REprisal - Kathy Coopmans Page 0,21
at Marty, who lets them fall to the floor. I don’t want to look at the bitch.
“Don’t know, but take a look at the last page.”
I flip to the end of the file, my brows furrow as I read.
“Dr. Caleb Hollis? Hollis . . . her fucking husband? What in the hell? Have you talked to him?”
“Fuck, no. I thought I’d leave you the honor of talking to him. There’s a whole bunch of other information in there too. Not about your mother, but about him.”
My ass is up out of my chair so fast it nearly falls to the floor, my hand involuntarily moving to check the gun strapped to my waist.
“Zack, what the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I snatch up the paper with his name and address on it.
“I’m going to find some answers, and something tells me this cocksucker will have them. Martinez! Let’s go!” I shout at my partner. Not even waiting for him to respond, I push open the front door, making quick steps to my Suburban.
My best friend looks just as stressed out as I am as he climbs in the passenger’s seat.
“What the hell?”
I shove my key in the ignition, put the gear into drive, and skid out of the lot like a madman.
“I’ll explain on the way.”
He grabs hold of the side bar as I whip onto the highway at a lightning speed.
“Hey, slow the fuck down or you’re going to get us both killed and we’ll never make it there.”
I never take my eyes off of the road as I weave in and out of traffic.
“Fuck it. My sister’s been gone for a damn year, man. I am not slowing down.”
“Well, fill my ass in before we get there so I know what the hell is going on.”
I toss the paper into his lap.
“Take a look.”
“Who the hell is this?”
“It’s my mother’s husband, or ex-husband. I don’t fucking know. All I know is that this is the first lead we have into finding my sister. I’m not wasting any more time. This son of a bitch knows something, I can feel it.”
I take a deep breath, feeling adrenaline pumping fiercely through my veins. My hands are shaking so goddamn bad, I can hardly think straight. This is the first real piece of evidence we have gotten.
As we continue north toward the hospital, I fill Martinez in on the little information Marty was able to find on my mother.
“You know you should really call him, don’t you?” he asks me when we pull into the hospital’s parking lot.
Shit. No way in hell am I killing anyone until I have certified concrete evidence on Clove’s whereabouts.
“If this dickhead gives us anything to go on I will, after I kill the prick first.”
“Calm down, Zack. Let me do the talking, brother. Shit. You all right?”
Martinez pats my back as I bend over, clutching my knees.
Fuck me, what was I thinking? I need to do this right. I have to calm down before I barge into this hospital and demand to see this doctor. A doctor who doesn’t have to talk to me.
“What if he won’t tell us a damn thing? What if he doesn’t know anything?”
I’m going to lose my mind if this hunch of my dad’s leads me to a dead end. I have slept less in the past week than I have since the day we found out Clove was gone. This is the closet we have come to being able to find out anything. “Pull yourself together. I’m right here with you. I love your sister too, man. This is good. You can do this. If he doesn’t cooperate, we have the right to detain him. You know all this. Just think of Clove, man, and try to stay calm. Now come on.”
Closing my eyes, I straighten myself up and give him a nod to let him know I’m okay before we make our way to the office of Dr. Caleb Hollis.
I flash my badge to the receptionist and find out the good surgeon isn’t out performing any surgeries today. One of the perks of being a cop.
Martinez gives me a sympathetic look before he knocks on the door of Hollis’s office.
“You still good, bud?”
Well, someone might to have to rearrange the good doctor’s fucking face if he doesn’t give us the information we need to find Tina. I’m not about to tell my partner this shit though, so I nod my head yes.
“Door’s open,” a low voice calls from