He didn’t really want to go home, but he had no choice. The fact that he was now out of work was going to affect him and Carrie, greatly.
With her still on a leave of absence, the stress of what was going on with the baby and now this, it was too much to bear.
The first thing Ryan noticed when he rolled into the block was that Carrie’s little red Mini-Cooper was not in the driveway.
He hadn’t seen the familiar hardtop vehicle as he’d come into the neighborhood, so he hoped it meant that she had gone out for a while.
The change of scenery might do her good.
Even though he was glad to see that she was getting out of the house, Ryan still wasn’t quite ready to face his wife yet.
He didn’t know how he was going to break the news about his job loss to her. The job was supposed to carry them through the fall and it was supposed to be a big payout at the end too.
On the plus side, however, Ryan was licensed and he often did work out of their garage or went to people’s houses to fix things. He would usually call Roberto to come and help him on bigger jobs and they’d split it, fifty-fifty.
Already he was planning on giving the guy a call and seeing if they could possibly do something together to fill the void while they waited for another big job to come along. He knew that Marc meant well, but with this economy and people spending less on home improvement or worse, watching goddamned YouTube videos to learn to do it themselves to save a buck, it wasn’t looking too promising.
He was sure they’d be able to think of something once their anger died down. Marc really had done right by them, as always, but they’d just gotten into the shit with these clients overspending.
He got out of the car, gave a wave to Destiny Rivera, who waved back as she walked her dogs and talked on her cell-phone.
He felt the annoyance swell in him as her mouth ran a mile-a-minute. Ryan knew that half of Nassau Country was being made aware of all their business now.
He hated this.
He was tired of the reporters coming around and asking him stuff. Some even tried to suggest that he had done this, because that bitch Joan had told the cops some lies about him.
Most of all, he was tired of feeling like a fish in a bowl every time he came out of his house.
Once inside their modest home, he made a sandwich and then sat at the wooden dining room table where their utility and credit-card bills were spread out.
Ryan didn’t even want to look at them right now, and he pushed the papers to one side with a heavy sigh. He didn’t know what they were going to do because they had no savings, and no family to ask for help.
All those tests and procedures that Carrie’s health insurance didn’t cover had drained their savings drastically.
They had been living paycheck to paycheck for the past few months. Ryan and Carrie had both cut back spending and started spending more evenings at home instead of going out.
He didn’t mind so much since he was usually bone-tired by the time he came home, but he could tell it bothered Carrie. She was accustomed to going out with her friends, shopping, dining at fine restaurants or going to the city to see a Broadway show.
They hadn’t been out to do any of those things in months and it sucked. There were things he wanted to do too, including go on a cruise ship vacation. It was something that they had talked about off and on, and they planned to wait until the baby was a bit older since they planned to go as a family.
Life wasn’t meant for working just to pay bills and nothing else.
Sighing he got his mind back on the task at hand, determined to make a change and at least try to get something in the works so that breaking the news to her wouldn’t be so bad.
They kept their laptop computer on the dining room table, and he turned it on with a sigh, watching as the Microsoft Windows logo appeared briefly on the screen.
When the computer finished loading, he felt a sob catch in his throat as he saw the background desktop wallpaper they’d put up last time they’d used it.
It was a picture of Carrie holding the sonogram from when she told him she was pregnant, and he was on his knees kissing her bare stomach where she’d hiked her shirt up.
He almost shut the computer down right then and there, but he remembered that he needed to put the feelers out to get on a crew somewhere or secure a project.
He tried Craigslist, Angie’s List and a few other home improvement and repair type websites he could advertise his services on.
Four o’clock came and went and Carrie still hadn’t returned.
“Carrie?” he said into his cell phone a moment later, “I’m at home. I think we need to try and work things out. Can you call me as soon as you get this message?”
He hung up, the tiniest bit of fear gnawing at him.
Ryan and Carrie hadn’t spoken to each other at all today and now she was no where to be found. When it got to be five o’clock and he still hadn’t heard from her, he got scared. It wasn’t like her to stay out like this and not answer her cell phone.
Just as he opened the front door to go out to his car, planning to go look for her, the beams from Carrie’s headlights washed over him. He sighed heavily as he walked down the path to the driveway and met her at her car as she got out of it.
“Thank God.” He said, hugging her, all the nastiness between them forgiven as she hugged him back. “I’ve been worried half-out of my mind. Where were you?”
“I needed some time alone to think about things.” She said, softly as she looked at her feet. “I made an emergency appointment with Dr. Cooke to talk to her some more.”
“Are you okay?” he asked, brushing her hair back from her pale face.
Carrie didn’t answer him, but he knew they were about to have a serious conversation as she walked into the house
***
Ryan watched Carrie as she put her small suitcase into the back of her car. He couldn’t believe that she was actually going to do it, but she begged him to understand that she needed time to process all that had happened with the baby.
She was due to check into some sort of in-patient program at a local wellness center for evaluation while she calmed her nerves.
When she named the place, he knew exactly where it was and they had passed it often while out and about.
Her doctor had set it all up for her and told them she was coming there immediately.
“I haven’t been eating or sleeping well....please, Ryan. Don’t make me feel worse about this than I already do.”
“Can I at least come visit you?”
“As soon as it’s allowed.” She promised, leaning up to press a delicate kiss on his lips. “The doctor thinks that it will help me to just get a change of scenery and work out my feelings about....well, about what happened.”
He could definitely understand that.
It had been hard for him being in the house too.
Seeing the nursery, waiting there for their baby to fill it tore at him every time he had to pass it to the point they just kept the door closed.
Now she was at him again, wrapping her arms around his waist as she hugged him.
“Thank you for understanding, Ry.” She whispered as he squeezed her tightly. “I love you.”
“I love you too. I’ll call you tomorrow morning....”
“I’ll call you when I can. Promise.” She said, walking towards the car and getting into it.
They stared at each other for a long moment before she slowly backed the car out of the driveway and headed off down the street.
Now he was completely alone.
chapter six
The baby’s toothless mouth was open, her face in an ugly grimace as she cried. Her little arms and legs were shaking angrily as she screamed at the top of her lungs.
“For Chrissakes, would one of ya shut that damned kid up!” the man barked as the infant was quickly calmed and quieted. “I don’t like this Gladys. Not one bit....”
“It’s just for today,
Jerry.” The older woman said as she met the blue eyes of the dark-haired woman who was getting ready to leave. “Right?”
“I’ll be back tonight after my shift.” The woman said, adjusting the pink scrubs she wore and then putting on her jacket. “Thanks again for this.”
“And you’ll pay.....”
“When I come back. Ten thousand, like we agreed.” The woman said with a phony smile, which disappeared as soon as she laid eyes on the surly Jerry.
He was an asshole, but she hadn’t had a choice.
She hurried down the dimly lit hallway of the run-down building on Northern Boulevard and the corner of ninety-fourth street in Jackson Heights.
She could hear people arguing in Spanish, Chinese and a myriad of other languages as she pounded down the stairs and out the front door. She walked past a slew of cheap dollar stores, an enormous glass-front A.M.E. church and towards ninety-sixth street where she had parked her rental car.
Her purse buzzed as an incoming call came in and the woman rolled her eyes in annoyance. As it was, she had to pay this asshole ten grand of her cut to take care of the baby. But the fact that Gladys used to be a maternity ward nurse for a hospital here in Queens, was all that she needed to know to make an easy decision.
The baby would be fine.
Her purse buzzed again and she rifled through it to get the small pink cell phone and jab the button that would receive the call.
“What?!” she bit out savagely and then huffed as she got into her car. “It’s being taken care of. Look, I’ll call you later.”
She hung up the phone and threw it and her purse into the back seat of the car. It was just after two in the afternoon and if she was lucky, she’d be able to bypass all of the traffic that was just starting on the Grand Central Expressway. She had hated coming all the way out to Queens, but again, it couldn’t be helped. Tightening her lips, the woman sped up a bit as she headed towards the parkway. The last thing she needed was to be late for her shift when everyone was being watched so closely.
***
The security personnel of the hospital’s sole purpose was to make rounds, keep order and be sure that no one caused a disturbance. Yet, something as bizarre as an infant abduction had gotten past them and on his watch.
Charles Armbruster, the head of security, just couldn’t get it through his head how this could have happened under his watch.
Ten years as a guard at the hospital, plus another seven as head of security. Human Resources had torn him five new assholes, as well as the hospital’s legal department.
Basically, this whole thing was a nightmare.
He looked at the bank of screens in his office, shaking his head as he watched people all over the hospital just going about business as usual. He gave his guards strict orders to monitor their surroundings at all times and not to be lax in a way that would put the safety of the hospital grounds in jeopardy.
There was a sharp rap of knuckles against his door and Charles turned to see Constance Brooks standing there. The tall, willowy red-haired woman was a sight as she appeared nervous and visibly upset.
She was one of the best on his team, and had been with him for about six years now. Right now, she looked terrified as she came into his office.
“Got a minute?” she asked, as Charles nodded to one of the two chairs on the other side of his desk.
“What is it?”
“There’s something that I need to tell you and it’s not going to be easy.” She warned as his face mirrored hers now.
“Christ Almighty, Connie, what’s wrong?”
“It’s about Dave, the new guy?” she said, warily as she let out the breath she’d been holding. “We got a report that there was an issue in the server room this morning that compromised some of the video files we’ve been looking into for the Ashby case.”
“What do you mean?”
“Looks like the files have been screwed with. Maybe he tried selling them to TMZ or something. Who knows.” Connie said, shrugging.
“Dammit.” Charles swore, “I made it extremely clear to everyone not to get involved with the media with this. It’s a sensitive situation and we’re in enough trouble as it is for not securing maternity in the first place. Get him in here.”
Connie nodded and left the office.
A goddamned code pink had happened here and now he had some wet-behind the ears idiot trying to turn a quick buck.
Things had gotten past him once, but he’d be damned if he’d let it happen again.
The kid was young, he’d find another job, but it wouldn’t be under his employ.
“You wanted to see me?” Dave asked as Charles motioned him inside and told him to shut the door.
***
Bits of pink material lay on the floor as the young, blonde-haired man continued to peel the hospital scrubs away from Morgan’s body. She had picked the baby up from wherever she’d stashed it in Queens and told him to meet her at a motel out on Sunrise Highway.
He couldn’t believe she’d done something so stupid, but she hadn’t wanted to break character disguising herself as a member of the hospital staff. It would be noticed if she suddenly disappeared and he knew that she was right.
“I’ve missed you.” Zach murmured as his lips pressed against hers. He sighed as she kissed him deeply, groaning as he heard whimpers coming from the crib that she had rolled into the room before he’d gotten there.
Kid or not, he had to bust a nut.
Morgan helped him get the rest of his clothes off as they began frolicking on top of the mangy bed. Zach felt himself harden as she gripped the tip of his cock and pulled.
He liked it when she did that.
He liked it even better when she put her face down there and started pleasuring him orally.
He groaned again as that damned kid started crying, and he wished it would shut the fuck up.
“Over here.” Morgan said, turning his face towards hers as he glared over at the baby.
But soon it was forgotten as he got into the throes of hot and steamy sex with Morgan. He grunted as he pummeled away at her sex, and she screamed and took it all.
She rolled over on top of him a moment later, lustily riding him as her small breasts jiggled. She threw her head back as Zach clutched her firm buttocks, her cries rising in crescendo as she neared her release.
His breathing grew ragged as he felt his load build and he knew he was about to come.
And when he did, shooting it deep within her, she let out a scream to end all screams.
But it wasn’t because of her orgasm.
It was because the door had opened and the mousy-looking woman standing there had hit her in the head with a hammer, knocking her off of Zach.
The last thing Morgan ever saw was Zach smile at her as he sat up on the bed, right before Joan buried the claw of the hammer in the base of her skull.
***
Ryan pulled up to the gates of the wellness center and waited as the security guard approached him. Even though Carrie had told him she’d call him, he just hadn’t felt right about how they’d parted ways the other day.
“Hey, I’m here to see Carrie Ashby?” Ryan said as the guard nodded and activated the electronic gate.
Ryan drove through and parked near the entrance. He reached over to the passenger seat and picked up the bouquet of flowers he’d bought from a supermarket on the way there.
Roses.
Her favorite.
He made his way to the front desk, where he had to wait a few minutes while the nurse behind the desk finished up a phone call. He rolled his eyes in annoyance, wondering why they didn’t have someone else helping her cover the desk. He could have been well on his way already. Finally, the young woman hung up the phone and asked how she could help.
“I’m here to see Carrie Ashby?” he said, parroting his response to the guard.
“Ashby.....Ashby....” the girl murmured as she looked at her computer screen. “I’m sorry, what was the first name
again?”
“Carrie.” Ryan said, leaning somewhat over the desk to try and get a better look at the screen. “She checked in two days ago, in the evening?”
The girl’s fingertips clipped the keyboard keys as she looked for Carrie’s information.
“I’m sorry, I don’t see her here.” She said, and then called over to another, older woman. “Dianne?”
Ryan watched as the two women continued to look, the trepidation in his heart growing as he hoped something bad hadn’t happened to his wife.
“I’m sorry, sir.” Dianne apologized, sincerely “But we have no one registered by that name.”
“Can you check.....”
“I checked for the past week, and in fact we have no record at all of anyone named Carrie Ashby ever being admitted here.”
***
“What do we got here?” Sandy asked as he and Millie made their way into the room of a seedy motel called the Dewdrop Inn out on Sunrise Highway in North Babylon two days later.
“Manager called it in when she wouldn’t answer the door.” The officer, Michael James, said nodding towards the unkempt looking man who was nosily peering into the room from outside. His balding head shone underneath the harsh sun glare of the early afternoon, his brown button-down shirt stained with some sort of greasy substance.
“I know this is out of your jurisdiction, but I think this has something to do with that case, you know, the one about the baby? We’ve been getting all calls about it, I tell ya.....”
“Let’s stay on task.” Millie barked, wishing he would just get on with whatever it was he had to tell them. Patience had never been her strong suit.
Officer James looked slightly offended, but he caught himself and got right back to business.
“Female. About thirty years old. Blunt force trauma to the head.” The cop reported as they stood over the naked body of a dark haired woman, her blue eyes open and staring vacantly at the ceiling.
On the shabby bed were a pair of pink hospital scrubs, a small suitcase containing infant clothing and formula and a pink iPhone. In one corner was a rolling crib, which was empty.
Code PINK_A Novel Of Suspense Page 5
