The Memory Bones: An absolutely unputdownable mystery thriller (Detective Casey White Book 5) by B.R. Spangler

Author:B.R. Spangler [Spangler, B.R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781800196667
Publisher: Bookouture
Published: 2021-12-02T07:00:00+00:00

EIGHTEEN

The elevator doors opened to a hallway of fluorescent lights and chalk-white walls and floors. Though we were in the basement, the brightness had me narrowing my eyes until they could adjust. Unlike the ever-present scent of antiseptic riddling the hospital halls, the basement was odorless—no mustiness or damp stench I’d expect like that at the station. Nichelle had joined us for the elevator ride down, leaving Ronald’s laptop locked in the trunk of the car, but having brought hers along. She also brought her bag of tricks, a slew of IT hardware tools adapted for criminal investigations. Tracy stayed too, bringing her laptop to help piece together a connection between the victims and the hospital. We hoped the answer was hidden somewhere in the patient charts.

Carl was waiting for us. I didn’t get a last name but didn’t expect to need one. He stood over six feet, but the hunch in his back shortened his stature a few inches. With black and graying hair hanging over his ears, the top of his head was receding to a fine point. He wore blue coveralls, soiled on the knees and elbows as though he’d been crawling. His glasses were thick beyond thick, the bottoms of Coke bottles we would have said when growing up. And his mustache was kicked straight out of the seventies, his upper lip hidden beneath it.

“You them people they send?” he asked, mustache bouncing.

“Carl?” I asked, even though his name was written in cursive red lettering on his work shirt. “Yes, we them people.”

He tilted his head back, mouth slack as he focused a moment on each of us while jiggling a large keyring slung from a belt loop. “Want the old records or the like?”

“Yes,” I answered, noticing the hallway was free of eyes. No security cameras. “The records, or the like would be fine.”

“Welp,” he said, wiping his sleeve across his mouth. “Got a heck of a load for ya if you got the time.”

“Lead the way,” I said, eager to get started. We were well past noon on a Friday and I had no idea just how much work we might have bitten off. Carl waved for us to follow, his left leg shorter than the right, his shoe’s sole thickened an inch to compensate. His gait echoed with a clip-clop while Tracy and Nichelle walked along looking at their open laptop screens, trading glances and making comments.

“Did you guys find something?” I asked.

Nichelle peered over her laptop. “Maybe? But I’ll need to confirm.”

“Can you give me a hint?”

As Carl led us down the hall, I took to the space next to Nichelle, her screen showing court documents. It was official paperwork for a limited liability corporation, an LLC. The paperwork showed it had been filed with the same county as the hospital. “This is for a company on the boardwalk. They’ve been in business the last twenty years.”

“A boardwalk stand?” I asked, wondering how she made the leap from investigating the hospital to finding a company on the boardwalk.

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