Chasing The Dead

Chapter Ten

Rossi didn’t have to wait to be buzzed into the ER at Truman Medical Center. He’d been there often enough to interview witnesses, victims, and suspects that whoever was manning the desk hit the button as soon as they saw him, unlocking the door that led to the trauma unit.

He was on a first-name basis with many of the nurses and doctors, though Bonnie Long insisted on calling him Detective Rossi. He figured it was her way of keeping him at arm’s length, which he knew she would do today once she realized why he was there.

Rossi was convinced that Alex Stone had gotten away with murder. It didn’t matter that she’d been acquitted. That was a long way from being innocent. And it wasn’t just that she’d gotten off. It was that she’d skated on one of his cases, and the combination stuck in his craw like a bone splinter even if the world was a better place without Dwayne Reed in it.

He knew plenty of homicide cops who had a case or two they couldn’t let loose, cases they couldn’t solve or that were solved wrong. His clearance rate was high enough that he’d avoided getting hooked. Dwayne Reed’s case changed that, taking more of his time on and off the job than he’d like to admit.

He’d combed through Reed’s case file half a dozen times over the last year, looking for something, anything that would prove he was right, coming up empty each time. He wasn’t certain what he’d do if he found something, since Alex couldn’t be retried for murder. He knew that the Justice Department had prosecuted people acquitted of murder in state court for civil rights violations. Maybe the U.S. attorney would be interested.

When he’d run into Alex last night at the Zoo, he couldn’t resist picking at the scab again, peddling bullshit about not feeling guilty about the men he’d killed, hoping to make her feel worse. He didn’t expect her to confess over a beer, but when he saw what bad shape she was in, he thought it was worth giving her a push. It wasn’t going to happen then and there, but if he kept poking her, it might happen eventually. At least then he’d know for certain. And when he did, he’d figure out what to do about it.

He decided to take a run at Bonnie Long to gauge any fallout from the Zoo. If Alex was going to confess to anyone, it would be her, and he hoped she would be more likely to talk to him than Alex had been. He would reassure Bonnie that Alex couldn’t be prosecuted and that all he was interested in was the truth. She might go for it and she might not, but he didn’t have a better idea.

Watching Bonnie hustle in and out of treatment rooms, he understood why Alex had gone to such lengths to protect her, certain he would have done the same. Bonnie was simply beautiful, even with blood and vomit staining her white coat and her blond hair unraveling around her face. Rossi couldn’t remember bluer eyes. And he’d seen her inner steel firsthand, which was as attractive as any physical feature.

That she loved Alex was a mystery to him but no greater a mystery than any love between two people. He’d chased after love long enough to know what he didn’t know.

It had been a while since he’d seen Bonnie, and he wasn’t certain she’d remember him. He waited until she was standing at the nurses’ station filling out paperwork before approaching her.

“Hi, Doc. Remember me?”

Bonnie looked up from her clipboard. “Of course, Detective Rossi. What can I do for you?”

Rossi looked at the doctors and nurses walking past them. “Is there somewhere quieter we can talk?”

Bonnie’s hand drifted to her throat. “Is Alex. .”

Rossi raised his hand. “Don’t worry. Nothing’s happened. I just need to talk with you-in private.”

Bonnie swallowed and nodded. “Very well.”

She led him out of the ER, down a hallway to a small, windowless office furnished with a desk and two chairs.

“Your office?” Rossi asked.

“No. Just a spare. What’s going on?”

“How’s Alex doing?”

Bonnie folded her arms across her chest. “Detective Rossi, you wouldn’t come here to ask me about Alex unless you had reason to think she wasn’t doing fine, so get to the point. I’ve got patients waiting.”

“Fair enough. I ran into her last night at the Zoo-that’s a bar-”

“Downtown, I know. We go there sometimes.”

“Right. Anyway, she looked like hell. This whole thing with Dwayne Reed is really tearing her up.”

“Stop right there, Detective Rossi. When Alex came home last night, she told me how you treated her. I insisted she file a complaint against you for harassment, but that’s not her way of doing things. However, it’s very much my way, so if you bother either one of us again, you’ll know what to expect.”

Rossi had expected Bonnie to push back, but the threat of a complaint against him wasn’t going to stop him. If she filed one, he’d just add it to his collection.

“Let me ask you something, Doc, just hypothetically. Suppose you got a patient in here, say, a little girl, nine or ten years old, and she’s got a broken arm and burn marks on her leg. You ask the mom how she got hurt and the mom tells you the little girl fell down the stairs and stood too close to the heater. Now, you know that’s bullshit. You know that child’s been abused. What would you do?”

“I’d report it to the authorities as I’m required to do under the law, and I’ve done that many times,” Bonnie said with a self-assured shrug.

“But this time, the authorities investigate and decide that there’s not enough evidence of abuse to prosecute. What would you do then? Would you throw up your hands and say too bad, so sad, the system sucks and there’s nothing I can do about it? Or would you keep pushing because you’re convinced you’re right and no matter how little or low the victim is or how high or loved the perpetrator is, you know what’s right?”

Bonnie blinked, looking past Rossi for a way around his question. Sensing her reluctance, he pressed.

“C’mon, Doc. We’re talking a little girl here, and there’s no one but you to protect her. Everyone else is saying it’s over, move on. Next case. What are you gonna do?”

She raised her palm. “I’m a trauma doctor. I see people every day who are so badly injured there’s nothing I can do to help them. That doesn’t stop me from trying, but I’ve learned there are some things I can’t fix.”

“But you try anyway, and I’ll bet you don’t give up too easy.”

Bonnie’s mouth twitched and she shivered for an instant before regaining her footing. “The problem with your analogy is that there’s nothing more I should do about Alex because she’s innocent.”

“The judge acquitted her because the prosecutor blew the case. That’s not the same as being innocent.”

“I don’t care about any of that. I know Alex. She would never murder anyone.”

Rossi shrugged. “You know what they say about love being blind.”

“Why should I even consider the possibility that Alex is guilty? What do you know that the judge didn’t know and that I don’t know?”

“Did you ever see a movie called The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance?

“No.”

“Too bad. It’s a great flick. Lee Marvin plays this psychopathic cowboy gunslinger who calls Jimmy Stewart out in the street so he can gun him down in a fair fight. But it’s not a fair fight because Stewart is a tinhorn lawyer and he’s no match for Lee Marvin, but he’s got a gun and he goes out there anyway. John Wayne is watching from an alley where nobody can see him and he’s got his rifle on Marvin. In the instant that Marvin and Stewart draw their guns and fire, John Wayne shoots Lee Marvin. Marvin is dead when he hits the ground. Everybody thinks Jimmy Stewart killed him and Stewart becomes a hero, the man who shot Liberty Valance.”

Bonnie shook her head. “I don’t like Westerns and I don’t get your point.”

“Dwayne Reed was a thug. He’d been carrying a gun since he got off his mother’s breast. Alex was no match for him. If he’d had a gun, there’s no way Alex could have beaten him. It wouldn’t have been a fair fight.”

Bonnie turned away from him, not responding.

Rossi didn’t let up. “Tell me you haven’t wondered about that. Tell me you haven’t doubted Alex’s story even a little. Tell me you aren’t at least a little afraid that she’s lied to you all along?”

Bonnie faced him, her face hot and trembling, biting off her words. “Tell me, Detective Rossi, that you haven’t wondered what it’s like to love someone, to trust her with your life and your future. Tell me you aren’t at least a little afraid that you’ll never know what that’s like. And then tell me you don’t have anything better to do than trying to ruin all of that for Alex and me.”

“You said it yourself, Doc. Some patients are hurt so bad they can’t be fixed. Same thing for relationships. If that turns out to be the case for you and Alex, it’ll be on her, not me.” He took a business card from his wallet, tucking it in a side pocket of her white coat. “You ever want to talk to me, give me a call. My cell number is on the card.”

“You go to hell!”

She stormed out of the room. Rossi gave her a moment before following, satisfied he’d shaken Alex and Bonnie’s tree. Now all he had to do was wait and see what fell out of it.