“So now what?” Pete asked.
“We try to get that asshole,” Kent said. “The problem is that I can’t figure out what he’s up to and where he’s going next. Any ideas?”
A look of amazement came over Pete’s face. “It just came to me. I know exactly where he is. What is it he did to all of these people in his scrap book?”
Kent looked exasperated. “It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that he killed them all, or at least most of them.”
“Right!” Pete said. “What is it that he tried to do to his sister?”
“What’s your point, Pete?”
“Just this. Dominick Maxwell calls from Chino Valley, a town that’s a couple of hours away. He inquires about his sister and is informed that she is going to survive. It was his original intention to kill her. If she had died, she couldn’t identify him. Now that she’s come out of her coma, he is scared to death that she will point the finger at him and testify against him. Therefore, he must finish what he started.”
“Oh my God!” Kent said. “He’s going to try to kill her again! Why didn’t I think of that? He can’t let her live, and the sooner she is silenced, the better. He’s going to strike tonight! I can feel it!”
Pete smiled. “That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Kent slammed the book shut and turned to Pete. “Let’s get over to the hospital. We have a lot of work to do tonight. We can’t scare him off. We have to let him think it will be easy to get in and then we’ll nab him.”
Pete agreed and they took off for the hospital and the expected confrontation.
Kent Perry was feeling a little more relaxed and was looking forward to catching Dominick Maxwell. His anticipation was so high that he was even feeling a little bit cocky.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Jenny had laid down beside Dom, but she couldn’t sleep even though he did. After a couple of hours, when the sun started setting, she woke him up.
“We need to talk about how we’re getting in to see Nina.”
Dom shook the sleep from his head and sat up.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I must have been wiped out.”
“That’s okay. I couldn’t sleep, so I was trying to come up with some ingenious ways to get into Nina’s room. I went through all the typical movie ideas like crawling through the vent systems, dressing up as nurses or doctors or sneaking in under a meal cart. I’m sorry to say that I don’t think it will work like it does in the movies.”
“You’re right. The only way to get by a guard at the door, if there is one, is to go in through the window or create a diversion and get him to leave his post. Since the window is probably locked, the diversion might be the best trick.”
Jenny frowned. “It’s not much to work with, but we haven’t been able to come up with anything better. I’ll create the diversion and you sneak in the room.”
“How are you going to get his attentions away from the door?” he asked.
“Just leave that up to me!” she answered. “Now the main thing is that we need to go in a side door and stay low. When we get you in place, I’ll circle around, walk by him, make sure he notices me and then get him away from the door.”
“What if he doesn’t leave his post?” Dom asked.
“Then I’ll meet you outside by the car and we’ll come up with another plan, or we’ll try the window,” Jenny answered.
“I guess we don’t have a choice,” he said. “Why don’t we grab some food and eat and then hang out till about 10:00 before we move?”
Jenny nodded. “Why don’t I go out and get the food and bring it back here,” she suggested. “That way, we’re not taking as many chances.”
Dom agreed and Jenny went out to get the food. Twenty minutes later, she arrived with a bag of food from Subway. They ate in silence as they both contemplated what they would be doing that night.
After dinner, they sat and watched TV until 9:30, when they started getting ready to go. Jenny unzipped her bag and pulled out some clothes. As she took off the clothes she was wearing, Dom watched and found himself in awe again at how nice she looked. Jenny slipped on a tight pair of shorts and a blouse. Dom couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
“If that doesn’t get his attention, nothing will!” he said, smiling. “Let’s just hope the guard isn’t gay or a female!”
“Unless it’s a gay female,” Jenny said, laughing.
When they were finished getting ready, they discussed corrective measures to take if they got caught. At 10:15, they left for the hospital. Jenny drove and dropped Dom off a half a block from the hospital, on a side road, and then found a place to park in the visitor’s parking lot. She wasn’t too worried. She figured they didn’t know what she looked like, and they didn’t know the car. Jenny walked to the back of the hospital and met up with Dom, who was hiding in the shadows of some landscaping.
As he stayed in hiding, Jenny walked up to the door and found it locked. She stood off to the side and tried to figure out what to do; just then, the door opened and someone walked out. Jenny quietly caught the door before it latched and entered the hospital, peeking down the halls. They were entering the building by the CAT scan room and there wasn’t any activity going on this late at night. Jenny motioned for Dom to enter.
They worked their way to a staircase, fearing the unknown of the elevator. Jenny walked up the hallways while he stayed back, hiding in the shadows until the area was clear and then Jenny would wave for him to catch up. At one point, when someone started down the hall towards him, he ducked into an x-ray room. When it was clear, he came back out and they resumed their queer game.
When they made it to the staircase, they both breathed a sigh of relief. They were halfway there and the staircases were hardly ever used. In a world of medicine and sick patients, the elevators were the main method for moving from floor to floor.
Dom followed Jenny into the staircase and quietly let the door latch. If he had let the door close by itself, it would have made a very loud noise, something that they could not afford to let happen. Quietly, without saying anything to each other, they made their way up to the third floor. For Dom, every step felt like a whole flight of stairs, not knowing what would await him at the top, not knowing if he would get in to see Nina, wondering why she had not yet cleared his name. At the same time, he also felt like each step was a step towards a normal life, a step towards liberation, a step towards the possibility of all of this finally coming to an end. He wanted so badly for all of this to disappear, for him and Jenny to have a normal life, a chance for him and Nina to become close again after all that had happened.
When they reached the top of the stairs, Jenny whispered for him to stay there. He nodded in agreement. As she slipped out of the stairway and into the hall, Dom stood there uneasily. What if Jenny was captured? He did not have a good feeling at all about the whole situation. Dom waited one minute, then two, and three, and when Jenny didn’t come back, he got really nervous. He figured that if she didn’t come back in another two minutes, he would go looking for her. He didn’t make it past the first minute mark when Jenny slipped back into the staircase.
“It’s all clear,” she said.
“What do you mean, it’s all clear? Is the guard at her door the only person to deal with?” he asked, puzzled.
“No. Not even a guard to deal with. Go figure.”
Dom looked bewildered and scratched his head before responding. “That can’t be. They just wouldn’t leave her unattended with the killer still on the loose. Are you sure that you went to the right room?”
“Positive!” Jenny responded. “There is no guard.”
Dom thought for a minute more. Something was not right, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Maybe they put the guard in her room or they moved her and she’s not in that room anymore at all,” he suggested.
“Wrong and wrong again!” Jenny said. “When I didn’t see a guard, I decided that it would
be better if I risk my neck instead of yours, so I poked my head into the room. There was no one there except someone sleeping in the bed. I scanned every inch of the room and there was no one else there.”
Dom looked concerned. “How do you know that it was her in the bed?”
“It had to have been,” Jenny replied. “Outside her room, I looked at the chart that was in the slot on the door and it listed her as the patient. They wouldn’t have the chart there if someone else was in the room, otherwise they could give the wrong medication. They would be opening themselves up for the biggest lawsuit. I’m telling you, it has to be her!”
“Then where is the stupid guard?” Dom asked. “There has to be a freaking guard!”
“Maybe he had to run to the john,” Jenny replied, shrugging her shoulders. “But if that’s the case, you better hurry up and get in there before he comes back.”
Dom nodded. It was their only chance. He should have been happy, because it was going so easy for him, but he wasn’t happy. He was scared. It just seemed too easy. They had to take the risk though. It was the only way to prove he was innocent. Just a few moments alone with Nina was all that he needed.
“Let’s go!” he said.
Jenny slipped out of the stairwell and looked around. Thirty seconds later, she came back and got Dom, and together, they played their hide and seek game again until they made their way to Nina’s room. There was still no guard.
“Wish me luck,” Dom whispered.
“Always!” Jenny replied.
Dom gave Jenny a quick peck on the lips and slipped inside Nina’s room. At this point, Jenny was supposed to leave the hospital, get in the car and drive away from it and park in a nearby area where she could watch. That way if he got caught, Jenny would be on the outside to take over the fight. Dom was hoping that she was sticking with the plan.
Upon entering Nina’s room, he softly closed the door with his back to it, slowly letting his eyes adjust to the darkened room. As his vision became sharper, he could make out two hospital beds, each with a little bedside table next to it. He could also make out a chair in the corner, a cabinet, and a curtain that could be drawn to divide the room between the two beds, to give privacy to either patient. The curtain was open. An IV machine was set up next to the farthest bed and a green LED cast a little glow in the room. The bed nearest him was empty. In the bed closest to the window, he could make out the shape of a person under the covers.
“Nina,” he heard himself say under his breath. Quietly, Dom made his way over to the bed, being careful not to trip over anything. He didn’t want to make any noise and attract unwanted attention. As he got closer to the bed, he could make out the IV tubing running underneath the covers. He’d made it. He was here.
“Nina!” Dom whispered, hoping to wake her from her slumber. She did not answer and did not move, so he whispered a little louder.
“Nina! It’s me, Dom!” There was still no answer and he was a little nervous about the whole situation. Not knowing what to do, he reached out and touched her shoulder, shaking her a little to wake her up, hoping she didn’t wake up screaming.
That thought quickly left his head as he felt the cold metal barrel of a gun pressed against his temple.
“Don’t even think about moving, or I’ll blow your head off!” he heard Nina say and then he realized it wasn’t Nina at all; it was a man’s voice and the person in the bed was actually too large to be Nina. Then it hit him. They had him. It had seemed like it was too easy and it was. They had set a trap and he had fallen right into it.
Dom’s eyes squinted at the brightness of the lights that were suddenly switched on. Two men had come out of the bathroom and they were both holding guns pointed at Dom’s head. At the same time, the person that was in the bed holding the gun to his temple slipped out of the hospital bed, the gun still aimed at Dom’s head.
“Well, well, well! If it isn’t Dominick Maxwell coming back to finish the job he botched the first time,” the nearest gunman said. Dom stared straight into his eyes, a fire burning. It was Kent Perry.
“We’ve been looking for you all over the place, Maxwell. Now we’ve got you and you’re going to jail for a very long time.”
Dom was pissed. “Screw you, Perry. You know damn well I didn’t try to kill Nina. If you would pull your head out of your ass long enough to figure it out, you would know that.”
Kent Perry smiled. “All I can say is that I hope you have a good lawyer, because you are going to fry for this one, Maxwell, and as soon as I get enough evidence, I’ll be charging you with the deaths of your brother, your aunt and your friend, Billy Henderson, amongst others.”
Dom’s jaw dropped and he was speechless. “What the hell are you talking about?” he finally managed to say. “I didn’t kill any of those people. They were my family. My friends. Why don’t you just ask Nina who tried to kill her, damn it! Just ask her! She’ll tell you.”
Dom walked over to the chair in the corner of the room, not caring if he got shot through the head. Exhausted both physically and mentally, he slumped into it.
“I’m sorry to say, we did ask her,” Kent said. “We asked her all right. She said it was you. Her own brother. You killed her, you worthless piece of shit!” This last sentence came out in a yell, spittle spraying from Kent’s mouth.
“Bullshit,” Dom weakly replied. “You’re trying to frame me. I did not try to kill her. I suggest we go to her right now and clear this whole thing up, before I take your ass for everything it’s worth.”
Kent Perry shook his head. “It’s not as easy as that, Maxwell. Officer, arrest Mr. Maxwell here for murder, read him his rights, and take him down and throw him in the slammer.”
Dom wasn’t through. “As I said before, you need to pull your head out of your ass. You’re screwing this thing up big time. First of all, the charge should be attempted murder.”
Kent Perry shook his head again. “That’s where you’re wrong again, Maxwell. You see, your sister died this afternoon from a blood clot. It was a complication from the trauma she received to her head. One minute, she was recovering very nicely and the next, she was dead. So you see, Mr. Maxwell, you succeeded in your attempt to kill your sister and the charge is murder one. I hope you burn in hell for what you’ve done.”
With that, Kent Perry left the room while Pete Stamsford read Dominick Maxwell his rights and handcuffed his hands behind his back. Dom didn’t resist. He was in too much shock.
As they dragged him to his feet and escorted him out of the hospital, he could not remember any of the events as they were happening. His mind was a blank. They had won. They had him in custody and had a strong case against him and he was going to jail. On the other hand, his sister was dead and the killer had won once again, but this time, he was paying for it. Evil had triumphed. Good had taken the fall. The darkness that was in control of his life was surrounding him, choking him. He was alone, scared.
As they put him in the back of the unmarked police car, he looked out over the horizon. It was a moonless night and the stars were not visible. The sky was a grayish hue as if all the color had been choked from it. There was evil in the air. Dom could feel it crawling up the back of his neck, tingling as it went, and he realized that he was wrong. It was not over. It was far from over. There was a force of evil so strong out there that he knew it would be back to play. It wasn’t done with him yet. He wondered if he had enough strength to go on. He was also worried about Jenny, and hoped that she was okay. He wondered if she was next, or if he was.
One thing that Dom knew for sure was that one of them was next. That thought made him want to scream. In defeat, he laid his chin down on his chest and quietly let the tears slide down his cheek.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Jenny watched as a police car pulled into the parking lot. Moments later, they brought Dom out and put him in the back seat.
“Shit!” she yelled, her open palm pounding on the steering wheel. “It’s not supposed to happen this
way.” Everything had seemed to be going so smoothly. There was no guard in sight or in the room. Jenny couldn’t figure out what had happened.
Finally, the realization hit her. Everything had been way too easy. The lack of the presence of a guard, the floor being deserted. Jenny wanted to kick herself for not thinking about that earlier. They must have set a trap for Dom. They had to have been waiting for him. For the life of her, Jenny could not figure out why Nina’s testimony hadn’t cleared Dom. She was one hundred percent certain that he hadn’t done it.
Granted, she hadn’t known him for that long, but she felt like she had known him forever. She could tell that his gentle hands could not be capable of such a ferocious act of violence. Jenny did know one thing though. Whatever happened, she had to get Dom out of jail. That was all there was to it. She couldn’t be any help to him if he was in jail, and they might never find out what the force was that so mercilessly ripped through Dom’s life. If she didn’t get him out, so together they could prove his innocence, he was bound to be crucified for attacking Nina and they would never find out who or what was behind it. Furthermore, Jenny knew that he did not feel safe and that he felt that whatever this evil was, it was coming for him.
Was it just paranoia, or did Dom sense what was going to happen? If he stayed in jail, would he be safe from the evil and if so, was the attempt on Nina’s life a calculated frame job to make Dom miserable for the rest of his life? If he got sent to prison, would he get killed there? Above everything, Jenny wanted to help prove his innocence. Secondly, she wanted to get him out for selfish reasons. She loved him. She had never told him that and for that matter, she had never admitted it to herself until now. She wanted to be with him and unless they found the real attacker, he would be made to pay for the crime. This she felt deep down in her heart.
Snapping back to the present, Jenny watched as the police car pulled out of its parking space and headed towards the hospital parking exit. She didn’t have a plan totally formulated yet, but she knew that she had to follow them and find out where they were taking Dom. She couldn’t go calling a bunch of different law enforcement agencies and she needed to know the exact location.
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