Detective Rena Yablonski almost expected her estranged husband calling when she recognized the phone number flashing on her cell phone. Instead it was Miranda.
"Yablonski," she answered.
"Hey, Rena. It's Miranda. Andy has been missing for the past hour and- a-half, and he's not answering his cell." Rena heard herself take a breath as she realized what Miranda was saying. Her mind flashed back to the earlier conversation that she had with Andy. "I don't love you anymore." Why that why he was missing? "I've called security, but they haven't found him on any of the floors. Do you know where he could be?"
"Did you check the roof?" Rena asked.
"The what?"
"The roof," Rena repeated. "The roof on Three Rivers." She remembered early in their marriage that Andy had said that the roof was his favorite place of the hospital because it helped to sort out his thoughts.
"Yes, I did." Miranda said after a moment. Rena could easily hear the anxiety in the younger woman's voice. "I don't know why he disappeared like that," she confessed. "He never leaves Three Rivers."
That's because Three Rivers is his home, Rena thought. "Who was the last person to see him leave?"
"Dr. Luc Bovell. He was in Andy's office when Andy left the hospital."
Rena stifled a groan at Miranda's words. She remembered how Andy used to rant – in a negative light – about Dr. Luc Bovell. She had met him once, when he was a surgical fellow. He didn't seem to mind that he annoyed her husband ceaselessly by calling him Andrew, and by calling her sweetheart. "Can I talk to Dr. Bovell please?" Rena asked. Whatever internal feelings she had for the physician, Rena had to talk with him.
"Here you go," Miranda said with a sigh. Rena knew she despised Dr. Bovell even more than she did.
"Hello, Rena." His voice is arrogant as ever. "I see you're a detective now, and you're still married to Andrew –"
"If you don't mind, Dr. Bovell," Rena said through gritted teeth, "I would like to find my husband. If you don't mind, I want to know why he left Three Rivers in the first place."
She heard Dr. Bovell inhale a breath at her sharp words. "He got a phone call."
"What?" Michael Zelasko's face flashed through her mind. "Who was calling?"
"I don't know," Dr. Bovell admitted. His voice sounded hollow. "Andrew seemed to be upset about the phone call, even more when I first came into his office."
"Do you mean he was upset before?" Rena asked. She remembered her husband's devastated face earlier that day.
"He seemed distressed. It was almost as if he was…" Dr. Bovell struggled to find the words. Rena held her breath. "Shaken. I haven't ever seen him broken like that in my years working with him. When I came into the room, he didn't really know I was there."
Silence enveloped between them. At last Rena spoke. "How long has Andy been gone?"
"Along with the time talking with you…I'd say he's been gone for two and-a-half hours."
"Okay," Rena said. "Is there anything else I need to know before I look for him?"
"Yeah. Andrew said that he would meet a person named Michael at the same place where they last met. I don't know what that means." There was a pause in Dr. Bovell's voice. "Does that mean you know where he is?"
"Yes," Rena answered. She grabbed her badge and gun from her desk. She gestured to Phillip Lombardi, her partner, who immediately followed her out of the police station. "I do."
"Did you see these men sitting here in your bar earlier this morning?" Rena asked the bartender. It had taken both her and Phillip an hour to arrive at the bar across the river. Neither Andy nor Michael were seen along the way. Rena tried to calm the dread that was filling in her chest. Phillip stood by, watching the confrontation between the two.
"I might have," stated the bartender vaguely. He reached for another bottle to wash when Rena shoved the black and white picture of Andy and Michael in his face.
"Have you seen them?" she whispered dangerously.
The bartender swallowed nervously. "Yeah, I did. Around one o'clock this afternoon."
"What were they doing?"
"I don't know!" The bartender raised his hands in exasperation. "Talking. I couldn't make out what they were saying. Then the old guy pressed his hand against the tall one to prevent him from answering the phone."
"I see." Miranda had also told Rena that Dr. Jordan had called Andy on his cell phone. "Was there a voicemail?"
"Yes," the bartender's face was shining with perspiration. "There was someone named Dr. Jordan calling."
"What happened then?" Rena kept her voice under control even as she felt the control slipping.
"The tall one walked away. I didn't pay much attention after that, except when…" he hesitated slightly.
"What?" Rena pressed on.
"I heard a scream." The bartender slightly shuddered. "It was a scream of pain and agony. I'm surprised no one else heard it. Then it stopped."
Rena's heart seemed to halt for a second, and the question burning through her mind wouldn't come out. Phillip asked, noticing Rena's tension.
"Do you know where the scream came from?" He stood by his partner.
"Yeah. I think it was a couple of blocks over beside this place." The bartender licked his lips. "Although the guy is probably –"
He didn't finish his sentence because the two cops ran outside the bar.
They found him lying on his side. Andy's face was pale as the snow that covered him, and blood continued to flow from the stab wound even when he was unconscious. Blood coated his scrubs and brown jacket, and multiple lacerations scrapped his head, and his left arm dangled at an awkward angle. Rena crouched down toward her husband. He had never been so still. A faint breath reassured her that Andy was still getting enough oxygen to his brain. His skin felt cool to the touch as she felt for a pulse.
"This is Detective Phillip Lombardi. We have an injured doctor on…"
Rena didn't dare to breathe as she felt for Andy's pulse and as Phillip spoke the 911 operator. Then she exhaled the breath she had been holding as Phillip ended the call.
"He's got a pulse."