Part 9 Disappearing
On leaving the Emergency room Steve went straight to his truck and retrieved his badge and gun from the glove compartment. He did not, however, get in, instead he walked away from it and turned left towards the hospital's staff car park, leading a bemused Emma along behind him. He walked purposefully past the parked vehicles until he eventually came to a stop by a dark blue convertible in one of the reserved spaces. He moved to the back of the car and retrieved the spare key from its hiding place.
The action involved him bending down. It was a mistake, the resultant wave of dizziness almost made him lose his balance. He grabbed on to the side of the car with his good arm and took a few deep breaths waiting for the disorientation to pass.
Emma placed her hands on his back to help steady him. "Steve?" Her tone a mixture of question and concern.
He straightened up and opened his eyes. "I'm OK," he said as much to reassure himself as her.
"Please, we should go back inside." The concerned tone was now one of pleading. "You need to get that shoulder looked at."
Steve knew that she was right. He could feel the blood running down his arm and knew that spots of it were dripping from the end of his fingers. At the very least the wound needed dressing and soon, but he knew that staying here would only place Emma in further danger. Not to mention the people in the hospital. Steve felt that he was already responsible for nearly killing his friend and Jesse wasn't out of danger yet. He could not risk his father or Amanda becoming involved, possibly hurt as well and there were just too many innocent people around here.
He was also keenly aware that he was turning his back on everything he believed in and normally held dear. Under normal circumstances he could have stayed. He would have trusted in the police force, of which he was a part, to provide protection for him and Emma, but his meetings with Dobbs and Steele had convinced him that that was not an option. If he requested protection then the two agents would find out where Emma was. She would probably be turned over to their custody and he wasn't sure that she would survive long once they had her, if what he had witnessed the night before was anything to go by. He was not willing to risk that Emma would become an 'accident whilst in custody' statistic.
He was fairly sure that the two agents had followed him to Jesse's and were the source of the second set of gunfire. He wasn't sure if they had been shooting at him or at the other assailants on the roof. Either way they hadn't seemed too worried about who got hurt.
The fact that they had followed him had led Steve to another conclusion and was the reason they now stood next to his father's car instead of his own truck. Steve was experienced enough to know that he had not had a tail from the police station. He had been very careful. That meant that there were only two ways he could have been tracked. Either a tracking device had been planted on his truck by the two agents or, more worryingly, they had access to the police tracking system that was fitted to his truck by the department. If it was the latter then Steve had even less reason to believe that calling for police protection would help them.
Steve did not have time to explain all of his reasoning. There were things that needed to be done and he had to accomplish them before the last of his strength deserted him. "We went through this inside," he said firmly. "We need to get away from here before anyone comes looking for us. If we don't more people may get hurt." He paused studying her expression. He lifted his hand and gently touched her cheek. "You may get hurt," he said softly. They shared a brief moment of tenderness then his thoughts returned to the practical. "Come on, we need to get out of here, find somewhere to hide whilst we sort this out."
She tried one last time. "But your shoulder…."
"Will keep for the time being," he interrupted. "As soon as we are safe I'll do something about it." He held eye contact with her. "I promise."
Realising that Steve was not going to change his mind she sighed in defeat. "All right but you are in no condition to drive." She said taking the recently retrieved key from his hand and began walking to the driver's door.
Steve's right arm was becoming increasingly useless so he was quite relieved that Emma once again took on the task of driving. He climbed in and lowered himself into the passenger seat. He checked his father's glove compartment and retrieved the cloth that he knew would be there. He needed to do something about the flow of blood from his shoulder. He placed the cloth over the wound gasping in pain as it made contact with the raw flesh. For a few moments daggers of white hot pain shot out from his arm and momentarily overloaded his senses. The bright hot sparks were mirrored by flashing lights that seemed to travel towards him before disappearing.
He leant back relying on his body weight to put pressure on the wound and slow the blood loss. Checking the clock on the dash he was surprised to find how little time had passed. So much had happened it had seemed like an eternity since he had been sitting in Jesse's apartment but in fact it had been little over twenty minutes. Twenty minutes since he had been shot. Twenty minutes since he had almost lost a friend.
Mark walked slowly out of the trauma room and into the ER reception. He was not really concentrating on where he was going, he was lost in his thoughts, still deeply concerned about Jesse. He did not notice Amanda exit the elevator until she was almost on top of him.
"Mark," she said to get his attention. He turned to look at her, as she continued, "The nurses just paged me they said Jesse has been hurt." The concern was reflected in her expression and her tone. "What happened? How is he?"
Mark briefly considered if he could break the news to her gently but years of experience had taught him that there was no way to make news like this any easier on friends or relatives. "I'm afraid he's been shot," he said as gently as he could
"Oh God, how bad?" Amanda asked visibly paling.
"The bullet went straight through his upper left arm and caught an artery. He suffered massive blood loss." Mark was finding it difficult to look into Amanda's eyes as he spoke. He could see the pain and concern building with each word. For a doctor this task was hard enough with strangers. To explain to a friend about a friend was nigh on impossible. His voice started to crack as he spoke. "They stabilized him enough to get him to the OR but he's not out of danger yet and…" He paused again not wanting to complete the sentence but he knew he had to continue. Amanda needed to know everything. "From what I saw they are going to have a tough time saving his arm."
"Oh God!" she repeated, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Mark how did this happen?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Steve brought him in, saved his life with a tourniquet." He looked away from her and around the ER reception searching for his son. "He was standing by the door last time I saw him."
Amanda looked round too but Steve was nowhere in sight. "Was he all right?" She asked.
"He said he was," Mark replied
"But…"Amanda prompted
"He didn't look it, he had some bad bruising to his face and he looked very pale." He finished his scrutiny of the room and looked back at Amanda. "Of course he had just bought Jesse in. He was covered in blood it must have been quite traumatic." He looked around one more time. "I'd better find him and check him over,"
Amanda nodded her understanding. "I'll go and check with the nurses station, see if they know where he went.. Why don't you check the doctor's lounge he may have gone there."
Nathan made a point of being in the same room as Agent Harris from then on. If she did find anything he did not trust her to let him know about it unless she had no choice. Between them they made a fairly thorough search of Richard Fielding's house. Nathan could tell that she resented him following her around and this made him all the more inclined to do it. It was in the kitchen that they found the next piece of evidence.
Stephanie was checking through the drawers and cupboards so Nathan decided to check out the bins. Buried under a pile of empty food container's was a tied up plastic bag. He untied it and looked inside. Realising instantly what he had, he reluctantly called her over. "I think you might want to take a look at this." He placed the bag on the counter and pulled out a blood soaked dress. "I'll give you ten to one odds that this belonged to his wife," he said holding it up.
"No bet detective," she replied. "I told you we've been investigating this case for months now." She looked him straight in the eye as she delivered her next statement. "I've seen her wearing it. It definitely belongs to Mrs. Emma Fielding."
Amanda turned from the nurses station to see Mark exit the Doctor's lounge. Both of them had blank expressions on their faces. As they approached each other Mark was the first to speak. "He's not in there."
"Well none of the nurses have seen him." Amanda replied. Her concern was growing and she was already worried enough about Jesse without having to worry about Steve too. "The last anyone remembers he was standing by the door with a woman, talking to you."
Mark was worried and confused at the same time. It was beginning to look like Steve had left the hospital but why? Even if he did not want treatment himself he would surely have stayed long enough to find out how Jesse was doing. "Yes he said she was a friend of his. A woman called Emma." He paused, searching his memory for a recollection of having met or been told about the woman he had seen with Steve. He screwed up his eyes, a characteristically visible sign of his concentration but it yielded no reward, he either knew nothing about her or did not remember. " I don't recall meeting her before. Nor do I remember Steve mentioning her," he continued. "But then Steve doesn't introduce me to everyone he knows."
Amanda thought for a moment too. She shook her head. "The name means nothing to me. Did you get her last name?"
Mark shook his head. "Whoever she is, she helped Steve bring Jesse in and she appears to have gone too." He looked down at the floor then back up at Amanda. "It's not like Steve to leave without a word."
Although Amanda agreed it was uncharacteristic, she tried to rationalise Steve's behaviour. "He must have had his reasons. I'm sure that he will be in touch soon." She said reassuringly. "Look I'm going to go up to the OR and wait for news on Jesse."
Mark's concern for Steve's whereabouts had momentarily distracted him from thinking about his young friend. "I'll come with you," he said. For the time being his priorities had to lie with Jesse. He could worry about Steve later when Jesse was out of danger. Besides Amanda was right. Steve would not leave without good reason and would get in touch when he could.
They both headed off to the OR waiting room.
Nathan was speaking to headquarters requesting that the APB out on Emma Fielding be upgraded to a 'wanted for murder' warrant. "She should be considered armed and dangerous. I'm not sure that she is still carrying a weapon but from the injuries inflicted on the husband it looks like she's pretty unstable at the moment." He spoke into his cell phone. "There's no telling what she might do if she is provoked."
"OK I'll get that information out as soon as possible." Captain Newman replied.
Nathan had thought it slightly strange that the captain wanted all reports on this case going directly to him but figured that the involvement of the NSA was just making his superior a little jumpy. Involvement by any other law enforcement agencies always seemed to make those in charge want to dot the Is and cross the Ts.
"Are the NSA satisfied with your findings?" The captain asked.
Nathan turned to look over to where agent Harris was standing talking. She had been joined by two other men who had also identified themselves as NSA agents. The discussion they were having seemed to be getting a little heated.
"Agent Harris appears to be but then, short of finding the wife standing over the body with the bloody knife in her hand, I don't think we could ask for much more. I'm just waiting for conformation that the bloody fingerprint we found belongs to Mrs. Fielding, but everything here suggests that it does." He was still watching the discussion over on the far side of the room. Agent Harris was clearly unhappy with what she was being told. He tried to concentrate back on his conversation with his Captain. "Two more agents from the NSA have arrived so I haven't really had chance to speak to her or them," he continued.
"What do these agents look like?" the captain asked.
Nathan described the two men talking to agent Harris. As Newman listened to the descriptions he knew that Nathan was describing Dobbs and Steele. So his suspicions had been right. Steve was somehow involved in this murder inquiry. Now he definitely needed to speak to him.
He thanked Nathan for his help and requested that the young officer report to him when he got back to the station once he had picked up the autopsy report from the hospital. Then he hung up and dialed Steve's cell phone.
Once the wave of pain and guilt had passed. Steve wasn't sure which of the two was worse. He turned to look at his companion. She had started the engine but had not yet pulled out of the space. She was watching him, clearly concerned by what she saw, but to her credit she did not say anything, did not waste her energy trying to persuade him again from his current course of action.
Steve took a deep breath and bit back the pain. "OK let's get out of here."
She nodded and pulled the car out of the car park. Steve pulled out his cell phone and left a brief message with reception. He then switched the cell phone off and threw it on to the back seat. He would not be able to use it again. If you knew what you were doing it was far too easy to trace.
Steve briefly considered asking Emma about what had happened. He still had not managed to find out anything from her about what was going on. Each time he asked her, something happened to prevent the answer. Then he remembered how she had reacted to just the mention of her husband's name. She had almost gone in to shock. Steve realised that once again he would have to wait. He could not risk strong emotional reactions from her whilst she was driving. Besides he had plenty of other things to occupy his mind. He and Emma were going to have to disappear until he had chance to work out the best way to help her and keep both of them alive.
The disappearance would have to be good too. Emma already had the NSA on her tail as well as murderous assailants of unknown origin. They would be looking for both of them. If that weren't enough, the fact that Emma and he were material witnesses in Jesse's shooting and hadn't waited around to give a statement would mean that the LAPD would be looking for them too, and finally Steve knew that he would need to cover his tracks very well if he wanted to prevent his father from finding him. In fact, if he wanted to keep his dad out of this, his disappearing act would have to be very good indeed.
So apart from giving Emma directions he remained fairly quiet for the entire drive to the beach house as he formulated his strategy.
On leaving the Emergency room Steve went straight to his truck and retrieved his badge and gun from the glove compartment. He did not, however, get in, instead he walked away from it and turned left towards the hospital's staff car park, leading a bemused Emma along behind him. He walked purposefully past the parked vehicles until he eventually came to a stop by a dark blue convertible in one of the reserved spaces. He moved to the back of the car and retrieved the spare key from its hiding place.
The action involved him bending down. It was a mistake, the resultant wave of dizziness almost made him lose his balance. He grabbed on to the side of the car with his good arm and took a few deep breaths waiting for the disorientation to pass.
Emma placed her hands on his back to help steady him. "Steve?" Her tone a mixture of question and concern.
He straightened up and opened his eyes. "I'm OK," he said as much to reassure himself as her.
"Please, we should go back inside." The concerned tone was now one of pleading. "You need to get that shoulder looked at."
Steve knew that she was right. He could feel the blood running down his arm and knew that spots of it were dripping from the end of his fingers. At the very least the wound needed dressing and soon, but he knew that staying here would only place Emma in further danger. Not to mention the people in the hospital. Steve felt that he was already responsible for nearly killing his friend and Jesse wasn't out of danger yet. He could not risk his father or Amanda becoming involved, possibly hurt as well and there were just too many innocent people around here.
He was also keenly aware that he was turning his back on everything he believed in and normally held dear. Under normal circumstances he could have stayed. He would have trusted in the police force, of which he was a part, to provide protection for him and Emma, but his meetings with Dobbs and Steele had convinced him that that was not an option. If he requested protection then the two agents would find out where Emma was. She would probably be turned over to their custody and he wasn't sure that she would survive long once they had her, if what he had witnessed the night before was anything to go by. He was not willing to risk that Emma would become an 'accident whilst in custody' statistic.
He was fairly sure that the two agents had followed him to Jesse's and were the source of the second set of gunfire. He wasn't sure if they had been shooting at him or at the other assailants on the roof. Either way they hadn't seemed too worried about who got hurt.
The fact that they had followed him had led Steve to another conclusion and was the reason they now stood next to his father's car instead of his own truck. Steve was experienced enough to know that he had not had a tail from the police station. He had been very careful. That meant that there were only two ways he could have been tracked. Either a tracking device had been planted on his truck by the two agents or, more worryingly, they had access to the police tracking system that was fitted to his truck by the department. If it was the latter then Steve had even less reason to believe that calling for police protection would help them.
Steve did not have time to explain all of his reasoning. There were things that needed to be done and he had to accomplish them before the last of his strength deserted him. "We went through this inside," he said firmly. "We need to get away from here before anyone comes looking for us. If we don't more people may get hurt." He paused studying her expression. He lifted his hand and gently touched her cheek. "You may get hurt," he said softly. They shared a brief moment of tenderness then his thoughts returned to the practical. "Come on, we need to get out of here, find somewhere to hide whilst we sort this out."
She tried one last time. "But your shoulder…."
"Will keep for the time being," he interrupted. "As soon as we are safe I'll do something about it." He held eye contact with her. "I promise."
Realising that Steve was not going to change his mind she sighed in defeat. "All right but you are in no condition to drive." She said taking the recently retrieved key from his hand and began walking to the driver's door.
Steve's right arm was becoming increasingly useless so he was quite relieved that Emma once again took on the task of driving. He climbed in and lowered himself into the passenger seat. He checked his father's glove compartment and retrieved the cloth that he knew would be there. He needed to do something about the flow of blood from his shoulder. He placed the cloth over the wound gasping in pain as it made contact with the raw flesh. For a few moments daggers of white hot pain shot out from his arm and momentarily overloaded his senses. The bright hot sparks were mirrored by flashing lights that seemed to travel towards him before disappearing.
He leant back relying on his body weight to put pressure on the wound and slow the blood loss. Checking the clock on the dash he was surprised to find how little time had passed. So much had happened it had seemed like an eternity since he had been sitting in Jesse's apartment but in fact it had been little over twenty minutes. Twenty minutes since he had been shot. Twenty minutes since he had almost lost a friend.
Mark walked slowly out of the trauma room and into the ER reception. He was not really concentrating on where he was going, he was lost in his thoughts, still deeply concerned about Jesse. He did not notice Amanda exit the elevator until she was almost on top of him.
"Mark," she said to get his attention. He turned to look at her, as she continued, "The nurses just paged me they said Jesse has been hurt." The concern was reflected in her expression and her tone. "What happened? How is he?"
Mark briefly considered if he could break the news to her gently but years of experience had taught him that there was no way to make news like this any easier on friends or relatives. "I'm afraid he's been shot," he said as gently as he could
"Oh God, how bad?" Amanda asked visibly paling.
"The bullet went straight through his upper left arm and caught an artery. He suffered massive blood loss." Mark was finding it difficult to look into Amanda's eyes as he spoke. He could see the pain and concern building with each word. For a doctor this task was hard enough with strangers. To explain to a friend about a friend was nigh on impossible. His voice started to crack as he spoke. "They stabilized him enough to get him to the OR but he's not out of danger yet and…" He paused again not wanting to complete the sentence but he knew he had to continue. Amanda needed to know everything. "From what I saw they are going to have a tough time saving his arm."
"Oh God!" she repeated, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Mark how did this happen?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Steve brought him in, saved his life with a tourniquet." He looked away from her and around the ER reception searching for his son. "He was standing by the door last time I saw him."
Amanda looked round too but Steve was nowhere in sight. "Was he all right?" She asked.
"He said he was," Mark replied
"But…"Amanda prompted
"He didn't look it, he had some bad bruising to his face and he looked very pale." He finished his scrutiny of the room and looked back at Amanda. "Of course he had just bought Jesse in. He was covered in blood it must have been quite traumatic." He looked around one more time. "I'd better find him and check him over,"
Amanda nodded her understanding. "I'll go and check with the nurses station, see if they know where he went.. Why don't you check the doctor's lounge he may have gone there."
Nathan made a point of being in the same room as Agent Harris from then on. If she did find anything he did not trust her to let him know about it unless she had no choice. Between them they made a fairly thorough search of Richard Fielding's house. Nathan could tell that she resented him following her around and this made him all the more inclined to do it. It was in the kitchen that they found the next piece of evidence.
Stephanie was checking through the drawers and cupboards so Nathan decided to check out the bins. Buried under a pile of empty food container's was a tied up plastic bag. He untied it and looked inside. Realising instantly what he had, he reluctantly called her over. "I think you might want to take a look at this." He placed the bag on the counter and pulled out a blood soaked dress. "I'll give you ten to one odds that this belonged to his wife," he said holding it up.
"No bet detective," she replied. "I told you we've been investigating this case for months now." She looked him straight in the eye as she delivered her next statement. "I've seen her wearing it. It definitely belongs to Mrs. Emma Fielding."
Amanda turned from the nurses station to see Mark exit the Doctor's lounge. Both of them had blank expressions on their faces. As they approached each other Mark was the first to speak. "He's not in there."
"Well none of the nurses have seen him." Amanda replied. Her concern was growing and she was already worried enough about Jesse without having to worry about Steve too. "The last anyone remembers he was standing by the door with a woman, talking to you."
Mark was worried and confused at the same time. It was beginning to look like Steve had left the hospital but why? Even if he did not want treatment himself he would surely have stayed long enough to find out how Jesse was doing. "Yes he said she was a friend of his. A woman called Emma." He paused, searching his memory for a recollection of having met or been told about the woman he had seen with Steve. He screwed up his eyes, a characteristically visible sign of his concentration but it yielded no reward, he either knew nothing about her or did not remember. " I don't recall meeting her before. Nor do I remember Steve mentioning her," he continued. "But then Steve doesn't introduce me to everyone he knows."
Amanda thought for a moment too. She shook her head. "The name means nothing to me. Did you get her last name?"
Mark shook his head. "Whoever she is, she helped Steve bring Jesse in and she appears to have gone too." He looked down at the floor then back up at Amanda. "It's not like Steve to leave without a word."
Although Amanda agreed it was uncharacteristic, she tried to rationalise Steve's behaviour. "He must have had his reasons. I'm sure that he will be in touch soon." She said reassuringly. "Look I'm going to go up to the OR and wait for news on Jesse."
Mark's concern for Steve's whereabouts had momentarily distracted him from thinking about his young friend. "I'll come with you," he said. For the time being his priorities had to lie with Jesse. He could worry about Steve later when Jesse was out of danger. Besides Amanda was right. Steve would not leave without good reason and would get in touch when he could.
They both headed off to the OR waiting room.
Nathan was speaking to headquarters requesting that the APB out on Emma Fielding be upgraded to a 'wanted for murder' warrant. "She should be considered armed and dangerous. I'm not sure that she is still carrying a weapon but from the injuries inflicted on the husband it looks like she's pretty unstable at the moment." He spoke into his cell phone. "There's no telling what she might do if she is provoked."
"OK I'll get that information out as soon as possible." Captain Newman replied.
Nathan had thought it slightly strange that the captain wanted all reports on this case going directly to him but figured that the involvement of the NSA was just making his superior a little jumpy. Involvement by any other law enforcement agencies always seemed to make those in charge want to dot the Is and cross the Ts.
"Are the NSA satisfied with your findings?" The captain asked.
Nathan turned to look over to where agent Harris was standing talking. She had been joined by two other men who had also identified themselves as NSA agents. The discussion they were having seemed to be getting a little heated.
"Agent Harris appears to be but then, short of finding the wife standing over the body with the bloody knife in her hand, I don't think we could ask for much more. I'm just waiting for conformation that the bloody fingerprint we found belongs to Mrs. Fielding, but everything here suggests that it does." He was still watching the discussion over on the far side of the room. Agent Harris was clearly unhappy with what she was being told. He tried to concentrate back on his conversation with his Captain. "Two more agents from the NSA have arrived so I haven't really had chance to speak to her or them," he continued.
"What do these agents look like?" the captain asked.
Nathan described the two men talking to agent Harris. As Newman listened to the descriptions he knew that Nathan was describing Dobbs and Steele. So his suspicions had been right. Steve was somehow involved in this murder inquiry. Now he definitely needed to speak to him.
He thanked Nathan for his help and requested that the young officer report to him when he got back to the station once he had picked up the autopsy report from the hospital. Then he hung up and dialed Steve's cell phone.
Once the wave of pain and guilt had passed. Steve wasn't sure which of the two was worse. He turned to look at his companion. She had started the engine but had not yet pulled out of the space. She was watching him, clearly concerned by what she saw, but to her credit she did not say anything, did not waste her energy trying to persuade him again from his current course of action.
Steve took a deep breath and bit back the pain. "OK let's get out of here."
She nodded and pulled the car out of the car park. Steve pulled out his cell phone and left a brief message with reception. He then switched the cell phone off and threw it on to the back seat. He would not be able to use it again. If you knew what you were doing it was far too easy to trace.
Steve briefly considered asking Emma about what had happened. He still had not managed to find out anything from her about what was going on. Each time he asked her, something happened to prevent the answer. Then he remembered how she had reacted to just the mention of her husband's name. She had almost gone in to shock. Steve realised that once again he would have to wait. He could not risk strong emotional reactions from her whilst she was driving. Besides he had plenty of other things to occupy his mind. He and Emma were going to have to disappear until he had chance to work out the best way to help her and keep both of them alive.
The disappearance would have to be good too. Emma already had the NSA on her tail as well as murderous assailants of unknown origin. They would be looking for both of them. If that weren't enough, the fact that Emma and he were material witnesses in Jesse's shooting and hadn't waited around to give a statement would mean that the LAPD would be looking for them too, and finally Steve knew that he would need to cover his tracks very well if he wanted to prevent his father from finding him. In fact, if he wanted to keep his dad out of this, his disappearing act would have to be very good indeed.
So apart from giving Emma directions he remained fairly quiet for the entire drive to the beach house as he formulated his strategy.