Pretty Broken Dolls: An absolutely gripping crime thriller packed with mystery and suspense (Detective Katie Scott Book 6)

by Jennifer Chase

  “Yes. She was like a nurse’s aide and was responsible for many things. She would jump in if someone was late or didn’t show up. Unfortunately, we have a high turnover of staff here.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Well, the pay is low and it’s not very glamorous. Since we are a community health facility that means many times we don’t get paid for services, and that means we are understaffed and without everything we need. But we manage to get by every month.” She patted the pile of files on her desk.

  “Did Ms. Trenton ever confide in you about something or someone that she was having difficulty with?”

  Director Norton’s face tightened and she hesitated.

  “Please keep in mind I’ve read all the interviews and police reports, so there’s nothing that I haven’t been made aware of,” Katie gently reminded her. “I just want to hear from you—from your personal experience.”

  “Well… there was a group of nurses that were abusive to Jeanine. They constantly belittled and undermined her, even though she was an amazing worker.”

  “Did she ever discuss it with you?”

  “No, she was quiet and took it. It was obvious, but she loved it here. She wanted to help. You know she could have worked anywhere, but she wanted to help the needy.”

  Katie made a couple of notes. Her impression of Jeanine Trenton changed a bit as she listened to the director describe her.

  “But most of the girls are gone now. I think she was waiting them out.”

  “Did she ever talk about her time in the army?”

  “Not much. I knew about it, of course, through her application, but she didn’t say much. Although thinking about it, I do remember she mentioned it once and her eyes would light up when she spoke about the dogs.”

  “Did anyone ever talk to her about it?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  Katie was hoping for more information, but she had a clearer picture of who Jeanine was and knew that she would have probably really liked her.

  “What’s the matter, Detective?” asked Director Norton as if she sensed Katie’s slight frown.

  “Jeanine sounded like a very nice person, a hard worker, well liked—with the exception of a few women here at the time…”

  “That’s a fair assessment.”

  “I know there’s something I’m missing.”

  “Such as?”

  Katie shifted in her seat, not sure if she should say anything to the director. “There wasn’t any talk, or gossip, about someone harassing her at home, maybe?”

  “No, nothing that I can think of—”

  There was the unmistakable sound of a gunshot from the first floor.

  Katie jumped up from her chair and quickly went out to the staircase and listened. She heard voices yelling and then McGaven instructing someone to drop a weapon. She raced back into the director’s office where she was standing with a shocked look upon her face.

  “Call 911. And tell them shots have been fired. Let them know two police detectives are already here and in need of assistance. Got it?”

  Director Norton nodded and quickly picked up her phone.

  Katie raced down the stairs, almost stumbling before she reached the bottom. Pulling her weapon, she stepped into the hallway, looking both ways. The shot had come from below, in the vicinity of the entrance and waiting area.

  Two nurses came out of a room to see what was going on. The worried expressions on their faces clearly evident as they looked up and down the hallway.

  “Stay inside, lock the door,” she told them. They obliged without any questions.

  Katie hurried down the hall, listening intently, stopping at the corner with her gun held out in front of her. She moved slowly at first, and then continued on when no one appeared.

  It was strangely quiet.

  Her main concern was the safety of those in the waiting room and her partner. She knew that McGaven was capable and would do whatever it took to protect the people.

  Reaching the end of the hallway just before the reception area, Katie slowed to a stop. She saw Rita on the floor in a crouched position. Her eyes were wide and face pale.

  Katie caught her attention and made a motion with her hand to move back into the internal rooms.

  Rita crawled until she was out of sight and then got up and hurried down the hall to safety and wait.

  “No! Someone is going to pay!” yelled a man’s voice.

  “Take it easy. I’m sure we can work this out,” said McGaven calmly with his gun drawn but not aimed at the man. “Just put the gun down.”

  Katie inched forward and spied around the corner, relieved that her partner was okay and was calmly confronting the situation in the waiting-room area. She saw the man that had been sitting out front when they arrived, now without the heavy blue coat. He had a handgun and was waving it around while pacing. It was clear that he was under pressure and felt that someone was responsible for his distress. She didn’t see the other blue-coated person and wondered where she could be.

  Pulling back, she looked down the hallway in both directions to check no one was around. Her instincts told her that she needed to assist her partner. There was no other way around to get into the waiting area. The other door was the emergency exit and it would be locked from the inside.

  “You’re going to arrest me! Me! I didn’t let her die! They did!”

  “Tell me what happened. We can straighten this out,” said McGaven, still sounding composed and measured.

  “She’s gone! Someone is going to pay!”

  Another gunshot rang out.

  Katie was ready to move forward when she saw that the man had shot at the ceiling. He wasn’t going to kill anyone, she thought.

  “That’s not the way to do it,” said McGaven.

  The man was still pacing, fretful and highly strung.

  “Put the gun down before someone gets hurt.”

  Katie crouched low and scanned the area. From what she could see, there was a maintenance door near where the man was pacing.

  She turned and raced down the hallway, opening doors. Several people were huddled and hiding.

  “Stay here, you’re safe,” she whispered, flashing her badge, and moved on until she found Rita with two people. “Rita, can you tell me how to get to that maintenance room in the lobby?”

  Rita nodded. In a quiet voice, she said, “Down the hallway until you see a room marked ‘Storage’, at the far end of that room is a maintenance door.”

  Katie mouthed thank you and turned, taking off at a full sprint as fast as she could to the storage door. Opening it, she entered. It was noticeably warmer inside and there was a hum of the heating system as dim lights lit the way. There were controls lit up with green buttons, which didn’t mean anything to her. She prayed that she wouldn’t run into anyone in maintenance because she didn’t have time to explain.

  She followed instructions straight and then it turned sharply, but it also narrowed to an uncomfortable space. Gasping hard as her heart hammered in her chest; she caught her breath and pushed her focus. There were no sirens yet, but the police would soon be racing into the parking lot and that might push the man to do something he couldn’t take back.

  Finally she reached the end where the door opened into the large waiting area. It felt as if she had been running for half an hour when in fact it was barely forty-five seconds.

  Resting her hand on the doorknob, she felt for a locking mechanism and slowly turned the device. Pulling the door open a crack, she could see the man had his back to her about six feet away. McGaven still had his gun drawn but it was aimed downward, so as to not provoke the distraught man.

  Katie pulled the door a little bit wider and hoped that it didn’t make a sound.

  Three women were huddled in the corner shielding two children. They saw Katie as she slowly showed them her badge. It was unclear if it made them feel better or not.

  The man was beginning to get more enraged now, taking aim at various peopl
e and things around the room.

  Through the large window Katie saw two police cruisers enter the parking lot without lights and sirens—so as to not stoke the pressure and aggravate the shooter. They crept closer and parked. Two deputies got out and began to make their way toward the health center’s door.

  Katie knew that she had to act fast if they were going to avoid casualties.

  She dared to inch out of the doorway a little bit farther. Not wanting to lose her gun in a scuffle, she returned it to her holster and kept moving stealthily closer to the man.

  McGaven knew what she was going to do as his body language stiffened.

  The man raised the gun and then he swung his right arm down away from McGaven.

  It was now or never. She took a deep gulp of air.

  Katie sprinted toward the man at full speed just as he turned to see her charging at him. She slammed into his upper body with full impact, taking him down to the floor, landing on top of him; then sliding a few feet before stopping on the hard tile.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Friday 1615 hours

  McGaven was instantly at Katie’s side as she wrestled with the man, adrenalin pumping through her veins, but within seconds they had secured the shooter, arms behind back, cuffed, lying face down. Katie made sure that he didn’t have any other weapons just as the two deputies burst through the front doors, their guns drawn.

  Recognizing McGaven and Katie, the deputies asked, “You guys okay?”

  “Yeah,” McGaven said as he helped Katie up. “That was crazy,” he said breathlessly.

  “I improvised.” Her arms and legs still feeling weak, she moved toward the entrance to try and catch her breath.

  The man’s gun had flown from his hand upon impact. McGaven quickly grabbed the weapon between several layers of tissues pulled from his pocket and gave it to one of the deputies as evidence.

  They pulled the man to his feet. “Ten-fifteen, one in custody,” the officer said into his radio.

  “Where’s your friend?” McGaven demanded. “Where?”

  “She left,” the man said in a weak voice. “She’s gone, like everyone else.”

  McGaven turned to the frightened people. “Everyone okay?”

  Most of the people slowly stood up and nodded. Some were speechless, while others were still shell-shocked from the incident.

  Katie went outside and sat down on one of the benches—her legs heavy. The fire truck entered the parking lot following precautionary procedure for an active shooter call. She watched it park as the loud airbrakes engaged. Two more patrol cars parked as deputies descended upon the Community Health Alliance.

  Katie watched as deputies spoke with witnesses. Her breathing began to turn to normal as she focused her thoughts on the interviews with Angela Norton and Virginia Rodriguez. She knew that the chaos of today wasn’t a good time to continue talking to the women.

  One of the deputies came out and said to one of the paramedics, “We have a middle-aged woman with chest pains.”

  McGaven came outside and sat down next to her. “When did you get the idea to body slam the guy?” he said trying to lighten the moment.

  “About a minute before I did it.”

  “A whole minute?”

  “Had to plan ahead,” she said.

  “You okay?” He looked at her with a serious expression.

  “Yeah, I think so. Nothing a hot bath won’t take care of.”

  “You amaze me. I know guys that wouldn’t try that move.”

  “We were running out of time. I knew that he really didn’t want to hurt anyone—he just wanted someone to listen to him.”

  “Not from where I was standing. He was shooting. Bad guy. Bad news.”

  “You going to write the report?” she said.

  “It’s my turn.” He sat quietly for a moment. “Did you get anything from the director?”

  “Nothing that will push the investigation forward. We still need to talk with Virginia Rodriguez.”

  “Before the man started shooting, I was eavesdropping on someone I suspect to be Virginia Rodriguez talking to another woman. I was going to intervene but I was waiting for you. She is a brutal gossip. Mandy was right about Jeanine saying there was a hostile environment here.”

  “The interviews, the background checks, and what we’ve investigated so far seems weak. We need to dig more.”

  “I have faith in our medical examiner and forensics,” he said.

  “You’re right. We can’t give up in the bottom of the ninth.”

  “When did you start referencing baseball?”

  “When we needed a home run to solve Jeanine’s murder. Let’s regroup and keep digging.”

  “That’s what we do.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Saturday 0945 hours

  Katie felt energized and happier than she had all week as she drove to one of the lesser-used parks for police K9 training. Sergeant Hardy from Pine Valley Sheriff’s Department had invited her and Cisco to participate in routine training as the department’s own dogs practiced for an upcoming competition. It helped to keep Cisco’s energy in check and he would be doing what he loved most—searching for and catching bad guys.

  Cisco whined and paced. He knew—most likely by the change of Katie’s energy level—that they were going to train.

  Katie had called Lizzy and invited her to come and check out the dogs and training. She had sent a text with the location but didn’t hear back from her. Their shared military K9 training was one of the factors that had sealed their friendship. Few people knew what that type of bond was like until they trained and worked in police or military K9.

  Even though Katie was on her own time and relaxing for a few hours off from the investigation, her mind was never far from the cases.

  Yesterday had been intense, but she reviewed in her mind what they had really learned. She felt they understood Jeanine Trenton’s life a little better: her work environment was intense due to the workload and the lack of supplies—it was a job that wasn’t for everyone, and that was without the harassment that she had suffered. But Katie thought there were clues they were currently missing that would explain why she was murdered.

  Katie turned into the parking area at the park where there were several K9 SUVs from Pine Valley as well as some from the surrounding cities.

  Cisco amped up the volume of his whining.

  “Easy, boy. Save all that energy for the bad guy.”

  Katie got out of her Jeep and walked through the parking lot until she saw Sergeant Hardy talking with two officers that she wasn’t familiar with. He smiled and nodded when he saw her.

  “Hi, Detective,” the sergeant said.

  “Sergeant. Nice to see you.”

  “Is Cisco ready for some action?”

  “Always.”

  “Good. We’re setting up for protection work and then some trailing to find the bad guy.” He made some notations on a clipboard.

  “Great.”

  “Are you on a tight schedule?”

  “Not really. I’m meeting my uncle later, but he can wait.” She laughed.

  “Well, it’ll probably be about twenty minutes before your turn is up.”

  “That’s fine. Thank you.”

  Sergeant Hardy added her name and moved on to the other officers.

  Katie began watching the impressive teams working with a decoy—there were German shepherds and Belgian Malinois and one black Labrador retriever. She turned and saw a gold Camaro enter the parking lot. Recognizing it immediately, she hurried to the car.

  “Lizzy,” she said, glad that her friend could make it.

  “Wouldn’t miss this,” she said and shut her car door.

  As Katie neared, she saw John get out of the passenger side. Taken back for a moment, she kept her composure. She thought Lizzy and John weren’t seeing one another because of the long distance, but they did seem like a good match.

  “Hey, John. Nice to see you.” Katie smiled.

/>   “Yeah, it’s hard to get him to get out in the fresh air,” Lizzy laughed.

  “I can understand that.”

  “I’ve heard so much about Cisco and his abilities, I wanted to watch the K9 teams in action,” he said.

  “Glad you could come,” said Katie.

  “C’mon, girl, let’s go check this out,” said Lizzy as Katie led the way.

  The three of them joked and watched the impressive teams in action.

  “Well, I have my favorite,” said Lizzy.

  “The tan Malinois?”

  “Nope, Cisco will always be my favorite. I remember him from the beginning.”

  “Scott, you’re up next,” said Hardy.

  “Go get ’em, girl!”

  Katie hurried to her Jeep, opened the back door, quickly snapped on a leash, and led Cisco out. He was poised and ready. Always knowing when it was time to train or catch the bad guys, he waited for his handler’s commands. He looked exceptionally shiny in the sunlight.

  Katie placed her gun in the holster and secured handcuffs to her belt.

  They entered the area where an old baseball field once stood. There was a police car used to make the reenactment as authentic as possible.

  “We’ll pop the back door when it’s needed,” said Sergeant Hardy.

  Katie nodded. She knew this drill well and it was one of Cisco’s favorites. She glanced to the fence where Lizzy and John watched intently. Lizzy gave a wave accompanied by her big smile.

  Katie put Cisco in the back of the patrol car and shut the door. She saw him chuff and whine as he paced back and forth.

  She got behind the wheel where the keys awaited. Turning the engine over, it roared to life. She was supposed to drive across the field where the decoy—one of the officers in a heavy-duty bite suit—waited to agitate the situation.

  Katie couldn’t help but flash back to her time on patrol in Sacramento. She wasn’t in a K9 unit, but sitting in the police cruiser brought back so many memories.

  She put the car in drive and eased it forward. Cisco was barking and wanting to get to work. The decoy stood ahead, facing her and not moving. She shifted the car into park and exited the vehicle.