Detective Bob Mouledoux, called Mississippi by friend and foe alike, drove the unmarked Crown Vic into the parking lot at St. Catherine’s. This was his first case in Robbery/Homicide and he wanted to impress his new partner, Joe Friday, who everyone who’d earned the right called Peeps, because early in his career he’d busted prostitutes by peeping in the windows of a motel they were known to use. These days prostitution was legal and they mostly looked the other way when girls plied the trade illegally.
Although only a day in Robbery/Homicide and only a cop for a couple years, Mouledoux had earned the right. Three months ago Mouledoux and his partner, an out of shape windbag named Reymundo Galvez, rolled into a gunfight. Three bad asses hopped up on meth had robbed a convenience store on Virginia, shooting and killing the girl behind the counter. They’d also shot a cop attempting their getaway, a young woman with a couple kids. And they’d had her partner pinned down.
Mouledoux floored the cruiser, smashed into the pickup they were hiding behind, jumped out of the ride, screaming like a banshee. One of the three was on the ground, knocked down by the collision. The other two were stunned. Mouledoux shot and killed them all.
Galvez demanded a new partner, believing the suits were going to crucify Mississippi Bob Mouledoux, but the gangbangers had killed a nineteen-year-old girl and shot down one of their own, which didn’t sit well with those in charge because they were cops too. Galvez got his new partner. Bob Mouledoux got Robbery/Homicide and the right to call Joe Friday by his nickname.
Mouledoux glanced over at Friday, who had his head back against the headrest. If his eyes had been open, he’d be staring at the headliner, but they weren’t. He was asleep.
“ Hey, Peeps, we’re here.”
“ Yeah, alright.” Peeps was a good cop, who’d taken endless ribbing because of his names, his real one and his nickname. “Park over there.” He pointed to the handicapped parking by the emergency entrance.
“ Yeah, sure.” On his own, Mouledoux would’ve found an empty spot in patient’s parking and walked, but Peeps was known for using any perk he could get.
They entered through the emergency room, walked straight through, Peeps showing the way. He’d been here before, probably several times. This was Mouledoux’s first. At the reception, Peeps told everybody’s great aunt, a woman named Elizabeth Chandler, according to her badge, that he wanted to see Dr. Romero about the Eisenhower homicide.
A few minutes later they were ushered into the office of the President and CEO of St. Catherine’s, an athletic looking man with a full head of ash grey hair and skin so white it looked like he hadn’t seen the sun in forever, named Aaron Shaffer. He was a doctor and his office was large and afforded him a prime view of Reno’s downtown casinos. Must be gorgeous at night, Mouledoux thought, as Dr. Romero introduced them to the hospital’s CEO, then to Simon Drake, the hospital’s attorney, and lastly to Dr. Elizabeth Jordan, the attending who’d treated Isadora Eisenhower in the emergency room.
“ As you know, we had a busy day here yesterday,” Shaffer said after they were seated.
“ Yeah, the accident,” Peeps said. “I can imagine.” There’d been a random, gang related shooting, which caused a multi-car accident at the Spaghetti Bowl, where Interstate 80 and Highway 395 crossed. Several injured; fortunately no fatalities.
“ Yes, so you can imagine the confusion here.” He looked first toward Peeps, then toward Mouledoux. Both cops met his eyes straight on.
“ Yeah, we get the idea,” Peeps said.
“ I had Dr. Romero ask for you for a reason, Detective Friday.”
“ He told me it’s sensitive and I’m known for keeping my yap shut. We get it.”
“ And Detective Mouledoux?”
“ I can keep my yap shut, too. We’re cops, we don’t go broadcasting our investigations.”
“ Yet I read about so many of them in the press.”
“ You called me because you trust me,” Peeps said. “You can trust Detective Mouledoux as well.”
“ Okay, but if any of this gets out the press will go crazy. The public too. There will be a feeding frenzy like none before.” He sighed, the way only a troubled man can. “At the present only the four of us know what I’m about to tell you. Well, the four of us and Isadora Eisenhower, of course.”
“ Wait a minute,” Peeps said. “She’s dead.”
“ Is she?” Shaffer said.
“ Well, isn’t she?” Peeps said.
“ We don’t know for sure and that’s the problem.”
“ Where’s the body?” Peeps said.
“ It’s gone.”
“ Someone stole it?” Peeps said.
“ Not exactly,” Shaffer said.
“ Well, it didn’t get up and walk away.”
“ As I said, that’s the problem. We think it did.”
“ We’re outta here!” Peeps said.
“ Wait a minute, Joe,” Mouledoux said. “He’s serious.”
“ You’re kidding?” Then to Shaffer. “So what’s the deal, you pronounced her and she wasn’t dead? You thought she’d been shot through the heart, but you made a mistake? It was only a flesh wound, so the patient got up and went home?”
“ Not exactly,” Shaffer said. “I’d like to show you part of a video we took of one of our surgeries this morning.” He put a disk into his computer, then rotated the screen so the detectives could see it.
On the screen, a woman was on the table and a team of surgeons and nurses were around her. A young female doctor was about to cut into the woman’s chest. She paused, turned away from the patient, lowered her mask, took in a deep breath, then wiped sweat from her brow with her scrub sleeve and, for an instant, the camera caught a frontal view of her face. Shaffer stopped the tape.
“ I know that woman.” Mouledoux hadn’t known Amy was a doctor. He’d thought she was a full time student. She must be taking classes as a hobby of some sort. Must be nice to have that kind of spare time. “She used to live in my complex.”
“ I know her, too,” Peeps said. “She just broke up with someone I know. Her name’s Amy Eisenhower.” He paused for a second. “Wait a minute, she related to the missing body?”
“ This might be easier than I’d hoped.” Shaffer tapped his keyboard and the screen went dark. “Detective Mouledoux, what color are Amy Eisenhower’s eyes?”
“ Blue.”
“ You sure?”
“ I’m a detective with a great memory for faces. Besides, she’s a pretty girl. I’m sure.” Mouledoux paused for a second. “Hey, wait a minute-”
“ Hold up, Detective,” Shaffer said, cutting him off. He turned to Peeps. “Is he right, Detective Friday?”
“ Oh, yeah, they’re definitely blue, the bluest eyes you’d ever wanna see.”
“ And you wanted to say, Detective?” Shaffer turned to Mouledoux.
“ The doctor on the screen, her eyes are brown.”
“ Yes, they are.” Shaffer tapped his keyboard again and the young doctor’s face was back on the screen.
“ Contacts,” Peeps said.
“ No,” Mouledoux said. “I don’t think that’s what Dr. Shaffer wants us to take away from this meeting.”
“ It’s not?” Peeps said.
“ No, it’s not,” Shaffer said. “Isadora Eisenhower was the finest heart surgeon I’d ever laid eyes on. She had the greatest hands, steady and true. She never doubted she could save a patient and her record is unmatched. But like us all, sometimes she’d lose one, but unlike the rest of us, it would hit her hard. She treated every patient like family.
“ When I came here, she took me under her wing. She saw something in me no one else did. She used to tell me I’d go far, that I’d be a great surgeon one day. If not for her, I’d probably be an old country doctor. Not that that would’ve been such a bad life.”
“ And you’re telling us this, why?” Peeps said.
“ I must have assisted Dr. Eisenhower hundreds of times, I know her work better than I know the layout of this office. Yesterday, when I learned there was a doctor performing open heart surgery in my hospital, who wasn’t on staff, I couldn’t get to that OR fast enough. I went in there to bust heads and I found Isadora Eisenhower, the only woman I ever loved, instructing one of my interns, who had a heart in her hands and Izzy Eisenhower was younger than she was on the day I met her, forty-five years ago.”
“ Holy fuck!” Peeps said.
“ This is a Catholic hospital,” Shaffer said. “But we’ll make an exception.”
“ It’s gotta be some kind of trick,” Mouledoux said.
“ Last night,” Dr. Jordan said, “Isadora Eisenhower presented with a chest wound. It looked like the bullet had smashed right on through. Smack through her chest, smack through her heart. She should’ve died when she was shot, but somehow her heart was still working. She was alive when she came here, but she didn’t last long. I called it and they took her body away.”
“ And now,” Drake the attorney said, speaking for the first time, “it looks like she woke up in the morgue, minus about fifty or sixty years, donned a pair of scrubs, performed open heart surgery, then vanished.”
“ That’s spooky.”
“ Yes, Detective Mouledoux,” Shaffer said, “that’s spooky. So, you can see why we don’t want this getting out, can’t you?”
“ Yeah,” Mouledoux said, “you’d be jammed with people looking for the Fountain of Youth.” He looked around the room. “Every doctor and every hospital in the world would be. It’d be chaos.”
Leaving Aaron to close had been a stroke of genius. It had given Izzy time to get out of the hospital and with her new found youth, she was able to run like the wind. She’d made it home, sweating like a marathoner, in under fifteen minutes.
In her house, she stripped off the scrubs and stuffed them in a paper bag. She didn’t think Aaron would be able to keep what had happened to her quiet for long. He’d try to honor his promise, but there were cameras in the OR. And those cameras, combined with her missing body, painted one heck of a picture. Then there was the anesthesiologist, the intern and the nurses who’d assisted her during the surgery, too many people to keep quiet. She had to get out of town.
She’d jumped into a pair of Levi’s. Pulled on a Wolf Pack sweatshirt, put on her own Nikes, glad to be shed of the too tight shoes. Dressed now, she stuffed some clothes in an overnight bag, went to the kitchen and wolfed down some enchilada leftovers. She’d been famished.
Then she grabbed her iPhone and called Amy.
“ Nana,” Amy answered on the first ring. “I think I’m in trouble.”
“ Not as much as I am.”
“ No, I’m in worse,” Amy said.
“ Listen, Amy, this is important. Don’t talk, just listen. Can you do that?”
“ Yeah.”
“ Remember that special place I used to take you when you were little, your favorite place in all the world?”
“ Yeah.”
“ I need you to go there now. Don’t ask why, just trust me. I’ll pick you up in half an hour. That’ll be 5:00 dead on the money.” Izzy figured she couldn’t run back to the Silver Legacy, get her car, then get to the meeting place any sooner than that. “Can you be there in thirty minutes?”
“ Yeah, sure.”
“ And Amy, one more thing and this is very important. Destroy your phone right now. Don’t just leave it, destroy it, make sure the GPS chip inside is toast. Use a hammer if you can get one.”
“ Nana?”
“ Can you trust me on this?”
“ You’re scaring me.”
“ I’ll explain when I see you. Just trust me.”
“ Okay, smash the phone, meet you at our special place. Got it.”
“ Good girl.” Izzy ended the call, took her iPhone out to the garage, got a hammer from her tool kit and gave it five whacks. Back in the living room, she opened the front blinds and turned on the TV as she always did, to fool a would be thief. That done, she locked the door, then took off toward the Silver Legacy at a dead run.
“ So how come you didn’t hold her,” Peeps said. “You coulda called security and restrained her till we got here.” He looked at his watch, “Shit, It’s only been twenty minutes since Dr. Romero called me and said you had a homicide here. Woman shot through the heart, he’d said.”
“ Yeah,” Mouledoux said, “he’s right. The woman was already dead, we coulda had a cup of coffee, some donuts, taken our time, because you acted like there was no hurry. And we still made it here in less than half an hour. If you’d’ve said it was important, maybe we coulda got here in time to make a difference.”
“ I wasn’t able to call right away.”
“ Why not?”
“ Because she had me close and because,” his voice dropped, “she asked me to keep her secret. She didn’t have to say what secret; it was pretty obvious.”
“ And you told her you would?” Peeps said.
“ Of course, we’re friends. We’re close. I used to be in love with her.”
“ Yet you called us right after you finished the operation,” Mouledoux said.
“ I think she knew I would, because as soon as she was sure the patient was out of danger, she stepped away from her and told me to close. Then she left the OR.” He sighed that troubled man’s sigh again. “There was nothing I could do and she knew it. I sent one of the nurses for a resident, who could take over, but that took twenty minutes or so. Then I had Dr. Romero call you.”
“ So she’s got an hour on us,” Peeps said. “Give or take a few.”
“ She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Shaffer said. “She knows what what will happen to her.”
“ Whatdaya mean?” Peeps said.
“ He means that her life’s over,” Mouledoux said. “They, we, are going to hunt her down. Then they’ll lock her up like a lab rat and they’ll do every test they can think of till they find out how she got young again. And even if they find out, they’ll never let her go, because once they have the secret, they’ll want to keep it secret.”
“ I don’t understand,” Peeps said.
“ Think about it, Joe,” Mouledoux said. “Just imagine for an instant that you could make a concoction from this woman’s blood. One shot of this stuff and you’re young again, maybe immortal. You think people are gonna want this?”
“ Well, yeah!”
“ Everybody’s gonna want it. They’d kill for it.”
“ I can see that,” Peeps said.
“ And nobody would ever die.”
“ So?”
“ I’m afraid,” Shaffer said, “that Detective Mouledoux is right. A secret like this has to be locked away.”
“ Because?” Peeps said.
“ Because,” Mouledoux said, “if nobody ever died, we’d run out of food pretty quick. The world wouldn’t be able to keep up. There wouldn’t be enough houses, cars, schools or anything else you can think of; the world would run out.”
“ So they’d lock her up?” Peeps said. “And nobody would get it?”
“ Oh people would get it,” Mouledoux said. “If your last name was Clinton or Kennedy or Bush or Obama, you’d get it. Or if you had a billion bucks, you’d get it. Or if you maybe knew or blew the right people, you’d get it. But us ordinary folks, we wouldn’t get it. Do I have that about right, Dr. Shaffer?”
“ That’s not for me to say.”
“ But you want it for yourself, right?”
“ That thought hadn’t entered my mind.”
“ Then why’d you call us?” Mouledoux said.
“ We had a gunshot wound,” Shaffer said. “It’s the law.”
“ No, you had Dr. Romero call my partner, because you thought we’d cooperate, that we’d hop to and pick up Dr. Eisenhower, who apparently has committed no crime, done nothing wrong.”
“ For her own protection,” Shaffer said.
“ And what did you want us to do after we picked her up? Take her to the cop house, book her? Or did you want us to swing by here and drop her off?”
“ I’m not sure I appreciate your tone,” Drake the lawyer said.
“ And I don’t understand why you’re even here, because for the life of me I can’t see how the hospital can suffer any liability over this.”
“ We pronounced her dead,” Dr. Jordan said. “We we’re going to send her off to the county morgue.”
“ She could sue,” Drake said.
“ Alright, you’re only interest in Dr. Eisenhower is her safety and the hospital’s liability. I get it,” Mouledoux said. “I don’t believe it, but were going to go along with you anyway, because this is too big to get out. She can’t have gotten far, we’ll pick her up and we’ll bring her back. It stinks, but we’ll do it.”
“ We’re going to go along with them?” Peeps was getting it now.
“ Yeah, Joe. It’s best.”
“ I’m glad you understand,” Shaffer said.
“ So, who you gonna call after we bring her in?”
“ Nobody, we just need to contain this.”
“ And those tests I was talking about?”
“ Only if she wants them,” Shaffer said. “This is a hospital, not a prison.”
Mouledoux didn’t believe anything coming out Shaffer’s mouth. The doctor was exuding anticipation. The man had the pasty white skin of those painted vampires he’d seen on the street last night and like Dracula, the man wanted her blood. He wanted to be young again. Who wouldn’t?
The lawyer too. He wanted the woman’s blood as badly as Shaffer. Mouledoux could see it in his eyes. Romero wanted it as well. That’s why he’d called Peeps. They were hoping Joe would round the woman up, bring her back and keep his mouth shut for old time’s sake. Peeps probably owed Romero some favors and Shaffer knew it, otherwise they wouldn’t have brought him in. Dr. Jordan, she seemed sincere, but they couldn’t keep her out of it, because she’d treated Eisenhower.
Maybe he could trust her, but the others, not a chance.
He tapped Peeps on the arm, got up. Peeps got out of his chair too.
“ Maybe she’s running, but maybe she’s not. Maybe she’s still in the hospital somewhere or maybe she just walked on home. You got an address?”
“ Yes, she lives on Putnam, off Washington, by San Rafael Park; 581 Putnam Drive.”
“ That’s maybe a thirty minute walk, maybe a little longer. Chances are we’ll probably find her there if we leave now.” He turned to go, then turned back to Shaffer. “This is a big hospital and there’s a good chance she’s hanging around here someplace, you should check.”
“ We will, but I think she’s gone. I hope you find her before word gets out and somebody else does.”
“ We’re the only ones who know,” Peeps said. “If none of us talk, how can the word get out?”
“ Oh, somebody else knows,” Mouledoux said.
“ He’s right,” Shaffer said.
“ Who?” Peeps said.
“ Whoever made her this way,” Mouledoux said. “He knows. Some scientist somewhere, operating out of a secret lab, or maybe some top secret government types. Somebody. Somebody did this to her and she probably knows who.” Mouledoux was at the door. He opened it, held it for Peeps.
Mouledoux retraced his steps and in a few minutes they were in the parking lot. There was a ticket on the ride. Mouledoux laughed.
“ What’s so funny?” Peeps said. “You’re the one who signed it out.”
“ Swell.”
“ Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”
“ Thanks.” If there was anyone who could get a parking ticket fixed, even parking in a handicapped zone, it was Peeps. “Christ, one woulda thought the meter maid woulda seen it was one of ours.”
“ They don’t pay them to think.”
Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of Eisenhower’s two story house. There was no car in the driveway. However, the blinds were open and Mouledoux could see a big screen TV on inside.
“ Think she’s home?” he said.
“ Hard to tell.” Peeps said. “TV could be to fool anyone thinking of breaking in.”
“ Let’s find out.” They got out of the ride, went to the front. Mouledoux rang the bell and got no joy. He tried again. Still no joy.
“ Don’t look like she’s here,” Peeps said.
“ No, it doesn’t.” Mouledoux went to the gate to the side yard. It wasn’t locked. At the side of the house, he saw a side door for the garage, tried it and found it unlocked. He shook his head, entered.
“ We got no warrant,” Peeps said.
“ This woman’s in trouble,” Mouledoux said, “and it’s our job to help if we can.”
“ You’re saying we shouldn’t do what you said, you know, take her back the hospital.”
“ Fuck no. I find her, I’m gonna advise her to get a one way ticket to Rio and to never come back.”
“ But what about the chaos you said would happen?”
“ It’s gonna happen anyway.”
“ I don’t understand.”
“ You think that lot back there can keep their mouths shut? Christ, that Dr. Shaffer promised Eisenhower he’d keep her secret, then as soon as he possibly could he has Romero call us and he spills his guts. If he can’t keep his word to someone he respects and used to be in love with, you think we can trust him just because he says we can?”
“ I hadn’t thought about it.”
“ And that fucking lawyer. I’ll give you odds he’s got a half dozen P.I. s on the job looking for her.”
“ Look.” Peeps pointed.
“ Smashed her iPhone,” Mouledoux said. “She’s on the run.”
“ So what now?”
“ You’re the senior detective. How should I know? I’m the new kid on the block.”
“ You can spend the next couple three hours digging into her past,” Peeps said. “Find out if she’s got friends she trusts. I’ll check with the granddaughter’s ex, see if I can get a line on her.”
Peeps Friday knew an opportunity when it knocked and this one was banging away at his door with a sledge. He didn’t believe for a second the preposterous story about that old bat getting young again, but this was exactly the kind of information Mansfield Wayne paid good money for and if there was one thing Peeps Friday coveted, it was good money.
He shivered a bit as he got on 395 and headed south. It had been a long time since he’d been out to the Wayne estate and he was always apprehensive when he went there. Going through the gates was like entering the embassy of a foreign country. Maybe it was only four or five acres at the top of Saddlehorn Drive, but inside those gates old Manny Wayne was the law and his security guards, who were fiercely loyal, would skin you alive and serve you to his Rotweiller guard dogs if he asked them.
Maybe he should have called first, Peeps thought as he turned onto Mount Rose Highway. He’d gone back to the hospital and gotten the disc from Dr. Shaffer, telling him he’d copy it and get the original back to him. Shaffer hadn’t wanted to give it to him, but he’d had no choice. Neither had Peeps, becasue Manny needed to see the disc. Manny, like himself, may not believe what was on there, but maybe he would. One thing was for sure, he darn sure wouldn’t believe the story if Peeps told him over the phone. Seeing is believing, he told himself.
But he didn’t believe it.
But he hoped Manny Wayne would.
Mansfield Wayne was just leaving the john, which because of his enlarged prostate he was visiting a lot more than he liked, and about to make his first martini of the evening, when Gerald, the major on duty, he liked to give his guards rank, rang him and told him Peeps Friday was at the gate. It was 5:00 and he had his first drink at 5:00 straight up and his second at 6:00, seven nights a week, without fail. He spent the two hours, from 5:00 to 7:00, in thought. He didn’t like to be disturbed and those who knew him, knew this. So, he carried a touch of irritation with him when Peeps showed up at the door.
“ Mr. Mansfield, I have something for you,” Peeps said.
“ Mr. Friday, you know about my private time.”
“ This can’t wait, Mr. Mansfield. Because of the hour I was going to take this to your son, but with all due respect, sir, this is too big for Tucker. I had to come straight to you and I had to come as soon as I possibly could.”
Mansfield Wayne was a quick study and what he saw told him Peeps was about to burst. Peeps was greedy, but he wasn’t stupid. If he said he had something too big for Tucker, then he did.
“ Come in, Peeps.”