Page 74 of The Whispering Girls
He didn’t say anything or acknowledge her.
There was a light tapping sound up ahead and it started to echo around them.
“Is that John?” said Katie.
McGaven sent John a text message.
The detectives were relieved to hear a chime back meaning that John was still in the hospital.
Katie leaned close to McGaven and said, “Let’s finish the search to see if anything has changed. I don’t want to run around like we’re on a scavenger hunt.”
McGaven nodded.
Katie decided to search on the left, leaving McGaven to examine the right. She crept along looking to see if anything appeared out of place. There were some indications of the cleanup from the other night. Moving more into the interior, wheelchairs, carts, and rolling equipment for IV bags and a kidney machine were out of place and skewed. There were canisters of all sizes and heights in one spot. The detectives had a difficult time not running into various things in their way.
Everything was telling Katie they needed to get out, but her cop instincts told her they also needed to find out what was going on. Even though things looked messy, there didn’t seem to have been an altercation or anything out of the ordinary since the murders.
So why was the front door unlocked, showing no signs of a break-in?
Where was the chief?
Why did the chief have them come to the hospital?
These questions and more swirled through her mind, but she moved forward quickly to where the emergency entrance was located, waiting to run into John.
The darkness ahead felt endless. Finally they were close enough to see outlines. John appeared like a ghost emerging from the darkness, a warrior apparition by the way he walked.
There was the sound of something hitting metal again, but it seemed louder.
Katie stopped. She thought she smelled something out of place. Maybe some type of cleaning fluid. Maybe the crew had cleaned or sanitized an area? Or maybe?—
Several gunshots fired at the group, pinging off the equipment and taking out sections of the walls.
Katie and McGaven immediately hit the floor, while John dove over a nurses’ station, disappearing over the other side.
Katie immediately wondered if someone had come into the medical facility looking for drugs. But as she took cover behind one of carts, she realized she was completely wrong. There had been no warnings. No sounds or sights that anyone was there besides them.
It was a trap—for them.
Katie looked to McGaven, who had hidden himself; most likely trying to assess the situation.
There were no sounds in the facility. No more bullets. No movement.
Katie ran several scenarios in her mind, but nothing seemed to surface that was credible. If the person wanted to kill them, they would have already done so. No one would have witnessed it.
She could feel the cold floor and could still smell some type of disinfectant. There was a hissing sound…
Two more shots fired over their heads, hitting the ceiling tiles and causing pieces to shower down on them. Whoever was shooting wasn’t aiming for them.
McGaven and John returned fire.
Katie remained in her position so she could go over everything through her mind. Contemplating. Running situations.Going through all possible setups and ambushes. Why the hospital setting?
The hissing continued, as did the pungent smell.
She kept running through ideas and factors…
Cleaning materials…
