Page 6 of Justice for JoElla

When she’d lied and lied and lied some more, until she couldn’t lie anymore, she told them about the affair. They behaved as though they didn’t believe her at first. Then they behaved as though it was all her fault. Afterward, it became painfully obvious that they’d told everyone else in the precinct, but the funny part was, it was her who was snubbed. No one acted like Lance had done one single thing wrong.

The last straw was when she saw the broadcast of Lance receiving the commendation and medal, and the announcement that he’d been promoted to assistant chief. That was the moment she realized it was still a good ol’ boys world, no matter how much they liked to insist it was diverse. The two black cops they had on the force were discriminated against over and over, and she’d spoken out about it. There was only one other female officer, and she’d been harassed too. So when they called JoElla to come in only to tell her she was suspended for two months, it was almost impossible to believe those words when she heard them. She was being penalized for defending herself and her partner and, on top of that, they’d taken her service weapon for testing but wouldn’t tell her what they’d found wrong with it. Had it truly malfunctioned? Or had someone done something to it? Had Lance emptied her magazine when she wasn’t looking? She had no idea. Two things were all she was sure of. The first was that her slide had locked open after the first shot, which usually meant the magazine was empty, and she knew it had been full. The second was that she didn’t deserve the hell that had rained down on her, at least not alone.

For all that time since she’d left there, she’d felt cut loose and adrift, like nothing could possibly go right in her life ever again, but that was before there had been that knock on the door and RoyBillings had walked right on in. Thinking back over the years, there was one thing she knew.

RoyBillings was an honorable man. His family loved and respected him. His deputies liked working for him. To her knowledge, there had never been one single complaint lodged against him for anything. If ever there were a place where she might fit in…

The sun came up. JoElla made a pot of coffee and some toast. When she was finished with that, she stepped into the shower. Once her hair was dry and her makeup was on, she pulled a pair of khaki pants and a polo shirt out of the closet. Instead of her usual frou-frou watch, she put on a sports watch, no other jewelry, grabbed her go bag and slipped her wallet into it, and headed out the door. She sort of wished the drive there was longer, but Taylorsville wasn’t a very big place, and in minutes, she was parking in front of the building.

The brand new front door opened quietly, its metal frame and handle gleaming, and the new countertop at the front desk was beautiful granite. She hadn’t known the sheriff’s department had that kind of money! The duty officer looked up from his paperwork and said, “May I help?”

“I’ve got this, David,” a voice said from somewhere behind her, and she wheeled to confirm it was who she thought. “And for the record,” he said to the officer behind the counter, “this is our new detective, JoEllaTompkins.” Roy smiled at JoElla. “That’s David. If you need anything, just ask him. Or anybody. Doesn’t matter. We all help each other around here. Right, David?”

“Yes, sir. We sure do.”

“Come on back and let’s get your paperwork started.” Roy turned and made his way down the hallway, but he stopped halfway down and turned back to JoElla. “You comin’?”

Things inside her head waffled, and then everything leveled out and she knew the right answer. “Yes, sir. I’m right behind you.”

Chapter 2

Rotating motion.He scrubbed his arms; his hands were already done. Watching the clock, he finished that portion of the protocol and headed to his gown. After he had his hands and arms in it, one of the techs pulled it up onto his torso and tied it behind him. As soon as he was gloved up, he headed into the surgical suite, his mask and cap already in place.

“Vitals?”

“BP, one twenty-three over seventy-five, pulse, seventy-four and steady.”

“Are we ready?” he asked the anesthesiologist.

The man nodded. “Ready.”

“Instruments.” A surgical tech appeared at his left elbow, and he twisted to reach for the scalpel with his right hand. A group of medical students from University of Louisville stood in the gallery, watching as he readied to begin. “Making the first incision.” It looked like it would be a routine appendectomy, and it would all be over in a few minutes. A successful surgery, a happy patient on the mend, and he’d be readying for another by that afternoon. As he recalled, it was a hernia repair. That was the good part about being a surgeon on staff at a hospital. He got a bit of variety that specialists didn’t get, and it kept things interesting.

He’d just finished the first incision and asked for the opening to be sponged when there was a commotion behind him, and with no warning, the surgical suite doors burst open. “YOU SON OF A BITCH!” a woman’s voice shrieked, and he spun to see what was going on.

He could feel the blood draining from his face. “You can’t be in here! Somebody call security!”

“You told me you were going to tell your wife!” The woman kept screaming while knocking trays and instruments off counters, then began to open cabinets and drag things from shelves, where they hit and spilled, broke, or made a god-awful racket. “And then I find out you’re going on vacation with her in the Bahamas! You lying son of a bitch! Did you really think I’d just take this lying down?”

Anything he could say to calm her down would confirm his guilt, but he couldn’t just let her ransack the surgical suite. “Kalia, calm down. You can’t be in here. This is jeopardizing the patient’s health. You have to leave. Right now.”

“You!” she screamed and pointed at him, glaring. “You’re nothing but a lying piece of shit!” Spinning toward him, she lobbed a box of suture kits at him and barely missed the anesthesiologist. The box had no more than hit the floor when two security guards burst into the surgical suite and grabbed her by both arms. “LET ME GO! God damn it, let me go! You’re gonna pay for this, you asshole! I swear to god, you will!” she screamed as they dragged her backward out of the suite and he took a deep breath.

Holy fuck, the whole surgical field was compromised. He had a patient on the table with an open incision, stuff everywhere, and the rest of the surgical team looked frozen in shock. “We need to get this procedure finished and get this patient out of here. Everybody with me?”

One by one, they seemed to come out of their stupor and get back to work, but he was shaken. Everything was about to crash down around him, and he wasn’t sure how it would play out, but he knew one thing with certainty.

His whole life was about to go to hell and it was nobody’s fault but his.

* * *

“Have a seat.”The tall man he favored so much pointed to a chair in front of the desk, so he sat down. “I’d ask you what the hell happened in there, but it looks pretty damn clear to me.”

“But Dad, you?”

“In this room, I’m not your dad. I’m the chief of staff of this hospital, and you’re?youwere?the general surgeon here.”

“Look, I?”

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