Isabel's Run (37 page)

It was quiet for several seconds as they flipped through their notes, trying to tie off any loose ends. Finally, David said, “We’ve been at this for nearly two hours now, and the questions are starting to get a little repetitive. Do you folks have any further questions of Mr. Logan?”

“Yeah,” Captain Cristello said. “Where the hell’d you learn to shoot like that?”

I smiled. “U.S. Army.”

He nodded. “Good.”

“Alright, then,” Ohlmer said. He turned and looked at his associate.

“Denise? Do you have anything else?”

She shook her head. “I don’t. I think we’ve got everything covered.”

“Okay then,” Ohlmer said. “Let me wrap things up. Based on what I’ve heard, there seems to be little question that the shooting was justifiable. There seem to be about nine witnesses—police officers—who corroborate your testimony. Accordingly, based on what we know now, I can say that, pending the results of our final report, the district attorney’s office will neither be referring this matter to a grand jury, nor will we be filing charges on our own. When the complete investigation is wrapped up, we’ll make our decision formal. Until then, do us all a favor and please keep this conversation confidential.”

I nodded. I never expected to be charged for anything, but it was still a relief to hear it from Harold.

“Thank you, Harold,” David said. “Are we free to go, then?”

“You are,” he said.

“Thanks,” I said.

“Thank you,” he said. “And Danny,” he said, turning to look at me. “Thank you.”

“Abso-fucking-lutely, thank you,” Cristello said. “I’m pretty certain it’s safe to say that if you hadn’t been where you were, we’d probably have two dead officers on our hands. The department owes you for this.”

I smiled. “No problem,” I said. I shook hands with each of them, and David and I left.

****

As we began to walk down the hallway to the lobby, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned and saw that it was Cristello.

“You okay, Danny?” he asked. “Is it alright if I call you Danny?”

I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “And, yeah, I’m okay. Thanks for asking, though.”

He nodded. “Just checking. I know it can be rough when you have to shoot someone.”

I looked at him carefully. “You?” I asked.

“Yeah, 2004. Kid with a gun. Messed me up for a couple of months. But we’ve got some good people you can talk to if you need it. I sure as hell did.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I appreciate it. Give me a card, Captain. If it gets to a point where I think I need to, I’ll give you a call and get a number.”

“Good deal,” he said. He handed me a business card.

“You take care of yourself,” he said. Then he turned around and walked the other way.

“I’m proud of you, son,” David said as we watched Cristello leave. “You did a good thing today. You’re a fine young man.” He thought for a second, and then he chuckled and added. “If all my clients were like you, I’d probably be out of a job.”

* * * *

We reached the fifth floor lobby and found several police officers, including Dwayne and Gus, waiting to meet me. Dwayne shook my hand.

“Well done, Danny,” he said. “Good job.”

I nodded. “Thanks.”

“I know you, and I know you’re going to go all humble on us here, but you made a damn tough shot under very difficult circumstances and in so doing, you almost certainly saved the lives of two friends of mine. So thank you.”

“That goes for me, too,” Gus said.

“Me, too.” Said another officer. The other officers present all agreed.

I smiled and nodded. “Thanks,” I said.

“We talked it over,” Gus continued. “We decided that in a show of appreciation, we’re going to go ahead and waive one of the lunches you owe us.”

I smiled. “Gee, really?” I said. “That’s touching.”

“Well, hold on,” he added, “before you get all blubbery on us, the lunch we’re waiving—it’s got to be one of the ones where it was your turn to pick. Not one of those where we get to pick,” he looked at Dwayne. “Isn’t that right.”

Dwayne nodded. “That’s it.”

I chuckled. “Thanks a lot, guys,” I said. “I know how hard that must have been for you two. I’ll be sure and let Nancy know the depth of your gratitude.”

“You bet,” Gus said, nodding.

“By the way,” Dwayne said, “there’s a shitload of reporters downstairs. Unless you guys feel like holding a press conference, you might want to follow us. We know a secret way of getting out of here.”

I looked at David, and he nodded. I turned back to Dwayne. “By all means,” I said, “lead on.”

When we were safely on our way, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Isabel was almost forgotten in the events of the past couple of hours; thoughts of her small, frail body being carried out on a stretcher having been pushed to the back of my mind. Now that things were at least a little back under control, I found myself thinking about her. I needed to get to the hospital. Toni was there waiting for me. I was suddenly very eager to see her and find out how Isabel was doing.

DAVID DROVE ME back to my office, where I picked up the surveillance van. Toni’d had my Jeep towed to the dealership earlier in the afternoon. Apparently, they didn’t have all the replacement parts, so it wouldn’t be ready until next Monday or Tuesday. By the time I reached the University Medical Center at Montlake and Pacific, it was already past six. I called Toni on her cell and found out where they were. I hustled over to the surgery waiting room.

When I entered the room, I saw Toni sitting with Doc, Kelli, Julia, and Mary Webber. Toni got up and walked over to me as soon as she saw me. She hugged me tightly. I took a deep breath, smelling her hair and her makeup. For a moment, I felt like I was home, like I was safe, like the shitty events of the day weren’t a part of me any longer.

“You alright?” she asked, pushing me back and holding me by my arms, studying me closely.

I nodded. “Yeah, I suppose. It’s been a tough one.”

She nodded. “Did it go okay with the police?”

“Yeah. Remember Harold Ohlmer?”

“The DA? Tall, silver-haired guy?”

“Yep.” I explained how the interview had gone and how Harold had said that the DA wouldn’t refer the case to the grand jury.

“Bastards better not,” Toni said.

I smiled. “How’s Isabel?”

Toni glanced toward the nurses’ station. “She’s out of surgery, but she’s still in the recovery room. She had a partially ruptured spleen that was causing internal bleeding. She has some sort of infection and some sort of immune system reaction—they call it sepsis. Oh, and she also had a broken arm.”

“Jeez,” I said. “Anything else?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. They seem pretty close-lipped around here.”

“She’s not conscious yet? No one’s talked to her?”

Toni shook her head. “I don’t know. None of us have been able to talk to her. But I don’t know if she’s awake yet or not. They won’t let us back to see her.”

I made sure that Mary couldn’t hear, and then I asked, “Is she going to be okay?”

Toni looked at me, and I saw tears start to form in her eyes. “They don’t know,” she said. “From what they said, sepsis is really dangerous. She’s bad, Danny.”

I felt like a huge weight had just hit me in the chest, and it wasn’t just because I hated to see Toni hurting. Fact is, I’d never even stopped to consider that after we rescued Isabel from Donnie Martin that she still might not be out of the woods. I guess I’d assumed that she would be okay physically, aside from being beat up while she was held captive. The notion that she might have been beaten nearly to death was a blow.

I looked over at Mary. Her hands were clutched tightly around a tissue. She stared at the ground, not looking around, not saying anything. Kelli sat on one side of her, with Julia on the other, holding her hand. From time to time, one or the other spoke to her. Mary nodded, but didn’t speak. “How’s Mary holding up?” I asked.

“She’s in shock,” Toni said.

Understandable.
“How about Kelli?”

“She’s good. She’s trying to be strong for Mary. You know,” she said, “I told her that you volunteered to keep looking for Isabel, even without pay. She didn’t need to go out and try to be a hero.”

I shrugged. “Don’t be too hard on her. She took action. She did what she thought she needed to do.”

“She could’ve gotten herself killed.”

I smiled. “She didn’t. She’s safe. Isabel’s rescued. Soon, Isabel will be better. Trust me.”

Toni looked at me for a moment, and then she smiled. “I do,” she said. “I do trust you.”

I nodded. “Good. You better.” I hugged her again. While I was holding her, I looked over to the group. “I think I’d better go talk to them,” I said.

Toni nodded. I walked over. Julia smiled at me when she saw me. When Kelli noticed me, she got up and walked over to meet me. She stopped when she was a couple of feet away. “Danny,” she said. “I’m so sorry.” Tears filled her eyes.

I looked at her for a moment, and then I smiled. “Come here,” I said. She rushed over to me and we hugged.

“I was so afraid for Isabel,” she said. “I didn’t know what would happen to her if you guys stopped looking.”

“It’s alright,” I said. “For the record, we weren’t quite ready to give it up. We had a pretty good idea where Isabel had to be, but we needed more evidence to get the police involved. We were frustrated, but we weren’t done. But then when you went out on your own undercover investigation, well then we didn’t have a choice. We had to stay in then—all the way in.”

“I’m sorry,” she said again.

I smiled. “It’s alright. Really. Hunting for you allowed us to uncover another few leads that made it so that we could bring the police in. So I guess I’d have to say that you made a difference.” I paused, and then I added, “But if you want to become a private investigator—a real one—then come and talk to Toni and me first. We’ll help you out. Meanwhile, no more playing Nancy Drew on your own. Got it?”

She nodded.

“Good. Now we just have to say our prayers for Isabel.”

She nodded again. “I’ve already started,” she said.

* * * *

Twenty minutes later, we were all still seated in the waiting room, hoping to hear something, anything, from Isabel’s doctors. Suddenly, Kelli’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, shit,” she said, quietly. “What’s he doing here?”

I turned and saw Tracey Webber enter the waiting room. Like the last time I’d seen him, he was wearing dark blue uniform pants and a light blue, short-sleeved uniform shirt—untucked and greasy. His face was red—he looked like he might be drunk.
Great.
He stood at the entrance, looking for someone—Mary, I suppose. He didn’t look happy.

I glanced over and saw that Toni’d seen him, too. She immediately jumped up and walked toward him.
Uh-oh.
She had a look in her eye. This could end badly.

“What are you doing here, asshole?” Toni demanded as she crossed the room. As I’d feared, she decided to skip the niceties. The nurse on duty took one look at the developing situation and immediately reached for her phone.

Tracey, as seemed to be his habit, was a little slow to catch on. His eyes scanned the room, pausing momentarily when he saw Kelli and me.

“I’m here because my stepdaughter’s in the hospital,” he said. “They said she was here.” His eyes continued to search the room. “Where’s my wife?”

“It’s thanks to you that Isabel’s here in the first place, ass-bag,” Toni said. She now stood right in front of him.

“What?” he said, his head spinning back to look at her. “What’d you say?” he demanded.

“Tracey, go home.”

His head popped up and his eyes locked on Mary.

“What?”

“Go home, Tracey,” Mary said again as she walked toward him.

“What the hell’s going on around here, Mary? Why are all these people here?”

She didn’t answer. The silence lingered for a few seconds, and then Tracey, apparently tired of waiting, said, “Fuck that,” his anger rising. “I drove all the way down here from Lynnwood. I’ll go home when I’m good and goddamn ready.”

Doc stood up at the same time I started walking toward Tracey.

“Hey,” I called out. “Big guy.”

He turned and looked at me. “You know, I didn’t like it the last time you called me that, Mr. Private Investigator. And I don’t like it now. What do you want?”

“Sorry about that,” I said, smiling. “I’m not trying to piss you off.” I was nearly to him now. I stopped and leaned toward him and spoke quietly. “If you want to know the truth, I’m actually trying to save you.”

“Save me? From what?” he asked, derisively.

“I’m trying to save a big guy like you from getting his ass kicked in public by a woman maybe half your size.” I nodded toward Toni. She was about an eighth of a second away from going nuclear and dropping this asshole, right there in the waiting room. As it was, I halfway expected to see a Doc Marten come flying through the air any second, aimed right at his nose. “She’s really pissed.”