Page 79 of Triggered By Love
“East Harlem, why?” The young woman narrowed her eyes. “You look familiar.”
“I’m Ivanna’s boss. I was there looking for her, but she didn’t answer her buzzer.”
“The police will want to talk to you,” the woman said. “Damon, I have to go.”
“Sure, go ahead.”
Avery picked up her purse and followed the woman. “You must be Safire. Ivanna mentioned a sister who works with computers.”
“Sure, sure,” Safire answered dismissively. “If you don’t mind, I have to go.”
“Which hospital?” Avery picked up her bag and trailed her out of the conference room.
Safire marched into the elevator without replying, but Avery stuck to her like a burr. The ride down was uncomfortable. Since Avery was Ivanna’s boss, she wasn’t going to be put off.
The two women shared a ride to the hospital where they were met by worse news. Ivanna was taken to the surgical ward because of a bleed in her brain.
Safire huddled with her mother and older sister in the waiting room. There wasn’t anything Avery could do, and she didn’t want to intrude.
Where were the police who’d want to talk to her? She looked around, but a ward clerk told her there was no police. “She was brought in by paramedics. People get mugged all the time, and they probably just asked around the neighborhood and got her in the ambulance.”
In other words, they didn’t have time to launch a full-scale investigation for everyone who got assaulted—same with what had happened to Saul outside of Lushpuppies.
Avery called Jason. “Hey, something happened.”
“What?” His voice was brusque. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. I’m at the hospital, but it’s not me. Ivanna, my model wrangler, was attacked. It must have been either before or after we were there.”
“She didn’t answer the buzzer,” Jason said. “Did you speak to the officer?”
“No, they’re gone. Can you find out who took the call?” Avery asked.
“Sure. Will do. I’ll be there as soon as I can, but I’m caught in traffic.”
“Okay, I’ll stick around the hospital in case there’s any change. She was taken into surgery, so it’ll be a while before she’s ready to talk.”
“Then go home and I’ll meet you there,” Jason said. “Did you have dinner?”
“I picked at a salad.”
“I know you’d rather have Popo’s pupusas.” He ended the call before she could protest.
* * *
Even though Jasontried to keep his conversation with Avery lighthearted, he was worried. Very worried.
Before meeting Avery, he called Blade and asked him to check into Ivanna’s attack.
“Found it. DeBrassos took the call. It happened in the alleyway. Ivanna was taking out the trash and someone hit her over the head.”
“Was it robbery? Did they go into her apartment?”
“Nope. The trash was scattered in the alleyway. Nothing interesting in the bag. The usual fast-food wrappers, grocery scraps, papers and junk mail. Bits of cloth and craft supplies.”
“She’s a fashion designer’s assistant,” Jason said. “Any notes or mail addressed to her?”
Blade huffed with laughter. “If you’re thinking about notes made with magazine cutout letters, no. It seems random. Young woman stepped into the alleyway. Maybe she was scoring drugs, and they ran off with her money.”
