Multiples of Six (16 page)

“Oh…” James said.

“Well…that was a great big silence grenade. It’s ok…really. She was ninety-eight and went in her sleep. Guess if you gotta go, that’s the way to do it,” Doug said.

“Well, the quicker we can get there, the better…the hospital…not dead,” James said. “This guy’s got such a bead on us…What the…?”

Doug slammed on the brakes and the car skidded uncontrollably to the edge of the next intersection, where the black car was careening out. He jammed the shifter into reverse, and threw his arm around the back of James’ seat, nearly knocking James’ hat off.

“Hold on…reverse is not my specialty,” he said.

James watched as the black car’s wheels spun to gain traction on the roadway. The 300M weaved back and forth backward down the two-lane road.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Doug called out.

James glanced over his shoulder to see an oncoming car.

Nicole and Kevin were ducked down in the back, eyes wide.

“It’s probably best that you can’t see this,” James said.

He turned back in time to see the bumper of the black car looming.

“He’s gonna hit…uhhh!”

James barely got it out and the car lurched backward with the impact, but the collision sent the Barracuda’s front end off at an angle and into the edge of a parked car. It was the opportunity Doug had needed.

“Hold on to your panties, lady and gents,” Doug said.

With one swift motion, he spun the steering wheel around and shifted the car into drive. It coincided with an intersection and they slipped into the side street. That was when James heard it.

“Sirens. Those are definitely sirens,” he said.

“Dammit,” Doug said. “Let’s hope he’s more of an interesting target than we are.”

“He’s all tore up…that’s gotta make a difference,” James said.

“We’re not exactly looking too pretty ourselves,” Kevin said, pointing to what remained of the side-view mirror.

“Well, let’s see if we can’t make it a moot point,” Doug said.

Doug looked in the rear view mirror and slowed the car accordingly.

“He must’ve heard the sirens too.”

James looked back and it was like watching a lion tired out from a failed hunt. The black car was slowing.

“Now he’s going to play the good citizen,” James said.

“He won’t get away with it in that car,” Doug said.

“He’s gotten away with a lot so far,” Nicole said.

“He’s got the right connections…that’s the only explanation. Someone’s tipping him off. Let’s go,” James said.

Chapter 30

“Mary Alice, unlike you, I’m no miracle worker,” the man said.

He had a resigned look and shrugged his shoulders as he spoke. The toolbox he carried was worn and as grey as the coverall he wore. The cap on his head, which might have been white at one time, was the same shade of grey. He was facing a small, stocky, white-haired woman with a serious crease in her forehead.

“There’s no excuse, John,” she said, her arms folded across her chest. Despite her frown, John couldn’t help but be somewhat amused by her pose; the happy, colorful, dancing bears peeking out from every part of the nurses smock she wore.

“It’s unacceptable. I’ve sent half a dozen memos about it. It’s just downright irresponsible.”

“Mary…you know you’re right, but the fact is they need to replace the entire door frame, not just the lock or the closing mechanism. This problem is rooted in the construction, and whoever approved it should have their license revoked. I mean, look at how uneven the jamb is. And the ceiling’s not even level there.”

She sighed deeply. It was a sound he was very familiar with.

“Now, if you don’t mind. I’ve got a lav up on three that’s working in reverse, so I’ll be seeing you later, Mary.”

“What did security say when you told them?” she asked.

“They told me they have a camera on the door and that you shouldn’t worry,” he said.

“I do worry. Have you seen them working, supposedly, in that video room? What a huge waste of money,” she said.

“Exactly, Mary. So, if you could walk an elephant in through the front door and not be bothered, why address a back door that has a habit of blowing open in the wind?”

“It shouldn’t be that way…and besides, it’s not the elephants I’m worried about,” she said.

“I’ll be seeing you, Mary Alice,” he said over his shoulder as he walked away

“John?”

Her voice had softened a bit, and she unfolded her arms. He stopped and turned to face her again.

“Mary Alice?” he said, rubbing his chin with a grubby finger.

“Did you hear about that shooting out Springfield way?” she asked.

“I did. Bad stuff. A shooting. Around here. And not exactly your accidental hunting type,” he said.

“They said there was a man shot dead, who clear stood up and walked away. They still can’t find him.”

“Yeah? Hmm…well, I’ll let you know if I spot him. That why you’re so worried about this door?”

“You could say that,” she said.

“Dead men don’t just get up and walk away, Mary Alice,” he said.

“No, I suppose they don’t.”

“I’ll be seein’ ya,” he said, gave her a cheery wave, and walked away down the hall, his tool chest jangling away.

Mary Alice watched him go, then turned to look at the near-useless door. The door had been a common entrance for late shift workers. That was, until it stopped locking properly. Then they fitted it with an alarm and asked the employees to stop using that entrance. That worked until the door simply began coming open on its own. And, because this would set off the alarm, they removed the alarm. So, now they had a door with no alarm and no lock that occasionally flew open on its own. Employees had returned to using it as an entrance, despite Mary Alice’s pleas. It just wasn’t safe. It was frustrating and she tried to allow herself the freedom of being the one they couldn’t blame, should something happen. But, she also didn’t want to be the person who almost stopped trouble.

She made her way back to her station and sat down in the first chair. Julie, a young pretty blonde girl sat at the station, filling out a form. She had only been with the hospital for a couple of months, but seemed to fit in nicely with the other nurses. Mary Alice liked her especially because she was one of the few nurses who didn’t smoke. It had never made sense to her why someone whose job it was to save lives would risk theirs so haphazardly. Julie spoke without looking up from the form.

“Still no luck with that door, Mary Alice?”

“The idiocy around here is mind-numbing sometimes…no offence,” she said.

“Hopefully, you’ll never have to say I told you so,” Julie said, smiling.

“My father used to say, ‘Hope in one hand and, well…shit in the other…and see which piles up first,” Mary Alice said.

The word ‘shit’ had left her mouth with the air of someone who thought foul language left a bad taste in her mouth.

“Mary Alice!” Julie said, feigning horror. “You’re a saucy old bird!”

“Old bird! You watch it there, you…young whippersnapper,” Mary Alice said, winking at Julie.

“Have you checked on Mr. Cooper yet?” Julie asked.

“Was just heading that way,” she said.

She stood and picked up a clipboard from the top of the desk.

“His levels were normal at dinner, but they’ve been peaking just before bedtime. They can’t seem to get his dose right,” Julie said.

“Mmmm…alright. I’ll be back in a few,” she said, turning, then paused and added, “If I’m not back in five, send out the posse.”

“The what?” Julie asked. Mary Alice frowned.

“How old did you say you were?” she said. 

“Twenty-four?” Julie said.

Mary Alice just rolled her eyes, sighed loudly, and walked down the hallway away from the nurses’ station. It had been so slow in the maternity wing recently that they had accepted a low-risk case from the cardiac ward. There were only two babies on a ward that was capable of holding up to fifteen mothers. By the sounds of it, or lack thereof, the two babies were asleep. Good for the mothers, but it left a somewhat hollow feeling to the normally bustling hallway. The padding sound of Mary Alice’s usually silent shoes actually echoed down the hall. She reached the far end of the hall and turned the corner. Mr. Cooper’s room was far away enough so that neither he, nor the newborns, would bother the other. With atrial fibrillation, Mr. Cooper spent most of his time watching TV. He said that the irregular heartbeat made it difficult to focus on reading. Having had a quadruple bypass three weeks prior, his heart had never resumed a sinus rhythm and now his sugar levels were off as well. They had tried everything they knew, but it looked more than likely that Mr. Cooper would need a pacemaker. She stopped in front of his room and stared at the door. It was closed, despite the fact that he had requested it to be left open. She pushed on the door and found Mr. Cooper sitting up, watching
Jeopardy!
He smiled at her weakly, his eyes only half open.

“Evening, Mr. Cooper. I thought I told you not to get out of bed for anything,” she said, chastising him.

“Miss Hampton, lovely to see you this evening,” he said, somewhat dreamily.

“Mr. Cooper? The door. Why did you close the door?” she asked.

“This young man has won nearly twenty thousand dollars! He’s brilliant!” he said, pointing to the TV.

Mary Alice scanned his clipboard and checked his drip line. She watched the heart monitor bounce up and down. Steady at sixty-five for a minute, then a sudden leap to the mid-nineties. This was usually associated with a pause as Mr. Cooper tried to catch his breath.

“It’s been better today…I think,” Mr. Cooper said faintly.

“Mmmm,” Mary Alice said, reviewing the past weeks information.

“I thought how nice it would be to sleep in my own bed again…watch my own TV.”

“Mmmm,” she repeated.

“The doctor said I might be able to go home soon,” Mr. Cooper said.

“Mmm…I’m sorry?”

“The doctor who stopped in just before. He was very nice. I don’t think I’ve seen him before. He asked a lot of questions. Told me he’d seen worse…and that if I was worried about dying…well, then he asked me about my life…he was a bit strange…closed the door on his way out…” his voice trailed off.

“Mr. Cooper. Are you sure that was tonight? I don’t…”

“You know I can’t get out of bed without setting off that damn device you have me hooked up to.”

“Mr. Cooper…what did this man look like? Did he have a badge.”

“A badge? Not that I remember. He had a coat on…and a stethoscope. Otherwise…he was a bit tall…almost gaunt, very sunken eyes,” he said, drawing in a deep breath at the end.

“Mr. Cooper…you’ll have to excuse me. I need to check on another patient,” she lied.

Mary Alice walked out of the room, a chill starting to work its way up her back. She looked up and down the hall, half expecting to see the man. She moved to a phone on the wall, picked up the receiver and punched in four digits.

“Hi Kenny, it’s Mary Alice. Good. Who’s on duty up there? Uh-huh. Has Dr. Stevens been in? On vacation. Right. Ok. You don’t have anyone new up there, do you? No. Ok. Thank you, Kenny.” She hung up with her finger and dialed another number.

“This is Mary Alice on three…” A long, bony arm reached around her head and hung up the line. Mary Alice let out a scream that was cut short by another hand wrapped around her mouth.

“Shut up…or you’re a dead woman,” the soft deadly voice came from over her shoulder.

The thin hands were surprisingly strong and with his free hand he grabbed her left arm and forced her against the wall.

“Tell me what I need to know and you live.”

He reached up and pulled back on her hair with force.

“Understand?”

She nodded, still whimpering a little. He relaxed his grip a little, but still held his hand in position over her mouth, pressing her body against the wall.

“I’m looking for a man who shouldn’t be here. A man who defied death recently. Do you know what I’m talking about?”

She nodded.

“Good. He’s a dangerous man if he’s still alive. You…haven’t seen him…have you, Mary Alice?”

These last words were whispered in her ear and she shuddered as she thought his lips had brushed her ear. She shook her head.

“Are you sure? Are you sure you haven’t thought that perhaps you saw him? Even if he wasn’t there when you looked again? You see, Mary Alice, when you’re a hunted fox, you learn to hide in plain sight. So, think hard. Think about anything odd that might have taken place in the last twelve hours. Anything at all,” he released his hand from her mouth slowly, and added, “You know what happens if you cry out.”

She stared into the whiteness of the wall in front of her, and shuddered again. She could feel him, perversely pressed against her back. She tried to focus on what he had asked.

“Yesterday…I thought I had seen a man…at the end of the hall…I didn’t check right away…but …when I went back.”

“Footprints? Like he’d been walking in the snow recently?”

She nodded.

“And, did you follow them?”

“I followed them to this floor and they disappeared,” she said.

“And?”

She shrugged.

“And…nothing…I didn’t pursue it. I…contacted maintenance about fixing that back door.”

“And, they obviously haven’t been able to fix it…or I wouldn’t be here.”

“No…” she said.

“Now see, that wasn’t so bad, now was it? You’ve been a good old girl and told me everything I need to know. Now, do us a favor and…”

But the man stopped and Mary Alice thought she heard him hold his breath. Footsteps were approaching. Someone was running down the hall. Mary Alice was suddenly thrown to the ground, the man running in the opposite direction of the approaching footsteps. She turned, just in time to see the man’s white coat round the corner of the hallway she had come from. The exit to the stairwell nearest to her burst open and Charlie, the night shift watchman came puffing down the hall toward her, holding a stitch in his side. He was red faced and clearly out of breath as he stopped and bent near her.

“Are you…ok?” he sputtered.

“Don’t mind me! He went that way!”

He looked reluctantly in the direction she was pointing. He lurched forward in more of a controlled fall than a sprint. Mary Alice stood up, rubbing the developing bruise on her arm. She walked back to Mr. Cooper’s room and looked in on him. His eyes were closed and his mouth gaped open. She instinctively watched for a breath and glanced at the monitor. He was sleeping. The commotion had not disturbed him. She rounded the corner to find Charlie walking slowly back to him, still clutching his side. He held a white coat in his hand.

“He got away?”

He nodded without speaking, still huffing and puffing.

“Did you call the police?” she asked.

He shook his head.

“Do you want me to?”

“No. He was just a transient. Said he walked in the front door. By the time the police come, he’ll be halfway to the interstate.”

“But…” Charlie said.

“Maybe if you people did your job right the first time, something like this wouldn’t happen,” she said.

“I’ll have to file a report,” he said.

“You do what you need to and if that supervisor of yours needs me to answer any questions, you know where to find me,” she said, realizing the pain in her wrist and rubbing it.

“Are you sure I can’t call anyone?” Charlie asked.