Davies cleared his throat.“The man didn’t say anything else?”
“No.I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay.Most likely he was hired to kill Janice now that she’s made herself seen.”
“So you think it’s the Ryder gang?”
Davies glanced at Officer Brelly and there was some kind of silent conversation between the two.Davies tilted his head toward me and Officer Brelly seemed to have caved.
“What’s going on?”I asked.
Officer Brelly cleared his throat.“Janice wasn’t the only one attacked tonight.”
“What?”
“I’m only telling you what you’ll hear in the news.Dr.Laflin was killed today.From the timeline, it happened before the lights went out.No one realized what happened until probably during your attack, which is why the alarm went off.Once the alarm went off, protocol would be to secure all the wards, prevent people from moving around.With the power out, they weren’t able to effectively do that.”
“He was free to wander around because the power was out,” I whispered.
“Exactly.”
“So...he was trying to get a doctor and Janice tonight, why?”
“We can’t tell you that,” Officer Brelly said.
I wrapped my head around the information he’d shared.And then it clicked.
“Dr.Laflin was part of the Ryder gang?You said you got them all though.”My heart rate skyrocketed.If there were people who were part of the gang still out there, what did that mean for Janice and me?
“All members have been arrested and they won’t be able to get out of jail,” Davies said.
“But—”
“You’re a smart girl, Cadence,” Officer Brelly said.He glanced again at Davies before sighing.“He was affiliated with them, yes.But he wasn’t part of the gang.We have evidence of him being bought off by them.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”Officer Brelly rubbed at his thighs.“We were keeping an eye on him, but apparently so was another party.We need to look into it,” Officer Brelly said.“See who McCormack or any of them have reached out to.How they’d even be able to afford to hire someone.They don’t have access to any of their funds and many of them don’t have enough money personally to even be able to afford rent, let alone what it’d cost to make a guy think it was worth it to cause a disturbance in the hospital to kill a doctor and attack a young woman.”
“Okay,” I said.
“For now, we’ll make sure you and Janice are protected,” Davies said.
I bit the inside of my cheek.The last time they ‘protected’ me, I became bait.I couldn’t really trust it this time around.
“Cadence,” Davies said.“I’m serious.We’ll make sure you’re protected.Janice is an important witness for the trial against the Ryders.We can’t lose her.”
Exactly.Janice was important.If it came down to it, they’d probably hide her away.But I wasn’t important.I knew that.If anything, I was worth a couple extra charges they’d be able to use on the Ryder gang, but none of that was what was going to end them.My case was simply a little sprinkle on top of the dessert.
I met Officer Brelly’s eyes, but he couldn’t hold my gaze, looking back down at his notepad, pretending to focus on something written there.
Sighing, I stood up.“Right.In the meantime, I’m going home.Janice is staying with me currently.”
Davies nodded.“We already sent a squad car to your house.”
I raised an eyebrow, not having expected that.“Are we free to go home?”
“We’ll follow up later if we have more questions,” Officer Brelly said.“For now, get rest.You’ve been through a lot.”
