California Moon

“They could be halfway to the moon by now.”

“Sir?”

“Put out an APB on the John Doe we’ve had on ice here at St. Christopher’s. Get me a make on a staff nurse here, Shannon Riley. I think he took her as a hostage. I’ll call the chief at home.”

“But, sir, it’s Christmas!”

“I don’t give a damn what day it is!” Ben slammed his hand over the receiver button. He punched out Jimmy Joe Bremen’s home number.

A groggy man’s voice answered. “This better be important.”

“It is,” Ben said. “John Doe escaped. I think he’s taken a nurse as hostage.”

“Don’t tell me what you think, just what you know.” Jimmy Joe sat upright in bed.

“At some point the prisoner came to. I was asleep, I admit. He knocked me out, took my gun and escaped. I’m on my way over to Shannon Riley’s apartment to investigate. Her shift isn’t over and she’s missing.”

“Richards, I don’t want to hear that he’s armed.”

“I’m afraid he is.”

“Seal off that room. I want forensics to go over everything. Maybe we’ll find a clue to where he would have taken her.”

“Sure thing.”

“Check out her neighbors. See what they know. Then meet me in my office when you’re finished. I want to know every detail of how you screwed up.”

“Right.”

“And Richards…” Jimmy Joe’s breath rattled.

“Yeah?”

“Keep everything on the Q.T.”

“Sir?”

“I don’t want word of this getting out just yet. I want to know what we’re dealing with first.”

“Yes, sir.”

Ben hung up the phone, went back to Room 505 and locked the door. He instructed Chelsea not to allow anyone but Chief Bremen and the forensics team entrance.

Ben left the hospital and went straight to his car. As he pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward Shannon’s address, he reached under his seat for his cellular phone. He dialed a long-distance number.

“We’ve got trouble. He’s skipped.”

“I found this, Chief,” Mel Anderson, the bookish, thirty-five-year-old forensic assistant said, holding up a hypodermic needle. “It was on the floor.”

“So? This is a hospital. I think they might have a few here.”

“I hope to hell not.”

“Excuse me?”

Mel pointed to the syringe. “This one has a large air bubble. Inject this and there’s an empty bed available.”

Jimmy Joe examined the hypodermic. “What’s in here? Poison?”

“Water. And that air bubble.”

“And Shannon Riley being a nurse…”

“…would be scared out of her wits.”

“I get the drift. Let me know what else you find. I’ll be downtown.”

“Yes, sir.”

Jimmy Joe walked out of room 505 and found Chelsea giving a statement to his detective. He motioned to the detective. “I’ll take over.”

“Yes, sir,” the man said.

Chelsea waited patiently while the detective walked away, then she turned to Jimmy Joe. “I suppose this means I won’t be seeing you later this morning.”

“Cut the crap.” He glanced surreptitiously over the top of her head at Mel, who quickly looked away.

“You said you had a special Christmas present for me. I’ve been on pins and needles, sugar.”

“We’ll have to put it off for now. It’s too dangerous for us to be seen right now.”

“But you promised.” She pouted.

“Later,” he snapped and walked away.

Ben got the master key to Shannon’s apartment from the superintendent. Taking the stairs two at a time, he was winded by the time he reached her door.

“Damn cigarettes,” he muttered, looking at the collage of notes on Shannon’s door.

When you get in, knock me up. I’m too sick to sleep. Ben read the note. It was signed, Elliot.

“The boyfriend?”

Stepping back, Ben looked down the hall at the doors. He noticed a blue note on the door next to Shannon’s apartment. It was from Shannon to Elliot, with instructions on how to care for his cold.

Elliot’s interrogation could wait, Ben thought as he unlocked Shannon’s door.

No matter how many times he’d investigated an empty house, office or apartment, Ben never ceased being wary of the unknown. He reached for his revolver and remembered it was gone.