CHAPTER TEN
Wednesday August 26th, 12:30 P.M. Greenwich Village
West 10th Street – Apartment building of Sandra Kapinsky
Kelli and Bill knocked on every door on the sixth floor. They asked each tenant if they had seen or heard from the missing woman. The answer was the same at each apartment, no. Most of her neighbors didn’t even know she occupied the apartment and had never met her.
As they rode back down in the elevator, Bill broke the silence. “Well, that sure as hell didn’t get us anywhere. Any other ideas?”
Kelli looked up at Bill and shook her head. “I don’t know. For once, I’m out of ideas. We have a corpse in the morgue, one witness in the hospital, and another who’s vanished into thin air.”
“Hey, come on, we can’t give up. Why don’t we take another crack at Pamela? Maybe she’s had time to think it over.”
Kelli half smiled. “Yeah, I guess it couldn’t hurt. Now you’re thinking like a detective.”
Wednesday August 26th, 1:28 P.M. Elmhurst, New York
Elmhurst Hospital – ICU
As Kelli and Bill walked into the ICU, there were alarm bells sounding and a flurry of activity. They stood back as several nurses and a resident ran past, all moving toward Pamela’s room.
Kelli looked at Bill and followed the ICU staff. “Shit! Don’t tell me we’re going to lose our witness.”
She stopped just outside the room, gazing through the window. One of the nurses turned off the alarm, while the others assisted the resident. She could see that the heart monitor was flat lined and watched as the resident placed the paddles onto Pamela’s chest.
She heard the man yell, “Clear” as the nurses stepped away and watched Pamela’s body jump. He did this three more times, at last getting a steady rhythm on the monitor. Kelli let herself relax and turned away.
As she let herself relax, she noticed that the uniformed officers were missing. Pamela was supposed to have round the clock security. She had insisted on it. So where in the hell are the officers that are supposed to be here now?
“Bill, I need you to see if you can find the officers that are supposed to be on protection detail. I’ll get with the doctor and see what happened.”
Bill nodded. “Sure, I’ll check around. You want me to call the boss? Let him know what happened?”
“No, I’ll call him when I get some info from the doc. You just find those two uniforms.”
“Okay partner.”
Kelli turned back to face the window of Pamela’s room. A nurse was still with her, checking the machines. Kelli walked over to the nurse’s desk and approached the resident. He was writing something in Pamela’s chart.
“Excuse me, I’m Detective Storm. Can you tell me what happened to Ms. Dawkins? Is she going to be okay?”
The man looked up at Kelli, a slight frown on his face. “Honestly, I don’t know. She was fine earlier and then she went into cardiac arrest. We were able to get her back, but as to what caused it, I can’t say.”
“So, is she going to be okay now?”
“Again, I don’t know. There’s no way to predict if or when this will happen again.”
“You’re saying this could happen again?”
The man shook his head. “No, I’m saying there’s no way of knowing. Given her condition, she’s lucky to be alive.”
“Just one more question. Have you seen the officers that were assigned to watch her room?”
The man tilted his head up and to the left, and then returned his gaze to Kelli. “Come to think of it, I haven’t seen either of them all morning. I just figured the detail had been called off.”
“If it got called off, the order didn’t come from me. Thanks Doc, I’ve got some calls to make.”
Kelli turned and walked back to Pamela’s room. She stepped into the room and stood next to the bed. The beep from the heart monitor made a reassuring sound. We almost lost you today. If you would only give me something, then I could get the bastard that did this.
She turned as she heard Bill enter the room. “Any luck, partner?”
Bill shook his head. “I checked the entire floor. Nobody’s seen our missing officers.”
“Strange. I asked the doctor and he couldn’t recall seeing anyone posted here all morning. Look, I’ve got to make a couple of calls, so keep an eye on our girl here.”
Bill nodded and turned to look at Pamela. “Is she going to be okay? For a minute there, I didn’t think they were going to get her back.”
“The Doc can’t say for sure. They don’t even know what caused it. All we can do is wait and see. Hopefully she’ll regain consciousness.”
Kelli turned and walked out of the small room and headed for the elevators. She couldn’t use her cell in the ICU and the signal was too weak in other areas. She could have used the phone at the nurses’ station, but she didn’t think it wise given the situation.
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