The Fifth Justice (Michael Gresham Legal Thrillers Book 10) by John Ellsworth

The Fifth Justice (Michael Gresham Legal Thrillers Book 10) by John Ellsworth

Author:John Ellsworth [Ellsworth, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-10-13T16:00:00+00:00


Chapter 37: Detective Davidson

Nurse Carrie’s report of Chloe’s plight reached Detective Joe Davidson. Davidson hadn’t let up working the missing persons case like a dog on a bone. Even though they believed they had found where she had been held in the house in Alton, there’d been no trace of the occupants for almost a week. Their lieutenant had allowed them to keep men watching the property for forty-eight hours, but then pulled them for other duties. It was the usual. Not enough manpower for the crime in a city.

But if Davidson knew anything, it was that criminals rarely crept far from their nests. It was their comfort zone where they felt most confident and powerful. So Davidson and Rabinowitz had been cruising a three-mile radius around the rambler where they’d found a sewing room turned jail cell, complete with handcuffs at the headboard. The rest of the house seemed settled, not much evidence of foul play, almost as if a young couple lived there. But in two of the rooms, there was nothing but stained carpet and an awful smell.

Nurse Carrie‘s phone call had them scrambling. The call was traced to the Holiday Inn Express, so Joe and Frostbite rushed Code Three to the vicinity. They spotted a black SUV on Edwardsville Road, same make and model as described by Rivera’s neighbors. They lost it at a traffic light, but Davidson thought it had gone right just before the Shop N Save. Just as Rabinowitz lit up a smoke, Davidson turned onto 103rd Street, a dark road dotted with industrial warehouses and a lumber yard. The car’s beams fell across a body in the middle of the road. Davidson slammed on the brakes and both men jumped from the black Ford and rushed to the body. Flashlights shining and headlights on high beam, they identified the person who lay broken and bleeding, clinging to life.

“Make the call,” Davidson whispered, kneeling beside her head and feeling for a pulse on her carotid. “Stat!”

Rabinowitz used his cell phone, and then Davidson ordered him back to their vehicle to wait in case other cars should come. With his flashlight, he needed to direct them into the oncoming lane and keep them there until they were past the accident scene.

Minutes later, there was the far-off howling of the emergency vehicles. The sounds came nearer, but Davidson continued to administer CPR.

Rabinowitz knelt beside him. “Anything?”

Davidson didn’t stop to respond. She was special to him. He would not lose her.

He was amazed that somehow she had survived the hit-and-run. Bones were broken, organs smashed, but her heart still beat. When Davidson looked at her, his eyes filled with tears. How could one woman withstand so much?

Minutes later, the EMT’s were rushing from their vehicles. Patrol units were into traffic control carving a secured zone into the scene.

They ordered Davidson to stand down as the EMT’s took over. Vitals were taken, fluids infused, then a backboard to load her into the ambulance. Off they wailed into the night, Davidson and Rabinowitz bringing up the rear.



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