Mercy

CHAPTER ELEVEN

It was early afternoon, and Cameron, Preston, and John were all chomping at the bit for Dallas to arrive. They had been waiting in John's library for over an hour and were becoming more and more anxious.

Dallas was late as usual.

"Where the hell have you been?" Cameron demanded the second Dallas walked into the library, looking as tired and haggard as the others. "We've been waiting for hours."

"I've been running my ass off," Dallas snapped. "And I'm not in the mood for attitude, Cameron, so knock it off."

"Do we pack up and leave the country?" Preston asked. "Are the police going to knock on our doors?"

"Jesus, don't talk like that." Cameron broke out in a cold sweat.

"I don't think we're going to have to pack our clothes just yet," Dallas said.

"You got the copies of our files back?" Preston asked eagerly.

"No," Dallas answered. "I didn't get them… yet. I found out what courier service the law firm uses and went there. Fortunately, they hadn't mailed the receipt back to the firm yet, and I got a copy. I called Monk immediately, and he headed out right away. Catherine sent the information to a relative, a Dr. Michelle Renard in Bowen, Louisiana."

"I don't get it. Why would Catherine wait till she was dead to send it to a relative and not just turn it over to the Feds the

minute she found out?" Cameron asked.

John answered. "I know exactly what she was doing. Catherine was a fanatic about marriage being forever, and she wasn't

going to let me go. She would have used what she discovered to make me behave. The last couple of months, she must have thought I was coming around. I was being so sickeningly nice to the woman. But Catherine was vindictive. No matter how nice

I was to her, she was going to send me to prison after she died. Still, I never would have guessed that she would have sent the

file to the family she'd practically disowned."

"Did the doctor sign for the package?" Preston asked.

"Yes."

"Son of a bitch. We're screwed."

"Quit interrupting and let me finish," Dallas said. "I talked to the man who delivered the package. He told me he went to

Renard's home first. She wasn't there, and so he headed over to the hospital. He said she signed for the package in the

emergency room."

"Why do we care where she was when she signed for it?" John asked.

"I was getting to that," Dallas replied. "The messenger remembered that, when he was pulling out of the parking lot, he almost

ran into an ambulance as it came flying by. He said another ambulance was right behind the first, and while he waited, he saw

the medics unload four boys. He remembers seeing a lot of blood on their clothes."

"So?" Preston prodded.

"So, my guess is that Dr. Renard was pretty busy last night."

"We're supposed to hang tight because you guess the doctor didn't have time to read the files and call the police?" Cameron asked.

"Will you shut up?" Dallas snapped. "As soon as Monk got to Bowen, he drove over to the St. Claire hospital. Sure enough,

Dr. Renard had been in surgery. Monk told one of the aides that he wanted to talk to the doctor about a financial opportunity

and asked her if he should wait. The aide told him that Renard had two back-to-back surgeries and wouldn't be done for several more hours."

"What else?" John asked. He was sitting behind his desk, drumming his fingers on the blotter. Dallas resisted the urge to stop him.

"The slip showed she signed for the delivery at exactly five-fifteen," Dallas said, checking a notepad. "I checked with the ambulance service, and the time of arrival at the hospital was five-twenty. So…"

"She couldn't have had time to do anything about the package," Preston said.

Dallas continued. "While Renard was in surgery, Monk put a tap on the phone line to her house. When he got back to the

hospital, there had been a shift change in the ER. He took advantage of the opportunity to slip into the doctors' lounge and

search Renard's locker. He even had an aide helping him. He told her a package had accidentally been sent to the wrong person."

"And she bought it?"

"Monk can be charming when he wants to," Dallas said. "And she was young. They didn't find anything, but she gave him all

kinds of information about Dr. Renard."

"Maybe Renard took the package to surgery," John suggested.

"I doubt that," Dallas said. "The aide said she went up with a patient."

"Then what did Monk do?"

"He waited. It was late when Renard left the hospital, and he followed her. She made one stop on the way home. She went by

a clinic, and she had some papers in her hands when she went inside. Monk would have searched her car then, but she'd left

the motor running, which indicated she wasn't going to be there long."

"Did she have the papers when she came back out?"

"None that he could see," Dallas answered. "But she was carrying a backpack. Anyway, he followed her home, waited until

he was sure she was asleep, then broke in and searched the house. He found the backpack in the laundry room and went

through it first."

"It wasn't there." John made the statement.

Dallas nodded.

Cameron began to pace. "She had to have taken it to her clinic. Maybe she was thinking she'd deal with it today."

"Monk went back and checked the clinic. It wasn't there either. He assured me he searched everything. Only problem was,

he broke a lock on her desk and decided he had to trash the place so it would look like kids had been there."

"Where the hell is the package?" John was furious now and wasn't trying to hide it. "I can't believe the bitch sent it to her

cousin. She hated her relatives."

"I don't know where it is," Dallas said. "But it occurred to me…"

"What?" Preston urged.

"She can't possibly know what she has."