Jonathan’s brain went into overdrive. Why are they towing the car? It’s not in a tow zone. It was in a legally designated space. Someone must have run the plates. It’s the only explanation. Now they know the thief is probably in the building. He made a u-turn and walked as fast as he could back to the surgery waiting area. Squeak-squeak-squeak-squeak! He ran when he thought no one would see him.
He got to the waiting area and made a beeline right for Candi and Kevin, sitting down next to Candi which put her in the middle. He spoke in hushed tones. “We have to leave!”
Kevin looked at him like he was crazy. “Leave? What are you talking about? We can’t leave. Why would you say that?”
“There are three police cars outside, and they’re towing our car away. They’ll know the thief is in here!”
Candi looked around, fear etching lines into her forehead. “How will they know it’s us?”
“Yeah, this hospital is huge,” agreed Kevin. “There have to be hundreds of people here.”
“Yes, but who comes to the hospital and parks in the emergency room parking lot? People who just had emergencies, that’s who. All they have to do is talk to the nurses at the intake window and they’ll be able to describe all of us perfectly. And Sarah’s a virtual captive in there right now.”
Candi grabbed each of their arms, squeezing until it made Jonathan catch his breath with the pain; but he didn’t tell her to stop. He understood her panic, and the sensation she was giving him was waking him up out of the numbing fog his brain had been in.
“Babe, I’d like to keep the skin on my arm,” said Kevin peeling her hand off and putting it onto his leg instead. “Come on, we just need to come up with a plan. We’ve made it this far, I’m not going to give up and just get arrested for stealing a car at this point.”
Jonathan pushed his fingers against his temples, trying to block out the extraneous sounds and emotions that roiled around inside him and distracted his mind from being able to analyze the situation. “I just need to think!” he said, frustrated.
Someone patted his back, but his eyes were closed so he couldn’t see who. Probably Candi. Small hand. Even this was too distracting. He dropped his hands to his lap and sighed. “I’m too stressed to think straight. I’m sorry, you guys. I’m falling apart under the pressure.” He lowered his head. “I’m so disappointed in myself. I don’t know why I thought I’d be a good father.” Tears came to his eyes once more. He smiled bitterly at how easy they were flowing today. I’m such a coward.
Kevin stood all of a sudden, grabbing Jonathan by the shirt and hauling him to his feet. “Dude, say that one more time and I’m going to just punch you right in the face.”
Jonathan’s jaw dropped open as he stared at Kevin’s serious expression. “Why?”
“What do you mean, why? You’re my sister’s boyfriend and the father of her kid! If you want that privilege you need to man the hell up! Sarah doesn’t need a fucking wuss for a man in her life. She needs a real man. A fucking cowboy who doesn’t fall apart when the shit gets difficult. I thought you were the guy for the job, but maybe I was wrong.”
Jonathan smiled sheepishly, warmed to his soul that Kevin would care enough about his sister to feel so protective. It was exactly how he felt about her. Seeing Kevin being so strong inspired him. “I guess I should cowboy-up, then.”
“Yeah. Whatever. Just grow some balls before I have to get ugly on your ass.”
Candi stood and slapped Kevin’s hands off her brother’s shirt. “Okay, now that we have the testosterone show out of the way … what’s our plan?”
Jonathan shrugged, pulling his shirt back down. “I’m open to suggestions. I think my brain-computer is rebooting right now. Analysis function not available, it’s telling me.” He smiled at his own amazing tech-humor. He was the only one, though. He contented himself with the knowledge that Sarah would have smiled at his joke, and he refused to let that make him sad. Time to cowboy-up. Sarah was going to be fine, and the most difficult thing he was going to have to manage later would be convincing her that the scar didn’t make her hideous, which is exactly what she’d been moaning about as they’d wheeled her away to surgery hours earlier.
Kevin pulled the business card out of his back pocket. “I say we call this guy. Maybe he can help.”
“What’s the difference between talking to him and being arrested by cops we haven’t met?” asked Candi. “Either way, we’re going to jail and then we’ll be dead. Game over.”
“Maybe not. Maybe this guy has other ideas that might work for us. I really got a good vibe from him. I think he’s the real deal … like a good cop.”
“But like Jonathan said … the FBI has jurisdiction,” countered Candi. “He’ll just turn us over to them.”
“I know, but maybe there’s something else he can do. If they know our story and they know about the mole, maybe there’s something someone can do. It’s not like everyone in the FBI is bad. There’s just a couple. We just need to hook up with the good ones.”
“The problem is, we don’t know who’s good and who’s not. How would anyone know?” asked Jonathan.
“I don’t know!” said Kevin, clearly frustrated. “But I just don’t see how we’re going to get out of this! That cop who had Candi cornered at the grocery store knows that car. He was watching to see who was in it, and he followed it. I’m sure he put a report out on it, and that’s how they found it so easily. Everyone in the damn force is probably looking for it … and now us! We have to be proactive.”
“By now they know the car is from our town,” added Jonathan, his mind finally kicking into gear.
“Exactly. That’s what I’m trying to say here. That car is a direct line to us. It’s not going to take an investigative genius to put the pieces together.” He looked around and dropped his voice to a whisper. “We’re sitting ducks.”
Jonathan stood. “Come on. Let’s go hide.”
Candi jumped up next to him. “Where?” She grabbed his arm, squeezing it again.
“Follow me,” said Kevin, leading them over to the hallway where he’d stood with Officer Baker. He pulled open a door a little farther down from where they’d stood, revealing a storage room of some sort. “Wait here.” He pushed Jonathan and Candi in.
“Where are you going?” asked Candi, freaking out.
“To a phone. I have to call this guy and tell him to meet us over here.”
No one said anything for a few seconds. They just stared at each other, all of them near the edge of hysteria in their own way. Kevin was in bulldozer mode, ready to tackle anything that moved or disagreed with him. Candi was scared and using her nails on any available skin surface. Jonathan knew he himself was pale and losing his train of thought way too easily. “Okay,” he said, finally. “We’ll wait here for ten minutes, no longer. After that, we’re leaving and hiding somewhere else, far from this area of the hospital. And if we can’t get in to see Sarah, we’ll just go back to the cabin on foot.”
“That’ll take a whole day!” said Candi.
“We have to do whatever it takes to survive,” argued Jonathan, not unkindly. “I want to see Sarah, but she’ll be safe here without us around to alert anyone coming through the waiting areas to our presence. And we all agreed that if one of us got caught, the rest would let him or her go. Sarah can’t move for days after a surgery like this, probably more. She’s not going back to that cabin anytime soon, if ever.” Jonathan forced the tears away. Cowboy-up. You can fall apart emotionally later when no one’s around and no one’s counting on you.
“I agree. I’ll see you in less than ten,” said Kevin, kissing Candi quickly on the lips once before leaving them alone in the closet.
It was suddenly quiet as the door clicked closed. Jonathan turned his back to it and leaned against the fake wood, sliding down to rest on his rear end.
Candi slowly lowered herself to a sitting position in front of him. She stared at him for a long time before finally speaking. “Are you scared
?” Her voice came out flat, no room in the small space for any echoes.
“Yes. Very much.”
“Me too.”
“It’s normal … to be frightened at a time like this. I’d be worried about our mental health if we weren’t.”
“But we’ve lived through so much, with the lifeboat and the island and everything. Shouldn’t we be more calm and collected?”
“We’ve dealt with plenty of adversity before, but that doesn’t make us immune. When our lives are threatened, which they are right now, chemicals in our bodies are manufactured and released into our systems to help us survive. It’s a real miracle of science. I wish I had more time to think about it and study it right now, actually.”
“Yeah. Not the time for TMI, though. Stay with me, okay?”
Jonathan frowned, confused. “I’m not going anywhere. We stick together.”
“I don’t mean physically. I’m talking mentally.”
Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, I’ll stay here with you. Sorry about earlier. The stress of worrying about Sarah and … Peanut … was getting to me.”
Candi patted his knee. “I know. It’s natural. But I’m a wimp, and I need you to keep me from freaking too hard.”
“You’re not weak; you’re strong. I admire your ability to stay calm and be able to make well-reasoned decisions when dealing with these conflicts. I could learn a lot from you.”
Candi laughed. “Oh, Jonathan … you are so funny sometimes.”
“What? What’d I say?”
Candi didn’t have time to answer before someone was pushing on the door, trying to get in. Jonathan was ready to force it closed when Kevin’s voice came through the crack.
“Let me in. It’s me.”
***
Candi scrambled to her feet, her eyes widening in fear as the door opened wider. Kevin was standing next to a police officer with a very serious expression on his face. Candi’s heart sank. This man did not look ready to help them; he looked fully prepared to hand them over to the people who wanted to end their lives. She felt judged before she’d even been able to open her mouth and give her side of the story.
“Come on,” said Kevin. “We need to get out of here.”
Jonathan stepped out without a word.
Candi hesitated, not so willing to just walk into certain death.
“He’s cool, Candi. Let’s go.” Kevin reached in and took her by the hand, pulling her out. The warmth of his skin and sure attitude calmed her considerably. She knew he’d fight as long and as hard as he could to keep her safe. It gave her courage to face what was coming.
“Follow me,” said the man, walking away. “There’s a place we can talk without being interrupted.”
He led them through a maze of hallways and doors, passing nurses’ desks, administrative offices and room after room of patients, equipment, and supplies. He finally stopped at a nondescript door with a blank nameplate outside it on the wall. He turned the handle and pushed the heavy-looking door open, gesturing for them to go in ahead of him.
Kevin put his arm out to keep any of them from entering. “After you, Officer,” he said.
The police officer lifted an eyebrow in question, but went in without arguing. Kevin followed, waiting for the others to get inside before shutting the door and turning the lock.
“Please, have a seat,” said Officer Baker, pointing to the chairs that circled a conference table. There was a whiteboard at one end of the small room and a small table with a coffee machine on it at the other. Cups, spoons, sugar and powdered creamer sat next to the machine. A water dispenser stood on the floor just beside the cups.
Candi walked over and got some water for herself, Jonathan, and Kevin before finding a chair on the opposite side of the table from the man. Kevin and Jonathan were already seated, leaving her a spot between them. She sat down, feeling only a small amount of security over being in this room next to her two guys. It was too much like a trap to feel comfortable in.
“You called me and told me you had something to discuss. I’m all ears.”
“Whatever we say … can it be used against us?” asked Jonathan. “Like in a court of law?”
“Technically, if I ask you a question right now and you answer it, no. I haven’t read you your Miranda rights. If you just volunteer information, then yes, it could be.”
“Okay, then, you ask us a question and we’ll answer it,” said Jonathan, nodding at Kevin and Candi.
Kevin nodded back. Candi looked between the two of them before answering the obvious question. “How do we know you’re telling us the truth?”
The officer blinked once before answering. “I guess you don’t. The police dramas on TV get the process wrong a lot of the time, so you’ve probably seen it done differently. But on my honor as a police officer, I am telling you that’s the truth and I have no intention of arresting you. At least not at this point. And if I change my mind about that, I will read you your Miranda rights and you will be entitled to an attorney before answering any other questions.”
Candi nodded. Something about him was trustworthy, maybe because he could have just arrested Kevin out in the hallway and he hadn’t. Kevin was right; this guy seemed genuinely caring.
“I’ll ask the first question, and any of you can respond. First, why are you here in the hospital?”
“My sister was shot by a man with a gun. A man who wanted to kill all of us,” said Kevin.
Candi measured the police officer’s response by his expression and body language. He remained impassive, nonjudgmental.
“And why did this man want to kill you? Was he robbing you?”
“No. He was hired to kill all of us. By a Russian guy named Boskerov.”
“Baskov,” corrected Jonathan. “His name is Baskov, and he’s responsible for a lot of organized crime in the area we’re from.”
“And where are you from?”
“South of here. And East,” said Candi in a hurry, cutting off answers from the guys. She wasn’t sure she was ready to divulge that information yet.
The officer stared at her for a second before nodding once. “Okay, and why would an alleged crime boss want to kill four teenagers who look … well-mannered and taken care of?”
“We witnessed something we shouldn’t have while we were … out of town. And we were being approached by the FBI to testify against him. The same day, before we could meet with them, someone tried to kill one of us,” said Kevin. “Me, specifically.”
“And what happened?”
“They shot a friend of mine who looked like me.”
“How did he look like you?”
“He was wearing my tophat.”
“You were wearing a tophat?” The officer looked confused. “Why would you do that?”
“I asked him the same thing,” said Jonathan.
“Me too,” said Candi, sneaking a glance at her boyfriend and giving him a little smile. It had seemed so fun and carefree at the time - such a big change from right now. She’d give anything for that stupid tophat to be the biggest worry in her life.
The officer sighed deeply, leaning forward in his chair, his hands folded together. “Explain, please.”
“We were at the prom. I wore the tophat because it was cool as hell. And then my friend stole it and went outside and got shot. Later that night in the hospital we were approached by the FBI and put in a safehouse. They told us some guy said the shooter was looking for a guy in a tophat. That night while we were supposed to be sleeping, a guy came in and killed everyone.”
“A guy.” The officer sounded like he didn’t believe Kevin.
“Yes. A guy. He had greasy black hair, and he used a big friggin knife.”
“And how do you know who did it? And you said he killed everyone? Who did he kill?”
Candi jumped in. “We know because he came for us after he killed the FBI agents, and we jumped him.”
“How did you manage to survive when trained FBI agents didn’t?” His tone was clear.
He didn’t believe them at all.
“We’re trained too,” said Candi proudly. “Maybe not in the traditional sense, but we’re a lot more physically fit than your average teen.”
The officer raised an eyebrow again. “Explain?”
Jonathan sighed. “Sir, we really don’t have time to tell you everything. Honestly, there are people looking for us, and we have to do what we can to stay hidden. Our lives depend on it.”
Officer Baker put his hands flat on the table, looking at each of them with a very serious expression. “I can help you if you have good reason to stay hidden and you haven’t broken the law.”
Candi shifted in her seat, knowing that was going to be a problem. She opened her mouth to speak, but Kevin beat her to it.
“Short version: This past Spring, we were on a cruise together. We ended up on a lifeboat and then out on a deserted island. Or so we thought. After a month or whatever, we found a whole drug operation going on there, and ended up escaping using one of the drug-runner’s boats. The FBI needs us to testify to what we saw there and identify the men who were involved.”
Officer Baker sat back in his chair suddenly, a look of shock passing across his features. “Wait a minute … you’re … you’re those kids who were on that cruise from Miami!”
All three of them nodded.
“I read about you online, on the news!”
“Yes. That’s us. And now we’re running for our lives. We did steal a car to get away, we admit that,” said Kevin.
“But that was to save our lives, so I’m pretty sure there’s some sort of … rule that we can’t be in too much trouble,” added Jonathan.
The officer was shaking his head. “I can’t believe it. This is all so fantastic.”
“I don’t think it’s very fantastic,” said Candi, frowning at his casual response. “I think it’s pretty sucky, actually.”
“No, not fantastic as in great … fantastic as in unbelievable. Literally, not to be believed.”
“I can see as how you’d feel that way, sir, but it’s true,” said Jonathan. “All of it, one hundred percent.”
“Why didn’t you just go to the police?” the officer asked, his voice full of professional passion. “That’s what we’re here for! We could have helped you avoid all this.” He leaned in towards them again, gesturing with his hands. “You kids have really stressed yourselves out trying to go it alone. It’s completely reckless, what you’ve done.”