“He crawled away?”
“That’s what I saw, but then I blacked out. I must’ve fallen pretty hard. Next thing I remember was waking up in the hospital with doctors and nurses talking to me. They said that you brought me in. They said that you carried me into the emergency ward.”
“Like a little baby.” I smiled.
“Thanks.” She shook her head. “A few of the nurses were impressed. They’ve already asked about you. They want your phone number.”
“I called the ambulance, but they said they were twenty-five minutes away. I could get you to the hospital quicker than that, so I threw you in the back of the truck, and raced to the emergency ward. Got out, picked you up, and carried you in here, leaving a trail of blood behind us.”
She touched her head again. “Thanks, Jack.”
“Don’t mention it.”
“No, really,” she looked at me, reached out, and gripped my hand. “Thank you.”
“All good.” I looked away, trying to avoid being drawn into any state of emotion. “Is your sister still here?”
“She’s downstairs buying some lunch. She said she’ll stay as long as I need. She’s got my back. You don’t need to stay and worry about me. I’d rather that you were out there trying to find this guy.”
“I’ll stay as long as you need too,” I said. “Are you sure it was a guy?”
“I think so. It wasn’t Jenny Carpenter; I can tell you that. The person was too tall, and too strong to be her.”
I nodded. “Is there anything that you can tell me about the attacker? Anything at all?”
“Just his size. He was between five-seven and five-eleven, solid but not muscular, and not skinny.”
“Could be half the men in Chicago.”
“It matches Wilkerson and DiMarco’s description.”
“It’s not Wilkerson.”
“How do you know that?”
“I had a chat with him this morning. He was at work all night and even if he wasn’t, he looked like he couldn’t harm a fly. I’ve crossed him off the list.” I looked around the room. It was all there—the beeping noises, the filtered light, the sounds of people crying in the hallway outside. It was like nothing had changed in three decades.
“I’m sorry, Jack. I wish I saw more.”
“Don’t apologize,” I said. I squeezed her hand. “It’s not your fault.”
A silence fell over us as we listened to the television. Casey flicked through five channels, but she was right—there was nothing on.
“Jack.” She turned off the television and then shifted her head to look at me. She grimaced as she did.
“Yeah?”
“Get out of here. Go and get that prick before he gets to someone else.”
Chapter 26
North Michigan Avenue was busy as the time approached rush hour. The wide sidewalks were packed with workers making their way out of office life and into the after-hours where they could express themselves more freely. Tourists stopped to take photos of the towering skyscrapers, couples walked arm in arm, and children held tightly onto their parent’s hands in the rush. The traffic crawled at a snail’s pace, the cars packed with people, and the noise of angry car horns rung out. A rush of pedestrians stepped onto the street as the lights changed, and the smells of the nearby food carts were wafting along the evening air. Standing next to a pillar, eating a sub-par hotdog, I watched the people come and go from the building that housed the Washington and Daley Law Firm.
As I finished the cold hotdog in five bites, I spotted the black Chevy SUV pull into a parking space further down the road. Walking quickly, moving amongst the crowd, I saw Kenneth Daley step out of the building, briefcase in hand. I needed to talk with him. I moved quickly. He entered the backseat of the SUV, but as the door was about to close, I reached out and gripped it.
“Jack.” Daley called in surprise when the door didn’t close. “Is there a problem?”
“There’s a big problem.” I swung the door open. “You and I need to talk.”
Daley hung his head out the door, looked up and down the sidewalk, and then opened the door further. “Hop in, Jack. We can talk in here.”
I folded my large frame into the SUV and slumped onto the cream-colored leather backseat. Daley moved across to the other side, allowing me enough room to spread out. He leaned forward and asked the driver to wait outside the car.
When the driver hopped out, Daley turned back to me. “He’s our company driver. He’ll be able to wait here for a few minutes without a problem. What’s the desperate turn of events that you need to talk about?”
“The partner in my firm, Casey May, was attacked in the parking lot near my office last night.”
“Is she ok?”
I nodded my response and held my gaze on Daley.
“And you think it’s related to your investigation into Waltz’s death?”
I nodded again.
“Are you sure?”
“One
