“Maybe you can put a good word in for me with my obstruction case,” replied Decker.
This time Childress perceptibly flinched. “Yes, well.” He cleared his throat heavily. “I think that won’t be a problem.”
Miller added, “I’m sure it won’t be. We’re dismissing the charges, Amos.”
“Good to know.”
“Okay,” said Childress. “Is she ready to talk yet?”
“Let’s go see,” said Decker.
They all trooped into the room. The beds were right next to each other, with Katz on the left and Gardiner on the right.
Gardiner had not regained consciousness. She looked like she was resting peacefully. Decker glanced at Katz. She was moaning slightly and seemed to be moving around a bit, as though she were in pain.
“Well?” said Childress sharply. He was pacing nervously around the room. “Is she going to talk, or did I get called down here for no reason?”
“The doctor’s heading in momentarily,” said Lancaster.
Childress kept pacing and shaking his head. He looked up at Decker. “I know the FBI’s in town. Have they made any progress on this?”
“Not that I know of,” said Decker. “The spy ring got flushed out but had exit plans in place, it seems.”
“I understand that Brad Gardiner managed to slip away from you,” said Childress, a note of gleeful triumph in his tone.
“He managed to slip away from a lot of people,” said Lancaster defensively.
Childress glared at her. “I don’t think Decker, of all people, needs anyone to stand up for him, Mary.”
“I made a mistake,” conceded Decker. “But in my defense, Mitzi Gardiner was shooting at me at the time.”
This statement seemed to take all the fire out of Childress. “Yeah, I guess I would have probably lost him too under those circumstances.” He looked at Lancaster. “Where’s the doctor?”
A moment later a female physician dressed in blue scrubs walked in and greeted them.
Decker said, “How is she?”
“Ms. Katz is stable. And we’re weaning her off the pain medication slowly. There was a great amount of internal damage done. More than we thought initially. She had a very close call.” She glanced at the monitor next to Katz’s bed. “I can’t guarantee anything as far as her being communicative. But let me just make clear that her physical well-being is my chief concern. And if I see any adverse reaction in my patient, I will cut this off instantly. Understood?”
Childress didn’t seem pleased by this but nodded and said gruffly, “Understood. Can we push forward, then? Because this is important.”
The doctor went over to the machine hooked to the IV and manipulated some of the controls. A minute went by and nothing happened. Then Katz began to stir. Everyone drew closer when her eyes fluttered open, though they nearly instantly closed.
While the doctor was watching her closely, Katz opened her eyes once more and slowly looked around. When her gaze alighted on Mars she smiled tenderly.
“You…you saved…” Her voice trailed off and her eyes drooped.
Mars gripped her hand and smiled back. “You’re getting better every day, Rachel. Doc says you’re doing good. Real good.”
Decker stepped forward to stand next to Mars. “Rachel, do you feel up to answering some questions?”
She looked up at him, her brow furrowed. “Questions?”
“Yes. Do you know what happened to you?”
Katz reached up and touched her shoulder. “Sh-shot.”
“Yes. Someone tried to kill you.”
“W-who?”
“We don’t believe he has any personal connection to you. We think he was hired to try to kill you.”
“I-I don’t understand.”
Mars gripped her hand again. “You were telling me about shades of truth, Rachel. Remember?”
She nodded slowly.
“Well, in this case I think shades of truth will set you free.”
Decker said, “We found the room under the American Grill.” He wanted to see her reaction to this, muddled as it might be because of the meds she was on.
She swallowed with difficulty and her eyes fluttered.
Natty came to stand next to Decker, with Childress next to him.
Natty said, “Ms. Katz. We know about Bill Peyton and Brad Gardiner. His wife is lying in the bed next to you. She almost died of a drug overdose.”
Katz looked up at them one by one and her lips started to tremble. “M-Mitzi.”
“Yes,” said Childress. “Lots of people are dying around here, and, frankly, we need answers or others could die too.”
Tears started to stream down Katz’s face and she started to shake. An alarm on her monitor sounded.
The doctor immediately cranked her meds back up and Katz slowly slid back into unconsciousness as the alarm subsided.
“That’s all for now.”
“But we didn’t get anything,” protested Childress.
Natty put a hand on his boss’s arm. “We’ll come back. We’ll get what we need. But she needs to rest now. Let her be.”
Childress looked strangely at Natty, glanced at Decker with a hike of his eyebrows, and shrugged. “Fine. But we can’t let this drag on.”
“It won’t,” said Natty.
Decker looked at Natty for a long moment before glancing at Mars, who was still gripping Katz’s hand and staring down at her. He used his finger to wipe the fresh tears away from her cheeks.
“It’ll be okay, Melvin,” he said quietly.
“You don’t know that.”
“No, I don’t, but we can hope it will.”
“Call me when she can talk again,” said Childress brusquely. He turned and left.
Natty looked after him. “He’s really afraid this is going to reflect badly on him. A spy ring operating right under his nose.”
“I could see how that might give him some sleepless nights,” remarked Decker.
Lancaster approached him. “So what now?”
He looked between Gardiner and Katz. Then his gaze went to the window and he suddenly turned thoughtful. He looked down at his feet, then back up. “The answer’s out there,” he said. “We just have to keep looking.”
Lancaster said, “Where? We’ve got everything covered that we can. But you and I know that Peyton and Gardiner and their team of spies could be out of the country by now, especially if they had access to a private jet.”
“Doesn’t matter. I think we can still find the answers we need.”
“How?” asked Natty.
Decker glanced at him. “You just never know when a helpful witness might pop up.”
“What witness?” said Natty.
Decker headed to the door. “Let’s see if I can show you. But first, we have to take care of something. And take care of it right now.”
Chapter 75
THE UNIFORMED MAN WALKED up the steps to the top floor of a building across the street from Burlington’s main hospital. He carried a sniper rifle and took up a post at a window looking out onto the street. He glanced to his right and then his left. He blended in with the counter-snipers in the area.