Chapter 30

The emergency section of the hospital was separated from the rest of the hospital in a roundabout way. There was only one main hall that connected it to the main area. The emergency area also had its own security team, cameras to record everything that happened in almost every section, and hospital staff trained to deal with more than just saving people’s lives. Since bullet wounds and gang activity often showed up in the emergency room, the hospital had installed security cameras in case the violence followed the wounded. I wasn’t sure how well that worked or if they had ever had to use it previously, but it certainly seemed like a good idea.

Stanfield led me out of the emergency section. Just because there were more cameras in that section, it didn’t help anyone there to have those cameras monitored from there too. The Security room was central to the entire hospital. It would allow the hospital security and police a place to safely see what was happening anywhere in the hospital.

As we walked I asked, “What am I looking for?”

He shook his head. “I don’t want to spoil it. Just tell me if you see anything odd.”

I nodded, confused about that but continued after him.

The head of security for the hospital was a tall man with dark blonde hair and sharp blue eyes. The instant I saw him, I didn’t like him. I couldn’t tell you why. His aura was a sickly brown but not bright. He wore a uniform that made me think cop, but without the gold shield on his chest, he wasn’t. The name on his chest was Stan Carrigan and apparently, he and Detective Stanfield knew each other. As soon as we entered the security room, Stanfield said, “Stan, show Mr. Sutton the feed we found.”

Stan spun back around, hit a few controls on the panel and the monitor on the desk began playing a pre-recorded video of the area leading to where Dan had been kept.

I watched it intently. I could see the auras of everyone in the feed. My problem was that the feed was black and white. It was high quality, but without the color, I could make a mistake. I didn’t recognize any of the people passing under the camera.

I was about to ask who or what I was looking for again when I saw Jacquelyn. She approached the room that the two officers were guarding, but stopped and went through the open door next to it. About two minutes later nurses and doctors were rushing into the room with a crash cart. One of the officers followed them in.

Jacquelyn came out of the same door she had entered, looked toward the doorway leading to Dan, and then turned around to leave, a smile on her face.

“Pause that,” I said.

Carrigan paused the feed, freezing her face in the frame. It was a clean pause, like pausing a DVD movie.

I looked up at Stanfield. “That’s Jacquelyn LaSalle.”

Stanfield looked puzzled. “But she never went into the room with Baxter.”

I looked back at the frozen shot of her smiling face. Her aura looked different. The sparkles were brighter, something like the lingering flash that I’d seen when she had used her power on Alexandria and Yaeko the night before. If the feed had been in color, I might have been able to get a better idea of what was happening, but I couldn’t.

“Carrigan, could you play back the portion of the feed where she goes into the room again?” I asked.

He nodded and played with the controls. Instead of watching Jacquelyn, I watched her aura. It sparkled, like small white Christmas lights winking in and out all through her aura. It was different from most Powerborne auras I had seen. They all looked like they had light coming from the marks deep within their auras, but the sparkles in Jacquelyn’s aura didn’t look like they were coming from a single source.

I asked Carrigan to play back the part when she left again. The sparkles in her aura were brighter and the way they shimmered was like watching moonlight reflecting off of the ocean. It moved through her aura in waves, radiating out from her. Something had changed. She had used her power but something still affected her like she was still using her power. I didn’t think that was the case because the shimmer wasn’t bright enough, but something was different.

“What do you see?” asked Stanfield.

I looked at him. “I wish I knew.” I looked back at the feed again. Carrigan had paused it on her smiling face again. Then I noticed her eyes. “How clearly can you see her eyes?” I asked.

“Pretty well,” said Stanfield. “It’d be easier if the feed were in color though.”

Carrigan said, “Well if the Hospital ever approves the changes, I’ll let you know. But until then, this is all I have.”

I nodded. “Is it just me or are her pupils dilated?”

Stanfield leaned closer. “You’re right.” He looked at me. “Is she high?”

I shrugged. “I’ve never done drugs or drank alcohol.” I looked back at Stanfield. “You tell me.”

He looked back at the feed. “Too bad we don’t have the feed of her going in.”

Carrigan held up his hand. “Hang on, I can pull up feeds from the rest of the hospital. I’ll find a shot of her face going in.”

For a few minutes, Carrigan worked at another terminal. Then he said, “Here we go.” He had it paused on her in another room.

“How do you know this is before she went into the room?” I asked.

“The time stamp,” he said, pointing at the bottom of the screen. It wasn’t a separate window but just a line of numbers I had been ignoring because it wasn’t embedded into the feed directly. I looked from that screen to the other. Sure enough, there was a seven-minute difference.

Stanfield was studying Jacquelyn’s face on the second feed. “Her pupils are bigger in the latter feed.” He looked at me. “If she didn’t shoot up, what’s it mean?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I can see a difference in the way her aura shimmers too.” I pointed at the before frame. “Here her aura is what I remember from the alley. There are lights in it that make me think of white Christmas tree lights. The small kind.” Then I pointed at the other one. “This makes me think of light shimmering off an ocean. When it’s playing, it looks like waves rolling out from her body.”

Stanfield shook his head. “I still don’t understand. What’s it mean?”

I looked at him. “I’d say it means she used her power. I saw samples last night though I didn’t see what she did. I only saw the effect in her aura.”

Carrigan spun around in his tech chair. “What are you two talking about?”

I looked down at him. He was looking from me to Stanfield and back again.

Something in his aura shifted. He was suddenly excited. He turned and looked at me. I could see recognition in his eyes. “You’re ... you’re the good Samaritan.”

I glanced at Stanfield but asked, “What?”

Carrigan nodded eagerly. “You’re the kid from the YouTube video from the mall. You stopped that gunman from killing that woman.”

Crap. I took a step back, not sure what to say or do. I wasn’t quite ready to start signing autographs and Carrigan looked like he might whip one out on me.

Stanfield laid a hand on Carrigan’s shoulder. “Take it easy Stan. He’s helping the police.”