A Dozen Deadly Roses (23 page)

Jade didn’t react, knowing Crandall was baiting her.

“Okay, let’s move on to something else.  The morning the three of you left for Vegas, were you and Stryker together right up until the time you hit the road?”

“Ye-, oh wait.  Donnie had left his fireman’s hat over at my dad’s house.  I took him over there to get it.  Mac wanted to check the fluids and the tire pressure in my truck before we left, so I took his truck to my dad’s house.  He came and met us at my dad’s.”

“I see,” he said with an interested tone in his voice.  “How long do you think it was from the time you left for your dad’s until Stryker showed up to pick you up?”

“Surely you don’t think-”

“Just answer the question, Officer Donovan.”

Jade rubbed her forehead with her fingers while she thought.  “Um, maybe an hour.  I talked to Dad and Mona for awhile.”  A sense of dread overcame her.  “I know this will sound suspicious, but then I left Donnie with them.  I went to the drug store.”

“Really?  And what was so urgent you needed to rush to the store?”

Jade felt her face warm, and knew her cheeks were turning red.  “I, uh, needed some feminine products.”  She got perverse satisfaction when Detective Crandall’s cheeks also flushed.

He cleared his throat.  “How long were you gone?  What store did you go to, and do you have the receipt?”

Jade told him the errand had taken her about forty minutes.

“Uh, I don’t mean any disrespect, uh, but, just, uh, exactly why did it take you so long to, uh, select your items for purchase?”

Jade actually enjoyed watching the detective struggle with his question, especially since he’d assumed she’d bought tampons.  In actually, the products she’d gone to retrieve were condoms.  She hadn’t been prepared the first time she and Mac had made love.  If they happened to make love on their trip to Vegas, she’d wanted to be prepared.

“Well, Detective Crandall, I could go into a whole dissertation on how I shop for those types of items, but I’ll spare you.  Actually, the clerk was having trouble with cash register tape and she had to call the manager to fix it.”  Then Jade provided him the name of the store and, with regret, told him she’d thrown the receipt in a trashcan as she walked to Mac’s truck.

The detective reviewed his notes, then stated aloud to the tape the interview was concluded.  Turning off the recorder he gave her a hard look.  “Hopefully the drug store will have video tape of you in the store.”  He put his notes and the tape recorder in his leather briefcase and snapped it closed with a flourish, then he and his partner left her with her thoughts.

# # #

The next morning, Jade pushed her legs as long as they would go in a luxurious stretch; a result of the sleep aid she’d asked for the night before.  Her arms pushed over her head as her eyes opened. Her gaze came to rest on a prominently displayed gold box placed on its end on a padded chair in the middle of the room.

She gasped and tore off the wires monitoring her body, causing a frenzied chorus of beeps.  She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, but in her weakened condition, she almost fell to the floor when she tried to stand up.  She hobbled to the door in her room and yanked it open.  Clearly startled, the police officer stationed outside looked up from the newspaper he was reading.

“Is everything okay, ma’am?”

“Who came in my room last night?” Jade demanded.

“Just your nurses.  Why?  What’s going on?”

Nurses ran toward her, responding to the frantic alarms coming from her room. “I’m fine,” she called out to them.  “Call Stryker and get him here right away.”

“Miss Donovan, you need to tell me what’s wrong.”  The cop’s voice was determined.

“Take a look for yourself,” Jade said, sweeping her arm in front of her indicating he should enter.  “If you open the box, you’ll see two dead roses.  Thank God the stalker wasn’t down to his last rose – I probably wouldn’t have woken up this morning.”  Jade hated the shrill tone of her voice, but she couldn’t help herself.

The officer entered her room and swore.  “I have no idea how that box got in your room.  I only left to use the bathroom, and I had a nurse come sit with you while I was gone.”  He used his knife to slice the ribbon and open the box, confirming Jade’s prophesy.

Nurses hovered around Jade, urging her to get back in bed, and when she refused, they called for the doctor.  Once he arrived, he wanted to give Jade a sedative, which she also refused.

Thirty minutes later, Mac barged into the room.  He looked like hell.  His hair stood out at odd angles, his shirt was buttoned incorrectly, and small beads of sweat clung to his forehead.  “What the hell happened?” he demanded, glaring at the embarrassed lawman and the sergeant the cop had summoned.

“I’m going to get dressed,” Jade said, grabbing a powder blue athletic suit Mona had brought her the day before.  She slammed the bathroom door closed, and burst into silent, frightened tears.

He can get to me any time he wants, she thought.  Even a cop posted at my door can’t keep him away.

She took a quick shower and got dressed.  She found the mint flavor of her toothpaste energizing as she brushed her teeth.  Before she emerged, she made sure there was little sign of her crying.

Her room was a madhouse.  Detective Crandall and his partner were talking to the officer who’d been posted outside her door.  A tired-looking nurse stood aside, quietly biting at her cuticle.  Another man, wearing a badge identifying himself as the supervisor of hospital security, was speaking in low tones on a cell phone.  Mac was gesturing emphatically at the Las Vegas Metro police supervisor whose ears were the color of raw hamburger.  Jade wasn’t sure if the crimson coloring was due to anger or embarrassment.

As she stepped into the room all talk ceased.

“Oh, don’t stop on my account.”  She turned her gaze to Mac.  “I’m checking myself out of here right now.  I’m feeling better, and it’s obvious no one can keep this monster away from me.”

The security supervisor, whose plastic badge identified him as Alan, stepped forward.

“Please, Miss Donovan.  Let us figure out what happened.”

“I know what happened.  While I was supposedly safe asleep, with one of Las Vegas’s finest outside my door, some psychopath came into my room and left another damn box of dead flowers.  I’m lucky he didn’t slit my throat.”

Alan flinched at her words.

“Now, you can get my doctor to release me, or I’ll check myself out.”

“Miss Donovan, I believe your doctor wanted to complete one more blood test.  I must warn you, if you leave now it will be against all medical advice.”

Jade tossed her brush and some lip balm into her purse.  “Fine.  I’m outta here,” she said, sweeping into the hall.

The nurse, who’d stood quietly during the exchange, jumped to her feet and followed Jade.  “I’ll get your paperwork for you to sign.”

Mac muttered something to the others in the room and trotted after Jade.

“Do you think you’re handling this correctly?”

Jade stopped and spun on her heel.  “I’m not safe here.  I’m not safe anywhere.  Why should I stay?”

Mac’s voice was calm and controlled.  “I’m not saying you shouldn’t leave the hospital, but I think you need to relax enough so we can figure out how the guy got in your room.  The hospital has security cameras and we probably have this creep on tape.”

“So let’s review the video already.”

“That’s what I was trying to arrange when you stormed out of your room.  Let me go get the head of security and we’ll take a look at the video tape.”

The door to her room opened and the group of people inside streamed out following Alan, the security supervisor.  Someone from the hospital must have called Captain Kincaid because he strode down the hall, a worried look on his face.

A few minutes later, everyone was seated around a large table in the hospital conference room.

Alan strolled into the room, DVD in hand, his face flushed.  He moved with an air of self-importance.

With a flourish, he punched at a button on the wall. The only sound in the room was the motorized whirring as a large, white, movie screen lowered from the ceiling.  Moving to a computer, he inserted the shiny disk.

Mac got up and turned off the lights as the screen jumped to life.  The projection was divided into eight equally divided sections, a different camera view for each.

“This is the security video from the third floor where Miss Donovan’s room is located.  Each floor has its own series of cameras.  All of the nurses’ stations on the floor are shown as well as all the hallways.” Alan used a laser pointer to indicate the proper section of the screen.  “There’s Miss Donovan’s room.”

“Can you isolate that view?” Mac asked.

Alan punched a button on a remote and the scene took over the screen.  The assigned officer sat in the chair outside Jade’s room sipping on coffee, perusing pages in a magazine.  Various nurses and other hospital workers passed by, sometimes appearing to make a comment to the obviously bored cop.

The officer said something to one of the female employees and she nodded her head and went into Jade’s room.  The officer rose from the chair and walked down the hall.

A few seconds later a male dressed in blue scrubs pushed a large cart outside Jade’s room.  He removed a handheld plastic holder containing equipment to draw blood.  He too, walked into Jade’s room.  A few seconds later, the nurse walked out and returned to the nurse’s station.  The lab technician followed almost immediately and went to the cart and pulled out a long, gold, florist’s box.  He returned to Jade’s room, then came out, minus the box, and pushed the cart down the hall.  Seconds later the police officer, oblivious to the activity in Jade’s room, waved to the female nurse and resumed his duty manning the chair.

Mac spoke first.  “Now we know how the box got in the room.”  He turned a hardened gaze to Alan.  “Can we zoom in on the suspect?  I saw several tattoos that we might be able to identify.”

Alan nodded and pressed the controls on the remote he held.  The images reversed then, with another push of the button, the action moved forward again.

“There,” Mac yelled.  “Stop!”

Alan magnified the photo of the suspect several times.

“He’s wearing what appears to be a valid hospital I.D. card.  He may be an employee, although I don’t recognize him.”

The suspect had been careful to keep his head down and turned away from the security camera.

Alan slowed the tape for frame-by-frame viewing.   They saw the suspect’s arms were covered in tattoos.  As he pulled the flower box from the cart, the short sleeve of the hospital shirt rose up his bicep.

“There!  Stop,” Mac directed.  The image was grainy, but a snake coiled around a dagger was clearly visible.

The sergeant from the Las Vegas Police Department spoke.  “Probably not too many of those running around.  There’s a good chance we can I.D. this guy.  Do we think he’s local?”

“No.  This weirdo has been following me for more than a week,” Jade said.  “He followed me from L.A.”  She turned to the LAPD detectives.  “You guys can run the tattoo through the computer and maybe come up with a name.”

Detective Crandall nodded.  “We’ll want to talk to the nurse in the video, too.”

The tape was still running and Alan had isolated and enlarged another tattoo on the suspect’s neck.

“SST,” Mac muttered.  “I should have known.”

The Las Vegas sergeant shifted in his chair.  “You’ve dealt with this gang before?”

Jade noticed an uncomfortable look wash over Mac’s face.  “It’s the Stafford Street Gang.  Jade and I were in a shooting with one of them.  Jade killed him.”

The sergeant looked impressed.

Jade shook her head.  “That shooting happened almost five years ago.  If they wanted me dead, they would have done it already.”

Mac snapped his fingers.  “Didn’t the dead kid, Souza, have a brother in prison?” he asked excitedly.

Jade shook her head.  “I already thought of that.  I ran his status after I received the first two boxes of dead roses.  The older brother is still in custody in prison.”

“If the brother wanted you dead, he’d have arranged it from there.  He wouldn’t wait five years to put the hit on you,” Mac said.

“Well, the fact the suspect has a Stafford Street tattoo
could
be a coincidence, or a fake to throw us off the trail.  And that’s what we intend to find out,” said Detective Crandall, getting up from the table.  He turned to Alan.  “Are there surveillance cameras in the parking lot?  I doubt this guy walked to the hospital.”

“We have them, but they probably won’t help you.  The quality isn’t very good.  They only cover the entrance doors to the main lobby and the emergency room.”

“We’d like to take them with us anyway.”

“Sure, no problem,” Alan replied.  “I can burn you a copy of the DVD.”  Everyone rose from the table.

Mac spoke with the L.A. detectives and the Las Vegas sergeant. 

“We’ll go back to Los Angeles immediately,” Mac said. “I’m sure the Chief will want to assign some Metro officers to a surveillance detail outside Jade’s house as well as her father’s home.”

Detective Crandall spoke up.  “Look, Stryker, I don’t want you going anywhere without letting me know.”

Looking at his partner, Crandall continued.  “I need to get more detectives on this.  I’ve got two investigations going – Jade’s stalking and poisoning, and the Lasko murder.  We’ll have Captain Kincaid see if the gang unit can get a line on the guy in the video.”  Crandall ran a hand through his hair.  “When Jade gets back to L.A., we’ll get authorization for a couple of Metro officers to watch her apartment, Stryker’s house, as well as Mr. Donovan’s house.”

The Las Vegas sergeant held out his hand to Crandall.  “Let us know if there is anything else we can do.  We’d also like to be kept informed if Officer Donovan decides to stay in Vegas.”  He offered his hand to Mac.

“You got it,” Mac said, grasping the sergeant’s hand.

Mac turned to Jade who’d been sitting quietly.  “Are you ready to go?”

“You bet.  My dad is getting married tomorrow,” she said, glaring at Mac.  “I make my own decisions. 
I’ll
decide when I’m ready to go home, and I’m not leaving until my Dad and Mona are husband and wife.”  Before he could answer, she went with the nurse to sign herself out of the hospital.