Hallucinatory Help
Chapter 4
While the SWAT people cleared building B of the DA's office, Daniel expertly maneuvered a bewildered Kate away from the horde of journalists who had descended upon her.
"Agent Moretti has no comment at this time, "she heard Daniel informed them, "this an ongoing investigation and she will give updates as necessary!" he stated as he continued to lead her away from the reporters who naturally continued to swarm around them and Max.
One of the reporters yelled out to Daniel, "And who are you, Sir?"
Max answered, "He's Dr. Daniel Pierce, the FBI's brilliant consultant. Now everyone give Agent Moretti some space so that they can do their jobs and catch the bad guy!"
"And who are you?" a different reporter asked Max.
"Someone who will smack you and anyone else, if that microphone isn't taken away from my face!" Max claimed, decisively shoving the microphone away and causing the other reporters to back off.
Meanwhile Daniel continued to pull Kate in the direction of the building with Max trailing behind them. She could have easily resisted, but she didn't. It wasn't until they were safely inside that he let her go. They stood in the lobby for a time so Kate could collect herself.
When she turned to him, Daniel couldn't help thinking how wonderful it was to see her again. Had it only been week?
"Daniel, you're here," she commented, in a grateful tone, "I'm glad to see you; both of you," she said, giving a head gesture towards Max. After Max nodded, she then turned back to Daniel, "I thought when we last talked, you weren't...that is, we weren't going to-"
"-I think you've previously misheard me, Kate," he interrupted, knowing exactly what she was going to say, "when I said we wouldn't be working together any longer, I meant right AFTER this investigation," he stated matter-of-factly.
"Oh, I see," She managed a relieved half-grin, "and just so that you know we're on the same page, Daniel... I think you're a terrible liar!"
He could barely hide his smile, "I've been called worst."
They heard sound of the elevator doors opening and the four EMTs emerged, pushing a stretcher with Donnie laying prone on it. Kate immediately left Daniel and Max's side. Concernedly, she looked at Donnie, who was unconscious, an IV connected to him. His face was colorless and his lips now had a bluish tint to them.
"Oh, Donnie," she breathed, brushing some matted hair away from his forehead, "I'm so sorry."
She then tenderly touched his cheek, which felt so cold now.
"Ma'am," one of the EMT's addressed her, "we need to take the patient immediately to the hospital. We've stablilized Mr. Ryan, but he's lost a lot of blood. You may ride along with us, if you like."
Kate was torn, but she still had a job to do. As luck would have it, Agent Probert happened to enter the premises.
"Roger," she called out, "would you mind going with the ambulance and staying by Donnie's side? And, please, let me know if there are any new developments as to his condition, no matter which way it goes."
He nodded, "will do."
Roger followed the stretcher and Kate could only watch in sad silence as the EMT loaded him into the vehicle and drove away. She lightly felt a hand touch her shoulder and when she looked over, she saw the compassionate eyes of Daniel looking back at her.
"You don't have to stay here, Kate," he said gently, "you could still go to the hospital and be with Donnie."
She tried to look brave, "No, Daniel. I'm sure he is in the best of hands. Right now, we have a job to do."
He lifted a questioning brow, "we?"
"Daniel, I'm heading up this investigation and if ever I needed you, it would be now," she said, her words making him feel good, "so let's take the elevator up, okay?"
He nodded, "okay."
Kate, Daniel and Max took an elevator to the third floor. With a 'ding', the elevator door opened to the top floor. Stepping out, the area before them was like any typical working office, except a few of the chairs were in awkward positions, a dead body was covered in a white sheet, and blood was on the ground.
Max made a face.
"I think I'm going to skip lunch today."
"Just be very careful where you step, Max," Kate warned, "CSU hasn't arrived yet to evaluate the crime scene and bag the evidence. And definitely don't touch the body."
Max made a face, "You don't have to worry about that ever happening!" he then had a second thought and leaned over to whisper to Kate, "uh, you don't think the killer is watching us right now, do you?"
"No," Kate sounded definite, "the SWAT team had already done three sweeps of the place and there is nothing that indicates the shooter is still in the building. Besides, I have a weapon."
"That guarantees YOUR protection," Lewicki pointed out, "but what about mine?"
"Don't worry, Lewicki," Daniel told him, "if I see the killer, I'll just pinpoint my laser eyebeams towards him and that'll disintegrate him to smithereens in seconds!"
"Very funny," Max answered sardonically. He then looked about, "I only see one..uh, body here," he said, refusing to look directly at the lump of white sheet.
"That's probably Mary Ann Tilson," Kate told him, "and from what I've been told, I believe we'll find Larry Stevenson's body in his own office."
Max gulped, "You're not making us go in there next, are you?"
"No, we're not here to examine the bodies; we're here to find out how Yuss escaped," Kate exclaimed.
...I say we head over to the snack room instead" Daniel suggested, as Max let out a relived sigh, "that had been Donnie's last hiding place before he was..." he swallowed hard,"...shot and so it's probably the last place Yuss went before he escaped."
They walked down the hallway to the snack room. It was nothing more than a simple room with three round tables, chairs and two vending machines. Checking all around, they noted how one of the vending machines had been pushed slightly forward. As they neared that area, they saw the pool of blood between the drink and sandwich machines.
Max stated quietly, "I guess this is where Donnie hid."
Kate found herself blinking quickly as she pointed to a clue.
"And it looks like Yuss may have stepped in some of the blood ," she announced, pointing to some faint bloody footsteps, "It looks like it leads to the back door exit."
They followed the steps, but it faded away quickly. Reaching the exit door, there was no sign the door had been used, but they opened it anyway. It led to stairs to the second floor.
They went down to the second floor. Nothing looked disturbed until-
"I found something here," Kate announced, pointing to a pile of clothes off to the side, just inside the exit door. It was a stack of what looked to be men's clothing: a baby blue sweatshirt, khaki pants and a pair of loafers on top to hold everything in place.
Max looked over the pile, "Hey, who would have left these nice clothes here? I wonder if the shoes are my size."
"Don't touch any of the items, Lewicki," Daniel warned him, "I have a feeling these clothes belong to the killer."
"Ugh. Really?" Max looked repelled by that thought until he thought better of it, "Wait. Does that even make sense? Why would the killer want to walk out in just his underwear?"
"He wouldn't," Kate's mind was going a mile a minute, and then an awful idea came to her mind and she moaned out, "Oh god."
"Kate, what is it?" Daniel asked.
"I think what happened was that the killer walked out dressed as one of the EMT's!" the idea agitated her the more she thought about it, "and now that I think about it, I could have been speaking to Yuss as an EMT and not even have known it!"
She tried to picture the EMT she had spoken to, but with everything happening so quickly, she couldn't recall what he looked like or even what he said to her.
And if Yuss had escaped as an EMT, it would be considered another mistake on her part.
She might have to start compiling a list to show headquarters.
But then Daniel spoke out and it eased her mind a bit.
"No, I don't think Yuss escaped by taking the identity of one of the EMTs," Daniel said, staring at the pile of clothes.
Kate felt hopeful, "Really? Why not?"
"It's simple math," Daniel reasoned, "we saw four EMTs go in and four EMTs walked out!"
"Unless," Max said, still looking wide-eyed, "Yuss killed one of the EMTs and then took his place...uh-oh," he rationalized, "that means that the body of a paramedic could be somewhere in this building!" he spookily looked about.
"No, I think Daniel may be right," Kate tried to sound convincing, "Yuss wouldn't have the time to hide an EMT's body so quickly, and besides, the other three EMTs would have been acting strangely if Yuss had suddenly become the fourth EMT, right?" She looked for Daniel's response, but he was staring past her, lost in his own thoughts.
"Daniel?" she tried to get his attention.
But Daniel was distracted, watching the 'person' standing next to Max.
The image was of a portly man dressed in a single breasted overcoat with peaked lapels, circa the 1930's, a grey striped three piece suit, a stiff-fronted white shirt with wing collars, a bow tie and bower hat.
Despite being impeccably dressed, he was very peculiar looking, with slick back black hair and a severely waxed mustache. When he noticed he had Daniel's attention, he clicked his heels, removed his hat, and bent from the waist in a gesture of a gentlemen's bow.
"Hercule Poirot at your service, Monsieur," he stated.
The famous Belgian detective of the Agatha Christie mysteries then walked over to observe the pile of clothes, "The killer seems to have left a clue with the dismissal of these clothes, I believe. However," he looked back at Daniel, "is it the RIGHT kind of clue or not?"
Daniel puzzled over Poirot's words.
And it made Daniel squat down to peer at the clothes more intently.
"Yes, Dr. Pierce, regard the clothes closely, for they are a most important clue!" Poirot encouraged, "Look at them right side up and then upside down! They are not what they seem! Organization is what the world needs more of, and these clothes lack order. Their reverse will tell you the answer you are seeking!"
Poirot was speaking in riddles but Daniel couldn't seem to interpret its meaning.
"Daniel?" Kate questioned, "You look so serious, what is it?"
Upside down...order...reverse...why were those words important? Daniel pondered, as he now stood up, his hand on his chin, still staring at the organization of the clothes.
Suddenly the answer became clear. He understood. And it felt great.
"It's a set up," he blurted out.
"A set up?" Kate questionably repeated. Her face scrunched up in that adorable way that he just loved, "A set up to what?' she was completely puzzled, "Daniel, what are you talking about?"
"Yuss left these clothes here on purpose for us to find," Daniel said, "he wanted us to believe he walked out with the EMT's, which is exactly what we did conclude. But that is not what he did."
"You're saying these clothes were used as a fake out?" Kate said, now paying very close attention.
"Yuss wanted us to believe that he changed into EMT clothes, left his old clothes here, and exited by this door," Daniel was now sounding very excited, "But look at the order of this pile of clothes. Normally when you take off your shoes, they would be one of the first articles you remove, so they would be at the bottom of a pile of clothes, right? But notice here, the shoes are on top. There would be no reason to have the shoes on top, right?"
"But..." Max countered, playing devil's advocate, "maybe he removed all his clothes and then quickly folded them back up and when he put them in a pile, he just put the shoes on top, last. It could happen that way, right?"
"Maybe," Daniel concurred, "but there's something else that made me think this was staged."
Kate wanted to believe everything Daniel said, "What's that?"
"Everything which happened this morning points to evidence that Yuss had this all planned out," Daniel explained, "and if he had planned to walk out as an EMT, why completely change his outfit? Why not just come to work in the same pants, or at least the same shoes that the EMT's had on to save time and effort?"
In the background, he saw Poirot tip the side of his hat, in a salute of appreciating brilliant deductions.
"You are right on your game, Dr. Pierce."
Kate pondered his words.
"You're riiight," she said in reverence, once again pleased that Daniel was here, "this DOES seem to have been staged.
But all of this reasoning made Max think of something else.
"Hoooold on just a sec, you two," Max hesitated, "if killer Yuss didn't escape as an EMT, does it mean..." he looked around the room, wide-eyed, "... he's still here, somewhere in this building, ready to shoot us down?"
.
.
(A/N: I already had this story written up before I saw the episode "Brainstorm" last week. Imagine my surprise and delight when the episode showed Daniel with an Agatha Christie book! Yaaaay!)
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