by Dale Mayer
And pushed it open.
“Louise?” he croaked and then coughed, the gases forcibly expelled from his lungs. Instantly he felt her arms around him.
“Come in here,” she cried, pulling him forward. “The air in here is clear.”
As soon as he was in, she slammed shut the door and locked it. He lay on the ground, breathing the fresh air that flowed through the filtration system. He opened his eyes and rubbed at them, but Louise grabbed his hands.
“Don’t touch them,” she said. “I’ve got something for them.” She ran over to a cabinet and came back.
Holding his eyes open, she squeezed some drops into them, and they felt better. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and said, “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “I’m fine. How are you?”
He shrugged. “I’ll be okay.” They heard vehicles outside.
“Where’s Flynn?” she asked with a frown.
Rory shook his head. “I’m not sure. I expected him to arrive anytime. I’ve got two unconscious men out there, and I need to make sure they stay that way.”
She gasped. “Is that our or their reinforcements?”
Just then her phone went off. She answered it. “Ice, we’re in the surgery room. I’ve got Rory here. No sign of Flynn. Two men are down somewhere in the clinic.”
“Okay, we’ve got masks. We’re coming in.”
“Be careful. We don’t know if there is a third man,” Rory yelled.
“I heard him,” Ice said to Louise. “We’ve got it covered.”
Louise put away her phone and sat beside Rory. “How are your eyes?”
“Better than my throat,” he said with a groan.
She got up and poured him a glass of water. “You need to get checked out at the hospital.”
He gave her a wry look. “I’d normally be okay with that, but, chances are, we’ll have the deputies here soon, and the same nightmare to contend with all over again.”
She shook her head. “When will this end?”
“Soon. Very soon.” Just then a rap came on the glass door. He could see Ice’s face pressed against the frosted glass. Not enough to be clear, but, with her long braid hanging down in front, it was pretty obvious who it was.
Louise unlocked the door, and Ice stepped through, taking several deep breaths of the air. She smiled. “Nice HVAC system.”
“It is. I always had a thought at the back of my mind,” Louise admitted, “that I could do some specialized work here.”
“What kind of work would you need that kind of filtration system for?” Levi asked from behind Ice.
Louise’s face lit up when she saw him. “I was looking to do prosthetics for animals,” she explained. “A couple clinics in England do some amazing work. But it entails a lot of bone grinding. And in that case—well, bone dust is deadly for so many reasons.”
Levi and Ice looked at her in interest. Rory just lay on the floor and smiled. He really liked big thinkers. People with plans. Grinding bones didn’t sound like fun, but prosthetics for dogs, cats, horses, … hell yeah. Using one of the benches beside him, he struggled to his feet.
Ice checked him over. “How’s your throat?”
“Burning but I’ll be fine,” he said shortly. “Any sign of Flynn?”
“We have Merk and Logan out looking for him.”
“What about the vehicle? Do we know anything?”
“Not yet but we will in a few minutes,” she said with a smile. “Harrison’s on that right now.”
“And the deputies?”
Levi laughed. “On their way. You are allowed to leave something for us to do, you know.”
Rory shook his head. “We were actually arguing about whether we should leave or stay.”
“What was that about picking up a dog on the road?”
Rory explained what happened. He finished with “I think it was deliberate. Hoping she’d see the animal, bring him back here, so they could return and hit the clinic with her inside.”
“Chances are they were already waiting for you then,” Levi said. “They just needed time for their reinforcements to get here before you left.”
Rory nodded. “That’s what I figured too.” He turned to look at Louise. “You’re sure you don’t have anything else here they might want?”
She shrugged. “There’s a lot they might want, like the legitimate drugs used for animals. But the only case of that crap of theirs is at the sheriff’s office. Only they don’t know that, and that’s a problem.”
“By the time we confiscate their cell phones, and check out who and what these guys are, we should get that message across.”
“They didn’t come here from some local gang,” Rory said. “Not with gas canisters like these.”
“Those are actually police-issue tear gas canisters,” Levi said. “Unfortunately they can be bought all over the place, even on the internet these days. They’re not even military grade.”
“Right.” Rory stared down at the thing in Ice’s hand and frowned. “So that’s of no help then.”
“Only in that it tells us these guys are serious,” Ice added, “and they’re not letting this go. I don’t know if they were after a full shakedown of the clinic, or they just wanted her. However, if they got her, they’d have gotten what they needed anyway because they’d have tortured her to get the information.”
“That would have taken all of two seconds,” Louise said drily. “I would have handed that information over immediately.”
In the background, they could hear sirens. Rory, still feeling the effects of the gas, started choking again.
Louise came to his side. “He needs to get his lungs checked out at the hospital,” she said.
Rory shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”
Louise snorted. “You can be as tough and macho as you want, but you either go to the hospital or I can help clear your lungs here if you choose to be stubborn.”
“If he doesn’t want to go to the hospital, that’s fine,” Ice said. “What have you got for his lungs?”
Rory sat back as the two discussed treatment.
“The only thing he really needs is oxygen …” Louise pulled out a large clear plastic mask. “I use these on the larger animals. It won’t fit well but hopefully will do the trick.” She handed it to Ice while she hooked it up to the oxygen tanks built into the surgery room.
Ice placed the mask over his face, covering both his nose and mouth. From the size of it, he figured Louise must use it on a damn horse. Within minutes, clean fresh oxygen flowed over his face and into his lungs. He took deep gulping breaths, loving the feeling as the air hit his lungs. As soon as it did, he coughed again. He pulled away the mask to clear his air passages, then put it back on again.
With Louise and Ice standing watch, he was forced to do that several more times as he expelled the bad air from his lungs. At last he took several deep breaths and wasn’t overcome with coughing. He smiled and said, “Thank you. I feel much better.”
Chapter 8
Louise studied Rory’s color. The pink had slowly returned to his cheeks. He was almost back to normal. “You still need to be careful of your lungs for a little while.”
“What about my eyes?” he said. “I don’t know what those drops were, but they were great. It feels like I need more already though.”
She returned to her cabinet and pulled out the eye drops. “They aren’t meant for tear gas, but they are certainly some of the best on the market for anything irritating the eye.” She held them out to him and said, “Can you put them in yourself?”
He nodded, tilted his head back, putting drops into each eye.
“Those can be used anytime and all day long. Keep the bottle. It might get you through the day.”
He looked at her in surprise. “How long will the tear gas effects last?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess it depends on how bad a dose your eyes got. They’re very red and sore-looking.”
“That’s because they
are,” he said shortly, then faced Ice. “Where are we at so far?”
Ice took his measure and then nodded. “Levi’s outside. We have one dead man out there and a second in the parking lot.”
Rory frowned. He didn’t see a man in the parking lot. Before he had a chance to ask, Ice said, “Flynn took him out. Logan has found Flynn too. He’s now out at the wood line looking for accomplices.”
“Good,” Louise said. “Can we move away from the animals? This unusual nighttime activity isn’t good for them.”
“Better yet, let’s move everyone outside to the fresh air,” Ice said. Just then Levi joined the group.
“Levi, maybe you could stay here with Louise, until she’s ready to come out. She needs to talk to the sheriff.”
Louise looked at Levi, and he looked at her.
She shrugged. “I can do that now.” She took a last glance around the room, reassured everything was more or less okay, if a bit messy. Then she walked outside.
“Do you know how lucky that it isn’t one of the nights the cleaners come?” She shook her head. “I didn’t even think about them.”
“How often do they come?” Levi asked.
“Twice a week. By rights it should be every day, but I have them come in after surgery days.”
“That makes sense.”
“Do you have many surgeries planned for today?” Rory asked.
She shook her head. “No, surgery was Wednesday. The cleaners came then. The last surgeries were all fairly minor. That makes it easier. I’m trying not to keep anybody overnight because of the problems right now. I can’t completely get away from it. In a certain number of cases we have to keep the animals safe from themselves.”
Back outside she took several breaths of fresh air. She’d noticed remnants of the gas as she had walked through the reception area, but it wasn’t bad. Still, the fear, the damage, her nerves made staying inside the building a claustrophobic experience. As soon as she gulped in the evening air, she felt a cough coming on. She walked away from the group and coughed several times to clear her lungs. Now if only she could clear these incidences from her memory as easily.
“Are you sure I can’t just put up a big sign which reads The Drugs Aren’t Here Anymore?” she asked, only half joking.
The two men Rory knocked out were held to the side by the sheriff’s deputies. They glared at her. She walked over and asked, “Why do you keep coming back here?”
Neither man said anything.
She shrugged. “If you’re looking for that case of drugs, … I already turned it over to the sheriff.”
The men still didn’t say anything. She turned to Levi and said, “It doesn’t do any good to talk to them, does it?”
“Not usually,” he said cheerfully. “Chances are good they’ll get killed anyway.”
She nodded. “Just like the first three, I suppose.” She cast another glance back to see nerves working on both men at that news. “Oh, didn’t you know one of your guys came and shot the two men who tried to break in the first time, plus killed the delivery driver. You must realize failure is not an option. Now that you’ve failed, you’re both dead.”
Rory stepped up to her, put his arm around her shoulder and said, “Come on. Let’s leave them in the sheriff’s custody. I doubt anybody can get to them there. Right?”
There was something odd in his tone of voice. She glanced at him sharply but let him lead her away. When they were out of earshot, she said, “Did you mean what you said or were you mocking them?”
“If somebody wants to get at them, they’ll get at them. Lots of people already in the prison system would kill these two men for a pack of cigarettes,” he said quietly. “Those two know it. I’m giving them a chance to think about what it is they want to do next. If they cooperate, they might walk out of this alive. Regardless of whether they do or not, the group they’re associated with will assume they are a liability now. Just like the other three men, they’ll take them out.”
She rubbed her face. “Why is there so much killing all of a sudden?”
“It’s not all of a sudden,” Rory corrected. “It’s just touching your life right now.”
She wrapped her arms around her chest and said, “I need to rest. But I’m scared to leave the animals.”
“The deputies will be here for quite a while. You said there was a cot in your office. Why don’t we pull it out? You rest, and one of us will stand guard to make sure nobody bothers you.”
She frowned. “How can I sleep? The deputies need to talk to me, and my place is a mess. I don’t even know if it’s safe to bring people in here tomorrow … today,” she said, swiftly correcting herself as she looked at her watch. “And then there’s the issue of the broken window when they threw in the gas canister.”
“You’ll have to get somebody in about the window. It’s not one of the main front windows, so nobody’ll notice unless you point it out. Obviously the staff will know because somebody has to come in, clean this up and then replace it.”
At that she winced. “I wonder if I could get the cleaners to come in early this morning. I don’t want the staff to know how much of a problem we’ve got.”
“It’s too early to call them, but you might be able to leave a message.”
She pulled out her phone and left a message. Then, just to make sure, she sent a text. She liked the idea of crashing here for a couple hours but not when so many people were around. That just made her feel odd.
“I do need sleep though, if I’m to keep up today. Or is that foolish? Should I be canceling all appointments for the day?”
“Depends if you want anyone to know the clinic was targeted or if you can make it through the day as if everything is normal. If anyone asks, just say you found a window broken when you arrived this morning. However, if you shut down for a broken window, that will make people worry.”
Louise could feel her shoulders sag. “In that case,” she said, turning to Rory, “if you could be so kind as to keep watch, I’ll crash on the cot and see if I can at least grab a few hours. You guys can leave whenever you’re done, but I might as well just stay here and start the day. It’ll be a long one.”
“C’mon. Let’s see if the sheriff’s deputies need to talk to you right away.” Rory walked Louise over to where the two deputies were on their phones. As soon as one got off, he turned to Rory and frowned. Then his gaze landed on Louise, and he held out his hand. “Hi, I met you yesterday or the day before. I’m a little confused about the time frame right now,” he said with a half smile. “These midnight call-outs can be brutal.”
She nodded. “I know exactly how you feel. That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. I need to have the clinic open later today, if at all possible, but I need some shut-eye in order to do that. I’ve got a cot in my office. How long will you guys be here?”
He glanced around and said, “We need to get some fingerprinting and forensic work done. The team is on the way, and they’ll be at it for hours. If we’re lucky, we’ll be done by six.”
She nodded. “I would really appreciate it if that could happen. I need to get this clinic back up and running again. I have a lot of animals in the back, and people will start wondering.”
“I can’t promise anything, but we’ll do our best.” He paused, then said, “I can get your statement later if you want.” At her nod, he asked, “So are you staying here, or are you going home?”
She frowned considering the options when Rory said, “You would sleep better in your own bed.”
“If I sleep at all. At least here I’m on the spot, if anybody needs me.”
He nodded. “Your choice.”
She thought about all the nights she’d crashed on the cot and had slept reasonably well. When she was tired, she was tired. Making a fast decision, she said, “I’ll take the cot.” She walked back inside, sniffing the air experimentally. “Can we eliminate the gas odor?”
Levi said, “We have some large industrial fans, filters and
blowers to bring in that can recirculate the air. We’ll open all the windows and clear it out as much as possible. It is dissipating at a decent rate, but you’re right. The odor is lingering.”
She looked at him and asked, “Can I leave it in your hands?”
He nodded. “I’ve got men sitting around doing nothing. They might as well come and work on this.”
She rolled her eyes. “Great, now they’ll hate me for that too.”
“What else would they hate you for?” Levi protested.
She gave him a sideways glance. “The puppies. They love to hate me because I brought the puppies. Unless you’re keeping them, that is.” With a half laugh at his sour expression, she turned and walked into her office. There she closed the door, pulled out the cot, grabbed a sweater out of the coat closet and had just stretched out when the door opened. She turned to find Rory. He studied the office carefully, as if looking for any weaknesses. When he was finally satisfied, he turned his gaze on her and said, “Don’t you have any blankets?”
She shrugged. “I’m not exactly sure what the hell’s around here anymore. I had blankets on the cot, but they’re not here now.”
“Do you have a washer and dryer? A laundry room? I thought I saw one.” He turned back toward the surgery room as if mentally laying out the floor plan.
“Yes, I do actually.” She tried to sit up, but he motioned to her.
“Stay down. I will get it.”
Not wanting to argue she collapsed back down, her head on the pillow, grateful she had a sweater here. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
*
Rory moved toward the back room, where he thought he’d seen the laundry area. As he entered, he turned on the light to see floor-to-ceiling cupboards. He opened them up and found all kinds of linens. Choosing a nice soft fluffy blanket from the bottom shelf, he pulled it out. Back in Louise’s office, he found her lying on the cot, her eyes closed. Her breathing was slow and even. He unfolded the blanket and laid it gently over her. She never moved.
Unable to help himself, he kissed her on the temple and backed out of the room. He checked that the door was unlocked to make sure he could get back in again, then closed it. He’d keep an eye on her office. Make sure no one tried to sneak in.