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“I can’t believe you two found Haley Olsen and left me out of the road trip.”
Maybe he should’ve brought Kent along. Another set of eyes keeping watch might have prevented this.
A doctor wearing scrubs pushed through doors and approached them. “You’re waiting for information on Haley Olsen?”
They all nodded. Charlie rose and came to Brian’s side.
“A bullet ruptured her subclavian artery,” the doctor said. “She lost a tremendous amount of blood. Almost didn’t make it. But the surgery went well. We were able to repair the damage and stop the bleeding. Then we gave her a transfusion of two units. She should fully recover.”
Charlie leaned against Brian as if a burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
“When can I speak with her?” DCI Powell said. “I have some urgent questions.”
“She’s in the recovery room now. She’ll be a bit groggy for a while.”
“That’s fine. I might get more truthful responses if she’s kind of out of it,” Powell said. “Also, when will she be able to leave the hospital?”
“Not for a couple of days.”
“We’d prefer to have her in a safe house, but we’ll need to make arrangements to have her airlifted out of here as soon as possible to another hospital for her safety.”
“Oh,” the doctor said. “I didn’t realize. It is possible to have her recover at a safe house, provided you have a nurse available for a couple of days who could change her IV and the dressing for her wound.”
Powell nodded. “I can make that happen.”
“Come with me. I’ll take you to see her.”
“Wait,” Charlie said, going up to Powell. “She mentioned that she had evidence on Seth, but that she was worried about implicating people she cared about.”
“My people are going through the motel room with a fine-tooth comb. The one thing your boyfriend did right was ensuring the police kept officers posted at the room. If she had any evidence in there, we’ll find it. And if it’s somewhere else, I will persuade her that it’s in her best interest to cooperate and hand it over.”
“Also, one of the last things she said to me was something about the cartel and money.”
“Do you know what she meant?” Powell asked.
“She didn’t get a chance to explain because gunfire turned the room into Swiss cheese and nearly us along with it.”
“I’m glad you two are okay.” Powell clutched her arm. “Thank you for finding her.” He left with the doctor.
Brian put an arm around Charlie, bringing her close. “Please tell me that you intend to take the rest of the day off. We’ll go back to my place. Decompress.”
She shook her head. “We’ve got booked classes this afternoon through the early evening, and Dustin has to leave by four. Decompressing will have to wait.”
“At least let me take you to get cleaned up first.” He looked over her bloodstained clothes. “Shower and change.”
“Yeah, that’s what I had in mind.”
“To reiterate what the DCI agent said, I’m glad you two are all right also.” Kent glanced between them. “Didn’t know you were dating anyone,” he said to Brian. “But good to see that you’re putting yourself out there.”
Not sure what to say, Brian simply nodded.
“I never showed you all the pictures I took of Seth,” Charlie said. “And the people he’s been associating with. Especially at those suspicious addresses.”
“We’ll take a look at when we get to the house,” Brian said. He turned to Kent. “If there’s anything worthwhile, I’ll share it with you.”
“Sounds good. In the meantime, we’ve got reports to fill out,” Kent said. “I’ll get started since you’ll bedelayed.”
“Sure. The only thing is we need to keep all this from spreading around in the department. Especially the part about the DCI investigating Seth Olsen.”
