Jared'sfinal Read online

  She poked her head around the door to see if Jared was sleeping through the noise and he had the strangest look on his face.

  “You!” he said, reflexively hitting the call button. Damn, Miles had him jumping at shadows.

  “Shhh, keep your voice down. Do you want me to get thrown out?”

  “I just hit the call button, duck into the bathroom.” They could hear the nurse coming down the hall. Traci quickly ducked into the bathroom; she got the door shut just in time.

  “Mr. Cassidy, is there a problem? You seemed fine when I was here 10 minutes ago,” the nursed asked.

  “I’m sorry, nurse, I was excited about the play.” He pointed to the game on the TV. “I hit the button accidentally. I apologize. By the way, would it be possible for me to change rooms for the night, something closer to the nurse’s station?” He didn’t want to go into detail right then with Traci listening.

  “Is there a problem with this room?”

  “It’s just that I don’t want to be bothered, and I would prefer people don’t know which room I’m in.”

  “Well, I’ll have to ask the charge nurse, but I don’t think that will be possible without administrative permission,” she answered looking at him quizzically.

  “That’s fine then, I’ll cope, I’m being discharged in the morning anyway.” Oh great, he thought, as the nurse left the room, I just told the nurse I don’t want visitors and Miles and Danny are on their way.

  After a moment, Traci stepped out of the bathroom. “Well if you don’t want visitors, Jared, I’ll leave now!” she hissed at him.

  “Ah come on Traci, I didn’t mean you. I am curious though, what are you doing here?”

  “I came here because I need to ask you a question.”

  “Do you want to put your shoes on first?”

  “Just be quiet and listen, I’ll keep this short and sweet. . . .”

  “Well, what is it?”

  “Just give me a sec. Okay, do you keep doing all that stuff for me like mowing the lawn and changing the oil in my car and taking down my Christmas lights because you see me as another sister, like Jade? Or is it something else?”

  “It’s something else. And I’m glad we finally got that straightened out. So you’ll call Brad and let him know?”

  “Let Brad know what?” she asked.

  “That you’re dumping him. Honestly, you can’t mean to keep seeing him now that you’ve come to your senses and finally seen what I’ve been doing,” Jared said in a reasonable voice.

  “I have no real idea what you’re talking about. And Brad is going to stay my friend. I came here to find out what was going on in that tiny brain you males pass around to share. Unfortunately, it looks like today is not your turn,” she said feeling a little patronized.

  “Okay, I’ll explain it to you in a little while but right now, I really gotta take a leak. Do you think you could help me to the door of the bathroom?”

  “A leak,” she squeaked, “I’ll give you leak.” She stalked over, dropped her purse and shoes on the chair, and then helped him off the bed. As they were walking across the floor she said, “Just remember, Jared, you said I was your ‘something else’ but I didn’t say you were my anything. If you want to be my ‘something else’, you’ve got your work cut out for you.”

  By then he was in the bathroom, so he closed the door in her face. Damn, he had a nice ass, she thought as she went back over to the chair to get her purse and her heels. She was thinking that now was a good time to leave and had just picked up the strap of her purse when she noticed a card stuck in some roses on the table by the bed. Some woman had better not be sending flowers to HER ‘something else’, she thought. She heard the flush and then the water running in the sink. Too late, I missed my chance to get away. She turned and had taken a step towards the bathroom when the door from the hall started opening.

  Before the person got all the way in the room and turned towards her, Jared called out from the bathroom, “Traci, come in here and help me back to bed. Don’t you go sneaking out on me before we talk.” Then three things happened at once, Jared opened the door to the bathroom and looked into the eyes of a man wearing latex gloves and holding a scalpel. Traci saw a man wearing latex gloves and holding a scalpel sneaking into Jared’s room, screamed and swung out with her purse. And Helmut Grupp, a man with plans to kill Jared, came face to face with his intended victim, heard an earth shattering scream, and lost his murder weapon as he turned towards the sound. The screamer swung a purse, holding what must have been bricks, into his wrist. “Autch!” Not wanting to be there when security arrived, he fled.

  Chapter 4

  Jared tried to chase after the man, but was unable to. Traci ran after him and kept Jared from falling but it was too late to catch the perp. They could see him entering the stairwell at the end of the hall.

  They’d just made it back to the bed when the nurse rushed in, closely followed by Miles and Danny.

  “What the hell?” Miles said.

  “Guy with knife, six-one, brown and brown 220, black turtleneck over jeans. He took the east stairwell,” Jared ground out. He’d aggravated his incisions and was having trouble taking a deep breath. Traci just stood there, in shock. Miles and Danny raced out to see if they could catch up with the guy in the stairwell.

  The nurse took Jared’s blood pressure and temperature, then sat Traci in the chair, and gave her a cup of water.

  Miles came back into the room. “He got clean away. Sorry, boss. Are you okay, did you get hurt?” Danny stepped in a few moments later and shook his head. “Looks like it’s you this douche bag wants, not me,” he said.

  “I’m okay, just trying to keep you on your toes. I’m glad you’re clear, Danny and don’t worry, this guy’s gonna find out I don’t go down easy.” Jared joked to break up the tension.

  “I made some calls on my way back up. Security will be here in a while to check on you and see that your room gets changed. And Jade, who was in Zach’s office when I called, is threatening the administration with bodily harm for having such sucky security. Zach is trying to get her settled down, but don’t think that will happen anytime soon. She is riled,” Danny added.

  Jared nodded and he heard his cell phone chirp across the room. Miles turned to get it and frowned at the screen. “Unknown?”

  Jared took the phone and grimaced a little. “Chief Cassidy,” he said briskly into the phone.

  A voice he had not heard for months came over the phone, “Code Sigma.” Jared frowned at the phone. His friend and Fire Team partner from the Air Force, Colton was calling him with a code. What the hell was going on? Code Sigma meant that he needed to contact him on a secure line.

  “Will do,” he said into the phone and hung it up. “I need a secure line,” he said to his brothers, who raised their eyebrows but nodded. They had the satellite phone in the truck. Danny went to recover it.

  “What’s up?” Miles said.

  “That was Colton, something must be going on.”

  Colton, Lance, and Dom were his Fire Team partners. They met in Tech school and found they had the same assignments. From that day on, they had been inseparable.

  Jared’s fire team, Team Alpha, was assigned to the Cadre squad at the Security Forces Creek Defender Air Base Defense School at Sembach Air Base near Ramstein AB. They were tactically sound in Urban Warfare. They were known as team Bold Lightening.

  Team Bravo was assigned to the Logistics squad at the same school as Jared’s team. His team was what the Air Force called ‘tactically sound in non-lethal tactics’. They were known as team Red Horse.

  If one of his team was contacting him, there was something wrong.

  When Jared’s team had all reached their release date, they retired at the same time. Not wanting to train with another group. Colton, Lance, and Dom had started their own security business when they came home. He thought about joining them for a brief moment, but the call of Colorado had been too strong. Still they were as much his f
amily as his brothers were, and they kept in touch with regular emails. They had seen a lot of bad things together and for months after his return, the nightmares had plagued them all. Late night phone calls had been the only thing that kept them sane through that time.

  Danny brought the sat phone in and Jared held out his hand and then dialed the familiar number.

  “It’s me,” he said into the phone.

  “Good, listen up, Team Red Horse has been wiped out. Lance was driving home from work last night and his brakes failed. When he finally got the truck stopped, he found the brake lines had been cut. You need to keep your eyes open,” Colton said. “Until we can figure out what the hell is going on.”

  Jared closed his eyes. The Bravo team had been four great guys. They had worked with them often. Last he heard, they had also gotten out and were working on the outside with a private consulting company.

  “I think maybe you should hear about my last few days before you start. I’m in the hospital with a gunshot wound and a man tried to take me out with a scalpel not 20

  minutes ago. I didn’t get a good look at him, even though he looked right at me. He had a sweater on and had pulled the collar up over his nose. He was brown and brown, six-one, six-two about 220-240 ,” Jared said as he grimly repeated the description he’d just given his brothers into the phone.

  His brothers were watching him closely, waiting for him to give some indication about what was going on.

  “Fuck,” Colton said and then talked to someone in the background, telling them the situation. “I’m on my way. Lance and Dom are staying here to do research. I’ll be your back up for now until we figure this whole thing out. You need to figure out where we can go that has communication but not a lot of people. It may come down to luring them out in the open for a confrontation.”

  Jared nodded and then looked at his family. He would have to alert everyone. His brothers and Zach needed to be on their toes in case they came after family.

  They talked for a few more minutes making a plan of when and where to meet. Zach would go and pick him up from the airport. Zach had met the men several times over the years.

  “We don’t know much,” he said when he hung up the phone and looked at his brothers who were staring at him expectantly. “The Bravo Team I served with has all been killed under suspicious circumstances. Lance had his brakes in his truck cut and now me.

  They think some mission we worked on together is somehow connected. Dom and Lance are researching and then they will come out. Colton is flying out in a few hours and will be here when I’m released. He’ll help protect me.” Miles cleared his throat. “Jared, this isn’t our jurisdiction, hospital security has already called the locals in. You’re going to need to make a statement. For that matter, so will Traci.”

  “Okay, but keep it brief, she was across the room and it happened so fast, she couldn’t have seen much. I don’t want her involved in this. It shouldn’t touch her,” Jared ground out and then clenched his jaw together.

  At that point, Traci, who’d been sitting quietly in the chair by the bed this entire time spoke up, “Actually, I got a much better look at him than you know, or even he knows.

  Since this wasn’t actually visiting hours, I snuck in through the emergency room. I guess this guy had the same idea. While I was waiting for a clear shot to the elevators, I saw him walking in from the parking lot. I got a good look at his face.” She finished.

  “Local cops are not going to be able to handle this guy. You’ll have to give a statement and then I want you tucked away safe.” He growled.

  Just then, Jade came flying into the room followed by Zach and Brad.

  “How did you get here so fast Zach, it’s only been about 40 minutes.”

  “Jade was worried. When Jade is worried, then I’m worried, so we hit lights and sirens the whole way.”

  Miles started giving Zach a rundown on what happened and Jade had gone over to give Traci a hug; she looked like she needed it. When the door to the room opened again, standing in the doorway were a hospital security guard, a doctor and two policemen.

  The doctor immediately spoke up. “Excuse me, but all of you will have to leave, I need to examine the patient. There is a waiting room down by the nurse’s station. I will be speaking to them about the number of people they’ve let in here.”

  “Uh, doc, do you know how long you’ll be? We need to get a statement about what happened here,” asked one of the policemen standing in the doorway.

  The hospital security guard, seeing how many cops were already there, tapped the other new policeman on the shoulder and said he’d be at the nurse’s station if they needed him, not that he expected that to happen.

  Zach, Jade, and Danny all left immediately to wait. Miles waited until Zach and Jade had made it down the hall a ways and then turned to the locals. He handed over an evidence bag with the scalpel in it and showed him where it had been lying on the floor.

  He’d taken pictures with his phone before he picked it up. “Why did you disturb the evidence?” the officer asked.

  “People were practically tripping over it and the door almost knocked it across the floor.

  The perp was wearing gloves and the nurse says its hospital property, you can see the stamp on the handle, so it’s unlikely to provide you with leads, just a weapon of opportunity.”

  The doctor who had stepped over to the bed and was trying to get Jared to lay back, spoke up again, “You really need to step out now, you can come back and take a statement in 15 minutes.”

  Miles, Traci and the two local cops stepped into the hall. “Let me introduce myself, I’m Officer Davis and this is Officer Cavanaugh. I’m going to ask Officer Cavanaugh to stay here by the door. Miss, is there a reason you didn’t leave when the others did?”

  “Yes, I was in the room when that…when that man tried to attack Jared. And after I sat and got myself together, I realized I’d seen him downstairs before I came up. I got a pretty good look at him.” Traci explained to Officer Davis.

  “Okay, then we’ll need to take your statement too. And you, Officer?” asked Davis.

  “I’m Miles Cassidy, the intended victim’s brother, I’m with Johnstown PD, and the intended victim is my older brother and Chief of Police for Johnstown, Jared Michael Cassidy. While this incident took place here in your jurisdiction, the original shooting did not.”

  “Shooting?” interrupted Davis.

  “That’s right, two days ago he was shot. The state police took that statement as we were in an unincorporated area at the time. What you need to understand is we have new information which leads us to believe that there are other linked crimes; at least three deaths in other parts of the country. There is also a military element, as all of the victims served in the same unit. So, while the incident here at the hospital is all yours, it’s a piece of a larger puzzle that’s being handled out of our office,” Miles explained.

  “Why is that?” asked Officer Davis.

  “Because we’re not discounting the possibility that this could be a separate incident from the others; we’ve already begun searching all of Jared’s case files both here and in Denver, where he served before moving home to take over as Chief,” replied Miles.

  “Gotcha, okay, we’ll still take our statements, do our due diligence. We’ll share our reports with you. All we ask is that you share what you find out with us.”

  “Will do. The more of us working this, the better chance we have of finding this asswipe.”

  “Alright then, now that we’ve gotten the pissing match out of the way,” he said with a smile, “How about I take your statement, Miss Shaw? Let’s go find a quiet spot to sit and have a chat. You’ll take Chief Cassidy’s statement, okay Rory?” he asked his partner.

  “Sure thing Brett, as soon as the Doc clears it,” Officer Cavanaugh answered.

  Miles decided to stick around and speak with Officer Cavanaugh, chatting together in low voices and helping him keep watch. Officer Davis an
d Traci went to the nurse’s station and he asked where they could sit privately. The nurse there, with a name tag that read ‘Barbara Brownley RN’, told them to go ahead and use the nurse’s break room situated just behind the station.

  ***

  While Miles and Traci were busy with the local police, Jade was getting the full story about what was going on. She was really worried about her brother and Traci.

  Danny explained what had happened until then. Jade paced and grumbled as she listened intently to what was going on, while Zach folded his arms across his chest and took everything in.

  “So, what you are telling me is that some crazy, fuckhead asshole is out to kill our brother and Traci can identify him, which puts her in danger too?” Jade said throwing her arms up in the air in frustration. They had just settled down after Tommy had screwed up things and now this. She was not sure how much more excitement the family could take.

  “The best thing to do would be to get everyone to your family’s ranch. We can come up with a plan once we’re in a secured location,” Zach said.

  Danny ran his hands through his short hair and said with a slight smile, “Alright, Chief.

  We have enough cars and people here to make sure no one follows us.” From the door of the waiting room, they watched as the doctor exited Jared’s room and watched the other policeman and Miles go back in. When the officer came out, they made their way back to his side quickly. Jade looked at him concerned, wanting to know if this latest incident hurt him more.

  Jared smiled and said, “All good. The doc said that I’m fine. Just shaken up. Don’t worry squirt, I’ll be out of bed and a pain in your backside before you know it.” Jade nodded and he saw the tears pooling in her eyes. “Dumbass,” she muttered and he smiled. It was her usual term of endearment for him so he knew she was trying to cheer him up.

  “So what are we gonna do?” Danny asked and looked at Jared closely, making sure he wasn’t lying to their little sister and wasn’t going to keel over any second.