Uncle and Ants

by Marc Jedel

  I slumped. How was I going to unlock her phone now? I needed to figure out if her third appointment on Monday, her “me-time,” was as innocent as it appeared. Laney was counting on me. Mace Jackson would need to know tomorrow morning when he came back to work. I needed him to focus his attention on Rollag to save Laney.

  When Nurse Ellen reached my side, she wrinkled her nose. “Something stinks. Maybe you stepped in something? Let me grab you some industrial cleaner. I think we still have some on the floor.” Without waiting for a response, she walked away. Over her shoulder, she said, “I’d swear it smells just like a spill we had on the floor earlier in the week.”

  Perhaps my kids could guess their aunt’s password.

  GROUP TEXT TO AMANDA, ELI

  MARTY: I need to get into Laney’s phone. Any guess on her passcode?

  AMANDA: She’s your sister. Her birthdate?

  MARTY: Not it

  ELI: How about Skye’s or Megan’s?

  MARTY: Both not it. Wait, how many guesses do I get before it erases?

  AMANDA: IDK, maybe 5?

  MARTY: Any other ideas?

  ELI: Her eye

  MARTY: What?

  ELI: Get it

  AMANDA: Ewwww

  ELI: I mean put the phone to her eye to unlock it. It’s got that retina thing, right? Then add your eye once it’s unlocked and you can open it anytime

  MARTY: Hmmm. Smart. Gotta go

  AMANDA: I don’t know you. Either of you. That’s what I’m telling the police

  12

  Wednesday Evening

  Nurse Ellen returned empty-handed. “We must have used up the floor’s supplies earlier this week.”

  I gave my best innocent impression as we followed Nurse Ellen down the corridor and then filed into Laney’s room.

  Laney was out like a light. She had some wires running into her arm and various monitors arrayed behind her with numbers, graphics, and other indicators flashing a dim red. Bandages covered much of her head and face, while the visible parts showed some interesting colored bruising. She looked more alive than when I saw her on Monday, but far from back to normal. The girls stopped in their tracks when they saw Laney’s condition.

  A movement in the corner of the room startled me. Someone else was in the room.

  I breathed a sigh of relief as a nurse stood up from a drawer near the floor. Only a nurse.

  Then Nurse Ruth turned around. She managed to smile at the girls and ignore me at the same time. I had last seen her heading off to check out the murder scene. Perhaps she felt embarrassed about her unusual reaction to the murder.

  The girls were a little freaked out, but I was now a man on a mission and didn’t pause to check on their reaction. I stepped around the girls towards Nurse Ruth. “Hi. Remember me? I’m Marty. I’m Laney’s brother and these are her girls. How is she tonight?”

  Nurse Ruth nodded in acknowledgment. “Hi. She’s doing much better.” With no murders tonight, Nurse Ruth acted like a normal nurse.

  “So pretty much the same as when we called her earlier today?” I said.

  Nurse Ruth nodded. “Yes, but the doctor was pleased with her progress when she stopped by earlier this evening. We expect Laney can go home on Saturday.”

  “Can we talk to her?” Megan’s voice trembled a bit as she stood with Skye near the door.

  “You can talk to her, but she’s out of it tonight. Don’t expect her to answer. You can touch her on the arm if you can be gentle. Nurse Ruth stepped back and moved around Laney, tucking in her blanket. She didn’t look like she planned to leave the room any time soon. Getting the eye scan on Laney’s phone would be tricky.

  The girls both moved up the right side of the bed, close enough to touch their mother. Megan stayed close to Skye. With her self-confidence and energy, it’s easy to forget that she’s a little girl. Careful to avoid any of the wires or sensors, they reached out to stroke Laney’s hand and arm. Laney didn’t notice. She didn’t move and her breathing sounded normal. While the girls talked in soft murmurs to Laney’s sleeping form, I wondered how to distract the nurses and get Laney’s phone to her eye long enough to unlock it without anyone noticing.

  After a few minutes, Nurse Ellen shifted her weight and checked her watch. I walked over to the other side of the bed from the girls with my hand in my pocket holding Laney’s phone. Nurse Ruth continued to fiddle with the equipment behind me.

  I spoke in a soft tone so I wouldn’t startle the girls. “Megan, remember we promised you’d have just a short visit. Say ‘goodnight’ to your mother and then you need to go back with Nurse Ellen.”

  Megan leaned over and kissed her mother’s hand. She rubbed the kiss in with her cheek and said good night. Then she walked over to Nurse Ellen. “Ok, let’s go.”

  As the two turned to leave, Megan pointed to the wire from Laney’s arm to the machines and spoke to Nurse Ellen in a more normal voice. “Is that her power cord?”

  Nurse Ellen laughed. “No, dear. That helps make sure she’s doing okay.”

  The two walked out of the room. One down. Nurse Ruth continued to putter behind me. As Skye turned to watch Megan and Nurse Ellen leave the room, I pulled my hand from my pocket. Still holding Laney’s phone, I reached up to her forehead like I was brushing the hair away from her eyes. As my fingers touched her eyelid, Laney let out a sigh. Spooked, I dropped her phone and clunked her eyebrow with it.

  Yikes. Laney moaned. Skye turned quickly and saw my sweaty hand grab the phone off Laney’s face. I froze, not sure if Nurse Ruth had seen the phone.

  Behind me, I heard Nurse Ruth turn and take a step towards the bed. “It’s perfectly normal to make sounds while you’re sleeping,” she said to us.

  I pulled the phone back and moved my hand out of sight. Over my racing heart, I said, “Well, if she snores, I’ll have to tease her when she wakes up.” I remained near Laney’s head in my apparent devotion to my sister. Despite my racing heart, I was poised to try again at the next opportunity.

  Skye gave me a stink eye. She’d seen me drop the phone on her mother’s face. I shrugged and motioned to the phone in silent pantomime, but successfully communicating “I need to open your mom’s phone” in Charades was beyond my skills. Skye squinted at me with her eyebrows scrunched.

  Nurse Ruth turned her back to me and started to walk down the side of the bed to cross to the other side. I leaned forward as if I were going to caress Laney’s forehead with a kiss. With Skye watching my every move, I raised both my hands so I could get the phone to her eye. I put one hand to her eye to hold her eyelid open while I moved the other hand with the phone closer to her face. And knocked into one of Laney’s sensors.

  Ugh! A loud beeping noise broke out. The sensor’s alarm sounded a warning that a dangerous brother lurked nearby. My elbow must have decided to rat me out. Either that or my coordination had not yet elevated to the super-spy level of my imagination.

  Nurse Ruth turned back with a look of mild annoyance on her face now. “Oh goodness, this happens all the time. It looks like one of the alarms has gone off.” She took a swift stride back to the headboard and her fingers flashed across the screens as she turned off the beeping alarm. Laney was still out of it.

  Skye, however, had an incredulous expression on her face as she gaped at me, clearly amazed at the level of my ineptitude. I’ve seen that look before from other women in my life.

  No, I’m not that stupid. After all, Nurse Ruth hadn’t seen me holding Laney’s phone or clunking her face with it.

  Nurse Ruth waved me away. “It’s probably best to stay farther away from her head until she’s healed a bit more. Why don’t you move a little further down the bed to be safe?”

  That’s right. Super-agent Marty needed to stand farther away so he didn’t do further damage to his sister while she healed from a possible brain injury, and he worked to catch the person who had tried to kill her.

  Skye let out a long sigh. One of those why-is-everything-always-up-to-me sighs.
I’d heard those before, too. Out of the blue, Skye burst into tears.

  Not your mere run-of-the-mill crying, this set a new standard for wailing. Through her sobs, she babbled about whether her mother would be okay, when she’d be able to go home, and whether all the bruising on her face would leave permanent scars. Her words all scrambled together amidst her weeping. Skye had given up on my ability to unlock the phone on my own and had decided to address the situation head-on.

  I stood there dumbfounded. This wasn’t hard to do. I didn’t need to fake my awestruck, frozen-in-place pose. Skye cut an impressive figure as the despondent child. But nurses are made of sterner stuff. Nurse Ruth walked around the bed to Skye to soothe her. After all, we didn’t want to disturb the patient’s rest.

  “Come on dear, let’s go sit down outside. Your mom is doing well. She’ll be home before you know it.” With a cool glance, Nurse Ruth gave me a clear directive. “I think it’s time to wrap up your visit.”

  As Nurse Ruth escorted Skye from Laney’s room with her arm around Skye’s still shaking shoulders, Skye somehow turned her headback to me. Over a shoulder, without Nurse Ruth noticing, Skye rolled her eyes at me.

  How is that even anatomically possible? “Thank you. I’ll be right there.”

  “Don’t touch anything,” were her parting words.

  Which I immediately ignored. I wouldn’t touch any of the medical stuff. At least I’d make an effort not to touch them. I moved back closer to Laney’s head. The bruises were truly impressive. If I had time, I’d take a picture to show her later. I knew she’d appreciate that. I held Laney’s phone in one hand and bent over. I lifted her eyelid and lined up the phone. The retina scan worked and the phone unlocked. Simple.

  My excitement dampened as a red, angry eye appeared to be looking at me. I let go of her eyelid to make it go away. The drugs kept working and Laney stayed asleep. I turned away with the unlocked phone in my hand. I opened her privacy settings and, without delay, added my own retina to her phone. Now my eye could unlock her phone at any time.

  Super-agent Marty is back.

  Not feeling especially brave this close to my sister’s angry red eye, I decided to follow Nurse Ruth’s instructions. Without looking up at Laney’s face in case the angry red eye opened on its own, I gave her toes a quick squeeze through the blanket and walked out of the room without looking back.

  Flush with success, I hurried down the hallway. I found the girls in the waiting area by the elevators. Nurse Ellen sat next to them while Nurse Ruth stood nearby drinking a cup of coffee. The girls were asking questions about their mother, hospitals, and who knows what else. Skye had made a miraculous, spontaneous recovery. Nurse Ruth told a small joke and both girls cracked smiles.

  Nurse Ellen looked up despite my quiet approach. I was pleased she was so observant. I’d have to trust her and Nurse Ruth to protect Laney until Mace got back to work tomorrow.

  “Thank you so much,” I said to both nurses. Both girls also thanked them, without even needing a prompt. They added cheerful goodbyes as we waited for the elevator.

  Riding down in the elevator to the lobby, Megan stood in front pretending to push all the buttons while Skye and I leaned against the back wall. Uncomfortable about what to say, I avoided looking at Skye at first. When I did glance over at her, she shook her head. “Smooth,” was all she said.

  At first, I looked down at my shoes in embarrassment, but then a whiff of rotten fish wafted my way. I wrinkled my nose before a laugh burst out of me. I turned to Skye, who’d looked over at my laugh, and smirked at her. I held out a closed fist for a moment. After a split second, she grinned and fist-bumped me back. Confused, Megan turned to see what had happened and then decided she wanted in on the action too. We bumped fists as well. I might not always pull off Super-Agent Marty, but at least I could handle my Uncle Marty role well enough. I hoped Skye and I would never have to tell Laney about our little secret.

  After the girls went to sleep, I sat down at the table with Laney’s phone. I held it to my eye and chuckled when it unlocked. Almost as good as when I picked the lock on her diary in high school.

  After the amount of effort I’d exerted to break into her phone, I didn’t feel too guilty about reading Laney’s text messages. This was all for her own good, after all. Below several texts on Monday afternoon from Skye wondering when Laney would arrive at their school, I saw a text exchange with someone named “Meghan.” It looked like they’d planned to meet for lunch on Monday. I searched the contacts on her phone and found a phone number for a Meghan Emerson.

  Meghan Emerson had the initials “M.E.” Laney hadn’t scheduled “me-time.” She had a lunch meeting with M.E. It had only taken me three days to crack the code. Super-agent Marty was back in business. Tomorrow morning would be time for a certain fake IRS agent to contact Meghan Emerson and find out if she had reason to hurt Laney.

  13

  Thursday Morning

  When my alarm went off, I woke up feeling rested. I’d done well last night. I’d even remembered to have a dream idea ready for Megan. Telling her to dream of playing with Labrador puppies in her backyard with her mother wasn’t the most original concept, but it had worked.

  Aiming to avoid another spike in my blood pressure this morning, I first opened the door to my home office. As expected, Megan lay asleep on the ground again. I kneeled down and touched her back.

  She rolled over and awoke immediately with her mother on her mind. “Hi, Uncle Marty. Is Mom coming home today?”

  “Not until Friday or Saturday. I’ll get an update later from her doctor,” I promised. The hallway bathroom door closed as Skye got herself moving this morning as well.

  I paused as conflicting feelings flickered through my head. Surprised that I felt almost sad about the girls going home soon, I shook it off and put on a smile that my apartment would soon be all my own again.

  Pulling a box of frozen waffles that arrived with the groceries yesterday out of the freezer, I put some in the oven to toast. Once the maple syrup reached the table, breakfast was ready. Perhaps not the healthiest choice, but a fast one. I needed fast today so the girls would get off to school early and I could contact Meghan Emerson, Laney’s third scheduled meeting on Monday. I couldn’t call her until official office hours. Not if I wanted to pull off my IRS scam again.

  My lunch today with Daniel at DroneTech should give me another chance to exercise my super-agent skills and check into Rollag while Mace did his police thing. I lost a few moments pondering what my super-agent costume should look like. The movie director would appreciate my input.

  Skye and Megan interrupted my thoughts when they walked out from their room dressed and ready for school in record time. My parenting skills improved by the day. Pleased with my strong start to the morning, I announced with more pride, “I made waffles and maple syrup for breakfast.”

  Skye scoffed. “You mean you opened the box of waffles and toasted them, don’t you?”

  “Exactly.” I wouldn’t let Skye bring me down. My pride undiminished, I added, “You two have breakfast and I’ll get dressed.”

  When I returned, Skye sat at the table, pounding on the keys of her computer while her breakfast sat untouched to her side.

  My approach interrupted her attempts to pulverize her computer. She looked up, did a double take. “Whoa. Who are you and what did you do with Uncle Marty?”

  Megan chimed in, “Looking good, Uncle Marty.”

  I don’t understand girls. “What?” Sure, I wear Hawaiian shirts most days to work, but putting on a pair of fitted jeans and a button-down, long sleeve shirt didn’t deserve a reaction like that.

  “Didn’t know you had those sort of clothes,” said Skye.

  “It’s just in case I get an interview today.” Self-conscious now, I looked down to double check my clothes. I wanted to make a good impression at DroneTech. I might meet an engineering manager at lunch and, who knows, it could turn into a job interview. With my sparkling personality
and superior intellect, I would undoubtedly amaze the management and they’d want me to start immediately. The fancier clothes would help complete the package. Dress to impress.

  I started to mumble something else but Skye drew my attention with a frustrated wave of her arms. “My computer’s not working right.”

  Computer engineer, Uncle Marty, to the rescue! I threw my arms to the sides with a grand gesture, as if sweeping the crowds aside. “Step back and let the man who fixes everything come through.”

  “Who’s the man and when is he coming over?” Skye had a gleam in her eye and the corners of her mouth quirked up.

  “Is Raj here?” Megan looked over her shoulder at the door.

  “Very funny girls.” They had no faith in their Uncle Marty. “Here, let me take a look at your computer. You need to eat some breakfast so you can get to school.”

  I tried the basics but couldn’t even get her computer to connect to the internet. Never give up. Never surrender. Cracking my knuckles and running my fingers through my hair didn’t solve anything, although it gave me an extra opportunity to think while Skye smirked at me. Trying an advanced option that one of our network engineers used during a Rover system test didn’t solve the problem either. Without pausing for Skye to realize I’d hit a wall, I rebooted her computer, pretending my sophisticated network diagnostics made it happen. The reboot succeeded in getting her Wi-Fi working again even if I had no idea how to fix the rest of her system. “When in doubt, fake it,” as my dad always said.

  “Here you go.” I handed back her computer without any fanfare. Perhaps I should bring it in to have Raj take a quick look later, after all.

  By the time I got my own breakfast and sat down, Skye’s eyes were focused intently on her screen again.

  “What’cha reading?”