The Hopper: Chapter 2

The investigation into The Hopper brings Detective Towns to a local hospital.

Driving over to the hospital, David had a chance to reflect on the mission at hand. For years he’s wanted the chance to chase The Hopper down but never was given the official green light. He’d always worked secretly on the investigation but now being told by the chief to investigate this hospital incident, David felt a bit excited. He no longer needed to work in the shadows and now had the full support of the department.

Arriving at the hospital, David threw his police cruiser into park and looked over at the hospital. Nothing seemed to jump out to him that would make him think this was a special hospital as the building was very plain looking from the front. Peering around, David did make note of the very low amount of cars in the parking lot and the small amount of foot traffic there seemed to be. David exited his car and entered the hospital, walking straight up to the front desk. Sitting behind the desk was a man who looked to be in his early 30s filing papers and making calls. As David approached, the man turned his focus to David.

“Good morning sir, how can I help you?” The man asked. David studied the man, something David always did with new people.

“Yes, hi. I’m Detective Towns with the Chicago PD investigating a potential theft you guys had a couple days ago. I was told there was a nurse who had information regarding it.” The man seemed a bit confused.

“A theft? Why would someone steal from here?”

“It’s believed to be tied to a bigger investigation. Could you perhaps call the lead nurse here?” The man was still a bit puzzled.

“Uhhh yeah. Let me just see a badge or something,” the man asked as David did so and flashed his badge. To the man, he didn’t quite know what to look for to ensure that David was a real police officer but just assumed he was. “Alright, I’ll call her now,” he said as he picked up the phone and began to dial some numbers in. In a couple seconds, someone picked up the phone. Their words were muffled but it could be assumed it was the nurse’s voice.

“Hey Tiffany, I have a gentleman here from the police department asking to see you.” The muffled voice spoke before the man spoke again. “Alright I’ll tell him you’re on your way.” The man hung up the phone and turned his attention back to David. “She said she’ll be right down,” the man said with a smile. David just nodded and thanked the man before taking a seat in the waiting room that was next to the front desk.

David sat there for a couple minutes before a door swung open. A lady dressed in blue scrubs exited through the door and looked around the waiting room. Spotting David, she walked over to him.

“Police?” She said as she continued to approach David.

“Yes ma’am. I’m Detective Towns. I was told you had reported someone stealing medical equipment and I just wanted to ask some questions,” David responded as he stood up from his chair.

“Happy you’re here. I’m nurse Tiffany,” she said as she reached a hand out and shook David’s hand.

“So what’s going on? Who stole the equipment?”

“Well a couple days ago we were taking inventory of our equipment and noticed a discrepancy between what we had and the items we were supposed to have. Some of it wasn’t too concerning like scalpels and rolls of gauze but then we noticed some larger equipment was missing.” David’s ears perked up as Tiffany mentioned the larger stuff.

“Large equipment?”

“Yeah, IVs, heart rate monitors, stuff like that. It was as if an entire hospital room setup had been stolen.” David began to rub his chin, thinking about how this could potentially tie into The Hopper case.

“And do you know who stole it? I mean stuff that size would be hard to move without drawing attention to yourself.” Tiffany looked down, almost as if she was ashamed of what she was about to reveal. She delayed her response.

“Well… it seems that somehow I was stealing the equipment,” she said as her voice seemed a bit shaky. To her, she felt like telling David this would get her in trouble but instead, he knew what she was going to say next.

“And let me guess, you have no memory of stealing it?” Tiffany looked up in shock.

“Yeah, how did you know that? From the security camera footage apparently I was loading these items into a van in our underground garage. The same van kept pulling up everyday for a week as I loaded items into it. According to the time stamps I was doing it everyday for about 20 minutes.” David smiled. This was a solid lead for him to go off of.

“Well I’ll just tell you now. I’m investigating a case regarding a criminal called The Hopper. For decades he’s been committing crimes by possessing people’s bodies and doing his work from their bodies. We have reason to believe you were his next victim. From what I gather you have no memory of stealing the equipment?”

“Zero. All I can remember is everyday working my regular shifts and blacking out. Every time I came to, my hands were dirty and I was in a different spot in the building compared to before I blacked out.” David pulled out a note pad and wrote this information down. It all lined up with every report regarding The Hopper.

“Well I think it’s a good chance you were the latest victim of The Hopper. Now you mentioned security footage, any chance I can have a look at that?” David asked. Tiffany nodded.

“Of course. I’ll take you to the security room,” she said as the pair exited the waiting room.