Page 28 of Every Last One
“You sound scared, and that’s understandable. But, please, focus on what you heard. Did anyone cry out that someone was killed?” Sandra slid her gaze to Kreiger, who was watching her closely with squinted eyes. The expression defined a wrinkle in his brow line.
“No.”
There was some hope in that. Logic would suggest someone would have blurted this out in shock. While injuries ramped up the urgency, murder advanced things to the next level. “Pleaserun me through when you heard the gunfire. Why were you in the hall?”
A few beats of silence, then Gail told her about her daughter arresting and how she went to get a defibrillator.
Sandra was touched by the story, but she couldn’t allow herself to get weighed down from it. Her focus needed to be on resolving this incident. Even asking about the daughter’s well-being would be too much. It could be assumed the child was helped, or the woman would be past soothing. “I’m so sorry that you and your daughter are going through all this. So you heard all this take place from the hall outside the nurse break room, but you didn’t see the shooting happen?”
“That’s right. I just heard it.”
Sandra made eye contact with Kreiger again and shook her head. “Did the man see you? Know you were in the hall?”
“I don’t think he even knew I was out there. And I hurried back to the room with the cart.” Sniffles traveled the line.
“You’re doing great, Gail.”
“What are you waiting for? Get in here and put an end to this. He shot someone. Iknowthat. I mean, why else fire a gun? And with doctors and nurses locked up in the rooms, he won’t get the help he needs.”
“I assure you, Gail, that we are doing all we can to bring this to a safe resolution for everyone.”
“What does that even mean?” Gail tossed back. “If you don’t do something fast, my daughter is going to die!”
Sandra may have been wrong to assume the situation with the daughter was resolved. Clearly, her daughter had a weak heart. She could arrest again. There was a clatter from the other end of the line, and Sandra thought the connection had been lost. Following more scrambling and scuffing noises, another woman’s voice came over the line.
“Hello? Is this nine-one-one?” the woman asked.
“The nine-one-one call was patched through to me. I’m FBI Special Agent Sandra Vos. Who am I speaking with?”
Gail was sobbing in the background. Getting through her eyewitness account must have pushed her past her stress limit. From the sounds of it, she was already dealing with a lot before a gunman entered her life.
“Nurse Torres?” Sandra said, wagering a guess.
“This is.”
“What did Gail mean when she said that her daughter is going to die?”
“Her four-year-old daughter, Phoebe Chapman, is scheduled for a heart transplant tonight at eleven PM. She’s in a very critical and fragile state. Without that donor heart, she will die.”
SIXTEEN
1:01 PM
The stakes just got higher. A little girl’s life was teetering in the balance. She needed that heart transplant if she was going to survive. While Sandra had a point of focus with Jordon Maddox, now she had another one. An innocent child. All the time Sandra had been speaking with Gail, she imagined the daughter to be older, even an adult.
Sandra spoke with the nurse for a few more minutes and provided her with her number. If something happened, Torres was to call Sandra. That’s assuming the jammer would remain offline. They didn’t know if it was just switched off or destroyed.
“Luis, would you have a first name for Nurse Torres?” Brice asked the hospital’s emergency director.
“One second…” He tapped away and soon after said, “Maria.”
Brice brought up her background. “Twenty-nine, single, lives alone. Clean record. Here’s her pic.” He gestured to the screen, and looking back at them was a beautiful Latina woman.
“And here is Gail Chapman,” Monica said, having brought up her background. Gail was pretty but plain, Caucasian with light-brown hair. “Gail’s thirty-five, lives alone as well. She’s a single mother.” Monica caught Sandra’s eye.
That would make losing her daughter more devastating. Sandra’s bond with Olivia was strong, and she credited much of that to the two of them spending so much time together. Olivia’s father was a good man, but not a good fit for Sandra in the long run. They had never gotten married, but he was a part of Olivia’s life when he was in Washington. Nolan Copeland was with the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, and his work took him for stints around the world. Sandra looked at the hospital emergency director. “Luis, there is the chance this won’t be resolved in time for Phoebe Chapman’s operation. If it’s not, what will happen to Phoebe’s donor heart?” She was nauseous even thinking about the answer to that.
Luis took a deep breath and let his gaze pass over everyone in the vehicle. “It would depend on the situation but considering that the operation is planned, it’s likely that they are taking the donor off life support to harvest the organs at a pre-set time. That’s usually within a couple hours of a transplant.”
