Fractured Memory (17 page)

Eli stood up and aimed his gun at the car as it reversed down the driveway. Julia heeded his earlier warning, as he couldn’t see her sitting upright on the passenger’s side. That or Ben held her head down. For what purpose? What was the point in keeping her alive for the moment when he’d hired Ryder to kill her?

Eli squared his stance and fired a couple of shots at the windshield—hoping against hope the flying metal would hit its mark. The windshield starred, but the car continued to move backward. Eli ran after it. As the car slowed slightly as Ben put the car in Forward, Eli fired his remaining rounds at the tires. Nothing took.

Eli raced back to the house and approached Harper. Miles cried as he kneeled next to her in the grass. She was cringing, rolling side to side as blood pooled from the wound in her abdomen. Eli removed his suit coat and rolled up one sleeve.

“This is going to hurt.” Eli pressed the bundle into her abdomen and then spoke into his wrist mic. “Shots fired. Shots fired.”

His heart pounded in his chest. The next words were ones he didn’t want to speak. “Agent Murphy has taken Julia Galloway hostage.”

“Copy that.” The dispatcher sounded distant.

“I need a rescue unit and...everyone. He’s in a late-model...”

“We’ve got the car’s make and model. We’ll get a BOLO to local PD.”

Once he knew help was on the way, he placed his free hand behind Harper’s head and lifted it gently off the ground. “Harper, where would Ben take Julia?”

She clenched her eyes closed and moaned.

“Please, Harper, if you don’t want to go jail, then you have to tell me right now where Ben might go.”

Her eyes flared open, wide and glassy, as the blood oozed from beneath Eli’s sleeve into the grass. “I don’t know, but take my car. Ryder knows where Ben would go.”

What could he do? Leave Harper here to bleed out? Leave her with her son providing her care and then she dies anyway and the boy lives with the guilt of his mother dying at his hands?

Neither option was viable.

He’d have to wait for the ambulance. Eli buried his face into the crook of his arm and did the last thing he could do on Julia’s behalf until Harper was safe.

Lord, protect her. Help me find her before it’s too late.

SEVENTEEN

T
he gunshots stopped, and Julia raised her head from the seat. Ben drove with his head shifted to the left because of the starburst caused from Eli’s bullet hitting the windshield. As Julia braced her hands against the top of the seat, shards of safety glass felt like rocks under her palms. Looking at Ben, she could see a circular mark of blood under his left arm.

Evidently, Eli was a good marksman.

“Pull over, and I’ll help you,” Julia said.

“Above all things, I don’t need your help. You’ve
helped
my family enough.”

What would Eli do? Could he save her? She knew he could, but would he figure out this last remaining piece of the puzzle? Where was Ben taking her? What was the last part of his plan?

He switched to steer with this right hand and braced his gun low against his abdomen with his left and pointed it at her side. Even though he was bleeding, Julia guessed at best it was a grazing shot. The bleeding wasn’t brisk enough to be anything serious, and Ben’s adrenaline was better than any dose of morphine she could have given him.

They stopped at a light, and a police officer pulled up next to them but had his face turned the other way typing at his computer.

Julia’s heart thumped wildly in her neck. Would he see it—the starred windshield that obstructed Ben’s view? That had to be reason enough to pull him over.

“Don’t think about signaling that officer. If you do, I’ll not only kill you, but I’ll kill him, too. And who’s he going to believe anyway—an FBI agent or some crazy woman he’s bringing into custody who wrestled his weapon free at one point and shot through his windshield?”

Julia decided it best not to argue the illogical scenario he proposed. Why would the officer believe him when she wasn’t in handcuffs? Then again, why give Ben any more thoughts on how to detain her? Right now, with her arms and legs free, escape was possible if she could find the right opportunity.

The light turned green and the police officer turned right without so much as glancing their way.

Julia folded her hands in her lap and began to pray but kept her eyes on the road before them.

Lord, I don’t see any way out of this without someone dying. I pray that You be with Eli—keep him safe and help him to find me before it’s too late. Whatever has caused this vengeance in Ben, let me be able to break through it. I know he can love if he loved his son so much that he’s willing to kill other people because the loss was so great for him.

“What did I do? What did any of us do to deserve death?” Julia’s heart told her not to challenge him. What was the wisdom in antagonizing him? ER nurses were used to asking pertinent questions but not always at the right time.

“You didn’t stop it when you could have.”

Stop what? The more she thought about it, the more she remembered Jason Montgomery’s case. The patient’s history stated he’d been found by his stepfather, hence the different last names, hanging by a belt in his closet. Trouble had followed Jason like a shadow he couldn’t shake. Depression. Oppositional defiant disorder. The psychiatric team theorized it stemmed from his unresolved conflict surrounding his parent’s divorce.

Jason also exhibited a high level of risk-taking behavior—coming home drunk and high on marijuana. So the trouble with the nature of his injury was no one really knew if it was accidental or intentional.

“What did you want me to stop?” Julia asked.

It was one of those rare times she could say and ask a parent whatever she wanted to, because if her death was as imminent as Ben insinuated, then she might as well know the truth.

“You and your coworkers were talking about the ventilator. How another kid had died and
you
let them use it on my son. Your job was to speak up for him when no one else would.”

Julia exhaled slowly, trying to ease the growing ball of anxiety in her belly. It was a common problem in health care—a parent overhearing unit gossip and not understanding what was true and what wasn’t. What was just blowing off steam and what was the hallmark black humor they used to deal with stress.

She didn’t excuse it—she wasn’t perfect.

In the previous patient case Ben mentioned, it wasn’t clear to the nursing staff if the newfangled machine was at fault, but there was worry among the staff about the possibility. Doctors assured them that one death did not a suspicious series make.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what else to say.”

Ben turned off the road and angled his car into a wooded area. Julia’s body felt numb. Was this it? He would just shoot her dead among the trees and leave her body for scavengers? And then what would he do? Did he imagine that he’d be able to escape his way out of this?

“Why don’t I remember meeting you?” Julia asked.

“Because we never met. You worked days and I visited at night after work, but the one conversation I overheard happened at shift change—so many of you felt the same thing and never spoke up. You failed Jason.”

He positioned the car to the side of the dirt road, threw his door open, ran around to her side of the car and then pulled hers open. “Get out.”

She complied, keeping her hands visible.

And then he threw a gun to her feet. Her gun. So he’d taken it. “Pick it up.”

It seemed counterintuitive that he would give her something she could defend herself with. What kind of sick game was he playing?

She picked it up but kept it at her side pointed to the ground.

“Do you know what my plan is?” he asked with a maniacal lilt to his voice.

Sweat tricked down the side of her face. “I don’t.”

“I’m going to go to the hospital where Jason died and kill as many people as I can. You’ll be among them.”

Julia ran the tip of her tongue over her dry lips while she contemplated her options. Breathing slowly, she tried to stem the riptide of adrenaline that threatened to fuzz her thinking. Should she scream for help? Who would hear her? Take the gun and try to get a shot off before Ben shot her? She was anything but a sure shot. In the gun, she only kept one bullet. Her plan was always to fire a warning shot to scare off an intruder, but if the intruder got the weapon away from her...there wouldn’t be any more bullets to use against her. Julia hadn’t practiced with the weapon as often as she should have for a situation like this. In her heart, she knew she would never be capable of intentionally taking someone’s life.

Now she reweighed that credo.

“Or?” Julia asked.

“You think there’s another option?”

“Why else would you bring me here?”

Ben smiled. “Julia Galloway. No matter what I think of you...” He laughed to himself. “I really like you. You’re smart. Funny. I can see why Eli’s been pining for you.”

Had she heard him right? Sadly, it wasn’t appropriate to pump your captor for information about whether or not somebody had an attraction. Particularly when it was clear he wouldn’t be satisfied until she was permanently encased in a crypt. What it did tell her was that Eli had feelings for her and wouldn’t give up looking for her. She had to stay alive long enough for that to happen. That was her job.

“I like you, too,” Julia offered. How would this play out?

He folded his arms over his chest but kept the gun aimed her way. “That actually sounded sincere.”

“It was. I know the pain of losing loved ones. I’ve had pain in my life like that, too.”
Because if you hadn’t nearly killed me, my parents wouldn’t have died in that car accident.
“I know you loved Jason with everything in you for you to go to these lengths and do these things. You can begin to heal from that pain right now by not hurting anyone else. You can stop this path you’re on. If you kill me, you’ll never have a moment of peace again.”

Ben opened his arms wide. “Who says I want peace? Do you know what it’s like to live in this deep, dark pit that you can’t climb out of? Even though Jason wasn’t my biological child, that boy meant everything to me. My only chance at fatherhood.”

“You don’t have an out? You plan on dying at the hospital, as well?”

“That, Julia, is true. I have contingencies for a lot of things except the scenario I’m going to present to you. That’s how you ensure my death—deny the choice that I’m about to give you.”

“Which is?”

He aimed his gun back at her chest. “Take that gun and kill yourself. If you do, you have my sincere promise that I won’t drag you back to that place you call a center of healing, bring you to the PICU, to the room where Jason died, and kill as many people as I can until they kill me.”

Her hand sweated so badly that the gun almost slipped from her fingers. His proposal sent an arrow of fear straight through her heart. Was she willing to do as he asked to save others? In truth, she couldn’t trust him to do as he said—which was annihilating every person who took care of his child.

Innocent people.

“Mark Heller is innocent, isn’t he?”

“I guess it depends on how you qualify that word.”

“Meaning he didn’t kill anybody.”

“That is true—he didn’t kill anybody in the physical sense, but his actions did end his marriage. I guess you could call that a death of sorts.”

“How did you do it—set him up for the murders?”

In Julia’s mind, there were several reasons why Ben brought her here—the one he presented probably being the last on his list. There was something about confession that was freeing. Although Ben might not consciously realize it, he wanted to get what he’d done off his chest—all his misdeeds. And what better way to do that than with someone who wouldn’t be around to spill the secrets?

“Sometimes perfect things happen through serendipity.” He shifted his stance. “I got to know a phlebotomist named Karen who came to Jason’s bedside on occasion to do specialized blood tests. Some people can’t help oversharing. It’s a defect, I would say—particularly when you’re in a professional capacity.

“I found out many things from Karen. How she was married to the great Dr. Heller...and that the man everyone fell to their knees for was hardly one to be idolized. He cheated on her and she actually pointed to one of the nurses who was caring for Jason as the woman he strayed with.”

“What does this have to do with you framing Dr. Heller for these murders?”

“Karen and I bumped into each other at a coffee shop shortly after Jason’s death. She offered the usual condolences, but then the conversation turned in an unexpected way. I couldn’t stop thinking about those people who didn’t express their concerns about the ventilator and its potential to take a life instead of sustain it and how I wanted them to pay.”

“And Karen’s problem?”

“Simple...if it ever is—hatred for her husband and his womanizing ways. One thing led to another and she offered to give me a pint of his blood if I would do just one thing—make it look like he killed his mistress. Then she could have access to all his money while he wasted away in prison.”

A clammy sweat bubbled on Julia’s skin. It amazed her how easy it was for some people to tap into evil.

“This nurse cared for Jason. I realized we could both have what we wanted, and Dr. Heller could die with a needle in his arm. It was...perfection. And there would be enough of his DNA to spread the wealth around as they say.”

“But the police linked the cases too quickly.”

“Sadly, yes. This I have to take responsibility for. I was too anxious to do as the wife asked and killed the mistress first when I should have saved her for last. Heller’s DNA was found all over her apartment, which caused them to type it against the blood on the rope, and since my crime scenes were unique, they naturally thought to compare all the DNA. It was a good thing for me that the DNA testing got delayed because another crime took precedence over mine, which allowed me to kill most of the people on my list.”

“Why did you start killing again?”

“The ventilator that killed my son was going to be used on other children and I couldn’t let that happen. I figured Evelyn Roush deserved the Hangman’s death and I could try to make it look like a suicide to keep the police off my trail. A hit man was the best choice for you to make it appear like the same person wasn’t back to finish you off and Heller could continue to rot in jail. Who knew my relatives would be so incompetent and morally minded—even with a criminal history? I had to take matters into my own hands when Harper delivered the hit file to Ryder’s parole officer. The explosion was the only thing Ryder accomplished but ended up not achieving the end goal. I thought for sure blowing up that house would take you out but spare my own life and the damage would destroy any evidence contained in your book of confession—that pesky journal you found.”

“All people have a capacity for change. It’s still possible for you, too.”

“I don’t have any desire to change this course. Now, Julia, it’s time for you to choose. What will it be? Your death at your own hand to save many? Or your death at my hand and many more die?”

“I’ll only do it if you clear Mark Heller’s name.”

Did the lie sound as convincing as she wanted it to?

The smirk on Ben’s face solidified in Julia’s heart the action she had to take. “No deal.”

She brought her weapon up and aimed straight for his chest and fired.

* * *

Eli grabbed Ryder by the shirt and pummeled him into the wall. Every muscle fiber in his body burned to do whatever damage was necessary to pull the information needed from Ryder to save Julia’s life.

“Tell me where your brother-in-law is going with Julia,” Eli seethed, remnants of his words spraying Ryder in the face.

It was the first time in his career that he’d used physical force to try and scare an individual, and it sent an unknown dismay through his body. Not that he thought himself beyond physical force—no, it proved to Eli how desperate he was to save Julia. And desperation like that only stemmed from fear of losing some that you...

Loved.

Seeing Julia disappear with Ben sent his mind reeling. Imagining that they would never be together wasn’t acceptable. It was so much more than saving a witness—it was saving the one he was meant to be with forever.