Page 85 of Wild Fever
"I can't allow this to happen. There's no paper trail. You can’t even tell me where you got the drug or what it is.” Dr. Parker sighed. "He's conscious right now. If you get informed consent, there's a little wiggle room. But even with informed consent, I need to know exactly what the drug is, where it came from, and more details about this supposed toxin. Of course, if he walks out of here, he's free to do whatever he wants.”
Rick didn't look like he was in any condition to walk out of the hospital.
Dr. Parker’s face tensed with torment. "I will need to talk to hospital administrators, run this by the legal department, and see what our exposure is. I can guarantee you the answer will be no. And my recommendation will be against it. But you're welcome to stay here in the room and continue to interview the patient. I'll be back in 30 minutes with an answer. But I can tell you that answer is going to be no.”
Dr. Parker stepped out of the room. It was a gift. A 30-minute window to save Rick’s life.
I stepped back into the room, closed the door, and moved beside Rick's bed. "You're under arrest for the murder of Yan Zheng. Now you’ve got two options. You can die, or you can take an experimental drug that may kill you, but might save your life. I can’t make any guarantees, but it worked for a friend.”
Rick shared a look with his girlfriend.
“Baby, do it!”
Rick thought about it for a long moment. "Live so I can spend the rest of my life in prison?" He shook his head. "No thanks. That ain't much of a life."
"Baby, no! Don't give up on me. You can fight this. Take a plea agreement." She looked at me. "He's cooperating with you. He'll do anything he can to help you find his employer. That's who you're really after. Rick is just a middleman.”
"Listen to your girlfriend, Rick. She's smart. She's a keeper. Who knows? Help the prosecution, and maybe you could get the charge knocked down to manslaughter. Out in 15 years.”
"15 years is a long time.”
"It's better than life.”
“Baby, please!” Michelle pleaded, clutching his hand.
I gave Rick one last opportunity. “What’s it going to be? This is your only shot, and time is running out.”
54
“No,” Rick said. “I can’t do a jail cell.”
Michelle burst into tears. “Don’t be an asshole, baby. You can’t leave me.”
“I’m leaving you either way. What are you going to do? Wait for me?”
“Yes!”
“We both know that’s not true. You’ll find somebody else. Somebody who can make you happy.”
“You make me happy,” she sobbed.
“No. I don’t. I’ve never been good for you.” Rick looked at me. “Just do me a favor. Get the people who killed me.”
“That will be a lot easier if you stay alive,” I said.
I tried to change his mind, but Rick did not want to spend time in a 6x8. I didn't blame him. I didn't have a full backstory on Rick yet, but there may have been more than one reason whyhe didn't want to go to prison. He’d be an easy target. Maybe he knew there was a shank waiting for him in the yard.
I gave his girlfriend my card in case Rick had a change of heart. But we wouldn’t have another opportunity even if he did. Dr. Parker had looked the other way once. He wouldn't do it again.
We left and headed back to the station. I logged Rick’s cell phone into evidence and had Crenshaw make a clone of the data. He saved it to an external hard drive. Crenshaw was good, but Piper and Isabella were on a completely different level. I gave him the passcode to the phone and asked him to see what he could find out about the crypto wallet that transferred money to Rick.
JD and I headed back to theAvventura, and I enlisted Piper to find out as much as she could about the crypto wallet that sent the money to Rick. I had the wallet address. We just needed to find out who owned it. I sent the information to Isabella as well. Between the three of them, I hoped we’d catch a break.
I contacted the sheriff. He informed the feds we had their suspect in custody. Jack had Rick’s confession on video. For them, the case would be open and shut. End of story. The Chinese would get a speedy resolution to the crime, but they wouldn’t get Zheng’s laptop back anytime soon, if ever.
I found Kara and asked, “Did you leave the sliding glass door unlocked when you left the Pineapple Cabana?”
“Yeah, why?”
