I chuckled. “Thanks a lot, guys,” I said. “I know how hard that must have been for you two. I’ll be sure and let Nancy know the depth of your gratitude.”
“You bet,” Gus said, nodding.
“By the way,” Dwayne said, “there’s a shitload of reporters downstairs. Unless you guys feel like holding a press conference, you might want to follow us. We know a secret way of getting out of here.”
I looked at David, and he nodded. I turned back to Dwayne. “By all means,” I said, “lead on.”
When we were safely on our way, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Isabel was almost forgotten in the events of the past couple of hours; thoughts of her small, frail body being carried out on a stretcher having been pushed to the back of my mind. Now that things were at least a little back under control, I found myself thinking about her. I needed to get to the hospital. Toni was there waiting for me. I was suddenly very eager to see her and find out how Isabel was doing.
Chapter 30
David drove me back to my office, where I picked up the surveillance van. Toni’d had my Jeep towed to the dealership earlier in the afternoon. Apparently, they didn’t have all the replacement parts, so it wouldn’t be ready until next Monday or Tuesday. By the time I reached the University Medical Center at Montlake and Pacific, it was already past six. I called Toni on her cell and found out where they were. I hustled over to the surgery waiting room.
When I entered the room, I saw Toni sitting with Doc, Kelli, Julia, and Mary Webber. Toni got up and walked over to me as soon as she saw me. She hugged me tightly. I took a deep breath, smelling her hair and her makeup. For a moment, I felt like I was home, like I was safe, like the shitty events of the day weren’t a part of me any longer.
“You alright?” she asked, pushing me back and holding me by my arms, studying me closely.
I nodded. “Yeah, I suppose. It’s been a tough one.”
She nodded. “Did it go okay with the police?”
“Yeah. Remember Harold Ohlmer?”
“The DA? Tall, silver-haired guy?”
“Yep.” I explained how the interview had gone and how Harold had said that the DA wouldn’t refer the case to the grand jury.
“Bastards better not,” Toni said.
I smiled. “How’s Isabel?”
Toni glanced toward the nurses’ station. “She’s out of surgery, but she’s still in the recovery room. She had a partially ruptured spleen that was causing internal bleeding. She has some sort of infection and some sort of immune system reaction-they call it sepsis. Oh, and she also had a broken arm.”
“Jeez,” I said. “Anything else?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. They seem pretty close-lipped around here.”
“She’s not conscious yet? No one’s talked to her?”
Toni shook her head. “I don’t know. None of us have been able to talk to her. But I don’t know if she’s awake yet or not. They won’t let us back to see her.”
I made sure that Mary couldn’t hear, and then I asked, “Is she going to be okay?”
Toni looked at me, and I saw tears start to form in her eyes. “They don’t know,” she said. “From what they said, sepsis is really dangerous. She’s bad, Danny.”
I felt like a huge weight had just hit me in the chest, and it wasn’t just because I hated to see Toni hurting. Fact is, I’d never even stopped to consider that after we rescued Isabel from Donnie Martin that she still might not be out of the woods. I guess I’d assumed that she would be okay physically, aside from being beat up while she was held captive. The notion that she might have been beaten nearly to death was a blow.
I looked over at Mary. Her hands were clutched tightly around a tissue. She stared at the ground, not looking around, not saying anything. Kelli sat on one side of her, with Julia on the other, holding her hand. From time to time, one or the other spoke to her. Mary nodded, but didn’t speak. “How’s Mary holding up?” I asked.
“She’s in shock,” Toni said.
“She’s good. She’s trying to be strong for Mary. You know,” she said, “I told her that you volunteered to keep looking for Isabel, even without pay. She didn’t need to go out and try to be a hero.”
I shrugged. “Don’t be too hard on her. She took action. She did what she thought she needed to do.”
“She could’ve gotten herself killed.”
I smiled. “She didn’t. She’s safe. Isabel’s rescued. Soon, Isabel will be better. Trust me.”
Toni looked at me for a moment, and then she smiled. “I do,” she said. “I do trust you.”
I nodded. “Good. You better.” I hugged her again. While I was holding her, I looked over to the group. “I think I’d better go talk to them,” I said.
Toni nodded. I walked over. Julia smiled at me when she saw me. When Kelli noticed me, she got up and walked over to meet me. She stopped when she was a couple of feet away. “Danny,” she said. “I’m so sorry.” Tears filled her eyes.
I looked at her for a moment, and then I smiled. “Come here,” I said. She rushed over to me and we hugged.
“I was so afraid for Isabel,” she said. “I didn’t know what would happen to her if you guys stopped looking.”
“It’s alright,” I said. “For the record, we weren’t quite ready to give it up. We had a pretty good idea where Isabel had to be, but we needed more evidence to get the police involved. We were frustrated, but we weren’t done. But then when you went out on your own undercover investigation, well then we didn’t have a choice. We had to stay in then-all the way in.”
“I’m sorry,” she said again.
I smiled. “It’s alright. Really. Hunting for you allowed us to uncover another few leads that made it so that we could bring the police in. So I guess I’d have to say that you made a difference.” I paused, and then I added, “But if you want to become a private investigator-a real one-then come and talk to Toni and me first. We’ll help you out. Meanwhile, no more playing Nancy Drew on your own. Got it?”
She nodded.
“Good. Now we just have to say our prayers for Isabel.”
She nodded again. “I’ve already started,” she said.
Twenty minutes later, we were all still seated in the waiting room, hoping to hear something, anything, from Isabel’s doctors. Suddenly, Kelli’s eyes opened wide. “Oh, shit,” she said, quietly. “What’s he doing here?”
I turned and saw Tracey Webber enter the waiting room. Like the last time I’d seen him, he was wearing dark blue uniform pants and a light blue, short-sleeved uniform shirt-untucked and greasy. His face was red-he looked like he might be drunk.
I glanced over and saw that Toni’d seen him, too. She immediately jumped up and walked toward him.
“What are you doing here, asshole?” Toni demanded as she crossed the room. As I’d feared, she decided to skip the niceties. The nurse on duty took one look at the developing situation and immediately reached for her phone.
Tracey, as seemed to be his habit, was a little slow to catch on. His eyes scanned the room, pausing momentarily when he saw Kelli and me.
“I’m here because my stepdaughter’s in the hospital,” he said. “They said she was here.” His eyes continued to search the room. “Where’s my wife?”
“It’s thanks to you that Isabel’s here in the first place, ass-bag,” Toni said. She now stood right in front of him.
