The Pikes Peak Regional Hospital’s parking lot had more than a few news vans sitting in it. Jeff had waited until morning before driving into Woodland Park from his place a few miles out of town. He was hoping to get inside the hospital to finish the job he had been hired to do. During the night, the contract killer realized that the woman may have gotten a good look at him. The way Jeff saw it, he was on the line for kidnapping, rape, and murder. He also had to make things right with Porter.
Getting through the hospital’s front entrance was no problem, but getting to the third floor was something completely different. Hospital security guards stood sentry near the elevators and emergency room entrance, checking hospital and visitor badges. Jeff stood there for a moment, thinking about his options. He then pulled the ballcap he found in his truck down lower over his face to conceal it from the surveillance cameras. Next, he put his hands behind his back, and with his left hand, he gripped the thumb of his right. Jeff counted to three in his head, relaxed his right hand, and jerked the thumb. The killer slightly grimaced when he felt the thumb come out of place. Dislocating his thumb when he needed to was a trick Jeff had developed after injuring his hand, sliding headfirst into third base ten years ago. The injury had torn the tendons and ligaments at the joint of his thumb, which provided him with a party trick of sorts. Jeff could escape handcuffs, ropes, and zip ties—all of which earned him free drinks at parties and bars. Now, he would use the trick to fake an injury, which he hoped would gain him access to the hospital.
As he neared the security guard at the emergency entrance, he cradled his right hand in his left. “Is this where I enter to be seen?”
The security officer looked the injured man up and down. “Yeah, do you have an ID?”
“Yeah, I think I can grab it,” Jeff answered as he slowly reached back and pulled his wallet out. He removed someone else’s driver’s license from it.
The security officer merely glanced at the Colorado driver’s license. If he had looked more closely, he would have noticed that the man in the photo simply resembled the man standing in front of him. “You can go on back.”
“Thanks,” Jeff replied. He placed the ID back in his wallet, walked past the guard, and through the double doors into the emergency room’s lobby.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked when she saw the man walk into the waiting area.
Jeff walked toward the woman and held up his hand. “Yeah, I dislocated my thumb pulling lumber out of my truck.”
“Have a seat, and we’ll get you checked in.”
Jeff looked around. “Can I use the bathroom first?” he asked while pointing toward the men’s bathroom.
“Yeah, go right ahead.”
Jeff nodded and walked toward the bathroom, which was next to another door that led out of the lobby. When he got to the door, he paused and surveyed the room, and he saw the receptionist get up and walk over to assist a coworker. Suddenly, the door opened, and a phlebotomist walked through it. Jeff took the opportunity and caught the door before it closed. He stepped through it without being seen and started down the hall.
L
Brody helped Nurse Harper get the woman back into bed.
“Please let me go,” the patient kept saying.
Harper rushed into the bathroom and held a washcloth under some cold water. She then returned to the patient and ran the cool cloth against her forehead. “You’re safe now. No one will hurt you.” Harper reassured her in a low, calm tone.
The woman looked into the nurse’s eyes, then reached up and pulled her close. “He hurt me,” she cried out and began to sob.
“I know, but you’re okay now,” Harper whispered while she caringly rubbed her back.
Brody stood there, not knowing what to do or say. He felt deep sadness for the woman.
When the CNA from the nurses’ station and Doctor Dawson walked in, Brody stepped back and gave them room to work.
When Doctor Dawson got close to the bed, the patient tried to get up once more and started screaming. He and the CNA held the woman down. “Diazepam!” the doctor ordered another nurse who had entered the room.
The nurse turned and hurried down the hall to retrieve the sedative. The woman grabbed Harper tightly and kicked her legs madly until the other nurse returned. Doctor Dawson rubbed the patient’s arm with an alcohol pad and injected the medication.
The mystery woman slowly released Harper, who gently laid her back down.
“Let’s get her IV back in place and restrain her to the bed,” Doctor Dawson ordered.
Harper gave the doctor a somber expression. “Doctor, do you think that’s best? I mean, she was restrained by whoever did this to her,” she explained while she held the patient’s bruised wrist up for the man to see.
Doctor Dawson’s lips turned downward. He knew what he was ordering and knew the patient had been restrained before. “Harper, I know, but she will do more harm to herself if she gets up again. We don’t have anyone available to sit with her.”
Brody stepped forward to volunteer. “I’ll sit with her.”
Doctor Dawson shook his head. “I don’t know. You’re not a nurse or even a CNA—”
“I’m a deputy, and the sheriff ordered that she be guarded. I can do that from right here. I don’t think it’s a good idea to restrain her. If she tries to get up, I’ll call for a nurse,” Brody offered.
The doctor looked at the deputy and then at the faces of the three other medical professionals in the room, all of whom were women. He turned toward Brody. “All right, deputy, you can stay here, but if she wakes up or tries to get up, you need to call one of them,” Doctor Dawson advised while pointing toward the nursing staff.
“Absolutely,” Brody said quickly.
The doctor nodded and walked out. He knew when he was outnumbered. The nurse who had brought the diazepam in for the doctor stepped over to Brody, patted his arm, smiled, and left the room.
The CNA started to walk out of the room, but when she passed the deputy, she stopped, looked him in the eye, smiled, and winked. “I’ll have the cafeteria bring up an extra breakfast tray.”
Brody nodded and turned toward Harper, who was standing next to the patient’s bed, shaking her head.
“What?” Brody asked.
Harper moved toward the deputy and stood in front of him. “Nothing. When she wakes up, give me a call.”
L
Jeff Doyle used the stairwell to access the second floor, where he found the lights dimly lit. The killer soon discovered that the second floor was the coronary care and cardiothoracic unit. Surprisingly, he was able to walk onto the floor and up to the nurses’ station without being noticed. On the back of one of the chairs inside the station, he found a nurse’s lab coat and an ID badge attached to it. He also found a surgical face mask and hair cover as well. Jeff wasted no time. He grabbed the coat and stepped into the bathroom, where he removed his hat and replaced it with the hair cover and then put on the lab coat. Before exiting the bathroom, he covered his face with the surgical mask and quickly hurried back toward the stairwell. He walked through the door just as two nurses walked out of a patient’s room.
Jeff flipped the ID badge backward, put his thumb back in place, and made his way up the stairs to the third floor. When he got to the stairwell door, he cautiously peeked through the square window to look for anyone on the other side before opening it.
Stepping into the hallway, Jeff saw an empty chair sitting next to the stairwell door. He then noticed a deputy sleeping in a chair next to the elevator doors at the other end. He reached to the small of his back and gripped the handle of his pistol. Slowly and quietly, he made his way toward the sleeping deputy.
Suddenly, Jeff heard the door behind him open.
“Good morning.”
Jeff spun around and found a second deputy coming out of the bathroom. The lawman had his hand resting on the butt of his duty weapon.
The killer greeted him with a friendly tone. “Good morning.”
“Are you part of the day shift?” the deputy asked.
Jeff nodded. “Yeah, I’m just about to come on shift. I work in the lab.”
“They make you wear a mask?”
“Yeah, I had a cold and hospital policy requires it. It sucks!”
The deputy nodded. “Yeah, during COVID we had to wear them when we made contact with someone.”
“We still do with certain patients.” Jeff hoped the deputy continued to buy his lies.
“Yeah, I understand,” he said and then looked over his shoulder. “Crazy thing with the woman Deputy Katz found in the river, isn’t it?” he said while pointing his thumb over his shoulder toward the mystery woman’s room.
“Yeah, it is. I heard you guys were up here guarding her,” Jeff replied to the deputy, who he believed was the type of person who overshared.
The deputy took a deep breath and blew it out, puffing his cheeks. “I can’t believe she made it. The doctors say someone shot her in the head, beat her, raped her, and then shot her in the arm.”
“The arm?” Jeff asked, bewildered.
The lawman lifted his arm and pointed to the outside of it. “Yeah, it looks like the bullet just passed through the outside flesh. I guess the pervert was a bad shot!”
Jeff’s eyes widened. “I guess so,” he grudgingly agreed.
“Oh, well there’s your coworkers coming back.” The deputy pointed down the hall toward Nurse Harper, who was returning to the nurses’ station.
Jeff turned toward the direction the man was pointing and saw two nurses milling around. He also saw the other deputy waking up. “I was actually going downstairs.”
“Oh,” the deputy replied and stepped out of the killer’s way.
Jeff walked back to the stairwell door and opened it. “See you later,” he said before closing the door.
The killer wasn’t going to be able to finish the job. He went back down the stairs, and when he reached the second-floor landing, the door opened. Before he knew it, he and the woman who had walked through it were face-to-face.
The nurse glared at the man. “Who are you?”
Jeff was surprised. The woman was staring at the ID badge on the lab coat, now facing outward.
“You’re not—”
Jeff grabbed the woman before she could finish speaking and dragged her into the stairwell. He hit her once in the jaw and then tossed her over the railing to the basement floor, two flights down. He watched her hit the concrete floor, where she lay unmoving. “Damn!” he whispered. The killer rushed down the stairs and took the same route back out to the emergency room lobby. Jeff then hurried past the security guard and out to the parking lot, where he climbed back into his truck and took off the disguise. He beat his hands on the steering wheel just as his cell phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and sent Porter to voicemail again.
L
Senator Vince Livingston walked into his wife’s bedroom after eight. He was tired and hadn’t slept but for a few hours after leaving Frank’s place. The monitor next to Linsey’s bed flashed and beeped periodically. Fortunately for Vince, the lights and the beeps on the monitor told him his wife was still alive, and that was how he needed her, for a bit longer anyway.
“Hello, Senator,” the nurse said in greeting.
Vince sat in his usual chair next to his dying wife. “Hello, how is she this morning?”
The nurse pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “About the same. No better, but no worse either.”
“Good.”
“Vince, is that you?” Linsey mumbled and opened her eyes.
Vince reached over and held his wife’s hand. It was more for show for the nurse than sincerity. “Yes, how do you feel, my love?”
“Tired.”
“Well, close your eyes and rest. I’ll be right here when you wake up.”
L
Brody had kept his word. The man had spent the early morning hours watching over the woman he had pulled from the South Platte River, just as he had said he would. As the hour approached eight o’clock, the deputy stood close to the window staring out toward Pikes Peak. He had been there ever since the sun had begun its slow climb from behind the mountain. The snow that had come in from the late spring storm had melted from the roads, and only a few patches of white remained on the grassy areas of the mountain town. A few news station vans remained in the parking lot, likely hoping for more information about the woman behind him.
“Help me.”
Brody spun around when he heard the woman’s voice. He rushed to her bedside. “You’re okay,” he said in a soft, reassuring voice.
The mystery woman slowly lifted her head and looked around. “Where am I?”
“You’re in a hospital. I’m Deputy Brody Katz with the Teller County Sheriff’s Office. You’re safe now,” he said as he pressed the nurse’s call button.
The patient closed her eyes, placed her hand against her forehead, and felt the bandages. “What happened to me?”
Brody didn’t know how to answer her question. “I found you in the river and brought you here.”
Nurse Harper came into the room. “Hello, I’m Nurse Harper. How are you feeling?” she asked as she checked the patient’s vitals.
Brody took a step back and allowed the nurse to do her job. A few moments later, Doctor Dawson walked in. He took out a small light from his coat and leaned over the bed. “I’m Doctor Dawson. Can you look at me for a moment? I’d like to look at your eyes.”
The patient turned toward the doctor. “What are you doing? What happened to me?”
Doctor Dawson shined the light into her eyes. “You have a head wound, and I’m using this light to see how your pupils adjust to it. It can tell me if you have something going on with your brain.”
“Are they okay?” she asked once the doctor put the light back into his lab coat.
The doctor smiled. “They’re responding just as they should.”
“Can someone tell me what happened to me?”
Doctor Dawson and Nurse Harper turned and looked at the deputy. Brody’s eyes went from one medical professional to the other. Finally, the deputy stepped closer to the bed.
Deputy Katz cleared his throat. “I can tell you what we know so far.”
“Okay,” she replied.
Brody stared into her green eyes for a moment. “All right, but first, can you tell me who you are?”
The question seemed to catch her off guard. She turned her head to the left and looked upward. Her eyes blinked rapidly. “I don’t know,” she whispered and put her hand on her head.
Doctor Dawson placed his hand on her shoulder. “That’s okay. You’ve suffered a head injury, and it may take you some time to remember some things. Can you tell us what you do remember?”
The patient closed her eyes for a few seconds. “I remember running, falling, and then water.”
The doctor turned toward Brody, who shrugged his shoulders.
“Can you tell me where you’re from?” Brody asked.
Once again, the woman thought about it. “Am I from here?” she asked.
Brody shook his head. “We don’t know, but I have some people coming by within the hour who might be able to help us.”
“Okay,” she replied.
“Are you hungry? We can get you some food,” Doctor Dawson offered.
“I am. I think.”
“Good,” Doctor Dawson said and turned to the nurse. “Nurse Harper, can you get our guest something to eat?”
Harper smiled at the woman. “Absolutely. Now, you just try to rest, and I’ll be right back.”
The doctor started for the door but stopped short of walking out. He turned back toward Brody and signaled for the deputy to come into the hall with him.
Brody nodded that he understood, then stepped closer to the bed. “I’ll be right back,” he assured the woman before walking out.
Doctor Dawson stood just outside the patient’s room. He had his arms crossed and his head down, and he appeared to be deep in thought when Brody joined him.
“I’ve heard of amnesia, but I’ve never seen anyone with it. What do you think?” he asked the doctor.
Doctor Dawson lifted his head. “Amnesia is real. Everything that we know she’s been through can cause it. The sexual assault and other events of her victimization could cause post-traumatic amnesia. Post-traumatic amnesia could manifest aspects of retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia, or both. She could also have dissociative amnesia, which presents after suffering some kind of trauma.”
“Is any one of them worse than the other?” Brody asked.
Doctor Dawson nodded. “Yes, the dissociative amnesia.”
“Why?”
“Dissociative amnesia can cause someone to forget their identity and entire life until they awaken.”
Brody had a blank expression on his face. “Kind of like she just did a few minutes ago.”
“Exactly. If you guys can’t identify her and no one recognizes her, we may never know who she is. Now, I have to make more rounds, but I’ll be back around lunch to check on her again,” Doctor Dawson advised and started to walk away.
“Doc, wait!” Brody said and reached out and grabbed the man by his arm.
“Yes, what is it?”
Brody turned toward the woman’s door and then back to the doctor. “What do I tell her?”
“Nothing. She needs to come to terms with what’s happened to her. It’s best if you don’t overshare with her. If you think she can handle it, talk to her about your perspective of what happened. With any luck it might help trigger some of her memories. Again, just be careful not to overshare.” Dawson offered and walked away to finish his rounds.
Brody didn’t know what to do. He stood in the hallway until Harper walked up with two food trays.
“What are you doing out here?” the nurse asked.
Brody shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess… I just don’t know what to say to her,” he confessed.
“No one is going to know what to say to her. Why don’t we just go in there and talk to her? If she asks a question that we can answer, we answer it. It’s better than leaving her in there alone,” Harper suggested.
Brody’s eyes widened, and he smiled. “I think that sounds like a plan. What’s for breakfast?”