Page 88 of Last Chance Christmas
A frown filled Thomas’s face. “He got away,” the officer said.
Cole wanted to shout. Instead, he ground his teeth and blew out a breath. “A getaway car?” He pointed.
Thomas shook his head. “A nice Mercedes too. I already put a BOLO out on it. Hit a tire, so they won’t be able to get far.”
At least there was some good news.
“So that means someone else must be in on this heist. How else would Mackey keep eluding us?” Cole wished he could be in multiple places at once, but he could trust the other officers to follow the leads.
Two more cop cars pulled up, and Detective Savannah Wilcox stepped out. “Mackey’s using this storm to his advantage.” She let out a whistle.
The tables would turn soon. Once he was done here, he’d head over to the hospital to check on the status of Rainy. They needed leverage. Intel from the inside. Cole was ready to switch who was calling the shots.
“There’s several bullet casings over here.” Thomas showed Wilcox and the others to where the shooter had been staked out.
Wilcox pulled out evidence bags and took pictures before collecting the fragments. “I’ll expedite the lab request for these. Find out what gun it came from and where.”
“If we’re assuming this was Mackey, I bet he got it from the female corrections officer, Rainy Athers. I didn’t see any weapon on her person.” Cole knelt to the ground and took note of the hollow point of the bullet. If he had to guess, the caliber was a .38 auto.
Wilcox jotted down some notes, and once they were finished securing the scene, Cole and Titan got a ride back to his car from the detective.
“It’s been quite the day so far, huh, Tite?” Cole opened the back door of his K-9 vehicle for the German shepherd to climb in. Then he scooped a helping of dog food into a bowl and set it next to the dog’s kennel.
His own stomach growled and reminded him it was well past lunchtime.
Thankfully, the sky had cleared, and the roads appeared drivable now that the trucks had plowed and set down salt.
Cole would take the reprieve from the weather, no matter how short, given the time it provided for everyone to keep hunting for Mackey.
He pulled into a drive-thru and ordered two subs. One with ham and provolone, the other with turkey and avocado. The smell wafted through the interior of the car, but Cole refrained from opening the paper wrapper and chowing down.
He had a few things to take care of first.
Cole pulled into the police spot in the hospital parking garage and grabbed the bag of food. “I’ll be back, Tite.” He scratched behind the dog’s ears, then checked that the car’s heat system, adapted to keep the K-9 comfortable, was running.
There were no rules against bringing his K-9 partner into the hospital, but if Rainy was awake, Cole didn’t want Titan’s presence to intimidate her out of sharing any information. And Titan had been working hard out in the cold, so he deserved much-needed rest.
He headed to the ER check-in desk. The automatic doors whooshed open, and a blast of warmth enveloped him. A welcome reprieve from the icebox outside. A few patients sat in chairs, waiting to be seen. Some rested their heads against the wall. Others leaned over, their eyes glazed, while staring at the TV screen showing a rerun of some cooking show.
“A woman was brought in by Kianna Russell, Trace Bently, and Nathan Welch in the ambulance. Her name’s Rainy Athers.” Cole flashed his badge to the receptionist, whose nameplate read Cheryl.
The woman typed something into her computer. “She’s currently in surgery.”
Great. Hopefully she would be awake afterward, and he could talk with her. Lord, we need answers. Please help her wake up and recover. Right now, Mackey is winning, and we need Your guidance to stop him in his tracks.
In the meantime, it would give Cole the opportunity to check on Kianna. Make sure she was okay. “And Kianna Russell?” Cole tapped his foot against the tile.
“She’s being triaged. Room seven.” The woman waved him through the doors.
He walked past the nurses’ station and a man who sat on a cot in the hall, being assessed by a doctor.
“The bandage should hold up, and your arm should heal in a few weeks.”
Cole rapped on the wall.
“Come in,” a woman’s voice answered.
He pushed back the curtain. Kianna sat on the edge of the bed, and a nurse placed a piece of tape across the gauze on Kianna’s hand, then turned to discard her blue gloves in the trash.
