A Terrible Fall of Angels (Zaniel Havelock #1)(10)

“It’s going to fall under medical privacy, Lieutenant. He can’t tell us without a warrant or unless he knows that us not having the knowledge threatens lives, and even then, it’s his call.”

“You’re probably right, but ask him anyway.” He gave me the room number as if I hadn’t seen him point, but it was always good to be precise.

“I’ll ask, but can you give me a reason why? Because the doctor will ask.”

“Tell him I’m not sure that everything in this hallway should be this close to each other, and ask him if it’s typical to have almost every room on the metaphysical injury floor full.”

“Since you’re the one that sensed something, it might make more sense coming from you. He’s just in the room behind us.”

“I need to ask for specific unit members, and some of the energy I’m feeling on this floor will not only hear the phone call, but they could sense things through the phone I don’t want them to know.”

I leaned closer to him, lowering my voice as if that would make a difference to something that could hear both sides of a phone conversation from another room. “What are you sensing, Lieutenant?”

“I’d have to do more spell work to be sure, and I’d have to get a warrant or the doctor’s permission for that, too.”

“Since I’m the one on point, give me a hint.”

“Demonic, maybe, or something masquerading as one, and then just black magic—the kind that compromises the soul of the person who casts the spell.”

I raised my eyebrows at him. “Did you feel it the first time you walked past the rooms?”

He shook his head and put his hand back over the bag under his shirt. He closed his eyes for a second. “We need backup. I’ll request people from our unit and then put the word out that we have an officer down; that’ll give us all the manpower—sorry, person-power—we need.”

“Gimble didn’t get injured on the job, he fainted. If the other cops hear that he’ll never live it down.”

Lieutenant Charleston flashed me a grin that was very bright in his dark face. “Tell them he wrestled with an angel and lived to tell the tale, or tell them he’s a big pansy-ass and fainted from seeing his first metaphysical badass.” He gripped the bag a little tighter and the smile faded.

I could feel it now, like something thick and dark trying to crawl down my throat, but it was as if it had to knock on the door of my mouth; I had to give it permission to enter me. I thought, By free will and the grace of God I hold fast against the darkness. The thick feeling eased back, pulling backward to the open door of the room.

“Make those calls, Lieutenant. I’ll hold the fort.”

“Get Paulson to talk to you, Havelock,” Charleston said as he moved down the hallway, the phone already to his ear, and his other hand tight on the bag under his clothes.

I watched him until he rounded the corner for the elevators, gave one glance down the hallway at the other rooms, and went back to Gimble’s room to try to get Paulson to tell me what in Heaven or Hell was in the room across the hall.





CHAPTER FIVE




No, Detective Havoc, I won’t reveal personal information about patients just because your boss has a bad feeling.”

Gimble looked from me to him and back again like it was a verbal tennis match. He was still smiling and beaming at us, but at least he was letting us talk about something besides the angel at the crime scene.

“It’s Detective Havelock, not Havoc.”

“I heard your lieutenant call you Havoc.”

I nodded. “That’s a nickname; my last name is Havelock.”

Gimble chimed in with, “Don’t feel bad, Doc, I thought his name was Detective Havoc Havelock for months, because it’s all anyone calls him at work. I don’t know why he doesn’t use his first name; Zaniel is a great name, better than George. George Gimble, with a name like that I have to work so much harder to charm the ladies.”

I frowned at him and he just kept smiling up at me. We’d had to keep the nurses out of the room twice since Charleston left. He hadn’t been gone that long.

“Zaniel, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that name before,” Dr. Paulson said, frowning at me as if he was trying to decide if I matched my name.

“I’ve never met another one, but George is right, I don’t go by it much at work.”

“Whatever you call yourself, Detective, I can’t share confidential information just because your boss got spooked.”

“Just tell me if someone on this floor tested positive for demonic contamination.”

He reacted to the question, a slight startle. He tried to hide it, but I’d seen it. Charleston was right. “No matter how you ask the question, Detective Havelock, my answer will remain the same.”

“Don’t you usually try to isolate demonic-contamination patients from the rest of the metaphysically injured?”

“I can’t . . .”

“I’m not asking you to divulge confidential patient info, I’m just asking a general protocol question.”

Paulson seemed to mull that over and then said, “Yes, we do try to keep them a few empty rooms away from the others. If it’s a full-blown possession then they go to the nearest religious institute of their faith, not my hospital.”