door.
‘The smell goddammit, it’s like putrid meat.’ Tim paused for a moment fighting nausea, coughing violently. The warm, fetid breath that shot out of the car quickly intoxicated the air. It took Tim several seconds to collect himself. He needed to check for the victim’s vital signs.
Hunter, Garcia, Captain Bolter and Doctor Winston were avidly observing the action from the perimeter mark. Their standard-issue headset allowed them to listen in as the STU communicated with each other. Standing just behind them were an ambulance and a paramedic team.
Tim had another look at the victim. His hands had been tied to the steering wheel and the only piece of clothing he had on was a pair of pin-striped boxer shorts saturated in blood. His entire body was covered in large, dark, boil-like blisters and a sunburn-type rash. Some of the blisters had burst open, secreting thick, yellow mucus.
‘Is that pus?’ Troy asked, standing by the passenger’s door. The comment brought a worried look to Doctor Winston’s face.
‘How the hell would I know? I’m not a doctor,’ Tim fired back, and with shaky hands reached for the victim’s neck feeling for the carotid artery.
‘I’ve got no pulse,’ he shouted after a few seconds.
‘Holy shit! He’s alive.’ His voice filled with horror.
Troy, who had come close to shooting the driver after his sudden burst of life, rushed to the driver’s side. ‘Medic!’
A shocked look came over everyone’s faces. Hunter and Garcia dashed towards the car, closely followed by Captain Bolter and Doctor Winston.
‘We need that ambulance in here now.’ Tim was back on his feet and had joined Troy by the driver’s door, his breathing still emphatic.
‘We need to cut him loose,’ Tim said, pulling his MOD knife from his belt.
‘Sir, can you hear me?’ he called but the car occupant had already lost consciousness once again.
‘Don’t move, I’m gonna free your hands from the wheel and we’re gonna get you to a hospital, you’ll be OK, stay with me, pal.’
Tim carefully sliced through the bloody rope that kept the victim’s left hand tied to the wheel and it slumped down lifelessly to his lap. Tim moved to the next hand and repeated the procedure. Seconds later the driver was free.
Troy searched for the paramedic team who still hadn’t reached the car. Unexpectedly, the victim coughed once again spitting out more blood, this time onto Tim’s STU uniform.
‘Where the fuck is the ambulance?’ Tim shouted in an angry voice.
‘We’re here,’ one of the paramedics said, pushing his way through to reach the driver’s door. Within a few seconds the rest of the ambulance team had reached the car.
Hunter, Garcia, Captain Bolter and Doctor Winston all watched in silence as the team carefully moved the victim from the driver’s seat to the stretcher and into the ambulance. The smell causing a group gagging frenzy as they came closer to the car.
‘Where’s he being taken to?’ Hunter asked the paramedic nearest to him.
‘The Good Samaritan Hospital. It’s the closest one with an emergency ward.’
‘The victim’s alive . . .?’ Captain Bolter asked in a skeptical voice. ‘First he plays games with us and then he gives us a live victim? What the hell is he up to? Is he getting sloppy?’
Hunter shook his head. ‘I don’t know, but I’m sure he’s not getting sloppy. This could be part of his game.’
‘Do you think the killer was interrupted? Surprised by a member of the public or something?’ the captain asked, looking around as if searching for something, or someone.
‘No,’ Hunter replied firmly. ‘The killer wouldn’t have called if this wasn’t exactly what he wanted us to find. He made no mistake here.’
‘Don’t tell me you think he’s having guilt trips and decided to let this one live after that whole drama yesterday.’
‘I don’t know, Captain,’ Hunter shot back with irritation. ‘But we’ll find out soon enough.’ He turned and faced Garcia. ‘What do we have on the car?’
‘It belongs to a . . . George Slater, thirty-three years old, attorney at law with Tale & Josh, a law firm in central Los Angeles,’ Garcia read from a faxed report. ‘He’s been reported missing by his wife, Catherine Slater. Apparently he never came home from his weekly Tuesday-night poker game.’
‘Do we have a photo?’
‘Yes, the one his wife used when reporting him as missing.’ Garcia produced a black and white printout.
‘Let me see that.’
The man in the photograph was dressed in an expensive-looking suit with his hair slickly combed back. It wasn’t hard to see the resemblance between the man in the printout and the half-dead body they saw being dragged from the car a few minutes ago. ‘It’s him,’ Hunter said after analyzing the photo for a few seconds. ‘The facial features are all there.’
‘I think so too,’ Garcia agreed.
‘I’ll follow the ambulance back to the hospital. If there’s any chance this guy can survive, I wanna be there.’
‘I’m coming with you,’ Garcia said.
‘I’ll get the forensic team to start here, though after the events of the last five minutes, this whole scene has been contaminated to high heaven,’ Doctor Winston said worryingly. ‘And judging by the vegetation surrounding the car, this could take a hell of a long time,’ he said and pointed to the thick shrubs and high grass.
‘Just ask them to do their best,’ Hunter said, looking around the area.
‘Don’t they always?’
They all walked away as the forensic team moved in.
Twenty-Seven
The Good Samaritan Hospital building stands imposingly on Wilshire Boulevard, in downtown LA. Its main entrance is through a circular driveway on the east side of Witmer Street. On a normal day, the trip from Griffith Park would’ve taken Hunter around thirty minutes; this time he made it in less than twenty, almost giving Garcia a heart attack in the process.
They rushed through the spotlessly clean glass doors of the entrance lobby, towards the admissions desk. Two middle-aged nurses were busy shuffling through piles of paper, answering telephones and dealing with the demanding crowd of patients surrounding the desk. Hunter disregarded the line of people and pushed his way to the front.
‘Where’s your emergency ward?’ he asked with his badge in hand.
One of the nurses looked up from her computer screen through the top of the thick-rimmed pair of glasses she had balancing on the tip of her nose and merely studied the two men in front of her. ‘Are you two blind? There’s a line of people in front of you.’ Her voice was calm as if she had all the time in the world.
‘Yeah, that’s right, we’re all waiting here, get in line,’ came a protest from an elderly man with his arm in a cast, igniting shouts from the other patients.
‘This is official business sir!’ Hunter said. ‘The emergency ward, where is it?’ The urgency in his voice made the nurse look up again. This time she checked both of their badges.
