“I see him.” Lake didn’t wait. He removed his revolver aimed it right at Cole’s head.
“Put your hands on your head and stay down on your knees. You are under arrest for the murder of a Jade Hospital employee.”
Reese came up behind, grabbed his wrists, slapped the cuffs on and once again read him his rights. This time for real.
“Women,” Cole muttered. “They always have to be in control.”
“You’re damn right! Now get on your feet!”
Detective Lake never took his eyes off Tim Cole and kept his gun pointed right at his head. “Give me a reason to shoot you, I’ll be happy to oblige.”
They put him in the back of the car. Emerson jumped in the back seat; Reese slid into the driver’s seat.
“Oh, I see you’re still taking orders from your man. How about that little lady?”
Like a wild cat, Reese launched halfway over the seat and punched him in the face. Blood poured out of his nose over his lips and dribbled down his chin.
“You can’t do that, bitch!” Cole snarled.
“Detective, did you see how Mr. Cole just slammed his head into the door trying to get out?”
“I sure did, Detective Clayton. Why do you suppose he would try to do something like that?”
“I think he was trying to escape.”
“I would advise you to not mess with Detective Clayton again. I hear she is one hell of a good shot with that gun.”
“I want a lawyer.”
“Well,” Reese said, “I hope you can afford a good one because you’re going to need it. Oh, and by the way, we already have your phone.”
Chapter 63
“Kei Lien, I’m Doctor Hart. Are you ready to go to the operating room for surgery?”
Kei Lien looked at Daniel then at Minh and nodded yes, not really understanding what the word surgery meant. But if it was okay with Daniel, it was okay for her. As they were wheeling her to the operating room, she panicked.
“Where am I going? What are you doing?”
Doctor Hart told the nurse to give her a little more of the sedative through the I.V. to calm her down.
“One thing is for sure, she is strong willed,” said one of the nurses, as they continued to wheel her toward the operating room.
The nurse was surprised how she could still be awake, let alone talking, with that much sedative in her. She should have been in la-la land by now.
Minh and Daniel decided to go to the chapel to say a prayer for their new friend. They both figured she could use all the help she could get. Minh said an extra one for his son.
It was a few hours before the news came. Doctor Hart approached the waiting room with sadness in his eyes. This was the hard part of being a surgeon.
“She’s out of surgery and in the recovery room. You may see her when she comes out of the anesthesia.”
Daniel was first to ask, “What did you find? Something is wrong. I know it.”
“Mr. Nyung, Daniel, I’m afraid your friend had a lot more damage than we expected. We repaired the tear in her bowel, but Miss Chandler has a tremendous amount of tissue damage. It’s far beyond what we thought from the original tests. The result of years of untreated sexually transmitted diseases alone. It’s ravaged her body. I’m sure you understand Daniel, having been to medical school.”
Daniel was surprised at the change in the doctor’s attitude, but also cautious.
“The sexual abuse and recurring infections appear to have taken their toll. We have no way of knowing what all of this has done to her state of mind. We really know nothing of her background. For all we know she may have been mentally impaired from birth. My recommendation at this point is to keep her on high doses of antibiotics and hope she has enough fight left in her to battle the infections and recover. It’s all a waiting game now. One of our very qualified nurses, Mary Elizabeth Hollingsworth, has volunteered her time to stay with Kei Lien round the clock if necessary.”
“She is a wonderful nurse,” Minh agreed. “She has a huge heart.”
“When Kei Lien begins to wake-up, please do not stay too long. She needs all the rest she can get right now. We will notify you if anything changes.”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
A few more hours passed, and they were finally told they could see Kei Lien, but only for a few minutes. As they approached her bedside, she lifted her head and opened her eyes. Just part way, but the look she shot at Minh and Daniel was not the sweet, doe-eyed demeanor they had come to know. It was a piercing, rage-filled stare from a deep dark place. No one thought about how she would feel coming out of surgery. The incredible pain from surgery was reminiscent of the pain she felt after each encounter with her father and the rest of the Santa gifts.
“What did you do to me?” she growled.
Coming out of the anesthesia had her in a psychotic state, at least that’s what her recovery room nurses assumed.
“You said you were not a gift from Santa! What did you do?” she screamed. “I thought you were my friend.”
Daniel began to tear up as he watched Kei Lien fill with anger and fear.
“I didn’t touch you,” he said. “I promise I didn’t do anything to you and neither did anyone else in this hospital. All of us, including the doctors want you to get better. Please believe me. Kei Lien, I am your friend.”
Minh noticed Mary Elizabeth coming down the hall near the nurse’s station. He met her before she entered the room. “Can you and I talk?” she asked. “Somewhere private please?”
“Of course.”
She led him to a break room near Kei Lien’s recovery room.
“This room is not used anymore. It just collects everybody’s junk.”
She had already been briefed on the surgery and possible outcome.
“Minh, I fear for your son. I believe he cares about what happens to Kei Lien for reasons he doesn’t even understand. I’m glad you decided to move forward as Kei Lien’s guardian. Your son can now concentrate on being her friend like he said and not have to make tough choices.”
“Thank you, Mary Elizabeth. It is certainly an unexpected journey.”
After their chat, Mary Elizabeth approached Kei Lien’s bed, straightened her sheets, fluffed her pillow, and patted her hand.
“There now. All better. Daniel, I think you and your father need to go home for a while and let Kei Lien get some rest. I’ll let you know if anything changes. Promise. She’s not thinking straight right at this moment and you’re too emotional to handle the things she’s saying to you.”
“But…”
“No. Not another word. Go home, please.” She nodded to Minh to take him home.
The ride back was quiet.
“You must be hungry. Let’s stop to pick up take-out. I don’t know about you, but I’m not in the mood to cook.”
Daniel nodded. He was afraid to speak for fear of breaking down into tears.
Chapter 64
Officer Manning informed the precinct of what happened in Jade along with the suspect’s name, Tim Cole.
“So how does this Cole guy tie into the murders of the Sergeant and Adam Chandler?” asked Officer Sorenson.
“I’ll take this,” Captain Brown said.
Officer Manning stepped aside to allow the captain to take over.
“Timothy Cole is a resident here in Cromwell and a former resident of Jade. He lived in a mental institution there at some point. They’re going over the DNA and other evidence to be sure, but they believe he is the missing brother of that family found at the theater. Possibly a suspect in their murder. They arrested him for the murder of an X-ray tech at a hospital where he was being treated in Jade. Detectives Lake and Clayton will be tied up for a while processing this guy. He has already lawyered up; they are waiting to meet with them. In the meantime, I want all of you to go over
anything tying Cole to this family.”
“That still doesn’t help us find the murderers of Kelsey and Chandler. And how they are connected, if at all, to this Cole character.”
“Officer Sorenson, I get what you’re saying, and I agree, but there’s someone else in Jade that might have more info on this guy.”
“Really? Then why aren’t they giving us that info as well?”
“I don’t know yet, but there has to be a connection, otherwise Clayton and Lake wouldn’t be so adamant about this. Okay, you have your assignments. Now let’s get everything we can on this guy. Dismissed.”
Ken’s assignment was to contact Teresa Kelsey since Allen Manning didn’t appear to be getting anywhere with her. She was either busy, not feeling well or just didn’t want to be disturbed every time he paid her a visit. Ken entered the hotel around 10:30am. He logged it into his journal. No problem getting into the hotel because he had been there a lot in recent months. In fact, he had lived at the hotel before, during and after his academy training. Before he applied for this job. He was only staying at the hotel until he could find his own apartment. One he could afford. He finally did find one, but by then Teresa Kelsey had him by the balls.
“Is she taking visitors today?”
Randall smiled, “Let me call her and let her know you’re here.”
“Thanks, my friend. I owe you one.”
Teresa was waiting patiently at the door when Ken got off the elevator.
“Well, it took you long enough to come by and pay your respects. Where the hell have you been? I’ve been sitting in this suite with booze and a bottle of pills waiting for you to service me and believe me I need servicing. Now get over here and let me help you out of that uniform. Oh, how I love a man in uniform,” she crooned, “but I love them even more when they take it off.”
She giggled like a little schoolgirl.
It wasn’t difficult to satisfy her needs today. It had been a long time since he had been in her suite. Just too much stuff going on and he didn’t want the connection to her to go public so he waited as long as he could for things to quiet down before he approached her. Ken was only with her for about an hour. He told her he had to return to the precinct.
“I have to go, but I will come by soon. Promise. Right now, I need to figure out what to put on my report. Seeing how I’m supposed to be interviewing you about your husband’s demise.”
“You could start by telling them that I’m wonderful in bed, but my husband wouldn’t take the time to satisfy my wants and my needs. He couldn’t see how good that would have been for us both. He just wanted a quick piece of ass. Apparently raping young girls was the only way for him to get off.”
“Calm down, I got this. And yes, you certainly are wonderful in bed.” He leaned in and kissed her.
She shoved two crisp one hundred-dollar bills in his uniform pocket for services rendered and walked him to the door. “Thank you, Ken.”
As soon as the door clicked shut, she floated over to her bottle of booze and headed off to take yet another one of her lengthy baths.
Ken stopped to talk with Randall before he headed back to the precinct.
“Randall,” he whispered looking around the lobby. “We’ve got a problem. Cole is in custody. We need to distance ourselves from him. He obviously didn’t stay out of sight like he was supposed to. I don’t want anyone knowing I recommended him to work for Teresa. He supposedly killed the cab driver that Teresa hired to take him out of the area.”
“That idiot killed Donald?”
“You know him?”
“He’s the guy I hired to help me to pick up Teresa in the ambulance. He’s just an old acquaintance. He had nothing else going on that night, so I met him in a club. He’s an okay guy. Or was. I told him the ambulance gig was just for that one night. He was fine with it. I paid him cash. Teresa hired him again to take Cole out of town.”
“I have no idea what happened, but I assume Cole is the one who murdered him before going to Jade. We need a new plan. I just don’t want any loose ends. My career and my life are at stake here. What a fucking mess.”
“You’re right. Let me know when you sort it out. Cole is a loose cannon for sure.”
Ken nodded and headed back to work.
Chapter 65
Teresa was second-guessing her choices while soaking in her rather extravagant tub. Wondering if she should have made Ken her primary focus all along.
“He would make a terrific Sergeant and a great politician one day,” she muttered out loud. “I should show him how to climb that ladder. At least he knows who to dedicate his loyalty to. He treats me like a princess when I see him. That’s exactly what I wanted from Martin. How could that prick do this to me? He made me into a sad, terrified woman.”
Her thoughts suddenly drifted to Kei Lien. I can’t imagine how terrified that young girl must have been. All those years being abused by Chandler and others, including my unfaithful louse of a husband. Then to top it off, that piece of shit made her say I’m sorry. It was awful when Cole revealed that to her.
“I should have killed him. I should have done it long ago.”
Now totally high on her prescription meds and a half bottle of White Label, Teresa managed to crawl out of the tub, her feet sliding on the tile floors. Her attempt at standing straight up was a losing battle. She slumped down and sat on the bathmat for a moment until she could regain her balance. Nothing but a bath towel to partially cover her wet, naked body.
“What have I done? What have I done?” She placed her hands over her face and sobbed. When she had enough of feeling sorry for herself, she laid her head down next to the tub. Sleep soon followed, along with the nightmares spurred by alcohol, drugs, and a guilty conscious.
Chapter 66
She owned him right from their first meeting.
While in a grocery store buying a few items and finding he didn’t have quite enough cash, he asked the store owner if he could do some work around the store to pay the rest of his bill. Having overheard the conversation, she signaled the owner of the small store that she would pay for his groceries.
“Hello,” putting on her most professional sounding voice that most found more obnoxious than professional. “I overheard you say you were looking for work. Can you do landscaping? You know, mowing lawns, trimming shrubs, that kind of work?”
“I can.”
He felt like asking her who the hell she thought she was for making him sound like a poor homeless person. Even though that’s exactly what he was at the time.
“Do you have a place to stay?”
“Not yet,” making a mental note of the diamonds on her fingers.
“Well I do believe I can help with that, too.”
She was the first person he met when he arrived in Cromwell.
“What is your name?” she asked, giving him her hand.
“Ken Sorenson. And you are?”
“Teresa Kelsey.”
It didn’t take long for him to find out that she wanted a pool boy all along, just without the pool.
She rented him a room at the Stratford when he needed housing, at a discount of course. Gave him a job. And encouraged her husband to get him into the police academy and eventually on the force. He eventually found an apartment of his own, but was still at her beckon call. After all, she was the reason he had this career. He felt like a marionette, built by the sergeant, but his wife operated the strings.
New to the job and trying to make a good name for himself in Cromwell, Ken took any overtime he could get. Night shifts, patrolling the city, anything that would make him look good to the department. One night, he came across a drunk hanging around the park near the playground equipment muttering to himself, but not making any sense at all. He looked homeless, but seemed harmless. Just lost. He could have hauled him in for loitering around the children’s playgrou
nd or for being intoxicated in the park. Instead he felt bad for the guy and just told him to move along. He warned him about this not being a good place to hang out and asked if he was hungry. He nodded his head yes. Ken went to his car and pulled out a small, insulated lunch bag and handed him the contents. He questioned whether he had a job. He didn’t. He took his name and told him if he heard of anyone looking for help, he would let him know.
He saw Cole a few more times in the area, making a mental note of where he was sleeping each time. He was never any trouble. He felt sorry for him and told him he wouldn’t say anything about where he was sleeping at night as a favor. That favor was collected when he hired Tim to be Teresa’s private investigator. Her husband was fooling around on her, and although she was doing the same, she wanted to get even. Ken knew there wasn’t much he could do about Tim’s appearance, but he did buy him a few new clothes and arranged a shower and shave a local motel room. He paid for his lunch and sent him off to Teresa. He never questioned Tim about anything. He just knew he had to deliver when Teresa made the request. He feared Teresa and for good reason.
The thing Ken could never have imagined though was that Tim Cole would eventually be wanted for murder. The fear started washing over him. His mind raced as he recalled every detail that led to this daytime nightmare. Had Teresa actually hired Tim Cole to kill her husband? He was the one that had set it all in motion by getting Cole the job. He could be implicated. He had to find Tim Cole before anyone else did.
Chapter 67
Timothy Cole sat in a cell at the Jade police Department, waiting for his lawyer to arrive. Every few minutes he got up and paced the small area in deep thought about how he was going to get out of this mess and out of this jail cell. He wondered what it would be like to stay in a cell for a long time. Would it be like the Saturn facility?
“I doubt it,” he thought to himself. “I don’t think they can hook you to wires in a jail. I’m strong. I can handle anyone that comes near me. It might be nice to have a place to sleep every night and food every day that I wouldn’t have to steal. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to wander like I did at the Saturn. I’m quite sure of that.”
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