Elliot (Guardian Defenders #10)

Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

E lliot made his way to the nurses’ station with Asher. They were given Dillon Ulman’s room number. The door was open, and the man was on his phone. “I promise I’m not mad. It’s okay. Yes, nothing has changed. You have every right to want to do that, but the timing wasn’t right. Exactly. Nothing has changed. Stick to the plan we discussed. It will work.” Dillon looked up. “Hey, I’ve got to go. I’ve got company.” He ended the call and looked up at them. His tone changed to a polite question. “Can I help you?”

“Mr. Ulman, my name is Asher Hudson. I’m with Guardian Security. We’re working in conjunction with the NYPD on the shooting where you were injured. May we speak to you for a moment?”

“Sure. The cops who talked to me after my surgery said you’d be by. What can I do to help?”

Asher took out his phone and called up his document. Elliot leaned against the doorjamb, being as inconspicuous as his six-foot-four-inch frame could manage. “First, you weren’t on the guest list. Could you tell me who you were at the function with?”

Dillon frowned. “I wasn’t on the guest list? Oh, wait. No, look at the list for Demeter Pharma. We were one of the sponsors. I was the representative who attended.”

“You work for Demeter Pharma?”

“I do. I’m the CFO.”

Elliot wondered what Asher was getting at. They already knew that information the night of the incident. Asher nodded and typed away on his phone. “Can you tell me what happened as you exited?”

“Man, I wish I could, but it’s all kind of a blur. The emcee told us all to leave. The push of people was unbelievable. As soon as I got out, I felt a burning stab in my chest and shoulder. The force of it knocked me backward. Then it was bits and pieces. Seeing the cops, the ambulance ride, and then waking up here.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, I don’t have much else.”

Asher nodded. “May we have permission to talk to your doctor about your injury?”

“Why?” Dillon frowned and looked down at his shoulder.

“To see if they found a bullet, you know, standard stuff.” Asher downplayed the reason they’d discussed on the way to the hospital. Everyone else had been hit in the lower extremities due to the height and angle of the shooter on that side of the building.

“Ah, sure. I think I’ll have to sign something. You know, privacy and all that.” Asher nodded and reached into his pocket. “A HIPAA release. I carry them whenever I talk to people who’ve been injured in an incident. It saves time.”

Dillon took the form and pen Asher offered him and awkwardly signed it. From his angle, Elliot watched as Asher filmed the man signing the document. Asher was damn good. “Thanks so much.” He put his phone away and turned but snapped his fingers and turned back. “Mr. Ulman, do you know Maya Callahan?”

The man’s face transformed into a blank page. “I do. I do not like her. We have a history.”

“And yet you went to the awards ceremony where she would be recognized. Why?”

Dillon spoke slowly, and his eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t aware she would be there.”

“You weren’t?” Asher scratched his cheek. “That’s strange, isn’t it? I mean, Demeter Pharma sponsored all the media for the event. They paid for the venue and the awards, and the list was released over a month ago. How did you miss the fact she would win again this year?”

“Lucky, I guess. I’m the CFO; I manage the budget, not the day-to-day activities of the company.” Dillon closed his eyes.“I’m tired. If you don’t mind, I’d like to go to sleep now.”

“Then we’ll get out of your hair. Thank you again for taking the time out of your day to talk with us. We hope you recover quickly.”

Dillon gave them a snarky smile and looked at the door. They walked down the hall to the nurses’ station, where Asher presented the release of information form, his badge, and credentials and asked for a copy of Dillon Ulman’s medical records. As they waited for the person behind the desk to figure out how to comply with the request, they moved to a small alcove holding vending machines.

“You know something about Demeter you haven’t shared?” Elliot quietly asked as they pretended to be patient.

Asher nodded. “The company bought out the sponsorship after it had been awarded. They went after the event hot and heavy. I contacted the Vice President of Demeter yesterday, and he said Dillon was the driving force behind going after the sponsorship. According to the VP, Ulman has been in the weeds on this event for the last year. There was no way he didn’t know Maya was at the ceremony.”

Elliot connected the dots. “You think the injury is subterfuge, or maybe the shooters were pissed?”

Asher shrugged. “As soon as I get the reconstruction of the shots fired, where Dillon was found, and the rest of the injuries, I’ll have a better idea, but yeah, both those scenarios crossed my mind.”

Elliot’s mind flashed to a million different scenarios but settled on one that made the most sense with their current information. “Can we get his financials?”

“To see if there’s a money trail to the shooters? Yeah, I can get a warrant, but I’m going to need something solid to tie him to the shooters.”

“We’d have to go back over a year and work forward,” Elliot mused. “If he contracted them, they’d want some money upfront.”

“And a way to claim the money after. I wonder if they cashed in before someone cashed them out?” Asher chuckled at his own joke.

Elliot groaned. “Horrible.”

Asher laughed. “Bullshit, admit it, it was good.”

“Never.” Elliot laughed with him.

“Sir?” the nurse behind the desk called them back. “If you go down to administration, they can pull the records for you. I put the room number and the person you’ll want to talk to here.” She handed him the release form, which had the information printed on the back.

“Thanks.” Asher pocketed the form, and they made their way down to the office. It took another hour to get the forms. Asher looked at him. “I happen to know a doctor who’ll look at this for us and decipher the lingo. She works here. Care to have lunch with us?”

Elliot glanced at the file in Asher’s hand. “Will I be crashing a date if I do?”

“Not at all. She’s my sister-in-law.”

“Then lead the way.” Elliot accompanied Asher up to the cafeteria while he made a call. They went through the line and grabbed some food, found a table, and had most of their food eaten before a gorgeous woman with dark skin, darker eyes, and a lean, athletic, smoking-hot body jogged up to Asher and hugged him. Asher picked her up and swung her around once before depositing her back on her feet. “The kids have wondered if you’ve moved out of state.” She laughed when Asher let her go.

“Tell them I’m still here. Cara, this is Elliot Sawyer, a colleague of mine from Guardian.”

The woman’s smile was brilliant as she extended her hand. Elliot stood as he was introduced. “Hi, nice to meet you.”

“You, too.” Elliot smiled at her and shook her hand. Her bubbly effervescence was contagious.

“Cara is a baby doctor,” Asher said.

“The term is a pediatrician,” she huffed.

“Yeah, that. So, let me get you some food while you take a look at that pile. My main question is if there’s any indication of the angle the bullet hit him from.”

Cara sat down where the file was but looked up. “Nothing too greasy, okay?”

“You got it.” Asher winked at her and headed to the food line.

“Angle?” She looked at Elliot. “So, let’s see. The bullet entered … and exited …” She read another page and then another. “Huh.” She went back to the first page. She ruffled around the back of the stack and pulled out what looked like pictures of X-rays.

She looked at Elliot. “So, where was the person with the gun?”

“We believe he was in a building across the street due to how shots were fired at us.”

Her eyes went wide. “Us? Was Asher shot at, too?”

“No, ma’am. I was there with a client I was protecting.”

“Oh, well, thank goodness you’re okay. Wait, the person you were guarding, they’re okay?”

“Yes, ma’am. Everyone is fine.”

“Oh, thank goodness. I worry about Asher. He’s always working and has no wife or girlfriend.” She looked up from the files. “You have a girlfriend, right?”

Elliot blinked at the abrupt question. “Ah, at the moment, yes, I do.”

“What do you mean at the moment? Are you planning on leaving her?” Cara held up a hand. “Yes, I know that’s intrusive, but don’t settle. If she isn’t the one who just sets your world right, then move on and find someone else.”

“Oh, Lord. Elliot, I’m an idiot. I forgot to warn you about Cara’s obsession. Woman, you can’t ask him about his personal life,” Asher said as he set her tray down. “She’s all up in my nonexistent love life. Don’t let her go there, man. I beg you, run, run fast and run far.”

Elliot laughed as Asher and his sister-in-law traded innocent jabs at each other. But her words had struck a target, that was for sure. Maya set his world right. He pulled that thought in and held it there for a moment.

“So, what did you learn?” Asher asked at the exact moment Cara took a bite of her grilled chicken sandwich. She pointed at him, and he laughed. He turned to Elliot. “She refuses to talk with her mouth full. It’s a thing.”

“Good for her.” Elliot chuckled and took the last drink of his water.

She wiped her mouth when she finished the bite and picked up the file. “And you ask me questions every time I take a bite. You’re a brat. But this tells me the bullet entered here,” she pointed to her chest just below the collarbone and then touched her back, “and exited here.” She motioned with her finger, going from lower to higher and from right to left.

“Wait, are you sure?” Asher used his finger to repeat the motion she showed. “That the bullet went in lower and out higher.”

“Yeah, because of the powder burn on the front and how the bones shattered. See? That’s where it entered, and it exited here.” She handed him the note she’d been reading and showed him the X-ray.

Asher looked up at Elliot. “He was shot close range. Not by one of the snipers.”

Elliot nodded. “But where’s the gun that shot him? What caliber? Who shot him?”

“We need to go back to the venue and see if we can locate that slug. Can you get the magic man in your ear to find us some film?” He wrapped Cara up in a hug and kissed her with a loud smacking noise. “God, I should have met you first. My brother sucks. Love you!” He was up, and Elliot was right beside him.

“You’re welcome! Hey, you want this?” She held up the folder.

Asher jogged back and grabbed it, stealing a French fry from her plate as he did. She swatted at him and laughed as he jogged back to where Elliot was waiting for him. “Let’s go. We have a mystery to solve. God, I love my job.”