Read an Excerpt
Flashpoint
A Sonora Blair Mystery
By Lynn Hightower OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA
Copyright © 1995 Lynn Hightower
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-5040-2232-3
CHAPTER 1
FLASH POINT: the temperature at which vapor from a flammable substance will ignite.
— World Book Dictionary, Volume One
Sonora was not asleep when the call came in. She was curled sideways, a blanket over her head, vaguely aware of the wind blowing the phone cables in tandem against the back wall of the house. She caught the bedside phone on the second ring, thinking it was going to be a bad one. This time of night, people meant business.
"Homicide. Blair."
"Blair, you always answer your phone like you're at work?"
"Only when it's you, Sergeant. Anyway, Sam's on call, not me." She rubbed the back of her neck. Her head ached.
There was a pause. "You're catching it together. It's a nasty one, Sonora. Guy burned up in his car."
Sonora turned on the bedside lamp. The bulb flared and went out. "Sounds like insurance fraud getting out of hand. Why not let arson catch it?"
"Arson called us. Vic, name of Daniels, Mark, handcuffed to the steering wheel of his car, and doused with accelerant."
Sonora winced. "Sounds pointed. Where?"
"Mount Airy Forest. Couple miles in, be a uniform there to direct. Delarosa's headed out to the scene now, E.A.T. four-fifty."
Sonora looked at her watch. Four-twenty A.M.
"Vic's still alive, unconscious, but he may come to, and if so, it might not be for long. He's over at University, which is where I want you. See if he comes around any, maybe even get a deathbed statement. Could be a gay thing, you know? Those are the usual ones in the park, weeknights this time of year. Get him to spill who done it. Any luck, we can clear the books by morning."
"It is morning."
"Do it right, Blair."
Sonora dressed quickly — sliding on a pair of black cotton trousers that satisfied the dress code, barely. She ran a pick through the tangles of her hair, took a glance in the mirror, and gave up. Too curly, too slept on. Definitely a bad hair day. She gathered the ends back and slipped them through a black velvet band. Her eyes were dark shadowed and red rimmed. She wished she had a moment for the miracle of makeup, but if Daniels was just hanging on, she didn't have time. And he wasn't likely to complain.
She turned on the hall light and peeped in at the kids. Both sleeping soundly. She maneuvered through the maze of laundry, clean and dirty, filed on the floor in an obscure system only her son understood. He was sleeping at the wrong end of the bed, a booklet on Advanced Dungeons and Dragons splayed on the pillow.
"Tim?"
His eyes flickered open, then closed. Asleep, he looked younger than thirteen, fine black hair cropped short.
"Come on, Tim, wake up."
He sat up suddenly, eyes wide and confused.
"Got to go to work, hon, sorry. I'll leave you locked up, but keep an ear out for your sister, okay?"
He nodded, blinking painfully, too young and too tired to be wakened in the middle of the night.
"What time is it?" he said.
"After four. You got a while to sleep. Be sure and get up with the alarm. You'll have to get Heather off to school."
"'Kay. Be careful, Mom. Load your gun." He slumped back down on the bed, turning his back on the bright shaft of light from the hallway.
Sonora left his door open and went to her daughter's bedroom. An explosion of nude Barbie dolls, some of them headless, littered the dingy yellow carpet. Sonora made her way to the bed, noting the neat pile of clothes and shoes carefully laid out in the stuffed animal bin. It was September, just a few weeks into the school year, and the excitement of first grade had yet to wear off.
A reddish blond dog groaned and lifted his head from the pillow where he'd been sleeping next to the tiny, black-haired girl. He was a big dog, three legged, thick fur coat, wise brown eyes.
Sonora patted his head. "Guard, Clampett."
The dog wagged his tail. Sonora noticed three cotton hair holders beside her daughter's lavender tennis shoes. That meant braids, only Mommy wouldn't be around to fix them.
Sonora grimaced. "Thank you, I will have some guilt with my homicide."
She kissed her daughter's soft plump cheek, double-checked the house locks and alarms, and left.
It was raining again, softly now, the windshield wipers doing a second-rate job. Sonora squinted through the fogged windshield and winced at the glare of headlights on the rain-slick road. Her night vision wasn't what it should be.
University Hospital was nestled amid scaffolding, piles of dirt, stacks of lumber. Health care, at least, was booming. Sonora passed a sign that said MESNER CONSTRUCTION.
The emergency entrance was brightly lit, two ambulances parked under the overhang, a smattering of patrol cars in the circle drive. The parking structure was dark. Sonora scraped by the ambulances and parked on the side of the road. She reached into the glove compartment for a flowered tie that didn't exactly match her shirt, but at least didn't clash, slid the loosely knotted loop over her head, and tucked the back band under the collar of her tailored shirt. The blazer lying on the backseat was wrinkled, but Sonora decided it would pass. She locked her car.
Inside, the air was thick with the smell of hospital and damp cops, both overlaid with a tangible odor of smoke. The muted crackle and mutter of too many police radios was punctuated by the ding of very slow elevators. An ambulance crew was bringing a stretcher through, and Sonora stepped sideways, moving away from the path of a medic holding an IV packet. A trail of blood droplets marked their route.
Sonora's vision blurred, and she stopped for a minute to rub her eyes.
"Specialist Blair?"
The patrolman at her elbow couldn't have been more than twenty-two or twenty-three. His uniform was stained with sweat and soot.
"I'm Finch. Captain Burke said I should check in with you. I responded to the scene right after Kyle. He's burned pretty bad."
"Kyle?"
"Kyle Minner, Officer Minner. He got there just before I did."
Sonora put a hand on his arm. "You see anybody? Hear a car pull away?"
The patrolman swallowed. "Don't know. It was ... the guy was screaming and his hair was burning. I didn't see anything but him."
"Okay, you did good. You hurt?"
"No ma'am."
"How bad's Minner?"
Finch swallowed. "I don't know."
"I'll ask after him and let you know. What can you tell me about the vic? Daniels, right?"
"Car's registered to a Keaton Daniels, victim is his brother, Mark. College student, twenty-two years old, lives in Kentucky. Up for a visit. Evidently borrowed his brother's car."
"So what happened?"
"Dispatch got an anonymous call from somebody in the park. Said something funny was going on. I thought it was teenagers parking or something. By the time I got there it was burning good. The guy was screaming, sounding, God, unreal. Minner was working at that park station, typing up a report, so he's like a minute away. So he's there ahead of me, grabbing the door handle of the car. He jerks his hands back and the skin comes right off 'em. Then he reaches in through the driver's window and grabs the guy, and starts pulling him out. But it ... he ... Minner yells something about handcuffs. He told me before the ambulance came, this guy Daniels was handcuffed to the steering wheel. Anyway, Officer Minner disengages Daniels from the cuffs —"
"Disengages Daniels from the cuffs?"
Finch's eyes seemed glittery. "Guy's hands are almost burned off. It's like he snagged for a minute, then slid right on through."
Sonora squinted her eyes.
"It was the only way, the only chance of getting him out of there. So he's burning, Minner's burning, they're rolling. I've got my jacket on, so I throw it over the both of them and smother the flames."
"You sure you're okay?"
"Just singed my eyebrows a little. Minner's really hurt. And the vic, Daniels, he's charred."
"Did you ride over with them in the ambulance?"
"Yes ma'am."
"He say anything?"
"He was out. But he was screaming when I got there. Sounded like 'key' or something."
"Key?"
Finch shrugged.
"That's all?"
The patrolman nodded.
"You did good," Sonora told him. "You want to go home?"
"I'd like to stay around and see how Kyle's doing. I'm also supposed to tell you that O'Connor brought in Daniels's next of kin. The brother." Finch inclined his head toward a man who stood in the shadows of the hallway, watching them.
Sonora had an impression of height, solid presence, a face pale under heavy five-o'clock shadow.
"Anybody talked to a doctor?"
"Guy came out of emergency and talked to the brother."
"Hear what he said?"
"Just that they were very concerned with Mark's condition, and were doing all they could."
"Shit. Daniels won't make it then. They're already hanging the crepe."
"Ma'am?"
"Never mind. Get somebody to take the brother a cup of coffee, looks like he could use it. Have one yourself." Sonora headed past the plastic couches and went through the swing doors into emergency.
CHAPTER 2
Inside the ER, the lights were bright enough to be energizing. Sonora spotted a black woman in blue cotton pants and top, hospital issue, her hair back in a cap, feet encased in plastic booties.
"Gracie! Just the woman I want."
"You here about the burn guy?" Gracie took Sonora's arm and pulled her out of the way of a technician rolling an IV pole.
"How's he doing?"
Gracie pointed to a cubicle, white curtains billowing. "They called Farrow over from Shriners. Should be here any minute, but even that may be too late. ET gave him thiosulfate to detox, but his blood gases are the worst. He's on the respirator — he won't be talking to you."
"Yes or no questions?"
Gracie narrowed her eyes. "He's conscious. Give it a try."
She led Sonora past a man pushing a steel cart that seemed to be extraordinarily heavy. They went in from the side where the curtains split. Sonora frowned. The ER doctor was Malden. Malden didn't like her.
"Okay?" she asked.
He gave her barely a glance but didn't say no. She hung over Gracie's shoulder.
Mark Daniels was conscious, which, Sonora thought as they worked him over, was her good luck and his bad. She saw death in his eyes. She was vaguely aware of the doctors and technicians, hands busy as they invaded Daniels with the nightmare of medical technology. The air was thick with the smell of smoke and the sound of jargon — hypovolemic shock, Ringer's solution, central venous pressure. Someone was gauging the extent of the burns — 18 percent, anterior trunk — the tally continued. Hypothermia, body temp seventy-eight degrees. Cardiac arrhythmia. Auscultate the lungs.
Daniels's scalp was white and hairless, with a look of pliability that contrasted with the charred and inelastic surface of his chest, arms, and neck. His face was ravaged, the lips melted and smeared. One eye was black socketed, and the right ear had the crumpled look of charred foil.
Nothing left of the right hand. Sonora saw the whiteness of bone. The left hand had a blackened lump of flesh at the end, like an infant's curled fist.
Sonora turned on her recorder. "Mr. Daniels, I'm Specialist Sonora Blair, Cincinnati Police."
He moved his head. She said it again and connected suddenly with the good eye. He focused on her face, and Sonora had the odd sensation that she and Daniels were worlds away from the doctors, the technicians, the bright, intrusive lights.
"I'm going to ask you some questions about your assailant. Mr. Daniels? Shake your head yes or no. Okay? You with me here?"
He nodded his head, smearing stickiness on the white sheet. The thick tube of the respirator parted the melted lips, expanded and deflated the scorched lungs.
"Did ... do you know your assailant?"
Daniels did not respond, but his eyes were locked with hers. He was thinking. He nodded, finally.
"Had you known him long?"
Daniels shook his head.
"Not long?"
He shook his head. Kept shaking it.
"Met him tonight?"
Nodded his head, then turned it from side to side. Sonora wondered if he was connecting. But the awareness was there, in the eyes. Something he was trying to tell her. She frowned, thought about it.
Ground zero, she thought. "Man or woman. Mr. Daniels, was your assailant a man?"
The head shake. Vigorous. Not a man.
Wife, Sonora thought. Ex-wife. Girlfriend.
"Your assailant was a woman?"
Sonora stepped to one side, out of the doctor's way. But she caught his response. "Witness indicates the assailant was a woman," she said for the benefit of the recorder. "Someone you know?"
Back to that again. No.
"Wife?" No. "Girlfriend?" No. "Just pick her up tonight?"
That was it. A stranger.
He was fading on her. "Young?" she asked. "Under thirty?"
He focused again, aware and intent, in spite of the chaos of the ER, the sensory overload. Sonora had a sudden strong feeling that he wanted her to touch him.
She was afraid to. Afraid she would cause pain, infection, the wrath of the doctors.
Sonora tried to remember the rest of her questions. Daniels watched her, his eyes large and lidless. The fire had stripped him to almost embryonic form.
Sonora laid two fingers on the blackened flesh of his arm and thought she saw some kind of acknowledgment in his eyes. Likely her imagination.
Questions, she thought. Get this man's killer.
"Young?" she asked again. "Under thirty?"
He hesitated. Nodded.
"Black?"
No.
"White?"
Yes.
"Prostitute?"
Hesitation. No.
Young. White. Not a prostitute. Maybe.
"Black hair?"
No.
"Blond?"
Yes. Definite.
"Eyes," Sonora said. "Blue?"
He was going on her.
"Brown?"
Something about him changed. An alarm went off, the doctor shouted clear. Sonora stepped away from the table and ducked out from under the white curtains. She knew without looking that the EKG monitor would be flat.
CHAPTER 3
Officer Finch stood in a hushed circle of uniformed cops, telling and retelling his story, answering questions. Sonora paused but kept walking. Talking would be therapeutic, at least, and Finch was young to be racking up nightmares. They seemed to be hiring them right out of the nursery.
There'd be no playing it close on this one. The cops wouldn't talk to civilians, but the hospital people would. They were the worst, even ahead of lawyers. Putting something in a medical record was worse than telling Oprah and Phil, though not as bad as faxing Geraldo.
"Specialist Blair!"
Sonora glanced sideways. Channel 81's Tracy Vandemeer moved close, trailed by cameras. No other press around. At the crime scene, Sonora thought. It was where she wanted to be. She waved a repressive hand at the camera. "Tracy, you're way too early here. Not before makeup, please."
Tracy Vandemeer blinked. She herself had had ample time, though less reason, to do her own makeup. She wore a crisp red blouse, silk, and a high-waisted Lycra skirt that could be worn only by a woman who was a stranger to childbirth and chocolate.
"Specialist Blair, can you give us the identity of the —"
"Come on, Tracy, you know better. We'll have the release out in a few hours. Any questions have to go through my sergeant."
Vandemeer smiled. "Come on, Sonora. I've got deadlines."
"Going to interrupt the farm report with a special bulletin?"
Vandemeer's smile faded, and Sonora remembered a beat too late that Tracy had started out on the 6 A.M. broadcast, covering barley and corn crops.
"For that remark, Sonora, we'll be filming you from your bad side."
"What? Me walking in and out of the ER is news?"
"It is if you don't give me anything else."
"Homicide cop forgets to brush hair. Don't forget to call CNN."
Tracy Vandemeer let the microphone relax, eyes roving, surveying the huddle of cops in the corner. Sonora took advantage of the lapse of attention to move away. Vandemeer would have no luck with the boy's club.
Sonora scanned the room, looking for hospital security. Saw the brother, shoulder against the wall in the hallway. It struck her that hers was the last face Mark Daniels had seen.
Daniels took a sip from a cup of coffee, his free hand jammed deeply into the pocket of his coat. Moisture glistened on the navy blue raincoat that hung open and unbuttoned, the cloth belt trailing the floor. Behind him, a door stood open. The sign on the door said FAMILY CONSULTATION/CHAPLAIN.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Flashpoint by Lynn Hightower. Copyright © 1995 Lynn Hightower. Excerpted by permission of OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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