The hunt, p.43
The Hunt, page 43
“Don’t talk, angel.” Donatti cradled his wife, rubbing her cold arms. She was still icy to the touch. “You’ll be fine, baby.”
“Sanj …”
“Sanjay’s fine. So is Juleen. They’re with Decker’s daughter. She’s a cop, so they’re safe.” Donatti was still sweating. He was breathing hard. “I forgot her name.”
“Cindy.” Rina opened a bottle of water she found in the limo and put a capful to Terry’s lips. When she didn’t drink, Rina moistened her cracked lips.
“Gabe?” Terry asked.
Donatti said, “He’s out of town. He doesn’t know a thing. I don’t think I’ll tell him until you’re better.”
Terry whispered, “Tell … I love them.”
“I don’t need to tell them,” Donatti said. “You can tell them yourself.”
A puddle gushed from Terry’s body, covering Donatti’s pants and dripping to the floor. He looked down and put his fingers to the wetness. They came back sticky and red. He said, “Were you shot?” He started examining her body.
Rina said, “I think it’s her period.”
“Oh.” Donatti was gasping. “Okay. That makes sense.”
But deep inside, Rina knew that it wasn’t her period. She knew it because she had been there. She took off her seat belt and leaned over to the driver. She whispered, “Can you go faster?”
“We’re about five minutes away, ma’am.”
Rina nodded and slapped her seat belt back on.
“What is it?” Donatti asked.
“Just wondering how much longer.”
The answer satisfied him. He turned his eyes back to his wife.
A few moments later, Terry looked at Chris and said, “Thank …”
“No thanks necessary. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I love you so much, baby.”
Another gush of blood.
They pulled up to the entrance to the hospital, where a gurney was waiting. As they loaded her onto the stretcher, Terry managed to grasp Donatti’s hand. He ran with her as they wheeled her down the hallway to the emergency room. As the double doors opened, she said, “I love you, Christopher.”
“I love—” His hand was suddenly yanked from hers and the doors shut closed on him. “I love you, too, Teresa—”
He turned around. Rina was there. He said, “She’ll be fine, right?”
“She’s in the care of people who know what they’re doing,” Rina answered.
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“Chris, I know as much as you do.”
He sat down on a bench and covered his face with his hands. Then he looked up at Rina, who was still standing. “She was up when they took her in. That’s a good sign.”
“Yes.”
“She was talking. She told me she loved me.” A pause. “Or maybe I imagined it.”
“No, you didn’t imagine it. I heard it too.”
“She said it, right?”
“Right.”
He stood up and began to pace the full length of the hallway. Back and forth, back and forth, several times. He stopped. “How’d you know? About Talia?”
Rina shrugged. “A gut feeling, as Peter would say.”
“Fucking cunt blindsided me.” He sat, then he got up again. “I should have fired her as soon as Terry came back. I should have known! None of the girls liked her.”
Rina was silent.
“I was an idiot. I was lazy. It was just easier to keep her on. She was with me from the beginning.”
“Chris, this isn’t your fault,” Rina said.
He waved her off and began pacing again. “It is my fault. Totally my fault.” A pause. “What the fuck is taking so long?”
Rina looked at her watch. It had only been around ten minutes.
He said, “Shit, I forgot to call the police.”
“I did it.”
“You did?”
“Yes,” Rina said. “I called 911.”
“Someone’s thinking. Did you give them the location?”
“I just said at the trailhead in the mountains. Should I call them again?” At that moment, her phone sprang to life. “It’s Peter. Hold on.”
“Put it on speaker,” Donatti said.
Rina complied. Into the receiver, she said, “You’re on speaker. We’re at the hospital.”
“Is she okay?” Decker asked.
“We don’t know anything yet. Where are you?”
“At the police station. It has two jail cells, but they don’t have a facility to book her or keep her. A guy named Saverhall called in Nevada State Police. I’m waiting here until I know she’s in the proper hands.”
Donatti took the phone from Rina. “Saverhall’s a good guy.”
Decker said, “Yes, he is, but he seems a little out of his element.”
“We don’t get murders around here.” Donatti paced as he talked. “Or attempted murders. You should have left Talia out there to freeze. Feel what the fuck it’s like. Just wait with her until the bitch is taken away.”
“That’s exactly what I’m doing, Chris.” A pause. “You’re going in and out of reception.”
Donatti handed the phone back to Rina. She took it off speaker and said, “When are you coming here?”
“When the proper authorities get here. Am I still on speaker?”
“No.”
Decker said, “I need to explain everything. She’s just as much a psycho as he is, and I don’t want her talking her way into bail.”
“Do you need anything?” Rina asked.
“No, I’m fine. I even got fresh coffee. What about you?”
“We’re just waiting.”
“You seem to be holding back on me. Is that true?”
“Maybe.” She looked at Donatti. “I’ll call you when I know something.”
“I love you, Rina.”
“Love you too.” She hung up.
Donatti was still walking back and forth. “What do you think?”
“What do you mean?” Rina asked.
“What are they doing?”
“I’m not a doctor, Chris.”
“Yeah, but you once worked as a medic or something in Israel. You told me that when you fixed my bullet wound, remember?”
He had a good memory, although getting shot was probably one of those things that was forever etched in the brain. They had been walking in the streets of New York when gunfire broke out. He had taken a bullet in the chest protecting her.
“It was a long time ago,” Rina said.
“I won’t hold you to it,” he answered. “What do you think?”
Rina sighed. There was no way she was going to tell him what she was really thinking. “She was dehydrated and hypothermic. They’re probably getting her body temperature up with warm fluids.”
He stopped pacing and turned to her. “That’s no big deal, right?”
“I think she was in shock.”
“She recognized me.”
“Not shock as in surprise,” Rina said. “It’s a medical term when you lose a lot of liquid in your body. It throws everything off.”
“Like your kidneys?”
Rina sighed again. “Yes … mainly you worry about low blood pressure.”
“So, if they give her fluids, she should be okay, right?”
“Sometimes. But sometimes, it’s not that simple.”
“Jesus!” He sat down and clamped his hands over his face. “When will they know if she’s okay?”
“I can’t answer that because I don’t know.” She checked her watch. It had been about twenty-five minutes. “Can I get you anything?”
“How about getting me out of this hell?”
“I’m so sorry, Chris.”
“If this ends badly … God, I don’t want to think about it.”
She nodded.
“Probably better to keep positive,” he said.
She nodded again. But she had her doubts. She tried to sweep them from her mind. Her phone rang again. Rina said, “It’s Cindy. What do you want me to tell her?”
Donatti gave her a wave.
Rina pressed the button. “Hi, honey.”
“What’s going on?” Cindy asked.
“Terry’s in the hospital.”
“In the hospital?” Cindy shrieked. “Is she okay?”
“We’re waiting to hear.”
“What happened?” A pause. “Or can’t you talk now?”
“Exactly. I’ll call you when I have an update. Don’t say anything to the kids until we know exactly what the status is.”
“Of course.”
“How are the kids?”
“They’re not saying much … to be expected.”
“Did they sleep?”
“They said they did. They ate breakfast. Now they’re watching TV. Sanjay is. Juleen is in the room with the door closed. When I checked on her, she was lying on the bed reading. I don’t want to bother them too much right now.”
“I agree.” Rina paused. “Thanks, honey. I’ll call you later.”
“Where’s Daddy? He’s not answering his phone.”
“He’s with the police. I’ll explain later.”
“Oh my God. Someone hurt her?”
“Yes.”
“It’s serious?”
“Yes. I’ll call you later.”
When she hung up, Chris said, “Kids okay?”
“Probably disoriented, but physically they’re fine.”
About ten minutes later, Donatti’s phone rang. “Shit, that’s Gabe. Can you talk to him?”
She took his phone. “Hi, honey.”
“Juleen called me. She said Mom is missing. She said that she and Sanjay are at Cindy’s house. What the hell is going on?”
Rina waited a moment to catch her breath. “Your mom is in the hospital, Gabe. Please don’t say anything to Juleen and Sanjay just yet.”
“Where’s my father? Did he hurt her?”
“No, nothing like that. Your dad’s right here with me in the corridor, waiting to hear from the doctors.”
“Can I talk to him?”
“He’s not in much of a state to talk.”
Donatti held out his hand, and Rina gave him the phone. “What?”
“You tell me, Dad,” Gabe said.
“I can’t tell you a fucking thing because I don’t know anything.”
“Is it serious?”
“I just said I don’t know.” A pause. “Where are you?”
“Budapest. I booked a ticket to come back as soon as I heard.”
“How’d you hear?”
“Juleen just called me. She said that Mom was missing.”
Donatti let out a gush of air. “Don’t come home yet. Wait until I have news, okay? Can you do that for me?”
“Dad, I can’t perform with this level of anxiety.”
“Just wait, okay?” Donatti said. “I’ll call you when I know something. Or maybe Rina will call you. Just don’t tell Juleen anything about this until I have something definite.”
“Of course not.” A pause. “When you see Mom, tell her I love her.”
“Yeah, I will. It goes both ways. Before she went into the emergency room, she asked me to tell you that she loved you.”
“She was conscious then?”
“She was. I’m going to hang up. Talking to you is making me more nervous.”
“I love you, Dad.”
“Same.” Donatti hung up and stowed his phone. He checked the time. “Why is it taking so fucking long?”
Rina didn’t answer. It had been well over an hour and that usually wasn’t a good sign. A minute later, Decker was walking down the hallway. She jogged over to meet him. She kept him there for a moment—away from Chris.
“Anything?” he whispered.
“No,” Rina whispered back
“She looked like she was in low-volume shock.”
“Probably.” Rina took a breath. “I think she’s pre—”
At that moment, she saw the two doctors emerge.
She knew instantly.
She said, “Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech ha’olam dayan ha’emet.”
Blessed are You, our God, King of the Universe, the True Judge.
She took Decker’s hand, and they went over to Donatti. He looked at them and they at him.
One of the doctors said, “I’m so sorry, Mr. Donatti. I’m so sorry.”
Donatti just stared back.
Nothing was sinking in.
The doctor lowered his head. His name tag said DR. DREW JAMISON. “She was very compromised to begin with. And we just couldn’t stop the bleeding—”
“Bleeding?” Donatti said. “Was she shot?”
“No, sir, she was hemorrhaging from a miscarriage.”
His face went white. “She was pregnant?”
Jamison scratched his face. “You didn’t know?”
“No, I didn’t know!” Donatti snapped back. “How many months?”
Jamison said, “Around eight to ten weeks.”
“Could it have been longer than that?”
“Maybe.”
Donatti said, “I want a paternity test.”
The doctor was surprised. “We can probably do that—”
“Good, because I want it.”
Decker said, “Chris, what difference does it make?”
Donatti ordered, “I want a paternity test.”
“Let me go back in there and see …” Jamison said. “Hold on for a little bit and I’ll see what I can do.”
“Yeah, do that!” Donatti barked. “Fuck!” he said. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! If she came to me pregnant and didn’t tell me … if she fucked around on me …”
“I’m sure she didn’t,” Rina said.
“You don’t fucking know that, do you?”
Rina said, “Even so, Chris, Peter’s right. What difference does it make?”
He turned to her with wild eyes. “What difference does it make? What difference does it make? It’s the difference between giving my wife a proper burial and burning the bitch!”
CHAPTER 33
THERE’S NO REASON why you should stick around,” Decker said. It was eight in the evening, and he and Rina were in Chris’s outer office. Where Donatti went was anyone’s guess. “You gave your statement to the police. If they need anything, they can call you.”
“The same could be said about you,” Rina said.
“I’m a cop,” Decker said. “It’s different. I know these kinds of psychos … how they manipulate people. I just want to make sure it doesn’t happen.”
Rina said, “But Talia confessed.”
“Not quite,” Decker said. “She confessed to me but not to the cops. No one was around. I had a gun. She could say it was coerced. Of course, that’s not going to happen. But I want to make sure it doesn’t happen. I’ll wait until after the funeral.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with Chris,” Rina told him. “He’s too unstable right now.”
“He’s not going to shoot me.” Decker smiled. “Besides, I have his gun.”
“I’m not worried about that. I’m worried he’s going to find a way to shoot her.”
“Yeah, don’t think I haven’t thought about it.”
“What was she booked with?”
“Two counts of first-degree homicide. They may reduce the charges for the fetus.”
“That would be a pity,” Rina said. “I’m also not leaving until after the funeral, Peter. Neither Chris nor Gabe is in any shape to plan it. Someone has to take the reins.”
“If he doesn’t burn the bitch,” Decker said.
“Of course the baby was his.”
“He doesn’t seem convinced.”
“He didn’t think Gabe was his either,” Rina said. “Honestly, I think he’s just finding an excuse to be furious at Terry because anger is easier than devastation. The man lost his wife and child in one swoop. I can’t even imagine what that feels like.”
Decker lay down on the couch. “It was a horrific day, and the next few days aren’t going to be any better.”
“But the sun will come up in the east and set in the west,” Rina said. “That’s what’s so crazy about death. Your life is forever changed, but the world goes on.” She stretched out on her couch. “Let’s talk about it in the morning. Neither one of us has had any sleep for over twenty-four hours. Nothing looks hopeful when you’re exhausted.”
Decker turned around and tried to get comfortable. The leather couch was tufted with buttons. It was hard. He had no pillow or cover. But Rina wasn’t complaining, so why should he? A half hour later, Donatti returned to his office and flipped on the lights. Decker rubbed his eyes and sat up.
Donatti looked at him and Rina. “I’ll get you some pillows and covers from the bedroom.”
“We’re fine,” Decker said. “Where have you been?”
“Walking.” His voice was completely flat.
“For ten hours?”
Donatti didn’t answer. His phone rang. “It’s Gabe—again.”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Not since I told him,” Donatti said. “I don’t want to talk to him … I don’t want to talk to anyone. And I really don’t want anyone to come here and console me.” He tossed the phone to Decker. “Tell him that for me, please.”
He disappeared inside his office.
Decker answered the call and said, “Hi, it’s me.”
Gabe’s voice was shaky. “He doesn’t want to talk to me.”
“He’s in no state to talk to anyone.”
“Which is why I should be there even if he doesn’t want me.”
“Gabe, give it a day. By then we’ll have funeral arrangements.”
“Who’s arranging the funeral? Not him.”
“Rina will handle it. Chris says that he isn’t doing anything with your mom until he gets the paternity results back. But both Rina and I feel he’s just blowing steam. The sooner we take care of your mom, the better.”
“He’s an idiot. Of course it’s his baby. I saw my mom when she first got there—to his place. She was in the hospital. She was as thin as a razor blade.”
“Like I said, he’s in no state to be rational. Where are you?”
“I’m in London Heathrow. I should be in New York by six a.m. tomorrow. Then I’ll figure out how to get to his place. He’s always sent a private plane, but I can’t ask him to do that now.”
