Key West Gone into the Night Elizabeth Hilleren (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

“Oh, no. He’s in danger then.”

“We have him covered just to be safe.”

“I was on my way to pick up his personal things and lock them up.”

“I’ll go with you.”

When they came into the room Nurse Amy was folding up his clothes and putting them in a large bag.

“Amy, can we see his things?” Sharkey asked.

“Sure.” She set the items on the bed. “Watch, pen, change, notebook, keys…that’s it.”

“Where’s his wallet?”

Her arm was in the process of presenting the items on the bed when her face froze. “Not here.”

“I’ll have the area checked,” Sharkey said. “Excuse me.” He called Officer McCabe at the scene.

“McCabe, its Sharkey.  You find a wallet anywhere around there? Alex is missing his.”

“No, not so far.”

“Could you double check where Alex hit the hedge and around there? It’s not with his things and that’s making me nervous.”

“Will do. There’s no sign of anyone hanging around or driving by the scene.”

“I’ll be in touch. Watch your back.”

“Will do.”

Sharkey turned back to Cynthia. “You have any coffee around here?”

She smiled and picked up the bag.

“Come on. I think I could use some too. I know there are some sweets in the kitchen. We need to keep our sugar up.” She smiled at him and they headed for the lounge.

Sharkey called in and asked for a facial recognition technician to come to the hospital.

“We have Silvia on duty. She’s on her way.”

The x-ray technician backed out of the elevator with Alex on the gurney. Alex’s face had more color, and he was alert. When he saw Amy, he asked to stop and talk to her.

“You’re awake. Welcome back,” Amy said. “You look much better.  Cynthia and Sharkey are headed your way.  You’ll be in ICU for the meantime. Along with your guard.”

“Yeah, he’s great. Nobody’s attacked me since I got here.”

Cruz grinned and Silvia Santos appeared around the corner.

“Let’s us get him settled in his room and we’ll leave him alone for a while,” Amy said.

Santos was new on the staff at the KWPD. “How are you?” Sharkey asked.

“I’m good, and ready to go to work,” she said. Her hair was pulled up on the top of her head and she smiled up at Sharkey.

“So, what do we have?” she said in a high voice.

“We need you to do magic and show us a picture of what Mr. Alex Sloan ran into tonight that put him in the hospital.”

“Okay,” She turned to the gurney, “I take it you are Mr. Sloan?”

“Right,” Alex said

Turning back to Sharkey, “Now if you will give us some time alone, we’ll see what we can come up with.” Her expression was firm. Sharkey and the rest backed out of the room.

She sat down and smiled at Alex.

“Okay, I understand that you wrestled with the devil?”

“Yes. There was a woman and a man, or a woman and a gorilla. She was on top of the victim and as I approached them. We wrestled. She had stuck a syringe of something into the victim’s neck.  The gorilla came out of the car, a dark SUV actually, and he grabbed me. Picked me up and tossed me like a twig onto the top of a hedge that ran along the sidewalk. I struggled to get off the hedge and fell to the ground where all I could do was watch them put the limp guy in the SUV and drive off.”

“Wow. Okay, let’s go back to the moment when you got on top of the woman. Close your eyes and picture her face.”

“The streetlight was half a block away, but I was able to see her face…” he paused, “…she had hard eyes and a strange face…big teeth.”

“Focus on her eyes.”

“They were…big.  Her nose was big. She was straining, so her eyes were big…Her hair was just below her ear lobe, long. It covered part of her face.”

“What shape was her face?”

“Longish. Almost pointed chin. Big teeth for a woman.”

“Did she say anything?”

“She just made grunting noises. She was very strong for a woman.”

Silvia’s left eyebrow raised. “Okay, I’m doing a rough sketch to get us started. So, she was strong.”

“Yes, very.”

She continued to work. “Okay, take a look.” She turned her tablet computer around and Alex stared at it.

“Okay, her face was more angular. Crap…maybe she was not a…”

“Woman?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s possible, but not likely. Let’s make her look a little masculine.”

“Wow, that’s more like it.  She was wearing a loose shirt…and pants. But her hands had long fingers…slender.  Her hair was like a woman’s.”

“Like this?” She gave the picture curly hair and made it a little longer.

“Yeah. Pretty ugly, uh?”

Silvia laughed. “Okay, her neck, could you see her neck?”

Alex thought for a moment. “She was straining but I think it was slender.”

“Like this?”

“Yes, her shirt was scoop neck. I didn’t notice her build but she was strong as an ox.”

“Let me do a little shading and refine it a little.”

“That’s about it. I just saw it in my mind, and it looked like that.”

“All right. I’m going to bring it back in the morning and let you get some rest tonight. With fresh eyes we can refine it more.”

Sharkey stepped back into the room after Silvia left.

“Hey, Man, thanks for doing that.”

“All I know is I really would prefer not to ever run into her again.” Alex said.

Sharkey laughed.

“I have an APB out for Carl. You notice the van that was there?”

“It was either dark blue or black SUV.”

“Okay. I’ll leave you alone with Cynthia and Officer Rosario at the door. No one will get to you.  Get some rest.”

“Thanks.”

“Oh, Cynthia and I looked through