Speed

by D C Grant

to the wheelchair.”

  “Wheelchair?” I repeat.

  “Oh, I’m sorry.” The doctor goes a bit red. “I thought you knew.”

  “Knew what?’

  The doctor looks at my aunt before replying. She nods at him.

  “The impact from the accident severed the spinal column.” His voice drops further until it’s almost a whisper. “The injuries are such that it’s probable your father will be paralyzed from the chest down. I’m afraid that if this is the case, he’ll never walk again.”

  I gasp at the news and my aunt looks at me in alarm. I can feel my breath catching in my chest and the first signs of tingling start in my fingers. I sit down heavily in a chair beside my aunt and she puts her arm around me.

  “Remember to breathe deep,” she says. “He’s been hyperventilating,” she says to the doctor.

  “I understand,” the doctor says. “It’s a lot for anyone to cope with. I can call a nurse if needed.”

  “I’m okay” I say, getting my breathing under control. Now that I know what the symptoms are, I can deal with it. It’s not as frightening as learning that my father is paralyzed – I’m beginning to think that there is nothing that can shock me anymore.

  Confession

  My aunt offers to drive us back to Ben’s house, but I turn it down. I need time to take in the doctor’s words, and I want the anonymity of the bus. Ben is just as stunned and, for once, he doesn’t fill the silence between us with chatter.

  There’s a police car in the driveway at Ben’s house and I guess that it’s Mike, coming to find out why I was at the hotel and, more interestingly, why I was outside the hotel door, but instead it’s Chief Clarke waiting in the living room. He stands up as I come in while Ben skillfully disappears into his room.

  “Hello, Jason,” the chief says. “Come in and sit down, I want to talk to you about where you were today.”

  I sit and stare at him. I’m not going to admit to anything.

  “There was a disturbance at the Sheraton, I believe. Now I don’t usually get involved in such a minor matter, but one of the guys who answered the call recognized you on the surveillance camera.”

  “Camera?” I repeat.

  “Yes, the lobby is full of them.” He smiles. “I like the parting gesture.”

  I can feel my cheeks grow warm; I hadn’t realized that it would be recorded. For a second I wonder if he will show my gran.

  “Normally Captain Gaffney would handle this, but I feel I should take over this investigation. Illegal substances were found at your place and now you’re running around a hotel like you own it, all while your father lies in Harborview Medical Center. Now why would you go to the Sheraton? There was no reason for you to be there, unless you found out something you think is relevant – and if so, I’d like to know what it is.”

  I look away, unable to meet his eyes. He leans forward. “Jason, it could help us find who did this to your parents. Whatever it is, I’d like to know.”

  “Wait here,” I sigh and leave the room, returning shortly with the book. I open it up to show the chief the Post-it note. He doesn’t take it from me but produces a large plastic bag from his pocket and opens it up.

  “Just put it in there,” he says. “There could be something on it, or in it.”

  “It’s a just a book,” I say.

  “Your father left a message in this book, he could have left something else. We’ll have to examine it.”

  I drop it into the plastic bag and he closes it up carefully.

  “So what did you see at the hotel today?”

  I hesitate, then guess that he’ll find out from the surveillance tapes anyway.

  “I saw Mike meet with an Asian guy, and they went into one of the rooms. I didn’t hear what they said.”

  The chief frowns. “That’s interesting.” He looks back at me. “Look, I wouldn’t normally say this but in the circumstances…” He hesitates. “Well, Mike is a friend of your father’s, at least I thought so until recently, and want you to be careful.” He looks away as if considering something, then turns back to me. “Watch what you say to Mike. I’ve been worried about him for a while. He seems to be involved in something that I can’t quite put my finger on. You know his wife his sick?”

  I nod my head.

  “Well, he’s been getting his money for her treatment from somewhere. I just wonder if he’s involved in something, and your father was trying find out what. The captain said your father’s and Mike’s relationship had become strained lately and they weren’t working well together. He considered partnering them with someone else, but the accident happened before he could do so.”

  “But Mike wouldn’t do anything to hurt Dad.”

  “That may be true, Jason, but I think I’m going to pull Mike off this case for the moment. I have issues with him being personally involved anyway; it’s not good for any investigation.” He stands up.

  “But he’s been around since the start,” I say. “Who do I tell if I find anything?”

  “From now on, I want you to call me if you think of anything, or find anything else like this note – anything at all that might be information we can use.”

  He pulls out his card and gives it to me. I think of the spreadsheet that Ben has on the computer. I guess that at this moment Ben is busy trying to hack into the passenger lists, or is talking to his hacker friends, and I know that if he gets caught, he’ll be in big trouble, bigger trouble than I’m in right now, so I keep quiet.

  “I’ll do that,” I say as I take the card.

  “Good boy, Jason,” the chief says as he leaves the room. I follow and close the front door behind him.

  As I get back to Ben’s bedroom, it occurs to me that the chief didn’t ask me for a description of the man that Mike met, but I guess that they would get that from the cameras.

  “What was that all about?” Ben asks.

  I tell him that we were spotted and that I had to give him the book with the note in it.

  “Really? Well, I’ve got some good news for you,” Ben says. “I’ve managed to get into the passenger lists.”

  “You have?” I get up from the bed and look over his shoulder, knowing I was right not to tell the captain about the spreadsheet. He’d have arrested Ben if he knew what he was doing.

  “Yep, one of my buddies found a back door and we were in. He’s logged off now but I’m still in. We’d best be quick because the system will sense us and we have to get out before they shut us down.”

  “What have you found?”

  “Not much so far, except I recognize this name.” He scrolls down and the name springs out at me.

  “Sandman,” I whisper. “Is he on any of the other flights from Dad’s lists?”

  “Let’s have a look.”

  He clicks in and out and another passenger list comes up. Halfway down is the name Sandman.

  “Bingo,” Ben says. “Uh oh, they’re tracking us.”

  “Quick, go to another one,” I say excited.

  Ben clicks through and I quickly spot the name again, then the screen goes blank.

  “They got us,” Ben says. “They’ve shut us out, now I’ll just quickly put up some walls so that they can’t find us. I’ll get my mates to give me a hand. Give me a sec.”

  He taps away at the keyboard for a while, the screen lighting up with pop-up boxes that come and go, and then he’s left with just his zany wallpaper and logos on his desktop.

  “Done,” he says as he swings around to face me. “We should be okay, like running out of a building and shutting all the doors behind us.”

  “I hope so, we’re in a lot of trouble as it is.” I say. “So this Sandman comes in and out on these flights, but what does it mean? Must be some kind of businessman, but why would my dad have the flight times on his computer?”

  “And password protected,” Ben adds.

  “The name of the file is Speed,” I say, thinking aloud. “Isn’t speed another name for crystal meth, like the meth they
found in my house? What if this Sandman has something to do with speed as in drugs? Do you think he is a drug dealer?”

  “Hard to know what he does just from these flight times,” Ben says.

  “And does Sandman have anything to do with what happened to my parents? Are these flights arrivals or departures?” I ask.

  Ben brings up the airport website and we look. They are both, one date being an arrival and another, a few days later, a departure.

  “Look at this,” Ben says, pointing at one of the lines. “That’s tomorrow.”

  “And it’s an arrival.” I look back at the dates and realize that Sandman would have been in the city at the time of my parents’ accident – is that a coincidence?

  I remember something. “My aunt leaves tomorrow, around about that time, I think.” I struggle to remember what my aunt has told me. “If I’m at the airport at the right time, I can look out for him.”

  “How will you know what he looks like?”

  I stare at him, unable to answer. I have no idea how I will recognize someone I’ve never seen before. “You’re right, Ben, that’s stupid. Best forget it.”

  “So maybe we should tell Mike?”

  “The chief is taking him off the case.”

  “Really? So who do we tell now?”

  “I’m supposed to tell the chief or the captain.” I consider this. “They both think Dad’s into something illegal with the drugs they found in the house, and I’m not going to tell them anything just yet that seems to confirm it. No, I’ll try to spot this ‘Sandman’ and if I don’t, then that’s that.”

  “A pity,” Ben says. “After all the work I put in too, laying my reputation on the line.”

  “I’m