Chapter Fifty-Eight
Touching down at 3 am, the plane taxied to a private hangar where a car awaited to take them to the hospital. The ride was somber, the city lights passing by in a blur as they made their way through the early morning traffic.
Sophie squeezed Fernando’s hand as they neared the hospital. “We’ll get through this together,” she said, determination in her voice. He nodded, drawing strength from her resolve.
Arriving at the hospital, they were greeted by a flurry of activity. Colin McKenzie met them at the entrance and led them to Brice’s private room, his expression grave but determined.
“Callie, Cory, and Brice are stable,” he said. “Callie already went home with Leslie and is sleeping well. Basic injuries you would expect after being in a blast radius. She was blessed to be farthest away and a lightweight. She was thrown from the concussion. Cory wound up with internal bleeding and a busted eardrum. He took a camera to the gut, and his spleen didn’t appreciate it. He is being monitored. If the bleeding stops, he keeps his spleen and will be on light duty for the next couple of months while it heals. If it doesn’t stop bleeding, he will need surgery to remove it. That is serious but not usually fatal. He should pull through just fine. Brice was the closest to the explosion. It was behind him, and he was thrown the farthest. He has broken ribs, a fractured arm, a sprained wrist, his face is pretty banged up where he came down on it, and a concussion with memory loss. He can’t tell us anything. He’s stable and should also be fine. The biggest concern is the concussion and the impact on his brain. The investigation is ongoing, and we’ll have more information soon. From what I could pick up from the questions they asked Cory and Callie, there were some chemicals on sight. Given the scenes, it made sense to be there, but my kids seem to think they shouldn’t have been present. Something about gas for a lawn mower scene and propane for the grill.”
When they reached the door, Annabel McKenzie leaped from her chair and threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad you’re home safe and sound. Don’t you worry; the kids are going to be fine. Cory asked for you to come see him when you have time. Brice is sleeping and doesn’t do well when he’s awake, so just pop in if you want to check on him, but don’t talk to him until later, okay?”
Fernando nodded and walked into the younger man’s room. He may be his surrogate brother, but he meant as much to Fernando as any made of his own flesh and blood. Taking in the damage to his face, cast on his arm, and the wrapping around his ribs, tears fell from Fernando’s eyes. Whatever the reason for this incident, he was going to find out and make sure it never happened again. His employees should be safe when they come to work, and this accident almost killed three people .
Sophie walked up behind him and gently rested her hand on the middle of his back. “Let’s go talk to Cory; he may have some insight for us.”
Annabel stayed with Brice while Colin, Fernando, and Sophie made their way to the ICU, where Cory was being monitored.
“Those two men in the hall…”
“BraveHeart Security boys,” Colin answered before Fernando could finish the question. “The BBC didn’t want to take any chances with the kids’ safety until we know for sure how and why the explosion occurred. Cory has two outside his room. Anthony made some calls to get that approved, and Callie is staying with Leslie and a team stationed inside and around her house. They protested but lost. Enrique and Julio didn’t want to hear any arguments, and when they didn’t get support from any of the rest of us, they backed down pretty quickly. Julio promised to have female agents in place today, but on such short notice and with the unknown level of threat, he put the best men he had in the area on it. I, for one, appreciate it. I know it is helping Annabel rest easier since she can only be at one child’s side. She is a mother hen and would prefer all her chicks to be under her wing.”
“I’m glad they were able to respond so quickly. Knowing my family is protected will help me focus on the task at hand...finding out if this is a threat or an accident,” Fernando confessed as he slid the glass door to Cory’s ICU room open. The identical version of Brice, sans the abrasions and severe bruising, opened his eyes and stared at him, blinking twice before smiling broadly. “It’s about time. Took you long enough. I almost forgot what I wanted to tell you,” the young man complained good-naturedly.
That was the thing with the twins; they may look identical in every single way, but their personalities were as different as the sun and the moon. Cory was just blown up, and even with internal bleeding, he would be cracking jokes in a matter of minutes if Fernando allowed it.
Taking the hand Cory offered, Fernando pulled it to his heart while bending down and giving his little brother the best hug he could. “I love you Cor. I’m glad you’re going to be okay,” Fernando whispered in his ear, tears once more filling his eyes as he thanked God for sparing him.
As Fernando resumed his full height, Cory slapped him on the arm. “Hey man, no tears. They gotta be bad luck or something. Good thing you picked that ear to tickle because this one,” he said, pointing to his left ear, “can’t hear jack! That baby gave a whole new meaning to ‘boom box,’” he said with a chuckle. When no one in the room laughed at his joke, he rolled his eyes. “Come on guys, you know, ‘boom box’… it was a box that went BOOM! ” using his hands to illustrate the explosion, “And Ma always said I needed to turn my ‘boom box’ down even though I had no idea what she was talking about for a long time… Ya know, it was a sound system .” Everyone just stood there staring at him, grins on their faces that didn’t reach their eyes. “Lighten up, you guys. I’m the one that’s dyin’ here!”
Fernando placed his hand on Cory’s arm. “I love you and appreciate the levity you bring to any situation, but right now, I need to know if you have any useful information for me.”
“Oh, yeah. I tried to explain this to the cops and the Arson investigator, but I don’t think they were listening. The explosion came from a brown plastic garden box on set. It was supposed to be an empty prop. There was no reason for it to have anything, let alone fuel. You know we do all the fire and explosions in the production room using CGR. We used the mower for that scene days before, and we used a real lawn man; it was Sadie’s dad. He brought the machine... fueled and everything. When we finished filming, he loaded it up and went back to work. The grill we used for the party day scene had charcoal in it. We cooked actual food, had a celebration for Craig’s birthday during our lunch break, shot some B-role while we were at it, and then it was taken home. The grill on set when the explosion occurred was brand new. Gas had never even been connected to it.”
“Wait, are you telling me that there was actually a grill with fire in it on my set?” Fernando asked.
“I mean, yes. And I know your rules about safe sets. It wasn’t my decision, well, okay, it wasn’t only my decision, though no, I didn’t stop it. Yell at me about that later. What I’m saying is the grill that supposedly had gas going to it that went kaboom didn’t. Could someone have gotten hurt from our grill out? Yes, in theory. Could someone have gotten blown up from it? No way! I’m telling you, Andy, something is going on. I have been laying here for hours trying to figure out who would’ve or could’ve done it, and I got nothin’ but… Someone blew us up. The fact they got all three of us McKenzie kids seems suspicious, too. There was only one time in the entire show that Callie and I would be together with no other actors in the frame on that particular set. Brice, being the detailed director that he is, is constantly jumping in and tweaking things, so that was a lucky break. My gut says someone is after the McKenzie kids, and I don’t know why. I haven’t heard anyone bad-mouthing you or us. And I’ll tell you, when Enrique looks at the set footage, he’ll see that the box has been there since the beginning. Someone had to have gotten their hands on the script and found that one day, when Callie was shooting alone, then planned it ahead of time. That garden box was not in the set design. It worked, so we left it. Looking back, that may be an area in our security procedures we need to tighten.”
“Cory, this information has been very helpful. I have a lot to think about. Rest now.” Fernando patted him on the shoulder and exited the room before turning to Colin. “I have a briefing in a couple of hours. I’ll learn something soon and pass it along as soon as I can. Before I go, do you know of anyone who may want to target your kids?”
Colin rubbed at the five o’clock shadow growing on his chin. “No, but this is the first time I’ve given it any thought. Let me get back to you on that later, after my mind has time to think over it more carefully. If we go down the rabbit hole of targeting McKenzie kids, you may need to widen the net a little and consider that Elsie is the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and has hired and fired hundreds of people throughout her career. Arabella and her husband worked for the FBI and IRS and put away some big names for white-collar crimes. Those folks would be pretty connected, have long memories, and tend not to stay in jail too long.”
Fernando rubbed his head. “Yeah, well, just because it’s a giant can of worms doesn’t mean we don’t need to open it. Will you reach out to the girls and see if anyone comes to mind? I don’t want us to make assumptions that could cost someone their life. Today, we were blessed that everyone will recover; that might not be the outcome if this was planned, and they get a second chance.”