Ch 281 - The Cleaner Assassin

The old woman entered the room, closed the door, and turned to Saul, who was lying in the

bed.

She pulled a disposable syringe filled with a transparent liquid out of her pocket. It was an

extremely rare but potent snake venom that few people had heard of. It was particularly

useful because it was impossible to detect within the first three days after it had been

administered.

The old woman stepped closer to Saul's bed, holding the syringe.

Saul lay quietly, not yet fully awake after surgery. His right hand lay on the bed and his left hand was handcuffed to the bed rail.

The old woman slowly bent over, pulled the plastic cover off the needle, and placed the syringe over the vein on the back of Saul's hand. Then she increased the pressure,

penetrating his skin.

The pinch on the back of his hand woke Saul, and he slowly opened his eyes to see the old

woman injecting something into him.

"It's you!" Saul said, recognizing her.

Morag Sparks worked for Chris Steadman. Saul had met her when she had helped Chris deal with a man who had offended him. After a young lady had gotten the man drunk, the

old lady had entered disguised as a cleaner. She had then covered the man's nose with a

cloth and suffocated him.

Morag placed her hand over Saul's mouth, preventing him from calling out.

"Yes, it's me," she said. "I'm sure you know who sent me. You work for Chris, so you know

what happens when you fail him. He would prefer that you don't talk to the police, so I'm here to make sure that doesn't happen."

The muscles on Saul's face twitched, and his eyes drifted closed as his breathing grew

weak. Morag recognized the signs of the venom beginning to work, and she slowly released her hold on him. 

Saul could barely move, and he gasped, desperately trying to take in more air.

But he just couldn't seem to fill his lungs, no matter how hard he tried.

His vision grew dim as his consciousness faded, and he seemed almost detached from what was happening to him.

His face relaxed as his eyes glazed over. He was dead. 

Morag looked at her handiwork and smiled. Then she cleaned the room as if nothing had

happened. Once she had finished, she stooped over a little and walked outside. 

"Are you finished?" one of the policemen asked.

"Yes, all done," she said, faking a cough. "Thank you, officer." Then she slowly pushed the cleaning cart along the corridor and left.

**

An hour later, a nurse entered Saul's room to check on him. 

Within a few minutes, she called for help, and the two policemen rushed in.

They could see that Saul looked motionless, and they glanced at each other, worried.

"Get a doctor and find out what's wrong with him!" one of them said. 

"Yes, I'll call Dr. Gilbert," the nurse said, dashing out of the room. She returned a moment later with Saul's doctor.

One of the officers moved a short distance away and called Chelsea Wood.

"Officer Wood," he said. "Saul is dead!"

"Dead!" Chelsea exclaimed. She was on her way to the police station, and she was so

shocked she almost ran off the road.

"What happened? You said he was stable, and we were going to record his confession soon."

"Yes, that's what the doctor said," the officer told her. "I don't know what happened, but he

died suddenly this morning."

Dr Gilbert had finished examining Saul, and he walked over to the police officers, who asked him for the cause of death. 

"There's no sign of anything obvious," Dr Gilbert said. "His death was not a result of his

gunshot wounds.

There may be some underlying conditions we weren't aware of, but all we have right now is conjecture, and nothing springs to mind."

He shook his head. "I can't think of any disease that would attack so quickly and leave no trace."

"No, no, no," Chelsea muttered. She had heard the doctor's report over the phone, and she

couldn't believe it. She suspected that Saul's death could be connected to Chris, so she

asked, "Did anyone enter his room?"

"No," one of the police officers said, and then he paused. "Well, there was the cleaner, but she was just a harmless little old lady."

"Wait a minute, officer," Dr Gilbert said. "A little old lady cleaned the room?"

"Yes," the police officer said. "She was a frail, wrinkled woman over sixty years old."

"But our cleaner is a twenty-year-old woman!" Dr Gilbert exclaimed.

"What?" the police officer asked. He realized that the old woman must have done

something to Saul, and he apologized to Chelsea. "Officer Wood, I'm sorry," he said. "We shouldn't have let the woman in."

"Well, that doesn't help us now!" Chelsea said, annoyed. "Go and check the hospital's

security feed and find the old lady. I'll be there soon. In the meantime, make sure Saul's

body is protected."

The two police officers agreed.

After hanging up the phone, Chelsea drove to the police station.

She strongly suspected that Chris had arranged Saul's death.

When she reached the station, Chelsea chose two police officers to go with her to the

hospital to investigate the cause of Saul's death.

"Officer Wood," a police officer said, walking over to her. "We've received reports of a

vicious robbery in the east of the city. The suspect has been arrested, but he has committed three other crimes within our jurisdiction, so you've been ordered to go to the East District precinct to help with the investigation."

Chelsea knew something wasn't right, but she took two police officers and drove to the East

District precinct.

Finn Murphy, the police chief, smiled as he watched Chelsea driving away.

Then he picked up his phone and made a call.

The interrogation should only have taken two or three hours, but the suspect had refused

to cooperate, so it had taken much longer, and they had made little progress with the case.

Chelsea said goodbye to everyone at the East District precinct and drove to the hospital

with her two colleagues. She was still thinking about Saul, and she didn't believe he had died from natural causes.

When they arrived at the hospital, Chelsea got out of her car and went inside.

When she walked into Saul's room, she found the bed empty.

She walked back out and grabbed a passing nurse. "Where is the patient who was in this

room?" she asked.

The nurse was startled. "The patient passed away this morning," she said. "His body has been transferred to the morgue on the ground floor."

"Okay, thank you," Chelsea said, relieved. Of course he would have been transferred to the

morgue. They wouldn't have left a dead body in the room.

"Let's go," Chelsea said to the two officers.

They reached the ground floor and located the morgue. The temperature was cool, and it

was really quiet and peaceful.

"Hello, we're from the Central District precinct," Chelsea said, showing her badge to an old man outside the morgue. "We want to confirm that the body of Saul Carlson is here. A pathologist will arrive later to examine the body."

"Saul Carlson?" the old man asked. "The murderer? He arrived down here this morning, but his body was claimed later in the afternoon."

"What?" Chelsea asked, gaping at him. "Weren't you told that he was involved in a

homicide? He was the key to solving the case. How could you let anyone take him?"

"It's none of my business," he said, shrugging. "They had all the appropriate paperwork, so

what was I supposed to do?" 

He looked rattled, so Chelsea apologized. Then she called the two police officers who had been guarding Saul and asked them to come to the morgue.

They arrived slightly later, looking a little worried.

"Saul's body has been taken away," Chelsea said, infuriated by their incompetence.

"Didn't I specifically tell you to guard his body?"

Saul's death was extremely inconvenient, and now that his body had disappeared, they had

lost all their evidence against Chris Steadman.

"He's gone?" one of the officers asked, surprised.

"We oversaw Saul's body being transferred to the mortuary," the other officer said. "And

then we went to check the security tapes. We also contacted the station and asked them to

look for the old lady. We thought the body would be safe in the morgue."