by Robin Mahle
“We have to find any family members.” Kate sat at the conference table surrounded by all the agents. “We should consider that he hitched a ride with someone he’s either related to or has close ties to. That’s what I would do if I was him.”
“I agree that has to be the next step,” Nick added. “What about the Nassau ME? Have you received word back from him?”
“It’s still early there. I’ve got a couple of hours before I would expect to hear from him,” Kate replied.
“Okay. Then I suggest we all go about finding Bishop’s family,” Nick said.
Kate stood up and headed into the breakroom for a cup of coffee. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. “Reid here.” She listened. “Yes, of course, Dr. Schroeder. What can I do for you?” She nodded while he spoke. “I see. Yes, of course. It’s very helpful. Do you have an address?” She pulled up the notes on her phone and typed in what he’d relayed. “Thank you. If I have any other questions, can I count on your continued support?” Kate smiled. “Thank you, Dr. Schroeder. Thank you very much.” She returned her phone to her pants pocket and started into the corridor before running into Bingham. “Have you seen Agent Scarborough?”
“He was in the operations room a minute ago,” Bingham replied.
“Perfect. Thanks.” Kate headed into the room and spotted him. “Hey, I need to go back to Providence.”
Nick pulled her aside. “Why? What’s happened?”
“I just got a call from the doctor Levi and I met with the other day. The one who had made the complaints against Bishop, but no one acted? He suddenly recalled something of value.”
“Suddenly?” Nick looked at her with uncertainty.
“I’m sure the news story prompted his recollection,” Kate said. “Looks like it hit the national news. He knows someone who was once close to Bishop.”
“Who? Is it family?”
“No. A former girlfriend,” Kate replied. “Now the current girlfriend of Dr. Schroeder, the one we met with.”
“Well, that is interesting,” Nick added. “Okay. Take Walsh with you…”
“Nick. No. I can handle this on my own. We don’t need to pull resources away from the hunt. It’s just a conversation but I want to be sure to keep anyone from finding out, mainly, the press. Until I know more, I can handle this on my own. Please.”
“You’re right. Get on the next flight and get it done. Keep me posted.”
She nodded and turned away.
“Hey,” Nick said. “Get in and get out.”
“I will.” Kate started into the hall once again, only this time she was leaving.
Walsh spotted her in the lobby. “Hey. Where are you off to?”
“You remember the doctor in Providence? Dr. Schroeder?” she began.
“Sure.”
“He called. Apparently, he’s involved with a woman who used to be with Bishop. The woman wants to talk.”
“Great. When do we leave?”
“Levi, I’m going alone. I got approval from Nick. I can handle this, and I expect to be back before nightfall.”
Walsh placed his hands on his square hips. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You think Fisher would be okay with it?”
“I don’t see why not. He told me he had faith in my intuition. Come on. You know I’m more than capable of talking to a person of interest on my own. There’s enough here to keep everyone else busy. I can do this.”
He nodded. “You’re right. Of course you can. But if you need anything, you call me. Good luck and I’ll see you back here tonight.”
Kate smiled. “Thanks, Levi. I’ll see you soon.”
The flight landed and Kate hurried off the small commuter plane as it arrived in Providence. What Kate had hoped to gain was to learn if Bishop had been in contact with either this girlfriend or someone she knew. It was the first time in a long time Kate had been given a chance to follow up on something alone. Not since Los Angeles, that she could recall, had she been given such an opportunity. It was time to show Fisher what she was capable of.
The witness, a woman named Holly, had agreed to meet alongside the doctor at the hospital. Kate made her way to the airport curb and hailed an Uber. “Our Lady of Mercy hospital, please.” She stepped inside.
She scrolled through her phone for any messages from the team, or calls from the Nassau ME. Still nothing. It was nearly 10am and she should have heard from the medical examiner by now. With the phone to her ear, she made the call again. “Yes, hello, I’m Agent Reid. I need to speak with Dr. Knowles. I left an urgent message for him yesterday. Is he available?” She nodded. “Thank you.”
The line was transferred, and a man picked up. “This is Dr. Knowles. Agent Reid, I’m so sorry I haven’t returned your call.”
“I understand how busy you must be, Doctor, but this is extremely urgent. Have you had a chance to review your cases to see if you have a match to several of ours here in the states?”
“I have, Agent Reid. There was one. However, I’m awaiting a final report, but the circumstances surrounding this particular victim raised many eyebrows.”
“Can you send what you have to my email?” Kate asked.
“Of course. But you should also know something else, Agent Reid. The doctor in question did not go by the name of Theodore Bishop…”
“Did he happen to go by the name of Eli Parnell?”
“How did you know?” the doctor asked.
“A hunch. Thank you. Please send the details as soon as you can. I’ll keep an eye out.” Kate ended the call and noticed the hospital in the distance.
The driver pulled to a stop at the main entrance. “Here you are, ma’am.”
“Thanks so much.” Kate opened the door. “I’ll be sure to give you 5-stars.” She closed the door behind her and headed into the building.
The man she’d been waiting for had also been waiting for her. Kate walked inside and spotted the doctor right away. “Dr. Schroeder.”
“Agent Reid,” He offered his hand. “Thank you for coming. Follow me. I’ll take you to see Holly.”
Kate followed him into his office. She noted the sign on the door. “Attending Physician.”
Inside, a slight woman, possibly only 5 feet 4 inches, who couldn’t have weighed more than 110 pounds, sat on a small sofa perpendicular to the doctor’s desk. She stood.
“You must be Holly.” Kate approached with her hand extended.
“Yes. I’m Holly Drier and you’re Agent Kate Reid. I appreciate your willingness to come here and so quickly. This isn’t something I would want to get out if you understand my meaning.”
“Of course.”
“Why don’t we have a seat over here.” The doctor pulled out two chairs at a small table near the center of his office. “Holly. Agent Reid.” He motioned for them to sit before he finally took his own seat.
“So, what is it you wanted to say to me, Holly? As you know, many people are out looking for Theodore Bishop. Has he contacted you?”
“Yesterday.” Holly looked away as if ashamed she’d waited to bring forward her information. “When I saw the news…”
“Did he say where he was?” Kate pressed on.
“No. I tried to, well I thought he was calling to ask for money or something. When I tried to get more details out of him, like where he was or what kind of help he needed, he refused to say.”
“Why was that?” Kate asked.
“I imagine he thought I’d run to him.” She pointed to Dr. Schroeder. “Which, of course, I did.”
“When were you and Bishop dating?” Kate asked.
“About a year into his residency here at the hospital. I’m a nurse and well, that was how we met. But here’s the thing, Agent Reid, I left Theo after all this stuff came up, you know? After what Dr. Schroeder said about the kid with the appendectomy, and what others had implied. It got to the point that I was afraid to even speak to Theo about it. Dr. Schroeder—David—told me you and another agent came here to talk to him and that was when
I knew Theo must’ve really screwed up.” She looked to the doctor, who nodded for her to continue. “There’s something else too. I—um—I can’t be sure, but I think Theo might’ve been trying to poison me while we were together.”
“Did you go to the police?” Kate asked.
“No. I know that sounds crazy, but I couldn’t prove it. We’d been dating for about 6 months or so. I had just moved in with him. I thought we were going to get married. But a month or so later, I started getting terrible headaches. Migraines.”
“She thought it was just stress from the job,” Schroeder added.
“And of course, Theo tried to convince me that was the case. But I’d never had migraines before and there was nothing that had changed in my job to make me think it was stress.”
“So you thought it was Bishop? That he was, what, putting something in your food?” Kate asked.
“Something like that.” She eyed Schroeder. “I had heard the stories about him. The cases that were just too coincidental. I knew it was him. I just knew it. But I had nothing to take to the cops.”
“You left him after that?” Kate asked
“After a couple of more months. Yes, I left him. He then left the hospital, lost his license and that was when I started dating David.” She reached for his hand.
Kate jotted down notes. “Your migraines…did they stop?”
“Yes. Within a week or two of Theo moving out. They were gone.”
“I see. Does he know you and Dr. Schroeder are dating?”
“He does. I honestly don’t know why he called on me. It was like he was searching for a part of himself that just wasn’t there anymore.”
Kate nodded. “Does he have any family?”
“His mom. No one else that he’s ever mentioned to me. But I, apparently, didn’t know him as well as I thought I did.”
“Do you mind if I look at your phone?”
Holly retrieved it and opened it to the call. “That was him. I had long since deleted his contact from my phone, so when I answered, I had no idea it was his number.”
Kate examined the call log. “Unknown number.” She peered at them. “He was smart enough to block it.”
“Agent Reid, Theo is a very smart man. He’s gotten away with horrific things and I think if you suspect he’s done something awful, and he knows you suspect it, I doubt very much that you’ll find him,” Holly said.
“With your permission, I’d like to contact your cell phone carrier and request the tower logs from that line.”
“Of course. Anything I can do to help. I’m sorry I waited. It’s just that, well, I was afraid,” Holly replied.
“I don’t blame you. If we can find out where this call came from, it’ll help us a lot in figuring out where he was, and where he might be going.”
On the plane back to Charlotte, Kate viewed the email from the medical examiner in Nassau. A man who said he was a doctor, who went by the name Eli Parnell, injected a woman with what turned out to be a drug intended for heart patients. The resulting cause of death was heart failure. Kate had seen this before in another of Bishop’s victims.
According to the medical examiner, when Bishop had been questioned about his credentials by the doctor in charge of the triage unit, he claimed they had been in his hotel and he left to retrieve them, against the doctor’s wishes. Bishop, or rather, Parnell, never returned.
“Same guy. Same M.O.,” Kate said.
The man in the airline seat next to her began, “Excuse me?”
“Oh sorry. I was just talking to myself. Hazards of the job,” Kate replied.
“What do you do for a living?” the man asked.
“I’m a federal agent.”
“Oh. Wow. That’s interesting. Are you working on a case?” the man’s eyes widened with interest.
“As a matter of fact, I am. But I’m afraid it’s all confidential at the moment. QT. You understand.”
“Sure. Sure. Yeah, hey, do what you gotta do. And—thanks for, you know, for your service, I guess. I mean, I know you’re not like military…”
Kate smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate it.” She felt the plane begin its descent into Charlotte and peered through the window at the setting sun. Her promise to return by day’s end had been intact.
Nick was there to pick her up and pulled curbside when he spotted her. When she opened the door, he smiled. “Glad you’re back.”
Kate slipped inside and closed the passenger door. “Good to be back. It was worth the trip. Thank you.”
Nick pulled away from the curb. “No need to thank me. Just tell me you got what you needed.”
“I think so. What’s been happening today?” she asked.
“More of the same. The captain with the state police came in and offered additional assistance. Fisher said he’d hold off for now. Said there were a lot of people already working on finding Bishop. Walsh is still keeping a lid on the Parnell alias for the time being, but I’m not sure how much longer we can hold onto that information. We tried to track down any family and got a hit on the mother. She hadn’t seen or heard from Bishop in almost 5 years.”
“Do you buy that?” Kate asked.
“I’m putting a pin in that for the moment,” Nick replied. “We’ll likely need to pull her phone records and look for a connection to Baltimore or Charlotte since we don’t have a phone number for him.”
“And the call to his ex-girlfriend, Holly? Do we know where the call originated from yet?”
“Based on the details you provided us, Walsh and Palmero have been coordinating with the cell phone provider. What I do know is that Walsh’s NSA contact is currently running recognition on security video at the bus terminals. We should have an update on our return.” Nick glanced at her. “You could make a strong case to not replace Quinn, you know.”
Kate scoffed. “Not a chance. Fisher already said I didn’t have the experience. I can’t argue with that. Besides, I don’t pretend to know everything.”
“I know you don’t. I’m just saying when I was made SSA for the Washington Field Office, I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. I just did it. And it turned out okay.”
“In all fairness, you had the years put in already. I don’t. And especially not for BAU. It was practically a miracle I was offered a position in the first place.”
“If you say so.” Nick pulled into the parking lot and cut the engine. “Still, Fisher should know you can handle yourself.”
“I hope everyone on the teams knows that.” Kate stepped out of the car and waited for Nick to join her. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.”
He grinned. “I know you didn’t. But you’re right. Everyone should already know what you can do. I certainly do.” Nick started inside.
When they arrived back at the ops room, Walsh stood from his chair and wore a wide grin. “God bless you, Reid. I knew you could do it.”
Kate was surprised by his praise. “What? Did you find where the call to the ex came from?” she asked.
He walked back. “You’re damn right we did. He might’ve hidden his number, but you can’t hide a call’s location. According to the cell phone provider, the call Bishop made to his ex-girlfriend pinged back to a cell tower right here.” Walsh pointed to the monitor.
“That’s really close to that bus depot,” Kate added.
“Yes, ma’am. So Palmero over here.” Walsh gestured to him. “He decided to head over there for a visit and wouldn’t you know…”
Palmero placed his hand on Walsh’s shoulder. “The bus operators had their own security footage. Cameras behind the ticket counters. We got surveillance footage of a guy buying a ticket. Looked an awful lot like Theo Bishop. He purchased a bus ticket to Raleigh.”
“He’s still in North Carolina.” Kate smiled.
“He’s still in North Carolina,” Walsh added. “So, we’re packing up and heading to Raleigh.”
“Great. When?” Kate asked.
Duncan walked toward them. �
�Right now. I just got us a car. We’re leaving now.”
19
Theo Bishop had started off with noble intentions, wanting to leave a mark as his father had. A well-respected doctor, his father had saved lives during the Gulf War before returning to the U.S. and eventually becoming the Chief of Surgery at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital. That was the only reason the younger Bishop had been granted residency.
Bishop had envied the way his father’s patients admired him. They looked at him as though he was their savior. That was how it started.
Holly had been merely an experiment. How far could he go without ending a life? She had been the guinea pig. It turned out that Bishop had no capacity for love in that manner. Only a need to be loved and idolized.
Now, as he sat on the edge of his bed inside the Super 8 in Raleigh, Bishop needed a way out. He had his new identity, Eli Parnell, but Parnell had no medical degree. He wasn’t certified as an EMT. This left him with no way to slip into a role that would grant him access to the people who needed him, or rather, the people he needed. Not to mention that he’d murdered a colleague, and the cops were after him. No medical degree or certification in the world was going to help him escape that. The longer he remained in North Carolina, the greater the odds were of him being captured. He’d seen the news reports. He knew they were after him, although they had been looking for Dr. Theodore Bishop.
He tossed his bag onto the bed and reached inside, pulling out his EMT certificate. It would take time and meticulous care, but it was possible to alter the name on the certificate. While that alone wouldn’t be enough because it would only take a quick search on the database to see it had been falsified, it could be enough to get him in the door outside the country.
He could use his alias passport to purchase a bus ticket to Mexico where the forged EMT certificate wouldn’t be questioned. It was extreme, but the time for extreme measures had arrived.
Bishop pulled back the heavy curtain and gazed out into the parking lot. Streetlamps flickered on and dusk had appeared. No doubt it was best to travel by night. His face was on the news and that would be his biggest hurdle to overcome. Bishop reached into a grocery bag and pulled out a bottle of hair dye and a hair trimmer. His dark roots had already begun to grow in, and the lighter brown color of Eli Parnell’s passport photo needed to be touched up. Maybe something shorter would do as well. He’d already started growing the dark stubble on his chin.