Hank glanced at the review mirror, watching the young woman who was sitting in the back seat of the police car, staring out of the window, occasionally wiping away the tears that trickled down her face with the back of her hand. Joanne had barely said a word while they had waited for the guys to join them at her home, after they had all raced home to gather enough clothes to last them for a couple of days while they were in Santa Barbara. Her silence had continued during the long two-hour drive. Any attempts he had made at conversation had quickly faded away with polite one or two worded responses. She was terrified and he wasn't sure just what he more he could say to try and reassure her.
Hell, what could he say when he didn't know himself just what had happened or even if Roy and Johnny were still alive? The only information that Crockett had been able to obtain on the drive to Santa Barbara had been scarce, only that was Johnny was still missing and Roy's condition was still extremely critical and unstable. The standard platitudes of Roy is a fighter and he will get through this just didn't seem enough, especially when the man whom both Joanne and Roy now considered a part of their family was still missing. Damn it, Hank swallowed hard, they were all part of his family, but if Emily could, she would happily adopt the youngest member of their team even though John was now a twenty-two-year-old man.
He sighed as his eyes drifted across the mirror until he could see Mike's station wagon that was following closely behind. He resisted the urge to turn around and look through the rear mirror as he saw Chet, sitting in the front passenger seat of Mike's car, waving his hands around as he spoke. He had no doubt that Chet was continuing to demand the answers that they all desperately wanted to know, that Crockett had not been able to give them. Just what had happened to Roy and how the hell had Roy had ended up, critically wounded from not one but two gunshot wounds, in Santa Barbara after responding with Johnny to a call in Carson? And where was Johnny? He returned his attention back to the road as he felt the police car slow before Crockett turned onto the road that took them to the hospital parking lot.
Gliding the car to a gentle stop in a parking space directly across from the hospital entrance doors, Crockett turned off the engine and waited, giving the man beside him a few seconds to gather his thoughts as Hank stared across at the large brick building. He knew the man had a lot of questions, the same questions that he had after the brief phone conversation that he had had with them earlier. Questions he hoped that the two Santa Barbara homicide detectives waiting inside could give them at least a couple of answers to. He waited until the other car pulled up beside them before he turned back to his passengers and asked, "Ready?"
Taking a deep breath, Hank nodded as he reached for the door handle and opened the door before hurrying around to the other side of the car and opening the rear passenger door.
Joanne jumped, blinking in surprise as she suddenly realized that the car was stopped in front of the hospital and Hank was standing beside her open door, "We're here." He told her softly before helping her out of the car as Chet, Marco and Mike hurried across to join them.
E!E!E!E!E!
Standing at the nurse's desk, listening to the surgeon as he began to update them on their victim's condition, Jim nudged Lee as the doors to the ICU opened and a young woman accompanied by five men stepped inside. It didn't take a cop's well-honed instinct for either detective to realize that at least three of the small crowd were the people whom they were waiting for.
Excusing himself, Lee hurried down the corridor to met them, holding his hand out to shake the LA police lieutenant's. The tan suit, matching tie and pale-yellow shirt was a dead give-away and tended to be the standard uniform for police detective's everywhere, even in the bigger cities of Los Angeles. "Lieutenant Crockett, Mrs DeSoto? I'm Detective Lee Rollings," After seeing the Lieutenant nod, he turned and led the small group back to the nurse's station. Tilting his head towards his partner, he continued his introductions, "This is my partner, Jim Thompson." And looking at Joanne, he added gently, "And this is Dr Miller. He's the surgeon who is taking care of your husband."
"Detective Rollings, Detective Thompson, this is Hank Stanley, he is Roy's and John's captain." Crockett introduced Cap, stepping aside as Cap shook the two men's hands as he continued, nodding in Mike's Chet's and Marco's direction. "And these three gentlemen are the other firefighters whom John and Roy work with, Mike Stoker, Chet Kelly and Marco Lopez."
Lee nodded his greeting at the three LA county Station 51 firefighters before he returned his attention back to Joanne. "I'm sure you want an update on your husband's condition."
At Joanne's small nervous nod, he looked at the others, "Why don't we go somewhere a little more private where we can talk."
"Maybe the private waiting room at the end corridor." The surgeon suggested before looking across at the two Santa Barbara detectives and adding, "We shouldn't be disturbed there."
Lee nodded and Jim turned and followed the surgeon down the corridor as Joanne, Cap, Marco, Chet, Mike, and Crockett, glancing into every ICU room they passed, hoping to catch a quick glimpse of Roy, trailed after them.
Holding the door to the waiting room open until the small group had entered and settled themselves nervously on the chairs inside, Dr Mills softly closed the door and walked across to where Rollings and Thompson were sitting before sitting down on the hard plastic chair beside them. "I'm not sure just how much the two detectives have told you," he began looking directly at Joanne, "But your husband was brought in after being found suffering from two gunshot wounds, one high in the leg and the other in the back, in the Los Padros National Park, a little before midday this morning." The surgeon looked down at his hands and sighed, hating being the bearer of bad news but also knowing that the only way to deliver it was to be as honest and truthful, no matter how hard it was for loved ones to hear, rather than leave them with false hopes as he continued, "I'm afraid that your husband's condition is extremely unstable and critical at the moment. One of the bullets went through his leg and thigh, but he managed to slow the bleeding with a tourniquet, but the second bullet I'm afraid has done the most damage. it struck him in the back and nicked his liver before lodging in his intestines. We managed to control the bleeding by temporally packing the liver and repairing the tears in his intestines, but he was too weak for us to do much more." He saw the blood drain out of Joanne's face and heard her soft, frightened gasp as he continued, "We need to wait until he is a little stronger and able to tolerate more surgery before we will take him back to the O.R. I'm not going to lie to you Mrs DeSoto, but I'm afraid that the next twenty-four hours are going to be critical."
Joanne nodded woodenly as she grabbed Cap's hand and held onto it tightly.
"But if Roy can survive the next twenty-four hours?" Marco asked, almost pleadingly, "He's got a chance?"
The surgeon nodded, "Yes, if he can get through the next twenty-four hours, he has a chance."
"But I don't understand?" Chet managed to choke out the two questions that he was desperate to have an answer for after discovering the Roy had been found, shot, and left for dead in the San Padros park almost one hundred miles away, looking across at the three detectives "Roy and Johnny disappeared on a run in Carson this morning, how the hell did he end up here in Santa Barbara and where's Johnny?"
Casting a quick furtive glance at his partner to see if Jim was going to take the lead in answering the question, Lee sighed when his partner remained silent. Taking a moment to decide just how much information about their potential serial killers, he was willing to divulge without potentially compromising their investigation. "We believe that your two paramedics were lured out on a call before being grabbed and transported back to Santa Barbara." He began, choosing his words carefully as he continued. "We don't believe that they were targeted specifically but it was more of a case that they just happened to be the unlucky paramedics who responded to the fake call."
"But why? And by whom?"
"Listen, what we are going to tell you must stay in this room, understand?" Jim cut in firmly as he realized to get the type of information they were going to need, to save the missing paramedic, they were just going to have to trust these men to be totally discreet and be totally honest with them.
Cap, Mike, Chet and Marco traded confused looks before looking across at Crockett who appeared just as bewildered and confused as they were before they looked back and nodded their agreement.
"Over the last six or seven months, we have discovered three other bodies in the Los Padres. The other three victims died of gunshot wounds. And just like Mr DeSoto today, each of the victims' clothing was torn and muddy, almost as if they had been running through the forest." He paused a moment as he realized the Joanne was listening to what he was telling them. His heart went out to the young woman and he looked across at the doctor, suggesting, "Maybe it's better if you took Mrs DeSoto to see her husband now."
Joanne shook her head, "No!" She whispered as her grip on Hank's hand tightened, "No please, I want to know just what happened to my husband today. Please, I have to know. And I have to know what happened to Johnny!"
Nodding, unconvinced the Joanne really needed to hear all the details, Jim continued softly, "Each of the victims were shot with .30-30 caliber weapons."
"Hunting rifles?" Crockett eyes went wide as he began to realize just what type of killer that they might be dealing with.
Lee and Jim nodded. "Our first victim, a local man was found twenty-four hours after he was reported missing seven months ago, not far from where Mr DeSoto was found this morning. Our next two victims, both currently John Does, were found over the last two months. All four victims had all their IDs and any identifying articles of clothing or jewelry striped removed and as I have said each were killed by .30-30 caliber weapons and each appeared to have been running through the forest prior to death."
"A serial killer?" Mike breathed.
Lee shook his head, "No, not just one serial killer, we believe there could be two of them. The forensic guys managed to discover this morning that the rifling on the two of the bullets recovered from your friend and the bullets recovered from two of the other victims were fired from two different guns."
"I don't understand, if they are killing people up here in the Los Padres National Park, then why did the come all the way to Los Angeles to grab my two paramedics?" Cap asked.
"We believe that our first victim, Mike Ridgley, may not have been the only local who were grabbed by these two for their sick hunting game, missing persons records show at least two more local men went missing around the same period but no trace of them has been found. Now we believe these guys are smart, smart enough to know that we would start asking questions if too many locals began to disappear."
"So, you think they have started casting their net out wider, looking for more victims?" Crockett asked.
"And more thrills. We believe that that could be the reason why we haven't been able to identify our other two John Doe's. To be honest we weren't even aware that your two guys were missing when your man was found and even if we were, there's no way we would have connected them with our killers. It was only by searching the DMV for anyone matching his descriptions that we were able to identify him and realized that your other man, John Gage is still somewhere out there in the Los Padres park, probably being hunted by these two animals."
"Then why are you here, why aren't you out there, searching for him?" Chet demanded.
"Chet!" Cap said softly, trying to cool his friend's anger as he tried to push down his own rising fury at the lack of anything being done to find John.
"My partner and I will be." Lee answered, not taking the fireman's anger personally. Damn, who was he kidding! If he were in these guys' shoes and it was Jim who was missing and possibly being hunted down like a wild animal, he would be demanding the same thing. Hell, no, he wouldn't, he would be screaming for the whole national guard to be sent in!
"Wait what do you mean your partner and you will be looking for him?" Joanne asked uncertain if she had heard the man correctly. "Aren't you going to send in a search team? It's still light, what about a helicopter?"
"These killers don't know we are on to them. They made their first mistake and didn't check if your husband was still alive when they left him beside that track. If we send in a full search team and have a helicopter up in the air joining in the search, they are going to know and then your husband's' partner won't have a chance. They won't hunt him; they will kill him on sight and then get the Hell out of there. That's why Jim and I have decided to go in on our own and turn the tables on these two killers. But before we can do that, we need to know everything you can tell us about John." He added softly, "Anything that could help us find him or know just how he might react-"
"You mean, how he might react with two hunters after him?" Chet growled.
Lee nodded, surprising Chet. "Yes, precisely that. We need to know if he's a city boy? If he's had any experience in the wilderness? Just how resilient he is? How well does he react under pressure? Anything at all that can help us get to know John as fast as we can and get inside his head."
"Instead of asking us about Johnny why don't you let us join in the search?" Cap asked softly.
"For the same reasons I told you why we aren't going to send in a full search team yet. Plus, I know you guys are experienced in search and rescues but even so, you're still civilians and there's no way I am going to put you in any danger. These guys are sick killers, and they are escalating. They already decided to hunt two paramedics, think of the jollies they will get if they realize they have three more firemen wandering around their hunting grounds! Now while the doc takes Mrs Desoto to see her husband, are you four going to help us find your friend or not?"
E!E!E!E!E!
Joanne hesitated at the door as the surgeon led her into Roy's intensive care room and her face paled with shock as she stared at the motionless man in the bed. Even from the doorway, she could see Roy's complexion looked a sickly grey against the pristine white sheets that covered the lower half of his body, thick white bandages encircled his waist and what looked like some type of metal cradle had been placed over his legs, keeping the weight of the sheets off them. She was unable to stop herself from shaking with fear as she stared at the bags of solutions that hung above the bed, the IV lines snaking down to disappear into dressings that covered the back of both of Roy's hands. Slowing looking back at Roy in the bed, she felt faint as she noticed the myriad of wires and tubes that were connected to him, an oxygen mask covered the lower half of his face, a tube emerging from under the sheets and disappeared down the other side of the bed and other wires were connected to the heart monitor that softly beeped beside the bed.
Swallowing down the sob that threatened to escape, Joanne slowly walked across the side of the bed before carefully leaning over and gently kissing Roy's cheek, her tears dropping lightly onto his lax face. "I'm here, Roy, I'm not going to leave you." she whispered forcing herself to be strong as she carefully grabbed his hand and sat down on the chair behind her, pulling it closer to the bed.
E!E!E!E!E!E!
Studying the footprint in the mud near the edge of the water, Jesse nodded to himself before he looked up at his hunting companion, "I was right, it looks like he's trying to throw us off his trail. See the footprint in the mud and the disturbed rocks in the stream." Pointing to the half-submerged footprint and the disturbed rocks in the shallow water, he continued, "He entered the water here. I'm betting he must have been a good little Injun scout when he was a kid, 'cause he's headed downstream. He probably thinks that if he heads far enough downstream, we won't be able to find where he gets out." Leaning down, he placed his hand in the flowing water for a minute before straightening up, smiling. "But he's not going to able to stay in the water too long without risking hypothermia. The water's freezing."
Looking up at the darkening, rain laden clouds above them, Cedric frowned, "And it looks like that cold front is moving in faster than they predicted. Looks like it's going to rain." Looking back at his friend, he smiled, "Could make this hunt even more interesting. It's been a while since we hunted in the rain."
"It has been, my friend. So, we better get moving before the rain comes in and washes away his tracks." Jesse grinned as he slapped Cedric on the shoulder before he waded into the freezing stream, holding his gun high over his head, and crossed to the other bank.