Out of the Silence
Part 3

See Part 1 for notes and disclaimers and author's ramblings.
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http://www.loftworks.com/wftk/fiction.html

        T.C. stepped out of the elevator and headed down the hall.  He 
had been called to Mercy Faith more times than he cared to think about 
where constables under his watch had lain wounded or been declared 
dead.  He could remember years when no officer of the law died, but in 
recent years, violence had escalated and it had become all too common.  
Dead in the line of duty.  Too many.  Times had changed and not for the 
better.  
        But on the other hand, he hadn't been in the cardiac ward 
before.  And it had never been someone as important to him as Joe was.
        He walked to the CCU counter and waited for the nurse to notice 
him.
        "How can I help you?" she asked pleasantly.
        "I was hoping to see Joe Reese," T.C. said slowly.
        "I'm sorry, but no one is being admitted to the Unit right now.  
We are admitting a new patient.  If you'll have a seat in our waiting 
room, we'll notify you when visitors can be admitted.  Are you family?"
        T.C. shook his head.  "No.  Just a really good friend."
        "You may not be admitted, it depends on how much family is 
here.  We only let two visitors in at a time and for only five or ten 
minutes at a time."
        T.C. nodded.  "I understand.  Thanks."  He left and went into 
the waiting room.  He saw no sign of Scott.  Work, he presumed was 
holding him up--not at all unusual.  But he did see Denise, Joe's wife, 
sitting alone staring out the window.  T.C. walked across the room and 
sat down beside her.  
        "Hello, Denise," he said.
        Denise smiled at him.  "T.C.," she said softly, "it's good to 
see you." 
        "How's Joe," he asked.
        "He's doing pretty well.  They said they might move him out of 
CCU as early as tomorrow.  It was only a mild heart attack."  She 
laughed slightly at that.  "They call it mild.  I thought he was 
dying."  Tears suddenly made her eyes brilliant.  "I've never been so 
scared in my life."
        T.C. took her hand and held it comfortingly.  "He'll be okay."
        "I hope so," she said haltingly, "I don't know what I'd do 
without the big idiot."
        T.C. laughed.  "You know Joe, he's too damned stubborn to die."
        Denise smiled shakily.  "I hope so."
        "Where're the kids?" T.C. asked.
        "They're coming.  They should be here by tomorrow.  I wish they 
didn't live so far away," Denise said fretfully.
        T.C. suddenly was aware of how hard the day had been for Denise 
sitting here by herself. He settled back to stay awhile and let her 
talk.  At least that was something he could do--and after a day of not 
being able to do anything--it felt really good.
        "And how about you?" T.C. asked.  "How are you doing?"
        Denise looked at him, her eyes big, and the tears spilled out.  
"It's been awful," she choked out, and then she began to cry.
        T.C. pulled her into a warm embrace and held her while the 
storm passed, and cursed this world where family was far away, and you 
had to sit alone in a cold hospital waiting room with your fears.  
After a while, Denise pulled away, blew her nose, wiped her eyes and 
smiled.  
        "I needed that," she said.  "I feel a lot better, now."
        T.C. grinned, "That's what your local constabulary is for, 
ma'am."
        She laughed.  "I'll remember that."
        Just then a nurse coughed at their side.  "Mrs. Reese," she 
said cheerfully, "your husband is awake and trying to give orders.  We 
thought you might give him the low-down here, and let him know he's the 
patient, not the Doctor."
        Denise stood up with a shaky laugh.  "It figures.  Give Joe a 
few minutes to orient himself and he tries to take over."  She looked 
at T.C.  "Come with me, please?"
        T.C. nodded and followed her down the hall, patiently matching 
his long steps to her much smaller ones, when all he wanted to do was 
run down the hall and see Joe and tell him he was so glad he was alive, 
and he couldn't go.  He just couldn't leave T.C. and Scott behind--not 
to mention Denise.
        Joe looked irritated. 
        That was T.C.'s first thought when he saw him lying in bed 
hooked up to six different monitors.  The nurse told them they had ten 
minutes and vanished, as Denise took Joe's hand and smiled down at him.  
"How are you feeling, Joe?" she asked.
        "Like hell," Joe said irritably, confirming T.C.'s initial 
impression.  Yes, Joe was definitely not happy to be here.
        "Better," T.C. said mildly, "than not feeling anything at all, 
Joe."
        Joe squinted at T.C.  "You might not be saying that if you'd 
been feeling what I've been feeling.  Felt like someone just reached in 
and tried to squeeze the old ticker flat."
        "Well, they didn't succeed, did they?"
        "Hell, no, but it still hurts, and with all this *crap* they've 
got stuck in me, I'm feeling like a science project."
        "Best damn looking science project I've ever seen," T.C. said 
with a grin.
        Joe grinned back.  "Glad to see you, too, T.C."
        "The feeling is mutual.  You know you can't go checking out on 
us."
        Denise laughed, listening to the banter, and leaned down to 
kiss Joe.  "Now I know you're going to be okay."
        Joe smiled back at her.  "Honey, I wouldn't dare leave you."
        "So, what did the Doctor say?" Denise asked.
        Joe sighed and moved a little, seeking a more comfortable 
position.  "He says I'm here for at least four or five days while they 
run tests and get the heart stabilized.  It's still jumping around a 
bit.  Can't say I'm looking forward to the beeping and buzzing of all 
these things keeping track of every burp I make, but if everything goes 
well, I'll be in a regular room tomorrow and home soon.  Guess I won't 
be doing any parachuting or ski-jumping for a while."
        Denise laughed, as Joe meant her to at his joke.  "You won't be 
watching any games with a bowl of popcorn and a six-pack of beer.  I 
think he's going to put you on a diet."
        "Yeah," Joe said glumly.  "I heard that, too."
        "Well," T.C. said, "I guess I can leave you safely in Denise's 
hands for a while.  Looks like I was worried over nothing."
        Joe raised an eyebrow, "It's not Denise I'm worried about, it's 
those physical therapists.  They're out there salivating, waiting to 
run me through torture tests."
        "I'm sure you'll have the tables turned in no time."  T.C. 
stopped and met Joe's eyes seriously.  "You get well, soon, okay.  We 
need you."
        Joe smiled grimly.  "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere.  I 
ain't checking out until we put our little case in the solved column."
        Denise sighed, "Joe, you aren't supposed to be thinking about 
stuff like that right now."
        Joe looked at her and patted her hand.  "Don't worry, hon, I'm 
not. I just turned it over to T.C.  It's his project now until I get 
better.   So," he said looking back at T.C., "I'll expect you to have 
it solved by the time I'm better."
        T.C. snorted.  "Right.  No problem.  I'll do that."  He met 
Joe's mischievous dancing eyes with a twisted grin.  Yeah, he knew Joe 
Reese.  Even down in a hospital bed, he always had the best lines.  
"Okay, Joe," T.C. said, "it's mine.  Now you just concentrate on 
getting well, and I'll see you in a couple of days."  He took Joe's 
hand and just held it for a moment.  They smiled at each other.  And 
then the nurse was ushering them out.

        T.C. headed home, his thoughts mixed and muddied by events.  
And it didn't help that it was taking twice as long to get there due to 
snarled traffic and intermittent heavy snow.  He was starting to think 
seriously about moving to someplace where it was warm and it didn't 
snow.  It was a very enticing thought on days like this.
        His mind drifted from the snow to Joe and the case.  It really 
was a pity that he couldn't solve Knight's disappearance and hand it 
back to Reese tied up in a neat little package with a big red bow on 
it, but realistically, they all knew it would never be solved.  Just 
wasn't going to happen.  Nobody knew how to hide their tracks like 
vampires.  After all, they'd been practicing for centuries--how could a 
mere mortal hope to find someone as elusive as Lucien LaCroix in a 
single lifetime?    And what would he say to him if he did?  "Hi, could 
you tell me what happened to Nick Knight and Natalie Lambert that 
night?"   T.C. shook his head at the eternal question.  What *had* 
happened to them?
        "Dead," he said softly, "dead, dead, dead."  And that was his 
opinion. Not that they hadn't learned some interesting things along the 
way, but none of it answered the fundamental question.  T.C abruptly 
came to a dead (no pun intended) stop.  Up ahead he could see lights 
flashing.  He thought about pulling out of line and checking it out, 
but dismissed it.  He was off duty, and it was obvious there was plenty 
of help up there already.  He shrugged his shoulders and let his mind 
wander to their most recent revelation...
        Only three months ago, Joe had learned a woman had contacted 
the police force looking for Nick Knight.  Reese had tentacles 
everywhere, and it hadn't taken him long to learn from someone at the 
96th precinct about the call.  He'd called T.C. and asked him to follow 
up--after all, T.C. had the resources, and Joe didn't anymore.
        A few discreet inquiries had given T.C. the pertinent 
information and it had left him with his eyebrows practically in his 
hair.  The caller had been Emily Weiss.  That had rung all kinds of 
alarm bells.  Nowadays she wrote those books about magicians and 
witches and such that Peggy was so into.   But a long time ago she'd 
written books about vampires.  He knew because before he'd done 
anything else, he'd called a friend in the publishing business and got 
the low down on Ms. Weiss.  The last vampire novel she'd written had 
been 'The Denied'.  It had been a huge best seller, and yet, she had 
not followed it up.  She'd turned to writing about other mystical 
creatures.  No one knew why.
        T.C. had gone straight to the case file and looked her up.  
Yup, there she was.  One of the women linked with Knight romantically.  
She'd been stalked and Knight and Schanke had been assigned to her 
case.  They'd solved it.  Turned out her assistant Andrew had been the 
crackpot thinking they were destined to live together in undead 
happiness or some such thing.  He'd taken a nosedive off the top of a 
building in the end.  An interesting case to T.C.'s way of thinking, 
one he was sure had reams of fascinating events which had never made 
the record.
        Ms. Weiss, it turned out, was living in New York, so T.C. had 
called her.  After a few minutes of conversation, that was more like a 
fencing match, he became convinced Emily Weiss knew more than was safe, 
though she wasn't admitting anything.  After more artful conversation 
that said nothing concrete, he managed to get the point across that he 
knew she knew something about Knight and he knew it, too.  A little 
more dancing around and she agreed to an appointment.  T.C. flew to New 
York to have a chat with the elusive Emily Weiss.  It had been very 
illuminating...

                                 *****

        T.C. gave his credentials to the security officer and informed 
him of his appointment with Emily Weiss.  He'd found it interesting 
that she'd been totally in sync with him on meeting in a 'non-official 
capacity'.  No meeting at the office, no meeting in a public forum.  
She'd chosen to meet in her apartment.
        The guard cleared him and sent him into the building.  The 
elevator ride seemed long as T.C. tugged at his tie and peered at his 
reflection in the burnished gold doors of the elevator.  All too soon, 
he'd found himself ringing the doorbell of her penthouse apartment.  
Seems she'd done right well without writing about vampires.
        The door opened and T.C. found himself meeting the dark, level 
eyes of Emily Weiss.  Her hair was graying, but she had a serene beauty 
about her.
        "Ms. Weiss?"  T.C. asked
        "Mr. Davis, please come in."  Emily led the way into a lived-in 
sitting room, where papers were strewn about, and sat down in a 
comfortable overstuffed chair.
        T.C. made himself at home on a leather couch, and was happy to 
find it actually fit his long legs.  Nothing worse in his opinion than 
being stuck in a chair that was two sizes too small, like say the 
airplane where he had sat in 'sardine class'.
        Emily met his steady gaze nervously.  Her sudden calm seemed to 
have deserted her as she played with a pencil.  "You wanted to talk to 
me...about Det...Detective Knight?"
        T.C. smiled engagingly, trying to put her at ease.  "Yes.  As I 
mentioned on the phone, I understand you were trying to locate 
Detective Knight.  Right?"
        Emily nodded, bit her lip and added in a low undertone, "Yes.  
I was sorry to hear that he was dead."
        "Yes," T.C. agreed, "it was a great loss at the time.  He was 
the most decorated officer ever in the history of Toronto's Metro 
police."  T.C. looked at her seriously.  "I know that this is difficult 
for you, but believe me, it is much more difficult for me to be here.  
You know, and I know, that Detective Knight wasn't your 'average' cop.  
There was a lot more to him than met the eye.  That's why I'm here.  
And I think you know that.  What we discuss here will never be written 
down or recorded by the Toronto PD.  I am here in a much more private 
capacity."
        "Oh," Emily said and suddenly seemed to sit up a lot 
straighter.  T.C. knew that he had allayed some of her fears, and got 
on with it.
        "Nick Knight and Natalie Lambert disappeared and were presumed 
dead under some of the most unusual circumstances.  Their disappearance 
has *never* been solved.  I didn't join the Toronto PD until several 
years later, but I was asked to look into the case on a bet, actually.  
But I also have special skills in solving difficult cases and this case 
defied everything I knew or expected.  What I found....made no sense.  
At least not at the time.  What I did discover was that Nick Knight was 
a very unusual man, with a very different lifestyle.  
        "In the process, I made the acquaintance of Captain Joe Reese.  
He was Knight's Captain, the last nine months of his life.  It turns 
out that he and the medical examiner, Dr. Connors, have suppressed 
evidence in the case. They didn't do it to prevent the murder from 
being solved, but to prevent any one else from losing their life."
        Emily flinched and looked away.
        "Nick Knight had a secret.  A very dangerous secret.  Whether 
that was why he and Natalie were killed, we don't know, but we believe 
that it had *something* to do with it."  T.C. stopped and watched Emily 
in the thick silence.
        Finally she met his eyes.
        "You know what that secret is, don't you?" T.C. asked softly.

End Part 3
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