and along came SPIDER ( A Martina Spalding Thriller ) (Spider Series Book 1) (16 page)

Still, she thought
about it pretty constantly now, and the thoughts were becoming more and more...
pleasant.  She almost wondered how much longer she could bear to hold off for
the “right way.”

“That gown I had you
buy for me was meant as a gift for you, you know?” Gloria said, moments later,
as if reading her mind.

“Oh, God, was that left
in the car?” Marti said, covering her mouth.

“I took it in, along
with my things from Spencer House.”

“Good,” Marti said,
relieved.  “You meant it for me?”

“I did.  I wanted you
to have something nice to drop to the floor, the first time.”

“Gloria!  That was so
thoughtful of you!” she said and went in to lightly kiss her swollen eyes.

“The black one is there
too.  If you’d rather have that?” Gloria offered.

Remembering the black
nightie Raym had purchased and sent over from Natalie’s, she slowly shook her
head.  Now the memories were back, and she again rushed toward the hallway. 
“The first time is the worst,” she remembered Dunbar having said on her way
out.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-SEVEN

Dunbar returned at
six.  In the room, he saw Gloria was sleeping and waved Martina out.  “I can
take you for something to eat now, if you want?”

This prompted several
questions, but rather than get into any of that, Marti, simply nodded and went
back into the room for her purse and jacket.  Outside, it was raining again,
and Dunbar, gallant as usual, draped his coat over her head and guided her on a
run to the waiting patrol car.

They drove for what
seemed an enormous amount of time, finally arriving at what seemed an alley
bar, and they entered.  At first sight of those inside, Marti knew this place
was primarily patronized by cops.  Even the ones not in uniform looked the
part; no Elvis haircuts here, and fedoras abounded.  Dunbar led the way, with
Smitte bringing up the rear.  Once their presence was readily known, much
commotion filled the room, and a rather handsome man came up.

“What’s your name,
honey?” he said to Marti with a hungry smile.

“Go away, laughing
boy!” Dunbar said, along with a push.

“I was just asking her
name, Harry!” the man protested, tossing up his hands.

“She doesn’t have one,”
Harry Dunbar returned.  “Now disappear, okay!”

Further in, it seemed
every table in the place was occupied.  That is, until two men in a booth saw
Dunbar coming.  They quickly grabbed their mugs of beer and vacated it, just
prior to their arrival.

“Thanks, fellas,”
Dunbar said, and gave Marti a hand in, before sliding in beside her.  Smitte
slid in across from them and removed his police issue bonnet.  He was even
younger looking without it, Marti noticed.  This brought to mind Officer Ben
Ripley — also young and handsome.  Her eyes welled, again. 
Thankfully, though, she had revenged his death, as promised.  That had to count
for something, she told herself, and swiped away the tears.

Dunbar saw what was
happening and focused elsewhere.  Nothing he could say at this point would
help, he knew.  Things like this had to remedy themselves gradually.  Like
jagged rocks under a glacier, they would never completely wear away, just
become more comfortable to live with, over time.

Soon, a huge platter of
fried chicken arrived at the table, followed shortly by plates of waffles for
each.  “I hope you like southern fried chicken, Martina?” Dunbar said.  “They
do it
right
,
here.”

“Of course I do,
Lieutenant.  I was practically raised on the stuff.  And the waffles look so
good,” Marti said cheerfully, draping her lap with a napkin.  She figured he must
have phoned in the order, since it came so fast.  Having not eaten since
breakfast, she now realized how starved she was, and began by buttering her
waffles in haste.

After the two waffles,
three pieces of chicken, and a glass of ice tea, Martina was stuffed.  It was
then Dunbar, still gnawing on a chicken leg, said, “Have you decided if you’ll
be staying at the apartment tonight, Martina?”

“I believe not.  But if
you don’t mind dropping me there anyway, I’d like to shower and change before
returning to the hospital.  I have an umbrella; I’ll walk over afterward.  It’s
only eight blocks.”

“Your apartment it is,
then.”  Dunbar wiped his face and hands on a napkin, then slid from the booth. 
“I can’t let you walk, though.  We’ll escort you up and wait, if that’s okay?”
he said as they walked.

“Of course it’s okay. 
But I don’t want to inconvenience you.  You must have plenty to do other than
hauling me around.  Or is there another reason, Lieutenant?”

Dunbar stopped at the
bar and signed the tab, before moving on.  “We’ll talk about this in the car,
okay?”

“Sure.”  Marti fell in
behind him as he responded to various greeters along the way.

Once to the car, Dunbar
let Martina into the back and then climbed in beside her, for the very first
time ever.  He had in mind to talk, and he didn’t want to have to do it from
the front seat.  Even then, it took him several blocks before he began.  “Miss
Spalding,” he started that way to keep this on a professional level, “have you
ever heard the name Brad Wilson?  Perhaps Gloria may have mentioned him?”

“Never!” she answered
without hesitation.  “No.”

“Okay, well, the reason
I mentioned it is, we had reason to believe he somehow was associated with
Raymond Koffee.  Fortunately, we located him this afternoon.  And after a good
grilling, with some threats tossed his way, he came out with a little story. 
Now, I don’t know how much truth there is to it — these small time
hoods sometimes make up things, thinking they’ll get favors somewhere down the
road, if they throw us a bone — even if it’s a made up bone…  Well
anyway, this Brad Wilson said he heard it directly from the horse’s mouth that
Raym Koffee had bought himself a little insurance policy over the past few
days.  What I mean by that is, he hired himself an assassin, just in case he
was unable to complete his crazed mission, for some reason…  That guy, Raym,
must have been a real piece of work!  That’s all I have to say,” Dunbar said,
his face taking on a look of disgust.

“Lieutenant, are you
saying what I think you are?  Is Gloria’s life still in danger?”

It was obvious Martina
was panic stricken now.  “In a word, yes,” Dunbar said.  “But I can assure you,
Martina, at the moment she is quite safe.”

“Then take me to her,
Lieutenant!” Marti near shouted.  “Forget the shower, I want to go now!  Where
is she?”

“She’s where we left
her.  At the hospital.”  He had to go on before she objected in terror, “But
not in that room any longer.  We had her moved to a closed wing on the fourth
floor, with plenty of protection.  But that’s not all,” Dunbar said.  “There
was another person on that hit list.”

It didn’t take Martina
long to figure out who that may be.  “Me?”

“We think so.  Bradley
wasn’t really clear on that, however.”

“Come on, Lieutenant,
tell me?  I can take it.  Was it me, or not?”

“I’ve told you what I
know.”  Dunbar was firm on that.

“So you had all of this
planned, that’s why you took me away from the hospital?”

“Exactly.  I figured if
someone was watching, we didn’t want a big scene.  Gloria was actually taken
out in a laundry cart, wheeled by two police officers dressed as hospital
workers.  A dummy, to take her place in the bed, was brought in with the same
cart.”

“Clever, but how do you
know all of this came off as planned, Lieutenant?  You weren’t even there.”

“Ever hear of a high
sign?  Well I got several of them from the bartender at the Brass Badge while
we were there.  He’s a cop too, in his day job.  The progress was phoned in to
him, as it came down.”

“What about me?  Are
you going to haul me up in a laundry cart, too?”

“No, you’ll be treated
to a nice ride in the back elevator, Martina.”

“And you?  Where will
you be?”

“I’ll be around.”

“At the original room?”

“Actually, probably in
it,” Dunbar said.  “Somewhere out of sight.”

“But if you want this
to look normal, shouldn’t I be hanging around there too, like before?”

“No way…!  No damned
way will I use you as a decoy, Martina,” Dunbar said.  “You’ve done quite
enough as it is.  Don’t push your luck!”

“Look, Lieutenant, I
want this guy as much as you do.  Neither Gloria nor I will be safe until he’s
taken off the street.”  She glared.  “Please!  I’ll be careful.”

Dunbar thought about it
for a moment.  He knew she was right, about all of it. “You’ll take my Beretta
again?”

“I’ll take your Beretta
again.”

“And you’ll pull it, if
anyone gets within your danger zone?”

“Yes.  Absolutely,
Harry!”

“What did you call me?”

“Harry.  That is your
name, isn’t it?  I heard someone call you that…back at that place,” Marti said,
confused by his reaction.

“So, what if it is?  You
think we know each other well enough, all of a sudden, to be on a first name
basis?  Where’s the respect in that?”

“I do respect you,
Lieutenant,” Marti made an attempt to explain.  “I just figured that since we
almost died together…and now that I know it…and we are working together…”

“Well, we didn’t die
together, thank God,” Dunbar snarled.  “And we sure as hell don’t work
together!  You’re not a cop.  Is that clear?  I mean, if you insist on putting
yourself in harm’s way, that’s your choice.  Just don’t expect me, or anyone
else, to be there to save your pretty little ass if you bite off more than you
can chew.  In other words, you’re on your own, Miss Spalding.  Is that
understood?”

Smitte, in the front
seat, knew exactly what was coming down with all the crap he was handing her.
That was just vintage Dunbar.  It was his way of psyching her up to be more
alert to her own safety.  He’d done it to him in the past, and it’d had an
effect on his awareness.  It
was
angering, though, until he finally got wise to what Harry was up to.

“Understood!  Now can I
have the Beretta, please, Lieutenant?”

He reached to his
ankle, a bit surprised she’d taken it so calmly.

“Or should I call you,
Daddy
?”
Marti added.

This prompted Smitte to
chuckle.  She’d seen through it, just as he had, but a whole lot quicker.

Ignoring that remark,
Dunbar said, “Okay, Martina, here’s the way we’re going to do this.  At the
hospital…”

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

Three hours after
entering the room, Marti was beginning to believe this thing would end up a
washout.  Visiting hours for non-family was up near an hour ago, so the place
had cleared out considerably.  Stepping into the hallway every now and again,
to be seen there acting very much the concerned friend she was, she noticed
even Dunbar could no longer be seen.  Initially he had shown up in the waiting
area — which was no more than a half-dozen chairs down the hall
across from the nurse’s station — shy of his fedora, to look less
cop-like and more a concerned relative.  Now he was gone.  Perhaps, he’d gotten
bored and gone out for a smoke.

Just then a dark
bearded man came into view.  He had on a hooded rain
slicker — yellow.  He’d come from the hall that would eventually
lead a person here from the front entrance and walked directly up to the
nurse’s station.  He glanced her way briefly before the nurse there pointed him
in the opposite direction.  He went that way, to the first intersecting hallway
to the left, where he disappeared.

Moments later Marti,
restless, pivoted to re-enter the room.  But from the corner of her eye,
something familiar caught her attention.  Turning back, she saw the same yellow
slicker coming back up the opposite hallway.  Reaching the entrance hall then,
he turned and disappeared once again.  Thinking that visit hadn’t lasted long,
she walked to the nurse’s station to inquire who he’d gone to see.  She knew
this one from the incident involving Parker McLean a few days ago, when she’d
helped out in the ER.

“Piper…” she got out
before a familiar face caught her attention from the side.  It was the silver
haired bartender from Hannity’s.  “Lenny!” she greeted, and turned fully to
face him.  “What brings you here?  God, it seems forever since I’ve seen you.” 
She reached out as if to pull him in for a hug.  But Lenny appeared to have
missed the gesture in his nervous panning of the area.  Presently, it was only
the three of them there.

“I heard Gloria was
here.  I came to check on her condition.  Is she okay?”

“She is,” Marti said,
glancing back toward the room, wondering what she would do if he asked to see
her.  “Oh, but Lenny, she’s resting right now…  I’ll tell her you dropped by,
though.”

“Well, I kinda wanted
to give her this.”  He lifted a gift bag that was at his side.

“Oh, how thoughtful!  I
can give it to her,” Marti said.  “Being it’s from you, I’m sure she’ll
treasure it… whatever it is.”  She reached out for it.

Lenny, however, pulled
back.  “That’s okay.  I’ll return with it tomorrow.”  He looked at her
strangely and turned away, to go.

Feeling he may have
been hurt by something she’d said, Marti offered, “I’m truly sorry, Lenny. 
I’ll be sure to tell Gloria you came by… when she awakes.  I promise!”

“That’s okay,” he said,
making an attempt at a smile that never quite materialized.  “Maybe she’ll take
my call later on.  What room is she in?”

Marti, anxious to
oblige him now, quickly volunteered, “105, just up the hall.”  Even though
Gloria wasn’t there any longer, he didn’t know that.  And if he did call, no
one would answer in the room.  That is, if the hospital switchboard even put it
through, which she doubted at this hour.

“Later, then,” he said,
and abruptly turned heel and retreated the way he’d come.

Marti watched Lenny
push through the swinging doors down the hall, then turned back to Piper, only
to find Piper’s questioning eyes on her.  “As you may have gathered, that was a
friend of Gloria’s.  He’s a bartender at Hannity’s.”

“Strange little guy,
isn’t he?”

“Actually, he’s usually
quite jovial,” Marti said.  “I don’t know why he was that way tonight.”

“The way he yanked that
gift bag back, you’d think there was a bar of gold in it.”

“Yeah.  Well, they’ve
been close for a long time.  It was Lenny that introduced Gloria to one of her
husbands,” Marti recalled.  “I think she said it was the last one.”

“Goodness!” Piper
said.  “How many times has she been married?”

“Three…” Marti said. 
Then it dawned on her.  Raym Koffee was number three!  My God, that meant Lenny
and Raym must know, or have known, each other!  She glanced around, feeling
uneasy, now.  “Piper, did you see where the man went that was sitting over
there?  He’s tall, graying hair, has a mustache…”

“Officer Dunbar…?”

“You know him?”

“No.  But he came over
a few hours ago, said he was on the lookout for someone.  He also said that if
there was a commotion, I should duck behind the counter here, and stay put
until he gave the all clear.”

“Did you see where he
went?”

“No…  I’m sorry.  I
just remember looking up and he was gone.  I thought maybe he had given up on
whoever it was he was looking for, and left.”

Without reply, and with
no concern for rudeness, Marti struck off on a run for the front entrance.  At
the darkened main lobby, she saw no one and pushed on through the front door. 
The lighted parking lot was quiet, and only a few cars remained.  One of them
must be Lenny’s, she presumed, since it hadn’t been that long since he left. 
He must be out here, someplace.  Yet he wasn’t.  Where could he have gone, she
wondered?  Re-entering, she dashed back to the ER waiting room, only to find it
devoid of everyone, as well.  Even Piper had mysteriously disappeared.

Hearing a noise coming
from the direction of the ER, Marti, taking no chances, drew the Beretta from
the ankle holster and went to investigate.  Creeping up on Gloria’s room, she
heard more noises.  These sounded like gunshots, but distantly subdued.  And
they had come from inside the room.  Just as she peeked in to investigate, a
body flew through the door.  This prompted Martina to scream.  However, it
wasn’t a body at all.  It was the life size dummy that’d been put in the bed to
replicate Gloria.  And clearly it had been shot full of holes.

Slamming herself
against the wall, not knowing what else to do, Marti watched as Lenny slowly
stepped out.  His hands were raised above his head, and directly behind him was
Lieutenant Dunbar.

“Harry!”  Martina was
shocked to see him and took a sigh of relief.  “Where did you come from?”

“Now, that will just
have to remain a mystery for the moment, young lady.”  He shoved Lenny into a
wall, holstered his gun, and pulled a set of cuffs from his pocket.  “This one
just blew our dummy away.  The gun he used was equipped with a silencer.”

This prompted Marti to
direct her attention to Lenny.  She couldn’t help but be confused and angry
now.  “Why did you do it, Lenny?  I thought Gloria was your friend?”  But all
she got in return was a hateful look.  This unnerved her to the point that she
had to look away.  That’s when she caught sight of the bearded man, in the
yellow slicker, coming through the swinging doors from the ER, farther up.

“Lieutenant!” Marti
shouted.

Dunbar, in the process
of cuffing Lenny, abruptly discontinued that process and went for his gun.  The
bearded man, however, was faster.  The first shot fired from a
revolver — expertly pulled from beneath the
slicker — dropped Dunbar instantly, causing his gun to spill out
onto the floor.  But all that happened just a millisecond before Martina’s
first bullet reached the chest of the bearded man.  And he was already folding
like a tent when she began marching forward, pumping a bullet into him with
each step, until her gun was completely empty.

Rushing back to Dunbar,
Marti then came to a rude awakening.  Standing over him with Harry’s gun
trained on her was Lenny.  “What are you going to do, shoot me too, Lenny?”

“Why not?  You killed
Raym, didn’t you?”

“Who told you that?” 
Marti was shocked anybody but her and Dunbar knew what she had done.

“Don’t lie to me,
bitch!”  Lenny elevated the gun to her head.  “I saw what you did from the
apartment next door.  I’m surprised you didn’t see the hole I bored in the wall
between the two.”

“You were in there with
Raym all along?”

“I was,” Lenny said. 
“But I slipped out once Dunbar went inside your apartment.  I can’t believe you
killed my nephew.  What did he ever do to you?”

“Nephew?  You’re Raym
Koffee’s uncle?”

“His mother is my
sister.  And I can’t wait to tell her I avenged his death.”  Lenny cocked the
revolver.

And when he did,
Martina made a dive for the room adjacent to her.  Inside was her purse.  And
she got to it just as Lenny — fearing nothing now and taking his
time — came through the door.  Seeing the revolver leveled at her
again, she dropped to the floor just as he fired.  The bullet passed narrowly
over her head.  Rolling now, she got her hand around the Savage semi-automatic
pistol inside the purse and began firing even before removing it.  When the gun
was empty, Lenny lay lifeless on the floor.

In a dazed stupor,
then, she made it to the still body of Harry Dunbar and fell to his side. 
Checking for wounds, she spotted blood oozing from the side of his head, just
above the left ear.  Quickly she checked for a pulse, then screamed,
“Piper...!”

“Is it okay?” Piper
came up from behind the nurse’s station counter.

“Get the ER people in
here!  This man needs a doctor!”

“What’s all the fuss
about?” Dunbar said, trying to rise up.

“Don’t move, Harry!”
Martina cautioned.  “Let a doctor check you out first.  Just lay still, okay?”

“Who gave you
permission to call me that?” Dunbar glared.

“Right now you’re in no
position to tell me what I can or what I can’t call you, Harry,” Marti said
with a smile.

“You’re trying to piss
me off, aren’t you?”

“Worked for me when you
did it in the car,” she said.

“Does that mean I saved
your life for a change?”

“It sure does.  And
I’ll never forget it, Lieutenant.”  She bent over and kissed his forehead.

“I’ll be damned,”
Dunbar said.  “I must be in heaven.”

“Not yet, Harry,” she
said, seeing them coming with a gurney.  “You just hang in there, okay?”

“If you say so, Miss
Spalding!”  Dunbar flashed what first appeared a smile, but Marti knew better. 
It was a grimace from the head pain that more than likely had just arrived.

“Oh, so now it’s Miss
Spalding, again!” she said to keep him alert.

“Just trying to show
you the respect you deserve,” he said.  “I saw you take out those two guys, by
the way.  Couldn’t do anything about it, but I saw nonetheless.  Shall I take
the credit, again?”

“Sure.” Marti smiled. 
“But since you’re in a talkative mood, would you please tell me why that dummy
come flying out of the room?  And you got in there in the first place?”

“I got into the room
the same way Lenny did, by going through the ER hallway.  There’s a sliding
door you missed on the back wall, and another hallway for nurses.  I did my
research.”

“How did I miss that?” 
Marti stepped aside while the attendants lifted Dunbar onto the gurney.

“And it was me that
tossed the dummy out, after Lenny had emptied his gun into it.”

“But why?”

“Well, Marti, when you
have greenhorns among you, it’s always best to toss something before exiting a
room.  Get my drift?”

“I believe I do,
Lieutenant,” Marti said and smiled again.  “I’ll remember that.”

“Martina, will you go
on up to the fourth… give Smitte the all clear?”

“What am I, your errand
boy, all of a sudden?” she walked beside him.

“Go on now, before
Smitte has a shit hemorrhage,” he said.  “I told him not to leave Gloria under
any circumstance until he heard from me.”

“Okay, already!  I’m
going,” she said and dropped back.  Then, after gathering her gun and purse,
she headed for the elevator on a run.  Gloria would be anxious to know that she
and Dunbar were alright.  And that it was finally over.  Now she had to muster
the courage to tell her that Lenny wasn’t the great guy she thought he was. 
Not even close.