“Good.”
“What’s your name?”
“Charlie Peterson. I’m sure security has already figured that out. Or will shortly. That”—he pointed to the blond nurse—“is Kristan Otto, LPN. The other”—he gestured to the brunette—“is Rena Lavagnino, RN. The orderly—what’s your name?”
“Brian. Grover. Brian Grover. I—I’m an RN. Not an orderly.”
“There, now we all know each other.”
The three hostages looked at Carina as if she were the shooter’s partner. Charlie said, “Sorry—Detective Carina Kincaid, right?” he said, then nodded to answer his own question. “I don’t want to kill a cop, but I want answers, and if I don’t get them, I will kill you.”
Carina didn’t know how to read Charlie Peterson. At first, she thought he’d just snapped, but he seemed sincere when he said he didn’t want to kill anyone, just as sincere as when he said he would. He almost seemed to like her, which was odd, but she needed to use that. He didn’t, however, like the three nurses in front of him sitting with their backs against the drawers which held the bodies of the recently deceased.
He said, “Detective, I don’t trust you because I know what your job is. You want to take me down. I get that. Even respect it.” He dropped a pair of handcuffs to the floor and kicked them over to her. “So I need you incapacitated. Sit down and cuff yourself to the table leg. Now.”
She did as he ordered. The heavy stainless steel table in the middle of the room was bolted to the floor. He came over to check the cuffs and make sure she hadn’t left enough room to wiggle out. He nodded. “Thank you. Don’t attempt to pull anything over on me. I served in the army for six years. I don’t need a gun to kill you.”
“My brother was in special forces. Sergeant Jack Kincaid.”
“Good. Then you know I can.”
Carina was trying to build a rapport more than anything. Humanize his hostages to make it less likely he’d kill them. “My dad recently retired. He was a colonel. He had a heart attack last night and needs surgery. Which he’s not going to get as long as this goes on.”
Charlie nodded. “I don’t want this to drag on any longer than necessary. If I even think you’re thinking about screwing me over, I’ll lock you in one of those drawers. I don’t want to, but this isn’t about you.”
“I’ll help you. Let Brian go. He’s injured.”
“No.”
“Good faith. It’ll go a long way—”
“I already showed good faith when I let the nurse and that woman doc leave. That’s two fewer hostages, easier for me.”
“If—”
“Stop trying to negotiate, Detective.” He turned to Kristan. “Open it.”
The young nurse, probably not more than twenty-four, was shaking. “You don’t want—”
“Don’t tell me what I want. Open her drawer.”
Carina said, “Can you fill me in? They seem to know why you’re here holding a gun on us, but I have no clue.”
“My sister.” His voice cracked and he took a deep breath. “She died. And one of them killed her.”
CHAPTER 25
Nick tried Carina for the third time, even though he knew she would have called him if she could.
“Where is she, dammit?” Connor said through clenched teeth.
Nick shot his brother-in-law a narrow-eyed glance. The colonel was already worried as well as sick, and Connor needed to tamp down on his temper before they made a bad situation worse.
Connor’s jaw tightened as he recognized Nick’s unspoken admonition.
“Go,” the colonel said.
“No, Dad,” Nick said. “We’re not going to leave you alone.”
“It wasn’t a suggestion,” the colonel said. “Connor, find your mother and take her home.”
“Dad—”
“Did you hear a question in my tone? Nick, find out what’s going on and why Carina is not answering her phone.”
Connor stood at the end of his father’s bed. He wanted to argue, but he backed down. “Okay, Dad, but I’m coming back.”
“I need to know my Rosa is safe. I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’ll call you when I know anything,” Nick told Connor.
Connor relented. “Call Will, and let me know what he says. Before all this happened, Mrs. Santana took Mom to the cafeteria. I’ll take both of them to the house and have Julia stay with them.”
Connor stared at Nick, but he didn’t have to speak for Nick to understand his meaning. Then he left.
Whatever had happened—all they knew was that shots were fired—it had happened in the north tower. The colonel was in the south tower, and security had come around and told everyone to stay put. The south tower was locked down. Anyone who left would be funneled through the south exit.
Nick tried Carina for the fourth time, still no answer. He then called her partner, Detective Will Hooper. They’d been partners for years, since before Nick had met Carina, and the Kincaids treated Will like one of their own.
He kept his voice low. Even though the colonel could hear him, he didn’t want to sound panicked.
“Will, it’s Nick. Have you heard about the shooting at the hospital?”
“Yeah, I’m on call. I’ve been trying Carina. She beat me there? She’ll never let me live it down.” Will was late to nearly everything.
“We were at the hospital already.”
“What’s wrong?”
“The colonel had a heart attack last night. He’s going through some tests right now. Carina went outside for air, but I haven’t seen her in the last thirty minutes.”
“She’s probably running the show until SWAT arrives.”
“She’s not picking up her phone.”
“I’m only five minutes out. I’ll find her and get back to you.”
“Do you know what’s going on?”
“Shots were fired in the basement of the north wing of the hospital.”
Carina would have no need to go into the basement. “If Carina calls you, just tell her to text me.”
“Absolutely.”
Nick hung up. Even if Carina was in the middle of securing the scene, why wouldn’t she have responded to her partner? And she would have told Nick what she was doing, even with just a quick text message.
What Nick loved about Carina was also what worried him—she was good at her job, she loved her job, but she took risks every day. That was part of being a good cop. She never told someone else to handle a situation; she did it herself. People like him and his wife, if shots were fired, they went toward the conflict, not away.
Nick didn’t regret leaving the sheriff’s department in Montana to move to San Diego and become a private investigator with his brother-in-law, but right now, he wished he was a cop again.
From his bed, the colonel said, “She’s fine, son.”
“Of course she is,” Nick said. The last thing the colonel needed was to be worried about his daughter.
“Go,” the colonel said. “You don’t need to babysit me. I sent Connor home; I’m sending you to find Carina.”
Nick stood by the door and looked out through the narrow window. The hallway was deserted. He could see people in other rooms doing what he was doing. Guarding the door of their loved ones.
His phone rang. Immediately, he thought it was Carina—then caller ID showed it was Will.
“Nick, Tom Blade’s team is staging outside the north entrance of the hospital. Head down there. Tom is expecting you.”
Tom was the head of SWAT for the city and Nick’s closest friend. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know,” Will said.
“Don’t lie to me, Hooper.”
“I don’t have a full report, I’m not telling you anything because I don’t know anything, okay? All I know for certain is someone identifying herself as Carina called security from the north tower basement.”
“Before or after the gunshots?”
“I don’t know.”
“What
do
you know?” Nick said in a rare burst of anger. He stopped himself. “I’ll be there.” He hung up and turned to Carina’s father. “Dad,” he said, “I’m going to check in with Will and SWAT. If you need me, call.”
“Go, son.”
Nick walked down the empty corridor. He was confronted by security at the elevator. “Sir, please go back into your room until we get the all clear.”
Nick showed his ID and, even though it meant nothing, his PI badge. He did it fast enough and with enough confidence that the security guard didn’t blink. “I’ve been called to check in with SWAT at the north entrance. What is the best way to get there from here?”
“We’ve sealed off that wing. Use the stairs, go to the first floor and talk to security. SDPD is on scene.”
Nick went down the staircase. It took him five minutes and two more calls before he was waved through to SWAT. Tom’s team was gearing up. Tom glanced at Nick and hesitated. Just a fraction, but Nick knew Carina was in trouble.
“Hooper said Carina called from the basement. Is that where the shooter is?”
“Yes. She identified herself when she spoke to security. We have two witnesses, hostages that were released, who said a woman matching Carina’s description is one of four hostages in the morgue. That’s all I have right now. One of the released hostages was shot in the leg and is now in surgery, the other is being interviewed.”
Nick’s chest tightened. “Who’s the shooter?”
“Charles Peterson. The ID is not confirmed. The witness thinks he’s the brother of a cancer patient who died two days ago. We’re on it, Nick. I’m telling you all this because we’re friends and you were a cop. Don’t do anything foolish. I’ll take care of Carina, I promise.”
“You know me better than that.”
“And I know that when the woman you love is in danger, reason sometimes goes out the window. You can stay here, at the command center. If you leave, you will be on the other side of that line.” He gestured toward the barrier that was being erected by uniformed officers.
He nodded once. “Keep me in the loop, Tom.”
His phone vibrated. It was Lucy. What was he going to tell her?
“It’s Nick,” he answered.
“Nick, it’s Lucy. We just landed and I got Carina’s message about Dad, is he okay?”
“They have him resting, and I don’t know what the plan is, but his color is back and they’re running tests.”
“I tried Carina and Connor, and neither of them are answering, and then I called Mom, and she was crying—I thought he’d died.” Her voice hitched.
“Lucy, your dad is going to be okay.” Nick hoped. “We have another situation.”
“What?”
He had to tell her. She would be coming here anyway; she would find out soon enough.
“There was a shooting at the hospital. Carina has been taken hostage.”
CHAPTER 26
Carina wished her brother Dillon was here. Dillon was a forensic shrink; he understood the twisted minds of people like Charlie Peterson. He’d know what Charlie really wanted even if the shooter wasn’t sure himself about his plans.
Carina wouldn’t want to see her loved ones’ bodies after they died. Sitting by Patrick’s bed while he’d been in a coma had been a living hell; if he’d died—she wouldn’t have had to see the body to know the truth.
But maybe a soldier like Charlie did.
She glanced at Kristan who’d frozen in place, a deer-in-the-headlights gaze locked on Carina.
“Charlie, you don’t want to see her like this,” Carina said.
On the one hand, Carina understood the need for answers, the need to comprehend why something so unnecessary had had to happen. She’d lost people she cared about, and there was never a good reason. Seeing his sister’s body might give him the peace of mind he required to get them all out of here before anyone was killed.
On the other hand, seeing his sister cold and dead might send him on a suicidal path where they would all end up on a slab.
The phone was ringing. Charlie ignored it.
“You should answer it.”
“Not now. Not until I see my sister.”
“The police want to know that everyone is okay,” Carina said. “You need to give them something, so no one dies.”
Charlie said, “They wouldn’t let me see her. By the time I got my leave, she was gone, and down here in the morgue, and they wouldn’t let me see her. I don’t believe the cancer killed her. Or a reaction to drugs. She was
fine
when I spoke to her an hour before she died. She told me she’d be home by Christmas, but if she wasn’t, we were going to spend it here. She sent me to buy presents for the kids who wouldn’t be able to go home.” His voice trailed off, then he steeled himself and looked at Carina. “They said they aren’t going to do an autopsy because she was under a doctor’s care.”
“You’re family,” Carina said. “You can request an autopsy.”
He shook his head. “They said I’d have to pay for it because the doctor signed off on the cause of death. But it’s not right. Something happened to Sarah and they’re covering it up.” He gestured to the three RNs.
“They just work here. They probably never even met your sister.”
He shook his head. “All three of them were on duty on her floor the night she died. I’m not cruel, I don’t want to hurt anyone who isn’t responsible. Her doctor wasn’t even in the hospital when she died, so how would he know how she died? Even he said that Sarah was just having a mild reaction to new medication and after being rehydrated and adjusting the dose she would be fine. I know doctors. If they thought there was even a small chance that something would go wrong, they wouldn’t tell me she would be fine. They’d say, ‘You know how these things are,’ or, ‘It’s too early to tell.’ Not ‘She’s having a mild reaction to the medication but she’ll be fine.’”
That was the same as Carina’s experience. Yet, doctors made mistakes. They were also busy. And if the doctor wasn’t present when Sarah died, then maybe something had happened during the time between when Charlie checked and Sarah passed.
“There’s no reason for any of these people to hurt Sarah. They were her caregivers.”
“No one needs a reason to hurt people, it happens all the time,” Charlie said. “And hospitals make mistakes. They screw up. One of these people is covering up something, and I will prove it.”
“You don’t know—”
“I
do
know!”
Carina couldn’t lose this tenuous bond she had with Charlie. The best way to resolve the situation would be to keep him talking until he agreed to let the hostages go.
The phone started ringing again. Again, Charlie ignored it.