Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Four hours later, Eliana sat on the passenger seat of Carlos’s truck with Tony behind the wheel, heading for the hospital. She bent her knees and pulled her feet close so she could hug her knees. It didn’t feel great while wearing a seatbelt, but she didn’t care.
Chicago high-rise buildings passed her window, encased in shadows, above them just cloudy sky. Beside them, people huddled in doorways, and others walked down the street with their heads ducked.
She glanced at Tony. “I don’t think he’ll be happy it was you who drove.”
“As if you’re in any condition.” Tony muscled the wheel around, and they turned a corner. “He needs to get picked up. And this way, you can pretend you’re fine.”
Eliana wanted to retort back to him about that, because no way was she fine. But she wasn’t injured apart from a nagging headache and a couple of bruises. He was the one who’d been dosed with whatever made everyone on the street go crazy. “Make it make sense.”
“You saw a man die. That’s never easy.”
“And the Shrine will clean it up like it never happened. Is that it?”
Tony gripped the wheel. “You’re determined to pick a fight, but I’m the last person who is your enemy.”
Her phone rang through the car speakers, and Maizie showed up on the dash screen. She reached to hit the button to answer it.
Tony made a small noise in his throat. “Don’t mention me. Say nothing about what happened.” He grabbed her wrist.
Eliana was about to order him to let go of her when he did. “You’re not seriously—”
“Don’t mention anything about it. Understood?”
This conversation isn’t over. Eliana had wanted to say that, but now wasn’t the time. People had died today. “Hey, Maze.”
Maizie didn’t speak right away. “Yes, honey,” she whispered. “But only one.” Then louder, she said, “Hey, Sis. How are you?”
“I’ve been better.” Elaina sighed. “You didn’t call me just to shoot the breeze, did you?
” She glanced over at Tony and saw an odd expression on his face.
It looked a lot like grief, which didn’t make any sense given he had no problem with what’d happened in the vault.
He’d walked her out a back entrance, up a tiny stairwell, and parked her in Sylvia’s office, where she’d waited an hour for him to come back.
“No, but I want to know how you are.” A few seconds later, Maizie said, “Ellie?”
Eliana looked at the dash screen. “I’m here.”
Tony pulled onto a busy road with two lanes of traffic in both directions.
“Long story, but I’ll try to get through it quick.
I’m almost to where I’m going.” She took a breath, and even though Tony glanced at her, she wasn’t going to go against what he’d said.
She waved a hand to alleviate his concern.
“Okay, I was at work when this all happened, so it’s just what I heard from people, or what was on the news on the TV in the museum break room. ”
Tony gripped the wheel and braked, nothing but red lights in front of her and dark sky above.
“Sounds ominous. Is that maybe why Carlos isn’t answering his phone?”
“Yes.” Eliana shifted in her seat. “There were a bunch of…I guess they were attacks today. Someone tossed canisters of this gas out of their car window all over town. Maybe multiple someones.” She’d read all about it on her phone from Sylvia’s office.
“About eight different locations, mostly crowded with people. A city park. Outside the museum. Even in a high school parking lot just as classes were letting out. The gas made people go crazy and start fighting each other.”
Who knew what the death toll was now. Last she’d heard there were two deceased and seven in critical condition.
She wanted to add the young man from the vault, but Tony and Sylvia had both told her that the police had far too much to worry about without them adding that.
As if that wasn’t blatantly suspicious.
“Wow,” Maizie said. “I heard something on the news, but I was leaving the office, so I didn’t catch what it was.”
“Thankfully, it’s not happening there.” Eliana didn’t want to think about the girls, Maizie’s twin daughters, being hurt.
“Carlos responded because he was on shift. He’s still stuck at the hospital, but it was way past time he could clock out, so he called his sergeant, then me.
I went to his precinct, got his truck keys and his duffel bag—which smells, by the way—and I’m driving to go pick him up. ”
She had to sound as normal as she could, or Maizie would ask what else was wrong. Eliana would cave and tell her sister about the man sitting beside her, and what’d happened to them today.
“That’s nice of you.” Maizie’s remark almost sounded like a question.
“Today was crazy for sure.” Eliana didn’t explain to Maizie that she needed to see Carlos for herself, just so she’d know if he was okay. “Were you trying to call Carlos, or something?”
“He sent me an email, officially. Now I’m officially responding.”
“I can pass on whatever it is.” Unless officially meant she wasn’t supposed to know.
Kind of like the fate of those young people.
She cleared her throat, deciding to focus on the reason Maizie was calling and not everything she was dealing with.
“I was with him at the resort community where he thinks Luci was. I saw the dresses and the cups, and I know who the Reverence Sisters are.”
“Maybe you think you know, but—”
“I know, Maze. I’m not a sheltered kid who has no idea what’s going on in the world. I saw a dead body the other day.”
Tony bumped the curb turning into the hospital parking lot, and she decided it would take some skill to park this tank of a truck. Not that she wanted to be glad it wasn’t her driving.
Right now, it felt like weeks since she’d discovered Doctor Splitfield’s dead body. It seemed like the world had shifted on its axis since then.
Eliana continued, “His hands were nailed to the table, and whoever killed him cut his tongue out.” She couldn’t even get into the rest of it.
Their missing time and the needle marks.
Tony attacking her. Those people trying to get into the vault, and how they’d actually succeeded—until one was vaporized right in front of her.
“You…saw that?”
Eliana blinked back tears. “I’m the one who found him, and now this?” She didn’t know whether she was referring to the community and the dresses, or to the bizarre events that had happened today, which people were calling “attacks.” Or Tony, or those people. Or the unexplained needle mark.
Maybe it didn’t matter which thing she was talking about.
Tony pulled into a parking space.
“I have to go.” Eliana sniffed. “Carlos is waiting for me to get here.”
Maizie said, “Love you. Tell him to call me.”
The call ended.
Eliana closed her eyes. “I don’t like lying.”
“Your sister never actually told you whatever it was that she wanted to pass to Carlos.”
She looked at Tony. “Is that the point right now?” She could not even.
“Who killed Doctor Splitfield? What happened to those young people trying to break into the vault? Are you responsible for the missing time Carlos and I experienced at the compound? And this?” She motioned at her elbow, even though her sleeve covered the needle mark.
“You think I’m to blame for everything that’s been happening?” He hit the button beside the steering wheel, and the truck powered down. “Like I planned to be dosed with whatever made everyone go crazy today? Why don’t you tell me why you weren’t affected by it?”
“How am I supposed to know?”
He leaned toward her just a fraction. “Exactly.”
As if that was supposed to satisfy her. “Are those young people going to show up with their tongues cut out?”
“The Shrine doesn’t need to murder people to get what we want.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Tony dropped the keys into the cupholder. “Sylvia dealt with those kids. The cops were busy with everything that went down today, which was a great smokescreen for a theft from the vault. If it wasn’t a failed plan to begin with—and major overkill making the whole city descend into chaos.”
“So there was more than one theft, or they just took advantage and jumped on the situation?” She took the keys from the cupholder. “I saw them a few days ago, walking through the Shrine. Probably doing recon ahead of time.”
“You’re no doubt correct that they jumped on a chaotic situation.”
“Seriously?” Eliana said. “Are they going to show up dead?”
Tony shook his head. “Don’t worry about it.” He pushed his door open and got out.
“That’s not an answer!”
He shut the door and walked away. Like he was mad and hadn’t just gone out of his way to do her a favor and help her get Carlos’s truck to the hospital.
She flipped her phone open and scrolled through her contacts to Carlos’s number. It rang a couple of times, and he said, “Hey. You’re here?”
Tears filled her eyes again, burning and blurring her vision. “In your truck, yeah.”
“Oh, right. I see my truck on the app.” He spoke to someone else, his voice muffled so she couldn’t hear what he said. “I’ll come down. They’re just signing me out.”
“Are you okay?” She hadn’t realized how much she’d be reassured just hearing his voice.
“Yes, Lia. They needed a baseline for figuring out what everyone was dosed with, so I hung around for tests.”
Of course, he had.
“See you in a second.” He hung up.
She flipped her phone closed, then got out. Beeped the locks on the truck and headed for the front entrance.
Inside the hospital was chaos, as if half the city was packed in here, milling around and waiting for news. A group that looked like a multigenerational family headed her way, so she had to move to the side, which put her in a blind corner over by the visitor’s elevator.
Nope.
It would be a while before she wanted to get in an elevator again.
Eliana picked her way back to the front doors and heard someone clear their throat through a microphone.