“You haven’t told your guys?”
“The word we’ve put out on the line is that negotiations reconvene after Zachary consults with corporate folks. Not that several of the guys don’t have nearly as good an idea as I do of what is happening. This town is a hot sieve for news.”
Nathan nodded to the plant. “I heard it was a tense but doable arrival this morning.”
“No one swung a punch at the plant security guards when the gates opened for the bus; I considered that a success. And there were a couple surprises. One of our guys crossed the picket line today. Isaac Keif.”
“Really? I’m surprised at the name.” The son of the owner of the Fine Chocolates Shop was a fairly new union member but known to be a vocal one about the importance of the strike.
“He works part-time in the tile-plant warehouse moving raw materials and finished product around. It’s not that deep of a secret that he took this job three years ago to help support his dad’s business. And the Fine Chocolates Shop has taken at least a 70 percent hit in its business since this strike began. Isaac figured they couldn’t lose both incomes.”
“How did the other union guys take it?”
“Not happy about it, but Larry got them to cool down. They’ll cut Isaac a bit of slack.” Adam nodded to his line of guys. “There’s talk of blocking the bus at the hotel tomorrow to prevent it from even leaving; we’re discouraging it, but you should know it’s floating around.”
“I’m just surprised it wasn’t tried this morning. Thanks, Adam. One day at a time. We’ll see if we can’t get this evening to end quietly. Please spread the word it’s going to be zero tolerance for violence when the gates open for the bus to leave. My guys are as tired as yours. And we’re too shorthanded to let trouble get a foothold. We’ll have to be responding pretty tight. It’s going to be courteous, but it’s going to be tighter than everyone is comfortable with.”
“Understood. I’ll pass the word,” Adam promised.
Nathan joined his officers assembling by the van from the patrol department. “Where do you need me, Will?”
“We’re shorthanded for the gate. The union guys managed to get creative this morning and roll trash Dumpsters in the way of the bus just as it would have entered the plant, and having the bus get stopped across from the union lines was a bad experience. The cordon will have to be tighter around the gate as the bus leaves.”
“I’ll join in there,” Nathan agreed. “Sillman will be here in a couple minutes, and he can add some more weight to that buffer.”
“Good.” Will looked around to see if he had most of his officers assembled. “Okay, guys, listen up. We’re escorting the bus all the way to the hotel tonight. When we get there, the bus is going to pull to the building entrance and the guys are going to walk from the bus into the hotel. There will be security supplied by the company already at the hotel waiting for our arrival.”
Will nodded down the street. Pickup trucks and cars were already rumbling in the parking lot at the end of the block, more than a few of the strikers planning an escort of their own. “We need to separate these guys from that bus and make sure that separation sticks. None of these cars are going into that hotel parking lot. That’s the chief job tonight.
“I want you to pull over and arrest any driver who speeds, even if the vehicle owner is going just a mile over the limit. Any vehicle being driven in an unsafe fashion in traffic—pull it over and arrest the owner on suspicion of being intoxicated. We’ll have state guys joining the highway stretch of this drive just to give us more vehicles in the mix. We control the small stuff, and we hopefully end up with no one getting hurt tonight. Questions?”
There were none.
“Okay. Let’s get it done. And let’s hope this is the last time we need to do this balancing act.”
The officers moved to their assigned locations.
Nathan walked down to the main gate. The time wore by as Nathan talked casually with the plant security guard. He heard the bus start. Nathan moved into the street to make sure no one wanted to interfere with the unlocking of the plant gate.
The plant security guards swung the heavy fence gate open and Nathan stepped aside as the bus rolled through.
Nathan saw bottles going airborne. Glass smashed, and a window on his side of the bus dented in, covered in a cobweb of fine splinters. He touched his radio and passed on to Chet the name to arrest. He could only hope that the thinning out of the guys willing to throw a bottle would also stop those willing to throw a fist.
The bus made the end of the block and slowed for the first turn.
Will blocked the road with his squad car, boxing in a couple of the union vehicles and taking his time clearing through the stop sign. A second squad car made a similar slowing move.
The union line began to disperse in groups of twos and threes.
Nathan waited at the plant gate until it was securely padlocked again, lifted a hand to the officers assigned to walk the perimeter, and headed back toward his car. Will and Chet would get the bus safely delivered, and this town would get another few hours of breathing room.
* * *
Nathan got cornered in the hospital lobby by the town’s newspaper editor, and it was close to 8 p.m. and the end of visiting hours when he made it upstairs to the ICU. The nurse nodded toward Rae’s room as she held out a cup of coffee for him to take in. “Bruce is staggering; get him to get some sleep. We’ll even find an empty bed for him if necessary.”
“I’ll try,” Nathan promised.
Nathan paused at the door, not seen yet, watching Bruce near the bedside having an earnest quiet conversation with Rae, a pad of paper and pen in his hands. They talked in the shorthand of old friends and shared memories; the longer Nathan was around them the more that realization settled inside. He tapped on the door and smiled as he stepped into the room. “Hey, lady. Bruce been picking your brain clean?”
Rae smiled over at him. “Trying to get me to laugh and agree to be hypnotized. He thinks I’m missing things.”
Nathan settled his hand across hers, saying a gentle hello. “I think he just wants to get you to answer questions like where your car keys are at to that Ferrari so he can take it for a spin.”
She looked flushed, like she was running a bit of a fever. Nathan glanced over at Bruce and saw the worry on his friend’s face. He regretted the fact he’d been gone as long as he had. “The coffee is for you,” he told Bruce. “The nurse volunteered you needed it.”
“Thanks.”
Nathan accepted the pad of paper Bruce held out, and they traded items.
“Every second of my life last Saturday night—fascinating how boring someone’s life can be when it’s looked at minute by minute,” Rae whispered.
“Oh, yeah. Real boring,” Nathan teased back, as he kept reading. Bruce had nearly a minute-by-minute look at her life after they left her Saturday night. Something here would pop as the way the drug had reached her. It had to.
Nathan looked at Rae, relieved she had been able to give them this, wishing he was looking into clear blue eyes rather than ones fogged by fever. “You did good, Rae. This will break the case open, I hope.”
“I tried.”
Nathan could tell she desperately needed more rest. “Bruce, why don’t you go get some shut-eye now. The nurse offered to find you an empty bed. I’ll stay and watch her snore.”
“I don’t snore.”
Nathan glanced at Bruce and saw the small amused smile on the guy’s face. “Rae, you snore,” Nathan replied, figuring it was not information she hadn’t heard before.
Bruce rubbed the back of her hand. “I think I will go catch some sleep. You need some rest.”
“You need that shave even more. I don’t want to be blamed for a new beard.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Nathan thought there was a more silent message being shared between the two of them under those teasing words.
Bruce looked over at him. “See if you can co
ax her into eating some more pudding. The doctors want something in her stomach with all these medications, and she’s fighting the idea of even Jell-O and Cool Whip.”
“I want some of that coffee.”
“Food, not caffeine.”
“I’ll figure out something,” Nathan promised, watching Rae. He wondered if Bruce realized she was scared to eat. Probably so, his friend wasn’t slow at picking up the subtle notes with Rae. Scared to eat because as much as she had given them of her history Saturday night, Rae didn’t know herself how she had been attacked. Just that someone had tried to kill her and almost succeeded. Nathan could empathize, but they had to figure out something.
“I’ll be back first thing in the morning, if not before,” Bruce promised. He leaned down and gently kissed her. “Be good, lady.”
“You do the same,” she whispered. “Bye, Bruce.”
Nathan pulled over a chair and checked out the dish of pudding on the table, giving her some privacy to get back her composure, feeling very much an unwanted third at the moment as Bruce left.
Rae pushed away the hospital tray to adjust her position in the bed and raise her head a bit.
Nathan looked back at her and smiled. “Feel like a sick peanut at the moment, don’t you?”
She laughed at his choice of words and wiped tears off her face. “Fourth loop on a roller coaster. I hate it when he’s gone, and I don’t even know why it bothers me like this.”
Nathan did. “Your security blanket. Bruce makes a good one. And at the moment that kind of company matters.” He pushed the pudding cup with one finger. “They really expect you to like vanilla?”
“It’s not a favorite,” she admitted.
“You do need to try and eat a bite more. Sealed, canned, pressed—how do you want the thing packaged?”
“Lock and key would do.” She rubbed at her stomach. “Nothing sounds like it will stay down right now. I don’t know, Nathan.”
He resolved to solve this for her. “I’ll be back in two minutes then, with something that should work magic.”
“What’s that?”
“Peach pie.”
She looked marginally interested.
“They had it listed as the cafeteria special today. They’ll open back up for me to make a late-night purchase.” He got to his feet, and his smile faded. “Just dive back in and trust the fact this guy we’re after missed you; however he got the drug to you, he missed. We’ll have him before he can try for you again.”
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“What are friends for?” He nodded to the television. “Run channels while I am gone and find a distraction. We’ll make this night pass for you.”
“I’m going to owe you a favor or two when this is over.”
“Consider this one thanks for that ham and cheese the other day. It was surprising how hungry I was that day.”
She smiled. “Subtle push noted. Go get that pie.”
He rested a hand on hers, smiled, and then headed out of the room to see what he could find that they could share. At least he’d have an excuse to eat half the pie before he handed the plate with the rest of it to her.
34
Rae could hear Bruce and Nathan talking in the hospital hallway. The words were faint, but from the conversation she could make out, they were talking about Peggy. The guys were coming toward her; she was pretty sure of that.
She gripped the side rails on the bed and shifted herself up to take the pressure off her hip. The headache had been gone when she woke, and the fever. She almost felt normal on this Tuesday morning. She was glad she had been moved into a general-floor room where nurses didn’t bustle in every five minutes and most of the needles were gone.
She wished she had a hairbrush and could do something about the hospital gown she was stuck wearing. She tugged the blanket better around her and thought she’d kill for a shower today.
“What do you think of this?” Nathan asked, his words in the hallway to Bruce faint but clear. “Will found it in a box in Joe’s bedroom.”
“It’s the notebook Peggy was asking about?” Bruce asked.
“Has to be. It was still in the evidence bag returned by the investigators. They looked into the details on it and returned the notebook to Joe. Henry was right; I don’t see much in it that would cause excitement. Kids that were going to the party, the time they were going to meet up, a couple scrawled names Joe didn’t recognize.”
“It feels ugly, figuring Peggy died just for asking around to find out more about this notebook.”
“If we’ve got a cook in the area doing this, he’s not waiting for people to actually find information that might lead to him. He’s killing people just for asking questions. Rae was asking questions just like Peggy did, and the guy focused on her.”
“It’s beginning to feel that way.”
“I’m awake, guys. Get in here,” Rae called out. “I hate having to eavesdrop to find out what’s going on.”
Bruce, followed by Nathan, entered her room.
She grinned at Bruce. “Hey, you shaved.”
“About cut my throat trying to get the layers off,” Bruce replied, rubbing the still slightly abraded skin. “The things I do for you.”
“Admit it, you never liked having a beard.”
“That’s true.” Bruce perched on the edge of her bed. “No need to ask if you’re feeling better. They said they had moved you because you were being a pain in the—”
She slapped his leg as she laughed. “Can I help it if I don’t like hospitals? I’m better. They wanted the ICU bed for someone who was staying sick.”
“You do look better,” Nathan agreed. “It has to be the pie. It works every time.”
She smiled back at him. “So—” she looked between the two of them—“when do I get out of here? This morning is fine with me.”
“It’s Tuesday. You’re not going anywhere yet,” Bruce answered.
“I’m tired of being cooped up in this bed getting poked at. They’ve drawn blood until I feel like a stuck turnip. Besides, this is personal; I’m the one he came after. And I’m well enough now to be mad about that fact. I want to go back to work.”
She watched the two guys share a look. She was about to get handled and smothered for what they thought was her own good. Her odds of being able to work on the case were diminishing rapidly. It wasn’t a pleasant realization. She really did feel fine, and she wanted to get back to work.
“We’ll see what your doctor says tomorrow,” Bruce compromised.
“You haven’t tried to sleep in one of these beds.” She pouted.
“Having slept in the chair, I guarantee it was worse.” Bruce grinned at her. “I like having you back in a bad mood. You are definitely feeling better.”
“Don’t placate me; I hate that too.” She sighed. “What’s going on around town? What’s happening with the strike? I’ve lost two days, guys. At least give me an update on the news.”
“The union and management have a draft contract finished. We’re waiting for word from Zachary if that contract is going to get blessed by corporate or not. We should know that answer in the next twenty-four hours,” Nathan told her.
“That’s soon. Are you ready for that? And what happens if it falls apart?”
“We’ll have to be.”
“And on the deaths. There haven’t been any more suspicious deaths or illnesses around town while I’ve been lying here?”
“Nothing you don’t already know,” Nathan promised. “You’re our biggest new information source to work. We’re going through your timeline step by step and testing everything we can locate.”
“Let me see the notebook you two were talking about.”
“You don’t need to be working from a hospital bed, Rae,” Bruce replied. “Tomorrow afternoon, maybe.”
“This is personal; he about killed me. I’m going to work on it even if I have to do it on my own. And I’m bored silly just laying here. So let me see.”
Nathan looked at Bruce.
“Let her see it. What can she do about the information here but get on the phone and ask people more questions? That should at least be relatively safe for her to meddle in.”
Nathan smiled. “True.” He opened his briefcase and retrieved the school notebook. He turned to a page in the back. “Here’s the more interesting page.”
Rae looked over the page from Prescott’s school notebook. “Well, guys, I hate to tell you something you don’t know given how you two just made a big deal out of this . . .” She looked between the two of them and just smiled.
“What?” Bruce finally asked.
She tapped the page. “I recognize this name at the bottom of the page. I’m driving the guy’s car.”
Nathan blinked. “You’re kidding.”
“Brad Danforth. He was convicted of dealing drugs, did time, got out of jail, and shot himself in his car. I bought the Ferrari, bullet hole and all.” She looked at the page and the faded penned item. “That’s a B Danfo . . h and something that might be a time. Danforth was involved in the rave-party deaths?”
Nathan pulled over a chair and sat down. He didn’t answer immediately, and she wondered if he would. He looked back over at her and nodded. She was glad he’d correctly decided that she had a right to know what he could tell her.
“They suspected Danforth was the one who passed the drugs to the dealer who was among those dead at the party. They couldn’t prove it, so they got Danforth off the streets on an unrelated cocaine charge.”
“Okay. So he goes to jail on an unrelated crime, gets out, finds out the same cook is preparing to bring another batch onto the market—Danforth kills himself before the drug hits the market, before he gets swept up in another investigation and he’s now facing time on death row for his role in the death of twelve kids.”
“It was odd the guy waited to get out of jail before he committed suicide,” Bruce agreed. “It made more sense that he’d kill himself in jail to stop from serving the hard time, than kill himself after he got his freedom back. But this does help explain it. He shot himself because he knew something was coming back onto the street that would snag him into a death-penalty-type case. He didn’t want to face it.”