Man of Steel

by Dave Conifer

  “No,” Jonas said with a shrug. “We’ve been on the run. But the fact that somebody’s chasing us should tell you something, don’t you think? If you think I look bad you should see Abby.”

  “She’s out at University Hospital?”

  “Yeah. I’m going out to get her whenever I can. I’m not sure when. We’ve got to get out of here while we’re still alive. There’s no way our luck can hold out much longer.”

  Ledger stood and stretched his giant frame before taking a seat on the corner of the desk. “You killed a guy right here in town,” he said after a pause. “Seems to me I should be able to confirm that part, at least. Maybe I can do something with this,” he said, mostly to himself.

  “I left him for dead, but don’t know for sure that he finished dying. I’m sure you’ll never find a trace of him. These guys are pretty good.”

  “Can I see it?” Ledger asked, pointing at the typewriter.

  Jonas typed the final sentence and then yanked the page from the typewriter. After adding it to the bottom of the stack of typewritten pages he handed it over. “I know it’s thin,” he said apologetically. “We had to travel light.”

  “There’s no way I can write this straight up,” Ledger said. “We just don’t have any proof. For me, at least, it would just be hearsay. At best. Why don’t you print it in your own damn paper? At least it would be firsthand.”

  “Same reason you don’t like it,” Jonas admitted. “My editors in Charlotte rejected it. I can’t really blame them. I believe this story but I can’t prove it yet.”

  Before Ledger could respond somebody stuck his head in the door. “Are you Joe Jonas? Somebody’s here looking for you.” Jonas tensed up, assuming the worst. Then Rob appeared.

  “I’ve walked past here a thousand times,” he said.

  “Rob,” Jonas said. “I’m glad it’s you. Rob, this is Darius. He’s a reporter. I stayed at Rob’s last night,” he explained to Ledger. “He’s a student here.”

  “I read your stuff all the time,” Rob said as he and Ledger shook hands. Jonas smiled as he remembered Rob mentioning that he only read the sports page.

  “So you’re in on this too?” Ledger asked Rob. “This isn’t just some nut job fantasy?”

  “Look, I just met this guy last night,” Rob said, jerking his thumb at Jonas. “It could be a nut job fantasy for all I know. He showed up in a bar in Sunnyside, all beat up and woozy, telling stories. It seems like it’s all on the level, I’ll give him that. So far everything he said checks out.”

  “Sorry, Darius,” Jonas said. “I forgot to mention Rob. I know how crazy this looks.”

  “No shit. Here’s what I’m thinking I want to do,” Ledger said. “This can’t be an article. Way too fuzzy. But I usually write a column about once a week. I just write about something funny, or something I feel strongly about. This week I’ll write about you and your story. Kind of like ‘I met this wild guy and he told me this wild story’ kind of thing. It won’t be an article, just a column. You know the difference. We wouldn’t be, you know, saying it’s all fact. But at least it’ll be in print. That helps you out, right?”

  “Yeah, that helps me out,” Jonas answered. “At least I think it will. Maybe somebody with more time will pick it up and run with it. Like I said, I’m hoping that once it’s in print they’ll have to worry more about hiding than chasing me.”

  “I’ll keep this if you don’t mind,” Ledger said, holding up the typed pages. “I might even print it verbatim. At least part of it.”

  “Would you mind making a copy of it for me?” Jonas asked. “Just in case?”

  “No sweat. ”

  “Thanks,” Jonas said. “Then I just have to get out to the hospital.”

  “I can take you,” Rob said. “But I thought of something. Do you know what room she’s in? You left her in the emergency room. It doesn’t seem like a good idea to go in the front door and ask for her room number. What if the people chasing you know she’s there, and they’re waiting for you?”

  “That’s something I’ve been worrying about too,” Jonas said. “And it isn’t just them. The police chased me out last time I was there. They accused me of beating her up myself.”

  “You can’t make this shit up,” Darius said, a smile breaking out on his face.

  “That’s what I keep saying!” Rob said. “Maybe I could go in and ask.”

  “Or me,” Darius suggested.

  “It’s a good idea,” Jonas agreed. “All I need is a room number.”

  “What’s up when you find her?” Ledger asked. “What are you going to do next?”

  “Run like hell,” Jonas said. “We’ll disappear.”

  “So much for any follow-up,” Ledger said. “Hey, can I come with you dudes? I’d like to meet this girl.”

  “Aren’t you going to be busy writing your story?” asked Jonas.

  “Not until I interview the girl,” Ledger said, smiling. “When do we leave?”

  “Whenever Rob can take us, I guess. But what about my car? I mean, my stolen car? I’m going to need it.”

  “We’ll get it later,” Rob promised. “By the time we pull this off it’ll probably be dark. For you, dark is good.”

  “If we pull it off,” Jonas said. Fifteen minutes later they were in Rob’s battered blue Ford pickup truck. Twenty-four hours earlier Jonas had never met either of the men in the truck with him. Now he was relying on them to save his life, and Reno’s too. After sizing Rob and Ledger up he decided he liked his chances.

  -- Chapter 38 --

  “Aren’t we going to the hospital?” Jonas asked as the truck weaved up the side of a mountain on Willey Street. “This doesn’t look familiar. Where are we?”

  “We’re taking the back route,” Rob answered. “Less traffic.”

  “It’s faster. Chill, man,” said Ledger.

  “I guess I’m a little jumpy.”

  “It’s cool ,” Rob said. “Listen, I was thinking about this. The bad guys don’t know your partner is out there in the hospital. Are you one hundred percent sure of that?”

  “I can hardly remember who knows what. Let’s see. It was the police that ran me out of the hospital, but only because they thought I attacked my girlfriend. I lost the other guys on the PRT right before I met you guys at the bar. I don’t think they had a clue that I was coming from the hospital.”

  “I knew I should have brought my notepad,” Ledger said.

  “Your plan is for us to get the room number, and then you’ll sneak in,” Rob said. “Right?”

  “Pretty much,” agreed Jonas.

  “So what I’m thinking is, and sorry if I’m butting in, but is it a good idea for you to show yourself right now? If somebody’s watching you, aren’t you going to lead them right to her when you go up to her room? Or it could be the other way around. If somebody’s watching her, they find you.”

  “How else am I going to get her out?”

  “But we’re not going there to get her out,” Rob countered. “Not today. Not until the article is in the paper. Right? That’s not until tomorrow. I’m just saying maybe you should wait.”

  “It’s not an article,” Ledger said. “It’s a column.”

  “Whatever,” Rob said. “The point is, wasn’t the plan for you to hide until it’s printed? You managed to get away from them last night. It sounds like that was a break for you, a very lucky break. Aren’t you throwing that away by showing your face again?”

  “She probably doesn’t even know where she is or how she got there. She’s got to be scared,” Jonas countered.

  “Better scared than dead,” Rob said. “If these guys are as bad-ass as you say they are. It’s just one more night she has to hang on.”

  “This’ll be in tomorrow’s paper,” Ledger said. “Count on it. He’s right, man. Maybe you should wait. It’s only one more day.”

  “But look at it from Abby’s perspective.”

  “Even if the bad guys aren’t there, what about the poli
ce?” Rob asked. “That’s the last place they saw you. It’s the only place, as a matter of fact.”

  They’re right, Jonas thought. I’m lucky they’re here.

  The terrain finally leveled off. Jonas wondered how much altitude they’d gained in the previous few minutes. As he watched a steady stream of car dealerships, laundromats and convenience stores fly by he felt himself drifting off. He could hear Ledger and Rob talking but it was as though they were in another room.

  “What about that, Joe Jonas?” Ledger asked.

  Jonas opened his eyes. “Sorry, I was out of it. What about what?”

  “We were trying to come up with a way to keep you from going inside that hospital,” Rob said.

  “So what are we doing then?” Jonas snapped. “We may as well turn around and go back.”

  “That’s no good either,” Ledger argued. “You can’t leave her hanging.” He shook his head. “God almighty. It’s like I know her now.”

  “We were thinking that one of us, probably Darius, should be the one to go in and tell her what’s going on,” Rob said. “That way, nobody gets tipped off. Even if somebody saw you with me last night, they couldn’t possibly know about Darius. There’s no connection at all.”

  “Yeah, great idea,” Jonas answered sarcastically. “Nothing inconspicuous about that. A two hundred and fifty pound black guy walks in and asks where he can find Abby.”

  “He’s a lot less conspicuous than you are,” Rob said. “The police didn’t chase him out of that building last night. Who says she can’t have any friends checking on her?”

  By then they were parked at the hospital. Rob cut the engine and turned to Jonas. “It’s your call. We just want to help, so long as it doesn’t get us killed. What’s the plan?”

  Jonas exhaled deeply as he stared out the window at the faded green Astroturf in the football stadium. “I think you guys are right. I don’t mean to be such a prick. But what about tomorrow? That’s the day I want to get her out. She needs to know the plan.”

  “Yeah, good point,” said Rob. “But is there one?”

  “How did you get out yesterday?” Ledger asked. “I could just tell her to do whatever you did.”

  “I went to the basement and out the back,” Jonas said. “Can you tell her to do that? Go down and then out?”

  “Yeah, but what time?” Ledger asked.

  “She’s probably got a phone in her room, right?” Rob asked. “Just tell her we’ll call her when we know more. Can you get the number?” he asked Darius.

  “No problem,” Ledger said. “Good.” He opened the door to get out of the truck.

  “Darius, what are you going to say if somebody asks who the fuck you are?” Rob asked.

  “Yeah, good question,” Jonas said. “Remember, she’s not from around here. She’s from Texas. How would some writer for the college paper know who she is or that she’s even here?”

  “I’m not some writer for the college paper,” he said with a sly smile. “I’m a friend from Texas who came up when he heard what happened.”

  “That’s some down-home Texas accent you got there,” Jonas said.

  “Hip black dudes don’t have accents no matter where they’re from.”

  Rob laughed. “ By the way, if they ask, what did happen?”

  “I didn’t make that part up yet,” Darius told him with a straight face. “Besides, if they don’t know, why would I?”

  “We better keep it simple,” Jonas said. “It doesn’t really matter. If anybody starts asking too many questions we aren’t getting away with it anyway.”

  “I’ll be fine. Relax, I’ll be right back.” He stepped out and threw the door closed.

  They watched as Ledger walked away. Rob pulled out a pack of cigarettes from under the seat and hunted for a match. Jonas watched Ledger until he disappeared through a set of automatic glass doors and into the hospital. The quick-moving doors reminded him of the emergency room entrance they’d used the night before. Suddenly he turned to Rob. “Why are you guys doing so much to help me out here? I’m not sure if I’d do all this for a stranger. Not that I don’t appreciate it, but it’s kind of weird, you know? I’ve gotten used to not trusting anybody. Now, you two come along.”

  Rob lit his cigarette and blew a long stream of blue smoke out the window. “I don’t know. It just seems like the right thing to do, and it’s kind of exciting. I can’t answer for him,” he said, waving the cigarette towards the hospital. “I didn’t do very much. I was happy to let you sack out and give you a ride out here.”

  “And move my car, too. That was huge. It could have been dangerous. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “No, I didn’t. I just felt like helping out.”

  ~~~

  For the next hour Jonas watched the hospital doors while Rob nursed a few more cigarettes. It was frustrating to be trapped in the truck knowing that Reno was somewhere inside the building. But as much as he wanted to go find her, he knew that Rob and Ledger were right. Finally, as afternoon began giving way to evening, the lobby doors slid open and Ledger emerged.

  “How’d it go?” Jonas asked when he reached the truck.

  “Good as we could have hoped,” Ledger answered. “Let’s get out of here. The cops spooked me.”

  “How was she?” Jonas asked as Rob eased the truck away from the hospital. “Did she look all right? Was she worried?”

  “She looked okay, considering it all,” Ledger said. “She’s got those butterfly stitch thingies running up one side of her head, kind of behind her eye right up into her hair. They told her she lost a lot of blood but she looked fine to me. They want to send her home tomorrow so she was glad to hear from you.”

  “Where should we go now?” Rob interrupted. “Back to the D.A. office?”

  “Wherever I go, I’d like to stay there for a while,” Jonas said.

  “Can you come back to my place?” Rob asked Darius. “We have a lot of planning to do.”

  “None of this is going to happen if I don’t get this column written. I need to get back to the office and write the damn thing. You gotta’ drop me off there.”

  “Can you come by later? I’m right around the corner pretty much.”

  “Yeah, but I don’t know exactly when.”

  “Just come whenever. We’ll wait.”

  “So how was she?” Jonas asked again. “Was she scared?”

  “Didn’t seem like it,” Ledger said. “She was keeping it real. She had no idea what happened to you. It looked like she was real glad to hear you were still alive. Surprised, too. She got a little teary-eyed. If I ever doubted your story, I don’t anymore.”

  “What were the cops doing?” Rob asked. “Did they try to stop you before you went in?”

  “I went in and asked for her room number and the chick at the desk gave it to me, no problem. I didn’t see any cops until I got to the sixth floor. There was one at the end of the hall and another at the nurse’s station, leaning on the counter talking to somebody on the other side. They both looked me over but it wasn’t a big deal.”

  “It’s good I didn’t go in. They’ll never lay eyes on me if all goes well. I’m not going in there tomorrow, either. She’s coming out. Did you get a phone number?”

  ~~~

  Robin was back from classes by the time they returned to Rob’s apartment. They quickly filled her in. “I can’t believe it’s all true,” she said several times.

  “I don’t think we need to wait for Darius,” Jonas said. “But he’ll need to know what we’re doing. I hope he shows up later.”

  “So basically, we’re going out to the hospital to get Abby, and then you two are taking off,” Rob asked. “Is that about right?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got a direct line of communication to the bad guys, thanks to that walkie-talkie you found in the car. It’s a good thing you grabbed it. First thing in the morning I’ll tell them about the column in the paper. Then they can worry about saving their own skins.”

  “The
y’ll know you’re within walkie-talkie range,” Rob pointed out. “Aren’t you worried about that? They might have thought you already took off.”

  “Yeah, I hate to give my location away,” Jonas conceded. “But it’s the only way I can get a message to them. Getting the story into print is my end game. I have to press them on it and hope they head for the hills. Then Abby and I can head for some other hills. We can’t hide forever. At some point it’s all got to end.”

  “You might be okay. The hospital’s right on the edge of town and the car is out in the boonies. They probably won’t be in the right place at the right time.”

  “Yeah, and hopefully they’ll think I’m leaving town. Maybe I’ll get lucky.”

  They sat around the table for the next few hours and worked out the logistics. Darius appeared on the front porch as Robin was paying for the pizza that had just been delivered. “It’s done,” he told them after coming inside. He spread the pages of his column across the table. “It’ll run in tomorrow’s edition.”

  “This ought to do it,” Jonas said through a mouthful of pizza after scanning the column. “Nice job, Darius. Thank you.”

  At nine o’clock Robin called Reno’s room at the hospital. “We’ll be at the loading dock at seven o’clock tomorrow morning. Make sure you’re ready to go.” After having Reno repeat the instruction to make sure she’d heard it correctly, Robin hung up without another word. Jonas felt sorry for Reno as he listened. It sounded scary, especially coming from somebody she’d never met. He wanted to make the call himself but it somehow seemed too dangerous. Like they said, it’s just one more night.

  -- Chapter 39 --

  When Ted Braden walked back into his room at the Hotel Morgan at six-thirty that morning he had a cup of coffee in his hand, the way he always did. He didn’t notice the red flashing light on the phone until he’d opened the Morgantown Dominion Post and spread the baseball box scores across the table. Damn, he thought as he reached across to push the flashing button. This can’t be good.

  He knew there was going to be trouble when he heard the terse message from Frank Marino. Within thirty seconds he had Marino on the phone. “Mr. Braden, I’ve got some news,” Marino said. “It could be bad. Can you talk?”