by Piper Dow
David hit the lever to recline the back of his seat. “OK, wonderful, you get to scratch an itch, and we don’t bring any trouble back home. We still have another hour or so before we get there, I’m going to relax.” He closed his eyes and focused on slowing his heart rate. He would need to be doubly ready to turn things around if he saw an opening. To do that, he needed to make sure he gave nothing away before then.
Mark hung the nozzle back up at the side of the gas pump and flipped the gas cover closed. He knocked on the window to get David’s attention, then pointed at the convenience store. David nodded and waved him off. He’d been thinking most of the ride down but was still not sure what to do. He expected he might not know until presented with an opening. He had to be ready to jump in when the time came.
The driver’s door opened, and Mark slid in behind the wheel. He popped open a can of Mountain Dew and took a big swallow as he stuck the key into the ignition and cranked the car over. “You all caught up on your beauty sleep, Rip?”
David laughed as they merged back into traffic and mockingly stretched his arms as though awakening from a long nap. “Some of these classes are more involved than I thought they would be,” he said. “I was up reading that book for my Risk Assessment class until three this morning - and then he didn’t even bother to challenge half of the lame comparisons the class made. You would think that if the teacher is going to assign a book, he’s already read it, right? But I don’t think this guy has - or if he has, he has an earlier version with a different ending than the one I read last night.”
David hadn’t actually stayed up until three, and he’d had the book read since two days after seeing it on the syllabus. He also had been planning, not sleeping, but complaining about school was an easy out.
As expected, Mark laughed at the thought of an incompetent teacher. “Who’s this, Mayhew? Hey, he’s an easy grader - how do you think he keeps his job? Kids request him! They know he’ll help them with their grade point average. He actually has pretty good contacts, though - he might suck as a professor, but he’s pretty slick at knowing how to use his position to get what he wants. You should see his house.”
David picked up his head and turned to look at Mark. “You’ve been to his house? He doesn’t seem your type.”
Mark managed to pull off an affronted look for about 15 seconds before bursting out laughing. “Well, I’ve seen his house - I never said I was invited! I’ve told you before, it makes good business sense to know what’s being moved around you. He’s got a nice little collection of African tribal masks displayed in a library at the back of his house. One of the dealers at a gallery in Boston told me she used to find them for him - apparently, he’s worked his way up from simple costume masks to high-end collectibles. That kind of information can be handy to have, see?”
David gave a soft laugh, shaking his head. “Is there much that goes on in town that you don’t know about?”
“Not much,” agreed Mark, taking another slug of soda. “So, I’ve been thinking while you were snoozing over there. I’ve got to get that book back, and I’ve got to get these kids shut up, but these aren’t my only problems. I’ve got a truck coming at the end of the week. I moved all the high-value items out of the house, but I’m going to need to find another place to keep them. Even once I get the book, I can’t be sure the information hasn’t been compromised, so I really can’t keep using the house to shelf the inventory. That girl who showed up to pay down Cory’s debt - she looked promising, don’t you think?”
“That stringy blonde girl?” David injected a note of surprise and derision into his question. “You know, for someone with your experience with high-end merchandise, you sure seem to go for that lowest common denominator in women.”
Mark laughed softly and threw a quick, questioning glance toward David.
“You have something bad to say about pretty much every girl on campus, Dave. Sometimes you make me wonder about you.”
“Yeah, don’t you worry about me. Apparently, I’m the only one with taste in this car, that’s all.” David knew that his celibate status would eventually raise Mark’s suspicions, but he hadn’t been able to make himself involve someone else in the case, even if it helped his cover. He had dropped hints at the beginning that there was a girl back home, hoping that Mark would think him just devoted - a trait Mark should value, even if he didn’t share it. After the first year, though, it had been difficult to keep up the pretense, so Mark had fictitiously broken off the relationship. That had bought him some time as a lovelorn fool, but even that had not lasted.
“Seriously, what are you looking for in a woman that you can’t find around here?” Mark persisted.
David groaned inwardly. He’d put Mark off when Mark had brought around women, hoping to set David up with one of them. Each time, he’d seen a calculating look in Mark’s eyes. He knew that Mark wouldn’t believe David had another out-of-town girlfriend, but he wasn’t about to give Mark a chance to use another person as leverage to keep him in line. David had seen Mark exploit that subtle hypnotic power he seemed to have over other guy’s girlfriends in a nearly effortless manipulation to accomplish what he wanted.
“Dude, I don’t know. I don’t have a ‘type.’ I like not having to answer to someone else, to sort my schedule around what someone else wants. I’m good the way things are, for now,” he said.
Mark was shaking his head. “Nah, man, you need a woman. I’m going to make this my new mission, finding you a girl.”
It sounded like a jest, but David knew that underlying Mark’s joking tone was a very real intent. If this assignment continued, David was going to have to find a way to get Mark off his self-assigned mission or risk a genuine danger - for both David and whatever mystery woman Mark came up with.
Mark reached over and turned down the dial on the radio as he slowed down. They were coming up to the center of town now, and David knew Mark didn’t want to draw undue attention. The sidewalks were not filled, as they had been over the weekend when David had come down with the others, following Sam, but they were busy enough.
“You said you remember the way to the hospital? I think we’ll take a stroll through there, first,” Mark said. He stopped at a crosswalk and motioned for a woman with a handful of envelopes to cross the street before moving forward. “It’ll be easiest if she is still there. If she’s already gotten out, we’ll head over to their house.”
David pointed at a sign on the light post, indicating the route to the hospital. He actually hoped Sam was still admitted, as it might keep the rest of her family safer. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to tip off any of the hospital staff without tipping his hand, but it would be worth a try. They drove into the parking lot and stopped. David pointed in the general direction of Sam’s room as they got out of the car.
“She’s on the third floor if she’s still here. I’ve got to hit the bathroom, though.”
Mark was nodding. “I wouldn’t mind that, either. And then I’ve got to find a supply closet.”
David glanced over at Mark, careful not to change his expression. Mark was patting his jacket pocket, feeling with both hands as though to make sure everything he needed was in there. David had hoped for a couple of minutes to send a text message, but he couldn’t do that if he couldn’t get a couple of minutes away from Mark. They walked toward the building’s entrance with David leading the way. Mark’s glances took in the people in the foyer and vestibule. The bathroom was down a short hall from the vestibule but gave no privacy for David’s message. He would have to figure something else out.
They moved to the elevator and rode up with a man holding a bouquet of yellow carnations artfully arranged in an oversized coffee cup. The doors slid open on the second floor, and the passengers all shuffled to the sides of the elevator to allow a couple holding paper bags filled with their lunches to board. The aroma of warm chicken and spices filled the small space. Mark turned his face toward the bags and inhaled deeply, eyes closed. David shook h
is head, smirking. Smells were a sure way to sidetrack Mark - too bad he hadn’t had a burger or taco with him in the car when Mark started in about finding him a girlfriend.
The door slid open again on the third floor, and the couple stepped aside to allow David and Mark to exit. David glanced down the corridors in both directions. Seeing no one, he turned and began heading toward the wing he had watched Kelly enter when he had followed her the day after Sam had taken the bus home. Before they reached the hall, he turned into an intersecting hallway and pulled Mark to the side.
“The room she was in is just down there, but when I was here before they never left her alone. How do you want to play this? The kids are one thing, but both her parents have been hanging around, too,” he said.
Mark turned his head to look back up the corridor they had been walking down, frowning thoughtfully.
“The kids have seen us, so they’ll know who we are. The parents don’t know us, though. If the parents are in there, but the kids aren’t, they won’t know I’m not the nurse I pretend to be. If the kids are in there, but the parents aren’t, well, they just need to see what they’re dealing with. If they’re in there together, we’ll go grab a cup of coffee and wait them out. I’m sure at some point, somebody is going to go home,” he said. “So, now I need that supply closet. Why don’t you stake out the room and see who is in there while I track down the clothes I need.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
David watched until Mark disappeared around the corner. He stepped back to the hall he had been leading Mark down and took a few steps in the direction of Sam’s room, just in case Mark was listening. He ducked into another doorway and, looking back down the corridor he had just walked, pulled out his cell phone. He quickly swiped in a message, hit send, and deleted the text from his history. Shoving the phone back into his pocket he stepped back into the hall and continued down the hall.
#
David examined the notice on the board intently as the aide pushed past him with a cart of linens. He listened as her footsteps paused, a closet door opened, and he heard stacks of linens being transferred from the cart to the shelf. He made a pretense of moving on to another notice on the board, still intent on the sounds around him.
“I don’t know, the primary care doctor diagnosed hantavirus, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was also leptospirosis in the blood – we won’t know until further testing. That’s one of the possible scenarios. We need to get the right antibacterial into her soon, or she might not recover,” David heard a man’s voice say as the door behind him opened and two sets of feet came into the hall.
David squinted at the notice and lifted his finger to trace a line of text. He had heard of leptospirosis before – where? He prodded at his mind, trying to remember. Something to do with a neighbor when he was younger. Aha – the man who had lived on the street behind him had been cleaning out a camper and cut himself while getting rid of a pile of mouse droppings he’d found in a cupboard. The bacteria in the mouse droppings had nearly killed him before he went into the doctor thinking he’d gotten a weird version of a summer flu.
David glanced back at the door, his expression deliberately vague. He had told Mark that Sam’s room was down this wing, which it was - but on the fourth floor, not the third.
Fifteen minutes passed. David left his perusal of the bulletin board and took up a stance of patiently waiting outside the door of a room where he had seen the aides go in with a breakfast tray. If he looked like he was just waiting patiently, it would belay suspicion from anyone who had seen him lurking in the hall.
Mark finally came strolling down the hall, blue scrubs where his jeans and t-shirt had been, and a clipboard in his hands. He was reading from the clipboard and glancing at the room numbers as though looking for a specific patient. David cleared his throat quietly. Mark glanced at him, then at the room number on the wall near his head.
“This hers?”
David shook his head. He kept his face impassive. “Either she’s been moved, or she’s been discharged. There’s an old guy with a bacterial infection in the room she was in.”
Mark glanced around the hallway. Two nurses sat at the desk at the end of the hall tapping away on their computers.
“Didn’t ask if she’s still here?”
David shook his head. “Not yet, but I can. I’ll meet you in the stairway.”
Mark turned and sauntered back down the hallway. David stuffed his hands into his front pockets and moved to the nurse’s desk.
“S’cuse me,” he said, waiting until the young woman finished typing and glanced up at him. “I came in to visit my friend – I saw her earlier in the week here, I thought she was in room 308, but she isn’t there. Can you tell me if she’s been moved, or if she went home?”
The woman glanced around, her gaze taking in his t-shirt and unkempt hair along with the empty hallway behind him. Her lips softened as she smiled. “What’s her name?”
“Sam – Samantha, Griffin.”
Her fingers danced on the keyboard. “Oh, the girl with the bites.” She looked up at David’s face, her eyes suddenly hard. “She’s been discharged. They were talking about several rehab facilities, not sure which one they ended up going with.”
David’s shoulders slumped, and he affected a disappointed expression. “Wow, I really hope she’s ok. Thanks, I’ll give her sister a call.”
He turned to make his way back up the hallway to where Mark was waiting for him in the stairwell. The nurse’s statement hadn’t matched the expression in her eyes. She had almost looked angry, David thought, unnerved despite knowing the reason behind her change in demeanor. He glanced behind him and was not surprised to see her watching him. He continued on to the stairway, satisfied. This was working better than he had planned.
“She said the family brought her to a rehab, but she couldn’t tell me which one – apparently they were looking into several,” David said as he glanced up and down the stairwell. They were alone. “What’s your plan?”
Mark was leaning with his back against the wall, one knee bent with the foot against the wall. He ran a hand through his hair and blew out his breath, tipping his face up to the ceiling. “I don’t know, man. This would have been so much easier if Sam had just kept her nose out of things. What is it with this family? The sister and brother are the same way!”
He pushed off of the wall. “Come on. I’m going to get that book back. We’ll find the sister. She wants to play investigator? We’ll give her something to look for.”
David had been thinking about this, had already considered that Mark would not give up just because Sam wasn’t available. Still, he pressed to see if he could derail him from pursuing the book today. “Listen, Mark. You said you have orders to deliver. Let me track the sister down and get the book back. I can be back with it tomorrow or the next day, but you can still get your shipments made.”
Mark laughed shortly. “Nah, man. I appreciate the offer, but I need the book to make the shipment – the details are all in the book. I mean, I remember all the items, but I’m not about to show up to deliver without reviewing the contracts- and making sure I have everything. No, I’m going to have to hang here, too, at least until we find her.”
David shrugged. “Ok, just offering. Do you have a plan to find her?”
They had reached the foyer. Mark pushed the door open, shrugging his shoulders.
“Of sorts. We can do one of a few different things. We could go stake out their house and wait until she leaves, follow her, and pull her to the side where ever she ends up. We could stake out her school - I remember she said over the summer that she was going to the state school nearby, so she was commuting - there can’t be that many state schools. The brother is still in high school - that’s probably smaller, so he’d be easier to find, but we’d stick out more. Or,” he opened the car door and swung into the driver’s seat, “we just gatecrash the whole family at supper time and use them against each other as leverage. You can pick,
I don’t really care, but I’m getting that book back.”
David’s head whipped around as he lowered himself into the passenger seat. “Are you nuts? Gatecrash the whole family and take them hostage to use against each other? There’s no way we’d get away with that!”
Mark shrugged his shoulders again, a menacing grin on his face. “I’ve still got the shot I was planning to give Sam - that would be enough to mess with their memories enough to throw suspicion off of us, I think. That, coupled with them getting a dose of what I can do, and I’m pretty sure we don’t have to worry about them telling anyone. And if I’m not completely sure we’ll be safe by the time we leave, well, then maybe they don’t get a chance to talk.”
David stared at Mark, then narrowed his eyes and turned to stare out the front window as though he was considering the option. He could feel the tension in Mark’s posture. He knew he needed to calm himself before he spoke, or risk Mark’s heightened senses picking up on his panic. Slowly, he breathed in and out, counting silently to five with each inhale and exhale.
“OK. Let’s see if we can stake out the house, first, and see if she goes anywhere. If she’s not there, we can try the school. I’d rather catch the sister than the brother, because, you’re right - we’ll blend better at the college. We’ve got several hours before supper time. Let’s save that option for last case. Right?”
Mark was nodding in agreement, already turning the key in the ignition to crank over the car. David felt like he had passed a test of some sort. He drew in another breath and silently exhaled. Now he just needed to make sure they found Kelly before supper time. There was no way he wanted any part of a whole family of hostages and a vial full of Mark’s voodoo magic.