Relentless Pursuit (3 page)

“Thank God! Tammy, it’s Marshall. Pierce has been arrested by the Lexington police for murder and we can’t get hold of Henry!” Marshall half-screamed into the phone. He’d been cool under fire while on tours of duty with the Special Forces, but nothing shook him more than his family in trouble. His little brother was being interrogated and thrown behind bars, and there was nothing he could do to protect him.

“What? This isn’t funny, Marshall.” Tammy’s soft voice turned hard and Marshall got worried she’d hang up.

“It’s not a joke. I’ve tried to get hold of Henry, but he’s not answering.” Marshall took a deep breath and tried to contain his frustration.

“Okay, I’ll hurry to the police station. You go to Henry’s and beat on the door. He went home last night with one of the Belles. I couldn’t tell which one. They all look the same to me. I’ll meet you at the station.”

Before Marshall could respond, Tammy had hung up the phone. “Annie, get over to Henry’s and drag his ass out of bed. I have to go tell my parents what’s happened.” Marshall slid into his cruiser with a sense of dread. How was he going to tell his parents that their baby was in jail for killing a man?

Tammy leapt out of the bed and crashed to the floor, her feet tangled in the sheets. Her heart was pounding and her mind was a runaway train. What had happened? Who had Pierce killed? But, Pierce couldn’t have killed anyone! She yanked her black suit out of the closet, shoved her feet into some heels, and ran out the door with her car keys.

She floored her twelve-year-old Honda Civic and made it to Lexington in record time. Tammy pulled into a parking space at the police station and paused when her cell phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and sighed in relief.

“Henry! Where are you?”

“I’m with Annie. We’re less than ten minutes away.” Henry’s confident voice calmed her as she strode to the front door.

“I’m here. What do I do?”

“Identify yourself to the front desk. Tell them you're from the law firm representing Pierce Davies and are here based on Pierce’s request. Don’t let them sit you in the waiting area. Demand to see him immediately.”

“Got it.” Tammy squared her shoulders and pushed through the door.

Pierce couldn’t get used to the cold steel around his wrists. His hands were still in cuffs as he sat at the worn and dented table in the interview room. He could see his reflection in the two-way mirror—well, most of it anyway. One of his eyes was swollen shut and he was still so dizzy it was hard to focus on the two detectives sitting across from him.

The younger one, Detective Cowell, was playing bad cop. He was trying to intimidate Pierce with his size and hard looks. Too bad for him Pierce wasn’t falling for it. He grew up with Miles. That sort of posturing and mean looks didn’t have any effect on him.  The older detective introduced himself as Basher and was trying to play the friend card.

“You’ll be lucky if you ever see the light of day again, Davies,” Cowell sneered.

“Maybe it was self-defense. If you cooperate with us, I’ll make sure the D.A. goes easy on you, what do you say?” Basher asked with a soft, pleasant voice in stark contrast to Cowell.

“I say what I’ve said before. I want my attorney and I’m not saying a word until I speak with him. Aren’t you supposed to stop questioning me now?” Pierce was starting to get angry. He had tuned out the detectives and was thinking about Dr. Oldham.

“That’s fine. We won’t ask you a single question.” Cowell turned to Basher. “You know, I bet the D.A. may even consider the death penalty for murdering a beloved professor.”

If Pierce’s eye weren’t swollen shut, he would've rolled it. A noise from the hall drew his attention instead. He could hear raised voices and then all of the sudden the door to the interview room burst open. His good eye went wide as he saw Tammy shove her way past an officer and into the room.

“I’ll arrest you if you take one more step!” the officer yelled at her.

“What is the meaning of this? You’re interfering with an interrogation, young lady.” Detective Cowell shot to his feet and glowered at Tammy.

Pierce watched in amazement as Tammy’s big round blue eyes narrowed and her hands moved to her hips. “Interrogation? Really? Has he requested an attorney? Because I'm positive he did.”

Tammy strode aggressively up to Detective Cowell and ran a skeptical eye over him before turning to Pierce. “Pierce, don’t you say one word. And you, what’s your name?” she asked, turning back to Detective Cowell.

“I’m Detective Randy Cowell, and who might you be so I know the name to put on the arrest papers?” Detective Cowell smirked down at her.

“Don’t you dare patronize me, detective. I’m the person who will have you brought up on charges if you don’t get Mr. Davies medical attention at once! It is clear that he is severely injured and yet you have denied him access to a doctor.” Tammy pointed a finger right at Detective Cowell.

“Okay, calm down everyone.” Detective Basher held up his hands. “We’ll arrange transport to the hospital, but we’ll be back in just a minute and then we want some answers.”

Pierce waited quietly as the detectives left the room. He wanted to jump up and hug Tammy. She was an avenging angel; all she had needed was a sword to complete the picture.

“Tammy,” Pierce started.

“Not one word, Pierce. I bought you a couple of minutes. Henry and Annie will be here in five minutes. Then they’ll be forced to take you to the hospital and to give you some time with Henry.” Tammy bent down in front of him and took his face in her hands. “Gosh almighty, you look as if you were run over by a truck… twice.”

“It feels as if I were,” Pierce mumbled as he leaned into Tammy’s soothing touch.

Pierce raised his head when the door was opened. Henry came in with the detectives trailing close behind.

“Jesus, he needs a doctor at once!” Henry boomed.

“We’re ready to take him at anytime. Do you want a couple minutes with him before the officer takes him?” Detective Basher asked unhappily.

“Yes. Leave us and turn off the cameras and voice recordings. I’ll knock on the door when we’re ready, and take off my client’s cuffs.” Henry didn’t say another word until the cuffs were removed and there was a soft rap on the two-way mirror indicating the video was now off.

“Pierce, what happened?”

“I don’t know!” Pierce ran his hand over his head and stopped at the sore spot on the back of his head. “I’ve been sitting here trying to remember from the second I opened my eyes and found myself at my house. Nothing. Just a big black spot in my memory.”

“Calm down, Pierce. It’ll be okay. We’ll talk to the doctor and see what she says. Marshall called Noodle and he already notified Emma, Dr. Francis that is, and she’ll be waiting to examine you.”

“Henry, do they really think I murdered Dr. Oldham? He was my friend. I have no reason to murder him.”

“Yes, they do,” Henry said solemnly. “They will run the DNA evidence they took from your person when they arrested you and are sure it'll match up to the DNA evidence found on Dr. Oldham. Further, you have defensive marks on your body and the murder weapon is your baseball bat found in your house, which will undoubtedly have your prints on it.”

“I know the DNA evidence will clear me,” Pierce said, more to himself than to Henry and Tammy.

“You think it will. But since you can’t remember, we don’t know if it will. The DNA test will come back within ten days and then we’ll have our answer. But for now you are the only suspect,” Henry told him.

“What I don’t understand is how the police ended up at my place.” Pierce said as he started pacing across the tiny room.

“That’s another problem. Annie told me in the car that there was a 9-1-1 call made. Since Dr. Oldham placed the call from his cell phone out in the county, the state police answered it out of Frankfort,” Henry explained. “The trouble is on the tape Dr. Oldham says, ‘I’ve dialed the police. There’s no point in killing me. They’ll be here any minute.’ Then you can hear sounds of a fight and the line goes dead. Frankfort traced the phone's owner to Dr. Oldham. When they came across a missing person's report just filed in Lexington, they called the Lexington police. The Lexington Police Department got in touch with Mrs. Oldham, who told them her husband had failed to come home from the lab the night before. With her permission, the cops used the GPS in Dr. Oldham’s phone to track the location.”

“Oh my God. Now I’m even starting to think I did it.” Pierce buried his head in his hands and sighed. A feeling of despair washed over him so strong it almost stole his breath.

There was a knock on the door and Annie peeked in. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the police transport to the hospital is ready.”

“Okay then. Let’s get you patched up,” Tammy tried to say cheerfully, but it fell flat.

Two officers came in and put the blasted cuffs back on his wrists. Pierce saw the worry and fear in his friends’ eyes. Things weren't looking good for him. There was no way he would've killed Dr. Oldham, was there?

CHAPTER THREE

Pierce was escorted into an exam room and handcuffed to the hospital bed. The two officers stood on each side of the bed and waited for his doctor to arrive. Soon enough the bouncing brown curls of Dr. Francis made their way into the room. Her head was down as she looked at a chart in her hands. 

“Mr. Davies, it looks as though you’ve been in a bit of trouble. Let’s check you over and see what we can find.” Dr. Francis raised her head finally and looked at the full room. “Officers, please uncuff Mr. Davies and then step out into the hall.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we can’t do that. This man is under arrest for murder.”

“I know that. But I need him to do tests that require the use of his arms and hands. You can stay out in the hall. I doubt Mr. Davies will hurt me and I’ll only be a scream away if he does. So, please, uncuff him. Thank you,” she said in a tone that didn’t broker argument.

Pierce waited for the cuffs to be removed as Dr. Francis pulled out a white robe. “Here, take off your clothes and put this on.” Dr. Francis tossed the robe on the bed and turned to have a word with the officers. “I’m going to need to do X-rays and maybe even an MRI. You can escort us. I’ll let you know when we’re ready to go.”

Pierce hissed as he reached to take off his shirt and Dr. Francis turned to see what movement caused the pain. “Where is it hurting, Pierce?” she asked kindly, now that the officers were gone.

“Everywhere.” Pierce mumbled as he gave up trying to slide out of his dress shirt.

“Here, let me help you.” Dr. Francis gave a small cluck as she saw the bruises developing on his side and across his abdomen. “Lie back, this might hurt.” She felt along his rib cage and Pierce was worried he’d pass out from pain.

“I can't quite tell if any are broken, but they’re either fractured or severely bruised. There are hematomas all around your midsection as if you were beaten. A couple days being wrapped tight will help. What happened?”

“That’s the main problem. I don’t remember. Please, Doc, help me be able to remember so I can prove my innocence,” Pierce pleaded.

“I don’t know if I can, but let’s see what I can find. From what I gathered from the police, they think they have you dead to rights.” Dr. Francis ran her hand down his arms and checked his hands. “Interesting.”

“What?” Pierce asked as he looked down at his hands.

“There’s no swelling of the knuckles,” she murmured as she moved on to his face and head.

“So?”

“Even if you were a seasoned fighter, there would be some swelling to evidence punches had been thrown. It appears that you either didn’t throw a single punch while being beaten, which I find hard to believe, or you were incapacitated and unable to throw a punch. Ah, here, on the back of your head.”

“Yeah, I felt that earlier. It hurts like the devil.”

“It’s also incredibly swollen. It looks like this knock to the head is probably the cause of your memory loss. I’m going to draw some blood for a blood alcohol test, but I think we can go ahead and assume it’s going to show you are still intoxicated. Let me take some pictures. This will help you in court if you need them.” Dr. Francis pulled out a camera from the drawer and snapped some shots of his hands and the back of his head. She also documented the injuries on his abdomen by measuring the bruises and photographing them.

“Will my memory come back?” Pierce worried.

“Maybe. It’s hard to tell. Head wounds are very tricky. My best guess, and I should be able to confirm with an MRI, is that you have swelling in your brain from this blow to the head. Once your brain recovers and the swelling goes down, I think that some of your memories will come back.”

“What do we do to get the swelling down?” Pierce grimaced as Dr. Francis examined the injury again.

“Not too much. I can give you some anti-inflammatories. However, time is the best healer. For now, let’s get that MRI.”

Tammy paced the waiting room to the lobby as Henry worked on his laptop. The early morning light was just now showing over the horizon of downtown Lexington. Tammy cringed as she saw another news van pulling up to the emergency room parking lot. Someone, and she was guessing Detective Cowell, had called the press and told them a suspect was in custody. Just a half-hour ago, the handsome young detective had strode into the lobby sporting a crisp new suit and a fresh shave.

Tammy was fuming at something else, too. Well, someone else, that is. Jasmine had arrived in full dramatics a couple of minutes ago. Suspiciously, right around the time the news vans first started showing up. She was currently at the nurses’ station with her hand on her forehead in a full fit of vapors. Amazingly, she could position herself so that her boobs in the skintight white tank top were fully framed by the glass door where all the media cameras were set up. The display was enough to make Tammy sick. Especially when Detective Cowell made his way over to her. She could just imagine that conversation.

“I can’t believe that woman!” Tammy huffed as she took the seat next to Henry.

“Who?” Henry looked up from his laptop for the first time since they arrived and looked around. “Oh.” Henry grinned as he enjoyed the Jasmine show.