Isabel's run

“What’s that?” Nancy asked. She’d been listening to us.

“Donnie Martin isn’t here,” I said.

“Isn’t that his car?” she asked, pointing to the white BMW beside us.

I nodded. “Yeah, it is. But he’s not here.”

Nancy turned to Radovich. “Anyone else inside?” she asked.

Radovich spoke into his radio, then turned to her. “This is it,” he said. “All present and accounted for.”

I motioned Nancy and Radovich away from the detainees so we wouldn’t be overheard.

“We’ve got a problem,” I said. “Donnie Martin isn’t here. Neither is Crystal Wallace. Neither is DeMichael Hollins. And neither is Toni’s sister Kelli.” I looked over at Toni. “I’m pretty certain the girl they bring out isn’t going to be Kelli Blair.”

I continued. “But Martin’s going to find out about this bust pretty quick. And when he does, we don’t know how he’s going to react, but it probably won’t be good. You better make sure you collect up all the cell phones from these guys. We need to find him and bust him pretty damn quick.” I looked up to make sure Toni wasn’t listening. “And there’s no telling what he’ll do if he suspects Kelli Blair is somehow involved.”

“There’s nothing to make him start thinking that, is there?” Nancy asked.

I thought for a minute. Then, slowly, shook my head. “I don’t think so,” I said. “Unless she talks, and there’s no reason for her to do that. But still, trying to match wits with a lunatic is a dangerous game.”

“He’s right,” Tyrone said, “this guy’s a wacko. He might start lashing out just because she coincidentally shows up the day before the raid.”

“Like I said,” I repeated. “We need to find Donnie Martin. And hopefully Kelli.”

“Okay. Got any ideas where we should start?”

“Toni,” I called out. She turned to look at me. “Do you remember what kind of car DeMichael Hollins drives?”

“Dark red Ford Expedition. Maroon, maybe.” I looked around, but I already knew the answer. There was no dark red Ford Expedition there.

“There’s your answer,” I said. “Martin and Crystal and probably Kelli came over here, and then they all loaded up in DeMichael Hollins’s Expedition and took off. That’s what we need to be looking for. You should have all the details in the surveillance report I gave you.”

“I’ve got it,” Nancy said, pulling a vehicle report we’d given her from a file. “Ty, call it in, will you? It’s a 2009 Ford Expedition, maroon in color, Washington tags: 585-UWW.”

“Got it,” Tyrone said.

I wouldn’t say that I had a bad feeling about things, but I was definitely starting to get a little uneasy. I suppose we should have known there was no guarantee that Martin and Crystal and Kelli would be at the house, but with his car parked there, it had seemed a reasonable expectation. I suppose that just because Martin went to the boys’ house at the same time every day that we had him under surveillance didn’t mean he was guaranteed to be there today. Still, we’d hoped to end this right now.

Five minutes later, they brought the victim up. Toni had been staring at the door, but when the men and the gurney started to come out, she turned away and buried her face in my shoulder, unable to watch. Toni is tough as they come, but I guess the thought of her sister being rolled out on a stretcher was maybe a little too hard to take. I watched for both of us. Two SWAT officers assisted two EMTs-one on each corner-as they carried the girl out on the gurney. The EMTs had already started an IV, and a fifth person carried the IV bag. I strained to see who the victim was. At first, I couldn’t see her face-she was blocked by the guys-but judging by the way one arm was sort of halfway flopped off the gurney, it sure looked like she was unconscious. Then, I caught a glimpse of her. Her small face was bruised and swollen, but I recognized her. I looked down at Toni.

“It’s okay, Toni,” I said. “It’s not Kelli.”

“No?” She turned to look.

“No,” I said. “It’s Isabel. And I hate to say it, but she doesn’t look too good.”

Chapter 26

As soon as they were out the front door, the EMTs extended the wheels on the gurney and started to roll it to the waiting ambulance. The EMT walked alongside, trying to hang Isabel’s IV bag on a stand mounted to the moving gurney. Toni walked quickly in their direction after I identified Isabel. I followed.

The EMT noticed Toni walk up and guessed correctly that she was about to be questioned. “Relative?” she asked as she worked.

Toni shook her head. “Investigator. And friend.”

“What’s her name?”

“Isabel Delgado,” Toni said. “What happened to her?”

“The poor girl’s been beaten-probably with a club of some sort and maybe a belt, judging from the looks of it. She’s lucky she’s alive.”

“Is she conscious?” Toni asked.

The EMT shook her head. “Not really. She’s kind of in and out of it. I think she’s been drugged-no telling with what-we can’t determine that here. I think her arm’s broken there,” she pointed. “And she’s had internal injuries, too, that much I can say for sure. She’s been bleeding vaginally. She’s got blood all over her legs.” I looked at the sheet that covered Isabel from the waist down, but I couldn’t see any blood.

“Will she be alright?” Toni asked.

The EMT held a finger up to her lips, indicating that Toni should be careful about asking such questions in the event Isabel could hear what was going on. Then she shrugged her shoulders and opened her hands up in the universal “who knows” signal. But, apparently for Isabel’s benefit in the event she was able to hear, she said, “Of course she will. Do you hear that, Isabel?” to the motionless girl. “You’re going to be fine. You just hang in there for us-we’re going to take good care of you. And you’re going to be fine.”

Toni cringed. “Where are you going to take her?” she asked.

“We need to get her straight to the university medical center ER,” the EMT said quietly. “If she’s still bleeding internally, that has to be stopped right away.” She turned to the other EMT. “Ready,” she said. Together, they rolled the gurney up to the back of the ambulance. Then, when they pushed forward on the gurney, the legs folded up and tucked under as the gurney slid inside. The third team member had already entered and was waiting at the head of the gurney.

“Hello, Isabel,” he called out animatedly. “We’re taking you to the hospital now. We’re going to take good care of you, and you’ll be just fine.” He immediately started a transfusion as the two EMTs outside slammed the doors shut and sprinted for the doors. They fired up the ambulance’s diesel engine and pulled away. A second later, the siren blasted to life across what had been a peaceful neighborhood up until about twenty minutes ago.

Toni stood and watched the ambulance drive away. I walked up close behind her and put my hand on her shoulder. Together, we watched the ambulance drive up the street.

“You alright?” I asked.

She nodded. I leaned around her so that I could see her face. She was biting her lip, and tears were streaming down her face. “Jesus Christ,” she said. “Did you see her? These guys are animals, Danny,” she said. “And Kelli’s still out there.”

I watched the ambulance round the corner onto Sixty-Fifth Street. I didn’t say it, but I was thinking, Better out there than in the back of that thing.

“The house is all yours,” Gary Radovich said to Dave Bryant. “Ready to be searched. Pretty sure we didn’t miss any bad guys.” He had a sly grin. “You should be alright.”

“Oh, thanks a whole hell of a lot,” Bryant said.

Radovich laughed. “Happy to be of service,” he said. The SWAT officers were all out of the house now and on their way to the SWAT truck at the CP. “We’re going to head out. We’ve got three more of these scheduled today down south.”