RAINEY DAYS (28 page)
Authors: R. E. Bradshaw
Before they left the emergency room, Katie was lucid enough to tell the nurses that Rainey could have access to her medical information. All Katie did was nod her head in agreement, as it was explained to her by the nurse. She managed to get out, “Rainey, stay with me,” when she understood they were trying to make that possible, because Rainey was not family, and Katie had to say it was okay. That was enough for the nurse, who told off JW, and had witnessed the two women’s affection for each other. Confidentiality was waved for Rainey and she was then informed of the medical decisions being made concerning Katie’s recovery.
Rainey hugged the nurse that had been so helpful, thanking her for all she had done for them, before she stepped on the elevator. A few minutes later, she was introducing herself to a new nursing staff, explaining that she was Katie’s bodyguard, as well as her best friend. Rainey did not know if Katie was ready to let the cat out of the bag, so she kept their true relationship from the nurses. There was a recliner by Katie’s bed, so Rainey plopped down and watched the new batch of nurses hover over Katie.
Rainey was told that Katie was now going to be assigned to a Critical Care Physician named Dr. Henry P. Marsden, III. He specialized in trauma and care of critically ill patients. Dr. Marsden came in about five minutes later. He introduced himself to Rainey, who in turn explained who she was and why she was there, almost. Dr. Marsden told Rainey that Katie was still not all the way out of trouble. The combination of the amount and the kinds of drugs, Katie had been given, were slowing the effects of the Narcon, a chemical, which counteracts the effects of barbiturates and opium based drugs. Katie had been given all the Narcon she could have, for her body weight, at this time. The lunatic, in the farmhouse, had given Katie enough barbiturate alone to kill her, nearly seventeen parts per million, an amount that could have been lethal, not to mention the other two narcotics. Katie was very lucky.
Dr. Marsden explained that Katie was being given Sodium Bicarbonate intravenously, two bags, wide open. This fluid therapy would help her body get rid of the drugs through elimination from the bladder. In other words, Rainey thought, it would make Katie pee like a racehorse. The medical staff had inserted a catheter, during Katie’s stay in the trauma room. The doctor told Rainey that the more she filled up the bag hanging under her bed, the better Katie would feel. They were monitoring Katie’s breathing, in case it became necessary to hook her to a ventilator to assist her lungs, since the drugs she was given, by the assailant, depressed the respiratory and central nervous systems. So far, she was doing okay with just the oxygen mask.
Dr. Marsden was a little older than Rainey, but not by much, she guessed. He was about five foot three inches tall and wore red canvas, Converse tennis shoes. He looked like Peter Pan in his green scrubs. He was cute, funny, and serious about his job. Dr. Marsden put Rainey at ease immediately. The staff respected him and his bedside manner was charming. He checked Katie’s x-rays and looked at the swelling on her face. He agreed Katie would heal nicely. She may have a few small scars, but they would fade with time. Luckily, when the bastard had hammered Katie with his fist, he had not split her skin open too badly. The deeper cuts had been closed with butterfly bandages or medical glue, in the Emergency Room. Dr. Marsden told her that they had done an excellent job downstairs and he thought Katie would be happy with the final results. The plastic surgeon would still look at her in the morning.
Dr. Marsden said, “We’re going to take care of her physical injuries first. Then we will address the emotional trauma of the kidnapping and rape. That may be harder to deal with, and will be a much longer and slower process. We need to make sure she is physically well enough, for the coming emotional challenges.” He smiled at Rainey, reassuring her, “We’ll take good care of her.”
Dr. Marsden skipped off to another patient. Now, only one nurse remained. She told Rainey her name was Janet and if Rainey had any questions at all, she could ask her. Janet was there to help and she was enthusiastic about it. Rainey was glad when Janet left her and Katie alone for a few minutes. Katie slept the whole time, but Rainey was glad to hear just Katie’s breathing, between the beeps on the monitors. Rainey held Katie’s hand and read the News and Observer someone had left on the tray table.
All of the feeds from Katie’s monitors sent signals to a bank of monitors at the nurses’ station, still, every few minutes, Janet came in to check on them personally. She began to grow on Rainey, the tender way Janet handled Katie and the coke and cup of ice she brought Rainey did not hurt. Janet must have been able to tell that Rainey needed sustenance. The next time she came into the room, she brought a cup of fruit and some crackers, silently setting them on the tray table, a cue to Rainey that she needed to eat. Rainey followed nurse’s orders and ate the fruit. She started feeling better right away. She had not noticed how much energy the stress had taken from her.
Rainey read the Monday morning paper, finding a Y-man article just under the fold on the front page. He had been knocked from the major headline by an article about misconduct in the state police. Still, there he was on the front page. The article basically rehashed everything from the weekend editions. Rainey could only imagine what the headlines would look like tomorrow morning. FBI loses killer for the second time, former agent involved.
Janet came in to tell Rainey someone was waiting outside to talk to her. It was Danny. Rainey hesitated to leave. She did not want Katie to wake up and not find Rainey beside her.
Janet, sensing Rainey’s reservations said, “You go ahead. I’ll stay with her until you come back, okay?”
Rainey thanked Janet and went to talk with Danny, in the hall outside of Katie’s room. Danny was standing there looking worried and stressed. He was running the fingers of one hand through his thick red hair, the other hand resting on his hip. His back was to Rainey, and she could see from his posture that the pressure of being the lead agent on this case was bending him at the waist. Rainey knew from experience that Danny carried his stress in his lower back. He was probably in excruciating pain from the tension in his muscles.
“Danny,” Rainey said, to get his attention.
He turned to her and forced a weak smile, “Are you okay? How is Katie?”
“I’m fine. Katie has another twenty four hours, before she’s out of the woods, but she’s stable.”
“Rainey, I think we got a break this time,” Danny said. “Katie’s sexual assault kit came back positive for sperm, and if she wasn’t having sex with her husband, then it has to be our guy.”
Rainey answered quickly, “She wasn’t. I understand she hasn’t had sex with JW in months.”
“Okay then, now, we need a suspect.” He looked at Rainey’s jacket and hat. He smiled and said, “That hat looks good on you.”
“It opens doors,” Rainey said.
“How about we reinstate you for the time being, clear up any gray lines, in case we need you in the investigation officially?”
Rainey thought about it. If she had to use her gun, there would be less paperwork. She said, “Okay, temporarily though. I’m not back. Do you understand that?”
Danny asked her every time he called when she was coming back on active duty. He really wanted her back. Rainey figured it would ease his guilt if she resumed her normal life, but her normal life had become Mackie and Ernie, and she did not think she wanted to go back to the Bureau, not now especially.
Danny nodded, “Yeah, you’re on active duty, temporarily. I’ll make the call.”
Danny took out a pad and pen. This was an investigation, Rainey reminded herself. He was about to question her in his official capacity. It felt violating to Rainey, one of the reasons she did not think she could go back on active duty and do the job. She would feel the violation every time she had to question a victim or a grieving family member. Rainey did not want to answer Danny’s questions, but she knew he had to do it.
He began, “Mackie gave me all the information up until you left him on the side of the road. Can you go over what happened after that?”
Rainey gave Danny what he wanted. Every detail of what had happened was clear and sharp in Rainey’s mind. The only detail she did not have was what the kidnapper looked like. She had only seen him for a brief second, and that was when she caught him in the shadows, just out of the beam of her flashlight. He had told her his name was Johnny, but she knew nothing that could help them identify this man, nothing.
Danny wrote it all down. “The jeep was stolen, so it was a dead end,” he said. “We’re tracing the ownership of the property. It’s been abandoned for years.”
Rainey offered, “He wasn’t set up there, like the other house. I think it was a place of opportunity, but he was familiar enough with the property to feel safe there, and he did know about the trap door.”
“He doesn’t do things without a reason. There has to be a reason he picked that place. He was familiar enough with it to have the escape route planned,” Danny said.
Rainey had an idea, “Talk to the local cops. It had the feel of a hangout. Maybe they have caught some teenagers out there. It might be worth looking in to.”
Danny wrote on his pad and then looked back at Rainey. “We are tracing the Bose CD player. That’s a pretty high end item. It should lead somewhere, if it doesn’t come up stolen. I sent the CD to the lab boys. See what they can make of it.”
“Fingerprints?” Rainey asked.
“No, nothing yet. There are tons of prints in the house, but we’re pretty sure he wore gloves. There were only the owner’s prints on the jeep. It was stolen a week ago from campus.”
“I left my car unlocked, on the street outside the Wilson’s, Friday night. That must have been when he put the camera in my car,” Rainey said. “He knew I would have to come by the farmhouse, if I was headed to Katie’s school. He kidnapped her to get to me. He didn’t count on Ernie knowing how to find me so fast.”
“It doesn’t make sense, Rainey,” Danny said. “He knew we were all over you. How did he know you would try to find Katie?”
“I guess he thought I would have a strong sense of guilt, leaving her alone like I did,” Rainey answered. There was no way this guy knew about Rainey and Katie’s real relationship. The only person Rainey thought knew was Mackie, and he would not say anything.
Danny went on, “Then the other thing that bothers me is he knew he wouldn’t have that long before we came looking. He had to know Mackie saw where you turned off of the highway. That limited the places we had to look. He would not have had the time to live out his fantasy with you.”
“The amount of drugs he gave Katie was intended to kill her. She was a means to an end. He probably planned to use the opportunity of having me alone, to capture me and take me in the jeep to another location, his real lair.”
Danny agreed, “That would make more sense, but he’s getting sloppy. He left DNA. He almost got caught.”
Rainey added, honestly, “He almost got dead.”
Danny had all he could get from Rainey. He peeked into Katie’s open door. He turned back to Rainey, “Let me know when she wakes up.”
Rainey said, “I don’t think she’s going to remember much, but I’ll call you.”
“I’m putting two agents outside the ICU doors. I guess you aren’t leaving her side, am I right?” Danny asked.
“No, I am staying with her until she leaves the hospital. She will be going to my cottage when she is discharged.”
Danny cocked his head and raised his eyebrows in a question.
Rainey answered his silent inquiry, “JW is blaming me for Katie’s attack. He’s on the warpath, because Katie refuses to see him. Katie and JW are getting a divorce and she wants nothing to do with him. He’s at her house, so she’s coming with me.”
Danny accepted her explanation, but Rainey could tell he did not think she was telling him the whole story. Luckily, Danny’s phone rang, so he could not ask her any more about it. Rainey listened as Danny took the call. He became increasingly excited as he listened to the voice on the other end.
“I’m on my way,” he said, and hung up the call.
Rainey asked him, as soon as he hung up, “What’s happening?”
“We were able to trace the owner of the property through the caretaker. The owner’s name matched a name on the list JW gave us of his social circle,” Danny said, then continued, “It’s a lead, so I’m going over to his home address now to meet with the team. We’re going to question him at his house first, before we bring him in. It could be a coincidence.”
Rainey smiled, “You don’t believe in coincidence. What’s his name?”
Danny looked at the pad where he had written notes while on the phone. “His name is John P. Taylor.”
Rainey recognized the name. She had gone to school with him. He was a year younger and hung out occasionally with Rainey’s crowd. “I know him,” she said, “or rather I knew him, in high school.”
“There’s the connection,” Danny said, more excited, now.
Rainey thought back to the last time she had seen John Taylor. It was at the graduation party JW’s parents had thrown for them. Rainey had danced with John, she remembered.
“He’s the right height and build, or he was the last time I saw him,” Rainey told Danny.
Danny was ready to leave, “Look, I’ll call you if I find out anything.”
“I can’t have my phone on, in Katie’s room. Call the ICU nurses’ station, they will come get me,” Rainey said.
“Okay, I’ll get the number. Stay here. I’ll let you know what’s happening, I promise,” Danny said.
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