AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Just then, we heard Robbie moan. Two nurses sped past us, yanked open the curtains to Robbie’s stall, and rushed to his bedside. I had my phone on Record. I followed them in, nudged them aside, and would not let anyone get in front of me. I’m not sure if that was a crime of some sort, but I was beside myself. I leaned over Robbie.
“Jack. Lindsay Boxer. We met yesterday.”
He opened his eyes.
I showed him my badge and moved closer with my phone still recording. “Jack. You hired someone to shoot Marty Boxer?”
“I was going to hell anyway.”
“Who did you hire?”
He closed his eyes.
“I need his name. Jack?”
He’d just muttered a name when an alarm went off on the bedside monitor where a green line was diving. Two more people crowded into the stall. One of those people was an orderly.
He said, “You. You have to get out.”
I hesitated. Had I gotten the shooter’s name on tape? The orderly put a hand on each of my upper arms and half-lifted me off my feet and removed me from the stall.
I stood in the hallway, my own blood pressure soaring, but my head was working.
When Pearl and I were standing together again, I said, “Pearl. I’m sorry to interfere when you’re going through this. I want to confirm what Jack just told me. Were you with Jack when he hired the shooter?”
“Iknowhim. I was with Jack when he called him and wired the money. The deal was made and Jack paid him in advance to do the job.”
Pearl covered her eyes with her hands. Her shoulders shook as she cried. I waited out the long thirty to forty seconds it took for Pearl to take her hands from her eyes and stop crying, but she did and she picked up where she’d left off.
“The shooter called me later and asked me to book him on a first-class flight to Morocco. His flight leaves today. The details are on the computer back at the store, but you can look it up. It’s on Qatar Airways. They only have a few flights.
“I made the call and when I went back to Jack, he’d already taken his gun out of the nightstand. He put his arms around me, told me I was a good girl and that he loved me. And he said he’d left money for me under the mattress with a note saying it was for me.
“I started to argue with him—but it was too late. He’d made up his mind and was pointing the gun—like this—at his head. I pushed his hand away hard but… he had his hand on the trigger and the shot… that shot.” Pearl looked up at me. “I think he’s going to live. Don’t you?”
I said, “I hope Jack makes it. Pearl, this is so important. I may need you to testify.”
She nodded.
“Please speak.” I put my phone up to her face.
“Yes. I’ll do it. I’ll testify. For Marty.”
I gave her my card. And as I left the ER, I phoned Richie.
“See you in two minutes,” I said.
CHAPTER 35
RICH FLIPPED ON all the flashing lights: cherry, grille, and dash. Then did the same with the sound, using horn and sirens. He jammed on the gas and took Cesar Chavez to 101 South and from there, a clear shot to SFO.
Qatar Airways’ flight to Morocco boarded in fifty-three minutes. Now, fifty-two. If Brady was able to get the flight delayed, if we didn’t run into a traffic jam at the airport, if we had the help of the airport police, if we made it to the gate on time, if the man who shot Marty hadn’t changed his flight, we had a good chance of grabbing him up and putting this nightmare into the very capable hands of the district attorney’s office.
Given every lucky break, there was plenty of room for disaster starting with the word “if.” If our subject saw us coming, if he grabbed a hostage… or if he fled from the gate and buried himself in the crowd, he could leave the gate and the concourse and melt back into traffic. He might even buy a new ticket and catch a plane to anywhere.
And Marty Boxer, for better or worse, would never get justice. On the other hand, if we pulled this off with no plan or prep, we could dance the merengue in the streets.
As if I had manifested it, a traffic snarl filled all lanes in the circular airport access road and all the horns and sirens in the world wouldn’t move the solid clot of traffic between us and the Qatar Airways’ boarding gate.
