A Bloody Storm: A Derrick Storm Short Read Online Free PDF

just as suddenly as he had appeared in her life. Regardless, she was determined to investigate him as soon as she got back in Washington. If his father was a retired FBI agent, there had to be some thread she could follow.
    Buttoning her pants proved as difficult left-handed as loosening them. When she finally managed to complete the task, she opened the stall door, pulling it toward her.
    From nowhere, a huge figure appeared in front of her. Showers stepped back and reached for her right hip with her left hand. It was where she normally kept her Glock holstered. When her fingers felt nothing but fabric, she realized that Cumerford had not returned her Glock when she was discharged that morning. She had only one useful arm and no weapons.
    For a large man, he moved quickly. Showers saw the flash of his hand, felt a jab into her neck, and then a strange warmth just before she passed out. He caught her limp body as she started to collapse.
    “You got her?” a nervous woman watching from the doorway to the women’s room asked. She was dressed as a nurse, with a stethoscope dangling from her neck. She had been stopping women from entering the restroom, explaining that a medical emergency was being addressed inside.
    “Yes,” the hulking figure replied.
    Speaking into a tiny microphone tucked under the sleeve of her blouse, the nurse said, “We’re ready here. Where’s the other American?”
    “He just walked out of the men’s room and now is standing in line at McDonald’s,” a male voice replied in her tiny earpiece. “He’s got two customers ahead of him.”
    From the interior of the food court, it was impossible for Agent Cumerford to see the entrance to the women’s restroom or a side exit near it that opened into the parking lot.
    But Cumerford was not alarmed. Women generally took longer in restrooms than men.
    “Let’s go now!” the woman ordered.
    The man she’d been speaking to immediately left his post in the food court and walked briskly toward her.
    “Medical emergency,” the nurse said, taking the lead. “Stand aside please.”
    The gaggle of women patiently waiting at the restroom doorway cleared an opening for the foursome. Within seconds, Showers had been hustled outside and tucked into the rear seat of a sedan with tinted windows.
    By the time Cumerford paid for his coffee and collected his change, he was beginning to become suspicious. He scanned the food court, but there was no sight of Showers. He hurried over to the women’s restroom but didn’t want to yell inside for Showers, and he couldn’t walk inside without creating a scene. Cumerford noticed a rest area security guard coming through the front entrance, reporting to work, so he hurried up to him.
    “I’m traveling with a female friend who was discharged this morning from a hospital,” he said. “She’s been in the women’s restroom for a long time and I’m worried she might have fainted or is having trouble.”
    The male guard used his portable radio to call a matron, who approached them about a minute later.
    “This man’s lost his woman friend in the loo,” the guard explained. “Says she’s just been discharged from the hospital and is wearing a sling.”
    “Broken arm?” the woman asked.
    “Broken collarbone, an accident,” he replied, catching himself before he said “gunshot.”
    “I’ll check,” the matron said cheerfully, only to return moments later.
    “Sorry, mate,” she said. “But there’s no women in the loo wearing a sling. No Yanks at all. Maybe she’s gone into the food court.”
    Grabbing his cell phone, Cumerford stepped away from them and called his supervising agent at the embassy in London.
    “Showers has disappeared!”
    “What? How? Weren’t you with her?”
    “Not in the bathroom. We stopped at a service area.”
    Cumerford felt a tug on his arm. It was the matron.
    “A couple said they saw your lady friend being carried out of the loo a few minutes ago. There was a nurse