An Intimate Murder (The Catherine O'Brien Series) (28 page)

His gaze was steady, and drilled through my eyes as if trying to see the thoughts behind them and determine if I were lying. After a few moments, he nodded.

“Okay, then you’re cleared for service. Don’t push yourself though.”

“She won’t,” Louise said. “I promise.”

From the look she gave me, Louise was determined to keep that promise to Doctor Dave, even if it meant handcuffing me to my chair.

Louise could stand at ease. I had no problem with someone else doing the heavy lifting today. I just wanted to be back in the saddle after my fall.

I slid off the metal table onto the floor, stood in front of Doctor Dave, and raised my right hand.

“I swear, I will take it easy today.”

Dave slipped on a new pair of gloves to start work on his next patient, who had been waiting so patiently.

“Just see that you do, O’Brien, and take one of the Vicodin pills now if you’re in pain.”

I saluted him and we left.

When Louise and I turned the corner into the security-monitoring center, a haggard and drawn Rees hunched toward the main monitoring screen.

“Jesus, Rees, have you been here all night?”

Rees’s head came up and he smiled.

“Hey, O’Brien, how are you feeling this morning?”

He came around the console, and then took my arm. His touch as soft as cotton, like he could break me by touching me too hard. From the tired look on Rees’s face, guilt over his part in what had happen to me yesterday was what had fueled his all-nighter.

“I’m fine. Thank you, Rees.”

I allowed him to direct me to one of the rolling chairs.

“O’Brien, I am so sorry about yesterday. Really, I was just gone for a few minutes.”

“It’s okay, Rees. I don’t blame you for what happened to me. But I’m hoping you’ve been able to find a suspect on one of the cameras further down the hall.”

“I have good news then.” His face lit with excitement and his eyes twinkled with life. “I think I found a picture of the woman who hit you.”

“It was Katie Dolan,” I said.

Louise’s tall body went perfectly straight. “How do you know?”

“I told you, my dad told me.”

Rees looked confused. After years of working with Louise; we had developed our own form of verbal shorthand, which though efficient, left those around us puzzled.

“You guys want to fill me in on what’s going on?” Rees said. “Or do you want to see the image I’ve found? I’m assuming that’s why you’re here.”

I nodded toward the monitor. “Roll it, Rees. I’m pretty sure I know who my attacker is, but visual confirmation won’t hurt when it comes to putting the psycho behind bars.”

Louise came around the console and stood behind me.

Rees pushed the power button on one of the side monitors. A still image wavered, on the screen then became clear.

“I paused the image when I found a clear shot, so I could print the face, but I can run the tape back if you want to see it.”

Unconsciously, I bobbed my head. Rees rewound the image and then pushed play. The woman ran down the hallway leading to one of the building’s exits. When she reached the door she glanced over her shoulder. That’s when Rees paused the image again.

“Do you know her?”

I nodded.

“It’s Katie Dolan,” Louise said. “Catherine, the next time we’re stuck on a case, remind me to call your dad and enlist his psychic abilities.”

“He’s not psychic,” I said, still staring at Katie Dolan’s face. Her expression was cold and somehow pleased.

I don’t know what I’d expected to see, but it sure wasn’t pleasure. Katie Dolan was a sick individual.

“Explain to me how your Dad knew Katie attacked you.”

“He didn’t.”

Rees and Louise stared at me with a mutinous look that said, if I didn’t pony up with the information, they’d soon make what Katie Dolan did to me seem like a gentle facial.

I let out a deep breath. “It’s a stupid story guys.”

Louise arched an eyebrow. “Humor us.”

“My Dad loves Katherine Hepburn,” I said. “So he wanted to name me Katherine. My Mother finally relented but insisted they spell my name with a C instead of a K. I guess it was her little way of giving the great Kate a big ‘up yours’ for all the times my father dragged her to Hepburn’s movies and spent the night breathing heavy over Kate in the back row instead of my Mom.”

This revelation elicited a chuckle from Rees.

“Get to the point,” Louise said. “How did he know about Katie?”

“I’m getting there. Do you read the last chapters of a book first, too?”

Louise gave me a killer look, then flipped me the bird.

“Anyway, dad always calls me Katie, despite the “C.” When I talked to him this morning, hearing him call me Katie made me ill. That’s when I realized that I recognized the voice of the woman in the bathroom.”

“Katie Dolan,” Louise said.

I held my hand out, palm up, and gestured to Louise as if I were serving her with a silver platter.

“And Rees gave us all the confirmation we needed.”

Rees reached forward and punched the print button. The laser printer on the other side of the square, cement room gave a high-pitched-squeal followed by a buzzing-whir as it spit out a color photograph.

I pushed myself out of the chair. The short period of sitting had created a stiff pain in my back. The throb of my shoulder made me finger the pill bottle in my pocket. After I had a little food in my stomach, I would have to take at least one to get me through the day.

“Thanks, Rees. I think you should tell the Chief you’re not feeling well and take the rest of the day off,” I said. “You’ve earned some sleep.”

He gave a weak smile and bobbed his head. “Thanks O’Brien.”

Jane Katts was sitting in the same lobby chair she had been perched in yesterday. Again, she had a bag of donuts on her lap. Guilt played across her features when she saw me. Maybe it was the stern look I tried to convey through my mangled features.

Jane stood and held the bag out to me.

Pastries as a peace treaty are almost as insidious as small pox blankets. I wondered how much she’s had to spend on donuts in her short career. She should consider buying stock.

“I bought a few extras today,” she said and flashed a practiced smile.

The siren song of the donuts pulled at me, and my hand lifted on automatic pilot. I halted the unconscious assent before my fingers closed on the bag. If I took the donuts, I would be a slave to Jane Katts’ no good bribery forever. I played off the reach by adjusting my purse strap, and walked past her without comment.

Jane jogged up next to me. “How are you feeling today?”

“Fine.”

The metal in my voice was clear to me, if not to Jane.

“You look better,” she said.

I stopped walking and stared at her like she was four biscuits short of a picnic. Jane shrugged. Her lips turned up at one side in a pathetic smile.

“Less swollen.” She swirled her index finger in the air around her own face, then demured away from my hard stare. “Still a little bruised though.”

I proceeded into the bullpen area of our office, and fielded fifty different questions about how I felt. Once I had assured everyone that I wouldn’t be dying soon, I had to listen to taunts about sitting on the toilet with the wrong end.

Digs waited for us at the gauntlet finish line, dancing from side to side as if he had to pee. The manila folder he held fanned back and forth with each step. Then he caught sight of Jane and went still.

“Good morning, Digs,” Louise said. “What brings you here so early?”

Digs tapped the center of the folder with his index finger.

“I thought you two would want this information right away.”

“About the case?” I asked.

His eyes shifted to Jane. “No.”

“That means it’s off limits to you, Ms. Katts.” I made a shooing motion with my hands.

“Where am I supposed to go?”

“Why don’t you wait for us on the other side of the room,” I said. “We’ll call you back when we’re done.”

Jane leaned forward and deposited the donut bag on my desk, then huffed toward the far side of the room.

“Jane.”

She stopped.

“Don’t forget your purse.”

I picked up her bag, which she had managed to slide onto the desk almost unnoticed, in a slight-of-hand worthy of a master magician. Donuts came in handy as one hell of a diversionary tactic. The strap dangled from my fingertips.

Jane snatched the purse, and whirled away so hard, I thought she might screw herself into the ground.

I called after her. “You didn’t bug the donuts too did you?”

The hard clicking of her heals on the floor, as she stalked away, gave me more joy than I’d felt since she forced herself on us two days ago. God, I was one sick puppy.

“What do you have?” Louise asked, once Jane was safely out of earshot.

“I ran some tests to figure out what the substance was that cover the cameras last night.” He bounced on the balls of his feet. “It’s hair spray. Plus, I was able to pull a shoe print from the stall door.”

He handed me the folder.

“Thanks, Digs. That should nail Katie Dolan without a doubt.”

I flicked open the file and thumbed through the top few pages. Louise closed the cover, and pinched the folder between her thumb and forefinger. She slid the folder out of my hand.

“Except it’s not our case,” Louise said.

“What?”

“Come on, Catherine. You’re the victim here,” she said. “You know you can’t investigate your own case.”

“Why the hell not?”

She handed the file to Digs.

“You don’t see a small conflict of interest in you investigating your own attack?”

Louise cocked an eyebrow at me, and waited for me to see her point of view. Deep inside, I knew what she was saying, though I wasn’t prepared to agree with her yet. I wanted to arrest Katie Dolan, and confront her about what she did to me.

I needed to ask her why, even though there would be no good answer. She was completely insane, but I needed to look her in the eyes.

Katie Dolan had made me a victim. This was the side of the fence I don’t want to be on. The only way to the other side, where I could be on terra firma again, was to see her face.

“Whose case is it?” I finally asked.

“It’s mine.” Bob Shackelford had been standing just out of my line of sight. “I promise I’ll do a good job, O’Brien.”

Louise handed Digs the file. She nodded toward Katie’s photo in my hand.

“I know you will, Bob.” I held the photo out toward him. “And I appreciate it.”

He pressed his lips flat and gave me a smile. Then took the picture and slid it into the file with Digs’ reports.

“Her name is Katie Dolan,” I said. “We picked her up yesterday in connection with our current investigation. Apparently, she wasn’t very happy about it.”

I touched the knot on the side of my face and gave a short laugh. Bob laughed too, but his eyes remained focused on the file. He shuffled his feet from side to side.

For several seconds there was an uncomfortable silence while Shackelford tried to find something to say. I couldn’t take any more sentiment, especially not from Shackelford. We based our relationship on mutual torment.

“Go get her,” I said. “Time’s a-wasting. Jesus, who’d you screw to get this job?”

The jab broke the tension. A genuinely relieved smile split Shackelford’s face.

“The same person you screwed, O’Brien. You should know that. We all have to screw the pooch for this kind of glory job.”

He fanned the file in my face. I winked at him. He winked back and left. I watched him go, or watched the file go, with all the longing of a lover. Letting go of things with grace and magnanimity wasn’t my strong suit.

On the edge of my periphery, I could see Jane wave her hand in the air, as if to ask if it were all right to return. I turned my gaze to her and jerked my head to call her over.

“What was that all about?” Jane said with an indignant flap of her hand toward Bob Shackelford’s back.

“Another case,” I said and turned my back to her. “One that doesn’t involve you.”

“Are you sure it wasn’t about the Luther’s case?”

“Positive.”

“Okay.” Jane jammed her fists into her hips. “What did I do?”

“You broke our deal.” I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t look at her.

Genuine shock crossed her face. “How so?”

“You ran the story about my attack without clearing it with us first,” I said. “I knew we couldn’t trust you, and now you’ve proved it.”

Jane reeled backward. Her mouth gaped open and her eyes widened. She looked at Louise and Digs for some sort of support but found none. Louise looked through the inbox on the corner of her desk, and Digs glared at her demanding answers.