a sour-looking young man in an expensive suit with gaudy gold rings and gold Rolex knockoff.
Ronald Bell motioned her into the office and said, “You probably remember Mr. Alvarez, and this is his attorney, Scott Miller.”
Patty realized it wasn’t going to get any better from this point on.
Buddy was not familiar with this end of the hospital. The Jacksonville branch of the Shands hospital was nothing compared to the main teaching hospital in Gainesville. But it was still a giant and complex building north of the main downtown. He thought he knew his way around most of the hospital, but now he was flirting with the idea of walking past the pediatric endocrinology unit where Katie Massa worked.
It was safe to walk past it now because she didn’t get to work for another few hours. Buddy didn’t want anyone to recognize his face if there were questions asked later. Mainly he wanted to get a feel for the work that Katie did, to evaluate her worthiness to enter his work of art.
He had a pass that showed the time he had arrived. No one ever checked what time a visitor left. That wouldn’t be an issue at all if it came up later. So many people came and went in this medical facility that it would take a lifetime to check each and every one of them out.
Buddy checked his watch and realized he had to hustle down to the main floor. He didn’t feel up to taking the stairs three floors so he waited for the painfully slow elevator. As soon as he stepped off on the first floor a young internist dressed sharply in the white coat with a blue University of Florida Gator tie said, “Hey, Buddy.”
Buddy smiled and nodded to the young doctor. Maybe an alibi if necessary later on.
His plan was to leave, keep his pass, and come back later tonight when Katie was working. He was certain there were several places they could go to be alone at a facility this size. First he had some jobs to check on and he needed to pick up a check at a site downtown.
He’d definitely be back later.
THIRTY-NINE
John Stallings and Tony Mazzetti had purposely left Sparky Taylor out of the loop. Daniel Byrd was a long shot but one they could take without interrupting the investigation much. He also recruited Patty Levine. Each of them drove their own county-issued cars so they could set up on surveillance at the construction site for a long time. It was the kind of plan Stallings appreciated: short, sweet, simple. He wished life could be as easily defined. Instead, tonight he’d spend long hours alone in his car trying to figure out what his latest offense to Maria was. Since her call after finding Jeanie’s diary and spending the night huddled against Stallings’s shoulder, she’d barely spoken to him and had been out of the house more than she’d been home. He didn’t know what to make of it but couldn’t stop thinking about her.
He was also worried about Patty Levine. He knew she’d had a minor accident a couple of days ago and she told him that Ronald Bell had questioned her about not telling anyone what had happened. Patty also said he had asked her a few questions about the fight in the squad bay and if she’d seen what had happened to one of the bundles of pills the detectives were putting into evidence. She said the inquiry was casual, but Stallings didn’t trust the son of a bitch any more than he’d trust the president of Iran.
The entire sheriff’s office had followed the progress of the detective injured in the fight. He had suffered serious head trauma but appeared to be recovering. Stallings had heard that the detective had large gaps in his memory and drugs were missing from the seizure. The narcotics guys had already been questioned and any moron could see the next step would be interviewing every crime/persons detective who’d been present during the fight. It was nothing that bothered Stallings, but he felt anxiety for Patty. He wasn’t quite sure why. She’d seemed distracted over the past month. He had his own problems but always tried to stay tuned in to his partner. God knew she’d been a huge help to him over the last few years.
But now Stallings wanted to focus on finding the jerkweed Daniel Byrd. Nothing indicated that this was a guy who contributed to society in any way. When someone like Peep Moran looks down on you, you’re not scoring too high on the social ladder. Stallings didn’t care what it would take to catch this guy. He had an idea they’d be successful.
Katie Massa was in a pretty good mood. Often when she left her son with her mother, Tyler would cry as she walked out the door. It drained and distracted her at work when she needed to concentrate on helping the kids on the ward. But tonight Tyler waved a cheerful good-bye and she felt very comfortable leaving him until she was able to roll home about eight o’clock in the morning. This was the first day of her three-day schedule and she knew she’d have plenty of energy to make it through the shift. It was the middle day that caused her problems. On the third and final day of her schedule she was looking forward to four days off to do whatever she wanted. About every three weeks she and Tyler would take the two-and-a-half-hour drive down to Orlando and visit one of the theme parks. She had an annual pass to Disney, MGM, and SeaWorld. Often she’d leave it up to Tyler where he wanted to go as they drove into Orlando. Sometimes he wanted to go see the big fish, Shamu. But sometimes he wanted to see the big mouse, Mickey.
Katie wanted to give Tyler a magical childhood, and she felt like she got a good start on it by taking him on these quick trips. She knew in a few years he wouldn’t want to spend as much time with his mother. Katie was determined that the memories Tyler had of spending time with her would be fun and beautiful.
One of the few regrets she had since her divorce was that she would like to have another child close enough in age for Tyler to play with him or her. He’d be a great big brother. But he was already four and she had no real prospects for a man in her life.
She did like Buddy, the guy who had turned her on to the downloaded crosswords from the
Katie hoped he’d call her. It’d been some time since she’d gone out on a date. She wasn’t even necessarily interested in sex, just some adult conversation with a few drinks. It seemed like the last year the only adult conversation she had was hearing about her mother’s conflict with her elderly neighbors.
She came in the hospital through the employee entrance in the rear of Shands and said hello to the lone security guard, who rarely got off a specially reinforced stool near the door. She often wondered why the hospital didn’t put the security guard in the lobby with the public coming in and out, instead of the elderly female volunteers who seldom asked for identification and could barely hear the requests for the room numbers of patients.
She skipped the elevator altogether and took the rear stairwell to pediatric endocrinology on the fourth floor. There were five babies on the ward tonight under two years old. If she did nothing else but comfort them and make one of them giggle she felt like she had accomplished a lot both as a person and as a nurse.
She wished every day was like today.
Tony Mazzetti was already agitated when they set up a three-car surveillance around the construction site in downtown Jacksonville. Stallings explained that a reliable informant had said Byrd would pick up his paycheck around nine o’clock. That didn’t bother Mazzetti; what he was pissed off about was that the man running the finances of the construction site was
The other thing bothering Mazzetti was his quickly deteriorating relationship with Patty Levine. She had been cordial and professional as they prepared to go out on surveillance, but when he asked if she would like a ride to his car with she said, “We’ll probably need at least three cars after. I’ll take my own.” It was the professional and right thing to do but not what she would’ve said two weeks ago. If that wasn’t a clear signal that his girlfriend didn’t
