I held them out to Ruby. “I know these are too big for you but maybe if you stuff something in the toes… I mean, it would be better than going barefoot, right?”
“Good idea,” she said, taking the shoes. “It’s just a shame that they don’t match my filthy, blood-stained dress.”
It took me a second to realize she was joking. “Well, I can always punch someone in the nose and let them bleed on the shoes, if you’d like.”
“I might just take you up on that,” she laughed. “I’ll grab a jacket at the hospital.”
It didn’t take us long to get to the hospital, but still, it seemed like a long time with the silence in the car. Ruby was thinking about Jack, and I didn’t have the words to comfort her. Nothing I could say would help her. Until she had the talk with Jack, she was going to wonder, to worry, and even regret. I was going to make sure she didn’t worry for long.
We entered the hospital through the emergency room, and Ruby pulled her badge from her purse and showed the security guard.
“I’m here to question suspects brought in by ambulance a little while ago. Do you have a jacket or something I could wear so I don’t scare the visitors?”
He nodded and looked over at me. “I’d better bring you a jacket, too.”
“Appreciate it.”
Once we got the jackets and put them on, we found out where the two men had been taken. The one I shot was in surgery and the one Ruby beat up was in an ER room just down the hall, having his nose set. We went to find him first. As requested, there was a police officer standing outside his door.
“Hey, Mike. How’s it going?” I asked, showing him my badge as a formality. Mike was fresh out of training and eager to prove himself. The poor kid still had teenage acne on his face. He became our self-appointed errand boy when he was off duty. He wanted it bad.
“Can’t complain. You?”
“Same old, same old. Are they done with him yet?”
“No, they said it would be about ten minutes and not to let anyone in.”
“Has he said anything?” I asked, waving my badge at the room before putting it away.
“In the car over here, he bragged about what he was going to do to the bitch who broke his nose.”
“What did he say?” Ruby asked impatiently.
Mike looked at her, at the blood on her dress that the jacket couldn’t cover up.
“It’s okay, Mike. She’s with the FBI, and she’s the one who broke his nose,” I explained.
He sized her up and then let loose with a belly laugh that echoed down the hall.
Ruby frowned, clearly annoyed. “Why does everyone react that way?”
The fact that she was so self-assured and didn’t see her size to be a limitation was energizing. After all she’d been through, she still had what it took. I admired that.
“I’m sorry. It’s not you,” Mike explained. “The way the guy described you, I thought you would look more like a female linebacker in the NFL.”
“Oh, sure, because his male ego can’t admit that little ol’ me broke his nose.”
“It’s a guy thing,” he said indifferently.
Ruby stepped closer and put her hands on her hips. “It’s condescending and sexist.”
“Uh, yeah. That’s what I meant to say,” Mike groveled as he took a step back.
Ruby walked past him down the hall.
Laughing under my breath, I patted Mike on the shoulder and followed her.
We walked down to the end of the hall and stood with our backs to the wall, so we could see the room.
“You were kind of hard on Mike, don’t you think?” I asked.
“You don’t know what it’s like, Trina,” she said, looking away.
I walked around her until she had to look at me. “Tell me.”
“Never mind. I’ll apologize to him later,” she said, crossing her arms.
“No, tell me. I want to know.”
At first, she looked at me as if she didn’t believe me, but I nodded encouragingly, and she relented. “When you’re my size and a girl, you get called on to do the most asinine things, not to prove that you can, but to give the good ol’ boys a laugh. It started in grade school, got worse in high school, and really bad at Quantico.”
“And you don’t see that as a compliment?” I asked. I had a different way of looking at it than she did.
“Hell, no, I don’t see it as a compliment,” she fired back.
“You are so secure with who you are and what you’re capable of that you must have frustrated the hell out of them.”
She turned and gazed up at me. “Is that how you see me?”
“Yes, it is,” I replied. Picking up the cross hanging from her neck, I continued, “I’ve seen you when you were incredibly vulnerable, and I watched as you evolved into who you really are. Even when you couldn’t remember who you were, your subconscious gave out subtle hints of how strong you are.” I let go of the necklace and turned back to the hallway. “It doesn’t matter what anyone says, you know what you’re capable of, and you don’t have to prove it to anyone. Period.”
She slipped her hand into mine as she looked down the hallway. “How did you get so smart?”
Shrugging, I replied, “Easy, I lived through the exact same thing. Only mine was the tall girl syndrome.”
Can I Trust You? – Ruby Grace Sutherland
God, I love you. Trina always seemed to know just what to say to make me feel better, and I did. I felt better. And she was right, I had been mean to Mike. “I’m going to go apologize to Mike for—”
“Wait. Mike works for the police,” Trina stated.
“Yes, yes he does,” I said humorously.
“He’s not a restaurant host, stopping people at the damn door without a reservation.”
“Oh, shit,” I blurted, realizing what Trina was saying. Mike had said they told him not to let anyone in. His job was to guard the suspect, not take orders from the staff.
Trina ran down the hallway, pulling her gun out and I followed, reaching into my purse for my gun. She ran past Mike, who looked startled, and barged into the room shouting, “Police, do not move!”
There was no one in there except for the kidnapper, who appeared unconscious. He had a bandage on his nose and his eyelid was swollen and red where I had stabbed him with my thumb. I put my fingers on his neck and felt for a pulse. I didn’t feel one, so I put my ear to his heart and didn’t hear anything. Instantly I climbed on top of him and started CPR.
“Mike, get a nurse in here, now!” Trina yelled.
“Copy that,” he said, running down the hall calling for a nurse.
A moment later, a nurse came running in, her stethoscope bouncing in her pocket. “What is going on here?” she asked, looking first at my gun, then at Ruby.
“His heart stopped,” Ruby explained without dropping her count.
The nurse hurried over to the intercom on the wall and held the button down as she called, “Code Blue, triage 3. Code Blue, triage 3.” Then she went to the bedside and felt his wrist pulse. She inserted the stethoscope ear tips into her ears and patted Ruby’s arm. “Stop compressions.” Ruby lifted her hands up in compliance as the nurse listened to his heart, then his carotid artery. Three other hospital personnel ran in, stethoscopes at the ready. “You can get down now,” the nurse said to Ruby. Then she turned her attention to the ER doctor. As she gave report, Ruby and I left the room.
“Mike, who the hell was in there?” I asked. He seemed unsure. “You said a nurse told you to keep everyone out for ten minutes. When was that?”
“Fifteen or twenty minutes ago now, I guess,” he replied.
“Tell us everything you remember about the nurse,” Ruby said, “Height, weight, uniform, all of it.”
Jack walked up and looked at each of us. “What’s going on? Give me a sit-rep, Agent.”
“My suspect appears to have been poisoned or suffocated,” I reported. “Unsure. Mike was about to explain what happened.”
<
br /> Jack seemed to understand and looked at the rookie sympathetically.
“I’m… I… am I in trouble?” Mike asked.
“You’re not in trouble, son, if you did nothing wrong,” Jack assured him. “Now, what do you remember?”
“The doctor and nurse were in there a long time and then they both came out. Then another nurse went in for about five minutes and came out. That’s when she told me no visitors allowed for ten minutes.”
“So she could fucking get away,” Trina said. She pulled out her phone and tapped in a number. “Paul, it’s me. We’ve got a possible homicide at the Methodist Hospital on Fannin Street. The short version is that we apprehended suspects trying to kidnap an FBI special agent in charge.”
“Is it related to our case?” Paul asked.
“I believe so, yes. Get down here, Paul, and bring the troops.”
Trina ended the call and looked around for something. “Hold on a sec,” she said and ran to the nurse’s station. A moment later, she returned carrying a piece of paper and pen. “Keep going, Mike. Tell us what the nurse looked like? What was she wearing? Color of her hair, anything you can think of.”
“She was my height, oh, and I’m 5’6, and had red hair with streaks of blonde.”
Streaks of blonde? “How old do you think she was?” I asked.
“Probably around mid-forties,” he answered, shifting his weight.
“Based on what, Mike?” Trina asked.
“Crow’s feet,” he responded. “She wore the same type scrubs that the others had on and a name badge.”
“Did you get her name?” I asked, knowing it would probably be fake anyway.
“No, it was turned around. She did wear an expensive-looking bracelet, I think it had diamonds on it.”
“Not in your standard hospital dress code,” Trina said, writing as she spoke.
“Wait. Was it a gold bracelet with diamond clusters around it?” I asked.
“Yeah, that’s it,” he answered excitedly.
“And did she have really long red fingernails that were obviously fake?”
“Yes!” he exclaimed.
“Ruby, do you know this person?” Jack asked.
I looked at him. Can I trust you? “We need to talk,” I said, walking away.
“Mike, stay put and explain everything again to Detective Paul Rhoades when he gets here,” Trina ordered.
“Copy that.”
Walking outside the busy ambulance bay, I found a quiet area away from the traffic and waited for Jack and Trina to catch up.
“What’s going on, Ruby? Did you know that nurse?” Jack asked.
“You tell me what’s going on first. You knew I had been raped and yet you said nothing. You had to have known that I had lost my memory, and still, you said nothing. You left me hanging out in the cold, Jack. How could you?” I tried hard to swallow back the tears, but they came anyway.
“Oh, my God. That’s what you thought? That I deserted you?” Jack asked, visibly shaken.
“What the hell else was she supposed to think, Jack?” Trina asked accusingly.
“I was here when they brought you in.”
“Wait just a damn second,” Trina ordered, holding her hand up. “You couldn’t have known that quickly that she was here. She had amnesia and when we got the DNA, it wasn’t hers.”
“No, I should imagine it was her twin sister, Emily’s,” he stated.
“But how did you know Ruby was here in the first place?” Trina persisted.
“I was picking up a friend for church,” he answered. “When I got here, he asked me to wait, that they were bringing in a possible overdose victim.”
“An overdose victim…” Could it be? “Was that me?” I asked.
“Yes. When Alan said the ambulance was coming—”
“Alan, your lover?” Trina asked.
His eyes grew large and his cheeks flushed. “How?” He looked at me and shook his head. “Never mind. Yes, Alan is my lover. He’s also an ER doctor here at the hospital. When he said an overdose was being brought in from the same church that we attend, I got curious. I’ve gone to that church awhile now, and know most of the people.”
Trina shook her head. “You’ve been going to my brother’s church and never caught on that I was related to him?”
“Remember, I only met you recently, Detective,” he said, undeterred. “And your brother hasn’t even given his first sermon yet.”
“You’re right, and I’ll give you that one. But why didn’t you tell Ruby that you saw her?”
“You were with Ruby, and I didn’t know who you were at first. I spoke with Alan and he assured me that she was going to be all right,” Jack explained and then glanced at me.
“I don’t remember seeing Alan,” I admitted.
“You were sedated, remember?” Trina said. “There were so many people in scrubs and coats that I wouldn’t know who was who.”
“It was Alan who convinced me to wait before approaching you. He was afraid it would be too overwhelming for you in the condition you were in. I saw the bond you had with Trina, and I understood what Alan meant. But before you left the hospital, I had Trina checked out. When I found out that you were a detective, Trina, I was assured that Ruby wouldn’t be harmed. Please believe me, Ruby, I took every precaution where you were concerned.”
I did believe him. I knew he cared.
“Why would you go to such lengths for an agent like that?” Trina asked, clearly not believing him. “Her supervisor or your assistant ASAC would be more likely to check on her. Why you, Jack?”
“She was working under my authority and…” Jack could tell that Trina wasn’t buying it and quite honestly, now I wasn’t so sure. He took a step to the side, his head down, his hands behind his back. “When I recruited you, Ruby, I met your parents, remember?”
I nodded. “I remember Dad was impressed with you.”
“And I with him. He wanted me to promise that nothing would happen to you, and I told him that I would do my best to keep you safe. It was my standard answer for requests like that. But when you graduated college, I spoke with him again, and he made me promise to watch over you if anything were to happen to him. And then, almost as if he knew, your parents were killed in a plane crash and suddenly you were left all alone. I was compelled to keep my promise, and I, uh, well, I guess I failed miserably.”
“What were you really going to say, Jack?” Trina probed.
“Damn, you’re merciless,” he stated, glaring at Trina.
“Yeah, when it comes to Ruby, I am.”
Jack arched his eyebrows and looked at her suspiciously. Then he looked at me and after a moment, smiled. “Don’t do like I did and hide in the closet, Ruby. People find out anyway.” He looked back at Trina. “I had a feeling about you when I first met you.”
“Yeah, I have a feeling about you, too. Now, what were you going to say?” Trina asked again.
He sighed and turned to me. “I had a daughter your age, Ruby. Her mother moved her out of state when she found out about me. It’s hard, you know, being who I am. Anyway, even before your father made me promise to watch out for you, I did, because I had come to think of you as my daughter.”
“Oh, my God, Jack. I didn’t know,” I gasped, putting my fingers on my cross.
“No, I should hope you didn’t, because I kept it to myself. I couldn’t show favoritism and besides, I wanted to watch you succeed on your own. And succeed you did.”
I wanted to hug him, but I restrained myself. An agent wasn’t supposed to show emotion in public, although I’ve broken that rule more times than I could count since I met Trina. I wiped my tears away and looked at Trina, who had a sour look on her face. She met my eyes and shook her head.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Change of Heart, Part Two – Trina Wiles
I could tell that Ruby had bought Jack’s act, but I found his story just a little too convenient. Had Ruby’s father really asked him to look after her? T
here was no way of knowing. His lover just happened to be a doctor in the same ER she was taken to? That would be easy enough to check out. The whole thing just sounded made up to me and until I got it verified, I wasn’t going to trust him. But I could tell, Ruby already did. She wanted it to be true and for her sake, I hoped I was wrong. But I couldn’t let her follow him blindly. Her life could be at stake.
“We’d better get back in there,” I suggested, wanting to get first crack at the suspect… if he lived. We walked in just as the ER doctor came out, wrapping his stethoscope across the back of his neck. “Did he make it?”
“No, he’s dead,” the doctor replied gruffly.
“What caused it?” Jack and I asked at the same time.
“Cardiac arrest,” he answered.
“And what caused that?” Ruby asked. “He didn’t look that out of shape to me.”
“We’re waiting on the tox screen now. But my guess, he overdosed on something.”
“Why do you think that?” I asked.
“He had a fresh needle stick in both arms,” he answered, pointing to the crook of his elbow.
Ruby’s mouth gaped open as she looked at me. “Do you think?”
“Possible, but let’s wait for the tox report before we go down that road.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Jack said and turned around. “Ladies, with me.” It wasn’t a request.
We followed Jack down the hall to the elevator. As soon as we got on and the doors closed, Jack hit the stop button and looked at Trina. “Look, I can tell you don’t trust me, Trina. It’s understandable. Everything I said was the truth, though I’m sure you’ll want to check it out. But right now I need you to both focused on the auction tomorrow night. We’ve got Intel from TSA that Dumarsais and Edmonia Andrepont will be on a flight that arrives tonight at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. I’ve got people covering them. I need you to question the other guy as soon as he’s out of surgery and follow up with the doctor on the tox screen.”
“And the woman who claimed to be a nurse? I’ve seen her before,” Ruby acknowledged. “She’s one of Joey’s girls. One of the DNA samples I got was from her.”
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