“I told him the drugs would kill you. Too late now. I’m not letting you suffer.” The nurse adjusted the drip, then turned to look at him closely. “Oh, great, now you’re sweatin
g. I bet you have a fever.” He bent over the bed to attach the restraints.
Using every ounce of strength, Doug balled his fist and slammed the nurse in the temple, then hit him again. The man fell across him, stunned, with his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water. Doug ripped the needle out of the bed and jammed it into the nurse’s jugular. He held him down until he went limp. “There. How do you like it?” Agony ripped through him and he lay back panting.
“What’s happening?” Olivia sounded as if she’d been crying. “Are you okay?”
Doug leaned over, ripped the curtain from the railing and looked at her tear-stained cheeks. “I’ll do.” He rolled the nurse away from his legs and staggered to his feet. “You don’t look so good. Let me get you out of there.” He made it to her bed and unstrapped her wrists. “Do you know if Jim is here?”
“He was… before but he had to go organize something in town. He was in a real bad mood. Something has gone wrong. I figure the cops are onto him. He wants to harvest our organs then get rid of us before they find this place.” Olivia blinked away tears and looked up at him. “What’s the point trying to escape? Jim will bash us again and drag us back here.”
Doug turned and unclipped the swipe card from the nurse’s scrubs, then patted him down and found a set of keys in one pocket. “This time, we have a card to open the door and car keys.” He placed the items on the cabinet and looked at her. “Help me get him on the bed. We’ll tie him down and gag him.”
“He must have outside clothes here. We have to find something to wear or we won’t survive outside.” Olivia grabbed the nurse’s feet and lifted them onto the bed. “Grab an arm. You’re in no condition to lift him.”
The monitors beeped in panicked alarm as they heaved the man up on the bed. In agony, Doug pulled the tubes and wires from his body. Then tied and gagged the nurse. He dragged the blankets from the bed then turned to her. “We don’t know when Jim will return, we have to risk it. Grab his shoes, they’ll fit you. I’ll wear the rubber boots in the corner over there. Hurry!”
He shuffled out the door listening intently but it was all quiet. The office was empty and so was the room with lockers and a shelf packed with surgical scrubs. They pulled on pants and tops, wrapped the blankets around them and moved as fast as possible down the dark hallway and into the large room with the door to freedom. He glanced around for a weapon, then thought better of it; being so weak, he would be useless in a fight. The pain had drained him and it was becoming hard to breathe. He leaned one hand against the wall, panting, then swiped the card and the door clicked open. They moved outside into the bitter cold and he spotted a locker. “Bingo.” He dragged out two heavy coats and handed the smaller one to Olivia.
“I found gloves and a hat in the pockets of mine—check yours.” Olivia shrugged on the coat and buttoned it up, then pulled on the gloves and hat. “Now we just have to find his vehicle.”
Sweat trickled down Doug’s neck from the effort of dressing. It was as if cotton filled his head and his vision blurred. He shook his head violently, then staggered after Olivia. She turned a corner and he followed. At the end of the passageway, they encountered another door. It opened without a problem but the moment he peered cautiously outside a blast of arctic air and snowflakes smacked him in the face, followed by a horrendous stink. He blinked, blinded by the snowscape before him. They were in an industrial area. Red brick walls loomed up high on each side and ahead he made out snow-dusted machinery.
“There’s no one here.” Olivia pulled on his arm. “Hurry, he could be back any second.”
Half dragged down a laneway by Olivia, Doug shielded his eyes allowing them to adjust to the light before scanning the area. “There’s a truck over there in the parking lot.” He pointed the key fob at the vehicle and the lights flashed. “Do you drive?”
“Yeah.” Olivia’s reply came out in a puff of steam. “I know you’re hurting but we must get in that truck now.”
They slid and slipped across the icy roadway, negotiated the chain fence then climbed into the SUV. Before Doug had clicked his seatbelt, Olivia had the engine running. She glanced at him. “How long should I idle the engine before we leave? I don’t want it to break down.”
“Drive it real slow. The engine will warm up by the time we hit the highway.” He turned up the heater, then searched the vehicle for a cellphone. “Why doesn’t he have a cellphone?”
“I’d say he doesn’t want to be traced.” Olivia had crawled the truck out the parking lot and made her way down a long road, keeping it in the tire tracks of another vehicle. “I doubt harvesting organs from kidnapped people is legal.”
They reached the highway and Doug placed a hand on Olivia’s arm to prevent her making the turn to Black Rock Falls. “We have plenty of gas. Head to Blackwater. I don’t want to run into Jim on his way back. We’ll tell the sheriff what happened and he’ll contact Sheriff Alton.”
“Sure.” Olivia accelerated along the highway. “I want to be as far away from that creep as possible.”
Doug leaned back in the seat. “I won’t let him get away with this.” He smothered a moan of despair at the thought of what his sister Sky must have suffered at the hands of Jim. “If I have to, I’ll hunt him down like the animal he is, then tear him apart with my bare hands.”
Fifty-Seven
The smell of freshly brewed coffee and donuts greeted Rowley as he walked back into the office after delivering Burns to the cells. He made his way to the small kitchenette at the back of the room and helped himself. In the background, he could hear the demanding voice of a woman and Deputy Walters’ calming monotone. Not wanting to be involved, he slipped behind his desk to write a report.
He had finished the donuts and was leaning back in his seat enjoying the coffee when Walters came blustering toward him looking like a thundercloud. “Anything wrong?”
“Maybe, maybe not but I went to school with Beatrice Paul and I don’t take too kindly to being screamed at as if I am some doddery old fool.” He sat in Kane’s chair and pushed a hand through his gray hair. “She claims to have seen someone wearin’ her granddaughter’s sweater in town just before and seein’ as the young woman is missin’ I called the sheriff and she told me, you should haul tail out there and get a photo of the alleged sweater. She said to hunt down where it came from then call her immediately.”
Rowley glanced up to see an elderly woman marching down toward them with a determined expression on her face. He pushed to his feet. “Can I help you, ma’am?”
“You sure can.” She pointed a finger at Walters. “This old fool won’t listen to me. I saw Doctor Weaver wearing Sky’s sweater not twenty minutes ago.”
Rowley dropped his voice to a calm steady tone. “How can you be sure it is the same sweater?”
“Because I made it for her.” She lifted her chin. “I gave it to her last winter. It is one of a kind. It’s yellow and has a red heart right in the center. It’s a big size. Sky wanted it big so it would fit over layers of clothes and it comes down to her knees.” She glared at him. “She would have had it with her. Don’t you understand? If Doc Weaver has it, whoever gave it to her must have taken it from Sky.”
Rowley’s heartbeat picked up as he considered the implications. Doc Weaver had a vital clue to Sky’s disappearance in her possession. “Did you ask her where she obtained the sweater?”