Courting Death - Carol Stephenson [70]
Quint curled his lips back in distaste. “What are you ragging about?”
“That nice present you delivered to Nicole’s house.”
The man’s eyes drifted closed and he mumbled, “The only thing I ever sent your bitch girlfriend was a bouquet of roses.”
Chapter Eighteen
As was the way with news, after a few days all the brouhaha over the organ operation died down. Although everybody connected with OraGen had gotten attorneys, it was only a matter of time before one would break and make the first deal. My money was on Dr. Lee Chang. Claire had committed herself, and all the poison that had been pumped into her system was slowly being countered. I’d already found another attorney to represent her.
Armed with a new warrant, Sam had searched the coffin in the funeral home and found Depp’s stash of stolen personal effects. Eventually, a silver rattle would be returned to Claire. Once she was well enough, she planned to divorce Brian. A first step of many to regain her life and identity.
The organ harvesting ring had been dismantled and my former client was getting the help she needed. I should be satisfied.
Still… I pushed away a stack of office mail and braced my elbows on the desk. I felt restless. No arraignments, no motions—nothing was on my calendar for the rest of the week. Even Mom had completed her last voiceover session, so no more trips to Miami. Sitting at a desk was definitely not my style. I wanted…action. I needed to be in court again.
I groaned and lowered my face into my hands.
“Nicole, are you all right?”
I looked up at Maria standing in the door. “Shoot me. I think I may have become an action junkie.”
“I may have a cure for that. I have a Mr. Cook trying frantically to get an attorney to stop a petition before it’s too late. He saw you on the news and thinks you’re just the lawyer who can do it.”
“Put him through.”
When the phone rang, I picked up. “This is Nicole Sterling.”
“Ms. Sterling. I’m Marvin Cook. I’m at the Atlanta airport with my wife Ellen. We can’t get there in time so we need your help.” His voice cracked. “They’re going to mutilate our baby girl.”
“Try to stay calm, sir. Who’s going to hurt your daughter?”
“Oceanview. Maybe I should back up. Our daughter ran away from home a year ago. We tried everything but never found her.”
“Go on.”
“Then I happened to catch a story last night about a Jane Doe in West Palm Beach. She had overdosed on drugs and was comatose. No identification had been found. The news flashed a photo and I swear she’s our Rachel. However, when I called the hospital this morning, the administrator said I was too late. The woman had been declared brain dead, and the hospital was petitioning to take her off life support and to use her as an organ donor.”
In the background I could hear a woman sobbing. “They won’t even wait for us to make identification and say goodbye to our baby.”
“Did they say what time the petition was going to be heard?”
“At eleven. The first available flight we could get won’t land until twelve-thirty.”
I glanced at my watch. Nine-thirty. It was going to be close. “Here’s what I want you to do. Do you have Rachel’s photo on you?”
“Yes, I have it on my cell phone. I also managed to download a photo of the Jane Doe from the internet.”
“Good. I’ll give you an email address to send them to me. Then I need you to find a business center. I don’t care if it is handwritten, but I need a notarized statement from you. State who you are, where you live. That you believe the Jane Doe to be your daughter Rachel and are not giving Oceanview permission to take her off life support or remove her organs. Also write that you are authorizing me to appear on your behalf. Okay?”
“I don’t know how to thank you.”
“Mr. Cook, I’ll prepare a pleading for a temporary injunction, but I can’t guarantee what the judge will do. The hospital has had time to prepare its case.”
“I understand, but we had to try.”
“That we will, Mr. Cook. Now here’s my information…”
Eighty minutes later I entered