Chapter 29

We were in his car, sitting at the entrance of the parking lot, ready to turn South on Cooper when Stanfield got a call. The sum of his side was, “Stanfield. Yes. What? When? I’m on my way.”

He’d had the left blinker on and switched it to right, pulling out because no cars were coming from that direction. He didn’t use lights or sirens, but the posted speed limit was definitely broken.

“I’m guessing my ride home is going to wait?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “That was the hospital. They just found Dan Baxter dead.”

I did a double-take. “What?”

“That’s what I’m saying,” he said. “What could hurt him after not taking any damage from being shot?”

I shook my head. “Unless the gas mix was wrong, I’m not sure.”

“Hopefully they’ll have some answers by the time we get there,” he said.

It didn’t take five minutes to arrive. I wasn’t sure the hospital would have any answers for Stanfield in that span of time, but I wasn’t going to worry about that. The fact that he was taking me along was reason enough for me to keep my mouth shut. I followed Stanfield in and through the hospital. Mostly because I didn’t know where Dan was kept, but also because Stanfield could get us through parts that I wouldn’t be allowed to go through on my own.

We turned a corner and I saw officers standing in front of a door at the end of the hall. Nurses and doctors were coming out of the room. Some were looking a little green, which made me wonder what had been done to Dan. One of the nurses had a small chest. She carried it like there was something dangerous inside. Stanfield passed her by without a glance. I don’t know what drew my attention, but it felt important. I stopped her and asked, “What’s in the chest?”

She looked at me and then back at the Detective. He kept on moving toward the room. Then her eyes met mine. I knew I was young, maybe she guessed I just looked younger than I was and trusted that if I was with Stanfield then I must have been a cop or detective. I let the thought slide because her eyes were wide, her skin looked pale, and her aura suggested a level of fear that I only saw once before. Fortunately, this nurse didn’t look like she was about to die.

She didn’t say anything. She simply opened the chest lid. Inside sat what looked like a piece of meat on ice.

I couldn’t make out what I was looking at. Maybe I didn’t want to, especially if the nurse’s reaction was any indicator. I asked, “What is that?”

She swallowed and said, “A heart.”

I looked up at her. Her voice had been a bit shaky. Something about it hadn’t just spooked her but messed her up. I nodded and pushed the lid closed. I said thank you and turned away. She walked away, taking the heart to wherever it needed to go. As I turned, I saw Stanfield come out of the same room she had. He looked pale. I walked over to him. “What is it?”

He shook his head, regaining his composure. “It’s Mr. Baxter. The Doctor’s looking at him now. He thinks the heart they found was his.”

I looked past him at the doorway and the two officers next to it. “If they were keeping an eye on Dan,” I said nodding at the officers, “then how the hell could anyone get in to cut his heart out?”

Stanfield shook his head. “They didn’t.”

I looked at him. “Didn’t what?”

He looked up at me. Some of the color in his face had returned. “There wasn’t a wound on him. The heart was sitting on the counter next to him. They tried to resuscitate him when they found him not breathing. They thought it was the same thing you thought, that the sleep/oxygen mix was wrong, but he wasn’t responding to anything. They even tried paddles, but the monitor showed no response at all which according to the doctor wasn’t possible. It should have shown at least a few beats before failure again. But it didn’t.”

“You’re saying someone pulled his heart out of his chest without leaving a wound?” I asked. I had to be sure.

Stanfield nodded. “Just like the murders of the case the feds recently took over.”

“Does anyone know how long Dan’s been dead?” I asked.

Stanfield shook his head. “They called us right after they confirmed his death. When his heart was pulled out the cardiac monitors went off.”

“And his heart was on the counter when they got in there?” I asked.

He nodded.

“And the officers didn’t let anyone in?” I asked.

He looked back at them. “They were careful only to let in hospital staff. No one they let in to check on Baxter looked suspicious.”

I looked around and then up. Sure enough, there was a security camera. “Security should have caught something.”

He looked up. I heard him say, “Damn.” When I turned back around, he was heading back to the room again. I even heard him ask, “Where are the surveillance tapes kept?”

“Ral?” said a familiar voice behind me.

Turning, I found Rachel heading in my direction. “Rachel, what are you doing here?”

“I came to be with Grace,” she said. “How’d you get here?”

“Detective Stanfield brought me,” I said.

She glanced past me as a doctor led away Stanfield. The Lieutenant glanced my way, spotted Rachel, and nodded. I wasn’t sure what the nod was for. He could have meant for me to stay with her, or that it was good that I wasn’t getting any more involved in the latest incident.

Rachel stepped past me. I could see curiosity in her aura as she approached the room.

One of the officers, his nameplate said Haines, spotted Rachel’s determined direction. He held out his hand, stepping in her way. “Ma’am, you’re not allowed in there.”

She stopped, looked back at me, and then back at the officer. He stood his ground as I knew he would. She wasn’t getting by without someone of higher authority giving the okay. I stopped next to her. “You don’t need to see him. What are you thinking?”

She shook her head and moved further down the hall. The door to Dan’s room was wide open. Officer Haines and his partner watched Rachel. She didn’t try for the door again, just looked into the room like a curious passerby on the highway at the scene of an accident.

Rachel must have caught sight of Dan. From what Stanfield had told me, he wouldn’t look bad, maybe like he was asleep. She stood there for a moment, studying him. All at once, her curiosity doused and fear replaced it. She backed away quickly, but I grabbed her elbow and stepped between her and the doorway so she couldn’t see into the room.

She looked up at me. Her eyes were wide. It took her a second to ask, “How?”

I shook my head and put a finger to my lips. This wasn’t the place to talk.

Haines continued to watch us, but his partner, Officer Binford, was looking up and down the hall as if his job was suddenly so much more important than before. To some degree, the thought was right. Before, he’d been watching over a sleeping man. Someone had slipped in and killed him. Now he was watching over a dead man. I was sure there was someone somewhere that would chew his butt for allowing it to happen during his watch, and if he and his partner were lucky, that’s all they’d get.