Chapter 9 - THE WRONG KIND OF RESCUE
I made my worst mistake twelve minutes after the SUV hit Emmett's car.
Not my worst mistake ever.
That list had history.
But the worst one since Renata entered the hospital.
The SUV fled.
Emmett's driver survived with a broken wrist and a cut over one eye.
Police locked down the entrance.
Park told me to stay upstairs.
I did for six minutes.
Then Mateo texted.
BLACK SUV FOUND TWO BLOCKS EAST. DRIVER RUNNING.
I should have sent the message to Park.
I should have stayed beside my daughter.
Instead, old instincts made the decision before Daniel Salgado caught up.
I took the service elevator.
By the time I reached the alley, two men from Mateo's old crew had someone pinned against a parked car.
He was young.
Brown jacket.
Blood on his lip.
"Found him cutting through Thirty-First," one of the men said.
"He tossed keys."
I grabbed the man's collar.
"Who sent you?"
"Nobody!"
"Why hit the car?"
"I didn't!"
"Whose keys?"
"My car!"
I shoved him against the door.
He cried out.
A phone camera appeared across the street.
I did not notice.
"Who paid you?"
"I'm an Uber driver!"
"Wrong answer."
I raised my fist.
Park's voice cut through the alley.
"DANIEL!"
I froze.
She came running with two uniformed officers.
"Let him go."
"He had keys."
"To a Honda Civic."
I looked down.
The keys on the pavement had a blue Honda fob.
Park pulled the man away from me.
"The SUV was abandoned on Thirty-Third. This man has nothing to do with it."
The driver stared at me with terror.
I released my grip completely.
"I'm sorry."
It sounded pathetic.
It was pathetic.
Park shoved me back.
"Upstairs. Now."
One of Mateo's men tried to explain.
Park turned on him.
"You want handcuffs too? Keep talking."
I walked back to the hospital alone.
The video reached social media before I reached Renata's floor.
Someone had filmed the whole thing.
Former mob figure attacks innocent driver outside hospital.
The headline was up within twenty minutes.
A second account called me The Ghost.
By the time I entered Renata's room, she had already seen it.
She turned her tablet facedown.
"Renata."
She looked away.
"I was wrong."
Nothing.
"I thought he was involved."
Her eye moved toward me.
The tablet stayed facedown.
"That doesn't excuse it."
Still nothing.
I sat in the chair.
"I'm sorry."
Renata reached for the tablet.
For a moment I thought she would type.
Instead, she pressed the nurse call button.
The nurse came in.
Renata pointed at me, then at the door.
The nurse looked uncomfortable.
"Mr. Salgado..."
I stood.
"I understand."
In the hallway, Mateo was waiting.
I hit him.
One punch.
Straight to the mouth.
He stumbled against the wall.
Park, twenty feet away, shouted my name.
Mateo wiped blood from his lip.
"That one I earned."
"You sent men after the SUV."
"I sent them to locate it. Not grab strangers."
"You texted me."
"I told you where the vehicle was. I didn't tell you to become nineteen again."
I wanted to hit him a second time.
I didn't.
Park reached us.
"Are you trying to ruin your daughter's case personally, or is this a team effort?"
"Detective—"
"No. You listen."
Her voice was low.
"The defense now has video of the victim's father assaulting a civilian and punching a potential witness."
"Mateo isn't a witness."
Mateo said, "Actually, I probably am."
Park closed her eyes.
"Wonderful."
She pointed at the chairs by the nurses' station.
"Both of you sit down. Don't move. Don't speak to each other. If either of you develops a personality, suppress it."
Mateo sat.
I sat three chairs away.
For ten minutes neither of us spoke.
Then he said, "Your daughter is right to be angry."
"Park said don't talk."
"She's not my boss."
"Neither am I anymore."
"That's debatable."
I looked at him.
"No. It isn't."
He studied me.
"Good."
"What?"
"That's the first thing you've said today that sounds like a man who might get through this."
I hated him again.
Park returned with a digital forensics technician.
"We recovered part of Renata's audio from Emmett's phone."
I stood.
"Can I hear it?"
"Not all of it yet."
"Why?"
"Because we're preserving the original. But there's a thirty-second segment you need to identify."
She handed me headphones.
Static.
Music in the background.
Renata's voice, tense but clear.
"Give me my bag."
A male voice.
Santiago.
"Tell us where the card is."
Renata.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Maurice laughed.
Then another voice entered.
Older.
Calm.
"Your mother used to say the same thing when she was scared."
Every muscle in my body locked.
Park watched me.
"You recognize him?"
"Yes."
"Who?"
"Marcus Vale."
The recording continued.
Marcus said, "Elena should have left the dead buried."
Then a sound.
A slap.
Renata gasped.
Santiago swore.
And Maurice said the sentence that changed the case.
"You said we were only supposed to scare her."
Park stopped the recording.
No one spoke.
Then the technician said, "There's another problem."
"What?" Park asked.
"The metadata shows this file started recording forty-seven minutes before the assault."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning there may be almost an hour of audio."
"Where is it?"
He looked at Emmett's bagged phone.
"Deleted."
I looked at Park.
She looked back.
The missing forty-seven minutes might tell us why Renata had been attacked.
Or who had ordered it.
And someone had erased them before Emmett ever walked into the hospital.
---
(To be continued)
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