Julie Garwood - The Ideal Man

“It’s in your file.”

Her hand went to her throat. “For anyone to read?” She sounded appalled.

“No, not for just anyone.” Then, frowning, he asked, “What did you mean, Patterson went to Stockton for a time?”

“That wasn’t in the file?” she asked.

“No. Now tell me.” He sounded as though he were grilling her again.

“Patterson’s family is very wealthy, and they were able to get him transferred to a private facility. And guess what? Eventually he was given weekend passes to go home.”

“After he tried to kill you?” Ben asked.

Oh God, she was going to have to dredge it all up again. She took a deep breath. “After Patterson left me for dead… actually, I was told he thought he had killed me…”

“Yes?” Ben urged when she hesitated. His tone was softer this time.

“He ran, and the police and FBI couldn’t find him right away. So my father, with the help of the two FBI agents who had become friends, decided I needed to go into hiding.”

Max filled in the blanks for Ben. “The son of a bitch had been terrorizing her for over a year. He’d even grabbed her a couple of times, but she was able to get away. He wasn’t going to give up until he killed her.”

Ellie continued. “As soon as I was ready to leave the hospital, my father drove me here. One of his friends introduced him to a couple, the Wheatleys. They took me in. They’re both teachers and very kind people. They had no children of their own, and they opened their home to me.” For the first time since the topic had come up, she smiled. “They didn’t know what to do with me.”

She didn’t expound, and neither Ben nor Max pressed.

“They took good care of me,” she said. “I stayed with them while I finished college and all the way through medical school and part of residency.”

“And you’re finishing your residency now,” Ben concluded.

“No, I’ve already finished my residency. Now I’m finishing my fellowship in trauma. Are we done talking about Patterson?”

Ben nodded. “Almost. One last question, and we’ll move on. Just tell me, when did Patterson get released?”

“He’s been in and out for the past ten years. About six months ago, my father heard he’d gotten out and vanished. The attorneys were supposed to keep watch, and so were my father’s friends, but none of them were informed of his release. It was by chance that my father heard about him.” She clasped her hands together emphatically and said, “Now I’m done talking about this. You’re here to interview me about the shooting, remember? So why don’t you get to it.”

Max nodded to Ben, who pulled his chair closer to the coffee table and said, “Okay, let’s start. Go ahead and turn the recorder on, Max.”

Ben stated the date, time, location, and the names of the people in the room for the recorder, then asked, “Dr. Sullivan, did you see Agent Sean Goodman get shot?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Tell us what happened from the time you left the hospital. It’s my understanding you were going for a run. Isn’t that right? Why don’t you start there.”

Now that the subject of Patterson was off the table, Ellie could take a deep breath without feeling as though her chest was trying to crush her. She tried to be as accurate as possible as she told what she had seen, and then she patiently answered a myriad of questions. She didn’t have as much trouble describing the man who shot Agent Goodman as she did the strange woman, but she stressed that she didn’t think she would be able to point either of them out in a courtroom.

“He looked directly at me, but he had sunglasses on. I could see the sweat on his face. The sunglasses slipped down his nose, and I saw his eyes, but only for a second, then he swung the gun around, and I dropped to the ground.”

“Describe him for me,” Ben requested.

“He was around six feet tall. He wore a brown windbreaker and black pants.”

“And the woman?”

“She was dressed all in black. Black slacks, black top. She was shorter than he was, around five seven, and I’d guess her weight to be about one hundred thirty.”

“What else did you notice about her?”

“She was freaky looking. She was wearing a black wig, but it was askew. And her eyes didn’t look real.”

“What do you mean, not real?”

“They sort of… glowed. Definitely contacts,” she added quickly so he wouldn’t think she was nuts. “It all happened so fast, and they had their heads turned away from me most of the time.”

Ben calmly led her through more questions. He seemed laidback about it all, but Ellie was certain it was all an act to put her at ease. She knew from past experience that when a policeman or federal agent was harmed, the city went into lockdown mode until the culprit or culprits were apprehended. Sean Goodman was not only a friend, he was also a fellow agent. Taking it all in stride? Not possible.

“What about Agent Goodman? He saw them,” she said.

Ben nodded. “Yes, he did.”

“Sean saw a man and a woman moving fast toward the street. We’re not sure if he saw their faces before he was shot, and like you said, they obviously tried to change their appearance,” Max explained.

“If he had gotten closer…,” Ben began.

Ellie shook her head, stopping him. “Had he gotten closer, the bullet would have done a lot more damage, especially if he was hit in the chest. Those wounds are… messy.”

“Why wasn’t he wearing a vest?” Ben asked Max. “Do you know?”

“He was supposed to stay in the van, but the second he got out, he should have put the vest on. Farber and Stanley had taken their vests off,” he added. “They thought it was all over. Maybe Sean thought that, too.”

“Yeah, maybe he did,” Ben allowed.

“What about those kids who ran into the street to flag down the ambulance? They must have seen the couple running away,” Ellie said.

“They didn’t see their faces.” Max sounded irritated again.

“There were people all over the park. Could someone else have gotten a better-”

“We’ve checked,” he barked and turned the recorder off.

She frowned at him. “Are you always this grumpy?”

Surprised by her question, he repeated, “Grumpy?”

“Yeah, he is kind of grumpy today,” Ben interjected.

“The hell I am.”

Laughing, Ellie moved the pillow out of her way and stood. “I’m getting a Diet Coke. You two want anything?”

“Sure, I’ll take a Coke,” Ben said.

She turned to Max. “I shouldn’t have called you grumpy. You’ve had a bad day. Your friend was shot, and from what you’ve told me, the plan to apprehend these people fell apart.” She headed toward the kitchen and added, “So it’s okay to be grumpy.”

“Yeah, he’s usually real cheery.” Ben laughed as he told the lie. His cell phone vibrated, and he quickly read the text.

“Hey, Ellie, could I ask you a medical question?”

She peeked around the corner. “Sure. What do you want to know?”

“What does it mean when a pregnant woman has all the symptoms of indigestion?”

She thought he was joking until he looked up from his text, and she saw the concern in his eyes.

“It means she has indigestion.”

He wasn’t convinced. He read his wife’s symptoms aloud, told Ellie that she was four months along, and that she had miscarried their first child at exactly four months.

Ellie reached for her cell phone. “What’s her name?”

“Addison.”

“Give me her cell phone number.”

Leaning against the doorway she began to text, her thumbs tapping out her message with lightning speed.

Ben was impressed. “You’re fast.”

She smiled. “I’ve been doing this for a while.”