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“Yeah, there are plenty of cameras out there. I’ve got two guys on it right now. Three, actually, if you count the tech specialist I called up and is looking into the footage manually. I checked in with them about two minutes before you showed up, though, and they haven’t caught anything that tossed up red flags.”
Jack looked around the office again, the images from the photos of Matthews playing out in his head as he took in the hints of a violent altercation. “Who would I need to speak to about getting a list of the patients he’d seen in the course of the past week?”
Tatum had this answer as well. “We already spoke with the scheduling department. They’ll have a copy of Matthews’ schedule from the past month for us within the next ten minutes or so.”
“Perfect. And do you have any idea how long it’s been since Forensics and the coroner left?”
“The coroner took the body about an hour and fifteen minutes ago. Forensics was here until half an hour ago.”
Jack took one last look around the office. For a moment, an image popped up in his mind—an image of Rachel leaning close to the desk, maybe to see if forensics had maybe missed something like a tiny bit of skin from the side of the desk. But he also knew she’d come to the same conclusion he was coming to: that there was nothing to be found in this office other than a sign that their killer apparently had a vicious, violent streak in him.
“And where would I find the scheduling department?” he asked.
“During the night shift, it’s just one woman downstairs in the HR department,” Baynes said. “She’s basically there just to make sure someone can alter schedules after hours if the doctors run into issues or come up with unexpected openings.”
Jack nodded and slowly left the office. Back in the hallway, one of the officers was on the phone with someone. Another one was walking down the hall, making his exit. And as Jack made his way to the elevators to head down to the central lobby, he felt incredibly alone. It was a harsh reminder that he was not only developing strong romantic feelings for Rachel but that she might just be more of a part of him than he’d ever realized.
***
The woman down at human resources seemed thrilled to be part of something so exciting during this shift, which was a huge contrast to the crying she had so clearly done after hearing Dr. Matthews had been murdered. Jack saw that her eyes were slightly bloodshot from crying.
“He was a good man,” she told Jack as she handed the schedule over. “Always good for a joke and I don’t know that I ever saw him in a bad mood.”
“Did you know him personally?”
“No, not well.”
“I don’t suppose you’d happen to know if he altered his schedule very often, do you?”
“I don’t think so. I always ort of thought he was a stickler, you know? If there was a schedule or a system set in place, he adhered to it.”
“Thanks,” Jack said, hoping the schedule he held in his hands would serve as a quick solution to this case.
He took the schedule with him over to a small waiting area just off of the HR window. He honestly wasn’t even sure what he was looking for. Certainly, the patients the doctor had seen during the day weren’tcurrentlyin a hospital bed. Or maybe patients that seemed to have rescheduled often or getting bumped from Dr. Matthew’s schedule.
He noted right away that there were no details concerning the nature of the appointments on the schedule. This didn’t surprise him because he knew there was a huge wall to be knocked on in terms of learning about the patients’ diagnoses. In fact, he was pretty sure a good portion of his day tomorrow would be spent making calls and trying to get Anderson and some other higher-ups to somehow get the hospital to make exceptions for the case.
At first glance, he got exactly what he’d been expecting out of this list: nothing. But then he thought of the files from the first doctor that had been killed three days ago. He hadn’t even looked those files over yet—a complete oversight on his part and something Rachel would have instantly started to connect. He opened up the files, looking to see if anyone had bothered to get the schedule and patient names of the first doctor.
He didn’t find anything so helpful, but he did see the crime scene photos. It was a very similar situation, wherein the doctor—a primary care physician specialist by the name of Dr. Leery—had been brutally attacked in a parking garage. The driver’s side window had been smashed in, and there were splatters of blood around some of the fragments, indicating that his head had likely been slammed into it. Cut marks all along the side of the deceased doctor's face back to this up. There was also blood on the side of a concrete pillar directly beside the parking spot, not to mention the copious amount on the concrete.
Like Matthews, Leery seemed to have no boiled down specialty. He was listed as a general practitioner and primary care physician. He’d been killed outside of his car at 6:17 three afternoons ago, and there was no security footage of any kind. So that was another thing these murders had in common: the doctors had been killed shortly after their shift had ended, and there was no security footage. That suggested that the killer knew these doctors’ schedules as well as the location of security cameras…that, or he’d been incredibly lucky.
There was, of course, the idea that these two murders might not be linked at all. It could all be a very violent coincidence. But Jack’s gut was already saying otherwise. The brutality and the amount of blood was just too much to look beyond.
He looked through the contents of the file one more time but again found no patient lists or schedules. He supposed whoever had put it together had gotten the briefest amount of pushback from the hospital and called it a day. It happened; he knew this all too well. But that was going to have to be something he’d need to take care of himself tomorrow.
And sadly, itwouldhave to wait until tomorrow. He knew there would be no one in the hospital offices to help him with such red tape at such an hour.
With a defeated sigh, Jack got up out of the chair and headed for the exit. He checked his phone and saw that it was nearing midnight. The coroner would be of no use for another few hours, and though forensics might be able to offersomebreadcrumbs, he knew nothing substantial would come out of their work for another six hours at least. And with roadblocks with the first doctor’s patients list, there was nothing he could do.
For now, Jack’s hands were tied. He knew what he was going to do. He was going to head home, get some sleep, and tackle this thing headfirst tomorrow. But as he left the hospital and walked across the parking lot for his car, he couldn’t help but wonder what Rachel would think of such an idea. She’d come up withsomethingthey could do. And though there were times when he thought he was striking blindly out into the dark was a waste of their time, he had to admit that it paid off more times than not.
It almost had him rethinking his plans for the rest of the night. Maybe he could go back to the field office and do a deep dive on the two doctors. But if he was being honest himself, he couldn’t find the motivation to do it. Still, so he wouldn’t feelsoguilty and lazy, he sent a quick email to Anderson from his car before he left the hospital, letting him know about the obstacles that would be in his way until morning.
He then left the hospital and drove in the direction of his apartment. For one fleeting moment, he thought about texting Rachel to see if she was still awake—if she might want to spend a bit more time on her patio. But he knew that was overreaching…that even if she wanted to, the reality of just how quickly things were developing between them would have to be faced head-on.
And he wasn’t sure if he was ready to face it completely just yet. Because at the end of the day, he knew she was going to die,if not in a couple of months, then in about a year and a half. If she opted to do the chemo and try to get a few more years out of it all, he’d gladly be there by her side.That, he was willing to admit without an issue.
