Chapter Twenty-Two
A SOCIAL WORKER SHOWED up before Kirstie got to the hospital. The police officer continued to hang around but didn’t approach Gabriel directly.
“My name is Kelly Lassiter, Gabriel,” the social worker introduced herself, putting out her hand to shake his. “How are you doing?”
She was an older woman, with a typical social worker blazer and skirt suit, and her gray-streaked hair pulled back from her face. Her hands were unusually large and her grip too firm. Gabriel tried to stay in control of his emotions.
“I’m… okay.”
“Why don’t we find a quiet room to talk in?”
Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t want to talk. And I’m waiting for Kirstie Holt.”
“Ah yes, we’ve been hearing all about your interview with Miss Holt.”
“I’m not going back. There are people trying to kill us! They already got Nick.”
Lassiter’s eyebrows went way up. Gabriel could see her reevaluating him, adding a ‘psych?’ notation to her mental file on him.
“Who already got Nick?”
“I don’t know. They sent someone after us; they must have sent someone after Nick and Ray too. We didn’t stay together so that we wouldn’t be as visible. But somebody got to him. They found his body!”
“Well… we’ll have to wait to find out what happened, won’t we?”
“You can’t send me back. If I’m in danger, you can’t send me back.”
“At this point, I don’t think there’s any evidence that you would be in danger. I think you children have misinterpreted the facts.”
“Nick is dead. How can I misinterpret that?”
“We don’t know what happened yet. There could be a perfectly logical explanation.”
“There is.”
“He was sick,” she pointed out.
“Not that sick. I just saw him.”
Kirstie arrived with her crew, causing a stir and making everyone around sit up and take note. Kirstie spotted Gabriel and hurried over to him. “Gabriel! Are you okay?” She didn’t shake his hand, she put her arms around him and gave him a tight squeeze. “This must all be so hard for you. Are you really okay?”
She pushed him back and looked at his face. Gabriel was crying in earnest now and tried to wipe the annoying tears aside. He nodded, choking out, “I’m fine.”
“Good.” Kirstie kept one hand on Gabriel’s arm and looked at her wrist on the other. “The police are giving an update in fifteen minutes. Then we’ll know more.” She looked around and pointed out to her crew where she wanted to set up for the spot. She looked at Lassiter.
“Kirstie Holt,” she introduced herself.
“I know who you are. Kelly Lassiter. I’m Gabriel’s social worker. Temporarily, anyway.”
Kirstie gave her a keen look. “We are trying to block the return of Gabriel to his home state. For reasons of personal safety. You understand that?”
“The press doesn’t generally override DFS,” Lassiter sniffed. “At the moment, we don’t see any danger in returning Gabriel to his home.” She looked at Gabriel. “You are not claiming that you were abused by your foster family, are you?”
Gabriel thought of Collin’s bullying and how Gabriel had stolen hundreds of dollars from the older boy. That wouldn’t go over well if Gabriel were returned to the Foegels.
“It’s called medical abuse,” Gabriel said instead. “If they can use ‘medical abuse’ to take kids away from their homes, then it should apply to foster care too. I don’t want the Lantern Clinic’s mito treatment. It’s experimental, and it makes me sick. I shouldn’t have to be sicker, just because Dr. De Klerk wants to make money on me from the drug companies.”
Kirstie was busy giving her crew directions, but she laughed softly at Gabriel’s words. “You tell’em, Gabriel.”
“Putting you in a treatment program does not qualify as abuse or a threat to your personal safety,” Lassiter maintained. “Unless a real threat is revealed in the next two days, you will be returned to your foster family, or wherever your DFS deems it appropriate to send you.”
Gabriel shook his head and looked away from her. It was far more interesting to watch Kirstie get ready for her spot. He was tired of listening to the social worker. The minutes counted down, Kirstie was in position, and they had performed all of their sound checks and lighting checks.
“Okay,” Kirstie touched her ear, listening to her radio earbud. “I’ve got the feed now. They’re just getting ready for the announcement.”
Everybody was silent, waiting. Gabriel held his breath.
“They’ve confirmed that Nick was one of the boys in our feature. He’s saying…” Kirstie shook her head at Gabriel. “They’re saying that it appears he died of natural causes.”
“Natural causes?” Gabriel echoed.
“They will still need to do an autopsy, but they are not treating it as suspicious. No apparent foul play.”
“No!”
Kirstie’s hand dropped away from her ear. “I’m sorry, Gabriel. It looks like it was just his time. His body couldn’t hold up any longer.”
“The guy that has been following Renata and me is a doctor. He could make it look like natural causes. Give him an injection or something. No one would ever know because he was sick. No one would look for it.”
“A doctor wouldn’t kill Nick, Gabriel,” Kirstie said. “It would be breaking the Hippocratic oath.”
Gabriel stared at her in disbelief. “I’m pretty sure murder is against the law. But that doesn’t stop people from doing it.” Gabriel had another thought. “Maybe it was one of the drugs on the protocol,” he said. “Can anyone tell that? Maybe sudden death is one of the side effects. They wouldn’t want us to know that.”
“Nick wasn’t taking the Lantern Clinic’s protocol anymore,” Kirstie said. “None of you were.”
“Withdrawing meds suddenly can cause problems,” Lassiter chimed in, reminding Gabriel of her existence with a start. “There are a lot of medicines that you have to taper off slowly, under a physician’s guidance, or they can cause problems. Maybe it was quitting that killed him.”
Kirstie shook her head at Lassiter, frowning. “It’s a natural death, Gabriel,” she repeated as if he might believe her when she said it this time. “You’re just going to have to accept it.”
“What about the doctor who’s been following us?”
“Where did you see him?”
“At the clinic where Renata went to get her prescription refilled. And then at the pharmacy when she went to pick it up. Not right next door. Farther away. The next day.”
“Maybe he’s a pharmacist. Maybe he’s a drug rep. He could be those places legitimately. It could just be a coincidence.”
“And it’s a coincidence that Nick died, too.”
“Well, yes. I can’t see a common thread that binds the two together. I don’t think they are related.”
Kirstie prevailed upon the hospital to put Renata in a private room, which meant that Gabriel could sit with her again. Gabriel didn’t know whether Kirstie paid for the room or just traded on her celebrity status, but he didn’t care either way. He was happy just to sit there waiting for Renata to wake back up. Since she had only exhausted herself and hadn’t been given any sedatives or antipsychotics, he was hoping that she would wake up soon. The bed looked so soft and comfortable after so many nights sleeping on the street. He felt like just climbing in and snuggling up with her. Even the chair was more comfortable than anywhere he had slept recently, other than the motel the night Kirstie’s program aired.
The social worker had agreed to leave Gabriel at the hospital rather than taking him off to foster care immediately. Probably something to do with the fact that there was a cop outside the door to make sure that they didn’t run off again, and they didn’t have security like that at the usual foster home.
There was a tap at the door, and Gabriel turned his head sleepily to see who it was. The doctor looked vagu
ely familiar. He gave Gabriel a little smile and walked up to Renata’s bed. “Any change?” he asked.
Gabriel studied him. He was pretty sure it wasn’t the same doctor who had been around to see Renata earlier. Why would he come around again so soon without any urgent reason? Yet Gabriel had seen him before.
As the doctor put his fingers on Renata’s wrist to feel her pulse, Gabriel flashed back to it. The doctor who had visited the clinic while he was waiting for Renata. The doctor in the red station wagon. Gabriel was on his feet in an instant, his lethargy gone. “Leave her alone!”
The doctor looked at him, eyebrows raised, as if he didn’t have any idea what was wrong. He put on his stethoscope and listened to Renata’s chest.
“I said leave her alone!” Gabriel insisted. But what was he going to do, fight the man?
The doctor slid Renata’s gown to the side to expose her feeding tube. He inspected it. Gabriel’s head spun. The doctor reached into his lab jacket pocket and came out with a syringe and a vial of something. “Just a little something to keep her quiet,” he assured Gabriel.
“You’re not her doctor! You can’t give her anything!” Gabriel ran toward the door. Except he couldn’t run, so it was more of a walk. A slow, deliberate walk, while the menacing doctor stood over Renata and prepared to give her some kind of medication through her feeding tube. Gabriel started to shout before he reached the door. “Help! Officer! Help me! He’s going to kill her!”
The policeman opened the door and looked at Gabriel in irritation. Gabriel turned back toward the bed, gesturing. “He’s going to put something in her feeding tube! He’s not her doctor! He can’t give her anything; she could die! They already killed Nick!” Gabriel felt like he couldn’t get any air. His voice kept getting higher and screechier. He knew that he should stay calm, should explain it quietly and coolly so that the cop wouldn’t think that he was a lunatic. But he was in a panic. In the time that it took for the cop to understand what Gabriel was saying and believe him, the doctor could squirt something down Renata’s tube and walk out the door. He’d be gone before Gabriel even managed to convince the cop that it was serious. Gabriel started walking back toward the bed. “Stop him! You have to stop him! He doesn’t even work here!”
“Sir, if I could get you to step back…?” the policeman drawled, reaching toward his hip and motioning the doctor to get back from the bed.
The doctor looked at the policeman calmly, raising his eyebrows. “There is no problem here. I’m not sure what the boy is so hysterical about. Maybe I’d better give him a sedative next!” He moved again toward Renata’s feeding tube.
“Get back!” the cop snapped out. This time, the doctor froze.
He took a step back. Gabriel reached Renata’s bedside again and grabbed the end of the tube, pulling it farther away from the doctor and putting his finger over the end. He knew it probably wasn’t sanitary. Renata would get angry because she’d have to get the tube sterilized, or a new one put in or something, but he wasn’t leaving anything open for chance. The doctor couldn’t put anything into the tube while Gabriel’s finger was over the end.
“Back. Another three steps. Right to the wall,” the policeman ordered the doctor. Gabriel watched the doctor think about it and then obey. The doctor and the policeman stared at each other, gauging each other’s movements.
“Put down the needle,” the policeman said.
The doctor displayed it. “No needle. Just a syringe. I couldn’t do more than squirt you with it.”
“Put it down anyway.”
The doctor put it down on the windowsill beside him. The cop grabbed the doctor’s identity badge, pulling it off of the lab coat with a snap. He looked at it, eyes narrow. “Dr. Glover. The kid’s right. You’re not a doctor at this hospital.”
“I have privileges at several hospitals. I just grabbed the wrong badge.”
“You’re the girl’s doctor?”
Glover’s eyes went back and forth, not answering immediately. “I’m treating her.”
“What’s in the syringe?”
“A sedative. To keep her calm.”
“She looks pretty calm now.”
“She’s not supposed to have anything,” Gabriel insisted. “She reacts to things the wrong way. You give her a sedative, and she’s going to be bouncing off the walls. If that’s what it is.” He looked at the doctor. “If you were really her doctor, you’d know that.”
“Turn around and put your hands on the wall.”
The doctor obeyed slowly. The cop used his foot to pull the doctor’s feet back farther, and then patted him down. He brought the doctor’s hands around behind his back and clipped a pair of handcuffs over his wrists.
“This is a mistake,” Glover protested.
“If it’s a mistake, I’ll be the first to apologize. I need to be sure.”
“You can’t go around arresting doctors at the hospital for no reason.”
“I think I have cause at this point. Let’s get it straightened out.”
He escorted the doctor out of the room. Gabriel fell into the seat next to Renata’s bed, letting his breath out with a sigh. He was still holding onto Renata’s tube and couldn’t let it go quite yet. The danger was past, but he just couldn’t relax his guard.
He could hear the policeman talking to the nurses out at the desk. They must have confirmed that Glover didn’t work there because the doctor did not come straight back in.
“Knock knock?”
Gabriel looked back at the door. Kirstie stood there, Officer Mills beside her, his extended arm barring entry.
“Yeah, come in,” Gabriel invited.
The cop let her in and resumed his guard post. Kirstie sat on the edge of Renata’s bed.
“I hear you had some excitement.”
Gabriel watched Kirstie tap the screen on her phone and lay it on the rolling table between them. The big red dot obviously indicated that it was recording their conversation.
“Can this be off the record?”
“I don’t think so. We need to get this information out to the public if you want to be able to take these guys down.”
Gabriel closed his eyes and leaned his head back, exhausted. “I’m not sure… I want to do this anymore.”
“You’ve already started the ball rolling. You can’t exactly stop it at this point.”
He sighed. “Okay. Fine.”
“So the doctor in the red station wagon wasn’t just a paranoid delusion.”
“No.” Gabriel rubbed his stiff neck. “Did you find anything out about him?”
Kirstie looked like the cat that swallowed the canary. She perched there on the hospital bed, with a self-satisfied smile. Gabriel’s heart pounded. Maybe it was good news. Maybe it was real progress, instead of more people being convinced he was paranoid.
“What?” he demanded.
“Glover is a junior doctor from the Lantern Clinic.”
Gabriel gripped the arms of the visitor chair and leaned toward her. “He’s from the Lantern Clinic? De Klerk sent him?”
“We don’t know who sent him. He says nobody did; he was just there to help treat Renata—forget the fact that he doesn’t have any privileges to do so. He says was just trying to help her.”
“What was in the syringe?”
“They are having it analyzed, which will take forever. But the bottle that it came out of says that it’s a high-protein feeding supplement. Just formula.”
Gabriel frowned, thinking about it. Why would a doctor come all the way from the Lantern Clinic to feed her? She already had her prescription, which he would know from their visits to the walk-in clinic and the pharmacy. He wasn’t trying to treat her. He was trying to harm her.
“What kind of formula?” Gabriel asked. “She could only tolerate one kind.”
Kirstie picked up her phone and tapped through a few screens to remind herself, then put it down carefully between them and waited a moment before speaking again. “It is a high-protein egg and
dairy based formula. Used for tube-fed patients who need to gain weight.”
Gabriel swore under his breath. His eyes found Kirstie’s. “It probably would have killed her.”
“How?”
“The dairy would make her throw up. She could choke to death throwing up when she was unconscious. I don’t know what the egg would do to her, or any of the other ingredients. You should ask her mom.”
“I will when we can get access to her. It’s a good thing you were here. If Renata had been alone and he just walked in and put it down her tube and walked back out… they would think it was an accident.”
“Like Nick…?”
“Because of Dr. Glover’s involvement, they are going to take a closer look at Nick’s death as well. But from what you’ve said, Glover was following Renata. He couldn’t be both places at the same time.”
“De Klerk could have sent more than one guy! Hundreds of people work there. Has anyone found Ray yet?”
“Not yet. And he hasn’t returned to his foster family.”
“He could be in danger. Why aren’t they looking?”
“They are looking. They’ve been looking since you guys ran away.”
“He could already be dead.”
Kirstie nodded, her eyes sad. “We’ll just have to hope for the best. And focus on you and Renata, and keeping you guys safe. Has she been awake at all?”
“No. But she’s been more restless…” Gabriel gave Renata’s arm a gentle shake. “Hey, Renata. Are you ready to wake up now…?”
She stirred a little and didn’t open her eyes.
“Renata… wakey, wakey.”
“Mmmph. Leave me alone, Gabe.”
Gabriel flashed a smile at Kirstie. “You don’t want to wake up? You’ve got a visitor.”
Renata opened her eyes and rubbed them blearily with one hand. She scowled at Kirstie. “What are you doing here?”
“Renata!” Gabriel was shocked by her reaction. “Kirstie’s been helping us.”
“I didn’t ask for any help.”
“Uh… yes, you did.”
“She’s probably the one behind it all.” Renata’s eyes were dark and hollow. “She’s the one who masterminded the whole thing.”
“No… she’s helping us. She got it on TV and everything, remember? And she just came to tell us about the doctor. You know, the one who was following us. In the red station wagon.”
“Yeah, she knows all about him, hey?” Her tone insinuated that Kirstie was behind it.
“Renata. What’s going on?”
Kirstie put her hand on Gabriel’s arm. “It’s okay, Gabriel. It’s just her illness. She can’t help it.”
“But… I don’t get it. She knows you’re our friend. She knows you’ve done what she asked you to.”
“And she thinks that the mother she loves tried to poison her. She can’t choose what thoughts come to her.”
“Don’t talk about me like that! I’m right here!”
“I’m sorry,” Kirstie said.
“Do you want to hear about the doctor?” Gabriel asked, trying to focus Renata on what had happened.
“Not with her here.” Renata continued to stare at Kirstie with suspicion.
“It’s time for me to go anyway,” Kirstie said pleasantly. She tapped her phone to stop the recording and picked it up. “You know how to reach me if you need me,” she told Gabriel. “I’ll try to keep you updated as I hear any details. Okay?”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Kirstie walked out. Renata watched her go, then turned her eyes toward Gabriel. He was afraid that she would turn her suspicions on him now. That their friendship would be ruined by her illness and her choice to stop taking her meds. But she seemed to be okay once Kirstie was gone. Renata took a careful look around the room, her eyes returning again to Gabriel.
“I don’t remember what happened. How did we get here?”
Gabriel related the missing details to Renata the best he could, trying not to focus on her meltdown or the depressing details of Ray’s disappearance and Nick being found dead.
“I need a phone,” Renata said. “I need to call Ray to warn him, make sure he’s still okay. Where did you put my phone?”
“You sort of launched it… it’s broken.”
“We can fix it. Probably just the screen is broken, it will still work.”
“It shattered. I didn’t bother to pick up the pieces. I can call from the public phone if you give me his number.”
She looked at him for a minute, not answering. “What else happened?”
“The doctor that has been following us…”
“Yeah?”
“His name is Glover, and he’s from—”
“The mito clinic.”
Gabriel looked at her in astonishment. “How did you know that?”
“I’ve been going there longer than you. I probably don’t know everyone, but I know a lot of them. Glover… he’s kind of creepy. So he was trying to find us, to bring us back?”
Gabriel shook his head. “He came in here, while you were unconscious. He tried to put something in your feeding tube, but I wouldn’t let him.”
It wasn’t exactly like Gabriel had wrestled with Glover, but he didn’t need to tell Renata all he’d been able to do was scream for help.
“What was it? Poison?”
“Pretty much. A high-protein formula. Eggs and dairy.”
Renata called Glover a very uncomplimentary name. “He was there last year when I had an anaphylactic reaction to a vax because they didn’t check to make sure it was safe! He knew eggs would kill me!”
“He was going to do it with me right there watching.”
“He probably had plans to take care of you too.”
Gabriel thought about that. Would Glover poison Renata and just walk away, assuming that Gabriel wouldn’t continue with the fight against medical kidnap? Would he leave Gabriel there to potentially call a nurse and save Renata? Both scenarios seemed pretty unlikely. Glover must have had plans to deal with Gabriel too.
“De Klerk is trying to kill us,” Gabriel said. “I can’t believe that the money is that important to him.”
“It’s not just the money now. His reputation, his whole life is at stake.”
“Yeah. You do think it’s De Klerk, though? Kirstie said it could just be Glover acting on his own. That’s what he’s saying. He just wanted to help you.”
“Help me into the next world, maybe.” Renata struggled into a sitting position. “Definitely De Klerk. We gotta call Ray. And we gotta get out of here.”
“There’s a policeman guarding the door.”
She looked toward it. “Will he let you go make a phone call?”
“Probably not now. He can’t keep an eye on you and watch me on the phone at the same time.”
“He doesn’t need to guard me if I’m still asleep.” She promptly settled back, closing her eyes. “And they’ve already got the psycho doctor, so I’m safe to be left alone for a few minutes.”
Gabriel leaned over her. “I need the phone number.”
“Oh, yeah.” She whispered it to him and made him repeat it back.
Gabriel went out to where Mills was standing guard. Or, more accurately, sitting guard. “I have to make another phone call.”
Mills peered back into the hospital room and saw Renata lying still, apparently asleep. As Renata had predicted, he left her alone and followed Gabriel out to the phone. Gabriel didn’t know what Renata’s plan was, and didn’t know what he would do himself after that. But Renata had been right so far. He’d have to trust her.
He went to the phone and dialed the number that Renata had told him. It rang and rang, eventually giving him a ‘this party is not answering’ recording.
Gabriel stared at the phone. Did that mean that they had gotten to Ray too? Gabriel closed his eyes, remembering Ray’s last words, as they both hung up that last call. ‘Oh, sorry sir. I didn’t see you…’ Who was he talking to? Had he just bumped into
someone on the sidewalk? Or was it another doctor or hired gun who had been sent to take care of him?
How had they managed to track Nick and Ray down? Had the boys called their social workers or foster homes and trustingly gone with the helpful party who had arrived to pick them up?
“Are you done?” Mills asked, getting a little closer.
“No…” Gabriel looked at the phone. He needed to give Renata as much time as he could. He pressed the hang-up switch and dialed another number instead. Kirstie answered after a couple of rings. Gabriel could hear the sounds of her car in the background. She was probably driving back to her office to put the story together.
“Gabriel. Long time, no see. What’s up?”
“I got Ray’s number from Renata.”
“Oh, that’s good. Hang on, let me write it down.”
He pictured her rummaging in her purse for a pen and paper while barreling down the highway. He winced. “I can call you back with it later.”
“Oh no, not a problem. I’m ready.”
Gabriel gave it to her slowly, half-expecting the sounds of a crash. But everything was fine.
“Did you try calling him?”
“Yeah… but there was no answer. I figured maybe the police could track the phone or something.”
“You could just give it to Mills. He’ll pass it on to the appropriate department.”
“Oh… yeah…”
“Don’t worry, Gabriel. There are lots of reasons that Ray might not answer his phone. He’s probably fine.”
“The last time we talked to him… something happened… he apologized for running into somebody, for not seeing them. What if it was someone…?”
“You can’t spend all your time fussing over what might have happened. You don’t know. You guys did your best to look after each other, but this thing is way too big for you. And… he’s probably just fine. You’re probably worrying over nothing.”
“It’s not nothing. Nick is dead, and Glover tried to kill Renata. I’m not just being paranoid. I’m not ‘misinterpreting.’ ”
“I’ve never said that to you.”
“Okay… I guess not… but I’m tired of people treating me like my opinion doesn’t matter.”
“You have a right to be. You’ve been through a lot.”
Gabriel really didn’t have anything else to say to Kirstie, but he kept her on the phone anyway, asking her about the update that they would broadcast and anything else that might keep her talking. Mills was starting to shift back and forth, obviously uncomfortable with having left Renata’s room for so long. He looked over his shoulder toward the hospital room. Gabriel tried to think of something else to ask Kirstie about. She was saying something in his ear now, but he had no idea what it was. Mills walked back toward the hospital room. As he drew up even with the door, Gabriel stepped away from the phone, pulled the fire alarm, and walked into the open elevator.
The doors closed. It was quiet in the elevator, the alarm bells muffled and far away. Gabriel didn’t have to press any buttons; it was programmed to go automatically to the ground floor when the fire alarm was triggered. Mills wouldn’t be able to use an elevator after he realized that Renata had escaped. He’d have to use the stairs. Gabriel couldn’t run, but at least the elevator gave him a bit of a head start. When the doors opened in the lobby, he started moving with the crowd. A sea of patients and visitors flowed out of the lobby into the street, with lots more behind. There were a few hospital workers trying to keep things calm and organized, but they were primarily ignored. Gabriel got to the edge of the mass and kept walking. He kept his eyes peeled for Renata, but she still surprised him, stepping out from behind a building and tapping him on the shoulder.
“Pulling the fire alarm?” she questioned. “I’m having a bad influence on you.”
She had apparently had time to get her street clothes on, which meant that they didn’t look like hospital patients and could walk away without being challenged. As long as Mills didn’t spot them.
They stopped at a bus stop and waited on the bench for the next bus.