35
Pay Close Attention
Detective Reid
It took them longer to get through the secret service blockades around the location of the state dinner than they had expected. Their flashing lights and sirens meant nothing to the men in black suits who blocked every road that led to the event. Reid had bargained, ordered, and screamed at the men to no avail. It wasn’t until they saw President Wilkins’s motorcade speed out of the area in the opposite direction that they were finally allowed to move past the barricade. James drove like a maniac, pushing Daisy to her limits, but the Senator and his wife were already gone when they arrived at the building.
They interviewed a number of guests and staff at the party for their first hand accounts, and every direct witness told them the same story. The Senator and his wife were dancing, among a number of other couples, when Margaret Ross suddenly collapsed. They were surrounded by hundreds of witnesses, and unimaginable levels of security. This was the safest place in the city on this night, the safest place in the country. Try as Reid might, he couldn’t find a way that the Collective could have done this. He and James couldn’t even get in the event while the president was still in the vicinity, and they were law enforcement.
It appeared to be nothing more than a remarkable coincidence that Mrs. Ross should die on the same night that they were raiding the Iris Collective’s headquarters, especially given that the headquarters was empty. It was a setup, but if not for this, for what?
“James!”
His partner excused himself from a couple of women in sparkling dresses and made his way over to him.
“Same story with those ones,” James said as he reached him. “She just collapsed. No evidence of foul play, and by all accounts it appeared that she had a heart attack.”
“Yeah, everyone I’ve talked to is the same.”
“So, what do you think?”
Reid thought about it. They were getting nowhere with witnesses, and there was only one other place to go from here.
“Let’s leave the other guys to finish up interviewing the guests, and head to the hospital. I want to talk to the doctor.”
“You got it,” James said.
The drive to the hospital was quick despite the distance, the streets being clearer in the early hours of the morning. The lights and siren helped to speed the journey up further, and they were pulling up to the curb in front of the university hospital within a few minutes of leaving the museum.
Reid waited in the lobby while James asked the information desk for directions on where they would have taken the body of the Senator’s wife. The receptionist’s giggles echoed in the empty lobby and he rolled his eyes. James didn’t seem to have a time of day, nor an assignment, that he didn’t utilize to flirt with random women. Finally, after another round of high-pitched giggling, James made his way back over to him with a satisfied smile plastered on his face.
“You’re unbelievable.”
“I can’t help it,” the redhead said with a shrug. “They just love me.”
He counted to five in his head. “Where’s Mrs. Ross?”
“Emergency department.”
Reid walked off in the direction of the emergency room, forcing James to jog to catch up to him as he hurried down the halls of the hospital. Once they entered the busy department, Reid approached the nurses’ station before James had a chance to, intent to avoid more wasted time.
He held up his badge for the nurse behind the desk to see as he leaned on the counter. “I need to speak to the doctor who pronounced Margaret Ross.”
The woman barely had a chance to open her mouth to respond before another woman in the area behind the desk interrupted the exchange.
“That would be me. Can I help you, Detective?”
A severe black woman with a buzzed head was staring at him, and it took a few seconds to regain his composure. He hadn’t seen a black doctor, let alone a female black doctor, in over a decade. He couldn’t imagine what services she did for the government to keep her position. Was she as damned as him?
“I don’t have all night, Detective,” the woman said. “As you can see, the ER is very busy. What do you need?”
He cleared his throat. “Sorry, I’d like to see the body and ask you some questions about the cause of death.”
The woman walked around the desk to a closed curtain and pushed it open, waving him inside. “Knock yourself out.”
“Thanks,” he mumbled. He wasn’t a fan of the woman’s aggressive tone, but thought better of saying anything.
James went into the small curtained off space first, smiling and nodding at the doctor as he passed.
The woman only narrowed her eyes at him, and Reid decided that he misjudged her. She must have a good head on her shoulders to not fall for James’s charm. He followed his partner through the curtain. The doctor stepped in as well.
There was a gurney with a body that was covered in a white blanket. The doctor walked to the opposite side of the bed from Reid and James and lifted the thin blanket to show them the body underneath. They all looked down at the still face of Margaret Ross. Her skin had a slight gray cast to it.
“Shit,” James said.
“What was the cause of death?”
“Cardiac arrest,” the doctor said, and lowered the blanket back down over the body. “Now, if your curiosity has been satisfied, I have patients to see.” She walked out of the curtained stall and back to the desk, where she picked up a file.
“I guess it really was a coincidence,” James said.
“Yeah.” He followed James out of the stall.
The exterior doors to the emergency department slid open as Reid was sliding the curtain shut, Senator Ross and Vanessa Brown walking in. Neither were wearing coats and the Senator had an arm around the young secretary, who appeared to be wearing the man’s vest over her shoulders. They both had red noses and eyes, and the red-rimmed eyes of Senator Ross honed in on he and James the moment the man walked into the ER.
“What are you doing?”
Vanessa Brown’s head snapped up to look at them at the Senator’s words, and her eyes widened as her gaze caught Reid’s. He was struck again with the feeling that she was hiding something.
“Senator,” James said cordially, “Miss Brown.” He nodded to each of them before returning his attention to the Senator. “We heard about what happened, and—”
“And you just thought you’d stop by to harass us? Again?”
“No sir, of course not.”
“What other reason could you have for showing up here within hours of my wife’s death? I don’t recall any of the squads offering a condolence service.”
“We thought that there might be foul play involved, but—”
“How dare you,” the Senator’s face grew colder, but whatever else he was about to say was cut off as the secretary stepped out from underneath his arm.
“Detectives, the Senator has had a long night. Allow me to escort you to the exit.”
She turned back to Senator Ross and whispered something that he and James couldn’t hear, pulling the vest from her shoulders and handing it to the man. The Senator nodded and accepted the garment, and the woman turned back to them, waving an arm to urge them to move on.
James bowed his head and walked to the interior exit of the emergency department. Reid followed him after a moment of hesitation. Vanessa Brown followed him, her heels clicking on the linoleum floors of the hospital. They walked in silence through the halls, the only noises were their shoes on the floor and the swish of their clothes as they moved.
“You have some nerve,” the woman said behind them as they entered the front lobby of the hospital, “to accuse a man who just lost his wife of facilitating her death.”
Reid spun on his heel to face her. “We weren’t accusing him.”
“He was the only one next to her when she collapsed. Who else could you have been accusing, if not him?”
“Maybe we were accusing you? Where were you when Margaret Ross collapsed?”
“Whoa,” James said, raising his hands up and looking between the two of them. “That’s not what we’re doing.”
The secretary glared at him, and he ignored James’s attempt to de-escalate. He was tired and angry at the world for his inability to catch the Collective. He needed an outlet for his anger, and if Vanessa Brown was going to volunteer, who was he to deny her.
“Sure it is. Can you account for your whereabouts in the minutes before the Senator’s wife collapsed, Miss Brown?”
“What? You’re insane!” Her words were indignant, but her face paled.
“Reid!”
The voices of the woman and his partner blended as they echoed off of the walls of the empty lobby. He turned to James, standing closer to the other man than was necessary.
“Go start the car. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with her,” James said, matching Reid’s glare with one of his own. “Look at you!”
“Tsk tsk, Detective.”
Reid’s anger washed away in an instant as the cold emptiness of dread trickled in to replace it. Time slowed as he turned to look at the woman.
“Even your own partner doesn’t trust you.” She turned and walked back the way they had come, back to the emergency department and her Senator Ross.
He didn’t try to stop her, feet stuck to the floor. As time snapped back into place, he spun around to face James, gasping in a breath. “She, she…”
“Jesus, Reid,” James said, shaking his head with a frown. “You’re trying to get yourself killed.”
“She’s the Operator.” His body went numb as he voiced it. Right in front of him the whole time.
“Oh, so now the Senator’s secretary is the Operator? How convenient for you. Are you even hearing yourself?”
“No, James, I mean it. She’s the one we’ve been talking to this whole time!”
“Stop it, Reid! Just stop!” James looked at him like he had gone insane. “I can’t keep doing this shit with you! The raid was a bust, they got us. That’s it, man.”
“I’m telling you, that woman,” he pointed behind himself, “is the fucking Op—”
He was cut off by the sharp ring of James’s cell phone. The other man looked at him one more time, anger boiling behind his eyes, before pulling his phone out and putting it to his ear.
“Yeah?” James closed his eyes and shook his head as he listened to the caller. “Ok.” His hand squeezed down on the phone as he moved it away from his face. He glared hard at Reid. “That was the Captain. The raid was a distraction, but not to go after the Senator.”
Reid waited, impatient, as James took a deep breath that seemed to do nothing to lessen his anger before continuing.
“William Borja is gone.”
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