When I took a step forward to look at it more closely, I saw that I was mistaken. It wasn’t a normal pistol. It was a larger black submachine pistol with little holes around its barrel. It had gray duct tape around its grip and scuff marks beside the words “Intratec Miami 9mm.”
I stood there bent over, staring at the weapon. I couldn’t take my eyes off it, in fact.
Because it wasn’t just like the gun I’d seen on Peter’s boat. It was the gun from Peter’s boat.
“That’s a roger,” Mulford said into his radio as he arrived back beside me. “Get those detectives down here ASAP. It looks like the goddamn Valentine’s Day massacre. Tell them that Officer Cardenas has been killed in a robbery-homicide. See if that gets them moving.”
As I stood there, the white masts of the sailboats at the Palm Avenue marina across the street from the gas station suddenly became supervivid against the blue sky.
Peter’s gun? Why was Peter’s gun here? Was it really his?
“Come on, Jeanine. They took Peter to Lower Keys Medical. I’ll take you right there,” Mulford said.
We walked to his cruiser and got in. I jumped as the feisty little cop suddenly punched the steering wheel.
“Those fuckers,” he said. After a moment, I realized he was crying. He quickly wiped his face and got the car started.
“Sorry, Jeanine,” he said. “Elena was just awesome, you know? How can she be dead? At least they got Peter’s bleeding under control. We can thank God for that.”
“They what?” I said, sitting up as if Mulford had punched me instead of the steering wheel.
“What? No one told you?” Mulford said. “The EMTs got the bleeding under control. It looks like Peter’s going to make it.”
Chapter 26
THEY’D BROUGHT PETER to the Lower Keys Medical Center five minutes from Key West on Stock Island. I was told by a male ER nurse that Peter had been taken directly to surgery.
For the next couple of hours, I sat in a cop-filled waiting room on the hospital’s second floor.
After a while, the surrounding cops started drifting out into the hallway and stood in clusters speaking softly to one another.
From the cheap TV above the door, I watched a 7 News special report about the Jump Killer. A Filipina massage therapist from Marathon, Florida, had gone missing, and speculation was that the Jump Killer had struck again.
The special report had just been replaced by Family Feud when a tall, gray-haired uniformed cop entered the waiting room.
“Jeanine?” he said as he crossed the room in two quick strides. “I’m Chief John Morley. Peter’s boss. I can’t tell you how sorry I am about all of this.”
I shook his hand. I’d seen Morley’s picture in the local papers before, but this was the first time I’d actually met him.
“Thank you, Chief,” I said.
“Please call me John. How’s Peter?”
“Still in surgery,” I said.
He pulled over a chair.
“You must be going through hell,” the chief said with a sympathetic shake of his head. “It looks like Peter and Elena interrupted a holdup in progress, but when a police officer is shot, it could be anything. You mind if I ask you a few questions?”
“No, of course,” I said.
“Has Peter had any disagreements with anyone that you know of? A neighbor? Anyone who might be holding a grudge against him? Strange phone calls? Can you think of an unusual reason why this happened?”
I thought about everything I’d seen last night, Peter’s bizarre behavior. I decided not to mention it until I spoke to Peter.
“I’m not really sure. I don’t think so,” I said with a shrug.
Morley kept eye contact as he patted me on the knee.
“It could be anything, Jeanine. Has Peter been acting strangely at all lately?”
I squinted at him. He seemed to be pressing me a little. Frantically wondering how to respond, I was relieved when an attractive Asian woman in green doctor’s scrubs came through the doorway a moment later.
“I’m Dr. Pyeng,” she said. “Your husband is out of surgery and in stable condition. Please come with me, Mrs. Fournier.
“We were able to retrieve the bullet intact,” Dr. Pyeng said as I quickly followed her out into the hall. “The gunshot tore up a lot of deep muscle tissue in his shoulder, but thankfully it missed bone. Also no major blood vessels or nerves were cut, so I’m confident there won’t be any permanent damage.”
Instead of heading into the elevator as I expected, we made a right through some automatic swinging doors. Dr. Pyeng stopped at the first room beyond an empty nurses’ station and opened a door.
The room inside was narrow and dim. Beside the bulky hospital bed, a glowing white heart monitor beeped softly next to a half-full IV drip. Peter was lying on the wheeled bed with his eyes closed. There was a thin, pink-tinged tube under his nose. There was also a huge bandage on his left shoulder and an IV inserted into his uninjured right forearm.
“His blood pressure is looking good, so I think we’re out of the woods in terms of shock,” Dr. Pyeng whispered as she led me inside and closed the door.
Peter’s eyes were glazed. I glanced at the IV bag.
DIAZEPAM SOLUTION, it said in bold red letters, and in smaller type, I spotted the word VALIUM.
He squeezed my hand. Then he stared at me, sighing as he broke into a wide, serene grin. “Mermaid,” he whispered.
There he was again, my big teddy bear, my drinking buddy. Even lying there in a hospital bed, he was handsome. He gave me his boyish Brett Favre winning-in-overtime smile.
I held my breath as I stared down into his groggy blue eyes. They were his best feature, as pale and soft as faded denim.
His eyes closed after a few seconds, and he started snoring.
“It’s the painkiller,” Dr. Pyeng whispered in my ear. “He should probably get some rest now. He’ll be more lucid tomorrow when you come back.”
Chapter 27
“YOU KNEW ELENA as well, didn’t you?” Chief Morley said as we pulled out of the medical center’s parking lot in his department Bronco.
Morley had been standing in the hallway directly outside of Peter’s room when I came out. He’d insisted on driving me home. Not being able to come up with a valid excuse, I’d finally reluctantly agreed.
“We worked together catering,” I said. “I can’t believe she’s gone.”
“None of us can,” Morley said as we turned south on the Overseas Bridge back to Key West. Then he nodded with a frown. “Don’t worry. We have an APB stretching from the Lower Keys all the way up to Miami. Catching these pieces of garbage is only a question of time.”
Morley cocked an ear as something garbled squawked over the dash-mounted police radio. He lifted the handset to say something but then seemed to reconsider and placed it down again. He gave me a weary smile. “How did you and Peter meet, if you don’t mind me asking? You seem, well, a little young.”
“I was down here on spring break two years ago,” I said. “I met Peter, and I never left.”
“Ah, love at first sight. That’s awesome. Was he off duty?” Morley said with a grin. “Or did you fall for the uniform?”
“It was all about the uniform,” I said with a weak smile. “I ran a stop sign with my rental scooter, he pulled me over, and the rest is history.”
It was the lie Peter and I had agreed on.