Ionshaker (Part I), Felix Timothy [fox in socks read aloud TXT] 📗

if circumstance earned him a lenient judge, a life sentence in a filthy maximum security penitentiary.

So for the time being, he needed to put all the guilt aside and be selfish. He needed to focus on him and himself only. After all, these two – Robin and Brooke – were to blame for his predicament.

First, Robin had enlisted him as her only next of kin without his consent, then gotten involved in an accident, forcing him to travel all the way to Kaiser Foundation Hospital to be her next of kin.

The other person he blamed was Brooke. Brooke had just been too insecure. Despite the fact that he’d chosen her over Robin, she still hadn’t given up interrogating him. And that was why he’d traveled all the way to San Francisco without telling her. That had been the reason he’d left her alone.

Did it mean that he was a mean cold and hardhearted person? No, those were simply the facts.

In spite of that, he still cared for both women and he feared that the way he had lost his life partner, he was on the brink of loosing his long time friend Robin Ironside.
Outside the interrogation room, Nicole and Brett were watching as Trey crumpled under the enormous psychological burden.
“Do you think I got to him?” Brett turned to look at Nicole who was still watching Trey through the glass.
“You realize you have absolutely nothing on him right?” Nicole turned to Brett as she answered.
“I know, but what do you think when you look at him.”
“Fifty fifty, it’s still too early to tell,” Nicole turned back to continue staring at Trey through the glass.
“In that case you know we can’t hold him. But before we release him, grab an agent, dash to the hospital and find out if his responding-to-an-emergency story holds any water. If indeed the friend is there, verify that they’re reading from the same script. We couldn’t have flown a whole hour all the way here for nothing. I know he drove all the six hours here for something. Go dig.”
“What will you be doing as I dig?” Nicole asked still staring at Trey through the glass.
“In the meantime, I’m gonna have Jack and Shirley look into the supposed 2pm call he received from the hospital.”

Due to the fact that the Los Angeles Field office had jurisdiction over seven counties in California including San Francisco, Brett had taken along his sidekick Nicole and flown to San Francisco and continued to keep the investigation in-house by liaising with his two favorite geeks Jack and Shirley, and only sharing smidgens of information about the investigation with his San Francisco counterparts on a need-to-know basis.
But as it was turning out, Trey was clean or legally speaking, they had no evidence against him unless they found something. And that is what Nicole had been sent to dig for – something incriminating.


5


Kaiser Foundation Hospital was a big hospital. The two detectives Nicole and her new partner Charles Roily whose main task had been to drive Nicole to the hospital instead of Nicole wasting time trying to figure out the location by herself, were in the reception lobby waiting for the head nurse. After inquiring about Robin Ironside, they’d been asked to wait.

“I’m Marline, head nurse. How may I help you?” A tall stout woman in her fifties asked authoritatively.
“Nicole Anderson,” then turning to Charles, “Charles Roily, FBI. We want to see a patient admitted here yesterday by the name Robin Ironside,” Nicole answered standing up.
“I’m sorry; she’s still in the ICU and needs plenty of rest right now. I’m afraid your questions are going to have to wait,” Marline answered with finality.
“You’ve seen her?” Nicole asked curiously.
“Yeah. We had a problem trying to find out who to call, but eventually we got a name from her purse that was retrieved from the wreck just before it was towed to Bronzy.”
“I see. Marline, we just want to confirm that she’s been admitted here. There are rumors that she didn’t survive and we just want to verify that she did. No questions, I promise…”
“Who’s spreading those rumors?” She asked rather furiously.
The truth was no one was spreading any rumors; Nicole just wanted to dig as instructed by Brett. They had nothing on Trey and so they needed to find something or at least figure out why he had drove all the way to see Robin Ironside. Trey had hinted that someone was seeking Robin’s life; they had to find out if there was some true to the allegation.
“Sorry, I can’t tell you that,” Nicole looked Marline in the eye as she firmly replied.
“Fine, but if you try waking her, I’ll kick you out. Follow me,” she said and started walking.

The head nurse navigated the hallways until they got to a door. Marline paused and briefly stared at them before pushing the door. It was an unspoken warning not to make noise. Slowly and quietly, they walked to Robin’s bed.

Nicole stepped an inch closer to the bed to take a closer look at Ironside. The first time she’d heard of Ironside was in Jordin’s office, the woman Brooke had suspected to be wrecking her marriage. Immediately, she had wanted to meet Robin Ironside. The second time she heard of her was in the interrogation room, when Brett was giving his alibi, and again she wanted to meet the mysterious woman.

At first glance, the comatose ICU patient didn’t live up to her name. She looked frail; her left eye lid was swollen, her head had been over-bandaged such that she resembled a Jamaican Rastafarian woman, her right arm had been plastered, and her nostrils had been invaded by IV tubes.

But looks can be deceiving.

All that time Marline had been watching Nicole watch Robin Ironside, without a word. Eventually, Nicole turned to Marline and nodded.

As she walked towards the glass paned exit door, Nicole noticed a melancholic, somber-looking teenage girl staring right back at her through the glass. It seemed as if the girl had been standing there watching them watching over the patient. The girl did not shy away, not for a second, until Nicole reached the door and pushed gently. She stepped back with her eyes still locked on Nicole.

She had bloodshot eyes, fresh tear marks on her face, bulging veins on her temples and forehead, and her sniffling expounded her sadness.
Nicole cautiously opened the door and smiled warmly but the girl didn’t even attempt to smile back.

“Hey,” Nicole said lightly, leaning toward her. The girl tried to say something back but words just wouldn’t come out.
“Robin’s daughter,” Marline told her.
“Yeah, I guessed,” she said over the girl’s shoulder. Then she looked down at the girl to tell her, “I’m Nicole and I’m with the FBI. The doctors are doing everything they can for your mom, you shouldn’t lose hope,” she said thoughtfully and with heartfelt concern. The girl nodded.
“What’s your name?” Nicole asked.
“Audrey,” she said softly.
“I know this is a very difficult time for you Audrey, but I would really like to talk about your mom. Is it okay with you?” Nicole asked gently.
“But she already talked to the cops, wasn’t that enough? I mean, you could ask the cops what she told them, right?” Marline interjected with a serious face, trying to shield Audrey from having to go through the gruesome experience. She had a point and Nicole knew it.
“Yeah, you’re right. But perhaps Audrey has remembered something else right now that might be critical,” Nicole answered tactfully and respectfully as she looked at the head nurse before pausing and turning to Audrey to tell her, “I’ll only ask if you agree.”
Audrey nodded a yes and the head nurse immediately excused herself.
Though Nicole was about to start asking Audrey some questions, she genuinely thought the trip had been a waste of time, since there had been no indication that Robin was anything other than an old fling that had got involved in a badly timed accident, but she knew better than to question Brett.
“I know you’re worried about your mom, but I’m afraid I have to ask you about your mom and what happened to her.”
“Okay,” Audrey answered pushing back strands of hair from her face with her right hand.
“Thank you. Were you with her when it happened?” Nicole asked gently.
“Yes,” Audrey answered meditatively staring into the air.
“Where were you going?”
“I don’t know.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I didn’t either. It was kinda abrupt, you know. It was as if we were running away or something,” Audrey looked at Nicole.
“Why do you say that?”
“She never hinted that we’d be going anywhere, and then she wouldn’t tell me where we were going. She didn’t even let me call my friends. It was so weird!”
Audrey looked away.
“So how did it happen – the journey I mean.”
“She picked me up from school.”
“Do you remember what time it was?”
“Around midday.”
“What did she tell you? Moms usually want their kids to stay in school, right?”
“She just told me to get my stuff and said she would explain everything in the car. She said she wouldn’t take me from school if it wasn’t important and I should trust her. She looked so scared,” Audrey looked at Nicole with a pitiful face.
“So, from school where did you go?” Nicole took her hand as she asked.
“Home, where she asked me to pack.”
“But you said she didn’t allow you to pack.”
“She told me to only take the most important things – that is according to her,” Audrey’s tone went up.
“I’m guessing, you must have been really mad. So how long did you take at home?”
“10 to 15 minutes.”
“Go on.”
“Then she dragged me to the car. When I refused to enter the car, she came to the passenger’s side, opened the door and ordered me to get in. I had no choice, so I got in and put on my safety belt. She got into the driver’s seat, tried to wear her safety belt, but it got stuck. So she just started the car and drove off without buckling up. In my entire life, I’ve never seen my mom drive without wearing a safety belt. That’s when I knew we were running.”
“And do you know what type your mom’s car is?”
“A silver Ford sedan.”
“Okay. What about the actual accident, anything you can remember?”
“Not much. I mean, I wasn’t paying any attention. I was still mad and listening to my iPod, looking outside most of the time. It just happened so fast, I can’t remember now. One minute, my mom is driving, the next minute, I’m hearing screeches, the car is overturning and rolling fast, we’re both screaming, then she goes silent…”
She trailed off. Re-living the gruesome ordeal brought pain to her face.
“If my mother dies, she’ll die thinking that I was mad at her, which I really wasn’t, I was just…”
This time, she completely broke down. The guilt was killing her. Nicole’s heart went out to her and she instantly hugged the whimpering teenager.
“Hey listen to me,” Nicole took both of her hands, “Your mom won’t die, she’s gonna be okay. You gotta hold on, don’t give up, okay?”
Audrey nodded and Nicole briefly hugged her before giving her a