Lexi would have told Patton what he could do with his arrogant attitude, but she was too shocked by what she saw in his eyes. They weredilated as far as she’d ever seen, almost as large as his entire iris. His dark-blond hair was soaked with sweat and his face was pale as a ghost.
Either it was speed, or maybe some kind of opiate like oxycodone. Either way, Dr. Patton was high as a freaking kite. She couldn’t believe none of the hospital staff had noticed.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more important things to do than talk to you.”
She watched in shock as he stormed from the room. Crap. The hospital had a drug addict working in their ER, one who had almost certainly let two people—three, if Wayne was also a victim—die due to negligence. But how did she prove it?
* * * * *
“What’s he’s saying?” Lexi whispered to Dane, who was listening intently on his cell phone to Detective Maxwell.
They were alone in the station’s dayroom, so there was no chance of them being overheard. Dane gave her a nod.
“Hold on, Logan. I’m putting you on speaker so Lexi can hear.”
He thumbed the speaker button on his iPhone then held it so they could both listen. They’d been waiting all day for the DPD detective to call, and Dane knew Lexi was as eager as he was to hear what the cop had to say.
When Dane had met up with Lexis at her apartment last night, she’d been waiting for him at the door. He’d taken one look at her face and immediately realized something was wrong. It had taken her a while to get it all out, but as soon as she had, he knew why she was so freaked. Not only was there a doctor at the local hospital getting high while on duty, there was also a good chance his drug use had ended up getting three people killed—maybe more. Stuff like this wasn’t supposed to happen, not in a city like Dallas.
Unfortunately, they had absolutely no proof, unless you counted Patton’s dilated pupils and pale, sweaty face. But the thought of not believing Lexi never entered Dane’s mind. Not only did he trust her medical judgement, he trusted her instincts, too.
The first thing he’d done was call the station and tell them to download the memory card on Rescue 58’s cardiac monitor. Then he agreed they had to tell someone—fast.
They’d gone back and forth between calling the cops and formally reporting their suspicions to the hospital. Finally, they opted for the police. With nothing to go on, neither one of them could imagine the hospital taking their accusations seriously.
They’d called Logan Maxwell because they didn’t really know who else to turn to. They figured, if nothing else, the guy owed Lexi a favor for the tip that had helped Logan take down the street racing crew. Logan hadn’t made any promises, but had told them he’d look into the situation. At the minimum, he could poke around and see if he picked up any rumors on the street about Patton’s drug use.
“I have to admit, I didn’t think I’d find anything when I started snooping,” Logan said now. “But I think you two may have stumbled onto something bigger than even you imagined.”
“You already found something about Patton’s drug use?” Lexi asked.
“The drug use didn’t take long to confirm, at least informally,” Logan said. “You’d think a doctor would get his drugs from the hospital, but I’ve talked to a number of local dealers who admit to selling Patton a medicine cabinet full of opiate-based drugs.”
“I’m sure he’s probably stealing them from the hospital, too,” Lexi said. “But if he’s using heavily, I doubt he can skim enough to keep up with his habit without someone catching onto what he’s doing.”
“No doubt,” Logan agreed. “But while confirming Patton is on drugs was useful—and will certainly get us a warrant to search his home and locker at the hospital at some point—it’s not nearly as interesting as the fact that I can’t find the bodies of those three deceased patients.”
Dane frowned, sure he’d heard wrong. He glanced at Lexi to see her sitting there with a stunned look as well. Okay, apparently he’d heard right after all.
“What do you mean, you couldn’t find the bodies?” Dane asked.
“I can’t find them because they’re missing. I stopped by the hospital this morning to see if they’d requested an autopsy on the three patients. Hospitals rarely do that in those cases where it’s deemed natural causes, but it turned out they had, something to do with the fact that the deaths followed possible criminal activities—a fire and two street racing accidents. The only problem? While the hospital showed me transfer paperwork, the medical examiner insists the bodies never arrived at the Forensic Institute.”
“How is that possible?” Lexi asked. “Bodies aren’t socks. You don’t lose them.”
“I agree,” Logan said. “If this was one body missing, I’d assume it was a clerical error like an idiot filling out the transfer paperwork wrong and sending the body to a funeral home instead of the ME’s offices. But with three of them missing, that’s not a clerical error. There’s something weird going on.”
“Logan, do you think there’s a chance Patton is selling the bodies on the black market for parts?” Lexi asked. “I mean, other than the injuries that supposedly killed them all three of the people we treated were healthy.”
“Damn, I never even thought of that,” Logan said. “I’ve been working under the assumption Patton killed them because he was negligent and they’re missing because the doctor is trying to clean up any evidence of his mistakes. Your theory is as feasible—and a whole lot scarier.”
“It might be even more likely,” Dane said, a sudden uncomfortable thought coming to him. “It can’t be a coincidence that all three of the people who died on his watch happen to be people with no direct family members around to ask questions.”
Logan was quiet for a long time. “Huh. I didn’t realize that. So either we’re dealing with an incompetent drug addict, or a serial killer. Either way, I gotta start pushing the warrants as fast as possible. I hope to have something in a few hours.”
They talked a little while longer, with Logan promising to keep them up to speed on his investigation before he hung up.
“Do you think Patton really targeted these three people because they had no family?” Lexi asked.
