Tim felt sick to his stomach. It was one thing for him to get into a jam, but he never intended to bring Mary Ann down with him. If he could have just kept his dick in his pants, she would probably be back in Las Vegas by now.
“You have to get away right now,” he told her. “Do whatever it takes, but just get away.”
“I would do that if I could, but I don’t know exactly where I am. I’m locked in a shipping crate.”
“A shipping crate. What kind of shipping crate?”
“Well, it’s more like a shipping container. The kind they put on ships.”
Tim now knew exactly what Mary Ann was in, and he knew that finding her would be a problem. Spies calling the police anywhere in the world was a big no-no and should be avoided, but this was an exception.
“Mary Ann, call 911 and tell them what’s going on. They should be able to locate you using the GPS in your phone.”
“Toby was able to deactivate that in my phone, but besides, GPS can only track you to a general area. There are thousands of these things, and Toby will see the cops long before they find me. If it’s the same to you, I would prefer not to be beaten and tied up again.”
Tim was at a loss for words. He was over 50 miles away from Baltimore, but even if he was there, he’d have no clue where to start looking for Mary Ann. She could be in several places.
Tim was about to say something to Mary Ann to comfort her, but she spoke first. “Tim? Now listen to me. I’ve been in tight spots before...even worse than this... but I’ve always gotten out of them. I can handle Toby, and he has no intention of leaving me here. So please don’t worry. I know what I’m doing. But you need to be careful. I’m not exactly sure what Sebastian, Toby, and your wife are up to, but I know it’s not good, so you need to just get along with everyone until we can figure something out.”
Tim was very surprised how calm and professional Mary Ann was sounding and acting, but he reminded himself that she was a private investigator and had dealt with some very bad people over the years, so it was silly to feel that she could not handle herself. Tim even considered telling Mary Ann about the plot, but that would be a sure way of getting her killed. No. It was better for her not to know about it.
“Okay, Mary Ann, yes, it does sound like you have everything under control, but you do need to get away from Toby and out of town as soon as you have the chance. This situation is more dangerous than you can imagine.”
“What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you—but no matter what happens, I just want you to know that I love you.”
Tim’s last statement was met with a pause, and Tim heard what sounded like a metal door opening. Toby was back and coming in.
“I love you too, Tim,” Mary Ann said as she hung up the phone.
By the time Tim made it back to Pam, she had made it through the frozen food section and was now looking at the dry goods. Tim considered this section to be the weakest part of Wegmans. The aisles were short and didn’t seem to have the same large selection of items as an average grocery store, such as Harris Teeter.
“You took your time. Is everything okay?” Pam asked.
This was decision time for Tim. If he chose to lie and not tell Pam he’d been on the phone with Mary Ann, it could become problematic. It was very possible that Pam had someone in the store with eyes on him who would report to her later that he’d made a phone call. Getting caught in a lie would destroy any trust he had developed with Pam over the last two days, so Tim decided to be straight with her.
“I just called Mary Ann, and she told me that Toby has her locked in a shipping container somewhere at the Port of Baltimore. Do you know anything about that, Pam?”
Tim’s question seemed to catch Pam off guard. Pam had probably figured that Tim would lie about making any phone calls. Now, she had to address the Mary Ann and Toby situation.
“We should talk about this in the car, not in the middle of Wegmans,” she hissed.
“We can talk anywhere you fucking like, Pam, but if anything happens to that girl, then you are going to have to kill me too, because I will do everything in my power to take down you and your pal Sebastian.”
Tim was aware that he really did not have much to bargain with, but there was some reason that Pam and Sebastian were keeping him around. They must still need him for something, since Pam was going out of her way to be nice to him. Both needed Tim to be calm and cooperative, and right now he was anything but.
Pam began to speak in a low voice. “Tim, I’m sure Sebastian has every intention of sending Toby and Mary Ann back to Las Vegas safe and sound. However, since you decided to become romantically involved with Mary Ann, it has just complicated everything.” Pam paused and looked Tim in the eye to make sure she had his attention. “It has complicated our operation because you are behaving like some lovesick teenager.”
Pam was attempting to turn the argument around and make it Tim’s fault that Mary Ann was being held hostage. “Hey,” he answered with a glare, “back in January, I was a retired government employee who happened to ask a woman out on a date. Not a covert agent involved in a plot to—”
“Don’t say it!” Pam interrupted loudly enough to attract attention from a couple behind them.
She was right. They really should be discussing this in the car.
Pam and Tim both stopped speaking after that, and Tim wandered over to the candy aisles. Pam walked up behind him and whispered, “Would you like some candy, little boy?”
Making a joke out of the situation was one of the methods Pam and Tim always used to apologize to each other, but Tim was not going for it this time.
Pam began to look at the bins of candy sold in bulk. She soon started to speak again. “Sebastian and I hired that girl to engage you, Tim, not to fuck you. So as far as I am concerned, it’s her fault that she’s locked in a shipping container.” Pam paused to look at the Lemonhead candies, deciding to buy some. “But if it will make you feel better, I’ll call Sebastian and make sure she’s released.”
“And how will I know that, Pam? How will I know she’s okay?”
“How about I invite her and Toby over for dinner on Sunday?”
Tim turned and looked at Pam to see if she was serious. If Pam was wearing a big grin, he would know it was all a joke.
He couldn’t detect a hint of humor in her expression, though, which meant he’d have to ask. “You’re joking, right? You want to invite Mary Ann and Toby over for dinner?”
“Yes,” Pam agreed, “Mary Ann, Toby, and Sebastian. Sebastian will have to be there as well; there will be no way around that. Would that be satisfactory?”
Pam’s offer was certainly an unexpected move on her part, and Tim really wasn’t comfortable with the idea; but is would at least prove to him that Mary Ann was all right. Otherwise, Tim would just have to take Pam at her word.
“Yeah, that would be great,” he eventually replied.
Pam could obviously hear the reluctance in his voice. “Hey, it’s up to you, babe. If you want to make sure your girlfriend is okay, what better way than to see her in the flesh?”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Tim protested, although he knew he was lying.
“Okay, so she’s not you girlfriend, but do you want to see her or not?” Pam was really selling the deal now.
“Yes, yes. I would,” Tim finally said.
“Great. But one rule: if you say anything to Mary Ann or Toby about the operation, they will not leave the house alive.”
Pam made this statement so casually that it sent a chill down Tim’s spine. He had no doubt that she was 100% serious.
“So, what kind of food does Mary Ann like?” Pam asked.
“Italian,” Tim answered automatically, thinking back to their first date.
“Then she will love my lasagna. Now go away while I call Sebastian.”
Tim felt like he had been dismissed by his mother. He obeyed.
Chapter 22
Tim wandered far away fr
om Pam and her pending phone conversation with Sebastian. Although it may have been helpful for him to hear how his wife actually interacted with Sebastian, he really didn’t feel like listening. He knew it would just piss him off.
He found himself in the section of the pharmacy where sleep aids were sold. There were certainly several different kinds of sleep aid products that did not require a prescription. Tim’s philosophy about insomnia was that, if you stayed awake long enough, you would certainly go to sleep at some point. The fact that so many people bought sleeping pills indicated to him that they would rather be asleep most of the time.
On Tim’s right, he could hear two women having a conversation about filling out forms. Not just one form, but several forms. From what Tim could tell, the woman that needed to fill out the forms was some kind of doctor. At least, that was how the pharmacist was addressing her. “You will also need to fill out the back page as well, Dr. Lockwood.”
Tim didn’t think he knew any doctors by that name, but there was something familiar about the woman’s voice. He moved to the other end of the aisle for a better look, but she was still bent over, filling out the back page of the form.
When Tim was in school, there were not a lot of women doctors, but now they were all over the place. He was not a big fan of women doctors, mostly because he could never get any of them to write prescriptions for anything good (with “good” meaning opioid pain killers or benzodiazepines). But, of course, these days, no doctors would give you any decent painkillers unless your broke your back—and sometimes not even then. Tim placed the blame for that at the feet of the pharmaceutical industry for the invention of oxycodone.
Oxycodone was a long-acting and extended release painkiller that had been advertised to doctors as having a low rate of addiction, or at least that’s what Tim had read. But whoever made the low addiction claim must have been a lunatic—or at least an idiot. If these pills had been taken as directed, then perhaps the addiction rates would have remained low, but when do Americans do what they’re told? Oxycodone would get patients addicted very quickly, and addicted very quickly they became, in epidemic proportions. The government’s reaction was to pressure doctors to no longer prescribe anything with any relation to an opioid, and those that refused because of a silly notion that they knew better than the government (and the media) were rewarded with suspended medical licenses and jail time. The media and government demanded scapegoats, since someone had to be blamed. The opioid crisis, as the media had come to call it, was still a major problem, but the story had played itself out. The election results of that November night in 2016 had changed the conversation.
Tim was still thinking about opioids when he heard a cheery voice say, “All done!” and finally discovered the identity of Dr. Lockwood. She was Nurse Jennifer, Dr. Justice’s nurse from Santa Domingo. Tim circled around to try and get another look. Yes, definitely her.
Nurse, now Doctor Jennifer had said little to Tim during his few days in Santa Domingo, but he could not forget her voice. She had a girlish-sounding voice that was kind of high and squeaky—a voice that might turn some men on, but others off. As Tim watched (now from a distance), Jennifer continued speaking with the pharmacist. She did seem to know everyone behind the counter, and they appeared to all be joking about something, since they were laughing.
Tim next looked back over his left shoulder to see if he could find Pam. He spotted her at the back of the store, having an animated conversation on her phone. Pam’s right arm swung around as she seemed to be making a point. Tim had determined that it was imperative that Pam did not meet Nurse/Dr. Jennifer by chance. It was possible that Pam did not know Jennifer, but it was more likely that she did.
Meanwhile, Jennifer had finished her business at the pharmacy and started for the exit. Tim followed her until he was sure that she’d left the store, then turned around and headed back to the pharmacy. The pharmacist was still at the register.
“Hi. Was that Dr. Lockwood standing here a second ago?” Tim asked.
The pharmacist eyeballed Tim for a minute, considering what she should say. “Yes,” she finally answered.
“Is she still in the medical building next to the old hospital?”
The knowledge that the hospital in Leesburg had two campuses, one in Leesburg proper and the other two miles east of the town limits, was a good indicator to many that you were a true local.
As soon as Tim made this known, the pharmacist opened right up. “Oh no, they’ve moved to the new office next to Lansdowne.” Lansdowne was the new hospital outside of Leesburg.
“With Dr. Justice?” Tim added, guessing that Dr. Justice had not changed his name for this charade.
“Oh, I just love Dr. Justice,” the pharmacist exclaimed. “He’s just the funniest man.”
“Yes, he certainly is,” Tim said, agreeing with the pharmacist for an entirely different reason.
“Tim?” Pam called, coming up behind him. “What in the world are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m just checking to see if they are giving away any free samples of Vicodin.”
The pharmacist did not find Tim’s joke funny whatsoever. “Vicodin is only available by prescription,” the pharmacist sternly informed him. “And we ask for identification as well.”
“As you should,” Tim answered as he walked away.
“Are you still taking codeine, Tim?” Pam sounded concerned.
“I wish, but you can’t get it anymore.”
“You don’t need it anyway,” Pam said as they pushed the shopping chart to the checkout lines.
$450 was the total grocery store bill, and Tim paid for it with one of his credit cards before Pam could stop him.
“Tim, I appreciate your generosity, but it was totally unnecessary. I expense account most of this as a business cost.”
“You mean you write off your groceries as a business expense?”
“Well, yeah, because they are,” Pam agreed defensively.
Pam and Tim loaded the groceries and began to drive home.
“Do me a favor and drive me by the new hospital,” Tim said. The new Loudoun Hospital was on the north side of Route 7.
“Why?” Pam seemed a little suspicious.
“Just want to see my tax dollars at work,” Tim answered.
Pam took the exit out of the Wegmans parking lot and crossed over Route 7 to the new hospital. Pam drove around, and Tim saw the office building where the pharmacist had told him Nurse Jennifer’s new office was. There were also a number of low-rise senior citizen assisted living centers, which Tim thought were very conveniently located. Maybe it was an unmentioned selling point, as in, “Hey, we’re right next to the hospital!” Thinking this made Tim laugh for some reason.
“What’s so funny?” Pam wanted to know.
“Oh, I was just thinking about being a senior citizen and living right next to a hospital,” Tim confessed.
It really was not all that funny. Tim had now reached the age where living in an adult community probably made sense, but he found the mere thought of doing so extremely scary. Perhaps Tim’s laughing was a response to this fear.
“Well, I guess it works for some people. But not for me,” Pam said.
Pam was almost six years younger than Tim and had no thoughts of retiring, which was a big reason she wanted out of her job managing the safe house. Pam had her sights on landing a Station Chief position somewhere in Europe. Tim knew this but did not believe Pam had much of a chance. Over the years, she’d pissed off too many people.
“So, have you seen enough?” Pam wanted to know, referring to the hospital campus.
“Yes, and thank you. You know me. I was just curious what all was back here.”
“Yes, I do know you,” Pam replied while laughing. “By the way, I did speak to Sebastian about inviting Mary Ann and Toby to dinner on Sunday night, but he doesn’t think it’s a good idea.”
“In other words, no,” Tim said.
“In other words, no,” Pam agreed. “H
e is willing to let you speak with her or even Skype her if you want. Anything to prove that she’s not locked in a dungeon somewhere.”
Tim hated Skype or any system where your face appeared on a screen. Although it sounded like a good idea, most people apparently did not enjoy seeing themselves live on camera. The technology for viewing a person you were speaking with on a telephone had been around for decades, but it just never took off.
“No, I think letting me speak with her in private will be enough.”
“Tim, I trust you, but Sebastian does not. He feels that if you and Mary Ann are together, you will do something crazy in order to escape with her. I told him that you are not that dramatic, but he’s not buying it.”
“Pam, you really need to stop this crazy thing,” Tim said, referring to Operation Poison the President, which was what he’d decided to name it.
“It’s too late to stop it, Tim. There are just too many people involved now, and the plan is moving forward.”
Tim took that to mean that the other conspirators had decided on a time and a place for the poisoning. Tim still believed that he might be able to stop it, but he needed to get Pam back on his side.
“Besides,” Pam continued, “No one likes this guy, and most Americans will be glad when he’s gone. Even if he were to lose the election next year, the President will remain a powerful force.”
“But it’s not a matter of if you like or don’t like the man,” Tim protested. “Removing a duly elected President by means not stated in the Constitution is illegal.”
“Gosh, Tim, let me find you some marching band music I can play while you say that again,” Pam answered sarcastically.
“Well, if you only read the Washington Post and the New York Times, then you might believe that no one likes the President, but you know that is just not true. There are a lot of people who like him.”
“Really, Tim? I think you like the President, don’t you?”
Pam was trying to back Tim into a corner. Tim did not like or dislike the President. He did feel that the President was treated unfairly by most of the media.
The Adults in the Room Page 14