Not Dead Yet (17 page)

“You’re doing a great job.  So what happened next?” Jack asked. 

“Then I heard sirens.  People came pouring out of the other apartment buildings.  An ambulance pulled up.  They went over to him and started working on him.” 

“Why weren’t they giving you medical attention? Didn’t they know you were shot?”

“I didn’t even know I was shot,” Theia explained. “Seriously, I had no pain at first. They told me later that was from the adrenaline of it all.  So, there I was sitting in my front yard, thinking, ‘Oh, my God.  He played a psychotic, disturbed prank on me, he fired blanks at me, and they shot and killed him.’ Then the side of my ribcage felt wet.  I reached across my chest with my other hand and touched my side.  My hand was dripping with blood.  That’s when I realized I’d been shot.  And then the pain hit.  They called another ambulance, and they came and cut my top off, right in my yard, in front of a bunch of my neighbors.”

“That had to be embarrassing,” Jack commented, rubbing Theia’s neck and shoulders.

“Oh yeah,” she admitted. “I hadn’t known there were that many people in the other apartments.  The EMTs just left me like that, with my top cut off, to go get a stretcher.  One of my neighbors draped his shirt over me.  The funny thing was, I was more upset that my favorite suit was ruined than I was about being topless.  I guess shock can have that effect.  It was a great suit, though.” 

“You’re funny,” Jack said. “What was going on with your ex at this point?”

“The paramedics had put a tube down his throat and were doing CPR,” Theia answered. “They were busting a gut trying to save his life.  I watched them as I was being wheeled to my ambulance.  I,” she hesitated, “I found myself wishing they wouldn’t work so hard to save his life, since he had tried so many times to kill me, and I knew he wouldn’t stop until one or both of us were dead.  Then, of course, I felt guilty about thinking that way.  I wonder if that’s why my subconscious won’t let go?”

“I don’t know, but I would have felt the same way,” Jack assured her. “When did he die?”

“I’m not sure,” Theia said.  “The homicide detectives kept questioning me while I lay in a treatment room.  The emergency room nurses were getting pretty upset.  The police told my family that I had shot Foster, and they wouldn’t let anyone in to see me.  They were freaking out, thinking I was going to be arrested and charged with manslaughter or even murder. Finally they let my brother in to see me for about a minute.  He asked me if I shot Foster.  I told him no, that my gun was in my apartment, in the closet by the front door. The police eventually admitted they were playing games with all of us, trying to get a confession,” Theia commented, shaking her head.

“You’re kidding.  That’s a pretty lousy thing to do to someone who has just been shot.”

“They didn’t know the whole story.  Once they found out, and confirmed where my gun was, they were nicer.  They were just doing their jobs.”

“That still sucks.”

“Only because it was me.  If we were talking about a total stranger, you might have said they followed protocol,” Theia pointed out.

“I guess you’re right,” Jack conceded. “Sure does feel different, though, when you know the person.  And when she’s an unarmed woman.”  And the one you are falling for.

“Now don’t be sexist!” Theia objected.  “I held my own pretty well, under the circumstances.  He had a gun and I didn’t.  I lived and he didn’t.”

“Good point,” Jack said. “So when did you find out he was dead?”

“Not until about four or five hours later.  No details, just, he was pronounced dead.  That was eerie.  We’d met in an emergency room, when we both worked in a hospital.  He died when we were both patients in an emergency room.”

“I guess you could say things went full circle, whatever that means,” Jack mused. “At least you know he can never hurt you again.  Did you go to the funeral?”

“No.  That was another weird thing.  The hospital lost the damn body.”

“They what?”

“Yeah, they lost his body.  His poor mother didn’t even have the closure of putting his body in the family burial plot.  She had a marker put up anyway.  What else could she do?” 

“How do you lose a body?” Jack asked.

“I never did get a straight story on that.  The hospital blamed the funeral home and the funeral home blamed the hospital.  Hospital said the funeral home took the wrong body, and they came up with some half filled-out paperwork that sort of indicated that, but they could’ve fabricated the paperwork to cover their own butts.  The funeral home denied they picked up Foster’s body, they said it was already gone when they got there.”

“Well that’s ironic, a hospital loses a doctor’s body,” Jack said.

“Good one.  Sometimes I wish I’d asked to see his body after he was pronounced dead, just to know for sure, you know.  But I’ve never been able to stand looking at dead bodies.  I really hate open casket funerals, even of people I don’t know very well.  I don’t think I could take it, looking at the corpse of the man I was married to, despite how things ended with us.”

“But you’re sure he was dead, right?”

“Oh yeah.  I mean, at first, I was a little suspicious, when they said the body went missing, but then I realized I was just being paranoid.  After what I saw in my front yard, he had to be dead.  No one could live through that.”

“I’m just glad he can never hurt you again,” Jack confessed.  “I’m sorry a human being is dead, but I’m glad he can’t hurt you.  If you ever want to talk about the nightmare or anything else, just say the word.  I promise to listen and hold you and make sure you know you’re safe.”

“Thanks,” Theia’s body relaxed. “I’m really grateful.  Wow, this has been exhausting.  In fact, the entire last week has been.  The days are even starting to jumble together.  Now that the nightmares are back, I’m almost afraid to go to sleep.  How long was I asleep?” Theia asked. “The nice ‘floating in the clouds’ dream seemed to last only a few minutes before all hell broke loose.”

“You were asleep for a couple hours.  I was researching online, trying to find something that might help us find Donald.  Then I heard you thrashing about and muttering.  I went over to you, and you know the rest.”

“Yes, I do.  So did you find anything?”

“Very little. A few crude postings by him here and there, and an angry rant or two, but nothing recent and nothing that gives a clue as to where he could be. And I’m a little surprised we haven’t heard back from Lu and Colleen.”

“Let’s call again and have them come over,” Theia said.  “We can compare notes and brainstorm about the video.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

“The detective came and took our statements.  He played the video for us on his laptop, then he took the evidence to examine it further,” Theia told Lu and Colleen.  “We can’t tell if she is still alive, but she’s in bad shape.  At least we have something to work with now.”

“Great,” said Lu.  “So the game is on again.”

“Obviously Donald knows Theia’s staying here.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he also knows where you live, Lu, and that Colleen’s staying with you.  We’ll have to be extra careful now,” Jack warned. 

“If I’m any more careful, I’m gonna have a stroke,” Colleen protested.  “I’m not used to all this being careful stuff.”

“No shit,” said Lu.

“Kiss my ass, girlfriend,” Colleen replied.

“Well I see you two are hitting it off well,” Theia said. 

“Come on, we need to work together as a team. I don’t know what you guys have been doing, but I looked around online trying to find anything I could about Donald, looking for a clue as to where he might be hiding her,” Jack said. “The place in the video had a rough, dirty wooden floor—not like inside a house.  The police are going to see if there are any outbuildings like that at his parents’ property, since there weren’t any at Rita’s place.”

“So what are we gonna do?  Sit here like animals in a cage, waiting for him to kick down the door and kill us?” Colleen’s voice got higher in pitch as she started to lose control. “I’m not gonna just sit here and wait until it’s too late for my sister.  I say we go out and get her!”

“Great idea.  Where is she?” Jack asked.

“Damn it, I don’t know,” Colleen blurted.  “Why can’t you brainiacs or the cops figure that out?”

Lu, Theia and Jack looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

“Fine.  No one’s gonna to answer my question.  Are we gonna just going to sit around here and be ignorant until he kills my sister, if he hasn’t already?” Colleen demanded.

“You’re right,” Jack said.  “We have to find a way to help her.  Let’s see what we can find out about Donald.” He walked across the room to his computer. 

Over the next couple of hours they searched high school reunion websites, blogs and social media sites.  Finding nothing useful, Jack asked, “Any ideas—anyone?”

“Let me take a turn,” Theia elbowed him out of the chair.

“What are you searching?” Lu asked, leaning over Theia’s shoulder.

“Online court records,” Theia answered.

“For what?” Lu asked.

“Anything,” Theia replied.  “Addresses where he’s been served with summons, official addresses in court files, cities where he’s been sued, people he’s been married to, outstanding warrants, anything.”

“All that stuff’s online?” Colleen asked. 

“That and a lot more,” Theia said. “You have to have an account to get some of the information, and not all states participate.  Even within our state, many of the rural counties don’t post their information online, but some information is better than none.”

“What’s all that?” Colleen pointed at the screen, where a court records search had brought up Donald’s name with line after line of entries.

“Looks like a bunch of speeding tickets.  That,” Theia pointed, “is probably a DUI that got amended down to a C&I.”

“What’s a C&I?” Colleen asked.

“Careless and imprudent driving,” Theia explained.  “Almost every time you see that, the person had a DUI that a lawyer got amended down.  They still have to pay a whopper fine, but they don’t have a DUI on their record.”

“That one’s a divorce,” Theia pointed and continued. “Three orders of protection, two paternity cases, a disturbing the peace,” she went through several pages of cases involving Donald, “assault, resisting arrest, possession and weapons charges.”

“Paternity?  Donald?  I never heard anything about that.  I wonder if Rose knew.  Who are the baby mommas?”

“Hang on.  I want to go through all the cases,” Theia said,  “and write down every lawyer and every address Donald has used, and the names and addresses of the other people in all these cases.  This will take some time.”

“That’s a lot of information!” breathed Colleen.

“We can do the same searches on his sister and parents,” Theia informed her.  “We can also check another site for outstanding warrants against them.”

“Cool!” Colleen exclaimed.  “Must be nice to be a boring lawyer and know how to do this kind of stuff.”

“Thank you for the compliment I think was embedded somewhere in there,” Theia said. “I have a pile of work to do, and I want to get started. I need a pen and paper and some space.”

Working without a break, Theia scribbled over twenty pages of names, addresses and other information.  She stood, rubbed her lower back, which was aching, and handed her notes to Colleen.

“Holy shit!  What are we gonna do with all this?” Colleen asked.

“Go through every page line by line,” Jack said. “Let us know if you know any of people or the addresses.  Did you know about any of the criminal cases?  Have you met any of the kids or the mothers in the paternity cases?”

Colleen put her hands up in the air.  “One thing at a time!  Don’t push me.  I need a drink.  Got any beer around here?”

“I’m a guy in an extended stay business traveler hotel.  Of course I have beer.  Help yourself,” he jerked his thumb toward the kitchen.

“He doesn’t wait on anyone,”  Theia said.

Colleen came back with two beers, wiggling one for someone to claim.  Lu’s hand shot up and snatched the can.

“Here, give me this goddamn book,” Colleen plucked the notes out of Jack’s hands and flopped down onto the sofa, where she sat cross-legged, frowning, looking at the notes and drinking her beer.

Colleen began going through the pages of notes, pointing to names and addresses as she commented.  “I never heard of the first baby momma, but this other one, oh yeah, I remember that slut,” she pointed to the woman’s name. “Didn’t know they had a kid together.  I bet the kid’s not even his.  That whore slept with every guy in town over the age of twelve.”

Colleen scanned the pages.  “Why do they have this address for him?” she asked, indicating an address in the notes.  “He’s never lived in that county. He’s always lived either with his parents or in St. Louis. Where the hell is that, anyway?”

Lu looked at the address, “That’s in farm country, a good three hour drive.  Was he ever a farmer?”

“Hell no,” Colleen replied. “Even growing pot would be too much work for Donald.  He’d rather get a good union job, stay long enough to get benefits, then hurt himself on the job and draw worker’s comp.”