David Baldacci - Hour Game

"I was staying at a local motel, had my police scanner on," Bailey explained. "Damn, Todd, you must have your whole force here at the hospital."

"This is Bobby Battle," Williams shot back. "A leading citizen of the area."

King silently finished the man's unspoken thought. And now you're going to receive the full wrath of the widow.

The hospital personnel escorted them to Battle 's room. The dead man was lying there with the IV lines still in him and the ventilator tube down his throat, although all the life support machines and monitors had been turned off, their squawks and digital readouts no longer needed. Michelle found herself constantly looking over at Battle, someone she'd heard much about but had never met. For some reason, and not simply the manner of his death, he seemed as fascinating dead as he had been in life.

The head nurse and attending physician gave a brief overview of what they'd discovered regarding the feather, watch and the hole in the IV bag.

"This is all highly unusual," said the doctor in the understatement of the year.

"We were pretty sure it didn't happen every night," King said.

Williams examined the watch. "Not a Zodiac," he said quietly to Michelle and King. "But it's set to exactly five and the stem is pulled out."

When Chip Bailey was shown the bird feather by Todd Williams, the agent's reaction was palpable, but he said nothing until the doctor and nurse had left the room.

"Mary Martin Speck," he told them when they were alone. "A nurse; she was nicknamed Florence Nightinghell. The lady killed twenty-three patients in six states over a ten-year period. Speck's currently serving a life sentence in a fed penitentiary in Georgia. Her calling card was a white bird's feather; she claimed she was doing the Lord's work."

"So we can expect another letter," said King.

"We haven't even had time to get the one on Hinson," complained Williams. "Why Bobby Battle? Why would the killer want to add him to the list? It was damn risky, coming in here like this."

However, as they quickly learned after consulting once more with the head nurse, coming in the rear door was not as difficult as they'd originally thought. The code was a simple one, 4-3-2-1, and hadn't been changed in years. There were numerous people in the hospital who knew it and quite probably had let others know.

"Do we have any idea of what was shot into the IV bag?" asked Michelle.

"The lab will analyze and run tox on the contents," said Williams. "Luckily, somebody had sharp eyes and discovered the hole in the bag before everything was taken down and discarded."

"Where's Sylvia?" asked King.

Williams shook his head. "Home sick as a dog. She finished up Hinson last night, caught a bug and is right now throwing up into the toilet. At least that's what she planned to do when I hung up. She'll be here as soon as she can."

Bailey spoke up. "The FBI too. This is the fifth connected death, at least that we know of. We're going to take a more active presence, Todd. Sorry."

"Then maybe you can talk to Remmy. When that woman finds out about this, she's going to have a piece of my hide."

King said, "I wouldn't do that until we receive a letter from the killer. The presence of the watch and feather makes it seem certain Bobby was another victim, but we need to be absolutely sure before we open that can of worms with Remmy."

"Good point," agreed Bailey.

"Were there any items missing from Bobby's room?" asked Michelle. "The guy we're looking for took something from all the other victims."

"We really won't know for sure until we talk to Remmy," said Williams. "Now I want to nail down the chain of events." He stepped out for a moment and returned once more with the attending physician and head nurse.

"Can you run over the timeline again for us?" Williams asked.

"Yes, sir," the nurse answered. "Mrs. Battle was here from four until right around ten. She was in the room the whole time. Mr. Battle was alive and doing fine at a few minutes after ten when his nurse last checked him. There were no other visitors during that time."

"How about before Mrs. Battle got here?" asked Michelle.

"His daughter, Savannah, came and stayed for a while early in the afternoon. I don't know the exact times. And also Dorothea Battle came in after that, say around two-thirty."

"Did they come through the rear entrance?" asked Bailey.

" Savannah did, Dorothea Battle came in the front," answered the nurse.

"We'll need exact times on those visits," Williams told them.

"Fine, we'll get them," said the doctor stiffly. "Now, can you excuse me? I have other patients to attend to." The man was surely contemplating the lawsuit that was heading right at his and the hospital's wallets, thought King.

"Hope you have better luck with them," fired back Williams, who'd obviously read the same message in the man's tone.

After he'd left, Williams continued questioning the nurse. "So at ten-fifteen Battle 's condition changed."

The nurse nodded. "He went into cardiac arrest. He was flatlined when the first nurse arrived. The crash team tried to resuscitate but was unsuccessful."

King said, "So in the ten or so minutes between the nurse's checking him and his flatlining, the killer struck and the poison, if that's what we're looking at here, took effect."

"Looks that way," agreed Bailey.

"I noticed that the room has a video camera," said King.

"They all do. That way we can monitor all the patients from the nurse's station."

"But no one saw anyone else come in the room after Mrs. Battle left?"

The nurse looked nervous. "Sometimes the nurse's station isn't manned."

"Like during shift change?" said King.

"Yes. Now, if someone did come in after Mrs. Battle left, they had to come through the rear door, or else someone would have seen them."

"Understood," answered King.

"Pretty ballsy to do it with people all over the place," commented Williams.

"Well, if someone were going to try something like that," said the nurse, "they picked the right time to do it."

"Yes, they certainly did," said King.

As King and Michelle were leaving the unit, King stopped at the nurse's station.

"Mind if I take a look?" he asked the head nurse.

He went behind the large console and studied the live video feeds appearing on the monitors. "These aren't on tape, are they?" he asked.

"No. It's not for security, just for the welfare of the patients."

"Well, you might want to rethink that philosophy."

"What was that about?" Michelle asked after they'd left the hospital unit.

"It occurred to me that someone familiar with hospital procedure would also know about the cameras. You don't want to be caught on TV when you're killing someone; it really puts a crimp in your legal defense. In all the other rooms the camera was positioned such that the entire bed and all the apparatus on either side of the bed were shown. In Battle 's room the feed was only of the bed and the right side."

Michelle said, "The killer moved the camera so he wouldn't be shown doing the deed in case someone was looking at the monitor."

"That's right."

On the way out of the hospital Harry Carrick met them at the exit. Though it was very early in the morning, Carrick was neatly dressed in a tweed jacket and dress shirt with an open collar.

"Harry, what are you doing here?" asked King.

"Bobby Battle and I are old friends. Well, we were old friends. And I'm also the general counsel for the hospital. They called me at home. I've just finished meeting with them. It's a conflict, that I readily admit. But there you are. Have you seen Remmy?"

"No, she'd already come and gone by the time we got here."

Carrick said, "I know some of what was found in Bobby's room. I'm assuming there's more to it."