just need you to show us where you found it, then you can be on your way,” Colin assured him, before turning his attention to his officer. “Ernie, I’m assuming you got the man’s statement?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Could you grab a couple of large flashlights on your way out, big guy, so we can see where we’re going?” Colin requested.
“Yep,” Ernie replied, pushing away from the wall.
Colin rose from his chair and motioned toward the door. “Lead the way, Mr. Osterman.”
~*~
Isabel pushed through the doors of the St. Luke’s Medical Center, on her way to find Jerry Banderas, hoping she wasn’t too late for visiting hours. The young lady at the information desk told her he was on the fourth floor and suggested she check in with the nurse’s station once she got up there.
As the elevator glided up to the fourth floor, Isabel thought back over the years she had known this man. He had been a stand-up guy, in her mind, almost a father figure, like an uncle she could go to for advice. It was hard to see him as a murderer, but she was resolute to find the truth of his involvement in Evan’s death.
She had always known Evan as David Gerard, until he left the CIA to marry Emily and move to Paradise Valley, but she had worked hard to see him only as Evan after she followed him to this place. If she slipped up and called him David, Emily would question it, and the mistake could put his life in jeopardy. But he was no longer in need of her help to keep his anonymity—he was dead.
Still, she liked the person he had become as Evan. He was kinder, more caring of others. Picturing him in her mind, his dark blonde hair, those serious gray-blue eyes that could look right through you, and his engaging crooked smile—that was how she wanted to remember him.
The elevator doors parted and she stepped out, not far from the nurse’s station. “I hope you can help me. I’m looking for a patient.”
“Name?”
“Jerry Banderas.”
“Banderas, Banderas, Banderas,” the nurse repeated as she ran her finger down her computer screen. “Yes, room four twelve. Down this hallway,” she gestured toward the corridor, “on your right.”
Isabel turned to look down the hall and saw Delia McCall come out of a room on the right and turn the other direction, toward the stairs. She wondered if Delia had just been visiting with the same person she was there to see.
She walked down the wide, brightly lit hallway, as the nurse had directed, and came to room four twelve on the right. It was the same door she had seen Delia exit. Pushing it open, she saw Jerry lying in the bed, propped up on pillows, with his eyes closed.
“Jerry?” she said softly, not wanting to wake him if he was asleep.
His eyes opened slowly and a smile spread across his lips when he saw Isabel.
“Hey, Jerry. I just heard you were in here and I rushed over as soon as I could. What’s going on? Why are you in this place?”
“Pancreatic cancer,” he replied flatly.
“Oh, Jerry,” she sighed. “How come you never told me?”
“I didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me.”
“You never seemed sick to me, except at the lunch the other day I thought you looked kind of pale. But cancer? I had no idea.”
“That’s the way I wanted it. I only found out myself a couple of months ago. This type of cancer creeps up on you, and bam—you’re a goner.”
“Oh, Jerry, I’m so sorry.” Isabel laid her hand on his as she fought against the tears that threatened to break through. With all her suspicions about this guy, he had been her friend for a long time. “What do the doctors say?”
“That I’m too far gone, there’s nothing they can do but help me manage the pain. I don’t have much time left.”
“Do you have your affairs in order?” Isabel wondered if he would come clean about his involvement with Evan and his connection to Delia McCall, if he would want to get it off his chest before he passed.
“I think so. I don’t really have much to leave anyone, except my pension. A life devoted to my work, in the end, didn’t leave me room for much else, except four ex-wives.”
“Four ex-wives? I thought you’d been married five times?”
“I was. One died.”
“Sorry, I didn’t know that.”
“It was a long time ago.”
“I seem to remember you had a couple of daughters.