Page 73 of Wild Wolf
I flashed my badge to the peephole. "Coconut County.”
"What do you want?”
“Open the door. We need to talk to you.”
"I ain't saying shit to you. What's this about?"
"Open the door, and I'll tell you.”
"Quit playing games, and tell me now. What do you want?”
This is where I stretched the truth a bit. "We've already talked to some of your co-conspirators. We know everything. They've named names. Yours is on that list, along with other evidence we’ve acquired. This is your opportunity to save your ass. If I were you, I'd take it. You’re looking at a host of charges that will put you in jail for a long time and disrupt your academic career. You’re only going to get this opportunity once.”
Evan was silent for a long moment.
"Open the door, and tell me everyone who was involved in the break-in at the zoo. Like I said, we know all aboutOperation Liberation.”
He hesitated for another moment. "If you knew everything aboutOperation Liberationyou’d be breaking down the door right now with a warrant. But since you aren’t, I'm going to say you don't have one, and you don't know shit.”
"So, you’re confirmingOperation Liberationexists?”
Evan said nothing.
“You put people’s lives at risk.”
"I don't know what you're talking about, man. I didn’t put nobody at risk. I didn't do nothing.”
"Care to explain why you wrote, ‘We liberated them once, we’ll do it again. No peace until all are free.’"
"That doesn't prove shit. I was just saying that to impress some dumb chick."
"I'm sure when you're sitting in a jail cell, it will be very impressive."
"Why are you still here? I told you I'm not talking to you. I want you to leave. You’re trespassing.”
I laughed. "That's rich. We'll see who's trespassing." I dug a card from my pocket and stuffed it in the weatherstripping of the door. "Call me if you want to talk. But you better do it quick. You don't want to be the odd man out.”
We left, plunged down the switchback staircase, then made our way to Oren’s apartment. I knocked several times, but he didn't answer.
We gave it a few minutes, then headed to the parking garage. We looked at Oren’s assigned space, but his car wasn't there.
Dr. Parker buzzed my phone. We were such frequent flyers over there I had Parker’s personal cell phone number. He was good about giving me a heads up when possible. “Your suspect is prepped and ready for surgery. She’s stable, coherent, and lightly medicated. If you need to talk to her, you’ve got a little window for some brief questions. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes.”
We had a little time to spare. “We’re on our way.”
JD and I left the parking garage and jogged across the complex to the Porsche. We zipped to the hospital.
The waiting room was full of the battered and bruised. It was a crazy time, and the ER was packed with the influx of revelers for Halloween. The full moon hadn’t hurt business. There were plenty of sniffles and coughs, elderly types sucking on oxygen, and guys with too much testosterone who’d gotten broken noses from bar fights.
The receptionist told me where I could find Carolyn.
With a flash of the badge, we passed the security guard and pushed through the double doors. We navigated the antiseptic hallways as nurses scurried about. Moans and groans from patient rooms seeped into the hallway. The overhead fluorescents cast their sickly glow.
We found Carolyn’s room and stepped inside. She looked like she’d been through the wringer. With tousled hair and a sunken face, she looked as bad as her battered sailboat. The pale green gown wasn’t doing her any favors. A monitor by the bed displayed the peaks and valleys of her heartbeat. A bag of IV fluids dripped into her arm.
“I’m glad you’re still alive,” I said, flashing my badge.
Carolyn scoffed. “I think I’d rather be dead.”
