by Ken Douglas
***
“ So how come you didn’t hold her,” Peeps said. “You coulda called security and restrained her till we got here.” He looked at his watch, “Shit, It’s only been twenty minutes since Dr. Romero called me and said you had a homicide here. Woman shot through the heart, he’d said.”
“ Yeah,” Mouledoux said, “he’s right. The woman was already dead, we coulda had a cup of coffee, some donuts, taken our time, because you acted like there was no hurry. And we still made it here in less than half an hour. If you’d’ve said it was important, maybe we coulda got here in time to make a difference.”
“ I wasn’t able to call right away.”
“ Why not?”
“ Because she had me close and because,” his voice dropped, “she asked me to keep her secret. She didn’t have to say what secret; it was pretty obvious.”
“ And you told her you would?” Peeps said.
“ Of course, we’re friends. We’re close. I used to be in love with her.”
“ Yet you called us right after you finished the operation,” Mouledoux said.
“ I think she knew I would, because as soon as she was sure the patient was out of danger, she stepped away from her and told me to close. Then she left the OR.” He sighed that troubled man’s sigh again. “There was nothing I could do and she knew it. I sent one of the nurses for a resident, who could take over, but that took twenty minutes or so. Then I had Dr. Romero call you.”
“ So she’s got an hour on us,” Peeps said. “Give or take a few.”
“ She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met,” Shaffer said. “She knows what what will happen to her.”
“ Whatdaya mean?” Peeps said.
“ He means that her life’s over,” Mouledoux said. “They, we, are going to hunt her down. Then they’ll lock her up like a lab rat and they’ll do every test they can think of till they find out how she got young again. And even if they find out, they’ll never let her go, because once they have the secret, they’ll want to keep it secret.”
“ I don’t understand,” Peeps said.
“ Think about it, Joe,” Mouledoux said. “Just imagine for an instant that you could make a concoction from this woman’s blood. One shot of this stuff and you’re young again, maybe immortal. You think people are gonna want this?”
“ Well, yeah!”
“ Everybody’s gonna want it. They’d kill for it.”
“ I can see that,” Peeps said.
“ And nobody would ever die.”
“ So?”
“ I’m afraid,” Shaffer said, “that Detective Mouledoux is right. A secret like this has to be locked away.”
“ Because?” Peeps said.
“ Because,” Mouledoux said, “if nobody ever died, we’d run out of food pretty quick. The world wouldn’t be able to keep up. There wouldn’t be enough houses, cars, schools or anything else you can think of; the world would run out.”
“ So they’d lock her up?” Peeps said. “And nobody would get it?”
“ Oh people would get it,” Mouledoux said. “If your last name was Clinton or Kennedy or Bush or Obama, you’d get it. Or if you had a billion bucks, you’d get it. Or if you maybe knew or blew the right people, you’d get it. But us ordinary folks, we wouldn’t get it. Do I have that about right, Dr. Shaffer?”
“ That’s not for me to say.”
“ But you want it for yourself, right?”
“ That thought hadn’t entered my mind.”
“ Then why’d you call us?” Mouledoux said.
“ We had a gunshot wound,” Shaffer said. “It’s the law.”
“ No, you had Dr. Romero call my partner, because you thought we’d cooperate, that we’d hop to and pick up Dr. Eisenhower, who apparently has committed no crime, done nothing wrong.”
“ For her own protection,” Shaffer said.
“ And what did you want us to do after we picked her up? Take her to the cop house, book her? Or did you want us to swing by here and drop her off?”
“ I’m not sure I appreciate your tone,” Drake the lawyer said.
“ And I don’t understand why you’re even here, because for the life of me I can’t see how the hospital can suffer any liability over this.”
“ We pronounced her dead,” Dr. Jordan said. “We we’re going to send her off to the county morgue.”
“ She could sue,” Drake said.
“ Alright, you’re only interest in Dr. Eisenhower is her safety and the hospital’s liability. I get it,” Mouledoux said. “I don’t believe it, but were going to go along with you anyway, because this is too big to get out. She can’t have gotten far, we’ll pick her up and we’ll bring her back. It stinks, but we’ll do it.”
“ We’re going to go along with them?” Peeps was getting it now.
“ Yeah, Joe. It’s best.”
“ I’m glad you understand,” Shaffer said.
“ So, who you gonna call after we bring her in?”
“ Nobody, we just need to contain this.”
“ And those tests I was talking about?”
“ Only if she wants them,” Shaffer said. “This is a hospital, not a prison.”
Mouledoux didn’t believe anything coming out Shaffer’s mouth. The doctor was exuding anticipation. The man had the pasty white skin of those painted vampires he’d seen on the street last night and like Dracula, the man wanted her blood. He wanted to be young again. Who wouldn’t?
The lawyer too. He wanted the woman’s blood as badly as Shaffer. Mouledoux could see it in his eyes. Romero wanted it as well. That’s why he’d called Peeps. They were hoping Joe would round the woman up, bring her back and keep his mouth shut for old time’s sake. Peeps probably owed Romero some favors and Shaffer knew it, otherwise they wouldn’t have brought him in. Dr. Jordan, she seemed sincere, but they couldn’t keep her out of it, because she’d treated Eisenhower.
Maybe he could trust her, but the others, not a chance.
He tapped Peeps on the arm, got up. Peeps got out of his chair too.
“ Maybe she’s running, but maybe she’s not. Maybe she’s still in the hospital somewhere or maybe she just walked on home. You got an address?”
“ Yes, she lives on Putnam, off Washington, by San Rafael Park; 581 Putnam Drive.”
“ That’s maybe a thirty minute walk, maybe a little longer. Chances are we’ll probably find her there if we leave now.” He turned to go, then turned back to Shaffer. “This is a big hospital and there’s a good chance she’s hanging around here someplace, you should check.”
“ We will, but I think she’s gone. I hope you find her before word gets out and somebody else does.”
“ We’re the only ones who know,” Peeps said. “If none of us talk, how can the word get out?”
“ Oh, somebody else knows,” Mouledoux said.
“ He’s right,” Shaffer said.
“ Who?” Peeps said.
“ Whoever made her this way,” Mouledoux said. “He knows. Some scientist somewhere, operating out of a secret lab, or maybe some top secret government types. Somebody. Somebody did this to her and she probably knows who.” Mouledoux was at the door. He opened it, held it for Peeps.
Mouledoux retraced his steps and in a few minutes they were in the parking lot. There was a ticket on the ride. Mouledoux laughed.
“ What’s so funny?” Peeps said. “You’re the one who signed it out.”
“ Swell.”
“ Don’t worry, I’ll handle it.”
“ Thanks.” If there was anyone who could get a parking ticket fixed, even parking in a handicapped zone, it was Peeps. “Christ, one woulda thought the meter maid woulda seen it was one of ours.”
“ They don’t pay them to think.”
Ten minutes later they pulled up in front of Eisenhower’s two story house. There was no car in the driveway. However, the blinds were open and Mouledoux could see a big screen TV on inside.
“ Think she’s
home?” he said.
“ Hard to tell.” Peeps said. “TV could be to fool anyone thinking of breaking in.”
“ Let’s find out.” They got out of the ride, went to the front. Mouledoux rang the bell and got no joy. He tried again. Still no joy.
“ Don’t look like she’s here,” Peeps said.
“ No, it doesn’t.” Mouledoux went to the gate to the side yard. It wasn’t locked. At the side of the house, he saw a side door for the garage, tried it and found it unlocked. He shook his head, entered.
“ We got no warrant,” Peeps said.
“ This woman’s in trouble,” Mouledoux said, “and it’s our job to help if we can.”
“ You’re saying we shouldn’t do what you said, you know, take her back the hospital.”
“ Fuck no. I find her, I’m gonna advise her to get a one way ticket to Rio and to never come back.”
“ But what about the chaos you said would happen?”
“ It’s gonna happen anyway.”
“ I don’t understand.”
“ You think that lot back there can keep their mouths shut? Christ, that Dr. Shaffer promised Eisenhower he’d keep her secret, then as soon as he possibly could he has Romero call us and he spills his guts. If he can’t keep his word to someone he respects and used to be in love with, you think we can trust him just because he says we can?”
“ I hadn’t thought about it.”
“ And that fucking lawyer. I’ll give you odds he’s got a half dozen P.I. s on the job looking for her.”
“ Look.” Peeps pointed.
“ Smashed her iPhone,” Mouledoux said. “She’s on the run.”
“ So what now?”
“ You’re the senior detective. How should I know? I’m the new kid on the block.”
“ You can spend the next couple three hours digging into her past,” Peeps said. “Find out if she’s got friends she trusts. I’ll check with the granddaughter’s ex, see if I can get a line on her.”
Peeps Friday knew an opportunity when it knocked and this one was banging away at his door with a sledge. He didn’t believe for a second the preposterous story about that old bat getting young again, but this was exactly the kind of information Mansfield Wayne paid good money for and if there was one thing Peeps Friday coveted, it was good money.
He shivered a bit as he got on 395 and headed south. It had been a long time since he’d been out to the Wayne estate and he was always apprehensive when he went there. Going through the gates was like entering the embassy of a foreign country. Maybe it was only four or five acres at the top of Saddlehorn Drive, but inside those gates old Manny Wayne was the law and his security guards, who were fiercely loyal, would skin you alive and serve you to his Rotweiller guard dogs if he asked them.
Maybe he should have called first, Peeps thought as he turned onto Mount Rose Highway. He’d gone back to the hospital and gotten the disc from Dr. Shaffer, telling him he’d copy it and get the original back to him. Shaffer hadn’t wanted to give it to him, but he’d had no choice. Neither had Peeps, becasue Manny needed to see the disc. Manny, like himself, may not believe what was on there, but maybe he would. One thing was for sure, he darn sure wouldn’t believe the story if Peeps told him over the phone. Seeing is believing, he told himself.
But he didn’t believe it.
But he hoped Manny Wayne would.
Mansfield Wayne was just leaving the john, which because of his enlarged prostate he was visiting a lot more than he liked, and about to make his first martini of the evening, when Gerald, the major on duty, he liked to give his guards rank, rang him and told him Peeps Friday was at the gate. It was 5:00 and he had his first drink at 5:00 straight up and his second at 6:00, seven nights a week, without fail. He spent the two hours, from 5:00 to 7:00, in thought. He didn’t like to be disturbed and those who knew him, knew this. So, he carried a touch of irritation with him when Peeps showed up at the door.
“ Mr. Mansfield, I have something for you,” Peeps said.
“ Mr. Friday, you know about my private time.”
“ This can’t wait, Mr. Mansfield. Because of the hour I was going to take this to your son, but with all due respect, sir, this is too big for Tucker. I had to come straight to you and I had to come as soon as I possibly could.”
Mansfield Wayne was a quick study and what he saw told him Peeps was about to burst. Peeps was greedy, but he wasn’t stupid. If he said he had something too big for Tucker, then he did.
“ Come in, Peeps.”
Chapter Five
“ Get your slobbering face off my shoulder.” Amy pushed Hunter’s face away and the Siberian husky sat back in the backseat with a woof. Amy turned, looked back at him. She could swear the dog was sulking. “I’m sorry, don’t feel that way. I didn’t mean it.”
In an instant Hunter was back on his paws, looking at her with his odd eyes; one blue, one brown. His fur was a solid dark grey, almost black, but not, save for his white face and the insides of his ears, which were also white. He looked ghostly. A friend, who danced at the Men’s Room with Alicia, got a job in New York and couldn’t take the dog. So Alicia, the Southern girl with a heart of gold, said she’d take him.
From what Amy had gathered it wasn’t working out. Alicia wasn’t really a dog person. She liked her freedom. Liked to be able to take off on the weekends or whenever on the spur of the moment. She couldn’t do that with a big dog. Not unless she took him along and she didn’t seem to be up for that.
“ Okay, boy,” Amy said. “You can come back.” And in an instant Hunter had his head back on Amy’s shoulder, staring, as Amy was, out the front window as she piloted her car into the park.
“ He likes you,” Alicia said as Amy made a left.
“ There’s a gazebo up ahead by a little lake; more like a pond, actually. Nana and I used to feed the geese there. That was my favorite place in all the world.
“ Really?” Alicia said. “A pond in the park? That’s your favorite place?”
“ Yeah, I was a kid, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew my parents didn’t want me, didn’t even love me. But Nana did. She was an important doctor, but she found time every day to take me out here, to be with me, to show me she loved me. No matter if she had to do a transplant or teach someone else how to do one that day, she always worked me in. That’s why it’s my favorite place.”
“ I can get that. My parents were way into their own power trips. My dad was a big time criminal lawyer in New Orleans and my mom owned a restaurant on Bourbon Street. They never had time for me.”
“ That’s too bad,” Amy said. “And it’s too bad I messed things up with Nana by going out with that sleazy Tucker Wayne.”
“ I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now. Bob Dylan said that.”
“ Yeah, well, he was right.” Amy saw the gazebo she used to love so much, still did, truth be told. She pulled off the road, parked next to it.
“ I don’t see anyone and it’s a minute after. You don’t think she left?”
“ No, Nana wouldn’t do that. She’ll be here.” And as she completed the sentence, her grandmother’s Jeep-like Dodge Raider turned the corner, coming toward them. She pulled up next to Amy’s VW, parked, got out of the car.
“ Holy shit!” Alicia said. “She looks just like you!”
“ Yeah, holy shit,” Amy said.
“ Woof.” Hunter sort of half barked, then went to the woman with her face and Nana’s car, sniffed her hand, turned and faced Alicia and Amy, as if to say he belonged to this stranger now.
“ I didn’t know you had a twin sister,” Alicia said.
“ I don’t,” Amy said. Then to the woman with her face, “Who are you?”
“ Who do you think I am?”
“ You’re the spitting image of Amy, except for the eyes.” Alicia said. “Is it possible for identical twins to have different colored eyes?”
“ No.” The woman said.
“ Why not? Hunter’s eyes are
different colors, so if he had a twin, why couldn’t it have two blues or two browns?” Alicia didn’t seem the least bit startled by this woman.
“ It doesn’t work that way,” the stranger said.
“ Woof.” Another half bark from the dog, probably because he’d heard his name. The animal looked up at the stranger and it seemed like something passed between them.
“ David Bowie eyes,” the stranger said.
“ Yeah, kinda,” Alicia said.
“ Why do you have Nana’s car?” Amy said.
“ Because I’m your grandmother.”
“ That’s impossible.”
“ Yesterday I’d’ve said the same, Pumpkin, but now, well now, I don’t think I can.” She gave Amy a smile she’d know anywhere. And those brown eyes were Nana’s eyes. Impossible as it was, this woman was her grandmother.
“ You haven’t called me that in a long time.”
“ Double holy shit!” Alicia said. “This is right out of late night radio.”
Emotions Amy couldn’t understand were rippling through her body. She had questions and was about to ask one, when Nana pasted her car with a scowl.
“ I’d know that car anywhere. You were the ones who ran down that couple last night on Sierra.”
“ We did that,” Alicia said, “but don’t blame Amy. I was driving. We were afraid, because you, or rather an older version of you, was screaming out that someone was trying to kill her. I know I should’ve stopped, but I saw someone on the sidewalk and I knew they’d call 911. There wasn’t anything we could do, except stop and maybe get Amy killed.”
“ And where did you get that car, young lady?” If Amy would have had any doubts that this was her grandmother, that tone of voice would have taken them away.
“ Tucker bought it for me.” Amy winced when she said his name.
“ Tucker!”
“ Don’t worry, Dr. Eisenhower.” Alicia said. “They’re not seeing each other any more.”
“ I’ve got a lot more on my mind right now than Tucker Wayne,” Nana said.
“ Wow,” Alicia said. “I was a little clairvoyant with that Dylan quote, wasn’t I, Amy?”