Bombshell (Devlin Haskell 4) (22 page)

“Go for
it
,
Doc,” I said
, then
grabbed onto the side of the table for support.

He placed his hand
s on either side of my nose and
gave a brief
look at his partner who opened the medical
bag and
slowly
pulled something out.

I glanced down to see what the p
artner was getting, felt a
sudd
en pressure and
heard
an audible snap
.

“Ouch, Jesus,” I half screamed.

Manning and Louie looked over in our direction.

“There,” he said,” back to a thing of beauty. You’ll live
,
but you probably know the drill, swelling for a few days, eyes will blacken. This will help open
that up,” he said. Then pulled out
a
reddish
rubber ball
thing
with a smal
l pointed end
, the thing looked like a miniature turkey baster. He
gently inserted
it into my
nasal passa
ge.

“Just aspirating here, get some of that blood an
d mucus out. Believe me, this will be
a lot better than trying to blow it
out
later
tonight.”

The door opened and Captain Elkers stepped in. He took one look at me
, saw the conference in the corner
and headed toward Manning. Before the door closed completely Aaron LaZelle
pushed the door open
and entered the room
.

Aaron took one look at me, mouth
ed the word ‘fuck’ and joined
the conference
heating up in the
corner.

I win
ced as the one of the EMT’s
placed some pressure on my ribs.

“Oh, what’s this?”
he said, lifting a stethoscope from around his neck
.

“Someone tried to get my attention,”
I grimaced and exhaled.

“Let me just lift that shirt, mmm-mmm,” he said looking over
my
rib cage. “Anything here,”
he asked pressing up and down
my left
side.

“No nothing.”

“And here,” h
e said
,
doing the same on my right
,
but a lot more gently.

“Yeah, oh Jesus, yeah that hurts.”

He was on it with the stethoscope, gently, listening to my breathing.

“I want you to
raise your arms to shoulder height,
take some deep breaths if you can, okay?”

I nodded, did the deep breath routine. It was sore
,
but not as bad as I’d feared. My guess was they weren’t broken.

“I don’t think they’re broken, a little bruised, nothing forty-eight hours
and taking it easy
won’t help heal. You’re a bit banged up, but you’ll live. If you want we can maybe transport for x-rays?”

“You recommend that?”

“Oh, I don’t t
hink it’s necessary, but I suspect
this might be on the city’s nickel.” He
said under his breath
,
then
gave a nod to the far corner where Manning was getting it from Louie, Aaron and Captain Elkers. I thought I might have detected the hint of a smile
from the EMT
. “I suppose if there’s nothing else I could give them the word.”

“Nah, I don’t want to do x-rays. I think I’ll be fine, but maybe we could let them di
scuss things a little further,” I said, then moved my head in the direction of the conference corner.

Louie was in the process of jabbing a finger
at Captain Elkers and
I heard the words, “
with
your god
da
mned signature,
”
and a little later, “grabbing headlines.”

“Be fun to watch,
” The EMT smiled,
“
but if this i
s all we better get going, maybe
take
some extra strength Tylenol for a couple of days to make you a little more comfortable.”

“Thanks, no offense
,
but I hope I don’t see you around, Doc.”

He laughed, started
placi
ng th
ings back into the medical bag
. He
tossed the bag
on the stretcher and while his partner wheeled it toward the door he approached the group. Some low key murmurs
followed
, nodding
, the occasional excitable outburst
from Louie as the EMT
continued to speak
in low tones
and
then
he
nodded and
left, giving me a wink on the way out.

Louie strolled over, opened his briefcase, spoke to me under his breath.

“Turn around and face me.”

“What?”

“Turn toward me, I need a picture,” he said, pulling a digital camera out of his briefcase.

I turned sideways in my chair. Louie quickly shifted a couple steps to the side. He was going to photograph me with Manning and Elkers in the background, unfortunately Aaron would be in the photo, too.

“Look toward the mirro
rs,” he whispered. The flash went off
before I heard the
camera
click.

“What the, oh shit,” Elkers said.

Flash. Flash.

Elkers stormed past, red faced.

“Nice chatting with you, Captain,”
I said as he tore open the door and fled the room.

Louie moved around me taking more photos. Talking to Manning, as the camera flashed.

“We’ll need a driver, my client, Mister Haskell will not be remaining in custody. Under the circumstances, I just don’t think your
department is up to the task.”

Flash.

Manning looked like he was going to kill
,
but I’m not sure he was thinking of Louie
or me as his intended target
s
.

Flash.

“Lift the shirt up Dev, let
’
s see those ribs.”

I pulled my shirt up, slowly, maybe a little too dramatically.

“Oh my God,” Louie said.

Flash.

“Christ, let me get some things arranged for you. You want anything?” Manning asked, he was standing with the door open, still red faced, but at least not heading toward purple
any longer
.

Flash.

“No, I think you’ve all done more than enough, a
lready,”
Louie said then took a couple more
shot
s
of the bruise on my ribs.

Manning nodded and left. Aaron walked ov
er, waited
while Louie took a few more shots of my face from different angles
.

“I don’t know what it is with you people,” Louie said.

“Hey, Louie, relax, he’s a pal. A
nd stop flashing that damn camera
, you’re driving me nuts,
” I said.

“Dev, what the hell happened, you were supposed to come nicely,” Aaron said. “You hit on one of the arresting officers
’
wives in the recent past?”

“If I did, she most
likely turned me down.”

“So what happened?”

“I don’t know, these SWAT guys just…”

“SWAT? They sent the SWAT team out there?”

“Yeah. I
looked out the window,
saw a couple of black and whites
on the street, a television news van. I
knew why they were there so I
went upstairs to get a clean shirt, pee, the next thing I know they kicked in my front door.
”

“What?”

“
Yeah
,
I was ready to let them
in
,
I was coming down the stairs to open the door and
ask ‘em if they wanted something to
drink.”

“Did they pound on the door or anything when you were upstairs?”

“No nothing, believe me, I thought it was going to be a nice guy sort of deal
. Next thing I know the door gets kicked open, and I’m looking down the barrel of a couple of AK’s. Some guy grabs me and throws me over the banister, they weren’t kidding around.”

“Christ, that’s Elkers, he must have lined that up, wanted to go for the action shot,” Aaron said.

“Hey
, you
got an action shot, all right. We’ll subpoena the news tapes,” Louie said, then smiled coldly at Aaron.

“Dev, I
’m
truly sorry, it wasn’t supposed to go down like this,” Aaron said.

“You realize, Lieutenant, that…”

“Give it a rest, Louie,” I said.
“Where do we go from here?”

“
Well, h
ere’s the deal, obviously this thing has turned into a cluster fuck. That said, there’s no doubt it will be running on the news tonight. The arrest of a stalker and killer,” he turned to look at Louie. “If you
’re going to
pursue the
police brutality angle, and of course you’ve got
your signed agreement, it would seem to me running on tonight’s news could only help your case,” Aaron said.

I nodded, it made sense.

“Based on what you tell me,
I agree with your attorney. You shouldn’t stay in protective or segregated custody here. You can however,
get us to pick up the tab on a fairly
luxurious stay at some hotel. Eat some good m
eals
for a change
, ta
ke a few days off, rest
up. Hopefully
,
someone will surface once th
ey believe
we’ve
got you locked up and
the co
a
st is clear,” Aaron said.

“And if they don’t surface?” Louie asked.

“Sue our ass
one way or the other
, under the circumstances you hold all the cards. Like I said before, after today’s incident, continued cooperation on your part would only seem to strengthen your chances with any lawsuit you decide to bring down the road.”

Chapter Thi
rty-Five

We were seated at
a large
polished
table in my hotel suite.
The curtains were drawn back so we had a view of the boat traffic on the
Mississippi
and the sun setting off to the west. The sunset was a gorgeous orange and reflected down the length of the river. A large white boat with a red paddlewheel had j
ust begun heading upriver on it
s evening excursion.

I felt a lot b
etter after the
massage
,
a hot soak
in the tub and an hour nap. I sipped some more wine, then cut another piece from the perfectly grilled steak on my plate.
I adjusted the thick, white terrycloth robe and got just a little more comfortable. Then clicked the remote to turn up the music and dim the lights
over the table
ever so slightly
.

“More wine
,
my darling,”
I asked.

“No, I better watch it
,
I gotta drive home,”
Lou
ie said, then burped some steak and baked potato.

“Since when did you get
so responsible? Come on.”

“No, I better not, tell you what, you got a cold
Summit
or
a
Leinenkugel behind the bar there
,
I’ll take it.”

“Help yourself, I’m the patient, remember?
I’m supposed to take it easy.
”

“Man, Dev, you’re lucky those guys didn’t do some serious damage.”

“They kicked in the door, splintered
my damn door frame all to hell, that’s enough
damage
for me.
”

“You know what I mean,” Louie said. “
Good thing you bounce well. A c
lassic case of the right hand not knowing what the left is doing.”

“
No
Louie, classic case of someone going in to grab headlines
, steal all the credit
and doesn’t communicate
with the guys in the trenches
doing the heavy lifting. Elkers wa
s floating around
knowing
the press had been alerted. He moved
things up a notch
and got the SWAT team to barge
in
,
instead of
some baby faced rookie
knocking on my door asking politely if I could
accompany him downtown.”