“I’m going to go talk to the desk staff,” Titus informed Younger as they went up in the elevator. “I want you to go down to her room. They’re keeping her up in the patient rooms at the end of this third floor hallway. I’m just hoping there isn’t some kind of police guard. You know how that would likely go.”
In fact, Younger rather did. The Rock Wolf Investigations team wasn’t on the best terms with Branson PD. Thus, when Titus headed straight to the duty desk on the third floor Younger went straight down the hallway toward the end section of rooms. He could hear televisions droning in softly in the background. The hall lights had been dimmed for the night shift and the bluish glow from each room’s television cast eerie shadows on the walls.
It didn’t take long to figure out which room belonged to Laurie Talcott. There was a hospital security guard napping in the hallway outside the room. The man was sitting hunched over in a chair with his arms loosely crossed over his chest. His chin rested against the buttons of his uniform shirt and his feet were stretched in front of him and crossed. He actually looked in danger of slumping entirely onto the floor.
Younger stepped past the man and entered the room. He felt a twinge of pity for poor Laurie Talcott when he did. She was strapped into the bed. Not with restraints, but with the weight of the dozens of tubes and cords that connected her to a fleet of machines that were whirring and beeping and chirping in the background.
He stared at her for a long moment. She looked very different than she had just a few days ago, but Younger wasn’t sure it was the time that had really made the difference. This was a completely unguarded moment. Right here and now he was seeing Laurie Talcott at her unvarnished base level. There was no bravado or any sort of machismo. She could not try to project a calm façade. There was nothing but the bald truth in that room and all of a sudden that didn’t look too great.
Her face was sallow and pale. Her cheekbones were razor sharp beneath her skin and for a moment she looked almost gaunt, as though she hadn’t been eating. She looked tiny. There were bruises on her cheeks and her arms. They were fresh and still forming, not having gotten to that brilliant purple hue that would no doubt appear tomorrow.
Younger was still staring when he saw her eyelids flutter. Her sooty lashes brushed her cheeks a few times and then her blue eyes opened. They were hazy for a moment and then their acuity seemed to sharpen as she focused on his presence in the room.
“Hey,” Younger murmured in a low voice. Not only did he not want to alarm or upset Laurie, but he really didn’t want to wake up the guard outside. “I heard you had a bit of trouble this evening.”
“Oh, you heard?” Her voice was hoarse. She had almost no expression on her face. It was totally flat. “You heard that I had some trouble tonight? Who did you hear this from? The cops?”
“No. I’m not sure where my boss heard it from. I just know that he came out to my place and suggested we come over here and have a chat with you.”
“To fire me as a client, no doubt.”
Damn, the woman was negative. “No. Not that either. Just to ask you what had happened and if you wanted our assistance. We are technically still retained by you and your office.”
“Right.” She closed her eyes again and he wondered if she was trying to make him think that she’d fallen asleep so he would just leave her alone. But then her eyes fluttered open again. “I didn’t hurt that man on purpose. I don’t know what happened.”
“Tell me what you remember then,” Younger suggested. He did not sit down. He just stood at her bedside without moving. Perhaps it was the beer in his system, but he felt incredibly mellow at the moment.
She exhaled a ragged breath and began her story with that same seven o’clock fire and water show. The family reunion group. A bunch of water gun soaked babies and toddlers in arms. Some guy named Dwayne who had been ordered by the family to handle it. The kids on skateboards. Grabbing the skateboard. And then suddenly she spoke of using the skateboard on the young vandals in order to push them back. It was a very concise and straightforward story and yet Younger could not help but feel like it wasn’t nearly the information he needed.
“Now,” Younger said thoughtfully, “tell me what you’re leaving out. That’s very ordered. You said you don’t know what happened.”
“No, that’s what I believed happened,” she argued. “They say I used the skateboard to hit Dwayne. That I knocked him to the ground and beat him about the head. He’s here in the hospital. They had to put him in into observation just to make sure his brain doesn’t start to swell. He has a bad concussion from where I nailed him.”
“And you don’t remember doing this?”
She was starting to look panicked. “You don’t get it! I couldn’t see. Those little skateboard bastards were around me like gnats. They kept trying to grab me. They were hitting and pushing me and I fell down and I thought I was a goner. And then I found that skateboard so, I picked it up. But the whole world was spinning around and around in circles. I could hardly keep standing straight. I thought I was going to throw up. I felt that way before the fight started. I was just sick. I thought I might be so nervous that something bad would happen. But it wasn’t happening and I finally thought that it was going to be okay. And then those little bastards showed up and suddenly the whole world was in fast forward and I was in glue.”
“Glue,” Younger repeated more to himself than to her.
“Yes! Glue!”
Younger put his hand up. “Calm down. I’m not arguing with you. It’s an interesting way to describe your situation. That’s all. There are specific drugs you know. Drugs that can make you feel like that, like you’re operating in glue. Downers that can affect your reflexes and make it feel as though the entire world is just spinning around you.”
For the first time since he had arrived this evening, she did not look like she was going to fall apart. There was a spark of something in in her blue eyes. “Really?”
“Yes. Really.” Younger pursed his lips. “Did they take blood from you when you were first brought here. Do you remember?”
“I think so.” She flipped over her right arm to show the inside of her elbow joint. “I think that’s what this little bandage is. The IV is in my hand.”
“Then we need to make sure they ran a full tox screen on you,” Younger decided. “We will find out what’s going on at the Landing, Laurie, but we’re going to need you to be totally honest with us.”
“I can do that,” she told him quickly. “I don’t have anything to hide.”
Younger felt like that wasn’t exactly true, but perhaps she just didn’t know what she had to hide. Maybe that was the best way to start.
Chapter Fourteen
Laurie was too weak to argue with much of what Younger said. But maybe that was just as well. She was hardwired to be combative in these sorts of situations. She didn’t want to let go of control. Not of anything. Not now. Now when she felt so vulnerable and alone. And yet she wasn’t. Not really.
“I want you to run a full tox screen on this patient, Dr. Williams.” There was iron in Younger’s tone. He didn’t sound soft and coaxing now. He sounded as though he meant to be obeyed.
From beneath her half lowered lids, Laurie could see the doctor thinking it over and very likely trying to discard the idea. That much was pretty easy to guess. The man with the glasses and the tired, lined face exhaled a little sigh. “Mr. Adair, the police…”
“I know what the police are saying. All right? I have no doubt they are doing their job to the fullest, but, and I think you can see the logic in this, would they really want to get to court and suddenly have even the most basic public defender call into question Ms. Talcott’s frame of mind and bring up the possibility of being drugged? She is describing behavior and thoughts and a mental state consistent with someone slipped a downer of some kind. Don’t you think the police are going to want to know that? Because if they get to court and there was not a full tox screen, then there’s your shadow
of doubt and boom!” Younger clapped his hands. “There goes your case!”
Laurie listened and kept her eyes nearly closed. She felt incredibly useless. But more than that, she felt the strangest sort of warmth for Younger Adair. The man was really going to bat for her and he had absolutely no reason to do it. She had been nothing but rude. He was right. Or he had been the other day at the Landing when he’d told her that she wanted his help one second and the next she didn’t.
But it wasn’t me waffling back and forth like that.
Not that it mattered. It was her. Oh good gracious she was such a mess!
The pressure of tears made her try to suck back and breath. She blinked furiously, not caring if they could see or hear her. The entire purpose right now was just to keep herself from crying. She didn’t cry. What point was there in such a reaction?
“Hey now,” Younger said in a voice so soothing that she marveled it could have come from his mouth. “There’s no need to get upset. The doc is going to order that full screen and we’re going to get to the bottom of this. All right? You’re not the sort of person to go off on a shopper at the mall. You’ve spent far too much time and effort trying to be nice to all of those people. You can’t make me believe otherwise. Okay?”
“Okay.” She sniffled and felt pathetic. “I’m just so worried. I’m going to lose my job, Younger. I am.”
He looked thoughtful for a moment or two. “What makes you say that? The man was also hit with boiling water from one of the water pistols those skateboarding idiots were wielding all over the place. As I understand it, the EMTs treated several people for minor burns. Fortunately, the water they sprayed at the little kids was not hot. But when we finally catch these little bastards, they will be answering for an ever lengthening list of crimes. Why is that your fault?”
Did he honestly not see where she had failed? Laurie wanted to crawl under the bed and never come out. “I should have it under control by now! I shouldn’t have made things worse! And now corporate wants me to meet with that horrible reporter to try to put a positive slant on this whole business. I can’t do that! Look at me!”
“Reporter?” This time even Younger looked a little green around the edges. “Are you talking about Hilary Allenwood?”
“Yes.”
“For the love of…” Younger put his hands over his face. “Okay. So, you and I both know you cannot duck Hilary. If Hilary has decided there is a story worth covering, you’re just going to have to deal with it. But we can mitigate her interference.”
“How?”
“It’s possible,” Younger assured her. “I’ll just have to chat with some of my coworkers to see how they’ve done it in the past. I know we’ve put a muzzle on her. I just don’t know exactly how to work it in this situation.”
Suddenly, Laurie wasn’t feeling quite so hopeless. She gazed up at him and wondered if he was starting to be as creeped out by seeing her “you’re my hero” expression as she was feeling it. “Thank you, Younger. I know that I have no right to ask for your help.”
“It’s business,” he said quickly.
Right. Because he didn’t actually like her or care. He was just being paid, by her, to help her. Well, that was fine. That was probably for the best. Personal lives and feelings were fickle as the wind. Business was forever.
For just a moment, Laurie was caught by the way the low lights in the room highlighted streaks of light-colored hair in the darkness of his shaggy shoulder length mane. He didn’t ever look like a former Marine to her. She saw those men as being more like Josh—sharp around the edges and sharp to those around them. Younger never was. His clothes might say former military, but his manner said kind-hearted soul.
“What?” Younger whispered. “Do you have something else on your mind?”
“No. I was just staring at you.”
“At me?” His brows drew together and he looked confused. Then a tiny smile kicked up one corner of his mouth and he rubbed his hand over his face. “Do I have chocolate on my face or something?”
“Why? Did you eat some?”
“No, but I thought if you were staring at me, I must have something on my face and chocolate is one of those things that women like to look at. Right?”
For some reason, his words struck her as hilarious. Laurie found herself smiling in spite of everything. “You’re ridiculous.”
“I do tend to be that way.”
She tilted her head to one side. She caught a whiff of something that wasn’t Younger’s typical spicy male scent. Wait. When had she noticed he usually smelled like cedar and sandalwood? That was no good. Then her mind provided her with the answer.
“You’re drunk!” she whispered. She didn’t want the doctor or the hospital security guard to hear.
“You can tell?” He winked at her then and her stomach did a little flip flop. “And no. I’m not drunk. I’ve had a few beers. That’s true. I didn’t drive here either, so don’t get all uppity and start lecturing me.”
“I wasn’t going to.” She had totally been going to but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “I was just wondering… I don’t know. Maybe that’s why you’re being so cool about all of this. You don’t seem upset.”
He frowned and tilted his head sideways. “Why would I be upset, darlin’? You’re the one in the hospital after having a rough night at work and you’re the one having to deal with the consequences. I’m the one who gets to stand outside the whole situation and just bark orders and be a general manager type. I’m not the one having the bad night. You are. So, why on earth would I be upset?”
She opened her mouth and then closed it. His point of view was fascinatingly different from anyone else’s. At least anyone she’d been dealing with in the last few years. Which brought her to a thought that was quite unpleasant. She almost hated to say anything. “Has anyone talked to Josh? Did he just close up shop out there? I don’t… I almost don’t want to ask.”
Younger pursed his lips. “Let me get Titus. He’s the one who spoke with Josh about fifteen minutes ago. Considering my past history this week with Josh, I didn’t think it would be productive for me to call and chat with him.”
It was a good idea. Laurie admired his instincts. She admired him in general actually. At least tonight. She had to keep reminding herself about that. Tonight. Only tonight. She did not want to be that woman who fell for the guy who had rescued her just because he had rescued her. That was lame.
“Are you all right?”
He was looking at her strangely and it took a moment or two for Laurie to realize it was because she had been silent for so long. She had been sitting there on her hospital bed with her mouth hanging part way open and a vacant expression on her face. Damn. What was wrong with her? Laurie hoped to high heaven that she’d been given some kind of medication that was messing with her mind. Otherwise, she was going to have to accept that she had turned into one of those girls.
“I’m sorry.” She struggled to come up with a way to save face. “I think I’m just trying to process all of this. I feel like I’ve woken up in a parallel universe.”
His kind smile was almost her undoing. What was wrong with her? He reached out and gently patted her knee.
“I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t feel like that. Honestly. You’ve been through a lot.”
Oh, yes. She certainly had been through a lot. “So much for my self-defense tough skills, huh? A few hits in the back and I just go down for the count.”
Now he frowned. Then he shifted a little. And finally, he moved to perch on the edge of her bed. “Hang on just a second here. Are you saying you think you should be able to stay on your feet if someone is hitting you from behind?”
“Well, no.” It was all so confusing. Now Laurie felt stupid. Just plain stupid. She put her hands over her face. “At one point, I was taking these self-defense lessons from Josh. It seemed to me that most of it was trying to stay on your feet after you took a really big hit. That’s all. And pushing. There seemed to
be pushing and then trying to throw people around, which I can’t do because I’m smaller.”
He blinked. She could see his mind mulling over what she’d just said and for some reason, Laurie got the idea Younger didn’t necessarily agree with what Josh had been teaching. “Wow. That sounds intense.”
His words were surprising and rather welcome. “It was intense. I used to go home every night feeling as though I had just been worked over by the world’s worst massage therapist.”
Younger chuckled. “Well, I’m not a massage therapist, but if you would like to learn a few basic ways to defend yourself, I’d be happy to oblige.”
“Really?” For some reason, Laurie was absolutely dumbfounded that he would offer. He didn’t like her. At least she was pretty sure that he didn’t like her. “You would do that?”
“Sure.” He shrugged as though it were no big deal at all. “If someone wants to learn, then teaching a few things isn’t hard at all. No big deal.”
“Where would we go?” Laurie was dreading that gym where Josh had taken her before. All of those grunting men looking at her and laughing as they picked up a million pounds using nothing more than their index fingers. “I don’t—I mean, I’m not a member of a gym or anything.”
“Oh, I’ll look around.” He made it honestly sound like no big deal. “I have a friend that owns a martial arts place. Sometimes he opens it up to a few of us after hours.”
After hours. The thought of being able to go somewhere and learn where there was no pressure and no worries about impressing someone or trying to make sure she didn’t get her ass handed to her in a room full of bodybuilders was amazing! Maybe she would feel comfortable enough to actually learn something.
Rock Wolf Investigations: Boxset Page 58