  “Best to wait until you see him. The neurosurgeons must be hovering like-”

  “I’ll tell Reid.” Deborah sounded really troubled. Mutter mutter at her end and she was back again, her voice shaking. “So…a little before two, we’ll come. And won’t stay long. We just want to show our…our…”