Apparently, my glance wasn’t anywhere near as surreptitious as I wanted to believe. I suppose the fact that it had turned into a somewhat prolonged stare was to blame.
“I’m sorry if I make you uncomfortable for some reason, Mister Gant,” Detective Shen told me. “I’m sure Special Agent Mandalay will be back soon enough.”
I broke my stare away from the door and looked at her. I swallowed hard then gave my head a shake. “I’m sorry… It’s just…”
“I understand,” she replied. “Just relax. It’s been a rough day for all of us. But you don’t have to worry. You’re safe now.”
“Yeah. I guess so.”
“Okay,” she nudged. “You were telling me that Lisa Carlson had said you were responsible for ‘all of them.’”
“Yeah… Okay… Right… Just the facts,” I replied, nodding as I spoke. “So, as I recall she said something like, ‘You only have yourself to blame,’ then when I asked her for what, she said, ‘All of them.’ Then I said pretty much the same thing you just did, and she said, ‘Everyone who had to die because you kept me from her.’”
I didn’t really have any trouble remembering the conversation. It was still painfully clear in my mind. The biggest issue I faced was the on-the-fly sanitizing I had to do. As usual, I just automatically deleted references to ethereal visions and spirit possession wherever necessary. Fortunately, that didn’t Swiss cheese my recounting of this particular conversation as bad as it had some of the statements I had given in the past.
“Okay,” Shen nodded as she scribbled. “What happened next?”
A sharp lance of pain shot through my head, originating at the base of my skull and ricocheting off the inside of my forehead before clawing its way through the rest of my grey matter. At almost that same instant, a frantic knock sounded at the door. It immediately swung inward without pause, and a nurse barreled through the opening as if on a mission.
Upon hearing the initial sound, Shen had already turned away from me. Apparently, she was taking Mandalay’s instructions to heart because a split second after the door began to swing she was in motion. Shifting quickly, she took a pair of steps toward the nurse, effectively blocking any further ingress and placing herself between any potential threat and me.
“Excuse me, officer?” the nurse said, her voice filled with dire urgency.
“Detective,” Shen replied.
“Sorry, Detective,” the nurse shot back quickly, rushing past the apology and continuing with, “The woman from the FBI. Agent Mann, or something like that. She needs your help out in the lounge area right away.”
“Did she say why?” Shen asked.
The nurse shook her head while pointing out the doorway, a wave of what sounded like intense fear rippling through her voice. “No, but there is someone…” she stuttered. “And the tall policeman… He… Please… Something bad is happening out there, and she needs your help!”
“Dammit,” Detective Shen muttered then barked. “Let me see your ID.”
The nurse looked momentarily both impatient and nonplussed but then fingered a plastic card that was hanging around her neck on the end of an imprinted lanyard and held it up. The detective quickly peered at the hospital credentials then at the nurse’s face. Satisfied, she stepped around her while thrusting a finger back toward me and barking the order, “Stay with him. Don’t let anyone in.”
Shen bolted from the room, and the nurse pushed the door shut behind her. Walking quickly back toward me, she was panting as if the excitement had pushed her beyond her limits. I couldn’t blame her. More than enough had happened here today already, so I knew exactly how she felt.
The tickle along my spine had completely bypassed the tingle stage and become a raging fire, spreading outward to consume me. Every hair on my body now stood at attention, and I could feel the gooseflesh literally undulating in tremor-like waves. Whatever was happening out there wasn’t good, and even the drugs coursing through my system couldn’t keep the cold fear from gripping my chest.
“What’s happening?” I asked, with more than just a healthy dose of urgency in my tone. “You said something about Detective Storm. Is he hurt?”
She didn’t answer me. Instead, she reached down over the railing and snatched up the call pendant then flipped it off to the side.
“What the hell are you doing?” I asked. It was a stupid question, but it was the first thing that popped out of my mouth. Then, as if arriving late to a party, it dawned on me that I had not seen this nurse before, but her voice sounded oddly familiar. Moreover, it carried with it a more than slight Southern affectation as well.
Still silent, she stamped over to the foot of the bed, released the brake and began pulling. She let out a heavy grunt then yanked hard on the end, shoving her body to the side as she whipped me around. The pulsox sensor snapped off the end of my finger, instantly sending the monitor into a fit. She continued pulling, and a second later I felt a tug then a sharp pain. I grabbed for the IV tubing to keep it from ripping out of the back of my hand, and both the stand and the morphine pump toppled over and clattered across the floor. As we continued to move, the tension increased, and I was forced to pull the IV catheter out before it tore away of its own accord.
She managed to wheel the bed the short distance across the room and bring it lengthwise in front of the door just as someone outside was attempting to push their way in. The wooden slab butted hard against the side of the heavy frame, causing it to shudder slightly, but not budge. I watched her move quickly as she stomped down on the brake to lock the bed into position. Then she stalked around the end and along the side.
Glaring, she covered the few steps toward me, then she laughed. “You are so gullible, little man. Did you honestly believe that I would give up?”
That was when I caught the sharp glint of light from metal. I probably hadn’t noticed it before because Detective Shen had positioned herself between us, blocking my view. And after that, everything had happened so fast that it was a wonder I’d noticed anything at all. But now, there it was, a chain around the woman’s neck that flowed downward and disappeared behind her scrubs. I didn’t have to see the rest of it to know what was dangling on the hidden end.
I could hear shouting beyond the door. Tremors continued to vibrate through the bed frame as something heavy pounded against the opposite side of the barrier. Still nothing budged. I came to realize in that instant that I was on my own.
“You can’t make it out of here,” I spat. “You have to know that, Miranda.”
She lashed out, driving her fist into my jaw. I tried to block her, but my reactions were lagging far behind hers. I tried to roll with it, but her connection was solid and the damage was done. I could feel a sharp sting in the corner of my mouth and taste the blood as it began to flow.
“That does not matter, little man,” she snapped. “This is just another body, and you will be dead. Then I will have what is rightfully mine. My only regret is that I do not have enough time to show you what love really is.”
“You mean your twisted concept of it?” I asked.
I heard my name being called from the other side of the door, and now a new noise joined the clamor as something struck with a hard ping against the window wall. It didn’t take much for me to realize what they were trying to do, but I also had to wonder just how long it would take for them to break through tempered safety glass.
Something told me it would be too long.
Although I was absolutely certain I should be feeling abject fear at my impending fate, I wasn’t. Miranda was going to kill me, and I knew it. For a fleeting instant, I thought perhaps I was simply feeling resignation, as a bizarre calm seemed to spread through my body. However, that calm was tainted with a pang of guilt.
I looked into the eyes of the unfortunate woman who was now glaring back at me. The spirit was evil, but the body belonged to someone else, and that rightful owner was in no way responsible for what was now happening. If she killed me, an innocent person would be who ended up standing trial, not the actual killer. If by some miracle they came through that wall in time, an innocent person might lose her life as they did whatever was necessary to save me.