Dead On Arrival

Fourteen

It seemed like hours passed while Jagger and I stared at each other and then at the papers sitting inside the sex chair, which is what I now called it in my mind. Had to be, I thought, looking around this room.

Apparently Jagger pulled his thoughts to the present sooner than I; he stepped forward and knelt near the chair.

Whoa.

Be still my heart and hormones.

I swallowed, mentally chastised myself, relived kissing ER Dano for a few nanoseconds (reminding myself we had a date, a real date, in two days) and bent down next to Jagger. My joints would kill me if I stayed this way too long, so I joined him on the floor, totally ignoring how our shoulders touched or our knees brushed each other’s. Totally.

Although I had these sensual feelings being so near a hot guy, I told myself that Jagger and I were really only coworkers. Right now, ER Dano was a front-runner.

“Anything?” I whispered.

He seemed engrossed in a paper that he’d taken off the top of the pile. It appeared as if it had been thrown into the chair without being tucked inside one of the many folders.

“TLC carried dead bodies,” Jagger said.

I raised my eyebrows. Probably looking like a curious kid, I said, “They can’t. They can’t carry dead bodies.”

Jagger looked at me. Was that an “are you stupid” kinda look? I studied him a few seconds to make up my mind, but he saved me the time when he said, “You’re absolutely right, Sherlock, but look at this.” He held out the paper toward me.

Thankful it wasn’t an insulting look, I shined my flashlight onto the paper. “Oh, my goodness. They carried dead bodies.”

“Many times.”

I looked at Jagger. “Why would an undertaker call an ambulance instead of transporting the dead body themselves?”

Jagger gave me a kinda “psychiatrist” look. That was a look that said, “What do you think?” much like a shrink would do to get the patient to talk on and on until they cured themselves.

I paused to think. Why the hell…

“Well,” I said, “if they were too busy. That’s it! They must have had calls simultaneously, and if TLC didn’t get their bodies for them, they’d lose that customer to a competitor. There are only three funeral homes in Hope Valley, so the competition is pretty fierce.” I sat back on my heels and noticed Jagger smile in the dim lighting.

My heart danced in my chest.

“So, TLC made extra money. But what about the EMT and paramedics? They had to be involved-”

Jagger handed me a stack of papers from the folder on top. “Check out the names.”

I flipped through the fraudulent papers, noticing the same four names over and over.

“These are all fake names.”

Jagger pulled up to the drive-in window at Dunkin Donuts and once again ordered for both of us without asking. I couldn’t even complain, because tonight was a Boston Cream kinda night. I needed the chocolate-and he knew it.

Once he handed me my order, he drove us to the back, the spot where we always parked-where no one would pay much attention to us-pulled in and shut off the motor.

He took a sip of his black coffee. “You’re sure none of those names struck a chord with you?”

“Did they with you?” I bit down on my donut. Cream shot out the other end, landing on Jagger’s dashboard. “Whoops. Sorry.” I wiped at it, furious that it was all wasted. I really needed sugar and chocolate.

“Nope.”

“Well, we’ve both worked at TLC the same amount of time and both of us are attuned to noticing things-”

He turned to me.

“Shut up. We both are. You just have more experience than me.” I finished off my donut before I aimed the rest of the cream at him.

Licking my fingers, I watched him take a few sips of his coffee and then set the cup in the holder. “Damn it,” he said. “We have to get to Pansy before she leaves this world.”

My body shivered at the thought. “True,” I said, “but whoever killed Payne and stabbed her might also be trying to get to her.”

“Is trying to get to her. Is trying,” Jagger corrected. He cleared his throat and looked as if he were debating whether to tell me something.

“What?”

“Hmm?”

“Come on, Jagger. Spill. You know more.”

“A few hours ago, one of the cops sitting guard outside of Pansy’s room was hit from behind-”

“Shit!”

“Yeah. He wasn’t knocked out completely and before whoever the culprit was could finish the job, an orderly came off the elevator.”

“Did they see anything? Anyone?” I moved closer and leaned toward him as if that would pull words out of Jagger’s mouth. “Huh?”

“Naw. The attacker disappeared so fast, neither the injured guard nor the orderly could even say if it was a man or woman. All they agreed upon was the color of the scrubs.”

“What color?”

He looked at me and said, “Blue.”

I really didn’t relish dealing with a murderer. This fraud stuff was bad enough, but it seemed the stakes grew higher and higher in each of my cases. Evidently greed led to more than just stealing.

It led to murder.

Yikes.

“I’d think a woman might have to smack a guy’s head a few times to knock him out.” I looked at Jagger-wanting agreement.

He shook his head. “Feminists would smack you for that one, but you might have a point.”

I was considering the word “might” as agreement. “Yeah. Hey, what do you think of Sky?”

Jagger’s eyebrows grew together.

“Oh, stop that. Yeah, he’s a hunk, but I’m talking suspect here. I found him in Payne’s office after the stabbing.”

“What do you think?”

I wanted to curse at him, but this was Investigation 101, Jagger style. “I’d be surprised, since he seems like such a great guy, but that doesn’t discount him. Then again, what would his motive be?”

Jagger merely looked at me.

“Right. We don’t have any. But it might be worth looking into.”

He didn’t nod, smile or concur. That, in Jagger-ese, was affirmation enough for me.

“You get any more of those phone messages?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Maybe the caller stopped so they wouldn’t get caught.”

Jagger just sipped his coffee.

We finished our drinks and donuts and Jagger started the engine. I looked at my watch and wanted to say I was tired and had to get up early to do my ride along tomorrow during orientation, but knew he was correct.

No time like the present to beat the “Angel of Death.”

“We’ll stop by your place to change,” Jagger said as we headed south out of the Dunkin Donuts parking lot.

“Change?” I looked at myself all in black and thought, not only did I look perfect for spying, but hot too. Okay, that was my opinion.

“We can’t go walking around the hospital like this, Sherlock.”

Duh. Damn it, I hated when he got the drop on me like that. I should have figured that out myself, and would have, if it hadn’t been such a long day.

And long it was. Seemed like ages since I had “necked” on the beach with ER Dano. I sighed.

“You all right?”

Oh…yeah. I looked at Jagger as we stopped at my condo. “I’m fine. Just fine.” How I wanted to hop into my bed when I got inside though. Suddenly I pictured Airbrush Lady. Well, that was his prerogative.

“Be quiet so we don’t wake Goldie or Miles,” I said to Jagger as I unlocked the door. Wasted words, sure. Jagger was never a ball of energy or a chatty kinda guy anyway.

But what a guy!

Spanky looked up from the couch and smiled sleepily at…Jagger. Good, I thought, you little traitor. Good that you fell asleep down here waiting for me. The little guy always slept in my bed unless I wasn’t there. Served him right.

I turned on the living-room light and walked toward the stairs. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

Jagger was already on the couch with Traitor Spanky fast asleep on his lap!

When I walked into my room, the bed stood out as if it’d grown a hundredfold. It called to me. “Pauline,” I heard it say, “just sit on my edge for a second. It won’t hurt to do that. Only a second. My pillows are so soft.”

Trying to ignore it, I went to my closet, where I shuffled through the many sets of scrubs hanging there. What color would be most inconspicuous? Something rather dull. Rather drab.

Gray.

I certainly wouldn’t stand out in gray. It’d match my eyes and make me look pale and tired-as if I were working the night shift. Perfect. And I sure didn’t want to wear blue, like the person who’d attacked the guard.

I dressed quickly and sat on the edge of the enticing bed to put on my socks and clogs. Typical nursing shoes nowadays. Had to have comfortable feet in a job where one stood so much. I leaned back to pull my sock up…

“Sherlock. Sherlock.”

“Hmm?” I rolled to the side and felt something solid under my hip. In my groggy state, I reached down and pulled out a clog from underneath me. Then I blinked several times in confusion, only to look up into the dark, sexy eyes of…Jagger.

In…my…bedroom…

Oh, my.

Suddenly I flew upright and shoved the clog onto my foot. “All set. I’m all set!”

“And the sun is out,” he said, nodding toward the window.

“Sun? At this hour?” Not sure what the heck hour it really was, I looked at my clock. “Damn. I fell asleep and have to be at TLC in a half hour.” I remained on my side of the bed. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

He raised one eyebrow. “I’ve had more luck raising the dead on several cases.” With that he turned, walked toward the door and said over his shoulder, “Be ready after work. We can’t drag our feet with Pansy’s condition the way it is.”

“Drag our feet? Drag our feet? You should have woken me up!”

He merely turned around and grinned.

And for the rest of the day I’d picture that look that reminded me-Jagger had stood by my bed, watching me sleep.

And, horrified, I’d keep wondering if I…snored.

I’d taken my own car to work so it wouldn’t look as if Jagger and I were in cahoots. That was my idea, and I was still smiling about it as I stepped out into the parking lot and saw ER Dano pulling his truck into his space.

My knees knocked. Ouch.

Taking a big deep breath, I told myself to calm down. He was just a man. A man who I’d kissed. Liked kissing and hoped to kiss more.

I gave a very casual wave, smiled nicely and walked toward the door. Dano was fast on my heels.

“Hey, Nightingale.” His uniform was clean but worn and wrinkled, unlike the snap, crackle, pop of Buzz’s. However, Dano looked so male and hot, no one cared about damn wrinkles.

“Morning.” I kept up my pace even though I wanted to slow, turn and grab him. Get that second kiss out of the way, you know.

“We’ll be doing a daily on the southern border of town today. Be prepared to sit and wait for calls. Bring a magazine or something.” With that he grabbed the door handle before I could, yanked and held it just long enough for me to get through.

I smiled so he couldn’t see. For some reason, I didn’t think ER Dano would want me to acknowledge any gentlemanly moves from such a macho guy.

He turned toward the guys’ locker room with a quick, “Later.”

Too bad he seemed so burned out. Been there. Done that.

I walked to the reception desk, where Lilla sat talking on the phone in French. “Your mom?” I asked quietly.

She winked.

“Say hi for me.” I sat on the chair opposite her desk and waited, wondering if she had anything helpful for me.

Lilla held her hand over the receiver. “Fabio is asking how the case is going.” She shook her head and winked at me.

I groaned. “Fantastic. Tell him fantastic.”

She continued on in French at what seemed like a lot more words than my “Fantastic. Tell him fantastic,” but didn’t translate for me after her “Adieu.”

Frankly I could care less about the jerk Fabio. I leaned toward her and asked, “Hey, Lilla, anything for me?”

She curled her lips. “Pansy’s guard was attacked-”

“Um. I know.” For a few seconds I wondered how she knew. Did Jagger tell her? If so, when would Jagger have seen Lilla? Maybe Buzz had told her. They seemed to have been getting along. Yeah, Buzz. I was going with Buzz.

“Morning, ladies,” a deep voice said from behind.

I swung around to see Sky heading toward the lounge. I looked at Lilla. “Yum.”

She giggled. Only someone dressed exclusively in black and having a face and body like her could get away with giggling and not have it be annoying. “You are special for him, chéri?”

“Special?”

“Interested.”

“Ah. No. Actually, he’s a doll and one heck of a looker, but no.” Just then ER Dano walked out of the locker room, and turned toward the lounge without a word. I remained silent.

Lilla’s eyebrow rose.

“What?”

“Ah. I see.” She winked at me and shuffled some papers on her desk.

I got up, turned toward the lounge and then looked back. “No you don’t see. You can’t see. There’s nothing to see.”

She chuckled. “You have the hots, as they say here, for Monsieur Dano.”

It wasn’t a question, merely an astute observation. “Does it really show?” I asked quietly.

She touched my hand. “No. No, chéri. It doesn’t.”

“Yeah, right. Thanks for that. I’ll be more careful,” I said, laughing.

While the two of us continued laughing, the intercom above my head boomed, “Copter 123, report. Copter 123, report.”

“That for Sky?” I asked as Lilla’s phone rang.

She nodded, answered and sounded concerned.

I waited a few moments for Lilla to hang up. “You have to go, chéri. They need a registered nurse on this flight. The trained helicopter paramedic will be with you too.”

For a second I was glad I hadn’t had my morning cup of tea yet, or else it might be climbing up my throat right about now.

Out on the helipad I met Nicky Straight, the paramedic. He explained that the patient we had to pick up needed some IV meds in transport that he wasn’t trained to give.

Okay, I told myself. That didn’t sound too bad. IV meds I could do. Watching for signs of distress I could do.

Whirr. Whirr. The helicopter’s blades started to turn.

Riding in this tin can with blades, I couldn’t do. Blades held on by only one nut, I’d heard.

Sky looked out the window and gave Nicky and me a thumbs-up. For a second, I thought of Sky being a suspect. But he had no motive for crashing a helicopter with a patient on it, so I tucked that potential fear away.

We both stuck our helmets on and stepped inside. I had to. A person’s life depended on it and that’s why they had hired me at TLC. Even though my job was investigating medical insurance fraud, I was a nurse first.

And always would be.

Not to mention I’d be alert for murder clues too.

Sky was a hell of a pilot, was all I could think, as we landed safely on the roof of the hospital, where a group stood waiting with the patient we had to transport to a larger trauma center.

They worked quickly and in such a synchronized way that I felt much calmer and safer at the job, especially when I looked into the pale blue eyes of the woman on the stretcher. She couldn’t have been older than her early twenties. Her coloring was cyanotic and those lovely blue eyes were quite glassy.

Didn’t look good at all.

I said a silent prayer and she started to mumble something. I couldn’t hear much with the helmet on and the blades of the helicopter whirring, but I did make out “my kids.”

It didn’t matter what she said, how many kids she had, how old they were. I was bound and determined to get this mother to wherever she needed to go as safely as she needed to go.

So I put all my reservations out of my head.

“You really are one hell of a pilot,” I said to Sky after we landed, unloaded our patient at the destination hospital and got back inside the helicopter.

Nicky strapped himself into his seat and shut his eyes. “I had a late night, you guys.”

Sky shook his head. “Night, buddy.” He turned to me. “Thanks. I try. Isn’t too hard really, though, when you love your job.”

And I could tell he did. We took off and while I was now able to watch the scenery below, Sky’s voice came over the earphones in my helmet.

“You did good, Pauline.”

I smiled and nodded, giving him the thumbs-up.

He chuckled in my ears and maneuvered the helicopter as if we were in a video game.

I laughed, but my insides didn’t find it too funny. When I waved at Sky to calm down, he did.

“How long have you been doing this, Sky?” I thought he’d fly safer and straighter if I kept him busy in conversation.

He chuckled. “Three years with TLC. I used to fly with a hospital out in Phoenix for a few years before that.”

“Oh, what brought you to Connecticut?” Suddenly I sounded interested. Maybe it was the altitude, although, yeah, I knew we weren’t much higher than the power lines (at least I hoped we were higher than the power lines). Maybe it was because Sky was a real looker and a decent pilot to boot. Or, maybe he’d say something that would help my case, or cast suspicion on himself.

I sighed. Anything was possible, and right about now I needed anything to get this case moving-so I wouldn’t have to lie to Fabio again.

Lies always seemed to jump up and bite me in a not-so-pleasant spot.

Sky seemed to hesitate, but at the same time there was a gust of wind that had us shaking. I’d hesitate too. No, I’d land this sucker in the nearest field so the wind wouldn’t blow us into any power lines. Then he said, “Came here for a change and to be with someone special. Didn’t work out though.”

Even through the noise of the helicopter, I could hear him sigh and hear the pain in his voice.

A woman.

Sky had moved nearly across the country for a woman and he was still single and obviously alone. Lonely, maybe.

“Sorry.”

He waved a hand at me, and I worried he needed that hand to fly. “No need to be. Wasn’t meant to last.” He chuckled. “No big deal. I’ve met several since that one, and will meet a hell of a lot more. You always live here?”

I groaned. “Does it show?”

He laughed.

I told him my entire life story, and before I knew it, we were sitting on the helipad at TLC. “Nice, smooth landing,” I said.

Sky nodded at me and got up and nudged Nicky, who woke up and appeared to be rather clearheaded. If I took a quick nap, I was groggy for days. I envied him.

“We need to fill out our paperwork, Pauline,” Nicky said.

“Sure. Later, Sky.” We nodded at each other and I followed Nicky into the lounge, where I got a hot tea, he a coffee. In a few minutes our paperwork was done, and I wondered if the woman Sky had come here to be with had anything to do with TLC.

The entire trip took so long I hadn’t realized that I’d missed lunch. Now I was famished. No one could leave the lounge area since they were all waiting for calls. I wondered where ER Dano and Jagger were. Maybe together sitting on the southern side of town-talking about me! Yikes!

No. No way.

“I’m going to get something to eat. Doesn’t anyone want anything?” I asked the gang, but they all declined since they were used to bringing their own food. Since I was still on orientation, I felt certain that I could leave, so I went to tell Lilla I would be gone.

“To where, chéri?” Her desk was neatly cleaned off. Lilla was a heck of a worker. Just like her mom. Hopefully the powers that be wouldn’t throw her back across the border. I was fairly certain someone had pulled some strings so she could work here.

Fabio? Jagger? Her mom?

“I’m going to…hmm. Not sure.” Half of the day was shot, although the flight was rewarding in the fact that we got the patient safely to her destination, and I’d given her meds on time and without any problems. Now I had to work on my “second” job. I looked at Lilla. “The hospital cafeteria has a chicken Caesar salad to die for.”

Her dark eyes widened. “Oh, chéri, bad choice of words,” she said, grabbed her purse from her desk and took my arm. “You drive. I have to redo my makeup, and we need to stop at your place so I can borrow some scrubs or something for a disguise.”

With that Lilla and I set off to my place, and then to “lunch” in the hospital-only floors below comatose Pansy Sterling.

Hmm…