Research on the Internet gave him little useful information about the facility. Images of the exterior and interior suggested it had undergone extensive renovations at some point recently. A few buildings had been added, mainly outpatient surgery and physician office facilities. His best guess was that the hospice rooms would be located in the main patient building, which towered over the rest of the hospital.
Security inside the place would be a mess. He couldn’t think of any effective way to sweep the areas they’d need to move through, clearing a path for Jessica in advance. The best he could do was observe the areas outside the entrance for any obvious snatch-and-grab teams. Anyone wishing to do Jessica and him harm faced the same complications inside. There was no way to go about business inconspicuously unless your plan was to kill and you really didn’t give a shit about keeping it covert. A distinct possibility in this case.
Daniel had no intention of letting his guard down outside or inside the building. Their greatest ally would be time. The sooner they got in and out, the better, and that would solely depend on Jessica. He hated to admit it, but part of him hoped Vesna Erak was incommunicative or unresponsive at this point. Jessica could spend some time in the room “talking” to her mother, and they could get the hell out of here within the hour. Quicker possibly. Or would that just make matters worse for Jessica?
He knew the best outcome would be for his wife to spend as much time as she needed to clear the air and say goodbye to her mother. All he had to do was keep her safe. As his car cleared the trees, the main entrance appeared, directly across from a three-story parking garage.
“Shit,” he muttered.
Google Earth hadn’t shown a parking garage, which changed his plan. He was no longer dealing with a straight line-of-sight surveillance situation across a parking lot. He’d need to accompany Jessica the entire way instead of hanging back to watch the surroundings. Too many nooks and crannies in a parking garage to ensure her safety. He dialed her phone.
“What’s up?” she answered.
“There’s a massive parking garage instead of a parking lot. I’d feel better about this if we walked into the hospital together. We can put some space between us once we’re inside. I’m going to pull into the drop-off area in front of the main entrance and wait for you to get here. Pull up behind me and we’ll find adjacent spaces in the garage.”
“I guess we should have driven together after all,” she said.
“It would appear so,” replied Daniel. “I don’t see any other parking options, either… hold on.”
The kit provided by Sanderson included handicap placards, so there might still be some hope. He scanned the area around the entrance for handicap parking spaces, finding a few rows of cars in a small lot located directly in front of the garage. They might be able to station at least one of the cars as close as possible to the building in case they needed to make a quick exit. No such luck.
“Never mind,” he said. “I thought we might be able to use a handicap space.”
“It’ll be fine. I’m about five minutes out,” she said.
“I might take a look inside the lobby before you get here.”
“Not a bad idea,” said Jessica.
He disconnected the call and eased into one of several unoccupied patient pickup spaces under a wide, two-story-high roof sheltering the entrance. The moment he stopped the car, an older gentleman dressed in pressed khaki pants and a red sweater vest over a white collared shirt emerged through one of the main entrance doors and ambled toward him. Daniel met him on the other side of the car, halfway to the door.
“You can’t park here, sir,” stated the man.
Daniel read the plastic name tag pinned to the vest.
“My apologies, Tom,” he said. “I’m supposed to grab my sister-in-law here and drive her home. My wife’s mother is in one of the hospice rooms, and everyone is in from out of town. I’m doing what I can to get people back and forth. Do you mind if I leave the car here while I have a look around the lobby?”
“As long as you don’t linger,” said the venerable parking sentry.
“I’ll be gone in a minute or so,” said Daniel. “Thank you.”
The man didn’t change expression, clearly unimpressed by his promise. He’d undoubtedly heard every excuse in the book at this point.
“I’ll be right back.”
“We tow,” warned the man.
“I don’t doubt it.”
Daniel pressed the blue handicap access button plate on the thick metal post in front of one of the automatic doors. By the time he reached the entry, the door had opened far enough for him to slide into a glass-enclosed, three-story atrium. The lobby looked more like something you’d find inside fancy tech start-up headquarters than a community hospital, which made his job easier. He had clear sightlines to all of the seating areas scattered throughout the space.
Pretending to search for his sister-in-law, he was able to cross the few people seated in the lobby off his running list of obvious lookouts. No police either, or any discernible security sensors like a metal detector or X-ray machine. Not that he had expected to find that kind of security in Palos Hills. He might find a cop at the emergency entrance on the opposite side of the hospital. Not that it really mattered. His pistol was concealed, and there was no reason to search him. He sensed a presence behind him.
Instinct told him it was Tom, but it could be anyone. Well-practiced and perfected skills beat instinct any day in this business. Not that his current skill level met either description at the moment. Covert operations field craft involved highly perishable skills, their easy expiration directly related to an abysmally low survival rate. He turned his head slightly, confirming the red vest. He hated living like this. They couldn’t get back to the sailboat quickly enough.
“Do you see her?” asked the man.
The guy was relentless, which Daniel decided might work to his advantage.
“I don’t see her,” said Daniel. “She’s supposedly been here a while. Like almost an hour.”
The man took a quick look around, shaking his head.
“I’m going on five hours here, and I haven’t seen anyone hanging out in the main lobby for that long.”
“Maybe hidden back in the café?” said Daniel, looking in that direction.
“Café closed at six thirty. That group just sat down a few minutes ago to grab their kids a snack from one of the accessible vending machines,” said the man. “She might be waiting in the hospice wing. They have a comfortable lounge for family there.”
Tom had the lobby locked down tight. Anyone lingering here would have drawn his attention long ago.
“Maybe she went back up to the hospice floor. Let me move my car, and I’ll get this all sorted out,” said Daniel. “I know she didn’t walk home. At least I hope she didn’t. Right?”
The man nodded, feigning a smile. All business. Daniel returned to his car in time to take a call from Jessica.
“I’m turning onto the main entrance road,” she said.
“I’ll meet you at the parking garage entrance. The lobby is clear.”
“I can’t wait,” said Jessica.
She sounded distinctly different than a few minutes ago. In fact, she sounded remarkably like she had in Belgrade during their final days in that mess. The closer she got to seeing her mother, the worse this would get. The trick was keeping her from a complete breakdown, and if anything had the potential to trigger one, this was it.
Daniel pulled the car out of the drop-off zone and waited at the top of the drive for Jessica. He prayed for a short visit, fully aware that it would be a long night no matter what.
Chapter 19