Shane started early following up on Lem's information. He tracked
down a buddy in the Sheriff's office and got a copy of Deputy Pointer's
notes: not much to work with there. The description Lem had relayed lat
night, details of the attack provided by Michelle, and physical evidence
found at the scene.
Shane would first go to the hospital and get an employee roster. From there, he'd run all the Hispanic employees for previous charges from domestic abuse, rape, stalking and anything that might relate. Once the list was narrowed down, he'd start digging around at the hospital.
Lem had spent a restless night in a chair in Michelle's room. She hadn't spoken much and he couldn't find words to try and make her feel better, so there had been a lot of silence, luckily Michelle had slept.
While she was being examined again before she was discharged, Lem went to the waiting area and called Shane.
"Hey it's me. You getting anywhere?"
"Yeah," Shane answered. "I'm over at South with Stevie. She's running the names I got from the hospital employee list. I didn't want to go to the barn, you know, to keep things quiet."
"Yeah, thanks man. I'm getting ready to take Michelle home, then I'll give you a call."
Michelle was ready to go when he returned. She had dressed in the gray sweat pants and long tee shirt he'd brought her last night. She moved slowly, as every step was painful.
"You ready?" he asked as he saw her glance at the plastic bag that contained what possessions of hers had been released by the Sheriff's office.
She nodded.
A nurse came then to wheel her out to Lem's waiting car.
As he helped her in, she glanced around. "What about my car?" She asked.
"I'll have Shane pick me up at your place. We'll being it back." Once they were on the road, Michelle gave Lem a grateful look.
"I'm sorry I'm not much company. But I'm really glad you're here. You're real good at taking care of things."
Lem gave her a slight smile. "Hey, I'm gonna take care of you as long as you need me to. Anything you need."
She nodded. After another moment, "Maybe you can help me find a new job."
He glanced at her as he came to a stop at the red light.
"You're going to quit?"
She nodded. "I don't think I can go back there."
"Michelle, we're going to get the one that did this."
"Still, I just don't think I can."
He understood. "Well, there's plenty of time for that."
At her condo, Lem watched without saying anything as Michelle double- checked all the locks on the doors and windows. He knew she was still terrified and nothing he could do would change that. That was hard for him. He wanted to fix it, to make it all better. But he also knew that was impossible. He didn't know how she was going to react to anything he might do or say, so he just stood.
"Why don't you get some rest?" he suggested. "I've got to go to work for awhile, but I'll be back this evening, Okay?"
Michelle got a momentary deer in the headlights look in her eyes. She knew she was terrified of being alone, but she also knew she would have to face her fears.
"Okay," she agreed, hoping he didn't see through her act. But of course he did.
"Can I.touch you?" he asked then, afraid of either hurting her or frightening her. But he knew he had to start somewhere. He wanted her to know that she was safe with him.
Michelle nodded. She'd been afraid he would ask and even more afraid that he wouldn't. She didn't know if he blamed her, like she blamed herself. She didn't know if he thought less of her.so many thoughts ran through her mind.
Lem put his strong arms around her then, drawing her close, holding her and smoothing her hair. Michelle held on to him like a drowning woman, feeling that if he let go, she would falter and sink into her terror and helplessness. And she finally broke down. Not since the attack had she cried. Now hot tears spilled from her eyes until they became wracking sobs. All the while, Lem held her and whispered words he hoped would be of some comfort.
Finally, Michelle could cry no more and was exhausted. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Lem picked her up easily, just as he had only days before, and carried her to the bedroom. Although this time there was no passion, just comfort.
He put her to bed and drew up the comforter around her. He kissed her forehead.
"I'll be back soon," he promised. "Get some sleep."
Michelle was too tired to protest. She nodded and drew the covers tighter. Her eyes were closed before Lem even left the room.
Shane was waiting downstairs when Lem finally got there.
"How's she doing?"
Lem shrugged. "I don't know. She's holding a lot in. I don't know what to do for her."
"Give it time," Shane advised. Although, he knew he'd feel angry and frustrated if he were in the same situation. And he'd be ready to bust some heads.
"What've you got?"
"I've got four possibles. Stevie came up with 7 maybes; one was fired last week and left town, two more are on vacation. We've got three that were on duty at the hospital yesterday and one who was on his days off." Shane handed Lem the computer printout Stevie had gotten.
"Raul Sanchez, a dietary worker, had three arrests for domestic violence; Lydell Ramirez, a nurse aid, two arrests for stalking and B and E; Isadore Antone, laundry, attempted rape, assault and battery; and John Castillo also laundry, attempted kidnapping. Holy crap! How the hell are these people working at a hospital?"
Shane shrugged. "That's the justice system for you. No convictions. I talked to the woman in personnel; she said, as long as there's no conviction, the background check they do comes back clean."
"Great," Lem said, sighing. "Okay, lets go knock on some doors."
*********
They went first to the employee who'd been off yesterday, Lydell Ramirez. He lived in a housing project that could have qualified as a "little Juarez". Shane and Lem got a lot of stares pulling in to the lot.
"I hope I still have rims when we come out," Shane grumbled.
"Hell, I'll be glad if the truck's still here."
They found Lydell's apartment. He spoke broken English and Lem spoke broken Spanish. Between them, they managed to get the point across.
"He says he was with his sister and her family at a birthday party all day yesterday," Lem told Shane.
"Yeah, he didn't look too rattled. Next?"
They moved on to the hospital.
Raul Ramirez worked in the kitchen. He was less than thrilled to have two cops show up at his job, but he too was cooperative, if only unfriendly.
"I was on duty," he explained. "My boss and the kitchen staff will all tell you. I was here, cleaning up."
Lem and Shane found the kitchen supervisor and confirmed his story.
It was on to the laundry.
In the laundry room, a huge structure in itself, they found many eyes on them.
"Isadore Antone and John Castillo?" Lem asked, showing his badge.
No one acknowledged.
"Seems like no one here habla our language," Shane muttered.
"Yeah, right," Lem said. He knew most of the immigrants understood most if not all that was said. But it was much easier to pretend not to. That way they could gather information without having to admit their understanding.
"Okay, well habla this: if Antone and Castillo don't come talk to us right now, INS is gonna come sort out your laundry."
Two men finally stepped forward after exchanging glances.
"I am Antone. He is Castillo. What do you want?"
"To talk."
"You arrest us?"
"Not yet. Think we should?" Shane shot.
"We have done nothing."
"You're buddy speak English?"
"Some."
Lem led Castillo away from the rest of the workers, who'd all gone back to their work. Shane took Antone to the other side of the room. Over the noise of the heavy duty washers and dryers, it would be difficult for anyone to hear them, but Shane and Lem kept within eye sight of each other.
"Well?" Shane asked, when he and Lem had finished questioning the two remaining suspects.
"I don't like it," Lem said with a frown, glancing back at the two employees, who were now chatting fluently in Spanish back at their work stations.
"Alibiing each other?" Shane asked; that's what his suspect had done was give Castillo and alibi.
Lem nodded. "Castillo says he was with Antone the whole time working in the back laundry room."
Shane nodded. They walked around the huge laundry area.
"Shit, you could get lost in here for a week," he muttered.
"Lets check it out," Lem said. They walked around the facility, then took a different door from the way they'd come in. It was labeled "Emergency Exit", but was not alarmed.
"Looks like the alarm's been disconnected," Shane said, glancing up at the mechanism.
Outside the door, they discovered they were still in the basement, but could see daylight up ahead around a corner.
Lem noticed the cigarette butts littered around a trash can. He figured this was where the employees came out to smoke. On a whim, he pulled a paper bag from his jacket pocket. He kept some small ones in case he found some evidence.
He used his credit card to scrape some of the discarded butts into the bag.
Shane looked on. He knew what Lem was thinking: DNA. If they could get a match on the DNA from one of the cigarettes to the rape kit DNA, they'd know that the rapist had been here, and was most certainly one of the laundry employees.
After securing his collection, Lem and Shane continued up the passage.
"Surprise surprise," Shane deadpanned, when they came out in the underground parking structure. The daylight they'd seen was the entrance/exit to the garage.
"Lets get over to the lab and see if they'll run these butts."
"You've still got a fiend over there right?"
Lem nodded. "Yeah." He knew what Shane was thinking. " It wouldn't look too good if the S.O. finds out we're doing their job. Not to mention a warrant."
"Look, if any of them match up, we'll find another way to point the finger at this guy."
Lem explained the situation to his friend at the lab, and that was all it took for her to do the comparison.
It would take some time, but she promised to get back to him as soon as possible.
"I better go check on Michelle," Lem said, as evening was drawing near.
Shane nodded. "Hey, I'll go pick up Stevie and we'll sit on these two jokers for awhile," he glanced at his watch. He had enough time until the laundry worker's shift ended. From the employee roster, he knew they lived at the same low income apartment complex. Between him and Stevie, they could keep the two covered.
"You don't have to do that," Lem said, knowing he'd already taken up one of Shane's days off.
"You'd do it for me, right?"
Lem nodded.
"Fine. Don't sweat it. I'll call you if anything comes up."
*********************
Lem went back to Michelle's condo. As he promised, he'd brought her car from the hospital parking lot. He parked the Honda next to his.
He knocked on the door before using his key. He didn't want to startle her. But after turning his key, he discovered the chain was drawn from inside.
"Michelle?" he called though the crack. "It's me? Babe? Are you okay?"
There was still no answer.
Maybe she was still sleeping. Lem used his cell phone and dialed her number, thinking that the ringing phone by her bed would wake her up if that was the case.
He could hear the phone in the apartment ringing both on his phone and through the partially open door. After five rings with no response, he hung up.
"Michelle!" he yelled again through the door.
The condo was on a corner, second floor. There was only a window into the kitchen from the front. He glanced inside. Everything looked fine, but something was nagging at his gut.
Lem dashed down the stairs and hopped the fence that led to the courtyard. That was where the fire escape came out.
He took the stairs two at a time. Each condo had a balcony on the back, over looking the courtyard, divided only by a four foot high wall between. He reached the second floor balconies and climbed into the first. Michelle's apartment would be three over. He vaulted the first wall, then the second. Once on Michelle's balcony, he banged on the sliding glass door, trying it. It too had been secured with the bar in the lower slider. He went to the window that looked into her bedroom. The curtain was partially open. He saw light coming from the bathroom. He heard water running.
For a moment, he was relieved, she was in the shower. Then, he saw something that made his stomach turn over: feet, not standing, but laying on the bathroom floor, just barely visible behind the door.
Lem's already high adrenaline kicked into overdrive. He picked up the small wrought iron chair from the set that went with the table on the small balcony. He slammed it into the plate glass door. By now, the neighbors were looking out from the condo next door.
"Hey!" a guy shouted.
"Call an ambulance!" Lem yelled back, as the glass smashed to the floor. He ran inside.
He raced to the bathroom. Michelle lay on the tile floor, only wearing a white bathrobe, the shower running, both arms bleeding from the wrists. A shattered glass was on the floor beside her.
"No!" Lem shouted. He slid down beside her and checked her carotid artery at the neck for a pulse. There was one, but it was weak. There was a lot of blood on the floor.
Lem grabbed the towels from the rack and quickly wrapped her arms to stop the bleeding. He could hear sirens wailing outside.
Lem picked up her head, holding her and pulling the wrapped arms close to her body to put pressure.
"Hold on baby," he said, gently rocking her. "Just hold on."
Shane picked up Stevie, who was just getting off work at South. He explained to her what he wanted to do, and she was in. She was sick about what had happened to Michelle, whom she had only met briefly at the bar last week. They took both his truck and her Camero in case the two suspects split up.
But as luck would have it, both Castillo and Antone rode to work together in an old beat up Ford. They drove from the hospital directly home, where they lived only two apartments down from each other.
Stevie parked her car and then shortly came to Shane's truck. She got in and he noticed she carried a pair of jeans and running shoes.
"I always keep spares," she explained. Her job in missing persons at South entailed she dress "professionally". Although she looked great in a dark blue skirt and heels, that was hardly meant for undercover work that might involve a foot pursuit.
Shane took turns watching the apartments and Stevie, who slid out of her skirt, panty hose and heels and into the jeans in the front seat. She tied her Nikes and noticed him grinning.
"What? It's not like you've never seen me half naked before."
"Just something about a half naked woman in my truck that really turns me on," he commented, looking through binoculars now at the Castillo apartment.
"You're such a pervert," she said lightly.
"Yeah and you love it," he shot back.
After about an hour, Castillo left his apartment and walked to Antone's, where they both went inside. Castillo had been carrying a twelve pack of beer.
"Looks like they have a full night planned," Shane remarked.
"I think I should go have a look in there," Stevie said.
"No warrant," Shane reminded her.
"Yeah, well, maybe he left the door open. I'd just be a concerned citizen. He might have left something burning on the stove, you know. Could cause the whole place to burn down."
"Yeah, be a shame." He gave her an extra radio. He'd tuned his and the extra to an unused channel.
"If he comes outta there, distract him or something," she said, getting out and slipping on dark leather gloves.
Shane nodded. "Be careful."
It was dimly lit enough that Stevie was able to move around unobserved. It was a Wednesday night, so few of the residents of the apartment complex were out drinking or doing anything that might give them a chance to notice her.
Stevie made her way to Castillo's door, casually trrying the knob. It opened freely.
"Well," she said, surprised. She had fully expected to have to pick it. She went inside quickly and closed the door behind her.
She did a quick search of the place, turning up the usual trash, dirty laundry, porno magazines and videos, and the like. She rummaged through his closet. A shoebox on the floor caught her eye. Funny how idiots always hid stuff in shoeboxes. She hoped she'd get lucky.
She opened the box and got luckier than she might have hoped. Inside was a whole baggie of women's jewelry, varied in kind and worth, a pair of slashed panties, two hair ties, and two ID badges from St Augustine's Hospital. One of them belonged to Michelle Sutton.
She keyed in her radio. "Bingo," she told Shane.
"Okay, get out of there."
Stevie replaced the shoebox, as she knew any evidence she might get from this little breaking and entering expedition would be inadmissible in court. No, to lock this filthy bastard up, they'd need a warrant and probable cause. She left the closet and removed a small bag of marijuana from her jacket pocket. She'd 'procured' it from evidence some time back for just such a situation. She was sure that if she looked hard enough, this scum bag would probably have dope of his own around here somewhere, but that would take too long.
Stevie carefully hid the baggie behind the toilet tank. Then she made tracks, carefully closing the door behind her. She made her way back to Shane's truck.
"Well?" he asked, once she got inside.
"He didn't leave anything burning on the stove, but he left a whole box of trophies in the closet. I'd say Michelle wasn't his first victim. But she was one of them. He's got her hospital ID badge."
Shane gritted his teeth.
"The shit lives in my district. Be a damn shame if I got a tip that there was drugs being sold out of his place."
Shane raised an eyebrow.
"If a team goes in looking fro drugs and happens to find that box," she shrugged.
"Are they gonna find drugs too?" Shane wanted her to finish this nice little bedtime story.
"It's a good possibility."
**********************
Lem paced again in front of the ER. He was real tired of this. He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid. He should have never left Michelle alone.
He stood with his back against the wall, wishing he could have done things different, when Vic walked up. He held two cups of coffee and handed one to Lem. Lem was shocked to see him there.
"Vic? What are you doing here?"
"Couple'a uni's told me about the call."
Lem hadn't even noticed who the officers were that had responded to the call from the neighbor and broken down the door to Michelle's condo, but now he vaguely recalled having seen them at the barn.
"So, you ready to tell me what's going on?"
Lem sighed. "I'm sorry man; I didn't want to bother you."
"You know better than that," Vic said quietly. "We take care of each other."
Lem nodded. "Michelle was raped last night. I took her home today.I.I thought she'd be okay. I shouldn't have left her."
"You were out looking for the guy?"
Lem nodded again. He knew he could get in trouble for working on a case that wasn't even his on his day off. But he didn't care.
"You find him?"
"We've got a couple of possibles."
"Shane watching them?" Vic knew his team well.
Lem nodded once more. " Good. What can I do to help?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "I can't even think any more." Vic put his hand on Lem's shoulder. "Then stop for awhile. Be with your lady. Take care of her. I'll round up Shane."
The same doctor who'd taken care of Michelle last night, Dr Murphy came out of the trauma room.
Lem looked at her expectantly.
"She lost a lot blood, but the cuts weren't too deep. No tendons were cut. She's got sutures and she's getting a bag of platelets now. I have her sedated and we'll take her upstairs."
"But she'll be okay?"
"The cuts will heal," Dr Murphy said with a sigh. "But she's far from okay."
*************
Vic called Shane and told him what happened. Now knowing that Vic knew what was up, Shane gave him an update on the plan.
"I'll get the warrant, executed on the tip, passed on to us from Detective Knight, and get a team read," Vic said. "Meet me at the barn."
Vic skipped Acevedra, who'd already left for the night, in the chain and went directly to Judge Lipscomb, who was always happy to swear out a warrant for Vic. Within the hour, the warrant was ready. Vic, Ronnie and Shane suited up and took four uniformed officers with them to execute the search warrant.
"Remember, we're looking for drugs, but word has it this guy's into a lot of other stuff. Bag anything suspicious," Vic told the cops.
Shane would first go to the hospital and get an employee roster. From there, he'd run all the Hispanic employees for previous charges from domestic abuse, rape, stalking and anything that might relate. Once the list was narrowed down, he'd start digging around at the hospital.
Lem had spent a restless night in a chair in Michelle's room. She hadn't spoken much and he couldn't find words to try and make her feel better, so there had been a lot of silence, luckily Michelle had slept.
While she was being examined again before she was discharged, Lem went to the waiting area and called Shane.
"Hey it's me. You getting anywhere?"
"Yeah," Shane answered. "I'm over at South with Stevie. She's running the names I got from the hospital employee list. I didn't want to go to the barn, you know, to keep things quiet."
"Yeah, thanks man. I'm getting ready to take Michelle home, then I'll give you a call."
Michelle was ready to go when he returned. She had dressed in the gray sweat pants and long tee shirt he'd brought her last night. She moved slowly, as every step was painful.
"You ready?" he asked as he saw her glance at the plastic bag that contained what possessions of hers had been released by the Sheriff's office.
She nodded.
A nurse came then to wheel her out to Lem's waiting car.
As he helped her in, she glanced around. "What about my car?" She asked.
"I'll have Shane pick me up at your place. We'll being it back." Once they were on the road, Michelle gave Lem a grateful look.
"I'm sorry I'm not much company. But I'm really glad you're here. You're real good at taking care of things."
Lem gave her a slight smile. "Hey, I'm gonna take care of you as long as you need me to. Anything you need."
She nodded. After another moment, "Maybe you can help me find a new job."
He glanced at her as he came to a stop at the red light.
"You're going to quit?"
She nodded. "I don't think I can go back there."
"Michelle, we're going to get the one that did this."
"Still, I just don't think I can."
He understood. "Well, there's plenty of time for that."
At her condo, Lem watched without saying anything as Michelle double- checked all the locks on the doors and windows. He knew she was still terrified and nothing he could do would change that. That was hard for him. He wanted to fix it, to make it all better. But he also knew that was impossible. He didn't know how she was going to react to anything he might do or say, so he just stood.
"Why don't you get some rest?" he suggested. "I've got to go to work for awhile, but I'll be back this evening, Okay?"
Michelle got a momentary deer in the headlights look in her eyes. She knew she was terrified of being alone, but she also knew she would have to face her fears.
"Okay," she agreed, hoping he didn't see through her act. But of course he did.
"Can I.touch you?" he asked then, afraid of either hurting her or frightening her. But he knew he had to start somewhere. He wanted her to know that she was safe with him.
Michelle nodded. She'd been afraid he would ask and even more afraid that he wouldn't. She didn't know if he blamed her, like she blamed herself. She didn't know if he thought less of her.so many thoughts ran through her mind.
Lem put his strong arms around her then, drawing her close, holding her and smoothing her hair. Michelle held on to him like a drowning woman, feeling that if he let go, she would falter and sink into her terror and helplessness. And she finally broke down. Not since the attack had she cried. Now hot tears spilled from her eyes until they became wracking sobs. All the while, Lem held her and whispered words he hoped would be of some comfort.
Finally, Michelle could cry no more and was exhausted. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Lem picked her up easily, just as he had only days before, and carried her to the bedroom. Although this time there was no passion, just comfort.
He put her to bed and drew up the comforter around her. He kissed her forehead.
"I'll be back soon," he promised. "Get some sleep."
Michelle was too tired to protest. She nodded and drew the covers tighter. Her eyes were closed before Lem even left the room.
Shane was waiting downstairs when Lem finally got there.
"How's she doing?"
Lem shrugged. "I don't know. She's holding a lot in. I don't know what to do for her."
"Give it time," Shane advised. Although, he knew he'd feel angry and frustrated if he were in the same situation. And he'd be ready to bust some heads.
"What've you got?"
"I've got four possibles. Stevie came up with 7 maybes; one was fired last week and left town, two more are on vacation. We've got three that were on duty at the hospital yesterday and one who was on his days off." Shane handed Lem the computer printout Stevie had gotten.
"Raul Sanchez, a dietary worker, had three arrests for domestic violence; Lydell Ramirez, a nurse aid, two arrests for stalking and B and E; Isadore Antone, laundry, attempted rape, assault and battery; and John Castillo also laundry, attempted kidnapping. Holy crap! How the hell are these people working at a hospital?"
Shane shrugged. "That's the justice system for you. No convictions. I talked to the woman in personnel; she said, as long as there's no conviction, the background check they do comes back clean."
"Great," Lem said, sighing. "Okay, lets go knock on some doors."
*********
They went first to the employee who'd been off yesterday, Lydell Ramirez. He lived in a housing project that could have qualified as a "little Juarez". Shane and Lem got a lot of stares pulling in to the lot.
"I hope I still have rims when we come out," Shane grumbled.
"Hell, I'll be glad if the truck's still here."
They found Lydell's apartment. He spoke broken English and Lem spoke broken Spanish. Between them, they managed to get the point across.
"He says he was with his sister and her family at a birthday party all day yesterday," Lem told Shane.
"Yeah, he didn't look too rattled. Next?"
They moved on to the hospital.
Raul Ramirez worked in the kitchen. He was less than thrilled to have two cops show up at his job, but he too was cooperative, if only unfriendly.
"I was on duty," he explained. "My boss and the kitchen staff will all tell you. I was here, cleaning up."
Lem and Shane found the kitchen supervisor and confirmed his story.
It was on to the laundry.
In the laundry room, a huge structure in itself, they found many eyes on them.
"Isadore Antone and John Castillo?" Lem asked, showing his badge.
No one acknowledged.
"Seems like no one here habla our language," Shane muttered.
"Yeah, right," Lem said. He knew most of the immigrants understood most if not all that was said. But it was much easier to pretend not to. That way they could gather information without having to admit their understanding.
"Okay, well habla this: if Antone and Castillo don't come talk to us right now, INS is gonna come sort out your laundry."
Two men finally stepped forward after exchanging glances.
"I am Antone. He is Castillo. What do you want?"
"To talk."
"You arrest us?"
"Not yet. Think we should?" Shane shot.
"We have done nothing."
"You're buddy speak English?"
"Some."
Lem led Castillo away from the rest of the workers, who'd all gone back to their work. Shane took Antone to the other side of the room. Over the noise of the heavy duty washers and dryers, it would be difficult for anyone to hear them, but Shane and Lem kept within eye sight of each other.
"Well?" Shane asked, when he and Lem had finished questioning the two remaining suspects.
"I don't like it," Lem said with a frown, glancing back at the two employees, who were now chatting fluently in Spanish back at their work stations.
"Alibiing each other?" Shane asked; that's what his suspect had done was give Castillo and alibi.
Lem nodded. "Castillo says he was with Antone the whole time working in the back laundry room."
Shane nodded. They walked around the huge laundry area.
"Shit, you could get lost in here for a week," he muttered.
"Lets check it out," Lem said. They walked around the facility, then took a different door from the way they'd come in. It was labeled "Emergency Exit", but was not alarmed.
"Looks like the alarm's been disconnected," Shane said, glancing up at the mechanism.
Outside the door, they discovered they were still in the basement, but could see daylight up ahead around a corner.
Lem noticed the cigarette butts littered around a trash can. He figured this was where the employees came out to smoke. On a whim, he pulled a paper bag from his jacket pocket. He kept some small ones in case he found some evidence.
He used his credit card to scrape some of the discarded butts into the bag.
Shane looked on. He knew what Lem was thinking: DNA. If they could get a match on the DNA from one of the cigarettes to the rape kit DNA, they'd know that the rapist had been here, and was most certainly one of the laundry employees.
After securing his collection, Lem and Shane continued up the passage.
"Surprise surprise," Shane deadpanned, when they came out in the underground parking structure. The daylight they'd seen was the entrance/exit to the garage.
"Lets get over to the lab and see if they'll run these butts."
"You've still got a fiend over there right?"
Lem nodded. "Yeah." He knew what Shane was thinking. " It wouldn't look too good if the S.O. finds out we're doing their job. Not to mention a warrant."
"Look, if any of them match up, we'll find another way to point the finger at this guy."
Lem explained the situation to his friend at the lab, and that was all it took for her to do the comparison.
It would take some time, but she promised to get back to him as soon as possible.
"I better go check on Michelle," Lem said, as evening was drawing near.
Shane nodded. "Hey, I'll go pick up Stevie and we'll sit on these two jokers for awhile," he glanced at his watch. He had enough time until the laundry worker's shift ended. From the employee roster, he knew they lived at the same low income apartment complex. Between him and Stevie, they could keep the two covered.
"You don't have to do that," Lem said, knowing he'd already taken up one of Shane's days off.
"You'd do it for me, right?"
Lem nodded.
"Fine. Don't sweat it. I'll call you if anything comes up."
*********************
Lem went back to Michelle's condo. As he promised, he'd brought her car from the hospital parking lot. He parked the Honda next to his.
He knocked on the door before using his key. He didn't want to startle her. But after turning his key, he discovered the chain was drawn from inside.
"Michelle?" he called though the crack. "It's me? Babe? Are you okay?"
There was still no answer.
Maybe she was still sleeping. Lem used his cell phone and dialed her number, thinking that the ringing phone by her bed would wake her up if that was the case.
He could hear the phone in the apartment ringing both on his phone and through the partially open door. After five rings with no response, he hung up.
"Michelle!" he yelled again through the door.
The condo was on a corner, second floor. There was only a window into the kitchen from the front. He glanced inside. Everything looked fine, but something was nagging at his gut.
Lem dashed down the stairs and hopped the fence that led to the courtyard. That was where the fire escape came out.
He took the stairs two at a time. Each condo had a balcony on the back, over looking the courtyard, divided only by a four foot high wall between. He reached the second floor balconies and climbed into the first. Michelle's apartment would be three over. He vaulted the first wall, then the second. Once on Michelle's balcony, he banged on the sliding glass door, trying it. It too had been secured with the bar in the lower slider. He went to the window that looked into her bedroom. The curtain was partially open. He saw light coming from the bathroom. He heard water running.
For a moment, he was relieved, she was in the shower. Then, he saw something that made his stomach turn over: feet, not standing, but laying on the bathroom floor, just barely visible behind the door.
Lem's already high adrenaline kicked into overdrive. He picked up the small wrought iron chair from the set that went with the table on the small balcony. He slammed it into the plate glass door. By now, the neighbors were looking out from the condo next door.
"Hey!" a guy shouted.
"Call an ambulance!" Lem yelled back, as the glass smashed to the floor. He ran inside.
He raced to the bathroom. Michelle lay on the tile floor, only wearing a white bathrobe, the shower running, both arms bleeding from the wrists. A shattered glass was on the floor beside her.
"No!" Lem shouted. He slid down beside her and checked her carotid artery at the neck for a pulse. There was one, but it was weak. There was a lot of blood on the floor.
Lem grabbed the towels from the rack and quickly wrapped her arms to stop the bleeding. He could hear sirens wailing outside.
Lem picked up her head, holding her and pulling the wrapped arms close to her body to put pressure.
"Hold on baby," he said, gently rocking her. "Just hold on."
Shane picked up Stevie, who was just getting off work at South. He explained to her what he wanted to do, and she was in. She was sick about what had happened to Michelle, whom she had only met briefly at the bar last week. They took both his truck and her Camero in case the two suspects split up.
But as luck would have it, both Castillo and Antone rode to work together in an old beat up Ford. They drove from the hospital directly home, where they lived only two apartments down from each other.
Stevie parked her car and then shortly came to Shane's truck. She got in and he noticed she carried a pair of jeans and running shoes.
"I always keep spares," she explained. Her job in missing persons at South entailed she dress "professionally". Although she looked great in a dark blue skirt and heels, that was hardly meant for undercover work that might involve a foot pursuit.
Shane took turns watching the apartments and Stevie, who slid out of her skirt, panty hose and heels and into the jeans in the front seat. She tied her Nikes and noticed him grinning.
"What? It's not like you've never seen me half naked before."
"Just something about a half naked woman in my truck that really turns me on," he commented, looking through binoculars now at the Castillo apartment.
"You're such a pervert," she said lightly.
"Yeah and you love it," he shot back.
After about an hour, Castillo left his apartment and walked to Antone's, where they both went inside. Castillo had been carrying a twelve pack of beer.
"Looks like they have a full night planned," Shane remarked.
"I think I should go have a look in there," Stevie said.
"No warrant," Shane reminded her.
"Yeah, well, maybe he left the door open. I'd just be a concerned citizen. He might have left something burning on the stove, you know. Could cause the whole place to burn down."
"Yeah, be a shame." He gave her an extra radio. He'd tuned his and the extra to an unused channel.
"If he comes outta there, distract him or something," she said, getting out and slipping on dark leather gloves.
Shane nodded. "Be careful."
It was dimly lit enough that Stevie was able to move around unobserved. It was a Wednesday night, so few of the residents of the apartment complex were out drinking or doing anything that might give them a chance to notice her.
Stevie made her way to Castillo's door, casually trrying the knob. It opened freely.
"Well," she said, surprised. She had fully expected to have to pick it. She went inside quickly and closed the door behind her.
She did a quick search of the place, turning up the usual trash, dirty laundry, porno magazines and videos, and the like. She rummaged through his closet. A shoebox on the floor caught her eye. Funny how idiots always hid stuff in shoeboxes. She hoped she'd get lucky.
She opened the box and got luckier than she might have hoped. Inside was a whole baggie of women's jewelry, varied in kind and worth, a pair of slashed panties, two hair ties, and two ID badges from St Augustine's Hospital. One of them belonged to Michelle Sutton.
She keyed in her radio. "Bingo," she told Shane.
"Okay, get out of there."
Stevie replaced the shoebox, as she knew any evidence she might get from this little breaking and entering expedition would be inadmissible in court. No, to lock this filthy bastard up, they'd need a warrant and probable cause. She left the closet and removed a small bag of marijuana from her jacket pocket. She'd 'procured' it from evidence some time back for just such a situation. She was sure that if she looked hard enough, this scum bag would probably have dope of his own around here somewhere, but that would take too long.
Stevie carefully hid the baggie behind the toilet tank. Then she made tracks, carefully closing the door behind her. She made her way back to Shane's truck.
"Well?" he asked, once she got inside.
"He didn't leave anything burning on the stove, but he left a whole box of trophies in the closet. I'd say Michelle wasn't his first victim. But she was one of them. He's got her hospital ID badge."
Shane gritted his teeth.
"The shit lives in my district. Be a damn shame if I got a tip that there was drugs being sold out of his place."
Shane raised an eyebrow.
"If a team goes in looking fro drugs and happens to find that box," she shrugged.
"Are they gonna find drugs too?" Shane wanted her to finish this nice little bedtime story.
"It's a good possibility."
**********************
Lem paced again in front of the ER. He was real tired of this. He couldn't believe he'd been so stupid. He should have never left Michelle alone.
He stood with his back against the wall, wishing he could have done things different, when Vic walked up. He held two cups of coffee and handed one to Lem. Lem was shocked to see him there.
"Vic? What are you doing here?"
"Couple'a uni's told me about the call."
Lem hadn't even noticed who the officers were that had responded to the call from the neighbor and broken down the door to Michelle's condo, but now he vaguely recalled having seen them at the barn.
"So, you ready to tell me what's going on?"
Lem sighed. "I'm sorry man; I didn't want to bother you."
"You know better than that," Vic said quietly. "We take care of each other."
Lem nodded. "Michelle was raped last night. I took her home today.I.I thought she'd be okay. I shouldn't have left her."
"You were out looking for the guy?"
Lem nodded again. He knew he could get in trouble for working on a case that wasn't even his on his day off. But he didn't care.
"You find him?"
"We've got a couple of possibles."
"Shane watching them?" Vic knew his team well.
Lem nodded once more. " Good. What can I do to help?"
"I don't know," he shrugged. "I can't even think any more." Vic put his hand on Lem's shoulder. "Then stop for awhile. Be with your lady. Take care of her. I'll round up Shane."
The same doctor who'd taken care of Michelle last night, Dr Murphy came out of the trauma room.
Lem looked at her expectantly.
"She lost a lot blood, but the cuts weren't too deep. No tendons were cut. She's got sutures and she's getting a bag of platelets now. I have her sedated and we'll take her upstairs."
"But she'll be okay?"
"The cuts will heal," Dr Murphy said with a sigh. "But she's far from okay."
*************
Vic called Shane and told him what happened. Now knowing that Vic knew what was up, Shane gave him an update on the plan.
"I'll get the warrant, executed on the tip, passed on to us from Detective Knight, and get a team read," Vic said. "Meet me at the barn."
Vic skipped Acevedra, who'd already left for the night, in the chain and went directly to Judge Lipscomb, who was always happy to swear out a warrant for Vic. Within the hour, the warrant was ready. Vic, Ronnie and Shane suited up and took four uniformed officers with them to execute the search warrant.
"Remember, we're looking for drugs, but word has it this guy's into a lot of other stuff. Bag anything suspicious," Vic told the cops.