Chapter Seventeen Panic Mode #3
They decided to have Kathryn drive. Their first stop was the yard where the dump trucks were parked.
They left their vehicle about a hundred yards from the fence.
Neither had night goggles, so each of them opted for long branches to brush the ground surface before they treaded on it.
When they got to the fence, Kathryn gave Annie a sideways look.
“I don’t think I can get myself over that thing.” Kathryn was strong, but not necessarily lithe.
She made a stirrup with her hands. Annie grabbed the fence, stepped into Kathryn’s open hands, and pulled herself up and over.
Her pole-dancing exercises had certainly paid off.
She crept around each truck, snapping photos and video.
As she approached the front, she noticed scratch marks, and some stippling across the front of the bumper of one of the trucks.
She was moving too quickly to take a closer look.
The photos would have to do. And they usually did.
The equipment they used was on the cutting edge of electronics, and often not available to the general public.
Kathryn noticed the beam of a flashlight appear.
She made the sound of an owl as a warning to Annie.
There wasn’t time for Annie to haul herself back over the fence, so she rolled under the truck, just as Yoko and Maggie were forced to do.
If this facility operated the same way as the other—and there would be no reason why it wouldn’t—it would be a watchman on foot, walking the perimeter of the yard.
Annie huddled against one of the large tires and waited for the light and footsteps to vanish.
When she was confident she was clear to move, she rolled out from under the truck.
She dashed and leaped toward the fence, catapulting herself a few feet above the ground.
She rolled her body over the top, and Kathryn helped her to the ground.
They hotfooted it back to the car, sent the photos and video to the War Room, and continued to the next leg of their maneuver.
On their way from the yard, they passed a narrow gravel road. “Do you suppose this is the back road where our ‘gumshoe detectives’ saw the car pull in and out?” Annie rolled down her window. “Pull over. I want to check something.”
She opened a special app on her phone that had an aerial view of where they were. She turned the screen toward Kathryn. “Look familiar?”
“Sure does. Plus, it will make it easier for us to get close to the building. We won’t have to crawl or climb. If anybody asks, I’ll tell them I left something in my cubicle.”
Annie abruptly grabbed Kathryn’s arm. “Who looks after the patients at night?”
“They are on a monitor. If something goes wrong, Turner gets the alarm.”
“Then she must live close by,” Annie noted. “We need to make haste, as in now!”
Kathryn sped down the gravel road and parked behind the building.
Annie jumped out of the car and dashed ahead.
She slid the key card into the slot; it buzzed, then unlocked.
They clicked past the inside door, and then quickly moved past the workstation and the few patients, who were practically comatose.
Then they passed by Aunt Dottie’s room. She was asleep in her bed.
“We’re going to have to figure out a plan to get her out of here,” Kathryn said, nodding in Dottie’s direction.
“I think we may need to bring in Theresa and her pals,” Annie said. “But we can finalize those details once we find out what is behind that door.”
Annie touched the key card to the electronic pad.
It buzzed open. They halted and listened.
It was quiet. In front of them was a flight of stairs, and to the side was a very large elevator to accommodate gurneys.
They scrambled down the stairs and entered a large room identical to the one Myra, Maggie, Yoko, and Izzie had discovered.
Kathryn went to the first door of the vault and yanked it open. Inside were the remains of a very old man. “Yikes!” she gasped. “What in the …?”
Annie grabbed another door and did the same. This time it was a very old woman. “Gadzooks! What in the heck is going on here?” She and Kathryn continued to open the drawers and found a total of eight cadavers.
“So, this is what Theresa’s crew saw. They were removing a body,” Annie surmised.
“This is really gross.” Kathryn’s face was twisted in disgust.
“You can say that again,” Annie replied. “Okay, now we gotta get out of here.” She spotted an exit sign. “Come on.”
The two women darted out the door and ran to the vehicle.
Kathryn was heaving. “That was a horror show.”
“You got that right.” Annie buckled herself in. “Floor it, Lucas. We’ve got to get everyone on a call. It doesn’t matter what time it is on the East Coast. This is major.”
Kathryn and Annie sat at the dining room table and powered up their laptops. Some bleary eyes blinked back at them. It was two in the morning for everyone else.
Annie launched into a recap of the evening. When she got to the cadaver part, faces went from shock to horror to disbelief. Suddenly everyone was talking and asking questions at once. Charles finally gave one of his whistles, which lowered the fracas.
“Today we discovered a lot of activity at the banks we could track. Senator Spencer Gerber transferred a very large sum of money into his personal account. According to Lizzie’s contact in Washington, Congressman Hawthorne pulled his funding bill as per the request of Congressman Hannah.
There is an investigation into proper licensing, and, by the by, Sunnydale’s has expired. ”
Myra rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “There seem to be a lot of moving parts to this.”
“Dead bodies, for one,” Kathryn spewed. “Although they’re not really moving.”
“My suggestion is to use the next two days to get all of our ducks in a row,” Charles spoke.
“Let’s review,” Annie said, and began to list the necessary steps: “Rescue Aunt Dottie. According to her medical records, she was in there for rehab from a hip replacement. They probably have kept her drugged up. Let’s get Theresa and her pals on that.
Kathryn, you meet them there and let them in.
We’ll ask Henry to drive. That might have to wait a day or two until we can connect the dots between Gerber and Sunnydale, as to who else is involved.
“Maggie, you have to speak to Jeremy again. Nikki is confident she will get the charges dropped. There were no fingerprints on the vial, so it could have been on the ground before the accident. Also, the paint chips from the bumper of the Sunnydale dump truck match Sykes’s vehicle.
“Izzie and Yoko gave us the names of people who we have to help get out from under Sunnydale. There’s Regina, Jeremy, and Danny.
Danny will want to bring his girlfriend, who is a paralegal.
It shouldn’t be difficult to find her a job.
Nikki can work on that. According to Izzie, Regina has shown interest in gardening.
Yoko, find a place where Regina and Danny can set up shop.
He can oversee the business end. Placing Jeremy in a pharmacist position shouldn’t be a problem.
Let’s try to keep it close to where we send Regina and Jeremy.
They can be each other’s support group.”
Charles took it from there. “As soon as we extract Aunt Dottie, we’ll notify the Board of Health about their storage facility.” He cleared his throat. “Then we’ll notify the SEC and Hannah about the misdoings of Senator Gerber, and whomever else is involved.”
It was Fergus’s turn. “There’s more homework to be done on our end. Everyone sit tight for the next forty-eight hours.”
“What about the promissory note and Annie’s check? They will bounce on Monday,” Myra noted.
“But not until after the Sunnydale offices close,” Charles added. “If necessary, you and Annie can leave Sunnydale and register at hotels under your real names and without your disguises. That will give us until Tuesday before Sunnydale discovers they’ve been mugged off.”
Myra spoke next. “We have to decide the punishment.”
Yoko chimed in, “I have an idea. They are injected with organophosphate pesticides causing sensory and motor neuropathy with permanent paralysis. They are conscious but cannot move ever again. Pearl can ship their limp bodies to an asylum in an undeveloped part of the world.”
“Oh, I like that,” Annie said, grinning. “What about Turner and Clayton?”
“Turner, yes. Not sure about Clayton. Anybody have an opinion?”
“We didn’t find any dead bodies on the premises in Florida, but that doesn’t mean there hadn’t been, or they weren’t gearing up for it,” Izzie said.
“The women have been trading rubbish, regardless,” Fergus reminded them.
“I still can’t wrap my head around how people could stomach it.” Kathryn made another face.
“They weren’t technically killing people,” Maggie offered. “But then there are the drugs they were withholding from the patients. They were complicit in that respect. That’s plain cruelty.”
Annie shook her head in disgust. “Yoko, can you get enough of the organo-stuff for at least four people? I am sure Gerber has a partner in this,” Annie stated.
“Most likely Hawthorne. According to his record, he has introduced nothing but additional funding for nursing homes. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it appears that it was in his own personal interest. That is, if we are right about our suspicions,” Fergus added.
“Alright, everyone. Proceed as if everything is normal. We’ll reconvene tomorrow evening. We should have information from Avery by then.”
“Good night, everyone,” Myra said, and yawned.
“Mind as you go.” Fergus signed off.
The Following Day
Florida
Edith Clayton tried to swipe her key card to one of the offices. She tried again. Then a third time. “I hate these things!” She stormed off to her own office to get a new one.
Three Hours Later
Arizona
Janet Turner entered the care center. She nodded at Kathryn, turned, and walked toward the clandestine door.
She swiped it. Nothing. Again. Nothing. Again.
Nothing. She started kicking the door, while Kathryn could barely keep her self from rolling over in hysterics.
She watched as Turner practically exploded.
“Why doesn’t anything work around here?” she bellowed. Then she turned toward Kathryn, who was literally biting her tongue. Kathryn looked up from her desk. “Something wrong?”
That’s when Turner actually exploded. “I am so sick of people not doing a job properly!”
“Excuse me. Did I do something wrong?” Kathryn maintained her cool. It wasn’t easy.
“No, you fool. Can’t you see my key card isn’t working?” She was heaving. “Now I have to go back to the main office and get another one.” She stomped down the hall and out the door. Kathryn could swear a black stream of smoke was coming out of Turner’s ears.