Head Trip

by D. L. Line

  Shelby flinched and the pain in her head bloomed.

  “I apologize, Shelby, and to you, Miss Aronoff. I’m not always the most tactful person when it comes to death. Is there anything else I can do for you?”

  “Could I see her effects? Um, I guess I just need to see something concrete to make this real. Since I can’t see her body.”

  “I don’t know, Shelby. Her next of kin haven’t been notified yet. It’s against procedure.”

  It was the tear rolling down her face and splashing to the shiny tile floor that did it.

  “Okay, I don’t see what harm there is.” Dr. Horvath opened the top drawer of a file cabinet near his desk and pulled out a manila envelope. He handed it to Shelby. “I’ll give you a bit of privacy. Just leave the envelope on the desk when you’re done. Again, I am truly sorry for your loss. It was nice meeting you, Miss Aronoff.”

  Dr. Horvath disappeared back through the door he had come in, leaving Shelby and Trish staring at one another, the envelope between them.

  “Wow, are you good! You had him eating out of your hands.”

  “He’s a sweet man,” said Shelby. “I don’t think I laid it on too thick, did I? I don’t want him to never trust me again. I just want to see what’s in this bag.” She cleared a spot on the small desk and dumped out the contents of the envelope.

  “Why do you want to see what’s in there so much? What’s it going to tell you?”

  “I have no idea, but I just can’t believe Lois went back for her car, drank an entire bottle of vodka, and then decided to leave town. Let’s see, one badly scorched wallet.”

  She handed the wallet to Trish who carefully opened it to reveal an almost destroyed driver’s license. “She was pretty, I think.”

  “Yes,” said Shelby. “She was, and young and scared, and she sure as hell didn’t deserve this. Here’s a compact, I think. It looks like it had lip gloss or something in it. There’s a lip brush with it. Her cell phone and two rings. Dammit! There’s nothing—”

  “Oh my God!” Trish clutched her arm.

  “What is it?”

  “The ring, the little one.” Trish pointed a shaking finger toward the item on the table. “It’s my grandmother’s.”

  Shelby picked up the ring from the desk and held it up to the light. “Are you sure?”

  Trish nodded, her eyes welling.

  “Okay then.” She closed her hand around the ring and pushed it into the pocket of her sweats. As quickly as she could, she scooped up the remainder of Lois’s belongings and dropped them back into their envelope. A thought tickled the back of Shelby’s brain and she reached back into the envelope and retrieved one more item. Then she set the envelope on the desk without another glance and grabbed Trish’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They were out of the morgue and through the security doors before either of them spoke. “What just happened, Shelby?”

  Shelby reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring. She took Trish’s hand and placed the ring in her palm. “It’s yours. You should have it back.”

  “I know it’s mine, but why was it here and why was it with Lois?”

  The elevator arrived and Shelby got in with Trish right behind her. She punched the button for the first floor as fast as she could. She wanted out of this hospital and somewhere she could think.

  “There’s only one thing it could mean. The people who trashed your apartment, stole your contract and your ring are the same people who made sure Lois had an accident. They planted the ring on her or in her car to connect her to the burglary. I’m not sure why. To make her look like some sort of disgruntled, crazy employee or to scare the crap out of us. I can’t quite figure it out.”

  The bell chimed as they reached their floor and the elevator doors slid open.

  “Do you hear that?” asked Shelby.

  “What the elevator chime?”

  “No, that buzzing. It makes my head hurt.” The buzz in Shelby’s ears grew deafening and her vision blurred. The hospital emergency room looked like she was seeing it through a fish-eye lens. She tried to say something but all she could hear was the buzzing and Tasha.

  You are having trouble now, Shelby Hutchinson. It’s very bad trouble.

  Chapter Twelve

  Wake up, Shelby Hutchinson! Wake up now! You must fight for your life!

  It was hard to breathe. And hot, so hot. Everything hurt, but if Shelby just went to sleep, it wouldn’t hurt so much.

  Shelby Hutchinson! GET UP NOW! Or you really will be a dead thing.

  “Fuck you, Tasha, let me sleep.”

  “Shut up, you little bitch, and die already!”

  That wasn’t Tasha’s voice. Adrenaline flooded Shelby’s body as she realized the reason it was so hard to breathe was that there was a hospital-issue pillow being held over her face. She began to push and struggle against her assailant. Panic was building in every inch of her body.

  Lie still. Pretend to be dead. You must be ready to move quickly.

  Shelby did as she was told. It took all her willpower to stop struggling and play dead. But Tasha was right. As soon as she stopped, the pressure of the pillow eased. She didn’t dare take the huge breath of air she wanted. She waited, lungs burning. When the pillow began to move away from her face, Shelby sprang into action. She curled onto her side and rolled away from her attacker, wincing in pain as the IV in her arm jerked free. She landed lightly on her feet and shoved the IV pole at her surprised assailant, hitting him hard in the face. He went down in a heap, breathing heavily. As he struggled to get back on his feet, she heard Tasha’s voice in her head again.

  Study him, Shelby Hutchinson. Remember him. Look for weakness.

  “Weakness? What the fuck, Tasha?” But study him she did. Bleached blond hair, dark brown eyes, hollow, menacing scowl, black leather coat, huge cut on his forehead. As he struggled to get up from the floor, Shelby saw his hand disappear into the recesses of his coat and reemerge with something that caught the light as he turned it over. “Oh, fuck, Tasha. He’s got a knife.”

  And you have a hospital bed. Use it.

  “Oh, yeah.” She shoved the wheeled bed at her assailant. He went down for a second time.

  Finish him, Shelby Hutchinson.

  Shelby came around to his side of the bed and grabbed a metal tray from her bedside. She took her best batting stance and swung the metal tray at his head. The tray hit home with a resonant clang, the impact vibrating up her arms; her attacker crumpled to the floor. Without another thought, Shelby dropped the now-dented tray on top of him and scooped up her bag of belongings as she ran out of her room.

  She definitely wasn’t in the ER anymore. It was too quiet. Her survival instincts completely engaged, Shelby scanned the hallway. At the end of the hallway, her ticket to freedom glowed in the dim lighting—the exit sign pointing toward the stairwell. With a final glance behind her, Shelby took off down the hall for the exit. She pushed into the stairwell and started to climb.

  What are you doing, Shelby Hutchinson? You must go back. You must finish him off or get out of this building. It could be a trap for you.

  “I’m going up to my office, Tasha. I don’t know who the hell that was down there or who’s in on this, but I know Jake isn’t. Jake will help me. Besides, I’m not running out into the street with my bare ass hanging out of this hospital gown!”

  When she reached the fifth floor, Shelby stopped at the door to listen and catch her breath. She gathered her thoughts and the back of her gown and stepped through the door with as much dignity as she could muster, which wasn’t easy considering she was barefoot and basically naked. The IT department hummed along in its usual way, and fortunately for Shelby, that meant most of her co-workers were busy behind their own doors. She backed into her office and leaned her forehead against the door.

  “Hey, nice view there, Shel. What the hell are you doing up here?”

  Shelby clutched at the back of her hospital gown and spun around. “Shit, Jake. Sc
are me to death, why don’t you? It’s not enough that some goon is trying to smother me with a pillow. Now I need to worry about my best friend doing me in? Why are you in here?” She pulled her clothes out of the plastic bag.

  “What do you mean someone tried to smother you? I’m calling security.”

  “No, you’re not. Put the phone down.” She slipped her jeans on under her gown, which made her instantly feel a good bit more in charge. “I need you to fill me in on what happened, and then you’ve got to get me out of here—to your apartment, I think—and then we’ve got to make some serious decisions, and I’ve got to call Trish. Start with what day is this and why was I in the ER?”

  “It’s Saturday, Shelby. You had a seizure in the morgue yesterday, so they wanted to keep you here for the night. I convinced them to let you sleep it off in a quiet spot in the ER. Since we talked about it last week, I knew that you wanted the seizure thing kept on the down-low at work, and I did some home computer work for one of the docs and he owed me a favor.” Jake looked at Shelby and scratched his head. “Which leads me to the question, how did you get up here, and what the hell do you mean someone was trying to smother you?”

  “I have no fucking clue. I was sleeping and then I wasn’t because some bleach blond hired thug guy came after me. Good thing someone was around to help me.”

  “Who helped you?”

  “Tasha did. She woke me up. I heard her as plain as I hear you right now. She told me to wake up, and when I did, some guy was holding a pillow over my face. I fought him off and clocked him with a tray, then I came up here. I hoped that you might know what was going on and be able to help me.”

  “Well, of course I’ll try, but I still think we should call security.”

  “No, I don’t want anyone to know where I am except you and Trish. Wait a minute. I’ve been out since yesterday? Have you talked to her? Is she okay?”

  “As far as I know. I had to send her home last night. She didn’t want to leave.”

  Shelby smiled and felt her insides get fuzzy and warm. She pulled her sweater over her head and pushed to her feet. “So I had a seizure in the morgue? I remember Trish was there. We’d been down there to check on Lois. Poor Lois. I remember coming off the elevator and everything went wonky. Then nothing until I heard Tasha yelling at me to wake up. She saved my life. I guess that makes up for shooting me. Sort of.” Shelby shook her head. “Grab your stuff and let’s get to your place. I’ll feel a lot better once I’m there. We can call Trish on the way.”

  “The car’s on the second level of the parking garage as always.”

  “Lead on, Macduff.”

  *

  Shelby called Trish from the car on the way to Jake’s apartment.

  “Hello?”

  “Trish? It’s Shelby. I need you to meet me at Jake’s right now.”

  “You’re out of the hospital? What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”

  “Long story, and I will tell you when you get to Jake’s. I know you’re at work, but you need to get out of there and meet us. Don’t worry too much. I’m fine, and Jake tells me you wanted to stay with me last night. That means a lot.” Jake cleared his throat, a reminder to Shelby she wasn’t alone. “We’ll be there in about five minutes. Try to make sure you aren’t followed.”

  “Followed? What’s going on, Shelby? You’re scaring me.”

  “I’m sorry. I just want you to be careful. I’ll explain everything when you get there.” Shelby wondered exactly how she was supposed to explain something she didn’t understand herself.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When they arrived at Jake’s apartment, Shelby headed straight for the bathroom to at least try to wash up a little. Being in the ER always made her feel grubby.

  Da, like sleeping in a hayloft, Shelby Hutchinson?

  She stared at the mirror. “Very funny, Tasha.” But she also wasn’t going to admit that Tasha was right, so she quit looking at the dark circles under her eyes and peeled off her sweater. As she splashed some water on her face and scrubbed soap over the ache in her arm where her IV had been pulled out, she replayed the attack in her head trying to remember if she had ever seen her assailant before. Nothing registered, but she had a sneaking suspicion he was being paid by Andrew. Shelby got a little shaky when she thought about what would have happened if Tasha hadn’t awakened her.

  “Sorry I was snippy about the hayloft remark. Thank you, Tasha. Thank you for saving my life.”

  You are welcome, Shelby Hutchinson. Now you must find this Andrew and make him suffer for what he has done. He will not stop coming after you until you are dead.

  “Yeah, I was afraid of that. And not just me. He’ll try to kill Trish too, but I honestly don’t know what to do. I only have suspicions, no real evidence the police would take seriously. I’m sure Andrew is good at covering his tracks. He probably already has everything hidden away. The police will never find anything, and then I’ll look like an idiot. Then I’ll be a dead idiot.”

  You disappoint me, Shelby Hutchinson. I taught you many things. I know you learned them because you did very well against the man at the hospital. Now you need to think like me. Stop being a good girl. Police! Bah! They cannot help you, as you say. You must help yourself and your beautiful lady friend.

  Shelby twisted the faucets off and stepped out of the shower. She wrapped a towel around her hair and bundled herself into Jake’s terrycloth robe. “I think you’re right, Tasha. No more Ms. Nice Guy.”

  Shelby left the bathroom and wandered out to Jake’s living room, toweling her hair dry.

  “Hi, Shelby. It’s good to see you.”

  “Trish, hi. It’s good to see you too.” Shelby wanted to race across the room and hug Trish, but her feet felt rooted to the carpet. Fortunately, Trish didn’t seem to have the same problem. She went to Shelby and pulled her into a warm embrace.

  “I was scared for you. The doctors didn’t know what to do.”

  “Hey, it’s okay. I’m fine, really. Thank you for hanging in there with me.”

  “Hello, you two, I was there too.”

  Shelby laughed. “Of course you were. I saw you today in my office. You were just waiting for me to kick the bucket so you could take over.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s not funny. You came way too close today.”

  “What happened?” asked Trish.

  Shelby took Trish by the hand and sat on the couch. “I woke up this afternoon with some skinny Billy Idol wannabe trying to smother me with a hospital pillow. I managed to fight him off and whack him in the head with a metal tray. Then I grabbed my clothes and went upstairs to find Jake. That’s all I know except I’d bet my last dime that the wannabe was sent by Andrew.”

  “What do we do now? I don’t think we have anything tangible to take to the police. They’re going to ask a lot of questions like why you left the hospital if someone attacked you. I’m afraid they just might think all of this has something to do with your seizures, and if Andrew has locked down Head Trip as tightly as Lois said, there may not be anything for the police to find there even if we could get a warrant issued to examine their computer records.”

  Shelby listened carefully to what Trish was saying and knew in her heart she was right. If she went to the police, they would probably dismiss her as at best someone with neurological impairment and at worst a whack job. And heck, they didn’t even know she had a Russian spy living in her head. What could they do? She remembered Tasha telling her to think like she did, and a plan began to develop in her brain.

  “You make some good points, and I think we’ve been going about this all wrong. We’ve been completely reactive, just responding to the curves Andrew keeps throwing at us. Isn’t it time we stepped up and made the first move?”

  Jake and Trish looked at her expectantly.

  “My guess is Andrew is feeling pretty confident. He thinks he has both of us running scared. Hell, he may think I’m completely out of the way. He got rid of Lois. He’s seale
d off Head Trip. He probably has his files hidden under several layers of encryption. It’s a good thing I know a thing or two about computers.”

  “I don’t like where I think you’re headed with this,” said Jake.

  Trish looked at Jake. “What? Where is she going?”

  “It’s where we are going. We’re going back to Head Trip, and I am going to do a little digging. Andrew has to have left a trail, and if we’re lucky that trail might lead to some kind of treatment for whatever it is that has happened to me.”

  Trish took one of Shelby’s hands in her own. “Shelby, you can’t just waltz in there and start fooling around with their computers, and I don’t think Andrew will fall for the three of us disguised as, I don’t know, plumbers or something. Plus, Lois is gone. She can’t get us in. How are you planning to do this?”

  “You forget, both of you, that Head Trip gave me the opportunity to learn how to be a spy. Whatever Tasha was, she taught a heck of a lesson.” Shelby’s face started to get hot. She took a deep breath and willed it down. “A little breaking and entering will be a snap.” She had to laugh when she saw the looks on their faces. Jake knew her too well. He probably wasn’t that surprised. Trish, on the other hand, looked like she couldn’t quite believe what she had just heard.

  She does not know you well yet, Shelby Hutchinson, but I think she is impressed.

  I don’t know if I would go that far, Tasha.

  “Shelby, breaking and entering! Are you—”

  “Nuts? Probably. Look, Trish, we’ve played by the rules because that’s what normal people do. Where has that gotten us? This is not a normal situation. This is not a Better Business Bureau kind of problem. This is rat-faced Andrew not giving a shit who he hurts to make a fortune. He’s in it up to his neck, and getting rid of us, of Lois, just isn’t a big deal to him evidently. Andrew doesn’t play by any rules other than the ones he has made for himself. It’s time to make him play by our rules.”