Chapter Fourteen

Audrey was pacing back and forth across the short hall in front of the administration offices. Duke leaned back in a hard plastic chair, watching her progress and trying not to show his impatience. Her pacing wasn't helping him much either.

"The clock isn't going to magically run faster," Duke informed her when she checked her watch for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.

Audrey shot him a withering look and went back to her pacing. Simply waiting around for the administrators to show up was driving her mad. Every minute that she was just standing there was another minute that Nathan was gone. He'd been gone for more than his twenty-four hours now and she didn't want to think about what that meant for his condition. Was he hurt? Was he just being held but not injured? Or was he dead?

No, he couldn't be dead. She felt sure that she'd know if he was dead. She didn't know how she would've known, but she was sure she would. He was connected to Haven, and Haven was connected to her. If someone as important to Haven as Nathan was gone beyond her help, she would know it.

Thirteen more circuits of the hallway and then the elevator pinged loudly. Audrey froze and spun to stare at the silver doors, and she felt Duke stand up and take up his place directly behind her. They waited expectantly as the elevator groaned, dinged again, and then the doors slid open. A middle-aged man in a business suit stepped out and then paused, looking at them in surprise.

"Detective Parker," he said and then his eyes flicked up over her shoulder, looking confused, "and Mr. Crocker." He shook his head slightly and then glanced back down at Audrey. "The secretary called me and told me that I was needed in the office on police business. What's going on?"

"We need your files on one of your employees," Audrey said. "An orderly named Michael Stauffer. And then we will also need access to your security tapes."

"Why? What's happened?" the man, who Audrey assumed was Mr. Egris, asked, gripping his briefcase anxiously.

"In your office, please," Audrey said. Mr. Egris nodded and then gestured for them to follow him. He unlocked the main door that led them into a hallway with a series of identical doors lining it. At the third door on the left, marked with a plaque that read "Personnel" he unlocked this one and shepherded them in ahead of him.

"What's going on, Detective?" Mr. Egris asked, settling himself in behind his desk.

"Michael Stauffer washed up at the marina early this morning," Audrey said. "We believe he was murdered."

Mr. Egris gasped and covered his mouth with a hand, looking ill. "Oh Lord, murdered?"

"We need your files on him, to see if we can find a motive," Audrey continued. "Also we need to know when the last time his ID badge was used to clock in. We think someone may have taken it to get access to your hospital for some reason."

"Oh what a nightmare," Mr. Egris muttered distractedly, his eyes wide as he hastily turned to his computer. "Yes, yes, of course. Give me just a moment here."

The printer in the corner of the room whirred into life and began spitting out sheets of paper. "Did you know Mr. Stauffer personally?" Audrey asked curiously.

"No, I'm afraid not," Mr. Egris said, gathering up the papers from the printer and handing them to her. "I recognize the name from my paperwork, but in a place this big you hardly get the chance to really know everyone personally. Especially people like the orderlies. They tend to be younger folks or seasonal workers, so they come and go so quickly. Looks like according to these records Michael had only been with us for two months. Just moved to Haven not long before that."

"So it's not likely he pissed someone off enough to kill him in that short a time," Duke chipped in. "I mean, I could do it but he doesn't seem like the sort of guy to have that talent."

Mr. Egris gave him a curious look and Audrey could tell that he was wondering why the hell Duke Crocker was there at all. To stave off the awkward questions, Audrey said, "Which means that this most likely really was just about getting into the hospital." She flipped through the file until she found his timecard and scanned down to the last entry. "Last clocked in the evening after Michael died, at six-thirty pm. And he never clocked out that night."

"So he snuck out in the middle of the evening?" Duke asked. Audrey glanced up to meet his eyes and she knew they were both thinking the same thing; six-thirty was the same time that she and Nathan had been there for the police blood drive.

"We need to see those security tapes, now," Audrey said, turning her attention to Mr. Egris. "We need to find out who was using his ID card to get into the hospital, because it's highly likely that whoever it was is the person who killed Michael." And kidnapped Nathan... she added in her mind.

"Yes, of course, right away," Mr. Egris said. "Please, follow me." The man bustled out of the office and led them around to another set of offices on the opposite end of the building, set away from everything else. He knocked on the thick metal door once and then shoved it open. Two men were sitting behind a desk lined with computer screens and they both looked up in surprise.

"What's up, Mr. E?" the stouter of the two men asked, cocking his head curiously.

"Detective Parker needs to check the security tapes," Mr. Egris said breathlessly, gesturing over his shoulder at her and Duke.

"Uh, sure, no problem," the stouter man said, confused but nodding. "Whatever you say."

"What we looking for, Detective?" the thinner man, a lanky pale beanpole of a man, asked.

"I need to see the time card clock in," Audrey said. "For Tuesday evening, around six-thirty pm."

"Right-o," the thin man said and swivelled around in his chair, punching buttons on the keyboards. A minute later the screen directly in front of him changed to show a cramped locker room lined with coat hooks and small cubby holes in the walls. An electronic card reader was hung on the wall beside the door and employees slid their cards through it on their way in and out. Audrey glanced at the time printed in the corner of the screen. 18:22 pm.

"Okay, we need to find the person who clocks in at six-thirty-three," Audrey said and the technician nodded, forwarding the video second-by-second. They watched several people walk in and out of the staff room, some going to the time clock and others to the cubbies. Finally the timer hit 18:33 and Audrey said, "Stop. There."

The screen showed the back of a man, frozen in the act of swiping his ID card through the time clock. He was wearing a set of dark magenta orderly scrubs. "Can you get a shot of his face?" Audrey asked.

"Lemme see," the lanky man said. He pressed a few buttons and the video changed frame by frame. The man on the screen slid his card and began to turn around in slow motion. The security technician paused it when the man was facing toward the camera.

"Can we get a better look?" Audrey asked.

The image zoomed only slightly when the technician tapped the keys. "That's as tight as we can go before it starts to pixilate."

Audrey nodded and leaned closer to examine their suspect. He looked passably close to the drowned man; he appeared to be only a few years older and had a very similar hair colour. The suspect had plain, average features. No distinguishing marks of any kind. He looked - normal.

"Print me a copy of that image," Audrey said. "Mr. Egris, circulate this picture through your staff, see if anyone remembers seeing him. Anything they can tell me would be helpful." Mr. Egris immediately nodded in compliance. "You guys," Audrey said, turning back to the security man, "is there any way you can track his progress? Find out where he went while he was here?"

"We'll do our best," the stout man promised and the thin one spun to the computers instantly.

"Great. This is my direct number," Audrey said, handing a card to them. "When you get that done, or if you see him do something really suspicious, you call me."

"Got it." The shorter man gave a sharp nod and then went to join his partner. After Audrey had given another card to Mr. Egris, she grabbed the print-out of their suspect and left the hospital with Duke.

"So what now?" Duke asked, speaking for the first time in a while.

"Now we find out who this man is," Audrey said determinedly. "Someone in town has to have seen him. We put a name to the face, and then find out what that name has to do with Nathan."

Duke looked grim but resolute. "And then what, we kill him?"

Audrey didn't have any good answer to that. She didn't want to say in cold-blood that she was going to kill someone, but she knew deep down that if it came down to it she wouldn't hesitate to eliminate the man who had taken her partner away from her. So instead she just gritted her teeth and finished, "And then we bring Nathan home."