Chapter Fifteen
Declan got into his minivan and headed off to meet Gary Sawchuck at a large Tim Hortons coffee shop in the south-east part of the city.
As he turned onto Glenmore Trail, the cars in front of him slowed to a crawl.
A stalled vehicle had reduced traffic flow to a single lane and the cars were backed up as far as he could see.
Declan decided he’d better call Gary and let him know he’d be late.
He reached for his cell phone on the console.
Before he got to it, it started to ring.
Declan glanced at the call-display and pressed speakerphone.
“Hey, Mickey. How’s it going? Any news on Angel?” Deep down, he expected the worst.
“He woke up,” Mickey said, sounding more exhausted than happy. “Well, for a few minutes at least. Can you come to the hospital?”
Without pausing Declan replied, “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Great. I’ll text you the info on how to get to his room.”
“Thanks, Mickey.”
Declan disconnected and heard the incoming ping of a text.
He took the next available exit and turned back toward Foothills Hospital.
At the first red light, Declan reached for the phone and called Gary.
It went straight to voicemail. Declan left a message.
“Sorry about this, Gary, but I’m not going to make it.
Angel’s come to, and Mickey needs me there pronto.
I’ll call you when I finish up over there. ”
Declan considered forwarding the CCTV image of the suspect they’d found, but he thought he’d wait until after he’d talked to Angel. He didn’t want Gary to waste any time chasing after a ghost.
Thirty minutes later, Declan arrived at the hospital and followed Mickey’s instructions to the third floor, room twenty-eight, bed four.
Angel had one of the window beds in the four-patient ward and Mickey was sitting at his bedside scrolling through his phone.
He looked up as soon as Declan entered the room.
“Thanks for coming, Dec.”
He stood and gave Declan a warm hug.
“How’s he doing?” Declan asked, looking over at the sleeping figure. Angel’s thin bare arms lay on top of the sheets. His head was bandaged, his face bruised and his eyes were closed. He looked so small in the bed.
“He’s been sleeping most of the time,” Mickey whispered. “The staff have been good. They understand the situation and have agreed to let us have someone with him twenty-four hours a day until he’s released.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“I’d hoped they’d put him in a private room, given that the guy who did this is still on the run, but the hospital’s full. In the meantime, I’m not leaving the boy alone until we find out who did this.”
“I don’t blame you, Mickey.”
“We have a roster now. All of the Kids from the bar have signed up. I’m paying them for four-hour shifts. They may not be able to physically defend him, but they can scream loud enough to wake the dead if someone comes in that shouldn’t be here.”
Declan nodded. “The cops still think this is a random attack, but I’m going to have a talk with my old partner and let him know what we found on the CCTV footage. I have the screen capture of the suspect on my phone. I was hoping if Angel was awake, he could take a look at it and maybe ID the guy.”
Mickey looked toward the bed. “He woke up for a few minutes, and then went back to sleep. I’d prefer that we let him wake up on his own.”
“Hey,” a voice whispered. It was Angel.
“Hey, buddy,” Declan said, leaning over the young man. “How are you doing?”
“Been better,” he managed to get out. “When I get outta here, you really gotta teach me how to defend myself.”
“It’s a deal.”
Declan gently patted him on the back of the hand, the least damaged of all Angel’s body parts.
“We’re trying to find out who did this to you,” Declan said. “Are you up to looking at a picture of a suspect?”
“Sure. I’ll give it a try.”
Declan pulled up the image on his phone. Angel stared at it for a minute. “That’s him. I recognise that weird beard. And that hat. It has to be him.”
Angel leaned back into his pillow.
“Thanks, Angel. That’s great,” Declan said. “Now, do you remember anything else about him? Did he say anything?”
Angel closed his eyes like he was trying to focus on what had happened.
“He seemed to like beating me up,” Angel said, with a wry smile.
Poor guy’s trying to put on a brave face, Declan thought.
“He kept grinning at me. I really don’t remember much. There was one weird thing, though. He said, ‘This’ll teach you for haunting Declan’s dreams’.”
Declan frowned. “Strange thing to say. Did he say anything else?”
Angel didn’t reply. He’d drifted back to sleep.
Mickey looked over at Declan. “I think that’s all he can do for you right now. What he said—does it mean anything to you?”
“I’m not sure, Mickey… There’s something weird about it all.
I’ll have to think about it. In the meantime, I’m going to get that photo to Sawchuck.
I’ll let him know that they should be on the lookout for the guy, and that Angel has positively identified him.
The cops will likely want to talk to Angel about this.
I’ll do what I can to make sure that the cops that come are a bit more tactful than the ones we talked to.
And you’re going to want to be here when they come in. Okay?”
“Will do. And thanks for this.”
Declan looked over at the sleeping Angel. “So, what’s the prognosis for him?”
“They’re going to send him for some more imaging to check up on his spleen. It’s right beneath some of the ribs that took the brunt of the attack. If that looks okay, and he’s healing up nicely, then they’ll let him out. I’m going to have him stay with me until he’s fully mended.”
Declan leaned over and gently kissed Angel on the forehead. “Get better soon.”
Mickey walked Declan to the door.
Declan turned. “Mickey, thanks for being you. Take good care of yourself.”
Mickey put his arms around Declan and gave him a big hug, then a quick kiss on the lips. “I’ll do my best, old friend.”
Declan returned to the van in the parking lot and pressed redial on his phone. Sawchuck answered. “Yeah?”
“It’s me. Sorry again for standing you up,” Declan said.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been stood up by prettier dates. So, what’s up?”
“Angel was able to positively identify his attacker as a guy we’ve caught on the bar’s CCTV camera. I’m going to forward you the image. Can you arrange for some gay-positive police to interview Angel? Maybe sooner than later in case his memory fades.”
“You got it. I hope the kid’s okay,” Sawchuck replied.
“I think he’s going to be all right. Listen, I’ve got something else I need to take care of today, so I’ll have to catch up with you later. Keep me posted if the police get any hits on the picture I’m sending.”
“Will do,” Sawchuck replied, then disconnected.
Declan forwarded the image, then replayed his conversation with Angel in his mind.
Something was bothering him—what the attacker had said.
‘This’ll teach you for haunting Declan’s dreams’.
Just the other night Charlie had mentioned something about Declan’s dreams, and Angel…
But nobody really knew about those dreams except for…
Declan picked up the phone and called another number.
“Hey, Declan. What can I do for you?” Michael answered.
“I wanted to check in on something. At Bar-None the other night, a kid named Angel got beaten up pretty badly and the attacker said something about Angel haunting my dreams.”
“That’s a weird thing to say,” Michael replied.
“What makes it really weird is that it matches a session we did a while ago. And I’m thinking that if that information was in my client files and the person read it when they broke in…”
“I see where you’re going with this.”
“Look,” Declan said. “It was clear that whoever broke in seemed to know about the security systems. Who would have access to that info?”
“Maybe the previous owners of the office who’d installed the original system…but they wouldn’t know if I’d changed things since I moved in. And I did change the front door code.”
Declan continued. “But that’s not where the break-in occurred. I’ve been wondering…what if it was someone who had recently been in your office…and into both the waiting room and your consulting room.”
“It’s not the cleaners,” Michael replied. “I do my own cleaning to save money. I suppose the movers would have been in there. Could it have been one of those guys?”
“Maybe.” Damn. Why is nothing simple?
Michael continued. “Aside from that, patients are the only ones that have been in the consulting room other than me.”
“And have any of your patients lately given off a strange vibe?” Declan asked. “Or has anybody been asking about me in your sessions?”
Michael laughed. “Quite an ego you’ve got there. The answer’s no. And even if they had, I couldn’t tell you. There’s that whole thing about doctor–client confidentiality.”
There was a pause at the end of the line.
“There is one thing, maybe,” Michael said. “I had a new client in last week, and the encounter seemed a bit off.”
“You’re a therapist, Michael. Aren’t your patients supposed to be a bit off?”
“This was different. There was something in his eyes. It’s hard to put into words.
Anyway, he didn’t show up for his appointment today and when I called to see if there was a problem, the number he gave me was for a florist shop.
I asked them if they had a person by my client’s name working there, and they said they’d never heard of him. ”
“Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean he broke into your place,” Declan said.
“No. But he came in for his initial session the day of the break-in and, like I said, something about him seemed off.”
“Do you have a name?” Declan asked.
“Technically, I can’t give you that information.”
“Can you hold on a second. I’m going to text you a picture. Tell me if it looks like your client.”
Declan located the photo of Angel’s assailant and forwarded it.
“Got it,” Michael said. “I don’t think it’s the same guy, but it’s a bit hard to tell.”
“What do you mean?”
“The guy I saw wore a face mask—possibly he was a germophobe, or maybe just cautious.”
“What else can you tell me about him?”
“He was white, tallish…maybe around six-feet and wore cheap glasses. He had a short ponytail.”
“What did you talk about?” Declan asked.
“Mostly his fears. He was having nightmares about spiders. It seemed he was afraid of a lot of things. He wanted to pay for the appointment in cash—he said it was safer. Said he didn’t want his spending habits to be traced by Big Brother.”
“Anything else?”
“He was a bit twitchy,” she said. “He was looking around the room quite a bit.”
“Have you gotten around to changing the security system yet?”
“I did that right away,” Michael said. “And nothing else particularly strange has happened since then, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder if this guy was playing me for a fool.”
“Well, if you see him again,” Declan said, “or the person in the photo I sent, get a hold of me right away.”
“Everything all right, Declan?”
“Just the usual. Take care.”
Declan disconnected.
Maybe what the attacker said was just a coincidence, but he sensed that somehow the break-in at Michael’s and the attack at Bar-None were linked. If that was true, someone had hurt Angel because of him. And if that was the case, he worried that they might go after someone else.