October 8-9, 2018
Galveston, Texas
Marnie and Chris rode in silence to the hospital. As her adrenaline ebbed, Marnie started to get the shakes. She wrapped the blanket tighter. She knew that the gravity of Didier’s injuries would make survival touch and go.
“It’s a good sign that Didier didn’t arrest out in the field. Cardiac arrest outside a hospital has less than a 10% survival rate,” Marnie told Chris. “I’m so scared. If Didier doesn’t make it, I will never forgive myself.”
Chris seemed unsure of what to say. “Then it really is good that his heart kept working.” He paused. “Whatever happens, it’s not your fault. You didn’t drag anyone into this with their eyes closed.”
“Yes, but if I hadn’t gone searching for Gen’s thumb drive, if I hadn’t insisted Louise get involved, I don’t think any of this would have happened.”
Chris reached over and took her hand. “Who knows what would have happened. We involved the police, and still, Williams came after us. Now we need to be there for Louise and Didier.”
The ambulance pulled up to the emergency bay. With the help of the attendants, Marnie and Chris stepped out of the van and through the ER doors. The noise and lights were disorienting. As the staff asked her questions, Marnie could barely hear or see them. Feels very different from this side of the desk. She knew her injuries were minor, but because she was associated with the tragedy that had struck Dr. Finnerty, she was given VIP treatment.
After being whisked into an ER triage bay, she was asked to disrobe and undergo an examination. As an eager tech was looking for a place for an IV line, she broke through her daze and grabbed her hand. “I’m fine, really. I don’t need an IV.”
She looked up at the nurse in charge and said, “I have some bruises on my back and shoulders. Nothing more. What I need to know is Didier’s condition and where Louise is.”
The nurse turned to her and she read his name tag, Bob Janssen.
“Didier made it to surgery. Stable but critical. Louise is cleaning up and will be in the surgery waiting room.”
Finally, the name registered with Marnie. “Your wife saved my life. She saved all our lives.”
A look of pride flashed over Bob’s face. “Thank you. Let me get you some scrubs and a wash basin, and then you can join Louise. She needs you. It looks like Chris will need some stitches. He’s in Room 8.”
After cleaning up, Marnie went to Chris’s room. “How are you feeling?”
“Sore, relieved to be here. What’s the word?”
“Didier is alive and in surgery,” Marnie said.
Chris reached for Marnie’s hand. “Of all the crazy things I’ve been thinking about, I wondered how you recognized the sound of a gun click.”
Marnie gave a sad smile. “Something I’ve rarely told anyone is that I hunted pheasants with my grandfather when I would visit during medical school. He grew up during the depression and dust bowl in southeast Colorado. Supplementing the family coffers with game was a survival skill. One day, a friend of his wanted to take us to a shooting range and show us his automatic weapon. My grandfather shrugged his shoulders and said okay. The click of the magazine going into the gun before its rapid-fire pops has stayed with me. My grandfather was not impressed. He said it was a good weapon for killing humans and not for hunting. He hoped it would never need to be used inside the U.S. borders.”
Marnie gave Chris’s hand a squeeze. “I’m going to find Louise.”
In a corner of the surgery waiting room, Marnie spotted Louise with the hospital chaplain. She joined them.
Louise reached for Marnie’s hand and held it. “He was in bad shape, but luckily never lost his blood pressure or had a cardiac arrest. One of our best surgeons was on duty. God, I feel so useless. Waiting is so hard.”
“I am so sorry, Louise. I feel like this is my fault.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. If you hadn’t warned us, we would be dead. It took all of us to survive this madman. Didier’s going to make it. He has to…”
They sat like that for three hours. Talking some. Sitting in silence.
Chris joined them and then left again to get them coffee and food. They nibbled and waited.
At one point, Marnie called her pet sitter to take care of her dogs for a few days. Louise called Nancy. After she had made sure that the children were asleep, Nancy left Claude in charge and joined them.
About every hour, a nurse would come out and give them progress reports. Several of the bullets had passed through Didier’s abdominal cavity. They had removed his ruptured spleen and repaired his lacerated femoral artery. They completed a thorough survey to rule out any other injuries. He was maintaining his blood pressure with the help of transfusions and IV fluids.
Three and a half hours passed before the surgeon came out. They searched his face for clues as he was pulling off his mask. The nurse near him was smiling and the relief in the room became palpable.
“He’s stable and we’re moving him to the ICU,” he began, maintaining eye contact with Louise. “We may have to go back in, but for right now we feel the best thing to do is to give him a break. There is no active bleeding at this time.”
The surgeon shook his head and continued glumly. “Getting sprayed by an AK-47 is not good for the human body.”
Louise collapsed back into the chair.
Marnie had goosebumps. Please, please Lord, spare us one.
In unison, the group said, “Thank you.”
Then, they gathered up their paraphernalia and headed to the ICU.
Marnie looked at Chris. “I think you should go and get some rest. You’ll probably have a full day at the paper tomorrow. I can call when we know something. You can call when you need to know what the status is.”
Chris gave a sigh. “I’ll go after Sudhan gets here and lets us know the story. I won’t be able to sleep. Cleaning up and getting to the paper are top priorities.”
In short order, Sudhan arrived at the ICU waiting room. They had the room to themselves.
“Bob gave me an update,” Detective Sudhan said. “We’re all so glad that he’s made it this far. The whole hospital is pulling for Didier. I know you have a lot of questions and I’ll give you the story as I know it. I think you may have facts to add.
“So, my part in this story starts with Gen’s death. From her autopsy, we know that she had been in the Gulf and was killed after making it to the beach,” Sudhan explained.
“Louise’s tip that there was a jailbird with some information gave us an angle. Today—or yesterday I guess—we were able to zero in on a Travis Jones. He proved an easy nut to crack since he had talked a lot during his opioid withdrawal. Apparently, his job was to load her full of drugs and dump her at sea. He hadn’t counted on how strong she was nor did he calculate a lethal dose correctly. She awakened early. They struggled and she went into the water. Travis tried to say his part of the story ended there but from his phone record, we know that he made a call soon after the fight.”
Sudhan paused at this point.
Marnie sat pale and quiet, imagining the last moments of Gen’s life. The grief was almost too much. Then she got angry.
“Who did he call?” Marnie asked.
Sudhan replied, “Pedersen, the missing surveyor, now identified, but formerly a John Doe who was found in a Dumpster about a day after Gen was found. Ironically, that Dumpster is only emptied once a month during the off season. Just happened to be at the right time for us. Pedersen’s face had been smashed and his fingertips removed. His wife ID’d the body a few days ago and DNA confirmation came yesterday.”
Marnie said, “At dinner the other night you thought he was the surveyor. It definitely fits with what Dr. Springer said to me about his partner going missing. Has anyone talked to him?”
“Not yet,” Sudan said. “On the list for today.”
Louise asked, “What did Pedersen do after the phone call?”
Sudhan took a deep breath. “The plot thickens. Our other break came when a long shot match of a DNA sample from our John Doe matched DNA from fibers from a shirt found over Gen’s face. Pedersen’s shirt. So now we have Ernie Pedersen connected to Gen’s death. Based on the trauma to Gen’s face where Pedersen’s DNA was found, the medical examiner says she was suffocated.”
“Where does Roy Williams fit into this?” Marnie asked.
“I’ll get to him. Pedersen’s wife told us her husband had some financial problems. When we told Travis Jones that we knew about his phone call to Pedersen, he emphasized the point that Gen was alive when she made it to shore. After Jones’s phone call, we believe Ernie scoured the beach, found and killed Gen. We suggested to Jones that he had stalked Pedersen and killed him in a gruesome way to clean up his involvement in the case. He claimed no way would he do something like that. Then, he told us about his phone contact with a person unknown. He was supposed to destroy his burner phone but thought he might need it if things went south. He told us where to find it in his house.
“Through phone records, we were able to track the receiving phone to the areas frequented by Roy Williams. Jones identified him in a photo line-up as someone he had seen around. We were closing in on Williams and proceeded to get a court order to search his place today. As I headed out to update you, I received a call that the search had turned up some odd artifacts, including a cache of weapons.”
Chris said, “Here’s where I have information to add. Looks like we were narrowing the suspects down to Williams at the same time you were. A deep dive into his finances revealed some incriminating information. I was beginning to tell the group about my investigator’s findings when a spray of bullets interrupted us.”
A nurse came into the room. “Mr. LaSalle is waking up from anesthesia. He’s not very alert but I thought Dr. Finnerty might want to come in.”
Louise jumped up. “I can’t think that I have much to add at this point, but Marnie, will you let me know what you find out?”
“Sure,” Marnie answered.
Nancy and Louise left the room.
Marnie turned back to Sudhan. “The question is, who was paying Williams?”
Sudhan exhaled, clearly exhausted by recent events. “I think those answers may be coming from other sources. My own role in the investigation will be circumscribed by my local jurisdiction. I, of course, will assist federal law enforcement as much as I can.”
Detective Sudhan stood up. “I will be taking my leave from you for now. I need to get to the station. Please call me if I can be of any help. Bob will let me know how Didier is progressing.”
Looking over her shoulder, she gave Chris a stern look. “I’ll need to look at your notes later today.”
He nodded.
After Sudhan’s departure, Chris and Marnie sat silent for a minute.
Chris said, “I’m going to go home, clean up, and go to the newspaper. It’s 4:00 a.m. and the day’s going to be busy.”
As usual, Marnie’s mind had been planning what needed to happen outside of the hospital.
“I was wondering if you could ask Rosa to take her workmen and a cleaning crew over to Louise’s house as soon as the police allow entry. Louise will need to go and get stuff for herself and her family and it must be a disaster. I’ll pay whatever it takes.”
Chris laughed. “Thai food is splayed all over that house! Excellent suggestion. Rosa will be thrilled to have such a constructive way to help her favorite ER doctor.”
After Chris’s exit, Marnie went into the ICU to bring Louise up to speed. She was relieved to see Didier off the ventilator. There were still tubes everywhere—a chest tube, a nasogastric tube, a central venous line, two more IVs, and suction drains. Louise had tears streaming down her face as she held his hand.
“They were able to extubate him a little while ago. He actually followed a few simple commands. The bleeding has stopped. Mom left to help with the kids.”
Marnie said her silent prayers of thanks to whatever powers had intervened. She took her place beside her “sister” and sat there through the rest of the early morning.