Page 51 of Every Which Way

“No.” Hadley shook his head. “I need…” He tried to shift on the bed, and his eyes nearly rolled back in his head.

“Easy.” Kenna leaned against the rail on the side of the bed. “Don’t hurt yourself.”

She couldn’t imagine how much pain he was in, and the bottom line was that if he made himself worse and ended up unconscious, it would delay the investigation for as long as he was out.

Langford came over, her badge in view on her belt.

The nurse said, “If you’re still here in two minutes, I’m calling security.”

“We are talking to him here and now,” Langford said. “We’ll make it as quick as possible.”

Hadley touched Kenna’s arm. “Sit me up a bit.” He cleared his throat. “Don’t like lying down.”

“Bad memories?” She reached for the remote and hit the button to raise the back of the bed. “I get those in a lot of places. Feels like there’s something on your chest, and you can’t breathe.”

“Something like that.”

She handed him the cup by the bed with a straw so he could take a sip. “Can you tell us what happened?” She wanted to addbefore the nurse comes back and kicks us outbut didn’t.

“It’s like a nightmare.”

Langford stood at the end of the bed. “Start at the beginning. You were in a motel room with a woman.”

“Zeyla. Seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn’t realize she was expecting them until they came in, all apologetic like they got a key to the wrong room. Then they’re suggesting we turn it into a party with all four of us, asking if we were interested.”

Kenna said, “You saw both of their faces?”

“Until they shot me up with a needle. I was asking them to leave, and the woman stuck me. After that, it all went blurry. I know Zeyla tried to fight them, and I got in the way. Got myself cut. I remember I was bleeding. I woke up in a basement cell. She wasn’t there.” His expression twisted.

“What happened, Chief?” Langford spoke softly.

“They came in again, and there was another needle. I woke up in a hot tub full of ice and couldn’t feel anything. She got me out. Zeyla. She helped me to a wheelchair, and we hurried out to a side door, then to a truck. They shot at the vehicle, and we didn’t make it far before we realized one of the tires was flat. I could walk by then, so she told me to run for it. I don’t know what happened to her.” Tears spilled down his cheeks. “I didn’t think. I just ran. I left her.”

“Do you know where you were?” Langford asked. “Or how you got back to work?”

“I wandered through the woods. I could see the mountains. I think I was west of Denver, but I can’t be sure without a map and images.”

“Okay.” Kenna nodded. “When you’re stronger, we’ll want you to go over everything, describe it all, and help us figure out where they took you.”

“I can do that.” He seemed to rally at the idea of providing them information.

“Did someone pick you up? How did you get back to Denver?” Langford looked up from her notebook, a pen in her hand.

“A truck driver brought me back to the city. I got a ride from the truck stop to my neighborhood and managed to walk home. I found my wallet at the house since I’d left it and my phone behind. Those were her instructions, anyway. I didn’t want to confront my wife, so I put my uniform on and went to work. I guess there were still so many drugs in my system I didn’t know how bad it was, and I didn’t look.”

“Then we showed up at the FD, and you made a run for it.” Kenna winced. “You should’ve called the police.”

“I was set up. Do you have any idea how humiliating that is?”

She lifted a hand. “Don’t get worked up. You’ll put too much stress on your body, and you need to let it heal.”

“I’m not gonnaheal. They took half my liver and one of my kidneys!”

Kenna set a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to find them and shut the operation down.”

The nurse came in. “Time’s up.”

Kenna didn’t move just yet. “How did she contact you, the woman Zeyla?”

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