Fifty-Six

Hunter got up at five o’clock after another troublesome night. He’d dozed off in uneven intervals and never for more than twenty minutes at a time. The double Scotch had helped but not enough. He sat in the kitchen nursing his early morning headache with a glass of orange juice and a couple of strong painkillers.

He was hoping for an early start, but not 5 a.m. He wanted to obtain at least one more patients’ list before meeting up with Garcia back at the RHD. The cross-referencing and picture search from last night had yielded no results, but there were still several hospitals and physiotherapy clinics to go and Hunter was trying to stay positive.

He’d figured he’d be doing a fair amount of walking today and that gave him the perfect opportunity to wear his new shoes in. They did feel a little on the tight side as he walked around in his living room, but he knew that one or two days walking around LA would definitely do the trick.

The visit to the next hospital on his list went as slowly as the ones from the day before. Another cramped little room, another filing system that seemed to need a cryptographer to get through it. ‘Why do hospitals have computers if no one knows how to use them?’ he cursed under his breath as he finally managed to get the list of patients he needed just in time to make it back to the RHD.

Hunter didn’t pay much attention to the fact that Garcia wasn’t at his desk when he walked in at a quarter past ten. He gathered his partner was probably downstairs running through the daily report with Captain Bolter.

He dropped the envelope with the new patients’ list on his desk and stared at the picture-covered corkboard for a minute. What he needed was a cup of Brazilian coffee before going downstairs. He noticed that Garcia hadn’t prepared it yet. Strange, he thought as it was always one of the first things his partner would do as soon as he walked through the door.

Hunter brewed the coffee himself.

‘Are those new shoes?’ Detective Lucas said as Hunter walked onto the detectives’ floor.

Hunter paid no attention to Lucas’s sarcasm.

Most of the other detectives lifted their eyes from their computer screens to have a look.

‘They are new, aren’t they, you big spender?’ Lucas insisted.

‘I buy a new pair of shoes every ten years and you’re giving me heat?’ Hunter answered with disdain.

Before Lucas could hit back, Hunter’s cell phone rang.

‘Hello, Detective Hunter speaking.’

‘Hello, Robert, I have a surprise for you. Have you heard from your partner lately?’