by K. M. Hodge
Chapter 9
St. Mary’s Hospital
Ocean City, Maryland
November 28, 2005
8:00 PM
~~~
“Hey, Sal, wake up.”
Sally squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will her friend away. She didn’t want to wake up and she sure as shit didn’t want to hear anything Jude had to say. Everything hurt. The drugs the nurses had given her helped take the edge off the pain, but they also made her sleepy. The doctors wouldn’t stop hounding her to tell them who did this to her, but she couldn’t tell them the truth—something Billy always banked on.
“Come on, Sal. You gotta wake up.”
Sally cracked open one eye. Jude stood only a few inches away from her, reeking of concern and gin. She didn’t need his pity. She didn’t need anything except to go back to sleep. Why wouldn’t he leave her alone?
“Go away, Jude.”
“Wake up, Sally Ann.” He raised his voice to her. “Billy took Zander.”
Her skin prickled. Not the boy. She struggled to sit up, but the pain knocked her back. “What? What do you mean he took him? Where is he?”
Jude shoved his hands in his pockets and started to pace. “I don’t know. I have some of the guys working on it. Did you know Zander has a passport?”
Sally stiffened at the question and where it might lead. She opened her eyes, afraid to know what happened to her son.“What? No.”
“I didn’t think so.” Jude paused mid-pace and glanced back at her. “My sister went to pick the boy up from school and the teacher told her that his daddy got him at lunch.”
“Jude, you have to find him.” She sucked in a breath as a stabbing pain ran through her. “Please.”
“I might know someone who can help us. But you’re not gonna like it.”
***
Alex’s Studio Apartment
Washington, DC
November 28, 2005
8:30 PM
~~~
Alex balled up his dirty sheets and clothes and shoved them into the laundry service bags. Ash from his cigarette fell into one.
“Shit, shit!” he said as he brushed what he could out of the bag. The last thing he needed was to set his clothes on fire.
His phone buzzed on the dresser across the room. He leaped over his bed and picked it up on the third ring. “Hello?”
No one answered. He took the phone away from his face. The screen was black. He grumbled and put the phone back down. It buzzed again. This time with a text from Sally. He’d programed her burner number into his phone when she left it at his place. Wishful thinking on his part that apparently played out.
Call back. Talk alone.
Alex backed up, sat down on the edge of his unmade bed and redialed the number.
“Agent Bailey?” An unfamiliar male voice answered the phone.
“Who is this?” Alex asked.
“I’m a friend of Sally’s. I saw your number on her phone. She’s been hurt really bad and needs your help.”
“Is she okay? What happened?”
“Her husband. It’s bad. He put her in the hospital and took off with the boy.”
Alex wet his lips and ran his hand through his hair. “Where is she?”
“St. Mary’s. Room 1019.”
“I’ll be right there.”
Alex hung up the phone, and grabbed a pair of jeans out of the dirty laundry bag and a clean t-shirt from the top of his dresser. His body vibrated with nervous energy. Did the boy say something about Alex being at the game? Did someone else see them?
Shit. This is Kabul all over again.
***
St. Mary’s Hospital
Ocean City, Maryland
November 29, 2005
6:00 PM
~~~
Alex put out his cigarette and walked through the emergency room doors. A tall African American man in black jeans and a black T-shirt stepped in front of him—stopping him in his tracks.
“Alex Bailey?”
“Yeah, you Sally’s friend?”
He nodded. “Name’s Jude. Follow me and I’ll take you to her room. I wanted to warn you first before you go in there. She’s pretty banged up.” Jude paused and swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down. “He almost beat her to death. If the neighbors hadn’t called the police…Well...”
Alex sucked in a breath and held it. His mind terrorized him with memories of another woman being beaten because of him. He stopped walking. “I can’t do this.”
Jude turned to face him. “She needs your help, man. I can’t do this on my own.”
“Did she tell you that I came to her son’s game the other night?”
The man looked away from him and let out a sigh. “No, she didn’t. She’s not really talking to me or anyone else for that matter. It doesn’t matter what happened between you two. All that matters now is helping her. Are you in or are you out?”
Alex shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at his beat-up tennis shoes. “Yeah. I’m in.”
“Good.” Jude pointed his arm inside the room.
Alex brushed past him—despite his apprehension. The only light in the room was the one above her bed and the mall glow of the machines that monitored her vitals. He held his breath as he got closer. Sally lay asleep in the bed with a bandage wrapped around her head, her foot propped up on pillows, and her right arm in a cast. He crept over to the side of her bed and touched her hand. Her eyelids fluttered open and, for a moment, she stared up at him. Then she closed her eyes tightly and her cheeks reddened. He reached behind him and pulled up a chair.
“I’m here, Sal. I’m so sorry.” Alex swallowed hard, pushing down the ball of emotions that choked his throat. “I’m so sorry.”
She started to cry. Her body shook and the machines started to beep. A nurse scurried into the room.
“Mrs. Ride needs her rest. I can’t have her getting upset.” The nurse injected something into her IV port and Sally started to relax and fall back asleep. “She needs to sleep right now.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t stay long.”
“Five minutes,” she warned.
Alex waited for the nurse to leave and then kissed Sally lightly on the lips. “I never should have gone to that game or kissed you in public like that. This is all my fault. I’m so sorry, Sally. I’m going to help your friend find your son. I promise you I’ll find him. Get some rest and I’ll come by later to check on you.”
Alex turned to leave and accidentally knocked over a bag. The contents, her personal items, scattered across the floor and he quickly dropped to his haunches to pick things up. A business card caught his eye. How does she know Michael David?
He turned over the card and noticed a red stain on the back that looked like blood. His chest tightened and he wet his lips. He didn’t know for sure, but he thought he remembered that David worked for The Syndicate and some high-level drug dealers. He put the card back with the other things and rose to his feet.
“What are you up to, Sally?” he asked the room.
“You don’t want to know,” Jude responded, startling Alex.
Sally’s friend stood in the doorframe, looking at him.
“No, I probably don’t. But I should know if I’m getting involved.”
“Let’s just say she isn’t a friend of Ocean City and leave it at that.”
“Her husband’s got quite the rap sheet.”
“Imagine all the stuff he’s done that you don’t know about.”
“Do you have anything I can use to get him put away?”
Jude leaned against the doorframe and sighed. “Nothing that would stick. He’s a career criminal smart enough to cover his own tracks. But if I ever did get something on him?”
“I have friends in law enforcement. Trusted men that aren’t on the payroll.”
“I imagine it’s a small pool you’d be drawing from,” Jude said.
“Yeah. These days it seems like everyone’s getting greased, b
ut there are still some good guys and gals out there. If you ever get anything, let me know and I’ll make some stuff happen.”
“In the meantime, can you help us find the boy?”
Alex pulled out his cellphone. “Yeah, I have a friend that might be able to help.”
Jude’s shoulders relaxed. “Good.”
***
Michael David’s Home
Ocean Pines, Maryland
November 29, 2005
8:00 PM
~~~
Michael tossed his keys in the dish beside the front door and dropped his briefcase. The medicine the doctors had prescribed didn’t touch the itching and all over pain from the reaction. The docs said if it weren’t for Sally’s fast response, he might have died.
Meow.
His black cat, Tobby, brushed up against his leg and purred. He hated it—always had—but his wife had loved it and he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of it. He bent over and picked it up. “Did you miss me, Tobby?”
The cat meowed back to him like he might actually understand. He placed the creature back on the ground and went off to the kitchen to get its dinner and something for himself. Tonight, he would be drinking his dinner. He felt awful. He opened a can of wet cat food and set it inside Tobby’s metal bowl. The cat scurried into the room—batting something between its paws.
“What ya got there, little buddy?” Michael bent to try to get whatever it was away from the cat. “Did you find a cap?”
Michael grasped the small black object and brought it up for a closer evaluation.
“What the hell?”
Michael dropped the object on his desk and picked up his phone to call Big D.
“Lawyer man, it better be important. I’m in the middle of something.”
“Hi, Big D. Sorry. I need to talk to you about a job one of your men did. He managed to make things worse. There’s a lot of chatter.”
Big D sighed. As the boss of the Ocean City operation, he and Michael knew each other well enough to be frank with each other. “I know. I know. Billy is proving to be a liability.”
“So you’ve heard about our squeaky wheel problem?”
“Yeah, it’ll be taken care of soon.”
“What about Billy?”
“I’ve got an eye on him.”
“There’s another thing.”
Big D sighed. “What?”
“I seem to have an infestation problem at my house. Do you know a good pest company?”
“I’ll send Pete over.”
“Good. Thanks.”
The line went dead. Michael deleted the call record and tossed the BlackBerry down on his desk. “Well, that was easy.”
He leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on his desk. The medication helped a little bit, but he still felt awful. Poor Sally couldn’t stop apologizing. She said she felt terrible for what happened, but it wasn’t her fault. How could she have known he was allergic? The worst of it was that now he looked like roadkill, and no one would fuck him, not even the hired girls.
Chapter 10
St. Mary’s Hospital
Ocean City, Maryland
November 30, 2005
9:00 PM
~~~
Jude carried the flower box into Sally’s room and put it down beside her bed. Seeing her like this made his breath catch in his throat every time, forcing him to look away from her. He didn’t understand how it was possible that she actually looked worse now that the bruises had started to yellow.
“Who are those from?”
Jude sat down on the side of the bed and kissed her cheek. “Alex.”
“I don’t want them,” she said as she glared at him. “I can’t have any of Billy’s people see them.”
Jude got up and closed the door to her room. He didn’t want any snoopy nurses or orderlies overhearing the conversation. Like Alex had said, ya never know who might be on the payroll these days—especially in Ocean City. Jude wanted to tell her she was being ridiculous about the flowers and Alex. But he couldn’t. Her face, which now resembled a tenderized steak, reminded him about the price she would pay for each misstep.
“I don’t have any information on Billy or the boy, but I’ve pulled every favor that I have.”
Sally lay silent in the bed. Her body seemed comically small to him and he didn’t like seeing her so vulnerable. As he leaned against the closed door, he nibbled on the inside of his cheek, debating whether or not to bring up Alex and his involvement in the night of the attack. In the end, he needed to know the truth about what had happened.
“Sal, why didn’t you tell me you saw Alex the night of the attack?”
“Because it’s none of your business and it’s not like anything happened.”
“Nothing?”
Sally turned away from him, avoiding his eyes. Nothing, his ass. She nibbled on her thumbnail and twisted the bed sheet. He wanted to grab her, shake her, make her see reason on why she couldn’t keep walking the line between both worlds. At some point, she would have to choose: stay in Ocean City or run off with her new identity and a man she obviously loved.
“Sally….”
She stopped biting her nail and let out a sigh. “We kissed.”
“Did Zane see you?”
“Yes.”
“Sally, did anyone else see you? Is thatwhy Billy almost killed you?”
She turned back to him, her eyes watering and her lower lip trembling. “Shut-up. It’s none of your damn business.”
“Like hell it’s not. How can I help keep you safe if you don’t tell me what’s going on?”
Sally shifted in the bed and glared at him. “Who asked you to?” Her cheeks got red and she glared at him again. “I don’t need your protection.”
“How can you say that when you’re lying here like this?”
Jude kicked the bed stand beside her and she jumped a little and turned away from him. Her broken arm rested at her side. He couldn’t take his eyes away from the wreckage. When he’d gotten the call that she was in the hospital, he thought for sure she’d died. He didn’t think he could go through this again. It hurt too much to just stand by and let Billy treat her this way. Why didn’t she get it?
“Dammit woman, you infuriate me. Don’t you know how important you are to me? I can’t lose you, Sal.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she mumbled.
Jude let out a laugh, breaking the tension in the room. Sally turned back to face him, her cheeks wet with tears. “I didn’t know he was going to be there and I certainly didn’t intend on kissing him.”
“I’m sorry. I know you aren’t normally careless, but you don’t seem to be as careful when you’re around him.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry because I’m not going to see him again.”
For a moment, he debated whether or not to tell her about asking for Alex’s help in finding the boy. He didn’t like to lie, especially to Sally.
“Sally—”
“You need to let go of this fantasy you have of me and him together. It’s not going to happen.”
Jude sat down on the edge of the bed. “Skootch over.”
Sally shifted her hips over and let him lay down beside her. He crossed his ankles and rested his head against hers. “The lawyer’s been emailing you. He wants you to call him.”
“Have you gotten anything from the bug or the home computer?”
“A little bit….”
“But not enough,” she said, like she could read his mind. “You need more?”
Jude sighed. “Something like that.”
She held out her good hand. “Give me my phone and I’ll give him a call.”
Jude grumbled. He didn’t like Sally getting involved with the lawyer any more than she needed to. This guy wouldn’t take no for an answer too much longer. That much he knew and he couldn’t live with himself if she got hurt in the process.
“You don’t have to do this,” he said, wishing they’d never taken this case in the f
irst place.
“Give me my phone, Jude.”
He rolled out of the bed and handed her the hospital phone. “Here.”
Sally dialed the number and held it up to her ear. “Hey, Michael. I’m so sorry. No…No, I’m not ducking you. I was in a car accident. Yeah, I’m in the hospital actually.”
Jude crossed his arms over his chest. Her professional tone made him smile a little to himself. It amazed him how quickly she could change herself like that—like a chameleon.
“No, no. Please. I don’t want you to see me like this. How are you? Oh, that sounds awful. Yes, I promise I’ll call you when I get out at the end of the week.” She paused as Michael spoke. “That’s very sweet. I look forward to seeing you again, too,” Sally said in her small voice. “Okay, I’ll see you soon.” Another pause. “Yes…yes. Okay. Bye.”
Sally hung up the phone and handed it to Jude. “He wanted to come here to see me! I think I convinced him that would be a bad idea.”
“He doesn’t know which hospital you’re at, and doesn’t know your real name so you should be safe,” Jude said.
“Yeah, that’s the last thing I need right now. It’s hard enough to get Alex to stay away. Can you imagine what Billy would do if found out either one of them had come here to see me?”
Jude shook his head. “No, that wouldn’t be good. Maybe we should just drop this whole thing.”
“What do we still need on Michael to clean out his accounts and turn the mob against him?” Sally asked, ignoring his protest.
”We would need a lot more if we were theoretically moving forward with this project. We’d need info on his clients. All his accounting records. Which means getting access to his work computer. If I could hack into that, the skies the limit.”
“What if I made him a CD to play at work,” she said, getting that look in her eye like she had no intentions of dropping this. “Like my favorite songs. We could put something on the CD to get us access to the computer, right?”
Jude got up out of the bed and put her phone away while contemplating her suggestion. It might work. It might be worth asking some of his hacktivist friends to work on it—but only after Billy and Zane were accounted for.
“Maybe, unless he has a CD player in his office and uses that instead of the computer.”
