“It’s been full.” She could hear clicking as if he were on a computer while they talked. “Where did you say the accident was?”
“Somewhere near Omaha. Maybe a week or two ago. I just remember how sad it was that the couple died.” She grimaced as she realized how harsh that sounded. “It’s always sad.”
“But I know what you mean.” The clicking continued. “Why can’t I find anything about the deaths?”
“I don’t know. Maybe it was across the river in Iowa?”
“It should still show up. How many times are there links to tragedies like that, a couple of states away?”
“True.” She too often let herself get sucked into other people’s pain that was remote from her life. “If they died a week ago, where has Jane or Eliza been this whole time?”
“I’ll keep looking. There must be a report if that’s what happened.”
“What was the principal’s name?”
Todd gave it to her. “What are you going to do?”
“I need to find people who might be willing to take her in once we get her healthy enough to leave the hospital. If we’re piecing together her story, the last thing Eliza needs is foster care on top of everything else.” What Bridget really needed was for the girl to wake up so she could tell Bridget what had happened. “There has to be more to the story.” It didn’t make sense for someone to come into the hospital. “Why would someone try to harm her last night?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll see what I can figure out.”
Todd didn’t knowhow to tell her that he hadn’t wanted to spend an extended time in security with Ben Rice. Sure, they’d been good friends during their National Guard days, but Ben knew the parts of Todd’s life that he’d walked away from, the parts that could fill him with shame if he didn’t remind himself about the goodness of God in covering all his past.
He didn’t want to think about what a woman like Bridget would think if she knew about the things he’d done. The way oldTodd had treated women. He wasn’t proud of his old behavior and worked hard to become a new man, one worthy of his Savior.
None of that changed the fact that he needed to get into that room and review last night’s video. He couldn’t begin to answer the question of why someone had tried to hurt Eliza if he couldn’t identify who was in the room. Nothing made much sense on this case.
Why should he expect it to start?
He knocked on the security door and then entered. He tried to hide his reaction when Ben Rice sat in front of the bank of monitors. “You still here?”
Two empty coffee cups sat in front of Ben. “Guy called in sick. Ready to look at the video from last night?” His voice was admirably steady despite all the caffeine he had consumed.
“Yes, the time would have been within ten or fifteen minutes of eleven o’clock.”
“So about the time you arrived?”
“Watching me?” That didn’t feel creepy.
“No, but I figured if I identified when you arrived, the event had to happen around then.” It wasn’t a bad supposition.
“Eliza. . .”
Ben’s brows crinkled together. “You mean Jane Doe?”
“We identified her this morning. With about eighty percent accuracy.” Give or take. “Eliza Brandenberg was in ER bed five. At around eleven p.m., an unknown white male entered her room and was seen standing over her, possibly administering a syringe of fentanyl. We’re unclear on exactly what was in the syringe.”
“Is that about the time the caseworker left and came back? A guy about five ten?”
“Yes, on the social worker, unsure about the perp.” Todd stood back and crossed his arms. “How much time have you already spent on the videos?”
“Enough to think I’ve isolated the incident.” There was an edge, maybe of pride, to Ben’s voice.
“Okay. Show me.” Todd tried not to be annoyed at how much Ben had figured out on his own.
The man held up his hands in a defensive gesture. “Hey, don’t get mad at me. It’s been a slow morning. I figured you’d be back eventually, and I was trying to stay awake. It can be boring in here.”
The words were right, but Todd didn’t quite believe the man. He’d give him the benefit of the doubt for now because he needed to see the video, but he’d remember this.
