“Hey, what’s…”
“Police business,” I told him. “Is the patient still on the gurney?” I asked him.
“Yeah, he’s right there.” He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder.
There was a sheet-covered gurney. I rushed to it and pulled the sheet back.
“Susan!” I yelled. “I have Erickson!”
I fumbled, feeling for a pulse. As soon as I touched his skin, I knew that Banks had just dumped Dustin down here. His body was warm, and I felt a strong pulse. I pulled the sheet back, showing the cuffs and restraints.
“Hey, they aren’t supposed to—”
“This man is still alive, and we’re in pursuit of the man who brought him down here. Get somebody down here from emergency immediately and find out what he was given. He’s most likely been drugged.”
The man stared at me blankly. I knew it was a lot to take in all at once…but I simply did not have time to repeat myself. Instead I advanced, and when he flinched out of the way, I stopped and stood right in front of him. I felt a small rush and then realized that I was doing the very thing that made me the terrified mess I was today. I was trying to intimidate and bully this man into listening or snapping out of his stupor.
“Call somebody. This is a patient named Dustin Erickson. He’s been taken from his room by a fugitive named Colton Banks, who is now loose somewhere in the hospital. My first and foremost worry is to make sure that he wasn’t given an overdose of some sort of drug or anesthetic. I’m sorry if I startled you, but you simply must help me here. I must pursue this Colton Banks and be backup for Detective O’Hara. Can I count on you,” I looked at his name tag, “Morty?”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, reaching for a phone.
“Good. Which way did the suspect go?” I asked him.
Morty pointed, and I looked down the hallway. It was the direction that maintenance and the utilities were in.
“Come on,” Susan said, already heading that way.
“Thank you, Morty the morgue tech.”
What a scary, ironic name. I wondered for half a moment if he actually picked that name because of his job, or his job because of his name. I gave him half a wave and followed after Susan.
“I have to update Skye,” I said, walking fast to catch up.
“Get Landon down here. Stay back ten feet,” Susan said, drawing her gun.
I looked around and noticed his absence. Probably stopped to deal with the nurse. I knew my phone would have no signal, but by using the Wi-Fi I should be able to get a message to them. Skye for sure. I hit the video call button and kept walking.
“You have got to stop this, I’m busy trying to figure out where he went,” Skye said.
From the angle, it looked as if she was sitting down at a terminal somewhere.
“We’ve found your brother. He’s ok—”
“What? Oh my God!” she screamed, a smile breaking out on her face.
“He’s asleep, possibly drugged. Mephisto dumped him at the morgue, probably as a diversion. He’s down here somewhere. I need you and Jo to get with Landon and any other officers in the area and—”
Susan kicked open a door in the hallway, startling me.
“And uh…”
“Jarek, you ok?” I could hear Johanna’s voice but couldn’t see her.
“Yeah, he’s down here somewhere. He hasn’t gone back up. I don’t have schematics of the hospital, but we’re in the basement floor, heading towards maintenance and possibly the sub-basement.”
“I’m heading down,” Skye said.
“Jo?” I asked.
“Yeah?” she said, her face filling the screen that was now moving as they started to walk.
“I need you down here with me,” I told her simply.
When push came to shove, I trusted Susan. When it was time to roll the dice, I hoped to be far from the action, but if I couldn’t be, I wanted Johanna Nash at my side.
“I know you do. I’m hurrying. I’ll get ahold of Sorenson before we get on the elevator, and I’ll find you.”
“Thank you.” I closed the connection, stowed the tablet, and pulled the collapsible baton from the small of my back.
“What do you think you’re going to do with that?” Susan asked, coming out of the room she had just cleared.
“Not get shot,” I told her simply.
I’d used a baton before to save myself from bodily injury, and it was a simple device. With a flick of the wrist, an eight-inch cylinder extended to eighteen inches of metal rod with a flattened tip on the end. I’d seen firsthand what they could do, including breaking bones. It was light weight, and I’d been training with Johanna’s in a form of kata she’d been teaching me over the last month.
“Good. The only thing that scares me more than an armed perp is you with a gun. Stay back, be ready to call for help.”
“You got it,” I said.
In truth, my heart was still racing, and I knew my body was still tensed up and sore. After the earlier run through the hospital when we’d first arrived, I didn’t know if I could even handle Susan’s pace without feeling crippled again tomorrow. Susan used her foot to kick and push open another door, and her gun and body moved as one unit.
“Clear,” she said.
The door was swinging shut half a second after she’d already moved down the hallway. I saw that it was just a small supply room, no place to hide anywhere.
“We’re running out of rooms,” Susan said.
“I think the boiler room is coming up,” I told her.
Boiler room. The name gave me shivers. I sat through a movie about a guy named Freddie with Skye once. The film was all gore and very disturbing. The man had died and come back to life to exact his revenge. That was the next room. The next one that Susan was going to go into, probably big enough for Mephisto to hide in. I gripped the baton harder and felt the nervous sweat of my hands soak into the handle.
“Yeah. You stay here at the doorway,” Susan said before entering, gun first.
“Police!” she yelled.
For a moment it startled me because I didn’t know what I was expecting. Gunfire, explosions. Everything that would make a good action movie. I was disappointed.
“Room is empty, but it looks big. Let’s wait for the others—”
“Sounds good to me,” I said, not wanting to go into a boiler room without the rest of my friends.
Even Pete and Agent Sorenson would be a welcome addition to the group. Even as I thought that, I heard their footfalls and turned to see them all approaching on the run. I stepped out of the doorway to the boiler room so they could see me better, and their pace slowed when I gave them a quick thumbs-up. Everything wasn’t ok, but we weren’t being held hostage by ravenous sex-crazed aliens or even an effeminate hacker who called himself the Devil.
“Where’s Skye?” I asked Johanna, already knowing.
“She’s with her brother; they sent him upstairs,” Jo said a little breathlessly.
Sorenson and Ralston barreled past me and into the boiler room. Susan had stepped into view, and they had an animated conversation. I waited out with Jo until her breathing had evened out a little bit. I knew what fear did to the heart rate, and I knew that the anxiety she must have been feeling taxed the body the same way.
“This is the last door in the hallway. Susan cleared every room so far.”
“He’s not in there?”
“No,” I answered. “But I’m hoping to get on the camera feeds soon and figure out where—”
“Got something,” Susan yelled, and I hesitated.
“Come on,” Jo said.
Boiler room…Freddy…I didn’t know if I wanted to.
“Come on, Jarek,” Jo said, gently nudging me with her shoulder.
“Ok, you first,” I told her and followed her as we made our way inside.
There were pipes that came into a central manifold near the back wall, with large-diameter water pipes in a confusing mess that looked like spaghetti. I wa
s quite certain there was a ton of old asbestos insulation in the wrapped pipes, and I made sure to stay in the middle of the room. There were darkened corners, so I pulled out my phone and used my flashlight app. One by one, everyone else did as well.
“Earlier you were talking about part of the hospital that was shut down…for the asbestos contamination?” Susan asked.
“Yeah, but I’ve never been down here, and to be honest…this room makes me feel uneasy.”
It probably shouldn’t, because I was now surrounded by people with guns. I knew it was childish to feel uneasy like this, but somehow, the suspect, one Mephisto, AKA Colton, was in the wind, so to speak. An eye witness had solidly put him coming down this way without returning, and we’d checked every room.
“Somebody go back and watch the hallway back to the morgue.” Sorenson’s voice was commanding.
“I’ll head that way with Jarek. He’s got to be here, somewhere close,” Jo said, shooting me a look.
I appreciated it, and it would get me closer to a terminal somewhere. I had to look at the camera feed and see where he went.
“Ok, just give a shout if you see anything. Do not peruse the subject if you see him, are we clear?” Sorenson asked.
“Yes, sir,” Jo snapped back smartly, but there was no trace of her trademark sarcasm or what I’d come to call snark.
I gave everyone a quick wave, and we made our way down to the morgue, where the hospital administrator and the head of security were waiting for us. Neither of them appeared to be amused.
11
“I have no idea where he could have gone,” Susan was telling us.
We’d been ushered into a waiting room.
“I hope Sorenson has that arrogant asshole under his thumb now,” Pete grumbled.
Yeah, they were law enforcement and I was a private detective, but without a warrant and coming up with nothing, we were effectively stopped. Agent Sorenson asked for us to wait here, and the hospital administrator and his head of security relented when I gave up the keycard I’d pilfered from the angry nurse.
“You can’t just steamroll civilians,” Jo reminded Pete, who flushed and swore under his breath.
That amused me, as I replayed the scene in my mind when Johanna had flipped him over a desk and used a foot in the butt to send him scurrying into the laps of three uniformed officers. He’d had it coming, we’d all made our peace, yet it was still a sticking point. Obviously one he wasn’t ready to forget.
“I need access to a terminal,” I said for the thousandth time.
“They aren’t going to let you anywhere near their computers, Jarek, not after what you did,” Susan scolded, and she was correct.
I did have an idea though…I pulled out my tablet and hoped Skye and her brother were in good hands. We hadn’t heard from her since we’d searched for Colten.
“Remember to ask her how her brother is doing,” Jo said softly, leaning in so close our shoulders and hips touched.
I’d already hit the video call button and was waiting on Skye to pick up—
“Tech Support. You call them, we ball them.”
“I…what?” I asked, confused.
“Hey boss,” Skye said, all smiles. “Everything ok? Did you get Mephisto?”
“No, he got away somehow.” I paused as an elbow dug into my side.
Johanna was so close, I was starting to feel uncomfortable. And the scent of her perfume was become more than a little distracting. I tried to slide away, only to bump into the wall. I had picked the corner chair.
“How is your brother doing?” I asked her.
“He woke up. Whatever Mephisto gave him was short acting.”
“Something was bothering me about this, Skye…how did your brother not recognize his drug dealer as his nurse or orderly or whatever?”
Jo let out a small gasp. I’d have to ask her about that later. Was that surprise?
“I asked him that—”
“I first saw him when he came to take me for that MRI,” her brother’s voice cut in. “And I was going to wait until we were alone to ask him what was going on. I felt a sharp prick and then woke up to Skye smacking me, and I think she said I was in the morgue…”
They both talked to each other momentarily, and I fought down the feeling of time running out. I let them go for a minute when Jo leaned in front of my vision so she could be in the screen.
“Hey kiddo, you guys good? I mean, we need your help on something, but Jarek’s being too shy to ask by the looks of it.”
“I am not. I was merely trying to wait for the appropriate moment,” I told her, pulling the tablet to my left so I could see the screen again.
“What do you need?” Skye asked in a business-like fashion.
“I’m locked out and got in some trouble when I took the nurse’s keycard. I can’t get close to a terminal, let alone an Ethernet outlet…”
“Yeah, she’s still steaming mad,” Skye said. “But I’m cool with her. Maybe I can try it with my tablet… what are you looking for exactly?”
“Camera feed from the morgue and basement. Mephisto dumped your brother and then disappeared. I need to know where and how he got away. Also, there’s supposed to be a sub-basement in the hospital. I don’t see any way to get to it. I want you to see if you can find any blueprints. I’m going to try to do the same thing over Wi-Fi here, but you can dig deeper if you don’t have someone breathing down your neck,” I said and turned to look at Johanna, who was doing just as I’d said.
Johanna snorted and pulled the tablet out of my hands.
“Skye, the phones aren’t reliable down here. Your tablet and Jarek’s might be the quickest way to communicate other than text messaging or Kik. Make sure as soon as you find something—”
“You’ll both be the first to know,” Skye said.
“You better mean the second,” Susan said loudly enough for Skye’s eyes to bug out. “Law enforcement is involved…but Jarek is just here as a friend to a patient. Right?”
“Uhm,” I said, looking around the room. My eyes locked on Pete, who just shrugged and then nodded.
“Copy Susan in on everything. I’d say copy Pete in too, but I think he still has a brick for a cell phone, one so old that it’s probably got more value for the gold it contains in the electronics.”
“What about Sorenson?” Pete asked.
“Crap, let’s just—”
“Copy me in first,” I interrupted everyone. “And then I’ll control where the info goes first because you’re acting as an employee of GIS, and if there’s any fallout…”
Susan looked like she was going to protest and then snapped her mouth shut and nodded.
“It’s not like you’re leaving my sight anyways,” she told us.
I agreed. I was going to wait right here until I was told it was safe to leave by Agent Sorenson, or until I had a good idea of where Mephisto had fled to.
“Exactly. Now, if you’ll excuse me, Skye, I’ll talk to you later,” I said and closed the connection. I stood, stretched, and walked to the other side of the room and picked a new seat. I settled in and opened a shell prompt on my tablet.
“Did I do something?” Jo asked, sounding angry.
“No, not at all. Your perfume is perfect, and you were so close to me that I could feel your breath on my neck. I moved places so I could concentrate without having a reaction, and also to avoid being distracted by the act that shall not be named.”
“Jarek!” she almost screamed.
I held up a finger and typed with the onscreen keyboard.
“What’s the act that shall not be named?” Pete asked.
Jo let out an inarticulate noise that made me think for a moment she was choking on a growling dog, but her face was one of pure beauty and anger.
“Maybe I should go do this somewhere else,” I said, standing.
“You move, I’ll end you!” Jo said.
I sat down and kept typing. The blueprints would be on the building commission’s
documents somewhere, and lot of it was in the public databases if I could figure out how to access them in a hurry. I knew Skye would be going after the video feed; she had become rather adept at it since coming to work for GIS. I shot a glance at Johanna, who was still frowning at me, and then I looked at Susan, who was shaking and laughing silently. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.
* * *
A half an hour in, I felt something cold touch my leg. I looked up and Johanna again bumped me with a bottle of water. She’d gotten it out of the vending machines, and I gratefully took it and downed half of it in one go.
“Stress makes me thirsty,” I told her.
“I know. Any luck with—”
“Got it,” I said, showing her my screen.
“Now if I could only understand the schematics of it all.”
“You know how to read blueprints?” Pete Ralston asked.
“No, not really,” I admitted.
Sure, I knew the basics from school, but blueprints that also had electrical, mechanical, and plumbing overlaid were a confusing mess of multi-colored lines. I did find the basement and sub-basement portion of the blueprints, however.
“I can help,” Pete said, and I nodded.
He came over and plopped down beside me. He smelled of fried foods and ketchup, probably something he ate this morning judging by the stains on his tie. I handed him the tablet, and he surprised me utterly by pinch-zooming the blueprints, using the touch interface like he’d been born with a tablet in his hands. Something in my face must have shown.
“My kids all have these things, but this one is pretty quick…there!” Pete pointed to a squiggle of lines.
“What am I looking at?” I asked him.
“The brick wall at the end of the hallway by the boiler room. There used to be a staircase there that led down to the sub-basement. It looks like access now is only available through the utility tunnels outside. No more hospital access.”
“He had to have gotten down there some—”
The video call almost startled him enough to drop the tablet, and I caught it before it could hit the floor. I answered it quickly, and a flushed Skye’s face filled the screen.
Framed: A Jarek Grayson Private Detective Novel (Grayson Investigative Services Book 2) Page 14