Hallow Springs

Thirteen

Sacred Heart Medical Center was a small hospital just outside of Hallow Springs up route 10 toward the ski resort. Peters and I were heading there when I took the opportunity to dig into his business.

"I've told you about my past with Jeremy. Why don't you tell me who Ansel Mason is?" I smirked from the steering wheel as if to say two can play that game. He shrunk in the passenger seat – I had obviously just poked a pressure point on him. A red blush crept up his neck to his cheek, telling me that I had pushed on a pressure point.

"He's a sonna bitch, that's who." His gaze followed the winding road around the mountain. "He moved here six years ago – just before you left town. In fact most people didn't even realize he had moved to town, because that was right around the time..." he couldn't say it.

"My daughter went missing..." he filled in the gap for him with as much courage as I could muster.

"He stayed to himself mostly, but soon bought the Lumber Mill off of Jay Hockenberger. Rumor had it, he paid cash for the property. Either he just received a great inheritance or he was laundering money or dealing drugs. We started to watch him and even hired a P.I. to pose as a biker at his bar. We couldn't pin him on anything. Until a biker named Jax Munson got pulled over on his way into town. His saddlebags had five pounds of crack cocaine."

"Bingo..." I couldn't help but to get wrapped up in the case. "And you got him to talk..."

"Yeah, I did... he admitted to being one of Ansel's suppliers but Ansel hired a big whig lawyer named John Apple to come over from Boone to represent him. Apple argued that Jax had been coerced in the interrogation room. I roughed him up during the first half of the investigation as we typically do, but no more than usual." Intimidation tactics played a prominent role in an interrogation and small-town cops could be rather cavalier when they needed answers. "We sent the second half of the tape as evidence, but they still somehow got a video tape of the first half."

"How?"

"Ansel's got money. Apple has a dirty reputation. My best guess is that they hacked it from our network."

"Hacked it?"

"Yeah. I mean come on, we are the Avery Country Sheriff's department our network security probably isn't the hardest thing to penetrate.... Anyway, they argued that Jax was acting under duress and thus the claims brought against Ansel were thrown out. Jax went to prison for drug possession with intent to sell and Ansel walked."

"What did you do in the interrogation room?"

"I threw him up against the wall and told him that I was going to spread that he ratted out everyone down at the Lumber Mill, if he didn't give me Ansel's name." Peters was shaking his head, disappointed in himself.

"Yep, that'll do it. No offense, but I think I'll handling the interrogations on this case." We pulled into the parking lot of Sacred Heart.

"I haven't given up yet. We'll get him eventually," he asserted as he hopped out of the car.

I pulled my sunglasses down and folded them into my blouse as we entered the Emergency Room. We badged our way to Zoe Wilson's room. She had been moved from the Emergency Room to Inpatient. Her doctor met us at her room.

"How can I help you?" The doctor asked. She donned a white coat over a pair of khakis and a pink button down. We used to be friends back in high school but slowly drifted apart with age. Regardless, we were on good terms. When she looked up from Zoe's file she was surprised to see me. "Oh my God, Amanda!"

I quickly made out her face – short, punchy yet cute under her curled bangs. "Mary?" I didn't know that she had gone to med school. By her befuddlement, she didn't know I had become a cop.

"How have you been?"

"Good, good. We live down on Elm now."

"Who?" She flashed her medical badge toward me and the last name of Summers was on it. She had married her high school sweetheart – Tom Summers. "Tom... That's great!"

"Yeah..." She wasn't going to ask me how I was doing. "What can I help you with?"

I nodded into Zoe's room and noticed that she was sleeping soundly.

Mary's face casted downward. "We had to sedate her."

"Sedate her? I thought she came in here with a mild concussion."

"Yes, she passed out at the scene of the crime and hit her head. We treated that in the ER took a CT scan, all was clear. We were about to discharge her but she began sweating and shaking and became very aggressive toward the staff."

"Really?" Peters chimed in.

"She was exhibiting symptoms of detox. So, I ordered a blood panel and the toxicology report showed high levels of crack cocaine. We have been trying to ease her through it the best we can but she had a recent outburst and had to be sedated."

This knocked me back on my heels. Zoe was the addict. I thought immediately of the pamphlet in Jeremy's house. He was trying to get her help. My heart broke for him, imagining how hard it had to be to do that for a sibling. It would be a one manned intervention, when the time came and Jeremy was too gentle for tough love.

"Can we talk to her?" I asked, trying to digest the information.

"Didn't she tell the Sheriff everything she knows?"

"Yeah, she did give the Sheriff her statement, but she didn't give it to me."

"Honestly, she isn't herself right now. If you give it another 36 hours or so she will be much more lucid for you." This was an odd exchange. Mary was guarding her from us. I couldn't tell if she was just protecting her patient or if she was hiding something from me. I didn't mind being skeptical, everyone was a suspect to me. For a split, I considered Mary taking a sedative to Jeremy's house and kidnapping him, but that wouldn't explain the blood on the floor and I didn't know if she was capable of stabbing someone. I reeled my imagination in and returned to the conversation.

Someone came from down the hall. "Doctor?" they called. She excused herself, knowing that duty had called.

"It was great seeing you, Amanda!" Mary leaned in for a quick and awkward side armed hug.

"Good to see you too." I flicked a card out of my pocket and held it out for her. "Please call me if anything changes or if she is able to talk sooner."

Mary left, leaving us alone with Zoe's room. I nudged Peters. Let's go in. After checking around for any doctors or nurses, he followed me in. The room was silent save the beeping of the heart rate monitor. I approached Zoe's bed and saw a sweaty ghost laying in the bed. Her face was drained and sallow – her hair was matted against her scalp. It was the face of detox. She was surely spiraling down in what felt like an endless abyss.

acter:lin��8�

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