J. Jance - Left for Dead

“Yes,” Lattimore muttered. “I heard.”

“Would you like me to represent your husband as well, Mrs. Reyes?” Juanita asked, her voice booming through the cell phone speaker.

At first Teresa only nodded. Then, glancing at Ali’s face, she realized her mistake. “Yes, please,” Teresa said. “I want you to represent us both.”

“And what’s your name, Officer …”

“Lattimore,” he replied. “Lieutenant Duane Lattimore. I’m an investigator with the Arizona Department of Public Safety. And there’s no need to involve an attorney at this time. I’m merely asking Mrs. Reyes a few questions. After all, she’s not a suspect.”

“It sounded very much like you were treating her as a suspect, Mr. Lattimore,” Juanita said. “So for right now, you’re done. The conversation is over. Neither she nor her husband will be speaking to you again without my being present in the room. Understood?”

Lattimore knew he’d been outmaneuvered. “Understood,” he said.

Without another word, he ended the call and thrust the phone back in Ali’s direction. Turning, he strode out through the doors of the waiting room and disappeared down the hall.

To Teresa’s surprise, the waiting room seemed to have filled with people without her noticing-nurses, orderlies, other visitors. They had all heard what was being said, and they understood instantly that this was a case where, against all odds, the little guy had beaten the big guy. Quietly, one person began to applaud. Soon other people joined in, and in a moment they were all clapping.

Teresa Reyes sat there, looking from one face to the other. Then her eyes rolled back in her head. Seconds later, as she slumped forward in her chair, the large purse that had been perched in her minimal lap fell to the floor, scattering possessions in every direction.

“I think she fainted.” Teresa heard the words, but they seemed to be coming from very far away.

“Help me lower her to the floor,” Sister Anselm said. “And somebody call a doctor.”

That last remark was unnecessary, because the ICU charge nurse was already sounding the alarm.

12:00 P.M., Sunday, April 11

Tucson, Arizona

Ali watched as orderlies and nurses sprang into action. While one of them pushed an unoccupied bed out of one of the ICU rooms, a nurse slapped a blood pressure cuff on Teresa’s arm and pumped it up. By the time the nurse finished taking the reading and listening to a stethoscope held to Teresa’s chest, the expression on the woman’s face was grave.

“We’ve got to get her to maternity,” the nurse ordered. “Now!”

Several people stepped forward. Together they lifted Teresa from the floor and onto the makeshift gurney. As the gurney rolled toward the doorway, the two little girls tried to follow.

“Mommy, Mommy,” Lucy wailed. “Where are you taking my mommy?”

Only Donnatelle’s timely intervention kept the screaming children from following their mother down the hall. As they went through the door to the waiting room, the group almost flattened a uniformed hospital volunteer coming in the opposite direction, carrying a massive foil-covered, potted, and blooming Easter lily.

While Ali gathered the scattered contents from Teresa’s bag, Donnatelle and Sister Anselm took charge of the children, trying to calm them. Pocketing Teresa’s fallen cell phone, Ali handed the purse over to the charge nurse for safekeeping. Just then Ali’s cell phone rang.

“Somebody hung up on me,” Juanita Cisco complained when Ali answered.

“That would be Lieutenant Lattimore,” Ali said.

“Maybe I should talk to my client again when we’re not on a speakerphone.”

“That’s going to be tough,” Ali said. “She fainted dead away. They put her on a bed and are rolling her to the maternity ward as we speak.”

“She’s pregnant?”

“Very.”

“When do you think I’ll be able to talk to her?”

“I have no idea. The nurses didn’t say anything, but I have a feeling that whatever’s going on is pretty serious. Do you think Lattimore meant what he said-that he suspects Teresa has some involvement in her husband’s shooting?”

“The spouse or significant other is always suspect,” Juanita replied. “You’re the one who knows these people. What do you think?”

“I know Jose,” Ali said. “I met Teresa for the first time this morning, but that’s not the reading I’m getting.”

“Lattimore was trying to scare her into talking to him. Which is why you were absolutely right to put me on the phone. So what about the husband?” Juanita asked. “When can I talk to him?”

“He’s still in the ICU.”

“Is he able to communicate?” Juanita asked. “If I talk to him, will he make sense?”

Ali glanced toward the charge nurse, who had taken the volunteer and her load of flowers in hand. “Those can’t go in any of the ICU rooms, because they’re supposed to be fragrance-free zones,” the nurse was explaining to the woman, who was evidently new. “You can park them on one of the tables here in the waiting room. Then, when the patient is moved to a regular room, we send the flowers along. Who are they for?”

“The guy didn’t give us a name. Just the woman who was found near Three Points on Friday.”

The nurse gestured toward the room from which Sister Anselm had emerged much earlier. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll just write Jane Doe and tape it to the side, here. That way we’ll know they’re hers. I’m not sure how long she’ll be in the ICU, but you can take charge of them, right, Sister Anselm?”

Bouncing the weeping Carinda on her hip, the nun nodded. “Will do,” she said.

“Excuse me,” Ali said, interrupting the flower discussion. “This is Mr. Reyes’s attorney on the phone. She wants to know if she can come to the hospital to talk to him.”

The nurse shook her head. “Not at this time,” she said. “Family members only.”

“You heard that?” Ali asked.

“Good,” Juanita said. “If I can’t talk to him, neither can Lattimore. At this point, I’m working as your attorney as opposed to theirs. I’m assuming you want me on the job?”

“Yes,” Ali said. “I want you on the job.”

“Very well, then. At their earliest convenience, Ms. Reynolds, I’ll need to have a signed document from all of you, saying that you, Ali, are paying for their legal services, but you might want to reconsider.”

“Why?”

“Because you might be wasting your money. In order to have a search warrant in hand, Mr. Lattimore had to convince a judge that he had some reason to believe illegal activity had occurred. You may believe these people to be friends of yours, Ms. Reynolds, but I must warn you, search warrants aren’t issued easily.”

“I’m aware of that,” Ali said.

“So let me ask you one more question,” Juanita said. “Did you have an affair?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You and Jose? I’m trying to figure out why you’re riding to the rescue here-calling Victor; calling me. What business is this of yours?”

“Jose and I didn’t have an affair,” Ali declared. “He helped me once when I needed it, and I’m trying to help him in return. I’m also trying to help his family.”

“No good deed …” Juanita said with a sigh. “Have it your way. Are you staying at the hospital?”

“For now I am. I don’t know for how long.”

“Okay. Keep me posted. Call me as soon as Mr. Reyes is moved out of the ICU and can have visitors. If that’s what he wants, I’ll come by at that point and sign him up. By all means, see to it that he talks to me before Lattimore gets in to see him. But be advised, if Lattimore decides that Teresa is really a legitimate suspect in the attempt on her husband’s life, then all bets are off. If that happens, I’ll have to represent one or the other of them. I won’t be able to represent both.”