Chapter 11 #2
Their chatter as they’d eaten had been over their favorite foods.
He’d talked about how nothing compared to the taste of freshly caught salmon from an Alaskan river.
And she’d talked about how she’d fallen in love with fresh guava from the tree she’d eaten in San Carlion. On that he could agree too.
He’d almost promised he’d take her to Alaska so she could eat salmon, but he’d kept the words to himself.
“You look serious, is everything okay?”
While lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t been aware of Marie moving from her spot on the couch to where he sat on the floor by the coffee table.
“Yeah, I was just thinking.”
Marie nodded. “About what happened today.”
Isaac didn’t question how she knew what he was thinking about. “Can I ask you a couple of questions about it?”
Abruptly Marie got up and headed back to the box she’d been unpacking before the pizza arrived. “I suppose.”
He wanted to go over there to comfort her, but stayed where he was. Distance while he questioned her was likely the best idea. “I know it’s the last thing you want to do, but anything you can share will help in working out if and why you were targeted.”
“Go ahead,” she said, but the walls were going back up, and after the camaraderie they’d shared over dinner, Isaac wished he hadn’t brought the subject up. Yet burying it wouldn’t achieve anything either.
“You were at the hospital before you called Yolanda to meet her for lunch, right?”
“Yep.”
Great, one-word answers. This is going to be long.
Isaac shushed the voice in his head. If it took all night, it took all night. And Marie could answer any way she wanted to. “While you were there did you happen to notice anyone that looked out of place. That perhaps shouldn’t have been there.”
Marie paused in her unpacking and gazed toward the window.
Isaac gave her time, and didn't pepper her to answer him quickly.
As a doctor, her observation skills were more honed than the average person.
She would have to be able to read between the lines of what a patient was actually saying and what was really wrong with them.
“I can’t say that I saw anything out of the ordinary,” Marie said eventually. “The admin floors were busy, but no one looked out of place. I did go down to the ER and, like always, it bordered on chaotic, and picking out anyone who didn’t belong there would be hard.”
“And when you went to meet Yolanda, did you notice anyone following you?” This one was a long shot, but he had to ask it anyway.
“I admit to not paying attention. Once I got in the car, I pulled out my phone to finish reading an article in a medical journal.”
“Did you take the same kind of rideshare as the one you were getting into outside the building?” He felt like he was a police detective, peppering her with the questions, but he was building a picture, one he would share with the guys in the office in the morning.
His phone had stayed worryingly quiet, which meant Cass hadn’t found a thread she could pull to see where the kidnappers had headed.
“Yeah, this one was fine. It pulled up out the front of the hospital and I got in and started the ride.”
Driverless cars were an anomaly to Isaac, he couldn’t imagine giving up control of a vehicle, especially in LA traffic where anything could happen and sharp reflexes came into play. “Why do you go for one of those instead of getting a rideshare with an actual driver?”
“I figured it would be safer. I mean you never know what’s going to happen when you get into a car with a stranger.” She smiled wryly. “Guess even a driverless car is just as dangerous.”
“Seems that way. It’s something whoever runs the company needs to look at. When they get blocked in they can’t seem to move, which doesn’t make sense, especially if they can do the impossible and parallel park,” he joked.
“The ultimate goal in driving is to be able to parallel park on the first go and not go in and out fifty times.”
“I’m a dab hand at it,” Isaac winked, but there was still more he wanted to talk about so that the picture he was drawing became fully fleshed out.
“So nothing stood out at the hospital and on your drive over to see your mom. What about at lunch? Anyone lurking or watching you that gave you creeper vibes?”
Creeper vibes? What was he, fifteen?
Fortunately, Marie either didn’t hear it or she was giving him a pass, because her nose screwed up a little in concentration—something he hadn’t seen from her before, but he found that he really liked it.
“Not that I can remember. Mom and I were talking, so all my focus was on her. And before you ask, when we left I didn’t feel like someone was following me. ”
“Right.” Isaac pondered everything she’d said. Nothing she said suggested that someone had been watching her or following—not that she noticed anyway.
Perhaps it had been a case of her being in the wrong place at the wrong time and no one was after Marie.
As much as he wanted to believe that, he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to this than bad luck.
“Did you get a new phone when you returned from Guatemala or do you have the same one?”
“I’ve got the same one. I added an international roaming package on my phone, but considering the lack of cell towers in the area, I could’ve left it at home considering the amount of time I got a decent signal and actually used it.”
“Will you need your phone tomorrow?” he queried, wondering if her cell was the key that would unlock the issue.
“Probably not in the afternoon when I’m doing my shift. Why?” She’d stopped unpacking and was watching him intently.
“I want to take it to the office and scan it. See if there is a tracking app or device put on it.”
Marie’s eyes widened. “You think someone put a tracking device on my phone? That’s ridiculous, and makes no sense. I’m a doctor. I’m not some sort of international spy or someone with the skills to create a chemical compound that can be put in weapons.”
Frustration gnawed at him, and he took a moment to bury it, getting into an argument with her wasn’t going to help. “We’ve already established that this whole attempted robbery/kidnapping is ridiculous, but I want to cover all bases. Take every scenario, no matter how far-fetched, off the list.”
His mind went to the box in his jacket pocket. Convincing her to wear the earrings with the tracking device in them wasn’t going to be easy. Not now. Actually, it was always going to be a hard sell, but he was stubborn too, and he wanted her, no, he needed her to be safe.
Silence stretched between them, and Isaac kept his attention on her, his gaze not wavering. She didn’t back down either, and it became a silent battle of wills.
Who would be the first to look away?
Who would be the first to give in?
“You’re not going to give up on this are you?” she said eventually.
“When it comes to you and your safety, no I’m not.”
“Fine. You can have my phone, but you’ll have to come get it from me before I start my shift, and I expect you to bring it back to me when I get off.”
“Consider it done.” There was no hesitation on his part. “I’ll even come and pick you up and take you to the hospital, and bring you home when your shift is over.”
Would she push back? Tell him he was being over the top, or would she accept it?
“I can see by the look on your face that any argument is going to fall on deaf ears. But just so you know, I have to be there at 8 a.m. and I’m scheduled to finish at 10 p.m. Also, if I’m in the middle of treating a patient, I’m not walking out just because it’s the end of my shift.
I’ll stay as long as necessary to ensure my patients are cared for.
” She crushed the paper in her hand into a little ball and threw it at him, as if she was daring him to say it was all too hard and he didn’t want to wait.
As if that would happen. He caught it one-handed and tossed it into the empty box in front of him.
“Wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”
“Of course, it wouldn’t be a pain in the ass for you,” she muttered and moved to another box.
Isaac chuckled, he’d tackle the issue of the earrings when he picked her up tomorrow. He’d already achieved more than he thought he would tonight.
She wouldn’t know it, but he planned to camp out in his car and watch her building for the rest of the night. Her safety was his only priority. He could sleep when the mystery was solved and she could go about her life normally.
Isaac tried to squash the bubble of hope that when it was all over, he would still be a part of her life.