“The executive wing,” Brevard said. “But this wasn’t his pod, right?” He remembered what Darcy had told him. “The blood on the lid matches the pod, but the man inside is someone else. Wouldn’t that suggest someone used their own pod in order to stash a body?”
“If my hunch is correct, it’s worse than that.” Dr. Whitmore took another sip of water and ran his fingers through his hair. “The name on the executive pod, Troy, matches the swab I took from the lid, but that man should be in Deep Freeze right now. He was put under over a century ago and hasn’t been woken up since.”
“But that was his blood on the lid,” Stevens said.
“Which means he has been woken up since,” Darcy pointed out.
Brevard glanced at his night-shift officer and realized he’d misjudged the young man. That was the blasted thing about working these shifts with different people every time. You couldn’t really get to know anyone, couldn’t gauge their worth.
“So the first thing I did was look in the medical records for any strange activity in the Deep Freeze. I wanted to see if anyone had ever been disturbed from there.”
Brevard felt uneasy. The doctor was doing all of his work for him. “Did you find anything?” he asked.
Dr. Whitmore nodded. He waved toward the terminal on the waiting room desk. “There has been activity in the Deep Freeze initiated by this office. Not on my shift, mind you. But twice now, people have been woken up from coordinates that place them there. One of them was in the middle of the old Deep Freeze, that storehouse from before orientation.”
The doctor paused to allow this to sink in.
It took Brevard a moment. His sleep-deprived night guard proved a hair quicker.
“A woman?” Darcy asked.
Dr. Whitmore frowned. “It’s hard to say, but that’s my suspicion. I don’t have access to this person’s records for some reason. I sent Michael down to check, to get a visual on who’s in there.”
“We could be dealing with a murder of passion,” Stevens said.
Brevard grunted in agreement. He was already thinking the same thing. “Say there’s a man who can’t handle the loneliness. He’s been waking up his wife in secret, would probably have to be an administrator to have access. Someone finds out, a non-executive, and so he has to kill the man. But … he gets killed instead—” Brevard shook his head. It was getting too complicated. He was too decaffeinated for this.
“Here’s the kicker,” Dr. Whitmore said.
Brevard groaned in anticipation. He regretted having dumped out his cold coffee. He waved for the news.
“There’s been one other case of someone pulled from Deep Freeze, and this guy, I do have access to his records.” Dr. Whitmore scanned the three security officers. “Anyone wanna guess the guy’s name?”
“His name is Troy,” Darcy said.
The doctor snapped his fingers, his eyes wide with surprise. “Bingo.”
Brevard turned to his night guard. “And how the hell did you come up with that?”
Darcy shrugged. “Everyone loves a match.”
“So let me get this straight,” Brevard said. “We’ve got a rogue killer from the Deep Freeze knocking off an administrator, taking his place and likely his codes, and waking up women.” The chief turned to Stevens. “Okay, I think you’re right. It’s time to get Shepherd involved. This just hit his pay grade.”
Stevens nodded and turned toward the door. But there was a slap of hurrying boots out in the hall before he could leave. Michael, one of the medical assistants who had helped remove the body from the pod, flew around the corner in a lather and out of air. Resting his hands on his knees, he took several deep breaths, his eyes on his boss.
“I said be quick,” Dr. Whitmore said. “I didn’t mean for you to race.”
“Yessir—” Michael took a series of deep breaths. “Sirs, we’ve got a problem.” The medical assistant looked to the men from Security and grimaced.
“What is it?” Brevard asked.
“It was a woman,” Michael said, nodding. “Sure enough. But the readout on her pod was flashing, so I ran a quick check.” He scanned their faces, his eyes wild, and Brevard knew. He knew, but someone else beat him to it.
“She’s dead,” Darcy said.
The assistant nodded vigorously, his hands on his knees. “Anna,” he muttered. “The name on the pod was Anna.”
????
The man in the OR with no name tested his restraints, his old and sinewy arms bulging. Dr. Whitmore begged the gentleman to hold still. Captain Brevard stood on the other side of the gurney. He could smell the odor of a man newly awakened, a man left for dead. Wild eyes sought him out among those gathered. The man who had been shot seemed to recognize Brevard as the one in charge.
“Unloose me,” the old man said.
“Not until we know what happened,” Brevard told him. “Not until you’re better.”
The leather cuffs around the old man’s wrists squeaked as he tested them. “I’ll be better when I’m off this damn table.”
“You’ve been shot,” Dr. Whitmore said. He rested a hand on his patient’s shoulder to calm him.