They called for a lab tech to gather evidence from the room. The blue and white crew would stay to secure the scene till the lab tech arrived. The head nurse asked if a blood sample would help. The detectives said yes. She picked up a plastic bag, went to the infectious disposal in the hall, donned gloves and got a pair of forceps. She took out a key, opened the door and took out a bloody bandage. She put it in a bag and tied it shut.

“The doctor took this bandage off her breast this morning. There shouldn’t be contamination except on outer surfaces.”

“Are you sure it is her bandage, I mean could you testify to that in court?”

“This was the only dressing like this we had on any patient this morning.”

“Good.”

The nurse poked around in the box. “I don’t see the drains so she must still have them in.”

“Couldn’t she have thrown them away, in a trash can?”

“She is a nurse. They are contaminated with body fluids. They would be here not in a trash can, she would know that finding something like that would be a red flag but you are free to look. And she knows how essential those drains are for recovery. Unless she couldn’t get out with them in her, they are in.” She pointed to the empty IV pole on the bed. She left the IV in and took it too. She probably carried it under her coat. No matter what else she is, she is a nurse. She knows patient care, she is planning for it and she has a stake in it.”

The other nurse came up. “She took the pre-pulled meds and two IV’s. She knows patient care. She has over a day’s worth of everything including antibiotics and syringes to administer them. We are missing another patient’s IV and antibiotics. He is on the same regimen. Unless something goes wrong she has everything for more than two days and that is probably all she will need to get better. She has what she needs for recovery except some bandages she can get anywhere.”

“How did she get them?”

“They were on the cart. Julie was getting ready for the next run. She only left it unattended when a patient light went on. She went in and found it was an empty room.”

“The oldest trick in the book to distract a nurse. You wait till the nurse is well away from the room, slip in, turn on the light and slip out before the nurse gets there. She goes in and wastes time looking for who set the light. Every nurse knows that one.”

The detectives were on their way out of the hospital when they got a call from the station. A citizen out walking saw a car parked about a block from the doctor’s home last night. He thought it might be a burglary. He wrote down the license number but forgot to call the police when he got back home. When he saw the police cars at the doctor’s home he stopped and gave them the license number, make, model, year and place it was parked. The information matched a car registered to David Starner. They took down his address and had the station check Leah Starner’s address for them. Her address was closer to their location so they arranged for backup and headed to her condo. No one answered the door. They called for a search warrants for David’s and Leah’s homes, left the one blue and white to watch it, headed to David Starner’s home and arranged for backup.

Denise Chapter 01: Success in Hollywood

Denise Chapter 44 – Dr. Davis, Patient and Evidence Gatherer

Denise Chapter 46: The Arrest Goes Bad, Real Bad