Justice for All

CHAPTER TWO

“IS SITTING AT THE BAR OKAY?” Callie asked, once she’d spotted Max. She hadn’t planned to go to him just yet with her suspicions, but since he was here, she’d like to hear his opinions on Bernie Brusco.

“That’s not a bar stool kind of dress you’re wearing, but it works for me,” Mikki said. “Grab us a seat. I see my one of my firemen buddies standing by the pool table. I want to go over and say hi.”

“I thought you were famished.”

“I am. Order me a cheeseburger, loaded, including jalapeños, and add a side of chili fries.”

“You’re eating hot peppers and chili fries in the middle of the night?”

“Sure. I’m from Texas. We like it spicy—the hotter the better.”

“Guess that explains your fondness for firemen.”

Mikki smiled as she strode off, her long blond hair bouncing about her shoulders. Now that she’d shed her lab coat, she looked more like a teenager than a doctor.

Callie walked over and stopped at Max’s elbow. “Mind if I join you?”

“I don’t know.” He gave her outfit an approving once-over. “Is Prince Charming going to show up and demand a duel?”

“No Prince Charming. I was at a fund-raiser earlier and had to stop back by the hospital. I didn’t bother to change.” She sidled onto the stool next to him.

“Can’t get away from work even on a Friday night. You’re getting as bad as me.”

“I tried. Bernie Brusco collapsed at the party. I stopped by the E.R. to check on him.”

“Is he all right?” Max asked.

“I think so. Actually it was more serious than a collapse. His heart stopped beating.” She hooked the back of her heels on the rung of the bar stool. “Do you know Bernie?”

“We haven’t met, but I know who he is and that he bought a house in Jacaranda Heights.”

“What else do you know about him?”

“Nothing officially.”

“How about unofficially?” Callie asked.

“Like what?”

“Is he into drug trafficking?”

“I’m guessing that’s not the occupation he put on his hospital admittance form.”

“No, but someone at the party seemed convinced it was true.”

“He’s the kingpin,” Max admitted. “Runs his own little cocaine and crack empire. L.A. police have arrested him several times, but the charges never stick. There’s no sign he’s involved in distribution in Courage Bay, though. Guess he doesn’t want to dirty up his own backyard.” Max rested his elbows on the bar. “Was his collapse drug related?”

“It’s possible. I ordered a toxicology report.”

Jake took the order for Callie’s glass of wine and Mikki’s feast.

“How about you, Chief Zirinsky?” he asked. “Can I get you another beer?”

Max waved him off. “I’ve had my limit.” He waited until Jake walked away before continuing the discussion. “Any chance he was poisoned?”

“A chance, but no real reason to suspect it at this point.”

Max nodded, but she could tell by his expression that the wheels in his mind were still rolling. He thought this might be the work of the Avenger. Not that she hadn’t considered it. In fact, she’d found herself leery of every death or unexplained accident since she’d alerted Max of the suspicious nature of Bruce Nepom’s injuries. Still, she didn’t have any medical information yet to indicate intentional poisoning.

“There’s a lot of things that could have caused the symptoms, Max. Don’t read too much into this yet.”

“It’s a waste of time to tell that to a cop on a murder case, Callie. We read too much into everything.”

“Sounds as if you don’t have any real leads yet on the Avenger.”

“Try no leads. When will you have the results back on the blood test?”

“Tomorrow morning. I can call you if you like.”

“Please do.”

“The party was at Mary Hancock’s, a very top-drawer affair. I can’t imagine any of the guests capable of serial murder, even in the name of justice.”

“Wouldn’t have to be a guest who poisoned him,” Max said. “There had to be lots of other people around as well. Caterers, bartenders, food servers, parking attendants, cleanup crew.”

Jake set Callie’s glass of wine in front of her, and she picked it up and took a long, cooling sip. The talk of murder was getting to her.

“So what else is going on in your life these days, Dr. Callie Baker?” Max asked, obviously sensing her increasing uneasiness.

“Mostly work—and taking Pickering for his beach walks.”

“I guess being chief of staff adds more to your plate.”

“Some. I’ve stopped taking on new patients for now, but I’m still seeing all my established ones. What about you?”

“Work, work and more work.”

“Guess we’re a couple of duds,” Callie said.

“A dud? Not you, Callie. You make the society section of the local paper at least once a month.”

“What are you doing reading the society section, Max? You were never interested in the social whirl.”

“I check out the hot women.”

“You could have your pick of women in this town, hot or not. You always could.”

“You think so?”

“I’m sure of it.” The answer took zero thought. Max was not only good-looking in a rugged sort of way, but smart and honest and—and incredibly tender, though most women probably didn’t know that.

She hadn’t until the night when…Callie’s thoughts were thankfully interrupted by Mikki’s boisterous arrival.

“Hey, no food yet? What’s the holdup, Jake?” Mikki took the stool next to Callie’s. “A woman could starve in this place.”

“Keeping it hot for you,” Jake answered.

“Max Zirinsky, meet Dr. Mikki McCallister,” Callie said, making the introductions. “Mikki is a pediatrician on staff at the hospital. Max is Courage Bay’s chief of police.”

The two of them reached across Callie and shook hands just as Jake arrived with the food.

“I’ll get out of here and let you two party on,” Max said.

“There’s always room for one more at a party,” Mikki offered.

“No, we’ve already established I’m a dud.”

“We did no such thing,” Callie chided. “We only established the fact that you work too much.”

Max stood and placed a hand on Callie’s shoulder. The touch sent a shiver of awareness shimmying through her system. That’s what she got for letting those old memories creep back into her mind.

“I’ll call you in the morning,” she said. “Will you be home?”

“Call my cell.” He picked up a napkin and scribbled the number on it. “It was good seeing you. You look great.”

“Thanks. You, too.”

He said a quick goodbye to Mikki, then headed for the door, his cop swagger as pronounced as ever.

“Did I just break up a magical moment?” Mikki asked.

“Whatever gave you that idea?”

“I sensed a sizzle.”

“No way. Max is an old friend.”

“Doesn’t look that old to me, and he does great things for a pair of jeans. Terrific butt.”

“Do you check out every guy that way?”

“Like you didn’t. I saw you watching him walk off. But I’m more interested in that phone number he scribbled down for you, and the way he was eyeing you when he told you how good you looked. I could feel the heat over here.”

“That was fumes from the chili.”

“So, what’s the story on him?”

“Max is an old friend, just like I said. And my ex’s cousin.”

“Tell me more.”

“That’s it. Max and Tony are probably as opposite as two people can be, but they’re kin. And the phone number is so I can let him know about a patient whose symptoms seem a little suspicious.”

“Playing detective again?”

“Just being cautious.”

Mikki picked up her overstuffed burger and somehow got her small mouth opened wide enough to take a chunk out of it. Watching her eat never failed to amaze Callie. Mikki was five-two and couldn’t possibly weigh much over a hundred pounds, but she had the appetite of a teenage boy. And the energy of one as well.

She was also an excellent pediatrician and very insightful. But this time she’d definitely misread the signs. Max had come to Callie’s rescue once, but he’d backed miles away after that and let her know in silent but certain terms that he had no interest in her as a woman.

Callie let the memory of being in his arms slip into her mind for one heated second, then pushed it back to the hidden crevice where she planned to leave it.

CALLIE LOOKED UP when Dr. Alec Giroux tapped on her open office door. “Mind if I come in? I’m bearing gifts, that is, if you can call a toxicology report a gift.”

“Then by all means come in. It’s not often I have an E.R. doctor stop in to deliver lab reports.”

“Just brown nosing the chief of staff,” Alec said.

“Nice try, but you buck me on too many issues for me to buy that. So what’s up?”

Alec handed her the lab printout. “I’d walked over to the lab to pick up a report on one of my patients, and the technician brought Bernie Brusco’s results to my attention.”

“Why is that?”

“His results look a lot like those of the teenager we lost in E.R. last week.”

“The ephedra overdose?”

He nodded. “There was a notable amount of ephedra in Bernie’s bloodstream as well, along with a trace of cocaine and considerably more than a trace of alcohol.”

She scanned the report. “That would explain his symptoms.”

“You don’t look or sound surprised.”

“I’ve heard that Bernie runs his own drug empire in Los Angeles, so I’m not too shocked that he had the cocaine in his system. He could be selling ephedra, too, since the FDA pulled products containing it from the shelves.”

“If he’s in the biz, he should have known better than to mix and match volatile drugs.”

“You’d think. I’ll talk to Max Zirinsky and make him aware of the similarity in the two cases.”

“Good idea. And I’ll get back to the E.R. Never know what a Saturday morning might bring.”

“Just be thankful we’re not dealing with a heat wave like the one we had last summer.”

“Amen. Never want a summer like that again. A heat wave and a deadly viral epidemic.”

An epidemic that had hit Alec particularly hard, since his daughter had almost died from the virus. “How are Cameron and Stacy?” she asked.

“They’re great. And Janice has become quite the mother. She’s an amazing woman.”

He smiled broadly and Callie felt just the tiniest twinge of envy. Alec’s first marriage had been just as big a mistake as hers, but he’d found love again and seemed incredibly happy. Not that Callie wasn’t happy. Nor did she have time for a family and children—even if she had been able to have them. A fast growing tumor three years ago had resulted in a hysterectomy.

“Tell Janice hello for me,” she said, pushing the unexpected thoughts of family and kids aside.

“Will do.”

Callie scanned the lab report again when Alec left, then slipped into her doctor’s coat for a personal visit with her patient. Bernie was lucky to be alive, but there was no indication the Avenger had tried to kill him. Looked more like Bernie was trying to save the killer the trouble and do the job himself.

Callie took the elevator up to Bernie’s room. The door was open a crack and she heard his boisterous voice and a woman’s laughter echoing down the hallway. She tapped lightly on the door before stepping inside.

Mary Hancock stopped laughing and backed away from the bed. “Good morning, Callie. I promise I’m not tiring out the patient. I just came by to check on him and bring him a fruit basket.”

“A bit of cheery company won’t hurt him, as long as he doesn’t overdo it.”

Callie spied the fruit basket on the table in the corner of the room. It was covered in cellophane, tied with a gold bow and filled with mangos, avocados, peaches, kiwi and pomegranates, with an impressive pineapple in the middle. The basket was almost as colorful and flamboyant as the bearer.

Mary was one of Callie’s patients. At sixty-one, Mary could have easily passed for fifteen years younger. Money for surgery and the right clothes to flatter her petite figure probably took a lot of credit for that, but it was Mary’s vivacious personality that added the youthful pizzazz.

Callie pulled the chart at the foot of Bernie’s bed. His vitals were back to normal except for a slightly elevated systolic reading. “How are you feeling this morning, Mr. Brusco?”

“Terrific and ready to get out of the hospital. Like I told you, it was just stress. A good night’s rest did the trick.”

Bernie scooted up higher on his pillow, tugging on the hospital gown so that it didn’t pull around the neck. “Thanks for coming by, Mary. And don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine,” he said, dismissing his visitor.

“Good. When you’re feeling better, I’ll teach you to do the tango correctly.”

“With these two left feet?”

They both laughed and Mary said a quick goodbye to Callie before exiting. Mary was obviously fond of Bernie. Callie seriously doubted she knew how the man made his living or that he did drugs himself.

Courage Bay was a few miles and a world away from Los Angeles. In spite of a growing population, the city had a small-town attitude, and people tended to trust one another to be who and what they purported to be. She’d hate to see Mary hurt by a man like Bernie.

“Guess you have the results of the blood work,” Bernie said, once Mary was out of the room.

“Just got it back from the lab a few minutes ago.”

“Then you know I had a little cocaine in my system.”

She nodded.

“I hope you won’t get the wrong idea. It’s not like I’m an addict or anything. You know how it is up in Los Angeles. You go with the boys, you sniff a little to be sociable. I won’t even do that again after what happened last night.”

“You had cocaine, alcohol and dangerous levels of an illegal stimulant in your system. That’s a pretty lethal mix. You’re lucky to be alive this morning.”

Bernie narrowed his eyes. “What stimulant?”

A strange question, Callie thought. He’d readily admitted the cocaine, so why not the stimulant? “Ephedra,” she said. “A much larger dose than if you’d taken it as a dietary supplement.”

“Ephedra.” He repeated the word, then drew his lips together and nodded as if he were figuring out a mystery. “You’re sure about that?”

“Very sure. Don’t you remember taking it?”

“My recollection of last night’s activities are not too keen.”

That was believable, yet he remembered the party and the cocaine.

He sat up straighter. “You know, Doc, pretty as you are and as nice as the nurses are treating me, I need to get out of here today.”

“I recommend you stay until Monday.”

“Nothing personal, Doc, but I’ve got urgent business to take care of. I have to be back in Los Angeles by Monday morning.”

“Then at least stay one more night.”

He drew his lips into a slight scowl. “One more night, but that’s it, no matter what any new tests show.”

“It’s your choice.”

“Thanks, Doc. For last night and for looking in on me today.”

“You’re welcome, but I can only do so much. The real responsibility for taking care of yourself rests with you.”

“Don’t I Know it.”

She made a couple of notations on his chart, slipped it back in place, then told him she’d see him later.

“You’re sure about the ephedra?” he asked as she headed for the door.

“I’m sure.”

She hurried to the elevator, eager to go back to her office and call Max with the findings. She had no proof at all, but she had a strong hunch that Bernie didn’t knowingly take the ephedra. Which meant the Avenger may well have been at Mary’s party, armed with the stimulant that had almost killed Bernie Brusco.

MAX PICKED CALLIE UP in front of the hospital at ten after twelve, determined to have no recurrence of the lust that had blindsided him last night, lingering long after he’d crawled into his bed. No way could he play in Callie’s league. He probably couldn’t even get a job as bat boy.

“Have you had lunch?” Max asked, trying not to notice that she looked as ravishing in the pale gray slacks and the yellow cotton blouse as she had in the dynamite dress last night.

“I haven’t even had breakfast,” she said.

“Then we might as well eat while we talk, unless you’d rather not.”

“Lunch sounds good.”

“So where’s your preference?” Max asked.

“Somewhere outside. It’s much too gorgeous to be stuck indoors.”

“How about Grady’s?”

“Perfect.”

It would be if they were only going there to eat instead of to discuss a possible link to a vengeful killer who’d outsmarted Max at every turn. Grady’s was on the beach and had a large covered deck where patrons had a great view of the bay and could listen to the sounds of the surf. On most days there were enough surfers in the area to provide a side show as well.

Callie gave him the results of the lab report and Bernie’s reaction on the drive over. By the time the waitress showed them to a table in the back corner of the deck, possibilities were already streaming though his mind.

“So what’s your take on this?” Callie asked, once they’d put in their drink order and had been given a menu.

“I think your hunch could be right. Ephedra doesn’t seem the kind of drug a man like Bernie would mess around with, not with all the serious drugs he has at his disposal. Besides, kingpins like Bernie are rarely big-time users. They need to keep their minds clear to run the business.”

Which meant it was very possible someone at Mary Hancock’s party slipped the stimulant into his food or drink. If it was the Avenger, and if he was in fact at the party last night, this might be the best lead Max had had since the killing spree started.

“There are a lot more common and probably more effective substances a killer could have used,” Callie said. “What would make him choose something like ephedra?”

“Any number of reasons. Availability, personal experience, or he may have gotten the idea from the media attention surrounding the death of the high school student.”

“That makes sense,” Callie admitted.

“If you hadn’t been there and Bernie had died of the presenting symptoms, would his death have been classified a heart attack?”

“Quite possibly.”

The waitress returned with Max’s coffee and Callie’s raspberry iced tea. Max ordered a cheeseburger without even glancing at the menu. Callie decided on the fresh green salad topped with lump crab meat and avocado, dressing on the side.

Another glaring difference between them, Max noted. His taste buds were partial to the routine. Callie’s went for more sophisticated fare.

Callie rolled a finger over the condensation on her glass. “If Bernie thinks someone tried to kill him, surely he’ll go to the police.”

“I wouldn’t count on that. A guy like Bernie’s more likely to seek out his own revenge.” Just what Courage Bay and Max needed. An avenger out to get the Avenger. Sounded like a bad Hollywood script, and even thinking about it gave Max a headache.

They fell silent when the waitress brought the food. But not talking was not necessarily a good thing when he was sitting across a small table from Callie, Max acknowledged. It left him too much time to notice the delicate softness of her hands as she forked bites of salad to her full, pink lips. Too much time to admire the way her breasts pushed against the fabric of her blouse. Too much time to remember the way her body had felt pressed against his.

“What do we do, Max?”

The question flustered him for a second before he realized she wasn’t reading his mind and referring to the incriminating thoughts he was entertaining. “You’ve done your part. It’s up to me to try to make sense of it all.”

“I don’t think I have done my part.”

He didn’t like the sound of that or the look in her eyes right now. “I appreciate the heads-up on this, Callie, but don’t even think about getting involved in the investigation.”

“Why not? I was standing a few feet away from Bernie when he collapsed. And the hostess is a friend of mine.”

“If the Avenger is involved in this, and I’m not even suggesting that he is, we’re talking about a man who’s killed at least four people and tried to kill Bernie. He’s smart and he’s dangerous.”

“And needs to be stopped.”

“Right. By the cops. Not by beautiful doctors with no experience in law enforcement.”

“I wasn’t planning to start carrying a gun and beating the bushes for the killer.”

“Good. Don’t talk to Mary about this, either, or anyone else who was at the party.”

As he dipped a French fry into a pool of ketchup, it struck Max that this was the first time he’d had lunch with a woman other than the cops on his force in longer than he cared to remember. And he was sitting here giving orders and talking about murder. “I say we drop the subject,” he suggested. “It’s bad for the digestive system.”