Fatal Care (40 page)

Joanna turned back to the wall panel and punched in 60-50-43. There was no click from the door’s locking mechanism.

Brennerman was asking, “Let’s go back to the fetuses Mirren was working on. You knew all about that, didn’t you?”

“He never told me anything,” Nancy said, her voice trembling.

“Sure he did,” Brennerman coaxed her along. “I’d appreciate your telling me the truth. Otherwise we’ll have to let the snakes out again.”

“No! Please!”

Joanna punched in 60-50-44. She waited. No click.

“That’s how the police found the abortion clinic where Mirren got the fetuses,” Brennerman was saying. “He told you and you told Joanna Blalock, and she told the police.”

“No! I swear I didn’t!”

“We think Joanna knew all about the fetuses,” Brennerman said. “And I’ll bet she’ll tell us everything when we question her in a few minutes. She won’t be as brave as you because she knows the agony one goes through before dying from a rattlesnake bite.”

Joanna was up to 60-50-46. Still no click. Her hands started shaking at the thought of a rattlesnake bite and the horrible death it caused.
Calm down, damn it! Calm down or you’ll never open this damn door
. More deliberately she pushed down on the numbered buttons. 60-50-47. The door remained locked.

“And you knew exactly where the data book on the fetal research was hidden,” Brennerman pressed on. “Mirren must have shown you where it was located.”

“No! I just guessed.”

“Are there other data books hidden away?”

“I don’t know. He never showed me.”

“Crap!”

“Please help me,” Nancy begged, and started crying again. “Don’t let me die.”

Joanna was up to 60-50-48. There was still no click. She swallowed hard, wondering if the numbers she had recalled were correct. If they weren’t, she was dead. Her heart began to pound in her chest. She punched in 60-50-49. Nothing.

Brennerman was asking, “And what about the extra two hundred and fifty dollars a week Mirren was giving you?”

“That was for overtime work,” Nancy answered.

“That was your share of the blackmail money,” Brennerman snapped.

Joanna concentrated her hearing. Was Nancy really in on the blackmail? She entered a new set of numbers as she listened.

“No,” Nancy protested. “It was for overtime.”

“You’d better tell the truth,” Brennerman warned. “The longer the venom stays in your system, the less chance the antivenin will work.”

“Please!”

“Tell the goddamn truth!”

“I am!”

Joanna was now at 60-50-50, and the door was still locked. Her hands were sweating profusely and she rubbed them against her arms to dry them. She stared at the panel, thinking about the last numbers of the code and wondering if she should not go to the uppermost number, 99, and work her way down. Maybe that would change her luck. No, she quickly decided. Keep it in sequence. She punched in 60-50-51.

“Put Nancy in the animal room,” Brennerman told the guards. “She can re-think her answers while we question Joanna Blalock.”

A guard asked, “Do you want Blalock strapped down on the table, too?”

“Do her the same way you did Nancy,” Brennerman ordered. “And get two more rattlesnakes.”

Joanna shuddered.
Oh, Christ! They’re coming for me
!

Frantically, Joanna kicked against the metal door, but it hardly budged. She quickly scanned the room, looking for something that could be used as a weapon. But the walls were bare and there was no furniture. Nothing was made of glass.

Joanna glanced back through the Plexiglas window. The guards were lifting Nancy Tanaka off the surgical table. Her body was limp and offered no resistance.
She’s dying
, Joanna thought.
And I’m next
.

Joanna turned back to the wall panel and tried to remember the last numbers she had punched in. Was it 60-50-50? Or 50-50-51?
Oh, Christ! Stop wasting time
! She quickly entered the numbers 60-50-50 and waited. There was no click.

“She’s heavy as hell,” one of the guards complained.

“That’s because she’s like dead weight,” the other guard explained.

“Oooh,” Nancy moaned weakly.

“Hurry it up!” Brennerman barked. “And get Blalock in here.”

Joanna hastily punched in 60-60-51.
No! Damn it! The middle set of digits should be 50
. She entered the code 60-50-51. The locking mechanism made no sound. Joanna kicked futilely at the metal door and then glanced over her shoulder at the Plexiglas window. The guards had Nancy’s body halfway through the door.

Joanna’s hands were shaking again. She clasped her fingers together to steady them; then she turned back to the wall panel.
Oh, God! Let this be the right number! Please
!

She punched in 60-50-52.

The locking mechanism clicked. The door opened automatically.

Joanna dashed out, closing the door behind her. Quickly she surveyed the expansive area and tried to orient herself. She was on the side of the Bio-Med plant. To the left she saw the dimly lighted parking lot. Nancy’s car was still there. Joanna ran toward the car, but her progress was slow because her boots were sinking into the sand and gravel. She prayed that Nancy had left the keys in her car. It was Joanna’s only chance.
Oh, Lord! Let them be there
! Joanna’s hopes started to rise.
Let those keys be in the ignition switch. I’ll crash through the front gate. And then I’ll come back. With Jake Sinclair
.

Joanna tripped in the loose gravel and almost fell. She regained her balance and raced on, reaching the pavement of the parking lot. Pausing to catch her breath, she glanced over her shoulder. It was dark. There was no commotion. The guards hadn’t discovered her missing yet. But they soon would.

She ran to Nancy’s car and flung open the front door. There was no key in the ignition or under the floor mat or behind the overhead sun visor. Joanna’s hopes quickly faded. She was still trapped. In front of her was a high fence topped off with barbed wire. Behind her was the plant and the guards. She couldn’t go to the left because there was a guarded gate in her way. And to her right was desert. Nothing but desert.

I’m trapped
, Joanna thought hopelessly.
Trapped with no way out. Except east through the desert. And that is certain death. I’d never survive that. I’m as good as dead. Any way I turn, I’m dead
.

Joanna noticed the automatic trunk release inside Nancy’s car. Maybe Nancy had a hidden set of keys there. Joanna pulled the lever and the trunk popped open. She hurried to the rear of the car and looked inside. All she found was the woolly blanket she’d hidden under and a small plastic bottle of water that was half empty.

The side door to the Bio-Med plant suddenly swung open.

A guard stepped out yelling, “Get the dogs!”

Joanna quickly grabbed the blanket and small bottle of water. Then she ran for the darkness of the desert.

“You’d better warn the doc,” Farelli said.

“I tried to, but there was no answer at her lab or her condo,” Jake told him. “I’m going to run over to Brentwood real quick and see if Joanna is home.”

“And I’ll ride downtown with Mrs. Hot Pants and make sure she’s booked right.” Farelli gestured with his head to the backseat of the black-and-white unit where a handcuffed Lucy Rabb was sitting. “Can you believe it? She was screwing old man Rabb, Mervin Tuch, and this guy Brennerman all at the same time. She was a busy girl.”

“Not that busy,” Jake commented dryly. “She still found time to have two of them whacked.”

Farelli moved away from the patrol car and lowered his voice. “When we get her downtown, you know she’s going to lawyer up.”

“Let her,” Jake said, unconcerned. “We’ve got a nice, clear tape recording of her confession.”

“They’ll say we coerced it out of her.”

“You can bet on that,” Jake grumbled. “And then Brennerman’s lawyer will say she’s lying to save her own ass.”

Farelli shook his head. “It’s going to be a goddamn circus.”

“Tell me about it,” Jake said, and reached for the door to his car.

Jake drove down the winding road that led out of Bel Air and into the Brentwood area. The narrow road was poorly lighted and there were frequent deer crossing signs, so he had to go slow. He kept thinking about Farelli’s comment that the case was going to end up being a circus. A goddamn circus. He was right on that score. Oh, Lucy Rabb would end up going to jail, but they would plea-bargain her sentence way down. And they would point all the evidence at Mervin Tuch and leave him holding the bag. And nobody would give a shit about that because Tuch was dead and would soon be forgotten.

But Eric Brennerman was another matter. It would be his word against Lucy Rabb’s. Other than Lucy’s statement, they had nothing to really show that Brennerman was involved in the murders. He would probably walk, although he was surely in it up to his ass.

And Brennerman was plenty smart, Jake thought sourly. He had stayed in the background and pulled the strings to manipulate the others. The only evidence they had against him was indirect and would never stand up in court. Oh, he was smart, all right, and plenty dangerous, Jake concluded. One had to be smart as hell to become a doctor and smarter yet to become a brilliant researcher. The super-bright always made the best criminals. They knew how to outthink people, and that included most cops.

Jake passed through the west gate of Bel Air and turned onto Sunset Boulevard. It was after midnight, and traffic was light but slow because of road construction. Jake lit a cigarette, his mind still on Eric Brennerman and how bright the son of a bitch was. And how dangerous. What was it that Lucy Rabb said Brennerman had in store for Joanna? He was going to kill her naturally. That was it. It would be a natural death. And he could pull it off. But not if Joanna was forewarned. Because she was every bit as smart as Brennerman and every bit as tough, too.

Jake checked his watch again. It was 12:10. He figured that Joanna was probably on her way home from the hospital. Or maybe she was enjoying one of her hour-long bubble baths during which she refused to be disturbed. Jake smiled, remembering the time she wouldn’t talk to him because she was in her bubble bath, so he jumped in with his clothes still on. She was angry at first, but they ended up laughing their heads off. That was the best of times. They had just solved a difficult case involving an HMO doctor who was killing off his patients. And now, Jake thought grimly, another doctor gone bad was trying to do the same thing to Joanna. Jake’s face hardened as he remembered Brennerman’s threat to kill Joanna naturally. What the hell did he mean by that? How did he plan to come at her?

Jake turned onto Barrington, approaching the condominium complex where Joanna lived. He hoped she was up, because otherwise she’d be mad as hell, thinking he had awakened her for something that could have waited until morning. Well, that was just too damn bad. She was in real danger, and he was going to protect her.

Jake pulled into the visitors parking area and came to a stop. He glanced over at Joanna’s parking space. It was empty. But the handicap parking space next to it was occupied by a dark Toyota with an out-of-state license plate.

Jake pushed his seat back and stretched out his legs, thinking that Joanna was probably on her way back from the hospital. He closed his eyes and began to doze while he waited for her.

Off to his left Jake heard a car door close. He looked over and saw a big, heavyset man walking toward him. The man has his right hand tucked into his leather coat, Napoleon style. The guy had
hood
written all over him.

Jake reached for his weapon and pointed it out the car window. “Freeze, asshole!”

Scottie tried to quick draw, but it was too late.

Jake fired twice. The first bullet went into Scottie’s chest, the next into his forehead. Scottie dropped like a dead weight.

The windshield in Jake’s car suddenly exploded, spraying glass everywhere. Reflexively, he ducked behind the steering wheel and flattened himself against the front seat. He waited for the next shot, all the while trying to gather his thoughts.
Goddamn it! There was another shooter out there! But where? Where? He had to be somewhere in front of me. Maybe near the condominium complex. Yeah, maybe up against the—Oh, shit! The dark Toyota in the handicap parking space. The blond hitter’s car. She was here for Joanna
.

Jake flung the car door open and threw himself onto the ground, rolling as he hit the pavement. He heard the soft thud of a second bullet penetrating the metal of the car door. Keeping his head down, he quickly squirmed backward until he was beneath another car.

Jake looked out at the condominium complex in front of him. Off to the right and about twenty-five feet away, he saw the blond hitter’s car. Jake wondered why the hitter hadn’t made a break for it. Probably because she would have had to back out of the space. And it would have been easy for Jake to ram her and block her exit. So she decided to stay and take her chances.

But where was she now? She sure as hell wasn’t in her car. The front door on the driver’s side was open. If she had stayed in her car, all Jake would need to do was crawl out wide to his left, and she’d be an easy target. No. She wasn’t that stupid. But where the hell was she?

Jake studied the dimly lit area adjacent to the condominium complex. The hitter wouldn’t be there. She’d be on the move, maybe trying to circle around him. Or maybe looking for a way out. Jake heard a noise off to his left. It sounded like a twig breaking. Slowly he pushed himself sideways until he came out on the driver’s side of the Ford SUV. There was no noise now, no sound at all. Jake wondered again if the hitter was circling. There were plenty of cars to hide her movements. And if she did get behind him, he was as good as dead.

Jake strained his eyes, trying to see the periphery of the poorly lit parking lot. There were no movements, no shadows to follow. But he knew that the hitter was still out there. He could almost feel her. Jake concentrated all of his senses, trying to locate the blond hitter. But again, there was nothing. Everything stayed still and quiet. Seconds ticked by. Then a cat jumped out of the darkness and ran by him.