Blanche looked out toward the landing pad for the helicopter. Of course for safety, no shrubs or objects bordered the flat circle. She needed cover to get nearer. If she could only get out there, perhaps she could create a distraction. The wide open place to land didn’t serve her purposes at all.
She had no idea how far away the helicopter was in the dark nor how much time until it touched down based on the sound. She bit her lip and decided it couldn’t be helped if the despot from Cuba got on the chopper. Her friends’ safety was more important than justice at this point.
She decided she couldn’t wait any longer. She made a break for the employee entrance around the other wing.
As she rounded the end of the building, she saw Janice sitting at the bottom of a handicap ramp in the brightness of security lights.
“Janice,” She croaked it out. Blanche’s body felt dry and crackly. She couldn’t remember her last drink or her last meal. Had she gotten something on the airplane?
Before she could go to Janice, an emergency exit on the side of the wing popped opened. Blanche tried to shrink into the shadows but the brightness beamed on every side now that the dark might be her friend. The purple suit escort of Señor emerged hauling an agitated Antonio with a knife to his throat and a bloodied leg. Antonio seemed to berate the man pulling him in a Spanish that Blanche imagined blistered the noble language.
Edna appeared with her walker at the top of the handicapped ramp on the other side of the building where Janice was. She froze in place looking at Antonio being dragged away.
Blanche heard Antonio’s voice. In English, she imagined for their benefit. “You can take me as your hostage and get to the helicopter. These people aren’t your problem. ¡Libertad!” He shouted the last word and pumped his fist awkwardly in the air.
The landing pad flooded with lights so somehow officialdom was still preparing for the helicopter.
Blanche wondered about Frank and Shirley and where the evil Carlos might be. Inside? Outside? She slowly crouched down into the shadow of the remaining golf cart.
The man with the square lion’s mane of curly hair pushed and pulled at Antonio moving him along. Blanche saw as they passed nearer nicks with blood droplets on the surface of Antonio’s throat. She involuntarily reached up and touched the loose skin on her own neck. Then she saw the blood streaming down his leg.
The noise of the helicopter became deafening. She watched the silhouette of the two men as Antonio was shoved and pulled toward the landing area.
Chapter Ninety-Six
With all the noise and her focus on the two men, Blanche hadn’t seen Carlos.
A hand gripped her arm and she gasped. Carlos must have come out in the emergency exit while she was looking at Antonio. He pulled at her screaming about the gurney.
She threw herself to the ground. She kicked and kicked while Carlos swore. She landed several satisfying strikes.
“Get over here and push the gurney!” He yanked her up by her arm despite her flailing and fighting. She remembered he dealt with crazy old people daily.
She glanced out and realized that Antonio and purple tormentor were wrestling in the door of the helicopter.
Carlos tossed Blanche at the bed on wheels. She came face to bandages with Señor Rafael on the gurney. He groaned and despite herself, Blanche intentionally leaned on the arm she’d seen Antonio break. If he’d done half the stuff Antonio claimed, he was as bad as the death camp guards of World War II.
She felt another another jerk from Carlos as Señor let out an agonized sound.
Blanche began to push at the gurney.
Carlos screamed at the frozen Edna and Janice to get in line or they’d get a shot they wouldn’t wake up from. Did he intend to take them all on the helicopter? Blanche knew it’d be a short ride for everybody one way or another.
They started a dismal procession toward the helicopter. The two ladies with their wheel devices marching behind with Carlos berating them and alternately urging Blanche to go faster.
Blanche looked back and saw Frank come out of the building. He pushed a wheelchair with a figure on it to the last golf cart. She turned so Carlos wouldn’t notice and pretended the gurney was stuck for a moment.
She peeked back and saw Frank start towards them. With the helicopter noise and Carlos’ attempts at screaming no one heard Frank.
Blanche watched Frank push a gun near Carlos’ head.
“Leave the ladies alone,” Frank’s voice came low and hard against all the other sounds.
Carlos face looked like he’d explode from fury.
“I’ll shoot off what you like to use on the ladies if you don’t do as I say.” Frank gestured with the gun as if clarifying what he meant in case Carlos couldn’t hear.
Blanche shouted to Janice and Edna, “Get to the golf cart!” She pointed in case they couldn’t hear.
“Get out of here,” Frank yelled to her.
As Blanche backed away, she saw Carlos put on his friendly aid face, “Now Mr. Sabatini, don’t do anything bad now.”
Blanche watched Frank cock back his elbow and use the gun as a boxer’s glove plowing it into Carlos’ face. “That’s for Shirley,” he said.
Blanche started toward the golf cart then turned and shouted to Frank. “They’ve got Tonio in the chopper.”
She zipped over to Edna and Janice. They were huddled around the wheelchair Frank had abandoned there. Blanche realized the crumpled form was Shirley-Veda passed out cold. Blanche, Janice, and Edna managed to haul her over to the golf cart’s back seat.
She put Edna into the drivers seat and threw her walker on the back.
“I got my chair in neutral - just gotta hang on,” said Janice.
She glanced occasionally at the stand off going on between Frank and Carlos. Each time they had eked closer to the helicopter.
“Go, Go.” Blanche hollered at Edna.
“Where?”
“Go to the dock.”
Blanche couldn’t leave Antonio to be kidnapped. She waved them off.
The scene lit up in extreme light and shadow was Antonio inside the chopper, Frank taking a punch at Carlos who tried to fend it off and also keep moving the gurney. The ladies skidded out of sight and Blanche looked around for tools or anything she could use to change the situation.
Movement on the road caught her eye and she saw a golf cart coming. She thought for a moment the girls had turned back, but then shooting erupted. She heard a shot whistle near her. She dove for the vegetation at the base of the building. Then she saw the shooter turn in the direction of Carlos and Frank.
Frank returned fire until his weapon was empty. Then he smacked Carlos in the head with it again.
Blanche wanted to get Antonio off that helicopter. She shouted to Frank, but the motor crescendoed as it began to build to take off. No one could hear her.
Carlos seemed to realized that Frank couldn’t stop him and started running toward the helicopter pushing the gurney with Señor Rafael who must be getting the ride of his life, Blanche thought.
The golf cart with the shooter tore across the grass racing toward the gurney. The security man jumped out and helped push Señor.
Now a car approached, Blanche watched everyone on the landing pad turn to look.
The security guard stopped helping with the gurney and took a shot at the car.
The car skidded up on the gravel near her and much to Blanche’s surprise, Al called out, “Need a ride?”
She jumped in and said, “We gotta stop the chopper.”
Al drove roughly bumping across the grass lawn. The newly returned security guard shot more rounds at them.
Carlos struggled to position the gurney to load the helicopter alone. He called to the security man who turned to help push the gurney.
“We gotta stop them,” shouted Blanche.
Al aimed the vehicle toward the helicopter pad.
The chopper’s tone changed again and it began to lift. Blanche thought no, no, no. They
can’t get away.
She saw the young man in the suit and Antonio wrestling around in the back.
The security guard threw himself at the lifting bird setting it off balance and Antonio broke loose.
Jump out, Blanche thought, Jump.
Carlos’ medical training or shock must have made him hesitate to leave a patient. He stood open mouthed by the gurney.
Blanche realized Al had the car going too fast. “Stop!” Blanche yelled.
Al slowed but too late. Just as he stopped the nose of the car pushed the gurney knocking it over and Señor flopped to the ground with a scream.
“Why’d you do that?” She shouted.
“Turns out I don’t have the fine motor skills required after all,” he grinned.
The security guard fell from the landing skid. This seemed to free the bird to rise equal with the trees. Blanche glimpsed Antonio climbing into the cockpit and had a bad feeling.
Frank had emerged from the trees again and managed to disarm the security guard before he got his feet under him. Frank looked at ease standing over him with another gun.
Carlos screamed at the helicopter in Spanish.
Al and Blanche watched through the windshield of the car as the chopper wobbled and scraped along the tops of the trees around the clearing. It fumbled out of sight and as the helicopter sound got quieter she heard Señor Rafael speaking through pain. Blanche would bet money it was a demand to be on the helicopter.
A terrible screeching and crunching sound blasted the night as the helicopter crashed just out of sight.
Chapter Ninety-Seven
Frank dove in the backseat as they’d torn out from the landing area leaving the security guard and Carlos trying to get the screaming Señor back onto the gurney.
Blanche held on for dear life as Al drove erratically back and forth on the island road. They were searching for the helicopter crash.
“Won’t they get away?” Al asked indicating the gurney behind them.
“It’s an island!” Frank said.
A golf cart came straight at them challenging Al’s fine motor skills even further.
“Maybe I should drive,” Blanche said.
Al made a terrible sound in his throat, and Blanche reached for the wheel as they narrowly missed the approaching cart. In the flare of the headlights, Blanche saw it was Bruce the Bald. Where had he been in all of this?
Then she heard a gun shot behind them and realized he must be coming to take back his fiefdom.
Frank said, “He makes a better administrator than marksman.”
Al took a couple sharp turns. No more shots sounded behind them. But they still hadn’t found the crash site either. Blanche tried to nourish hope since there had not been an explosion of flames they would find Antonio and whisk him away.
At the next corner, they saw a golf cart turning down a narrow weedy lane.
“Is it him again? He’s looking for the crash site too - follow him!” Blanche said.
“Got it,” Al said twisting the wheel.
They lurched to a halt behind Bruce’s golf cart. Bruce stood over some wreckage aiming his gun in. Frank launched himself as best a man his age having a rough night can, but the gun went off before he knocked Bruce down.
Blanche rushed to see who was shot, as if a helicopter crash wasn’t enough. What was Bruce thinking?
Though to her untrained eye the crash had not massively disfigured the bird on top, the nose definitely had crumpled inwards.
Frank wrestled with Bruce. Blanche got down on her knees to look into the wreckage. The guy in the purple suit looked out at her with vacant eyes and a bullet hole in his forehead. Bruce hit the mark on that one it looked like.
Blanche spider crawled around the disfigured entrails of the helicopter as best she could. She found Antonio. He was unconscious. Her police volunteer training kicked in surprising herself. She checked for a heartbeat and searched for wounds. His arm was at a bad angle and the bottom half of his body seemed pinned in by the wreckage, but she didn’t see lots of blood. His heart beat felt weak. Blanche looked out for help.
Bruce stood over Frank pointing the gun at him in the headlights of the golf cart and the car.
“You cannot take this from me. You trouble maker,” Bruce said.
“You’re going to have trouble explaining my death by gun shot. The Sabatinis ain’t dumb.” Frank’s sarcasm was not under threat.
“If I eliminate all you idiot interferers, no one will know.” Bruce laughed a strange cackle. “There are no police here.”
He kept his gun pointed at Frank but extracted a large syringe from his pocket with the other hand. “No bullet holes for you, Frank, or for the ladies.”
Blanche saw Al step from behind the headlights and swing one of his canes with full old man force like a baseball bat. Bruce did not go down, but the syringe went flying as he stumbled. Frank scrambled up as another golf cart bumped down the jungle lane. Carlos and the bulky security guard jumped out. Both guys who worked the system and played the winning side, Blanche thought.
The security guard did as Blanche had and beelined for the wreckage to find his boss.
Blanche got Al’s attention. She tried to give him signals.
Al hollered, “I don’t know what you mean.”
Just then they were all deafened by a gun shot. Blanche turned and saw that Bruce had shot the security guard in the back while he looked into the helicopter ruins.
Blanche yelled, “Take the boat to the dock! Quick!” during the aftershock of sound.
Frank shot a fist at Carlos who seemed struck dumb by his erratic boss’s behavior. Perhaps violence had never shown up in Bruce before.
“There’s another one for Shirley. One more for Veda,” Frank pulled back his arm, but Carlos side stepped turning on Bruce. Frank fell to the ground he’d put so much in his swing.
“What’d you do that for?” Carlos held his face where Frank had punched with one hand and pointed at the helicopter where the security guard’s body fell.
“These people never came to the island. No one knows.” Bruce said.
“Somebody is going to notice the helicopter. Dios mio, I think you’ve lost it.” If not for the extreme danger and a man with a gun, Blanche would have enjoyed Carlos’s discomfiture with the situation.
Just then Al’s uneven pressure to the gas pedal caused a spew of leaves and dirt and a gunning of the engine. Blanche said a prayer he made it.
Bruce took a shot at the departing car. Then his chamber clicked empty.
Blanche breathed a sigh of relief for the moment, but looked back over to the exceedingly still Antonio. He needed medical help immediately. Maybe she could go get a nurse from the center.
Bruce shouted at Carlos. “Help me get Frank in the golf cart. We can inject him back at the center. I lost the syringe out here.”
They started circling Frank and Blanche tried to backpedal her way to the darkness beyond the golf cart lights. The irony of craving darkness was not lost on her pathetic and fearful soul.
Frank gave them a good ring-around-the-rosy dipping and dodging around the golf carts and the helicopter bits, but Carlos had too much experience catching people.
Blanche turned and ran blindly into the heavy humid black jungle in the direction of the Care Center, she hoped.
Chapter Ninety-Eight
Al felt sweat all over him. He didn’t have the control to take a hand away from the wheel and turn on the AC. No time. He couldn’t risk it.
This bald maniac was bent on killing everyone on the island if necessary. He suddenly found himself sharing Blanche’s creepy feeling about nursing homes if this is the sort of guy they got to run them.
He miscalculated the turn into the driveway and clipped the iron gates pretty good. He flinched. He didn’t even have the kind of insurance to cover this sort of thing. He heard the metal scrape along the car and gunned the engine down to the dock.
The boat needed to get a move on to the getaw
ay rendezvous. Would he be able to get to the dock before the crazy guy with his lethal injections showed? He shimmied up the gangplank they’d left down as fast as he could go. Trouble was boats weren’t fast.
Chapter Ninety-Nine
As Blanche felt her eyes adjust to the darkness away from the helicopter crash, she realized she could see the landing pad lights between the jungle trees. The center wasn’t far from the crash site, they just hadn’t been able to find it easily from the paved roads.
She plunged through thick undergrowth. Leaves and branches snatching at her clothes and slapping the stupid wig that sweated on her head. When she felt invisible in the strange darkness, she looked back.
Frank had slipped Carlos grasp again and moved like only a man escaping lethal injection can move at his age. Blanche rejoiced that Bruce had run out of bullets and prayed they wouldn’t find the syringe. If they had to get back to the center, that gave her more time to get ahead of them.
Silhouettes of tree trunks, leaves, and vines, blocked her way, but she kept her focus on the slivers of white light ahead. Night noises rose to deafening levels with occasional shouts behind her.
Her tennis shoes sunk in vegetable matter rotting on the ground. She refused to look away from the light. Walk toward the light. Oh dear, hopefully not that light. Her breathing labored against the humidity. She fought back her panicked need for more speed and ignored her fear. Keep moving with all you’ve got, Blanche Binkley.
When she arrived, she could call for help, find a nurse to go look at Antonio. How could she stop Bruce from giving out lethal injections? Her knowledge of pharmaceuticals fell short of disposing of potential lethal products. The nurses wouldn’t let her. She began to see the outline of the RCCC building and knew it was too big. Once Bruce got inside she wouldn’t be able to stop him.
She breathed and moved willing herself to have more energy and more ideas. She ignored her wobbly leg muscles. Maybe the other golf cart was still sitting by the launch pad. She broke onto the landing pad area and heard a voice. She ducked down behind a tree and listened.
Complicated Care Page 30