May 3
Overland Park Regional Medical Center
Overland Park, Kansas
4:53 P.M. CDT / 5:53 P.M. EDT
“So she’s under arrest?” Piper Cameron asked.
Brian Fisker, seated in the same bedside chair as during his earlier visit here today, nodded.
“Conspiracy,” he said. “Aiding and abetting, in furtherance of a homicide. That’s the booking charge, and the District Attorney figures it will stick, if we need it to.”
Piper frowned. “I don’t understand.”
“Trish Halvorsen is a mixed up kid,” Fisker said. “The way everybody’s figuring thus far, nobody wants to see her locked away for the next ten years. She needs help—professional help, and this looks like the best way to get it for her. The DA tends to agree.”
“Guess that makes sense. To me, too.”
Fisker shifted uncomfortably in the chair; it seemed to risk becoming a habit on his visits here.
“I also put in the report that it was your contribution to the investigation that resulted in the arrest,” he said. “I emphasized it, strong; if I hadn’t talked with you … well, I wouldn’t have gone at the girl a second time. I told them, my boss and the DA both, that I think you’d make a hell of a fine investigator.”
Piper stared at him, still from the corner of an eye, still with her nose blurring the image. But this time, it was not only her nose that was causing her blurred vision.
She sniffed, prayed that the tears would stay in her eyes and not humiliate both of them by trickling down a cheek.
But Fisker was an observant investigator himself.
Abruptly, he rose from the chair.
“Well, look … gotta get going. Sincerely, thanks for everything you’ve done.”
Without thinking, he extended a hand for the requisite farewell shake.
Equally without thinking, Piper Cameron instinctively extended her own, grasped his.
Firmly.
Then they both realized what had happened, what her muscles and nerves and sheer will had just accomplished, and their eyes met in astonishment.
“Doesn’t look like they’re going to be keeping you in that bed much longer,” Fisker said, realizing that neither of them displayed any indication to release the other’s hand. “You might want to think about what you’ll do down the road. Like come down to the department, talk to my boss, maybe.”
“Talk about what, Brian?”
“You ever consider a career in law enforcement?” Brian Fisker asked, and still he did not release Piper Cameron’s grasp.