30. Brian
30
brIAN
I hated hospitals—the smell, the sorrow, the vibe, the madness. All of it made me want to pluck out my eyeballs.
The antiseptic odor burned my nostrils, bringing back memories I would rather forget, as Ted and I followed the nurse. The last time I was a patient, I’d suffered multiple stab wounds.
“You let me do the talking.” Ted’s command had me glaring at him.
“You really think I’m going to be quiet.”
“Then don’t strangle the kid.”
“In here,” the nurse with soft eyes said, opening the door to Ryan’s room. “You might not get much out of him. He’s still groggy.”
He would talk. I would make sure of it.
The kid looked like he’d gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson—his face mottled with bruises, a busted lip, black eyes. Someone had done a number on him. It seemed to me Ryan fought back.
Ted ponied up to Ryan’s bedside and introduced himself while I hung at the foot of the bed.
“Ryan,” Ted said, using his deep, authoritative voice, “can you tell us what happened?”
“Where’s Fran?” Ryan’s bruised eyes were glued to me.
“You tell us.” I gripped the footbed tightly.
He shook his head, the heart monitor going crazy. “I don’t know. We were eating lunch at Faneuil Hall, and Fran spotted a woman she knew. A waitress who used to work for you, Mr. McCauley. Sa… I can’t remember her name.”
“Sabine,” I finished for him. “Go on.”
“She came over and told Fran she was in Boston to deliver a folder of yours.” Ryan fidgeted with his IV. “They started talking about her son, Harris, and how they were looking at property to buy southeast of Boston. Freetown, I think I heard.”
I was squeezing the hell out of the pressboard footbed, seething at the mere mention of Harris. The degenerate had always had a hard-on for my daughter.
“Do you know where in Freetown?” Ted asked.
I wondered for a split second why Sabine would share that information. Even Ted had a perplexed look.
“No, I had to use the restroom. Fran said she would be fine, and Sabine seemed nice.”
“Then you went to the men’s room.” Ted kept the conversation going in the right direction. “What happened?”
As for me, steam was coming out of my nose like that from a bull in a ring.
The beeping of monitors went haywire as Ryan stared at me.
The nurse ran in. Jess was the name on her uniform. “You both should leave.”
“Not a chance.” I bared my teeth like a wolf in the wild.
“It’s okay,” Ryan said to her. “I’m fine.”
The nurse scurried out as Ryan’s eyes squeezed shut, like he was trying to grab on to something just out of his reach. “This rich prick with blond hair came up behind me. I caught sight of him in the mirror with a pipe wrench and ducked just in time before he swung it at me.”
“Obviously, you two fought.” I made an imaginary circle around his face.
“Yeah, he seemed like he wasn’t expecting me to fight. In the end, he punched me in the face so hard that I flew backward and hit my head on the sink. Then everything went black.”
Ted held out his phone, which showed a photo of Drew Lopez. “Is this the guy?”
“That’s him,” Ryan said. “Crazy fucker. I’m so sorry. I should’ve stayed with Fran.”
It was obvious to me that Ryan wasn’t involved.
“Can you think of anything else about this guy?” Ted asked. “It’s important. Fran and Grace are missing.”
Ryan’s breathing ramped up, as did that irritating beeping noise. “Oh, God. I don’t want anything to happen to Fran.”
“Tell us about Josh.” I glared at the kid.
“My counselor,” he said. “There’s nothing to tell. He’s a great guy. Why?” Then realization dawned on him, and his blue eyes turned wild. “Is he involved in Grace and Fran’s disappearance?”
“You don’t know anything about why Josh would want to hurt Grace and Fran?” Ted asked evenly.
“He would never.” Ryan sounded offended. “He’s helped me get my life back on track. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have gotten accepted to Oakwood Academy.”
“He used you to get to my daughter.” I didn’t know that for sure, but it sure as fuck seemed that way. “Did he bribe anyone at the academy to get you in?”
“He knows the baseball coach there, but I don’t think he paid anyone off. I had to fill out all the forms like any other person.”
Ted and I exchanged knowing looks. He might be a cop with a sharp eye and criminal intellect, but I was a criminal.
“Where does Josh live?” Ted asked.
On the way to the hospital, Ted had given me a rundown of what he knew about Josh Kinley. Boston College grad, no priors or police record. The guy was squeaky clean. No indication he was the son of John Smith either. Then again, John Smith was not the real name of the man who’d purchased Grace many years ago.
Ryan picked at a fingernail. “He lives in Jamaica Plain, as far as I know, but I’ve never been to his place. I’ve always met him at restaurants around Boston or the Boys & Girls Clubs, or he came to the academy.”
Ted shifted from one foot to the other. “Back to the man who beat you. Did he say anything to you?”
Ryan shook his head. “No. But I noticed he had dirty fingernails, like he’d been digging in dirt, and he had this distinct smell. It was like he’d been working on a farm with horses or cows.”
“You mean he smelled like manure?” I rubbed my temples, feeling a looming headache hanging in the wings. The pain in my chest, which the paramedics deemed was due to a panic attack but advised me to see a doctor to be sure, was slowly returning.
“Anything else?” Ted asked the kid.
“That’s all I remember. Can someone call my mom?” Ryan asked. “Or find my cell?”
“Detective Sanchez will be standing outside your door. He’ll help you reach your mom. If you remember anything else, let him know.”
“I hope Fran is okay. I really do like her, Mr. McCauley.”
I didn’t respond as I walked away. His relationship with my daughter wasn’t important at the moment, but it was good to know that he hadn’t had a hand in her disappearance.
Detective Sanchez stood outside Ryan’s room. “Anything, boss?” he asked Ted, who was typing out a text to someone.
“Ted, I’ll meet you in the parking lot where we left Duke.” I didn’t need to be part of their conversation. I navigated the hallway, banked around a corner, and spotted the Red Sox ball cap first then locked eyes with Josh.
For a brief moment, neither of us moved.
“Zane, right?” I asked for confirmation.
He smirked as if to say that’s my name .
I fisted my hands, although I was itching to pull out the gun tucked in my lower back. “Where are my daughter and Grace?”
The elevator between us dinged.
The momentary distraction of a doctor and nurse coming out of the elevator gave Josh the opening he needed. He took off running as more hospital staff exited the elevator.
I plowed through them and banked around a corner in pursuit of Josh.
He grabbed a cart of supplies and knocked it over, trying to slow me down. I leaped over the cart, muscle memory from years of chasing my enemies and running from the cops not failing me.
The hallway stretched ahead.
Josh took a sharp turn.
As soon as I rounded the corner, the stairwell door slammed shut ahead.
I shoulder checked the door and briefly came to an abrupt halt. Up or down? I glanced over the railing, catching sight of his red ball cap, then flew down the steps, taking them two to three at a time.
My heart hammered against my ribs, more from rage than exertion.
When I reached the first floor and burst through the doorway, only a surgeon was coming toward me.
“Excuse me, did you see a man with a red ball cap?” I asked.
“He went toward the emergency waiting room,” the doctor said.
I jogged in that direction, and by the time I reached the area, I didn’t see anyone who resembled Josh. I left through the emergency exit and searched the area but saw no sign of him.
Dawn was on the horizon, and the brisk morning air was cooling my sweat-soaked skin.
“Fuck me.” I was seething as I kept scanning the area on my way around the outer perimeter to the main entrance where we’d left Duke.
Still no man with a red ball cap. He probably had taken the hat off.
By the time I reached Duke, Ted was walking out of the hospital.
“Why do you look like you ran a marathon?” Duke asked me.
“I ran into Josh. I had him.” I shouldn’t have hesitated in the hallway. “I lost the fucker.”
Immediately, Ted got on his radio.
“Josh was probably here to finish off Ryan,” Duke said.
“My thoughts exactly.”
“Any luck with the kid?” Duke asked.
I wiped sweat from my brow. “Ryan told us that Sabine is looking at property in Freetown. Odd, right? You think she dropped us a clue?”
“Kidnappers usually don’t share information that specific,” Ted said as he waited for a response on his radio. “Ryan also gave us another breadcrumb. Lopez smelled like horse shit. I’ll have my team cross-reference properties either for sale or recently sold, specifically farms.”
Could we be so lucky? My fear was we wouldn’t find Grace and Fran in time.
Ted began talking about procedure, about doing things by the book.
But criminals—including me—didn’t follow the rules.
As soon as I got back to my vehicle, I was driving to Freetown. I would search every inch of land until I found Grace and Fran.