Pain. Lots and lots of pain. That was the extent of Lee Winston’s thoughts for the first few minutes of consciousness. He knew that he was in the hospital. No great deductive feat all things considered. There were no tubes or wires connected to him so that was good. A dry erase board held the date that he remembered the accident occurring on so hopefully that meant he’d only been unconscious for a few hours. He didn’t think he had any broken bones, but when he tried to sit up his head swam and then felt like someone was trying to drive an iron spike through its top.
He lay back down slowly. Seeing the call button on his bed rail, he punched it. A minute later a man dressed in a blue uniform with the St. Mary’s Hospital logo stitched on his breast pocket came in. His badge announced that he was Al Fredericks, RN. Al was average height and looked to be in pretty good shape. He had brown wavy hair and in his picture he wore wire rim glasses.
“Good to see you’re awake.” Al chirped. “We were a little concerned.” He walked to the foot of the bed and snagged Lee’s chart. “The tests we ran while you were out all came back good.”
Heels clicking on tile announced someone else’s presence. Dr. Sara McDowell popped her head around the corner. “Is he awake? Oh drat, I was just about to sign his organ donor card.” She walked to the opposite side of the bed. “How’re you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been rolled downhill in a water barrel. A really bumpy hill.”
Al spoke up while he ran through taking pulse and blood pressure. “Well you don’t have any broken bones. There doesn’t appear to be any head trauma. I imagine you’ll be released to go home today though it’s possible that the Doc will want you to stay for observation.”
“Stay?” Lee asked incredulously. “That’s not gonna happen. I’ve got a case to solve. Give me a couple aspirin and I’m out of here.” He hated hospitals. Every time he visited someone at one of these places they were usually dead within a week. He knew enough to know that that was the exception and not the rule, but no sense taking any chances.
Sara placed her hand on his chest. “For what it’s worth I think you should stay. That was a pretty nasty collision and you’re bound to be sore for at least a week.” She felt her maternal instincts start to kick in. Not for the first time when she was around him. “They’ll assign someone else to the case. From what it looks like the guy you had in your car had a partner.”
Lee looked at Al. “Buddy if that’s it can you excuse us a minute?”
Al nodded. “Sure. Dr. Oslow will be in in around an hour and he’ll talk to you then.” He replaced the clipboard after making a few notes and left.
Lee sat up. He did it slowly, gingerly as though his spine and skull were made of the finest crystal. That helped. “The guy that rammed my truck was not Matt York’s partner.” He remembered that he hadn’t reported the young man’s name. “That’s the suspect that I had in custody.”
“Yes, we know.” Sara nodded. “They lifted his prints from your car and they popped up pretty quickly in the FBI database. He was in the Army, some sort of Special Forces sniper. There wasn’t much on him other than that.”
Lee whistled. “Well then he probably really did shoot Owen. That was a clean hit. Not one that any good old boy with a deer rifle couldn’t do, but he would have gotten away with it.” He rubbed his temples. “So why did he do it and why the hell did he give himself up.” He hated crimes without motive. They happened sure, but it was the exception.
“So he turned himself in, huh?” She sat on the end of the bed, near his feet. She wore dark blue slacks and a matching top made out of silk that showed off a tasteful amount of cleavage.
Her nearness and her perfume didn’t make concentration any easier. “Yeah. His pastor, Chris Taylor, called me.” The look on her face stopped him. “What?”
“His pastor was named Chris Taylor?” She edged closer.
“Yeah, why?”
“I’ll tell you in a minute. You finish.” She rested her hand on his thigh.
Lee leaned back while using the button on his hospital bed to make it meet him halfway. “Okay. So his pastor called me and said he wanted to give himself up. Something about him being afraid for his life because he had killed an influential man. So I went and picked him up.” He relished the feel of her hand on him.
Sara shook her head. “You went to pick up a suspect by yourself? Lee.” She all but clucked her tongue at him.
A twinge of shame flashed through Lee. “I know, I know. Not smart.” His voice was tired. “Anyway, we pulled out of the church and got stopped by a big guy with long blond hair. Claimed he was an FBI agent. Bullshit I said. We took off and he chased after us. He caught us and t-boned my car. End of story. Now you.” He patted her on her hand.
“Was this church on 900 Red Banks?” She watched him nod. “Well we found one Pastor Chris Taylor brutally murdered late this morning, not too long after you were ‘t-boned’. York’s prints were naturally all over the crime scene. His car was stolen, we think by York and his buddy.”
This time Lee sat up quickly. He paid for it but it did clear his head. “No way did that kid kill his pastor. I don’t buy it.”
Sara shrugged. “Maybe not, but he hasn’t popped his head back up. Maybe your big blond did him and went back and did the pastor? It’ll take some time for CSI to dig through the layers to give us an idea of what happened. Still, I think the chief will like him for both murders.” Her phone chirped. The interruption annoyed her. “Hang on.”
He watched her stand and rescue the cell from her pocketbook. He watched her walk across the floor. Hell watching her brush her teeth would probably be sexy. He looked around for his clothes. They were probably stashed in that armoir. He swung his legs off the bed and managed to stand without busting his ass.
“You might want to stay down.” She snapped the phone shut.
He looked up to see Sara looking down at him. She was pale. “So what is it now?”
“They just found two cops dead in York’s apartment. They were watching it, securing it until we could go over it with a fine tooth comb. Something happened and they were killed and put in his bathtub.”
“Fuck me.” He stood. He couldn’t stay in this room any more. He was a man of action and this was driving him more than a little nuts. “I gotta get out of here.” He walked to the armoire. “I gotta get back on the trail.”
Sara giggled. “First you need to realize that that robe doesn’t close in back.”
Lee blushed but didn’t turn around. “It’s not the first time you’ve seen a bare ass and hopefully you’ll see mine again under better circumstances. Meanwhile I need to find out what’s going on here.”
“No way Lee.” She sat on the bed feeling his warmth. “The chief’s not going to let you get in on this until you’ve rested and been checked out.” She watched him dress.
“Well you let me worry about Paulie. He and I go way back and I know where some bodies are buried. This kid ain’t no cop killer and he didn’t kill Taylor.” He turned and saw some doubt in her eye. “Okay, so most of that’s my gut talking and sure it’s been wrong before, but not very often.” He didn’t feel as sure as he tried to sound.
“Did your gut tell you to get out of bed without consulting with me?” A thick Eastern European accent cut through the air from the doorway.
Lee turned to face the short, wiry man in a white coat. “Hey Doc. As a matter of fact it did. I’ve got a case I have to finish investigating.”
“Yes. Yes I know how it is. You foolish policemen don’t know when to quit. This is why so many of you die early.” He reached into his pocket and took out a small brown bottle. “Thankfully I have a gut too and I trust it. I felt that you might check yourself out against medical advice. So I have prepared something for you.” He pitched it underhand to Lee.
The Detective caught it and examined it. It didn’t have a label and held ten pills. “What is it?
The doctor chuckled. “It is a pain killer. One of those should take care of you. You will be very achy for a few days and I have no doubt you will push yourself entirely too hard. No more than two a day.” He wagged a thick finger. “If you keep this headache for more than two days come see me or your own physician.” He turned on his heel and walked out.
Lee pocketed them. “So are you going with me or what?”
Sara stood and walked to him. She kissed him gently on the lips. “Try and stop me. Besides, someone needs to look out for you since you won’t listen to your doctor.”
