Chapter 11
Early in the morning, Junior and Tani returned from Halawa undone. Roger's roommate had been transferred to the mainland and could not or would not say anything about Roger Monroy. However, they had still received the private belongings, which they were now examining at HQ.
Suddenly, Tani bristled and put a photo on the surface table.
"Look."
"Isn't that a motorcross machine from the 1990s?"
"Okay. Damn guys, this guy lives at Roger Monroy's house. Quick Tani, find me the address."
"And I know now why that guy is imitating him. Look."
Danny laid down a stack of letters from a Paul Hopper, journalist, which seemed innocuous in themselves, but there was a brownish glow between the lines and whole words in some places.
Danny pointed to a word part 'batrachot'.
"I have the address."
"Let's go then."
They ran to their cars. For safety's sake, Steve had taken Mel's doctor's bag with him again.
Arriving at the address, they split up and surrounded the house. As soon as they approached the house, they heard a gunshot. The team stormed the house. In the living room they found the man Mel had described to them.
"No, no, no!"
Steve ran to the man, but all he could see was his death. He had shot himself in the head.
"Damn it!" Angrily, Steve slammed his fist against the wall.
Then he rubbed his face in despair.
Horrified, the others also looked at the murderer.
"Search everything, we need to find a clue to where he took Mel."
Everyone rushed off and searched every room. The cellar was also inspected, but no one seemed to have been there for decades.
In the garage they found the motorcycle and Mel's Mustang. On the back seat was Mel's prosthetic leg. Steve didn't quite know what to make of it. Had Hopper taken the prosthetic off her so she couldn't run away, or, Steve gulped, to make identifying the body harder?
Steve stroked the hood of the car with his hand, as if it could tell him where Mel was.
"Steve, I may have something." Tani came to him quickly with the laptop in her hand.
"Monroy also owned a hunting cabin up in the woods."
"Okay, people go."
They left the securing of the house to the HPD and drove on the direct way to the hut. Once there, they broke down the door, but there was no one in the cabin.
Steve ran his fingers through his hair. His hope of finding Mel was sinking by the minute. Maybe the guy had already killed her and buried her somewhere.
"Steve, look." Junior crouched on the floor, gloved hands holding a cut cable tie out to him.
"At least someone was here."
Then he pointed to the destroyed window.
"And someone made an escape route."
Danny shook his head.
"But a female Steve."
"But if that was Mel, where did she go? I didn't see anyone on the way here."
"Maybe she was hiding because she thought it was Hopper?"
"Okay, we'll split up. Two at a time. She'll have followed the trail from here, I'm sure."
Everyone started running.
They had already been walking for a while when Steve suddenly pulled Danny back a bit.
"Careful Danny."
A pit opened up in front of them, about two by two meters wide and two meters deep. Suddenly Danny grabbed Steve's arm and pointed into the pit. A colorful fabric moved slightly in the wind.
"Steve!"
"I see her."
Steve's heart was beating up to his throat. Down in the pit between the upright spears lay Mel. From up here, Steve couldn't see if one of the spears had hit her anywhere.
"Danny I have to get down there."
The others had joined them in the meantime. Junior lay down on the floor so that he could hold Steve and he could slowly lower himself into the pit. Tani already ordered a rescue helicopter.
Then Steve stood next to Mel. Slowly, so as not to hurt himself on the tips, he knelt down next to her.
"Mel?"
He stroked the curl from her face and felt for her pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief when he could feel it slowly and faintly.
"Hey, Mel."
But there was still no reaction. He tried to examine her and was startled to find that one of the spears had broken off and stuck in her back, and a large pool of blood had already formed underneath her.
"Tani? How long will the helicopter take?"
"He should be here any minute."
"Tell them to hurry up."
Gently, Steve continued to stroke Mel's cheek.
"Hang in there Mel, listen, help is coming. Please hold on."
Then he already heard the helicopter approaching. Lou briefed him and a paramedic rappelled down over the pit. With Steve's help, he put Mel on the stretcher and was pulled back up as quickly as possible. Immediately, the helicopter turned and flew back. With Junior's help, Steve climbed back out of the pit. Depressed, the team ran back to their cars and headed for the hospital.
When they got there, they ran to the emergency room, but Mel was nowhere to be found there.
Steve stepped up to the counter and the nurse turned to him.
"Excuse me, we're looking for Dr. Kinsella, she should have just come in on the helicopter."
"Are you related?"
But before Steve could produce his white lie that he was her brother, Dr. Carter was standing next to him.
"Commander. We have taken Dr. Kinsella directly to the operating room. The spear injured the main vein and other internal organs, plus she lost a lot of blood. Frankly, it doesn't look good at this point."
Shocked, the friends looked after the doctor as he hurried back into the operating room.
Shaken, Steve dropped into one of the waiting room chairs, leaned forward and put his face in his hands. Was it really going to end before it even began? Right now it felt like someone was ripping his heart out of his chest while he was still alive. Tears came to his eyes. He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder. He heard Danny's soft voice, "She's going to make it Steve, she's strong."
Nervously, the team had been waiting for hours in the waiting room in front of the operating room for news from Mel. Again and again, doctors and nurses entered the operating area and came out again, but no one came to them. Steve was about to go ask, because he couldn't take it anymore, when he saw Dr. Carter coming out of the OR. The doctor stepped up to them. All eyes rested tensely on the doc.
"The surgery went well and Dr. Kinsella is stable at this time. We're about to move her to the ICU, but it will be a while before she wakes up."
Attentively, he looked at Steve.
"I suppose you'd like to see her, Commander?" Steve nodded.
Quietly, Steve entered the room where Mel was lying. She looked pale and her scar on her face shone more intensely. Steve realized once again that this woman had already fought for her life once this year. He pulled up a chair and sat close to her bed. Then he took her hand in his and gave her a kiss on the back of her hand. She would probably shoot him for that.
Steve sat there for a long time, holding her hand in his. Completely lost in thought.
He was still thinking about how he should teach her that he hardly knew her, but had fallen in love with her.
Her voice snapped him out of his musings and he was no further along.
"Steve?"
"Hey, there you are again. You gave us quite a scare."
Involuntarily he squeezed her hand and his thumb gently stroked the back of her hand. Her blue eyes searched his uncertainly and when she saw how much love and concern radiated from his eyes, she gently returned his gesture.
"Bear with me a little longer Steve." He nodded.
"I'm waiting." Then he leaned down, brushed her curl aside and gave her a kiss on the forehead.