"Lieutenant Delvecchio said you overheard the alleged perps talking about a friend of theirs who might have been involved in a shooting?"
Alleged my ass.
"Yes, right, they kept talking about their friend Dwayne Travers, who was shot. They had me call Metro East and confirm that was the hospital he'd been sent to. I guess they got their east and west mixed up and thought Dwayne was here."
"Did they say anything else?"
"They were looking for something."
The detective stared at me for a moment before asking, "Did they happen to mention what that might be?"
"No." I shook my head. "At first, I thought they were after drugs. Why else would you hold up an emergency room? But they never even went for the drugs."
Detective Burnett glanced around. "Where do you keep the drugs?"
I pointed to the room behind the nurses' station. "Back there, but everything is locked up and we only have enough back there to stabilize a patient. For anything more than that, they have to go through the pharmacy."
"And they never tried to go for the drugs?"
Wasn't that what I'd just said?
This guy wasn't too bright.
"No, sir," I answered instead of telling him what I really thought. "They searched everything in here, and that's when they discovered me hiding under the desk."
"And that's when they had you call and confirm that their friend had been sent to Metro East Hospital?"
"They yelled at me a bit, demanding to know where it was."
"Where what was?"
Really?
"Whatever they were looking for. When they started to talk about their friend getting shot, I put two and two together and told them they probably had the wrong hospital. That's when they had me call and confirm that their friend had been sent to Metro East instead of here." I shrugged nonchalantly. "A lot of people get the two mixed up."
The detective wrote something down on his little note pad before glancing at me again. "And you were able to confirm that Dwayne Travers had been sent to Metro East?"
"Yes, sir."
"All right, Dr. Jones." The detective flipped his note pad closed and then slid it into the pocket of his long coat before handing me his business card. "If you think of anything else, give me a call."
"I can go now?"
I really wanted to go.
"I have your contact information if I have any questions."
Fabulous.
"So, I can go?"
I wanted to be sure.
"Yes."
The guy wasn't even looking at me anymore. He was looking across the room to where David was talking to Sal. His brow wrinkled as if he was intently curious as to what they were saying to each other.
I was kind of curious, too, but not enough to not go when the detective said I could go. I knew from my experience as an emergency room doctor that I was edging closer to shutting down. I needed to get home where I could fall apart in private.
