Spencer West PI Read online

  “He survived and is stable,” the doctor said, as they settled Nicole in a chair. He called for a nurse. A nurse arrived and waved an ammonia inhalant under her nose. Her head jerked back as she opened her eyes and was embarrassed to find people staring at her. “Your wife appears to be feeling better. Nurse, will you help Mrs. West to my office?”

  Dr. Acharya led them down a hallway into his office. His desk was neatly organized, with photos of his wife and daughter next to a stack of manila patient folders. The walls were covered with charts and diagrams of human body parts. The nurse pulled chairs up to his desk for the Wests.

  “Mr. and Mrs. West, your son is in critical condition from the multiple gunshot wounds he received. Most are not life-threatening and will heal. He will require more surgery on the bullet still lodged in his hip. That’s the good news. The bad news is that one of the bullets creased his frontal lobe. It did not penetrate the skull, but left a fracture, which will heal in time. The impact, however, caused a serious concussion and trauma to his brain. We had to put him in a drug-induced coma to allow the brain to rest and prevent swelling. Pressure buildup could deprive the brain of oxygen, leading to possible permanent brain damage. When the swelling is reduced, probably in a few days, we will bring him out of the coma.”

  “Drug-induced coma,” Jayden repeated slowly. “How long will he have to stay in the coma? Will there be any brain damage?” he asked, as if he hadn’t heard a word the doctor said.

  “As I explained, he will be closely monitored and we will bring him out of the coma as soon as it is safe. Only time will tell if there is any significant damage to the brain. His hip wound is serious, and he will have to remain immobile until he is strong enough for surgery. He has to be completely recovered from the effects of the coma, which can be a lengthy process, before hip surgery can be scheduled. We will just have to take it one day at a time. Your son is in serious condition, and he’s fortunate to be alive. You need to prepare yourselves for a long recovery time. It won’t be easy.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Spencer was still in a coma after two days, unable to attend Elaine’s memorial service. Nicole and Jayden hosted Elaine’s parents during their brief, sad visit to Dallas for the service. They carried Elaine’s cremated remains back to Nebraska.

  ~ ~ ~

  The following days were stressful for Nicole and Jayden. Nicole turned her NJ Modeling and Designs operation over to her partner, Jessica, who would run the company for as long as needed. Nicole sat next to Spencer’s hospital bed all day until Jayden joined her in the evenings after work. There was nothing they could do but watch him sleep. The constant beep of the heart monitor reduced their anxiety, assuring them that he would recover. They were with Spencer when Dr. Acharya entered the room.

  “Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. West. I have good news for you. It has been five days and the brain swelling has subsided. CT scans show no evidence of bleeding or oxygen deprivation. I think we can safely bring him out of the coma now. It is a gradual process, so I suggest you go home and get a good night’s rest. By tomorrow morning he should be waking up. I must warn you that he might be confused or incoherent and may get agitated easily at first. He is coming off some powerful drugs that will take some time to cycle completely out of his system. Talking will be difficult and painful because his throat will be sore after we remove the ventilator tube. All this is to say that you need to be prepared for weeks or at worst months of his recovery. He will have no memory of the event that put him here or the death of his fiancé. It will be hard for him emotionally. He still needs surgery on his hip. We must immobilize him until he has recovered from the coma and the emotional shock of his fiancée’s death. He has a long way to go. We have an excellent psychologist on staff, and I strongly suggest you meet with him as soon as possible. He deals with cases like this and can be very helpful. If you will excuse me, I have to finish rounds. I look forward to seeing you in the morning.” The doctor shook hands and left the room.

  “He’s right,” Nicole said. “We better get some help. This won’t be easy. The doctor said he won’t remember what happened. I’m not sure I can go through that again. Telling Elaine’s parents was hard enough. Do you think we should wait a while to tell him about Elaine?”

  Jayden shook his head. “I don’t think we’ll have any choice but to tell him. The first thing he’ll ask when he wakes up is, ‘Where’s Elaine?’”

  Chapter 3

  It was around five-thirty and food trays rattled as the carts trundled down the hallway outside Spencer’s room with the evening meals. Neither Nicole nor Jayden had much of an appetite but decided to take a break and get salads at the hospital cafeteria.

  Nicole heard a soft knock at his door. Harper leaned halfway into the room. “I hope I’m not intruding.”

  “Not at all, Harper, please come in. We were just debating about dinner.”

  “If you don’t mind, I need to ask you a few more questions.”

  “Certainly, anything we can do to help,” Nicole said. “The beeps on his heart monitor were putting me to sleep anyway. What would you like to know?”

  “I’ll try to be brief. After working the crime scene last night, we didn’t find any concrete leads. There were spent shells all over the street, and we will try to trace their origin. The pavement was wet so the tire marks weren’t clear enough to get a tread pattern. We’re having to start from scratch. We like the Kings of Mexico gang, KOM for short. They are the biggest and worst of the worst. They have operations in Chicago, New York, and California. Dallas was a major distribution center for the Southwest. The raid last week will put a big crimp in their cash flow.

  “A couple of the perps managed to slip through our net. Spencer gave chase, but was ambushed by the leader’s bodyguard, who kept him pinned down until his boss got away. Spencer wounded the bodyguard in the exchange of fire, but the man we wanted got away. The bodyguard isn’t talking. The leader must have gotten a good look at Spencer. We suspect he either ordered the shooting or did it himself as revenge for losing a couple tons of cocaine and marijuana. I’m sure some heads rolled in the cartel and they were looking for payback,” Harper said, flipping the page of her notepad.

  “Can you describe the perpetrators’ vehicle? What color, make, model? Anything unusual about it that might distinguish it from any other car?”

  Jayden shook his head. “We’ve talked about this and neither one of us noticed the car until the shooting started. It was dark, maybe black or a dark burgundy or navy blue, I just can’t be sure. We were focused on Elaine and Spencer. They were in the edge of the beam from the security lights, waving to us. Then the car appeared out of nowhere . . . shooting that seemed like an eternity as we watched. It was so terrible . . . sickening.”

  “Okay, let’s back up a little. Take me through the evening before the shooting began. Include everything that you talked about as best as you can remember. Who else knew about the dinner? Anything you can think of, no matter how trivial. Maybe something useful will come out.”

  With fingers tightly interlaced, Jayden and Nicole thought back to that evening. “It was a special candlelight dinner to celebrate the award presented to you and Spencer by the mayor of Dallas,” Nicole said, looking apologetically at Harper. “I’m sorry, I wanted to invite you too, but Spencer insisted it just be the four of us. We didn’t know he planned to announce his engagement to Elaine.”

  “No apology necessary. I understand completely,” Harper said. “He’d told me after muster that morning he was going to announce their engagement. Anything else?”

  “The plaque was our dinner-table centerpiece. We watched the mayor’s news conference on the evening news. We had to pull the police chief’s high praise out of Spencer and details of how your intensive investigation resulted in the raid. The chief went into detail about the truckload with two tons of marijuana and cocaine that was s
eized at the warehouse.”

  “Did he describe what happened when we breached the warehouse?”

  “Not much, just that ten cartel soldiers, as he called them, were arrested, two were killed in the shootout. The leader got away, like you said. Leads from those arrested led to more arrests. He said it was a feather in the mayor’s cap, fulfilling a campaign promise he made when he formed the drug task force.”

  “Well, a lot more than that happened. We had SWAT backup, but Spencer led the charge, drawing a significant amount of the drug smugglers’ fire. He never blinked, just kept charging right at them. It was a miracle he wasn’t hit. Hundreds of rounds were fired. He was really upset that the leader got away. We just don’t have any evidence to prove who the shooter was and have no clues where to find them. I’m sorry to get sidetracked, but I wanted you to know what a brave man your son is. Now, where were we?”

  “At the point where he announced their engagement.”

  Harper had hoped they would skip that part. It made the hair on her neck stand up every time she heard it. She felt guilty about her relief that there would be no wedding.

  “We were excited and wanted to know when the big day would be. I wanted a big church wedding, but Elaine was a small-town farm girl and wanted a small Christmas wedding, just a few close friends and family.” Nicole’s voice cracked. Tears began trickling down her face. She blotted her eyes and continued. “I offered to help Elaine with the planning . . . anything she wanted me to do. We had set a shopping date to buy her a new suit. She didn’t want a formal white wedding dress. From what she had told Spencer, her family barely eked out a living from their small corn crop. She was such a sweet girl, I—” Nicole choked up again.

  “I’m sorry, Ms. West, we can finish this another time.”

  “No, no, I’m okay, and please call me Nicole. I need to get it all out. What else do you need to know?”

  “Did he mention anyone he might have told where he was going to be on that night?”

  “Not specifically. He made no secret that he had met the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with at the squad’s Valentine party at the Doubletree Hotel.”

  Harper stopped writing in her notepad. “He said that about their first meeting?” She remembered what a good time she and Spencer had that night. After a few drinks, I even felt he was beginning to think of me as more than just his partner. He never mentioned anything to me about Elaine. They had a couple of dances, but I didn’t see any fireworks. Holy shit, how could I have missed that?”

  “Yes, at your Valentine party, why? Is that important?”

  “No, it’s nothing. Elaine was at that party with one of the senior detectives, Rudy Macovick. They had been dating a while. I don’t think Rudy took it too well when she dumped him for Spencer a few weeks later. Some of the guys were really surprised. They thought Spencer and I were an item and were keeping it on the down low.” Embarrassed for blurting out too much information, Harper avoided Nicole’s eyes. “It was just a rumor because we work so closely together,” she explained awkwardly, trying to hide her feelings for Spencer. She repositioned herself on the edge of her chair. “Besides, the department discourages dating among the ranks. Anything else you can think of?”

  Nicole, sensing that Harper was uncomfortable, looked at Jayden. He shook his head. “Not at the moment.”

  “Thank you. I know this has been hard for you. Keep me posted, I would like to come see him . . . if that’s okay.”

  “Of course, I’m sure he will be glad to see you. He is going to need a lot of support after losing Elaine.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Harper said. “Here’s my card, if you think of anything . . . anything at all, no matter how insignificant you think it might be, give me a call.”

  “Thanks for coming by. The days get pretty long just watching him sleep,” Nicole said.

  “We’re full-court press on this, we will get them. I’ll be in touch,” she said on her way out the door.

  Jayden and Nicole settled back in their chairs and resumed the watch. “Are you picking up on her body language and reading between the lines on some comments she lets slip once in a while?” she said.

  “Yes, I am. I’m ready to eat now, we can discuss it over dinner.”

  “Lead the way to the cafeteria. I’m primed for a gourmet chicken fried steak,” she said with a chuckle. It felt good to laugh again.

  Chapter 4

  Difficult recovery

  Withdrawal from the coma was slow and sometimes painful for the West family. Spencer wasn’t able to talk for the first few days because of the soreness after the ventilator tube was removed. Then he contracted an infection that took another four days to heal. He could speak only in a raspy voice that was hard to understand. That only added to his struggle to clear the mental fog left by the narcotics.

  The day finally came when he was able to collect his thoughts into complete sentences. It happened to be a day Harper was visiting. She was standing at his bedside and had taken his hand while she briefed him on the progress of the case. Without warning, Spencer looked her in the eye and asked, “Where is Elaine?”

  Harper froze, shooting a quick glance at Nicole and Jayden. She let go of his hand. “Sorry, I have to go now,” she said. “I’ll check on you tomorrow.” Then turned and left the room without saying goodbye to the Wests.

  “Mom, what’s going on? Where’s Elaine? Is she all right?”

  Nicole and Jayden approached his bed. Nicole tried to control her emotions. “Spencer,” she said softly, taking his hand in both of hers. “I’m afraid Elaine didn’t make it.”

  His face contorted. He turned away. Then he faced them again, wiping his tears on the sheet. “I know. I saw it all while I was in the coma. I didn’t want to believe it, thought it was a bad dream. It was as clear as watching it on a movie screen.”

  Shocked, she asked, “Are you saying you remember the shooting and saw her get shot?”

  “Every little detail,” he said haltingly. “I watched Elaine die.” Then he broke into uncontrollable sobs. Nicole and Jayden felt helpless to comfort him. They flanked him on each side of the bed, embracing him.

  ~ ~ ~

  After three more days of close observation, Spencer was released. Nicole and Jayden were given a half-dozen pages of follow-up instructions. Psychological counseling was recommended as soon as he was recovered enough from corrective hip surgery. The long-term physical therapy and rehab after surgery, however, required Spencer to cancel the lease on his furnished apartment. Nicole turned their guest bedroom into a hospital room to help with his recovery. He still had lingering effects from the concussion, mainly headaches. Light sensitivity forced him to wear dark glasses. All light switches were converted to rheostat controls, and heavy draperies were drawn to keep the light out. Every effort was made to aid his recovery and avoid depression while he lived in semi-darkness all day.

  Jayden, who was vice president of product development at Aerocom, an important Dallas computer systems contractor to the military, set up Spencer’s room with the latest computer technology to keep him occupied. Spencer used the equipment to research his out-of-body experience, which he’d confided only to Nicole and Jayden. He also communicated with Harper and tracked the progress Dallas PD was making on finding Elaine’s murderer—not much, to his disappointment.

  Harper was the only one seriously pursuing the case. Her time was limited after she was assigned to a new partner, Rudy Macovick, the same guy Elaine had dated. As a senior-grade detective, he’d made Spencer’s life as hard as possible after Elaine dumped him. Rudy was a total jerk in Spencer’s opinion. In addition to being a lousy detective, he thought he was God’s gift to women. He was known to hit on women in the department. Spencer laughed at that, knowing Harper wouldn’t take any of his crap. A knee to his crotch the first ti
me he tried anything with her would cool him off in a hurry.

  ~ ~ ~

  Movement was painful and restricted Spencer to a wheelchair after hip surgery. He was looking at more frustrating convalescence until he was strong enough for physical therapy, which couldn’t begin soon enough to suit him. When the three-times-a-week grind finally arrived, it was painful, but gradually rewarded him with improved mobility and diminished pain. Between therapy sessions, he was parked in front of his computer exploring the psychic phenomenon following his head injury.

  Six weeks of physical therapy freed Spencer from his wheelchair. Crutches assisted his movement well enough to attend regular appointments with the hospital psychologist, Dr. Vincent Galotti, who helped Spencer work through the pain of losing Elaine. Spencer dealt honestly with his grief in therapy and found closure for that part of his life. He began using his sessions with Dr. Galotti for another purpose—to learn as much as he could about the gift, or curse, of out-of-body experiences, OBE, or astral projection, as it was commonly called. He wanted every tool at his disposal in his effort to find Elaine’s killer, who had a gang tattoo—the initials MGD below a five-point crown on the top of his right hand. It was the symbol of one of the most feared gangs in the country, the Kings of Mexico.

  I’ll deal directly with you, MGD, since the Dallas PD seems too busy to find you. You don’t know it, but you are a marked man, and your days are numbered, Spencer thought bitterly.

  ~ ~ ~

  Three months later

  “Good morning, Mr. West,” Dr. Galotti greeted Spencer, who walked into the office minus crutches and with only a slight limp. “Congratulations on graduating from your crutches. Still having to wear the dark glasses, I see. That too can be overcome with time, possibly.”