AU of Notorious 19, contains canon plot points and some dialogue.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The three of us were gathered around the computer in Briggs' office crunching on our extra greasy and delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. Bill Smoot hadn't been joking. The diner on Livingston made an excellent grilled cheese sandwich. Briggs had all four angles open and running in fast forward from the moment visiting hours ended at 8pm. It was all starting to blur together in my cheese endorphined brain when something jumped at me. "Stop! Stop it right there!"
Briggs tapped the keyboard and cued it back a minute. At 11:45, a massive orderly stepped out of the service elevator pushing a large laundry basket. The video was grainy and the colors weren't great, but I could see the pale sheen to his albino skin and white hair. I would never have noticed if I hadn't seen him up close and personal. "That's the Yeti!"
"Are you sure?" Briggs asked. "How could it be the Yeti?"
"Can you pull up just that camera?"
Briggs hit a couple more keys and the elevator filled the screen. He wound it back to 11:45 again and we watched as the six foot six mountain crossed into the hall, head down like he knew where the camera was. At 11:53 the Yeti appeared again, but this time the hamper looked a lot heavier.
"Sonovabitch," I said. "That's how Cubbin got off the floor. In the laundry hamper."
"There are pickups like that all day long," Briggs said. "Nobody would even notice this guy."
"Do you have camera feed from the loading dock?"
"Yeah. Give me a second." He scrolled through a series of cameras and brought up the view. Reset the time to 11:55. A white panel van was already backed up to the platform. At 11:59 the Yeti rolled the laundry hamper into the van and drove away.
"Damn. That's how they did it," Briggs said. "Is it just me, or does that van look like the one from the Clinic?"
"It's not just you," I told him. I pulled out my phone and called Morelli. "I'm in Briggs' office and I just found something you're going to want to see."
"You didn't stuff him in another mailbox did you?"
"No! You got copies of the surveillance videos from Central the night Cubbin went missing, right?"
"Yeah, but I didn't find anything helpful and the techs say it wasn't tampered with. Why, what did you see?"
"Go to the view of the service elevator at 11:45."
Morelli was silent for a second. Tapping at his laptop. "The orderly?"
"That's the guy that chased me when I broke into The Clinic. The guy who tried to stun gun me at Cubbin's house."
"You're sure?"
"Positive. Now go to 11:53."
Morelli was quiet a second. And then I could feel his change in attention. "Sonovabitch."
"If you go to the loading dock you'll see that cart rolled onto a white panel van just like the one Briggs and I saw in The Clinic garage. Do you think that's enough to get a search warrant?"
"It would be enough for me to try if you were able to ID this guy when not breaking and entering. I'm not sure how well it'll go over if that detail slips. Even if you do have legal rights as a BEA."
"So what do we do? Should we go down there and take another look?"
"From the outside sure, but if I go in without a warrant or probable cause anything we find will be fruit of the poisoned tree. Not admissible in court."
"But what if Pitch is in there right now? Their on-staff surgeon Dr. Fish made a visit yesterday for an hour. What if he was doing some kind of prep for surgery? What if Pitch is about to disappear in a permanent sort of way like all the others?"
I could hear Morelli's ambivalence through the open line. He didn't like the idea of Pitch getting away. "I'll make some calls and meet you down there. Maybe I can get a judge on board if I sell it right."
"Hurry."
I disconnected and nodded to Nollen. "Morelli's going to meet us down there."
"Me too," Briggs said. "I'm not missing this. If you find Pitch I want to be there. It might be the only way I can keep my job."
ooo
Nollen, Briggs and I were parked in the Myron Cryo lot when Morelli pulled in and parked next to me. He got out and hopped into the empty back passenger seat. "How'd it go?" I asked him. "Did you get a warrant?"
"Not yet. My sergeant's trying to find a judge who will sign off on something this circumstantial. Has there been any activity?"
"No, and it's driving me nuts. I really need to see in that building. I need to know what's going on. Maybe I should just go in. I do have legal rights if I think Pitch is in there. Randy could let me in."
"That's not a good idea," Morelli said. "We don't have any idea what's in there. I'm not letting you walk in blind."
"I could call Eugene," Nollen said from the front seat. We both turned to him and he got deer in the headlights. I gave him a go on gesture. "He usually works Rangeman surveillance. He's got all kinds of toys."
"Are any of these toys legal?" Morelli asked.
Nollen shrugged.
I agreed and Nollen made a call. A half hour later, a black Jeep Cherokee rolled into the lot and parked on my other side. Eugene was pretty small for one of Ranger's guys. Maybe 5'4", with the lean kind of build that said he could pass the required fitness tests, but probably couldn't bench press a truck. He opened the back and pulled out a large clear domed disk with some wires and things running through the middle. Looked a lot like the listening devices you'd see in spy movies, but bigger and more high tech. He handed me a receiver and then disappeared around the side of the Myron Cryo building.
I turned on the receiver and listened for a while. There was mostly static. Sometimes a sound would come through. Muffled and distorted. But nothing identifiable. And then after a long moment of static, we heard a voice.
"…don't have to do this. I could pay you."
"Someone tried that last week. Swore he had five million in gold bars tucked away," said a man with a heavy accent. "But he ended up spare parts just like you."
"I—I'm an elected official! People will notice—"
"Oh, they noticed, but not because of that." He clucked his tongue. "Arrested in the act. Very sloppy Mr. Pitch. I would think a man in your position would have heard of a middle man. Separation. They couldn't prove anything when they tried to charge me because I'd covered my tracks."
"I was supposed to have a middle man, but it fell through."
"I'd say you live and you learn, but you won't be doing either, will you? And all these police will simply think you ran away. Perfect, yes?"
"You can't do this… you can't…" The voice got weaker and weaker until it drifted away to nothing. The only sound left in the room was a smug laugh.
"I don't know why you taunt them like that," said a new voice. Deeper than the others.
"It's fun," said the accent that I was pretty sure belonged to Dr. Abu Darhmal. "You of all people know how boring this job can be."
"You were supposed to wait until the others got here before you sedated him. What if he dies before surgery?"
"Put him on the ventilator. The good parts will stay good for 24 hours."
I exchanged a look with Morelli. All my worst fears confirmed. "Is that enough to get a warrant?"
"I'd say so. But this might be one of those exceptions where we ask for the warrant and go in anyway."
Morelli made some calls while I signaled Eugene. Didn't take long for a shiny red convertible to whip into the Cul-de-sac and pull into the garage in its place. "Nurse Norma," I told Morelli. Not long after that came Craig Fish's silver Lexus.
"Looks like the gangs all here," Morelli said. "Let's hope there aren't any more surprises."
We all hurried through the trees and up to the back door. Now came the hard part. I cut a look from the chute to Briggs, then Morelli. "You gotta be kidding me," Morelli said.
Eugene shot a warry glance at Morelli before he turned to me. "Want me to open the door?"
"Yes please."
Eugene pulled a gizmo thing out of his bag of tricks and plugged it into the electronic lock. A minute later the door was open. Morelli did his I didn't see this head shake and moved into the building first with his weapon drawn.
The garage was quiet. Five cars lined up in a neat row. In addition to Kruger's convertible and Fish's Lexus, there was a black Escalade, the white panel van and a dark green Bentley. Morelli gave some hand signals, indicating that Eugene, Briggs and me should stay on the ground floor while he and Nollen went upstairs. I shook my head. I wasn't staying put. I could see his frustration, but he was smart enough to know there wasn't any point arguing. Eugene and Briggs took covert positions in the garage and I followed Morelli up the stairs, Nollen at my back.
Morelli peered down the hall. Voices were coming from the lit patient room. Beep of monitors. Soft rustle of machines. I couldn't make out all the words, but it sounded like they were talking vitals. Morelli motioned for Nollen to guard the stairs and inched forward, hoping to hear better.
"Good enough. Let's get him to the OR," said Fish.
There was a clonking of a hospital bed being adjusted for movement and I freaked out. Gave Morelli a shove toward the empty patient room across the hall. He slipped through the opening and tugged me after him, standing with his chest against my back as we peered around the edge of the doorframe. Nurse Norma came out first, guiding the toe end of the bed, Abu Darhmal managing the tubes and cords that hooked to the monitors and the IV drip to the unconscious figure sagging on the bed, one hand still cuffed to the railing. It was Elwood Pitch alright. His face had been on every bus bench and billboard when he was running for reelection last year, and he'd been all over the front page since he'd been smuggled out of Central. The last one to leave the room was Dr. Fish.
The oogey feeling in my stomach squirmed deeper.
No wonder they called him Slash.
Darhmal opened the door to the surgical suite and the whole gruesome crew disappeared inside. I let out a breath to ease my nerves, but it didn't help much. "What now?"
"Backup is still ten minutes out," Morelli whispered, his breath ruffling my hair he was so close.
"We can't wait ten minutes. The human chop shop in there could be cutting Elwood Pitch into tiny pieces as we speak."
"I know, believe me. Problem is I only counted three of them, but there were five cars. I'm not comfortable moving in until we know where the other two are."
Then like the universe was granting favors, one of the office doors opened. "Are you sure that was a good idea?"
"He's been milling around my building for days. There's no telling what he might have seen," said a familiar German accent. It was Franz Sunshine.
"But the risks," said the same deep voice from before.
Sunshine came into view. Waved a dismissive hand. "He's a vagrant with no ties, raving about a plum and a tiki. No one will miss him. When we're finished here you can test his blood type, but leave him in the freezer until the fight is gone. It may give me enough time to find buyers."
Oh god. They were talking about chopping up Brody Logan for parts. I was going to be sick.
I felt the tension radiating through Morelli's body. Morelli always buzzed with contained energy even when he was relaxed. Like a tightly coiled spring. This was different. This was Morelli ready for action. He cut a look to me that said stay on guard, and then he stepped into the hall, his gun raised. "Trenton PD. Stop where you are and put your hands on your head."
All I heard was the ratchet of a shotgun.
I looked into the hall and saw Morelli in a standoff with the Yeti. One blue eye and one brown glaring at him down a double barrel. "Drop it," Morelli told him again.
"I don't think so," said the Yeti.
Then the muzzle of Nollen's Glock touched the back of his neck. "The man said drop it."
From the Yeti's facial expression, he suddenly wanted to do a lot of swearing. He lowered the shotgun and Morelli took it. Tossed Nollen some cuffs. "You got these two?"
"Yes sir."
"Okay. Steph, I guess you're with me." He looked down at the Ruger I was pointing at the floor and grimaced. "Just try not to shoot me in the ass."
"Ha ha."
A smile broke through the cop face for a second, and then he faced the door to the surgical suite and pushed it open.
There were machines and monitors and shiny silver instruments all around the occupied silver bed. Like a scene from Grey's Anatomy. Pitch was covered in a blue drop cloth, three figures in scrubs and face masks leaning over him. Fish was holding a bloody scalpel. Morelli and I pointed our guns at them and told them to freeze. It was all bravado on my part, but none of them need to know that. They took a big step back and Morelli nodded to me. "Call it in. We're gonna need an ambulance too."
The facility was flooded with cops not long after that. Pitch was taken down the elevator into a waiting ambulance. Sunshine and his cohorts cuffed and put into the back of police cars. It took us some effort to find the freezer. It was on the ground floor, tucking into the far back corner of the garage. Eugene worked his magic on the lock and I found Brody Logan blue and shivering inside. He wasn't the only one in the freezer. There was a black body bag laying along the wall. The last Clinic patient who went toes up. I sucked in a breath and unzipped the bag. It wasn't Cubbin. There didn't seem to be a sign of Cubbin anywhere.
My phone chirped.
Cripes. It was almost two o'clock. That didn't give me a lot of time to get ready for the wedding, but as much as I was dreading the whole experience, Amanda was counting on me to be there to protect her. "I have to go," I said to Morelli. "I'm not sure what to do about Pitch."
"I talked to Eugene. He said he was told to stick with Pitch until he can be checked into St. Francis and put on lockdown."
"What about Logan?" I said, looking over at the poor shivering lump huddled under one of the paramedic's silver blankets. "He's been through a lot. Seems mean to take him to jail now."
"That's between you and him. You're his bond enforcement agent."
I was. I was also way too exhausted and heartsick from the experience to want to cause more misery for him at the moment. "Put him in the Mercedes," I told Nollen. "We'll take him back to Rangeman."
