Best Laid Plans(75)
“It’s my only copy.”
“Could I look at it?”
He eyed her suspiciously, but handed it over.
He had the bus route closest to the bar highlighted. She made note of the route number and the times, then handed it back to him. “Thank you.”
Barry followed her out. He was pissed. “You interrupted my interrogation.”
“He wasn’t going to give us anything else.”
“You don’t know that.”
“He told us everything he knew about Gary, including a first name, which we didn’t have before. You think the owner of a dive bar is going to let his regulars know that he’s snitching to the feds? Al doesn’t want trouble from us, or lost revenue. It could be a day, a week, a month before Gary swings back this way.”
Barry was still angry, but he didn’t comment.
“The regular bus driver might remember this guy, especially since he has a scar and limp. If he takes the bus everywhere, we may be able to find out where he gets picked up, and take it from there.”
“That’s a long shot.”
“Not as long as waiting for Gary to come back here.”
Both of their phones vibrated at the same time. Tia Mancini had sent them a group message:
Doc says we can talk to Elise for five minutes. Get your butt to the hospital before he changes his mind.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Tia met Lucy and Barry outside the hospital. “It’s easier to talk here,” she said. “They’re moving Elise out of recovery into a private room, so we have a few minutes.”
“You didn’t tell us what happened,” Lucy said.
“Too long to text.” She pulled out her note pad. “This is from the primary witness, Mr. Peter Rabb, twenty-five, resident of San Antonio. I interviewed him earlier. His story holds, but I’ll send you his contact info. Last night, just after midnight, this girl—Elise—runs across Guadalupe and is nearly hit by a car driven by Rabb. He didn’t see a shooter, but heard two gunshots and when he gets out of the car to check on the girl, he sees that she’s been shot. He immediately calls nine-one-one and had competent enough first-aid skills that he slowed the bleeding. Two officers arrive, then the ambulance. They call out the crime scene techs because one officer notices the driver’s door has a nice big bullet hole.
“It’s not until the detective arrives at the hospital, has to wait out surgery—she was shot twice, once in the arm, and once in the upper shoulder, right in the back, that he recognizes the girl from my BOLO. Calls me, I come down to confirm, then call you.”
“Has she said anything?”
“She got out of surgery early this morning. They had her in recovery, and I texted you as soon as I cleared with the doc that we could talk to her. But then they decided to move her, so we have to wait. I ordered a cop on the door—since we don’t know exactly what or who we’re dealing with. All I know is she didn’t give the medics any information except her name is Elise Hansen.”
“You’ve run it?”
Tia nodded. “No pops on the name, might not even be real and she has no identification on her, but I’m going wider on it. My contacts at NCMEC are working on it, going through all missing girls with the first name of Elise who would now be between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, regardless of when they were reported missing. But my gut feeling is she’s been on her own for a long time.”
“She was on Guadalupe?” Barry asked. “That’s a long avenue.”
Tia pulled out her notes. “South Laredo and Guadalupe. Only a couple blocks from the White Knight Motel. Rabb was driving west on Guadalupe and Elise was running north on South Laredo. The cops canvassed the scene and found blood along a walkway between a closed business and a motel a block from the White Knight. I sent my guys back out looking for more evidence, because the first team found shit at night.”
“And the driver didn’t see anyone?” Lucy asked.
“No, but he admitted he wasn’t looking. He pulled her body around to the other side of the car because he was scared and didn’t know where the shooter was. Several other cars stopped, and her attacker fled. My guys are still out there, but so far nothing.”
“Evidence?”
“Not much. A partial shoe print, no bullet casings. Likely a revolver. I’ll let you know what else we find.” She looked pointedly at Barry. “Unless you want to take over?”
“No, Tia, just keep me in the loop,” Barry said.
“The first wound was superficial—a lot of blood, but not fatal. The second bullet went through the meaty part of her upper right shoulder. I saw the x-ray—it didn’t fragment, we should be able to get ballistics from it. Plus we have the bullet from the car. My guys already took both into evidence. Anyway, if that bullet was an inch lower, it would have hit her lung, two inches to the left and it would have lodged in her spine. But shooting her in the back? That’s just f*cked.”
They went inside the hospital and Tia took them to the third floor. She met up with the head nurse. “Elise Hansen. The gunshot victim. Her surgeon said we could talk to her as soon as she was settled in her room.”
The nurse nodded curtly. “Two only. And if she gets agitated or upset, I’ll remove you. Understood?”