Trail of Secrets

“Thank you, Seth.”

The curtain parted, and a doctor stepped into the room. He glanced from Seth to Callie before he spoke. “Miss Lattimer, we’re ready to take your uncle to surgery. Would you like to see him before he leaves?”

“Yes, I would.”

Seth watched her hop down from the table, and then the two of them stepped into the hall where two nurses stood beside Dan’s gurney. Seth didn’t move as they stopped beside his friend.

Callie leaned close to him and whispered in his ear. “I love you, Uncle Dan. I’ll be waiting for you when you come from surgery.” She kissed him on the cheek, jammed her fist into her mouth to stifle her sobs and stepped away from the gurney.

Seth bent over and touched Dan’s shoulder. “I’m here, Dan. I promise you I’ll get whoever did this to you.”

For one brief moment, Dan’s eyes blinked open, and he stared up at Seth before he darted a glance at Callie and then back to Seth. A look of desperation lined his face. Once more he cut his eyes to Callie and back to him, and Seth knew Dan was trying to send him a message.

Seth’s eyes filled with tears, and he nodded. “Don’t worry about Callie, Dan. I’ll take care of her.”

Dan’s eyes drifted closed, and the nurses pushed the gurney down the hall. When it disappeared through the doors that led to the elevators for the surgery floor, Callie began to sob.

Seth searched his mind for something to offer her comfort. Finally, he decided she needed to get out of this area and to a place that might offer some peace. He reached out and touched her arm. She jerked her head up and stared wide-eyed at him.

“It’s not going to be easy waiting,” he said. “Why don’t we go down to the hospital chapel? Maybe being in that quiet room will help calm you down some.”

She frowned. “I’m not very religious.”

He nodded. “I know. That was something else we never saw eye to eye on, but like I tried to tell you then, it’s not about being religious. It’s about finding some peace in life. How about it? You might find it helps to be in a more soothing place for a while.”

She brushed her hands across her eyes and glanced around the stark emergency room. “Okay. I guess it can’t hurt.”

A nurse stepped out of an adjoining exam room at that moment, and Seth told her where the doctor could find them before he led Callie out of the emergency room and into the hospital proper.

When they arrived at the chapel, he opened the door and held it for her to enter. As he stepped into the room behind her, he closed his eyes for a moment and let himself relax into the peace that being in this place evoked in his soul. A table with a cross and an open Bible on it sat at the front of the room, and he led her to seats directly in front of the display.

They sat without speaking for a while until she finally broke the silence. “This is much better than the E.R. It’s quieter and more peaceful. Thank you for bringing me here.”

“I’ve been in this room a lot in the past few years.”

She turned her head, a questioning expression on her face. “Oh? How so?”

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “This is where we bring families when they’re waiting to hear if their loved ones will survive after a violent crime. It’s a peaceful place, and we hope it can afford the families some measure of comfort.”

Tears pooled in her eyes. “Is that why you brought me here?”

“Partly. But I wanted to ask you about the shooting, too. I don’t want to cause you any more stress than you’re already under, but I thought it might be easier to talk about it here than in the hustle and bustle of the emergency room.”

She nodded. “I think it is, but there’s something I need to know, too.”

“What’s that?”

She inhaled a deep breath. “From the moment Uncle Dan picked me up I could tell something was wrong. He kept looking in the rearview mirror, and it seemed he almost suspected something was about to happen. When the EMTs were loading him in the ambulance, he opened his eyes long enough to tell me to call you. He needed to tell you something.”

Seth frowned. “Did he say what it was?”

She shook her head. “No. But he had to be restrained on the gurney because he was so determined there was something important he had to tell you about the case, he said. Has he been helping you with a case you’re working on?”

Seth’s stomach curled with fear at Callie’s words. After a moment he shook his head. “No, I’ve been helping him with a case for the past year or so.”

“I don’t understand. What kind of case would he need help with? He’s not a policeman anymore. He’s a judge, and judges don’t investigate cases.”

Seth stood up and paced to the far wall before he turned and walked back to stand in front of her. Dan had mentioned several times that Callie knew nothing about the case he’d worked on for years because he knew she would be upset he was investigating a murder. It had been something he didn’t share with many of the people in his life. Seth happened to be the exception to the rule. But it was time Callie knew, especially if that case was the reason Dan was in surgery fighting for his life.

He dropped back in his chair and nodded. “I guess it’s time you learned about the burden Dan has carried for years. He knew you would try to persuade him to give up if he told you about it, so he never did.”

Callie clasped her hands in her lap and swallowed hard. “What kind of case is it?”

He spread his hands in a helpless gesture and shook his head. “I can only tell you what Dan has told me. This case dates back to when he was on the police force.”

She sat up straighter, her eyes wide. “On the force? But that was years ago.”

Seth nodded. “Twenty-five years, in fact. One morning he was called to the banks of the Mississippi River just south of downtown where a woman’s body had washed up. She looked to be in her early thirties, and she’d been shot. There was no identification on the body, but Dan felt sure that as pretty and as well dressed as she was, someone would report her missing.”

“Did they?” Callie asked.

Seth shook his head. “When he didn’t hear anything, he went by the medical examiner’s office and learned she didn’t fit the description of anyone who’d been reported as missing in Memphis. That made him wonder if she was from somewhere else. He asked about her personal effects, and they gave him an envelope that only contained a locket she was wearing. Inside was the picture of a little boy who looked to be about five or six. Then he asked to see her body. That’s when something strange happened to him.”

“What?”

“He said he stood there and looked down at her and there was something about her face that reminded him of your mother.”

“My mother?” Callie’s question was barely more than a whisper.

“Yes. He said your mother had died a few weeks before, and you had just come to live with him. You’d cried the night before for your mother, and he wondered if the little boy in the picture in the locket was crying for his mother. So he made a pledge to the dead woman that he wouldn’t rest until he’d found her family and returned her body to them. When no one ever came forward to claim the body, Dan bought a burial plot and a tombstone and had the woman buried at his own expense. For the past twenty-five years, every time he read or heard about a missing woman, he’d check it out to see if it was his victim, but it never has been.”

“He had her buried and a tombstone placed at her grave?”

“Yes.”

“What name did he put on the tombstone?”

“Since he didn’t know her name, he decided to give her one. He thought she deserved more than Jane Doe. She needed a special name, so he put the name Hope on her tombstone.”

“Hope?”

“Yes. He said it was a name that fit his feelings toward her—hope that he could return her to her family. Through the years, every time he grew discouraged and ready to give up, he’d visit her grave. Seeing that name on her tombstone would remind him that somewhere there had to be somebody hanging on to the hope that their wife or mother or daughter would be returned to them. And he’d promise her again that he wouldn’t give up. He would find her killer, and he’d return her to her family.”

Callie nodded. “That sounds like Uncle Dan. He’s got such a good heart. All he wanted to do was help someone, and now it looks like his good intentions may have put him in danger.” She was silent for a moment. “I can’t believe Uncle Dan never told me about this case.”

“It became a very personal cause with Dan to return her to her family. He knows you have issues over your father’s death and his involvement in law enforcement. He wanted to distance you from the things in his life that haunted him so you could be happy in the life you’d chosen. He tried to do everything he could to make that happen.”

“I know.” She unclasped her hands and rose to her feet. “And yet all that time he was trying to make my life better, he was obsessed with returning this woman to her family. I wish I had known so I could have made it easier for him.”

Seth stood and faced her. “Don’t blame yourself, Callie. This is the way he wanted it. But now that things have turned dangerous, you need to know what’s at stake. I only hope if he has found out something, he’ll be able to tell me what it was. I’d like to bring closure to the case that Dan has never been able to walk away from—and I’d like to see whoever did this to Dan brought to justice.”

She nodded. “I hope you can. What happens if he dies? Will anyone else take the case?”

“I work in the Cold Case Unit now with two partners, and we’ll keep it on our radar. After all, that’s our job, working cold cases.”

She bit down on her lip and thought for a moment before she spoke again. “You’re right. That’s what you do. But it’s not what he does anymore.”

Seth regarded her with a questioning gaze and frowned. “What do you mean?”

She balled her hands into fists and clenched them at her side. “Uncle Dan hasn’t been a policeman in over twenty years. He shouldn’t have put himself in danger like this.”

Tears flowed down her face, and Seth rose to his feet. “What are you saying, Callie?”

“I’m saying if he lives I’m going to insist on some changes. First of all, I’m sure there will be a long recuperation time. I think it would be best if I took him back to Virginia with me. I can see that he gets all the help he needs, and I’ll be there to take care of him. Maybe there he can put this case behind him.”

Seth shook his head. “As long as there’s breath in Dan’s body, I don’t think he’ll be able to put this case out of his mind.”

“You don’t understand!” she cried out. “I lost my father when he tried to stop a guy on drugs from robbing a convenience store. Now it’s possible this murder that happened twenty-five years ago is the reason my uncle is fighting for his life. I can’t lose him, too, like I lost...”

She stopped, and a look of panic crossed her face. Seth nodded. “Were you going to add me to that list, too? Were you going to say like you lost me because you couldn’t bring yourself to marry a policeman?”

Callie jumped to her feet and clenched her fists at her sides. “This is no time for us to discuss our past, Seth. My uncle’s survival is the most important thing now.”

After a moment, he nodded. “You’re right, Callie. Whatever we once had died two years ago, but I don’t think Dan will give up on this case as easily as you did on us.”

She glared at him before she dropped back in her chair, propped her elbows on her knees and buried her face in her hands. Seth stared at her and then glanced up at the clock. Eight-thirty. He sighed. It was going to be a long night.

Four hours later, Seth stopped pacing the floor and turned toward the door when it opened. Callie glanced over her shoulder, then slowly rose to her feet. Seth moved to stand next to her.

The doctor stepped into the room and stopped when he saw them. Tired lines etched his craggy face, and his wrinkled, green scrubs hung on his slender frame. He pulled the surgery cap from his head and sighed.

Beside him, Seth heard a mewling groan in Callie’s throat, and he grasped her arm to steady her as the doctor walked toward them.

TWO

It’s bad news. I know it is.

The thought wouldn’t quit running through Callie’s mind as the doctor came closer. She wished she could put her fingers in her ears and not hear what he was about to tell her, but that wasn’t practical. She felt Seth grab her arm, but she couldn’t turn her head to look at him.

“Miss Lattimer?”

“Yes, I’m Callie Lattimer.”

The doctor stopped in front of her. The green surgery mask dangled from his hand. “I’m Dr. Singer. I’ve just finished operating on your uncle.”

Callie hadn’t thought it possible, but her heart rate increased. “H-how is he?”

Dr. Singer rubbed his hand across the top of his head. “He made it through surgery, but he’s not out of the woods yet. He’s fortunate that the EMTs arrived so quickly, especially since he almost quit breathing on us. But on the way here they were able to stem some of the blood flow, which is very important in wounds of this nature. Another favorable factor in his case is that the tract of the bullet doesn’t seem to be extensive. There is good brainstem function, which gives me hope that if he survives, his rehabilitation may not be too extensive.”

Seth’s hand tightened on her arm and then released. He exhaled a deep breath, and she knew he was as relieved to hear the news as she. “Oh, Dr. Singer, this is good news.”

He held up his hand in warning. “Don’t get me wrong. There are still a lot of things that can go wrong. We’re moving him to the Critical Care Unit to monitor him. There is some swelling of the brain, and I’ve removed a portion of the skull to relieve the pressure. We can take care of that later if all goes well. The next few weeks are critical.”

Callie nodded. “I understand. When can I see him?”

“Now, if you want to. He’s settled in the unit, and the nurses there will let you in for a few minutes. Then you should go home and get some rest. You’ve been through a lot tonight, and you’ve got some tough days ahead.”

“I understand, Doctor. And thank you for what you’ve done.”

He smiled. “I’m glad I could be of service. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Callie turned back to Seth as the doctor left the chapel. “Would you like to go with me to see Uncle Dan?”

“I would, and then I’ll drive you to Dan’s house.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can get a cab.”

He frowned. “I don’t mind.”

“No, really, Seth. You don’t have to do it.”

He gritted his teeth and raked his hand through his hair. “I said it’s okay, Callie. After all, I promised Dan I’d take care of you, and I’m not going back on my word to him.”

His words snaked out toward her, and she reeled as if he’d slapped her. Of course, he wasn’t doing it for her. It was because he’d promised her uncle. She nodded. “I understand. Thank you for offering to take me home.” They turned to walk to the door, but Callie stopped after taking a few steps. “Oh, I forgot. My luggage is still in Uncle Dan’s car. Is it possible to get it tonight?”

“I’m sure we can. Captain Wilson is on duty. I’ll call him right now and see where they towed the car, then I’ll take you by there to get your bags before I drive you home. Go ahead and check on Dan, and I’ll meet you in the E.R. waiting room.”

“Thanks, Seth. I appreciate it.”

They stopped at the elevator, and Seth pushed the button. When the doors opened, he stepped back to let her enter. “I know Dan will be unconscious, but tell him I’ll see him in the morning.”

“I will.”

As Callie approached the Critical Care Unit, she noticed a room on the left side of the corridor. People, who she assumed to be family members of patients, lay in lounge chairs in the room. A young woman in a nurse’s uniform rose from behind a desk as she entered.

“May I help you?”

Callie nodded. “Dr. Singer told me my uncle has been brought to Critical Care and I could see him. His name is Dan Lattimer.”

The young woman smiled. “Yes, he’s here. I’ll be glad to take you in.”

She came around the desk and led Callie through the double doors at the end of the hall. Callie had never been in a unit like this before, and she didn’t know what to expect. She swallowed and stepped into the long room with a hallway that ran in front of glassed-in cubicles. A nurse’s station faced the small rooms. Monitoring machines hummed in the otherwise silent ICU, and shivers ran up Callie’s arm.

A man in a dark suit sat in a chair outside one of the small cubicles, and he rose when she approached. “Miss Lattimer?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris White. I’m here to guard your uncle. Dr. Singer told me you’d be coming up.”

Callie glanced past him into the small room behind the marshal. She saw someone in the bed, but with all the bandages she couldn’t tell if it was her uncle or not. She swallowed past her nausea and stared at the still form. “Is that my uncle?”

“Yes,” the marshal said. “You can go in.”

Callie hesitated a moment before she stepped inside and inched toward the bed. He was covered with a white sheet, but his arm lay motionless at his side. She placed her purse in a chair at the foot of his bed, eased up beside him and covered his hand with hers.

One of the machines monitoring his vital signs beeped, and she glanced at it. She had no idea what all the numbers displayed stood for, but she did know as long as they were showing up it meant her uncle was alive. Her gaze drifted over the pale face almost covered with bandages and she brushed at the tears that flooded her eyes.

“I’m here, Uncle Dan, and so is Seth,” she whispered. “The doctor says you came through the surgery fine. If I know you, you’ll be up and about before we know it. I wanted to see you before I went home to get some rest, but I’ll be back in the morning. You have a good night. I love you.”

She wanted to stay with him, to watch over him as he had done so many times when she was a child and sick, but she knew it wouldn’t be allowed in this unit. She had to trust his well-being to people who’d been trained to care for critical patients. She fought back another rush of tears as she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before she stepped outside and stopped next to the marshal. Before she could speak, an alarm sounded, and two nurses who’d been at their station when she entered earlier suddenly ran to a cubicle several doors down from her uncle’s.

Her eyes grew wide. “What’s happening?”

The marshal nodded in the direction of the commotion. “It looks like one of the other patients is having some problems.”

“Then I’d better leave. Thank you for watching over my uncle, Marshal White. Maybe I’ll see you again.”

“We’ll have a marshal on him until the shooter is caught. Don’t worry about him. Go on home and get some sleep.”

She smiled, turned and walked out of the unit. As she headed toward the elevator, she thought of Seth waiting downstairs and was glad he said he’d drive her to collect her luggage from Uncle Dan’s car. Getting in his house shouldn’t be a problem because she still carried a key to the front door on her key ring. She punched the button for the elevator and froze in place.

Her purse. It was still in the chair at the end of Uncle Dan’s bed. She must really be tired if she hadn’t realized she’d left without it.

With a groan, she retraced her steps to the Critical Care Unit. She glanced in the waiting room as she passed by and came to a sudden stop. Marshal White stood beside the vending machine, drinking a soft drink. He glanced her way and smiled. “What are you doing back?”

She frowned. “I forgot my purse. Why are you out here?”

He swallowed a sip of his drink. “One of the nurses needed to check Judge Lattimer’s vital signs and said it would be okay for me to get something to drink while he was busy in the room.”

Callie frowned. “I didn’t see a male nurse while I was in there.”

Marshal White shrugged. “I think he’d just come down to help them since that other patient was having problems.”

Callie nodded. “Do you think it would be okay for me to step in and get my purse?”

“I think so. Go ahead.”

She walked to the entrance into the unit and only hesitated a moment before pulling the door open. Once inside, she looked toward the room where the nurses had been working earlier. Since there was no one at the desk, she assumed they were still busy with the patient, and she eased toward her uncle’s room.

The curtains had been pulled around the cubicle, blocking sight into the room. Her first thought was that it was probably standard procedure when they were working with a patient, but she frowned when she noticed that the curtains hadn’t been pulled in the room where the nurses still worked. She tiptoed to her uncle’s space, pulled back the curtain and slipped into the room.

A nurse was bent over his bed and didn’t seem to hear when she entered. She spotted her purse and was about to reach for it when she froze in place. Fear shot through her body like a bolt of lightning. The nurse wasn’t administering any kind of aid. Instead, he was holding a pillow over her uncle’s face.

With a loud scream, she sprang on the man’s back and grabbed him around the neck. His body jerked in surprise, and he twisted to free himself. “What...?” he yelled as he reached up and grasped her hands.

Callie screamed again and clawed at the surgical mask covering the man’s face. It slipped from his mouth, and Callie glimpsed a jagged scar down the right side of his face. The mask slipped farther, and she caught sight of a star tattoo on his neck.

The attacker hunched his shoulders and heaved with enough force to knock Callie from his back. She sailed backward and hit the wall with a loud thud. The man whirled, pulled a gun from his waistband and aimed it at her. Before he could pull the trigger, Marshal White appeared in the doorway, his gun drawn.

“Hold it right there!” he yelled.

The attacker whirled and pulled the trigger. The sound echoed off the walls, and Marshal White slumped to the floor. The shooter lunged for the door, jumped over the marshal’s body and sprinted down the hallway. Callie rushed to the door and caught sight of him as he ran through the exit at the far end of the hallway. Realizing she wouldn’t be able to catch him, she turned back in time to see the two nurses who’d been cowered against the wall outside the other patient’s room straighten up.

One of them pushed to her feet and glanced at her coworker. “I’ll check the marshal and the judge. You call security and get us some help.”

The other one ran to the nurses’ station and picked up the phone while the one who’d spoken knelt next to Marshal White. She looked up at Callie. “What happened?”

“There was a man in scrubs trying to suffocate my uncle. If I hadn’t come back for my purse, he’d be dead now.”

The nurse nodded and called out to the other one. “The marshal needs to get to surgery right away. I’ll check Judge Lattimer.”

Callie stood in the cubicle, unsure what to do as nurses and security guards poured into the unit. She glanced from her uncle to the marshal on the floor before she picked up her purse and sat down in the chair where it had lain.

Around her it seemed as if some kind of ordered chaos erupted. Nurses bent over her uncle, checking his vitals. A gurney appeared beside the marshal, and within minutes he was whisked away to surgery. A security guard stood behind the nurses’ station, barking orders into a mike attached to the lapel of his shirt.

She rubbed her hands over her eyes and shuddered. When was this nightmare going to end? One of the responders glanced up from checking her uncle and jerked her head toward the door. “You need to wait outside until we finish here.”

Callie took a deep breath, straightened her shoulders and shook her head. “I’m not moving from here until there’s someone else from the U.S. Marshal’s office at that door. If it wasn’t for me, my uncle would be dead right now.”