“Okay, Coop. Tell me what you’ve seen since you woke up.”
“Dr. Fabrizio and the gorilla. But only small glimpses of them behind the plastic. I pretended to be asleep the last time Dr. Fabrizio came in to check on us.”
Now I was beginning to get some feeling back in my hands and arms, and I strained against the restraints. “Have they said anything?” As though that mattered. I didn’t care what they were saying. I had to get us out of here.
That thought set my heart to beating, and it showed in the heart monitor. Yep. Now panic was setting in.
“Nothing of importance. Unless you’d like to know which organs they’re taking from whom first. That’s rather important, don’t you think?”
I blanched at her indifferent tone. I know she’s not indifferent, and it’s probably better than her screaming and carrying on, but a little enthusiasm mixed in with some fear wouldn’t kill her.
My stomach plunged to the floor. “I’m first, right?”
“How did you know?”
Twisting my captive ankles, I gritted my teeth, annoyed at being tied down. “Because I’m the one who’s been sticking my nose into everything. They always take it out on the busybody first.”
“Yes. You’re first. And good detective work, Trixie. He said you’re a meddler who can’t stay out of his business. Though, he did express regrets about killing us because he thinks we’re real lookers.”
I scoffed and made a face. “Well, how the heck did he know I was in his business?”
“Griffin.”
I gasped then clamped my mouth shut. “Griffin’s alive?”
Coop grunted. “Yes, Griffin’s alive, but barely. He’s in the other room. Dr. Fabrizio said he’s going to do one big organ sweep, and then he and the gorilla are going to collect their money and leave the country for good. And then he laughed. But I don’t think he’s very funny. Not funny at all.”
Oh, thank goodness. Thank all entities and the universe Griffin had survived. Not that it was going to make much difference in the end. We were in a pretty hopeless situation, but you never know what can happen, right? Things can turn on a dime.
I mean, I wish the dime would hurry up and turn, but if all that matters is patience, I have plenty of that.
Now my pulse pounded in my ears hard, almost as though I were under water and it was clogging them up. “What about Skinny and that guy Beaver Madge told us about?”
“What about them, Miss Lavender?” Dr. Fabrizio asked in a sickeningly sweet tone as he breezed past the plastic in full surgical mask and gown.
Okay, so I had zero in the column for choices. I felt my turn of the dime begin to slip away. I might as well just get everything cleared up before he stole my organs, because certainly, that was where this was headed.
He’d hit the jackpot when we’d caught him abducting Solomon. But do note, if I live, whoever was babysitting Solomon tonight is going to get the worst Yelp score ever.
Anyway, I rolled my eyes at him. “You know what I want to know, Doc Fab. Let’s not play cat and mouse. If you’re going to harvest my organs, the least you can do is give me some deathbed answers. What happened to Skinny and Beaver?”
As I waited for him to do just that, I watched as, across the room, poor Solomon’s chest rose and fell, and I prayed he’d stay asleep. It was the only kind of grace I could hope for. That he wouldn’t wake up and see this. It would terrify him, and he was already afraid of everything. My heart ached that I couldn’t at least be near him.
Dr. Fabrizio smiled down at me, his eyes twinkling in gregarious fashion just like the Dr. Fabrizio of old—before I knew he was a serial organ stealer.
“Oh, they’ve gone off to the big rainbow in the sky. You know all about that, don’t you? Your being an ex-nun and all.”
“So you killed them…” I said with as much disgust as I could muster as whatever he’d shot me up with finally began to wear off, judging by the tingle in my toes and the twitch in my hands “What about Lazlo? How did he get away from you?”
Dr. Fabrizio sighed at the obvious inconvenience Lazlo had created for him. “I didn’t give him enough anesthesia. These things are hard to judge, Miss Lavender. While I was off at the office, he managed to escape. Very clever man, indeed. Got himself out of the restraints and the whole bit.”
“Weren’t you afraid he’d tell someone it was you?”
“Hah!” he barked. “Don’t be ridiculous. He had no idea it was me because he never saw my face. I’m not stupid, Trixie. We were very careful.”
My stomach roiled and I almost heaved, but I bit it back, swallowing my revulsion. “You’re a horrible person, Dr. Fabrizio. In case you didn’t know.”
I saw Coop fidget a bit and wiggle her wrists from the corner of my eye, but still to no avail. Obviously, she wasn’t immune to anesthesia, just like the rest of us, something to note about demons for future reference. If we had a future, anyway.
“That’s what I hear Mickey said just before he died, right there in front of everyone.” He held up a shiny dental instrument, one used for scaling (Pickle had been right. It was definitely small and sharp), I believe, and waved it under my nose. “This is what was used, if you’re curious. Jammed it right into the back of his head. I understand it was as easy as easy gets.”
My hands went clammy as my eyes followed him around the room, but I still had more questions. “How did he find out?” I rasped, my shoulders beginning to ache against the scratchy material of the sheets.
Dr. Fabrizio stopped then and placed a hand over his belly, still with a pleasant smile plastered on his lips. “Oh, he never really found out for certain. He only suspected when he heard me on the phone with one of my buyers. But of course, I couldn’t let him live, could I, Miss Lavender? I can’t have a hint of suspicion attached to me. It’s unthinkable.”
“But murder isn’t? You murdered your friend!” I cried, unable to keep my voice from rising as I strained against my tethers, all the while, Coop doing something I could only catch glimpses of from the corner of my eye.
He barked a laugh and patted his belly with his tiny hand. “Oh, no, Miss Lavender. I didn’t kill Mickey. I could never hurt my friend.”
“That was me,” another very familiar voice declared with pride.
From the shadows of the plastic, the gorilla stepped into the makeshift surgical area and pulled off his big, stupid gorilla head and grinned—wide, ugly.
I think both Coop and I gasped in simultaneous horror. But I should have pieced it together by now—even as fuzzy as I was on these drugs.
“Detective Griswald?” I almost shouted, my pulse throbbing in my ears.
“You bet, you little spitfire. Guess you don’t have much to say now, do you?” He held up his fists. “You still wanna fight?”
Okay, look. I know this probably sounds crazy in this day and age, where all manner of hijinks go on with law officials, but I had mostly still believed the good guys were really good.
Looking at Detective Crudhead as he leered down at me in sick glee, I guess I was wrong. “How could you?”
He rubbed his thick fingers together. “Money, baby. Cold, hard cash. When I found out what Dr. Fabrizio was up to, I decided I wanted in.”
Dr. Fabrizio nodded and sighed forlornly. “Yes, we met under a terribly unfortunate set of circumstances. Terribly unfortunate.”
“Riiight,” Griswald mocked. “The one where I caught him dragging some poor prostitute off in his organ-hunting mobile. So I swung myself a little deal with Doc Fab here, and in the process, gave the department—the stupid institution I’d given twenty-five years of my life to, and they kicked me in the teeth—the big eff you.”
“But no one reported any prostitutes missing.”
By golly, I’d scoured the Internet for any reports of anyone gone missing. Oh, that made me so mad! Also, seriously, was that fact of great import now when my life hung in the balance?
“They usually don’t when you pay off their pimps.
Like I said, little lady. Cold, hard cash. It’s all that matters,” Griswald crowed bitterly as he stepped out of the gorilla costume and threw the head on the floor, letting it roll under Solomon’s bed.
As he talked, I twisted my wrists and my ankles, but I was on a fast train to nowhere. Nothing would budge. “So you killed Dr. Mickey?”
He leaned down into me, his breath a stench of cigarettes and beer, and nodded in my face. “Yep—and I told him why just before I did it, too. Whispered it right in his stuck-up ear.”
My head was reeling, but Dr. Fabrizio intervened as he administered something in a syringe to my IV. “Let her be, Goran. We have work to do and a plane to catch. There’s no time to gloat.”
Almost instantly, my eyeballs began to cross. Everyone became a blur, their voices growing muted.
No, no, no!
I fought the haze, fought hard. My next question, as ridiculous as it was, due to the fact that it didn’t really matter, sounded slurred and almost comical to my ears. But I asked it anyway.
“How does a dentist learn how to harv—harvesss—er, take somebody’s whateveryoucallit?” I asked as my lips began to feel like big worms on my face, useless and flappy.
Grabbing my wrist, he took my pulse. “He learns in medical school,” was the short answer he gave.
“Yeah,” Griswald spat. “Where he flunks out twice and decides it’s easier to become a dentist. You know, sort of like the guys who become chiropractors because they can’t hack the late hours and they’re not smart enough to become real doctors?”
Dr. Fabrizio didn’t like that answer, not one little bit, because he literally growled at Griswald and held up something shiny. “Shut up, Goran! Bully for you for doing your homework on me, you simpleton! I’ve had enough of you mocking me, you animal!”
Detective Griswald exploded at the doctor’s words, rushing him and jamming his face into Doc Fab’s. I mean, I think that’s what happened. At this moment, it was a little bit like a blob of color and muted sound.
“I’ll kill you, too, Fabrizio! You don’t think I got dumped from my department in SoCal because I’m afraid of a little death, do you?” he sneered. “IA couldn’t prove it, but I took that idiot of a partner of mine out with the perp’s gun—and I’d do it again!”
Oh, my word! He’d killed his partner, too? He was like Detective Mega-Death. And that little nickname made me laugh—like really hard and totally inappropriately.
Which made Griswald very, very angry. “What are you laughing at, little lady?” he spat at me, hauling me up by the front of my shirt until we were eye to eye, his beefy hands clawing at me.
I think. I mean, his eyeballs were wobbling across his face, so who can say if he was really looking at me? Which made me laugh again, because he looked like a cartoon character after being hit on the head.
And I can tell you true, he also did not like that. Not at all.
As he growled at me, baring his teeth, pulling me so far from the bed I thought my arms would rip off from being held in place by the restraints, I heard Coop’s warrior cry—and holy spitballs, it was scary.
I don’t know what they teach them in demon school, but I’d bet Coop got an A in caterwauling. It screamed through the air, reverberating around the room and settling in my ears with an annoying hum.
It was then I saw Coop fly across the room. I know it was her because by gosh, her hair, even in times of utter distress, was perfect. Shiny and streaming behind her like some silky red flag.
She landed on Griswald’s back with a bone-chilling howl, slamming him down against me and sucking the wind right out of my lungs.
Still, I was conscious enough to wiggle my fingers and wrap them around the cold steel of the bars on the bed and hold on for dear life. If I still felt the metal beneath my fingers, I was still present, and that was the best I could hope for right now.
Griswald clung to me like plastic wrap, though. I suppose Coop’s strength was still dulled a bit from the drugs, because he somehow managed to hang on to me, his face pressed to mine—his forehead against mine.
So I did what any girl would do who’s fighting not only for her life, but her BFF’s.
I lifted my chin, opened my mouth wide, and latched onto his nose, biting as hard as I could.
He screamed loud and long, but I held on while Coop tore at his back, and even then, I had trouble keeping my eyes open. But I willed them to obey just as Griswald was hauled upward, his body bowing, his big chest straining against gravity. But he wasn’t letting go of me that easily, and as Coop pulled once more, so did he.
I heard a crack, felt my shoulder shift, and then a searing pain ripped through me at the speed of light.
But you know what? It made Griswald let go, and in twofer fashion, I heard the restraint rip, too. In my foolish, drugged-out state, I dragged my arm, which I’m certain was dislocated from my shoulder, close to my side and I attacked the other restraint, almost oblivious to the fact that Coop was screaming my name.
Until I actually returned to the land of the living, that is. That’s when I heard her bellow, “Trixie! Look out! He’s got a gun!”
Swinging my head to the right—the correct direction, and completely a lucky guess, by the way—there stood Dr. Fabrizio, the gun aimed at me.
I’ll tell you this: I’ve seen the barrel of a gun several times now, and it looks pretty harmless until I remember the ache I get in my foot every time it rains—then it’s not so much fun.
Dr. Fabrizio wobbled then, as though he’d lost his footing. I don’t know what it was, but I’m chalking it up to divine intervention because it bought me a couple of seconds.
Now, here’s where it all gets very hinky and out of focus. I later learned I’d somehow managed to get out of the restraint still on my one wrist while I was chomping on Griswald’s face. As I ripped it off with my fumbling, drugged-out fingers, I fell off the bed and smack dab into Dr. Fabrizio’s legs.
He, not being a man of terribly athletic leanings, crumpled and fell to the floor with me on top of him.
That’s where my memory clears back up, and I distinctly remember doing the only thing I could muster as I heard the chaos of Coop fighting with Griswald behind me. I lifted my good elbow, the burning white-hot pain of my dislocation making me almost scream out, and rammed it into Dr. Fabrizio’s once cheerfully smiling face.
And I rammed it hard—as hard as I could, in memory of Dr. Mickey, Skinny and Beaver, and anyone else they’d hurt along the way.
He screeched so loud, I didn’t think I’d ever hear right again. But then he became enraged, and he went for my throat.
His tiny hands, which didn’t seem as tiny when they were going for my neck, wrapped around my throat and he loomed over me, frothing at the mouth. “You imbecile! If you’d have just stayed out of it!”
I was so tired, and in such agony, I didn’t know how I’d find the strength to fight him off. But I didn’t have to. Just as he was squeezing my throat so hard, my eyes bulged and I didn’t care if I lived as long as the pain stopped, a shot rang out.
“Let her go, Fabrizio!” a welcome British voice called out.
But he didn’t let go as he glared down at me, his usually cheerful face beet red and furious.
No, in fact, Doc Fab held tighter as we tangled together in the plastic and fallen machinery—and then another shot rang out, this time making Dr. Fabrizio fall off me and slump to my side.
I turned my head in time to see his lifeless body next to me, his once animated, twinkling eyes now inert and glassy.
I tried to roll away from him as I gasped for air, fighting to push life into my lungs, when I felt someone scoop me up and carry me away to settle on the floor.
“Trixie…breathe, Trixie. It’s okay now. It’s okay,” Higgs crooned in my ear as I hung limply against him and he rocked me. “It’s okay. I have you. Breathe in and out.”
I’m pretty sure it was the wrong time to remember this, but isn’t this how we’d ended up my
last round with a killer?
Either way, I didn’t care as I rasped a breath, pulling air into my lungs and inhaling Higgs’s familiar cologne. I was safe, Higgs was safe. He was my safe place to land and everything was going to be all right.
“Trixie!” I heard Coop call my name as lights flooded the surgical area and police swarmed inside. Sirens screamed, sounding like distant wails of distress, while feet pounded over the plastic. She gripped my hand and pressed it to her cheek, her skin dry and warm. “You fought like a tiger. I’m so proud.”
I wanted to laugh, but it really hurt, and I said as much. “It hurts,” I sputtered before I remembered Griffin and Solomon. That made me almost snap out of my druggy funk. “Solomon and Griffin! Where are they? Are they okay? Let me up, Higgs. I need to check on them!”
He peered down at me, his dark brown eyes liquid and warm. “Are we going to have another argument where you behave as though I’m some kind of Neanderthal because I’m concerned about your well-being? They’re still sound asleep. I promise. Tansy and everyone’s here.”
I snickered weakly. “I did apologize for behaving that way,” I said on a wince.
He cupped my face and smiled, running his thumb over my chin. “You did. I did, too, but I’m guessing you wouldn’t know that because you were kidnapped before you could see your texts. I really am sorry I came off as anything other than worried. I didn’t mean to.”
I patted his face with my one good hand, relishing the dark stubble on his cheek. “S’okay,” I slurred. “I don’t think you’re a jerk.” Trying to sit up to see what was going on around me, and failing miserably, that’s when it occurred to me. How had he found us? “Hey, how did you guys find us?”
“Are you ready for this?”
“Are you kidding me? I almost had my organs harvested. I’m ready for anything.”
“Jeff and Livingston. Jeff somehow got into the hospital, and when he found me, after somehow escaping the wrath of every nurse in the joint, he latched on to my leg and wouldn’t let go until I followed him outside, where Livingston was sitting on the back of a bench, squawking up a storm, those big, crazy eyes of his willing me to listen. After that, I kind of just gave it up to the universe or whatever’s in charge when Jeff began to run, and I followed like I was the pet and he was my owner. It was the darnedest thing, but somehow, I knew they were trying to tell me something.”
House of the Rising Nun Page 17
