Chapter 8 - The Back Doors
We did not chase the van.
Ortiz made that clear.
Alexander argued until she put a hand against his chest.
“You want to help her?
Let my people do their jobs.”
He stopped.
Barely.
I sat beside the conference room speaker while an officer updated Ortiz.
The van turned into an industrial lot near the old ferry terminal.
Another vehicle waited there.
Black SUV.
Two people got out.
One opened the van’s rear doors.
Then a third person appeared.
A woman in a pale nightgown.
Bare feet on wet pavement.
“Is that her?” Alexander asked.
Nobody could answer.
The officer’s voice came through.
“We have a woman attempting to move away from the vehicle.”
A burst of static.
Someone shouted.
Alexander gripped the back of my chair so hard I heard the wood creak.
“Police.
Show your hands.”
More static.
Then the officer again.
“One subject running toward the loading bays.
One remaining by the SUV.”
“And the woman?” Ortiz demanded.
A pause.
Too long.
“The woman is on the ground.”
Alexander made a sound I never wanted to hear again.
Not a shout.
Something emptied out of him.
Ortiz leaned toward the speaker.
“Medical status.”
A second voice answered.
“Conscious.
Breathing.
Requesting immediate medical response.
Advanced pregnancy.”
Alexander shut his eyes.
I realized I had stopped breathing, too.
Twenty minutes later, we followed an officer to St. Catherine’s Hospital.
Ortiz had allowed me to come because the woman was asking for someone named David.
She did not know he was dead.
I watched streetlights slide across the windshield.
Alexander sat beside me.
Neither of us spoke.
At the hospital, a nurse led us toward a private treatment room.
A woman lay on the bed beneath warmed blankets.
Her hair was shorter than in the missing-person flyer.
Her face was thinner.
But Alexander recognized her before we reached the doorway.
“Elise.”
She turned.
For a moment, she only stared.
Then her expression folded into fear.
“No.”
He stopped.
“Elise, it’s me.”
“I know who you are.”
Her hands tightened over her stomach.
He took one step.
She backed against the raised bed.
“Don’t let him sign anything.”
The nurse moved between them.
Alexander froze.
Elise looked at the rest of us, desperate.
May you like
“Please.
He signed the papers last time.”
