Dawson and he had become doctors. Both of them had finished up about the same time in college. Dawson was very smart and worked hard, but just lately, and he knew why now, he seemed to be unhappy at work. Thatcher hoped that Rogen could figure something out for them. This town needed a hospital close by.
Going home, he was ready to get into some work when he heard Rogen and Lisha come in. They were hot into an argument, and it sounded like it had been going on for a while. Thatcher knew better than to interrupt, so he waited for a lull in the loud conversation before he made himself known to them.
Chapter 9
Rogen tried very hard not to be upset with her mom. It was difficult when she was railroading her at every turn. First, she wanted to have Dad cremated, then not. She didn’t like where he was going to be buried. Then the house that they looked at for her was much too big. There wasn’t a garden at the next one. She didn’t want to have to mow, if she didn’t have to. Even after making sure that it was taken care of, she had a million and one things that were wrong with everything she showed her.
“Maybe I should just go back home.” It was on the tip of Rogen’s tongue to ask her where she was going to go when she got there but didn’t. Not yet, at any rate. “Rogen, I just want to be able to be closer to you and Jamie. Why can’t I just rent one of those assisted living places? They seem nice on the commercials.”
“They might be, Lisha, but the problem is, you don’t need assistance. I think we should focus on you living in a place where you can be active, yet not have to do a great deal.” Rogen looked at him and begged him with her eyes to help. When he smiled at her, she knew that he got it.
“Did you get a chance to get that information I need on the hospital, love?”
“No. I will though. Where did he hear that the hospital was shutting down?” Rogen would have jumped at any conversation for a break from her mom. “Why don’t you take Mom to the next house on the list? And we picked out her dress for Dad’s funeral. It’s lovely, Thatcher. It looked really good on her.”
Passing off her mother was mean, she knew that, but she didn’t know what else to do. Her mother was being stubborn. Not that she wasn’t as well, but Rogen didn’t like dealing with small details when the larger ones were looming over her. Like her job. Something was off about it, and she needed to talk to Winnie.
Pulling up the hospital, it didn’t take that much to crack into their accounts. What moron would use one-two-three-four as their passcode? Digging into their finances, she couldn’t see a thing wrong until she found a file that was off limits because it had been encrypted. Putting in her program that would hopefully figure it out, she waited for it to run while sending a message to Winnie. Rogen got a message right back from her.
I can’t meet you for lunch today, kiddo. I have a job that takes up all my time now. That was sort of odd. Winnie would meet her anytime. Perhaps I can come over and see your new home? And pick up that picture from Jamie.
She’d been to the house, several times. Telling her that her mom wanted to meet her as well, she waited for a response. When the phone rang, Rogen was sort of scared for her friend.
“I don’t have long. Come get me.” She said she would. “Today, now if you can. Bring Mom.” Then the line went dead.
Bring Mom? As far as she knew, Winnie’s mother had passed away. Did she mean her mom? Surely not. But she had to make a decision and make it now. Getting up from the computer, she let the program run and grabbed her keys. Whatever was going on, she needed to get to her right now.
Rogen opened the safe and pulled out her gun. Then she pulled out a second one just in case. Plenty of ammo was next. While she didn’t know what was going on, being armed did make her feel slightly better. The knife in her sock pocket was there, so she reached out to Thatcher to let him know what was going on.
We’re still here. Looking over some houses on the computer. She told him that she had to take her mom. All right. But I’m going as well. I don’t know what is going on, but you’re not going alone.
All right.
She ran up the stairs and Mom was ready to go. So was Thatcher. “I don’t know what’s going on, but here is a gun for you to use.” When he didn’t take it, she shoved it at him. “Look, as you said, we don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t—”
“Oh, give it here.” Her mom took the gun, checked the clip, and then racked one into the chamber. Rogen just stared at her. “What? I’m a grown woman, Rogen. I do know a few things that might surprise you.”
Hurrying to the car, she told both Thatcher and Mom about Winnie. “She said to bring Mom. And since I know that her mom is gone, I guess it would mean you. Are you up for this, Mom? I don’t want you to be hurt.” Mom told her that was the nicest thing she’d said to her all day. “I’m sorry. I have too many pots on the stove, and some of them are boiling over. Please forgive me.”
“Yes. I do. Always. Perhaps not in the past, but I do now.” They were on the freeway in ten minutes. Her mom looked at her in the mirror, then looked away. “I don’t know how to read. I’d like to learn. I’m terrified that you’ll have children someday and they’ll want me to read them a story. I don’t know how.”
Thatcher turned in his seat and looked at her mom. “There isn’t any reason that you can’t learn, Lisha. I know for a fact that my mom would help you. She used to be a teacher when we were younger. I can ask her for you if you want.”
“I feel like such an embarrassment to you both. You have college educations, and I only went to fourth grade before my parents took me out to work at home. I didn’t learn all that much, and I think now that they passed me to get me out of their room. My grandma lived with us—what a horrid woman she was. But I was responsible for her while my mom took care of the house.” Rogen told her that she’d not known that. “No, we were very careful, your dad and I. And I would get so angry when you’d bring home your work and hang it on the refrigerator. I think that had a lot to do with how I treated you both. And then you started teaching Jamie, and I just...well, you know how I was. But I do want to learn to read. Please, Thatcher, would you please ask your mom? Tell her not to expect miracles, but if I could just read a little book once in a while, I’d be forever indebted to her.”
Rogen drove for a few more miles before she pulled over, asking Thatcher to take over, she sat in the back with her mom. This was going to be hard—not on her mom, but herself—but she’d been so wrong. And so mean.
“I’m sorry.” Mom patted her hands. “No, you don’t understand. I was rushing you into things because I didn’t want to be bothered with you. But now that I think on it, you did a good job of hiding it even today when we were out.”
“Yes, I have an allergy to some materials. Wool mostly, but there is this one—I can’t think of it right now—that breaks me out. Your dad, he wrote it down for me, but I don’t know where that might be either.” Rogen told her that they’d figure it out. “Also, Rogen, I want you to not include me in your family things. It’s just not right that I’ve been away from you and you pretend that—”
“Don’t. Don’t do that. I was wrong, Mom. On so many levels. You have no idea…well, I guess you do. But I’ve been shoving you away since you got here. You should have told me, but that’s not your fault either. I more than likely wouldn’t have listened anyway.” Rogen did something that she’d not done in decades, since she was a very small child. Rogen hugged her mom. Hugged her like she meant it.
They were both still teary when they made it to Columbus. The downtown office was nondescript; no one would ever know that it housed a large group of men and woman that kept the country safe. Messaging Winnie again, she told her that they were here and asked where to come in. Only a few minutes later, Winnie was coming out of the building.
“Hello, Mrs. Hall. My goodness, Rogen looks like you.” She hugged Lisha and then Rogen. When she passed a thumb drive to her, Winnie then hugged Thatcher. “It’s been a long time, Thatcher. How is your business going?
Are you still on top of the world?”
Something occurred to Rogen as she stood there. Taking Winnie’s hand into hers, she took it to her mouth and bit down on her finger. The connection was immediate and profound. She asked her friend not to freak out.
No, I won’t. Oh, Rogen, I need to come with you. I can’t stay here. She asked her if she was all right. But instead of answering her, she turned and looked around before pulling her sweater down and showed her the marks. I don’t know who did it, so don’t ask. I was coming out of the printing room when someone grabbed me from behind.
“Come on, we’ll have some lunch.” She looked at Thatcher when he spoke, and he shrugged. “I’m hungry. Come on, ladies. A man with three beautiful women at his side…well, it’s the story of romance.”
Rogen asked him what was going on, and all he needed to do was nod. She looked in that direction and saw someone at the window looking at them. Going across the street, they were all seated right away and ordered drinks first. Rogen wasn’t even sure that she could eat a thing, she was so mad about her friend. It was her mom that spoke first.
“You know, I used to have this friend. He was an odd duck, but he’d follow me around like a puppy. I finally had to tell him that I was married, for the tenth time, and that I couldn’t be his wife. It was like talking to a brick wall with him.” She took a sip of her tea and smiled at Winnie. “Do you work with anyone like that? I mean, just someone that makes you feel like you need to slap him around a few times?”
Rogen was lost, but Winnie nodded. “Yes, I do. His name is Earl Fleming.” Winnie looked at Rogen. “You know the name, don’t you? He used to work with me at DC.”
Winnie had never worked at DC that she knew of, but Rogen pulled out her tablet and began doing a search. Everything that she had that had Internet hookup was secure, and this was no different. After ordering her meal, she handed the device to Winnie.
“Those are pictures of our home. We have a lot of remodeling to do, but it’s nice.” The pictures on the tablet were not of her home, but of the men that were named Fleming that worked in the company. “There is one room that I particularly love, and that’s the greenhouse room.”
“This one is my favorite.” She handed it back to her just as someone came in. Rogen knew him. It was one of the men that she’d had to deal with before. “You really should have me over, Rogen. It’s been too long since we did girly things.”
The man came to their table and stood behind Winnie. The panic in her eyes had Thatcher standing up. Whatever he was going to do or say was cut off when her mom stood up.
“I’m sorry, I must use the ladies’ room.” But when she went by Winnie’s chair, she paused behind the man. “I’m not afraid to use this on you. You either drop the gun or I blow a hole in you that we’ll be able to read a newspaper through. Drop it.” Earl Fleming had just been taken down by her own mother.
Thatcher stood up then and took the gun from her mom. Mom went on to the bathroom while Winnie laid her head on the table and sobbed. Whatever was going on, Rogen was going to get to the bottom of it.
After calling in for some back up from her department, Donaldson came to the little deli. When Winnie went to him, hugging him to her, Rogen watched with shock. Donaldson and Winnie? Who knew?
“I had hopes that she’d call you. It’s been hell trying to pretend to work while this madman was trying to kill her.” Winnie bubbled out as to how Rogen’s mom had saved her, and Rogen realized that Mom had been gone a while. Going to the bathroom, she found her on her knees throwing up.
“What was I thinking?” Rogen waited on her mom to come out of the stall. “I saw the gun and had a feeling that you had no idea what he was doing. So I just poked him in the back with the gun that I had and he did like I said.”
Rogen hugged her mom for the second time that day. “Thank you for saving my dearest friend. And you’re right, I had no idea. Are you all right?” Mom nodded and said she was fine now. “Good. And the next time I’m going on a mission, I’m going to take you with me. You’re badassed, Mom.”
They were both laughing when they came out of the bathroom. Fleming was gone, and Winnie was calmer now. Donaldson was buying them all lunch. It was the strangest afternoon she’d ever had.
~*~
“Yesterday when I was working at my desk, I got this strange feeling I was being watched. You know my routine, Rogen—I go to the gym then I come back to my office, change into my suit, and get to work. But I felt dirty. I was just getting ready to go back and shower again when I saw it. The little icon in the corner.” Thatcher didn’t know what that meant, but they had his full attention. “He had cloned my computer.”
Now that, Thatcher knew what it meant. Rogen had several computers that she had cloned over the years, and could, with a couple of clicks, see a person as they worked. He’d been a little freaked out when he saw someone’s nose hairs enlarged on one of her monitors, but after that, when he moved back, it was funny.
“Why didn’t you call me yesterday?” Winnie handed Rogen her phone. Leaning over her shoulder, he watched as she played around with the phone before handing it back. “It’s fixed now. Is that what all the cloak and dagger was about? And why on earth did you tell me to bring my mom? It worked out for the best, but how did you know that?”
“I didn’t know. I only meant to warn you. I didn’t even know your mother was around. I was just trying to convey how much shit was going down.” Winnie looked at Rogen’s mom. “No offense, Mrs. Hall, but Rogen and I have been friends for a long time and have talked about our families. And if it makes you feel any better, mine are worse than you ever were.”
Thatcher didn’t think that was helping, but Lisha only patted her hand. “It’s all right, dear. I’m turning a new leaf. And Rogen and Thatcher are going to help me. But I must say, if their days are like this, I might be happy to be a little off the beaten path. This was certainly nothing I ever encountered before.” They all laughed, and it sounded like it was well meant. There was no force in it as he’d heard at home with Rogen and Lisha.
After Thatcher examined Winnie, they all went to the offices where Rogen reported. It was smaller than he’d thought it would be. But it was Winnie’s office that he was impressed with. She was painfully organized and had sticky notes all around her computer. He asked her about the colorful notes.
“Rogen taught me this. Every day when you come to work, you make a job that you need to get done and stick it to the screen. There are different colors for different jobs.” He asked about the blue ones. “Those are things that have to be done, but there is no deadline. The pink ones are for things I need to do for home. As you can see, there aren’t that many of them. Not because my home is perfect, but because I just gave up in trying to get it done. The green ones are for things that can’t wait and that I need to work on now.”
“It’s a nice sense of accomplishment when you get a note done. She’ll remove it from the screen then tear it up. And she won’t be able to add anything other than a green sticky until the next day. I loved leaving the office with only one or two notes to deal with.” Rogen walked to him and he wrapped her into his arms as she continued. “You don’t want to see my closet, however. It’s a total mess of me just tossing shoes to the floor and never hanging things up that need to be. Thankfully, Mrs. B keeps me in clean clothing, as well as a nice neat closet.”
After being shown around, they headed home. Lisha laid her head on the window and fell asleep, but Rogen was working on something with her small computer. Thatcher asked her a couple of questions, both of which he only got grunts to. Then he just gave up. Whatever she was working on, it was taking all her attention.
“Who are your board members? The ones that make the daily decisions?” After telling her the names, Thatcher asked her why. “The money is there—a great deal of it—but it’s not being used for supplies or anything else that it’s been earmarked for. In fact, I’d say that someone was intentionally not paying for thing
s in order to have a nice fat account. But I don’t know who it’s for. Or what, for that matter.”
“You’re telling me that the money is there to pay the nurses that have been let go, as well as new doctors coming into the hospital? Why would anyone do that?” For some reason Thatcher thought she knew but wasn’t sure enough to share it yet. “And you have an idea that the board members are keeping it for some reason?”
“Yes, but I don’t know why. It’s not been tampered with. It’s all there, all accounted for. Even the money that the children raised for their school is there. And that would be the first amount that I’d think would be missing. It’s small and has no earmarks on it, such as a corporation donation.” She moved the curser around again. “I’m going to have to do this at home. It’s too much for this little thing. So, I was going to ask you, if the hospital does close down, what will you do? I mean, you’re a fantastic doctor, and I’m sure that there are people out there that would want you to come work for them.”
“Are you trying to butter me up for something? If you are, I need details before I answer that.” He knew she was going to ask him to stop working, and that broke his heart. He loved what he did and wanted to do it forever. “What did you have in mind?”
“The agency that I work for is forever trying to find good qualified doctors that can and will work under cover. Say one of us were to get hurt, or someone that we’re after. It happens sometimes, that we don’t mean to have them killed but they are. I really do know what they do at my job, I’m not stupid. I just don’t like to think about it.” He asked her if she was kidding. “Absolutely not. Donaldson asked me to talk to you because his boss asked him to do it. And that would be another person that you’d have to help out if needed.”
Thatcher: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 11