Kill on Command (37 page)

VII

More confusion in Pittsburgh

UPMC

Sunday - Midday

Brian sat around with Cindy for nearly half an hour with no results popping up on the screen.  Brian had finally had enough.  He decided to go over to the hospital.  He stood up and pushed
in the chair.

“Cindy, please call me if anything materializes.  But I have a feeling, this is a dead-end.” 

“Come on.  Something will come back,” she said, looking at him from behind her computer monitor.

“Information on whoever this is or was has been buried.  We are not going to find anything.”

“I am going to stay on it.  I’ll see what my friend at the FBI can do for us on Monday.”

“Thank you Cindy.  I am heading over to UPMC to hook up with Jenkins.” 

Brian walked out of the office, back up the stairs and exited the building.  He got in his Charger and headed to the hospital.  He knew this was bigger than two guys getting capped at the hospital.  He needed to understand what had happened to Sean.  The obsessive working out, the headaches and who can forget, flying a chopper off of a building.  Who was he really working for?  Brian doubted Sean had a clue, but he knew who did - the blonde who grabbed Sean and scared the shit out of everyone.  Brian knew that if he could find her, he could find Sean.  Brian kept thinking.  He had to be able to figure out who she was.  The hospital cameras had to provide some sort of clue.

He pulled into the UPMC garage and saw Detective Jenkins getting into his car.  Brian pulled up next to him, got out and walked over to his car.

“You find the car?” 

“Yeah.  Nothing.”  Jenkins said.

“The hospital have anything from the security cameras?”

“Nothing.  We have been trying to figure it out all night.  There is nothing.  Nothing at all.  The tech people said there was a malfunction.”

“Malfunction?  You don’t believe that do you?”  Brian asked, his voice full of skepticism.

“That’s what they said.”

“I am sure that’s what they said,” Brian said frustrated.

“Look Ippolito, don’t get pissed at me.  I have to get going on Willis’s disappearance.  He just vanished or it looks like he did.  I will call you if I find anything.”  Jenkins started his car and backed out.

Brian leaned against his car and watched Jenkins drive down the ramp towards the exit.  He looked at the ground focusing on the dust that was collecting on the yellow line that separated the parking spots.  He decided to go into the hospital himself.  He locked the car and walked down the ramp and made his way to the hospital.  In the lobby, he realized that there was nothing to notice.  The hospital had cleaned up everything from the night before.  All the trash and mess the police had made combing every inch of the hospital was gone.  He approached the front desk.  There was an older woman in comfortable clothes and a green UPMC volunteer vest behind a computer.

“Can I help you?” she asked.  No doubt, he was the 900
th
cop she had seen this morning.

“Yes.  I am looking for the security office.” 

“It’s in the basement.  You know, all of your friends have already been down there.”

“I am just going to take a look at something.  Thank you for your help,” he said and smiled at her, walking over to the elevator bank.  The UPMC floors were sparkling clean.  The doors to the elevator were polished.  He got on the elevator and punched “B.”

Arriving on the basement level, he walked to the security office at the end of the hall.  He had a hunch that all of the people examining the digital files were looking at the period from when the first shots were fired until Willis’ disappearance and not the two hours prior to the shooting.  He knew the blonde had to be in the hospital waiting for the two guys she killed.  She would have staked out the floor.  She would have had to come in somewhere.  She had to be there.

Brian knocked on the door to the office and walked in.  There was a desk in the middle of the room, much like at the station house.  Chairs lined the wall to the left.  Posters from the hospital and various government agencies were on the wall.  There was also a board with mug shots and photos of people that were banned from the hospital for some reason or another.  A squat man stood up when Brian entered.

“You guys have been here all morning.  There’s nothing else to see.”  The guy was obviously fried.

“I just want to look at the digital files.”

The guy interrupted him.

“Look, they were all wiped clean.  There was some sort of malfunction.”

“Yeah, I know.  I want to see the two hours before the shootings,” Brian said, walking towards a room that obviously housed the security footage.  He was not asking permission.  He stopped at the door and turned to the guy.

“You going to help me or not?” 

The man fidgeted a minute and walked forward.

“I am supposed to leave in a minute,” he stammered.

“JESUS!  Just come in here and show me how to use this shit and then go!  You do know that two people were killed here last night and possibly a cop?”

“Sure.  Sure.  Just don’t yell at me,” the man said, brushing past Brian and into the room.  He sat down at a computer terminal and started hitting keys.  On a second monitor, footage popped up.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it.  I know all of you guys are pretty stressed.”  He hit a couple more keys and the footage started moving faster.  Brian stood behind him.  The room smelled like hot plastic.

“The shootings happened around 3 A.M.  Can you go back to 12:30 A.M.?”

“Sure.  I will show you how to run this.  I have a feeling you want to run the show anyway.”  He showed Brian how to speed-up, slow down and pause the footage.  He got up and let Brian take his seat.

“Thanks.  Sorry I yelled at you,” Brian said, turning in the chair.

The man left the room and Brian began combing through the footage.  He stared at the screen and sped up the footage from the exterior cameras first.  Lots of nurses.  Lots of ambulances.  One BMW SUV.  He stopped the tape when he saw it.  It was out of place. He zoomed in.  There she was, in the passenger seat.  He zoomed in and could make out the driver.  It was some kid.  He had on a jacket.  He zoomed in farther and saw that it said “Valet” and “PAC”.  He knew what that stood for.  He was a member there.  This was a car from the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, or at the very least, a valet.  He let the tape run.  The blonde got out, but it was obvious that she knew there were cameras.  He could not get a good look at her face.  She had two bags with her.

“Damn.  She’s smart,” Brian said aloud.  He switched the screen to another camera and saw her entering the locker room area for the nurses.

“Shit,” he said, trying to find a camera in the locker room. 

“Hey!  Buddy!  Are there cameras in the nurse’s locker room?”  Brian yelled over his shoulder.

“Are you nuts?  No!  There are no cameras in there.”

Brian kept the monitor on the hallway where the nurse’s locker room was located.  It paid off.  Ten minutes later, the door opened and a tall brunette nurse carrying two bags exited the locker room and walked to the elevator.  It was clearly her.  The bags.  Six feet tall.  He still could not get a clean look at her.  He watched her walk over to the elevator and hit a button.  The doors opened and she stepped in.  Brian fiddled with the keyboard and toggled the monitor over to the elevator.  He rewound the video to the point when the doors opened. 

“Got you!”  Brian said, looking at the monitor.  It was just a fraction of a second, but enough.  She quickly turned her back to the camera.  Brian started shouting at the poor guy at the security desk.

“Hey!  Hey!  How do I print off of this thing?”

“Hit print screen!  Top right hand button!” he shouted.

Brian hit print and walked over to the printer across the room.  He grabbed the image as soon as it came off the printer.  He went back to his chair in front of the monitor and stared at Sandy’s image. 

“I’m going to find you,” he said to himself. 

Brian watched the footage as Sandy appeared on Sean’s floor.  Again she was careful to avoid the cameras.  She walked over to the nurse’s station and started chatting it up with the nurse he had seen earlier that night.  Shortly thereafter, the footage went dark.  The mysterious malfunction.  He took another look at the image of Sandy and walked out of the room.

“Thanks.  I appreciate you letting me look through the footage.”

The guy just nodded and waved at Brian.

Brian took the elevator back up to the main level and walked across the lobby to the doors that led outside.  His next stop was the Pittsburgh Athletic Club.  He got into his car, drove down the ramp and out into traffic.  The drive over to the club took less than five minutes.  He pulled right up front and got out - one of the benefits of driving a police car.  He walked inside and up to the reception desk.  The woman recognized him.

“Mr. Ippolito!  How are you today?” she said, beaming.

“OK.  I am looking for someone.  Have you seen this woman?  She might have had blonde hair?”  He held out the picture.  The woman studied the photo, biting her lip at the same time.

“I am sorry.  I don’t remember seeing her.”

“Really?  She’s very tall.  Might have seemed unfriendly,” Brian asked, trying to jog her memory.

“Mr. Ippolito.  You’re a member here.  You know lots of these women are unfriendly,” she said, trying to make a joke.  Brian did not laugh.  She frowned.

“OK.  Who were the valets last night?”

“One of those guys over there will be able to help you.  The guys from last night are on today,” she said, pointing at the valet stand.

“Thanks,” Brian said, turning and heading back outside.  He walked over to the three guys standing by the valet stand.  Something about the police uniform makes young people nervous.  They came to attention when he approached.  One of them recognized him.

“Hey, Mr. Ippolito!  I didn’t recognize you without the Benz,” he said, extending his hand.

“They won’t let me take it on patrol,” Brian said, trying to be friendly.  He was too wrapped up in what had happened to be shooting the shit with the valets.

“What can we do for you?” he asked.

“I am looking for a valet that might have driven a BMW X5 over to UPMC last night.  Did you . . . ” Before he could finish the question, one of the valets answered.

“Paul.  It was Paul,” one of them said.

“Paul?”  Brian asked.

“Yeah, he was with this total hottie.  She needed to get over there really fast.  Paul thought she was into him.” 

“You guys see her?”

“No.  But Paul told us all about her.”

“Where is Paul?”  Brian asked.

“Parking a car,” the third guy answered.

“I’ll wait,” Brian said.

All four of them stood there watching the traffic.

“You busting him?” one of them finally asked.

“Shit.  No.  I just need some information,” Brian said, half laughing. 

Paul came jogging up towards the valet stand, but started slowing when he saw Brian. The other valets backed up.

“You Paul?”  Brian said, as the kid walked towards him.