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“Okay, okay. Get in, we’ll see what we can do.”
When we arrived at the hospital, a nurse at reception greeted us immediately. Her maroon scrubs were complimented with a white stethoscope and a badge reel.Carlene.
“Hi, Carlene. I’m Detective Bishop,” I said while flashing my badge. “There was a patient admitted. He’s a victim from one of my crime scenes. Can I get a status update?”
“Name?” she asked as she typed on the keyboard.
“Jaiden Wells.”
“He’s in surgery, but that’s all I can say right now. Is there a family member we can contact?” Carlene looked between the two of us.
“It’s just him,” Bexley offered quietly. “He doesn’t have family.”
“I can put you guys in our ICU waiting room and tell the doctor his…wife—” She winked at Bexley. “—is here for updates.” Bexley sucked in a breath and tried to fight the tears, but the wobble in her voice betrayed her.
“Thank you so much.” She dropped her head to her hands, and Carlene buzzed one of the double doors open. She handed us a small piece of paper with a map to the ICU.
We walked through the doors and down the halls in silence. The elevator was stuffy when we went up two floors and were dumped into an area that looked the same as before. The walls were white. The ground was white tiles. The smell was sterile.
This place is depressing.
We passed a nurse’s station, and they looked over Bexley, their faces showing pity as she passed. She didn’t notice; her focus was on the labeled room ahead. It was a massive space, and the upper half of the walls were glass windows. It was empty.
She walked through the door and paused. The door clicked behind me, and I waited for her to move.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” she asked but didn’t turn around.
“I think he has something to fight for.” It was honest. If connection alone could save someone, his odds were great. I thought back to that scene we walked in on, seeing Bexley bent over him, screaming. It cut me deep.
“I don’t understand it, Bishop.” She pushed the heels of her hands into her eyes and sat in one of the chairs. I pulled one away from the wall and sat across from her.
“Bexley,” I said sternly. She lifted her head and watched as I took my notebook. “I need to know everything that happened last night.”
“I was with Jai, and we went to Sigma’s party like usual. But then…” She looked off and picked at her hands. Bex spent an hour and a half going over the details of their night. She mostly cried while she played with the ring on her finger. She stared off at the walls, floor, and ceiling, the trauma replaying through her mind.
The time lost in her recollection was filled with our discovery.
“I can’t answer everything yet. We’re still investigating some things. Brent came on my radar after I called Mari. I was in a meeting and missed Jai’s call. I called both of you, and when that didn’t work, I was able to get some information from Mari that just fit,” I explained.
“Do you know why he’d do this?”
“We have a few ideas. We started at his apartment. When we got permission to enter, it was unsettling. There was a wall covered in pictures he’d printed there at his desk. Dozens of the same photo, even.” Her face twisted in disgust, and she covered her mouth like she was going to throw up.
“What happened then?”
“Well,” I sighed. “A dead start, you could say. Your phones hadn’t given us a location yet, so we started tearing apart his life. His childhood didn’t have alarming hospital visits, police records, or child services visits.” I waited for her to process before I continued. “He kept a journal. Comparing that journal to records, there have been more than the women this month. That’s the part we have to investigate, but something triggered him at the start of October.”
“You mean when he killed Trisha?” she asked.
“Yes, Trisha’s entry was very different. His pattern took a turn that night. We tried to contact this grandmother Mari mentioned, but she died about ten years ago. When we called his mother, she confirmed the property was abandoned and had been for some time.” Her head fell to her hands again. “When they finally gave us a rough estimation of your location, and the address was in the zone, I took the chance.”
“He’d be dead if you hadn’t.”
“He’d be dead if you didn’t try to stop the bleeding. You did everything right, Bexley. He has to fight, okay? He’s been fighting for a long time.” We fell away into silence. I watched her as she watched everything else in the room.
My eyes opened when the door clicked, and another nurse walked in. Bex stood up quickly and stepped toward her.
“Are you here for Jaiden?” Her voice was soft and kind.
