In His Reach by Kate Bold

Author:Kate Bold [Bold, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense, American Suspense, Police Procedural, Crime thriller, Murder Investigation, fbi
Published: 2023-03-27T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Eve and Hobbes walked in through the automatic doors of the DeSoto County hospital emergency room. It was nearing one o'clock in the morning as they passed under the harsh white, fluorescent lights of the entryway. A second interior door separated the waiting room and admission desk from the trauma ward. They were stopped by a short, pock-faced security guard.

“Who are you here to see?” the guard asked, standing stoutly in their way with his arms folded across his chest.

“Emil Russi,” Eve answered promptly. “We got a call from Sheriff Delvecchio, who told us Russi was admitted late last night with a gunshot wound to the shoulder.”

“Are you family of the patient?" the guard asked, squinting suspiciously from Eve's face to that of her partner. "At this point, only relatives are allowed to visit, and only one at a time.”

"No, but we've got the clearance," said Eve, getting out her budge for the gravel to gawk at.

"Right through the doors," the security guard said, stepping behind his desk and jerking his thumb towards the quiet ward. Eve gave him a curt smile and stepped through the swinging double doors.

The emergency ward was nearly empty and quiet. The agents’ shoes squeaked across the smooth, sterile floor. They came to the last stall on the left, where a man standing by the bedside in a white doctor’s coat with a stethoscope around his neck was busy checking the injured man’s vitals.

On the other side of the bed, a man in a wide-brimmed, white Stetson stood with his thumbs hooked in his gun belt, plainly the sheriff. He looked up when the agents approached and stepped quickly away from the gurney to address them.

“You must be the feds,” the sheriff said, removing his ten-gallon hat an inch or so off his head before resettling it over the thinning hair underneath. “I’m the sheriff around here, Giorgio Delvecchio.”

“I’m Special Agent Eve Hope,” said Eve, showing Delvecchio her badge, “This is my partner, Special Agent Hobbes. Thanks for your call. We appreciate your help.”

“We’ve got a common goal: justice,” said the sheriff. “I’m a little surprised our investigations haven’t brought us across each other’s paths until now.”

“We only got into town this morning,” said Hobbes with a slightly apologetic tone.

“Yeah, well, it’s been a hell of a few weeks,” Delvecchio said, lifting his hat again to rub his head and looking back at the prostrate form of the large man in the hospital bed. “This county’s been peaceful, except for your occasional drunken fist fight, for nearly 200 years. Now, we’ve got three bodies.” He shook his head mournfully. “I don’t expect you DC folks to understand this, but every single person that lives in DeSoto County is like family to me. Every single one of them trusts me to uphold the law, to keep them safe. Hell,” he shook his head mournfully, “guess I’m doing a pretty bad job these days.”

“Don’t blame yourself, Sheriff,” Eve said. “It won’t bring back the dead to beat yourself up, and it doesn’t help us catch the killer.

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