Touched by Death

by Dale Mayer

  "Dane. You might as well answer it."

  Jade's heart lightened. "Hello Dane."

  "Hey. Too bad you don't have your own cell phone. I wouldn't have to keep bothering Meg this way." She heard the smile in his voice that said he wasn't too bothered by the inconvenience. Still he had a point. If she wanted privacy, she'd have to get a phone for the duration of her time here. "Anyway, Peppe is not in his cabin. The door is open now and it wasn't left that way yesterday. John believes Peppe came home last night and was probably confused and scared off by the sirens. We'll keep an eye out for him."

  "Oh, that sounds reasonable." In fact that was excellent news. They could focus on Dr. Mike now. "How is John holding up?"

  Dane's voice flattened. "He's coping, somewhat. He opened up a little, admitted that he and Tasha had been having problems for a bit. At the time he figured that was because she was upset that he allowed you to work on the grave."

  Jade wrinkled up her nose. "Yeah, I can see that. Relationships being what they are." Meg looked at her, an eyebrow raised. Jade continued. "Let us know if there are any developments with Peppe. We'll turn our attention to trying to find Dr. Mike."

  "What? Dr. Mike didn't come home?" he asked, his voice rising.

  Jade had forgotten what they'd been doing when they'd found Emile. "No. There's no sign of him or the SUV. Bruce left a few minutes ago to speak with the police."

  "Hmmm. While I look for Peppe, I'll keep an eye out for him too. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help you."

  "I'll get back to you on that," Jade promised, then hung up. She quickly filled Meg in on the latest developments.

  Meg brightened. "If he'd seen the ambulance take his kids away, then he's going to be confused and upset. I can see him going into hiding. That doesn't mean he's not in need of care, though." She thought for a moment. "Any idea what happened to Tasha and Emile's mother?"

  "No. I never thought to ask." Jade stared down at the phone, wondering if she should call Dane back. Some family history would be good to know.

  "Not to worry. It's not our problem."

  She stared at Meg. "You're right, yet somehow it seems like it is."

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The team was discussing the previous night's events over lunch when Bruce returned.

  Susan walked in slowly just behind him. She fielded all the questions with a smile. "I'm feeling a little better, thanks, everyone. Apparently I missed lots of excitement last night."

  Jade shook her head, "And you were the lucky one there."

  Pulling her chair out, Susan sat down next to Stephen. She frowned. "Not really. I think someone tried to break into my room last night."

  "What?" A chorus of cries erupted from the table.

  "Really." Meg stared at her in horror. "What happened?"

  "I'm not exactly sure. I took some decongestants to try and throw this cold. Those things always knock me out." She sighed, reached for her coffee cup and took a sip. "I woke up in the night, everything was dark. But I could hear movement in my room."

  "Jesus." Jade so didn't want to think about what could have happened. "Did he just leave? On his own?"

  Susan nodded. "I coughed a couple of times, sat up to clear my throat and this shadow detached from the wall, the door opened and this person went out. Had a hard time getting back to sleep after that. The front desk sent someone up to check the lock for me"

  Stephen growled. "That had better not happen again. We've got enough problems without worrying about intruders while we sleep."

  Susan gave him a wan smile. "I did get up and lock my door. Figured I must have forgotten to before climbing into bed.

  At that, Bruce highlighted something they all knew but found easy to forget. "Remember people, this area is incredibly poor. Lock up your belongings. The hotel has a safe if you want to make use of it and be sure to check that you've locked your room doors at all times."

  Everyone had something to say. Jade sat back and listened. She couldn't believe the shitty luck the team had been having lately.

  Bruce gave everyone another moment, then held up his hand. "Now on to my news. We're in luck. There's a tracking device on the SUV. The police called the rental company. Apparently, with the unrest in Haiti in the last year, thefts were up, along with every other crime imaginable. In order to keep their fleet insured, they'd been forced to boost their security measures." He pulled out a chair and sat. "I handed over all the paperwork on the leases and they're doing their thing as we speak."

  "Oh, wow. That is great news." Jade sat up straight. She'd never considered a tracking device.

  Bruce's phone rang. He answered, gesturing for silence. The room fell quiet. He put the phone on speaker. "Hi, did you find him?"

  "We found the SUV. However there's no sign of your missing person."

  Worry lined Bruce's face. "He's not there? Is there any place close-by where he could be? A hotel or restaurant, something?"

  "The SUV isn't far from where you're staying. There is no sign of damage or forced entry to the SUV. It is still full of equipment. It looks as if the driver just got up and walked away. It is a popular hiking spot – would he be the type of person to have gone for a hike on the spur of the moment and not tell anyone?"

  Silence.

  Stephen spoke first. "He's a hiker, but I can't imagine him going without letting any of us know what he was doing. He'd found a couple of hikes that we were going to discuss then pick one to do this weekend, but that's after we'd planned and prepared for it."

  "Right. Can you please meet us at the vehicle so we can make sure nothing has been stolen?"

  Jade scratched down the location as it came rattling through the phone.

  "We'll be there in fifteen minutes." Bruce closed his phone and tucked it back into his pants pocket.

  "I want to go with you," Jade said quietly. She really didn't want to go but she wanted to make sure that no one missed anything. Dr. Mike was a good man. She'd do what she could for him.

  "So do I." Meg stood up.

  Susan started to cough. Everyone stopped to look at her in concern. When she could, she said, "I want to go, but..."

  Stephen pointed a finger at her. "Bed. That's the only place you're going. And lock the door behind you, this time."

  "I think we all want to go." Stephen raised an eyebrow at Wilson, who nodded. "Good, that's settled. We're all going." Everyone stood and headed for the vehicles. As Meg walked past Bruce, she nudged him in the arm. "We're all in this together. If Dr. Mike is in trouble, we all want to help. Accept it."

  Bruce smiled and fell into step beside her. "It's good to know that the team has bonded so well in such a short time."

  "Isn't it though? Susan hasn't been involved too much but she seems happy to be with us."

  Stephen interrupted them as he came up behind them. "Any update on the patients?"

  Meg filled him in.

  Stephen winced. "That's tough for everyone."

  When they reached the SUV, all of them clambered in ahead of Bruce. He shook his head. "Eager or what?"

  "Anxious," corrected Jade. "Dr. Mike is family. We're all family."

  Bruce stopped, studied her serious face for a moment, and then smiled. "Thanks. That's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time."

  He hopped in and started the engine.

  "It's the truth," Jade added to the thoughtful silence in the car. "We may not have been here together for long, yet bonds have started. It's up to us how we want them to continue." With those profound words, she sat back, quiet again.

  Meg reached out and gave her a hug. "Thanks, sis."

  Jade chuckled.

  "Hey, pass the hugs around. No keeping them just up front," Stephen protested from the back row.

  The jovial atmosphere kept the darkness at bay. At least until they pulled into the l
ocation they'd been given, and saw the SUV parked in a small gravel lot at the base of a large hill. Boulders piled high at the base of it and there was no sign of Dr. Mike.

  The laughter shut off like a faucet, replaced by grim silence.

  "Shit," Stephen's words echoed loudly through the small space as Bruce stopped the engine.

  "I don't get it." Jade opened the sliding door and hopped out. The others stepped out behind her. They were in a small parking lot, off the main road. They saw one police car and two officers standing at the SUV, waiting. She couldn't help the horrible sinking feeling in her stomach. The SUV doors were closed and the SUV looked deserted. She walked toward it slowly. The closer she got the worse she felt.

  Bruce walked over to speak with the officers and the rest of them trooped over to check the SUV. One officer left Bruce and walked over to talk with the others.

  "Was the door open when you found it?" Stephen asked.

  "All doors were unlocked. Lucky everything didn't get stolen." The officer stood off to one side watching the group.

  "Weird," Wilson piped, checking out the front passenger side.

  "Not weird. Bad. Dr. Mike was particularly careful about his equipment." Meg was adamant.

  Jade had to agree.

  "He might have gone hiking. He might be out there injured." She pivoted around, looking for any sign of him.

  "He'd have said something, invited one of us along." Stephen protested. "I don't see him going out hiking anyway, at least not alone, and not late in the afternoon. And he has a cell if he needed help." He opened the driver's side and looked inside.

  "No, not hiking, but it makes total sense to come and check out a hike before suggesting it for everyone this weekend." Wilson shrugged. "That's what I'd do."

  Jade frowned. "The only way he'd leave the doors unlocked go on his own from here is if he thought someone needed him – or if someone forced him to."

  "There goes that wild imagination of yours." Stephen's voice didn't hold any humor. If anything, it sounded like he was searching for another answer – any other answer. He hopped in the SUV to check the contents in the back. A moment later, he popped his head out. "I can't see anything missing or different about the SUV. Anyone else?" He jumped out the back door and stood with his hands on his hips and studied the SUV's exterior. "Meg, do you want to take a look?"

  Meg obliged. Jade stood at the open door and studied the stacks of boxes in the back of the SUV. There was a small stain that looked suspiciously like blood on the corner of one box.

  She shook her head. There went her overactive imagination again. There was no reason to assume something bad just because there was a tiny brown spot.

  "Is this blood?"

  Jade asked while Meg moved in for a closer look, "What if someone found him injured? They'd take him to the hospital, right? It's not like they'd just leave him here."

  Meg poked her head around the stack of boxes. "It is blood but it's not enough to indicate anything. Still, that's not a bad idea. We'd spent so much time in the hospital last night; I never considered maybe he'd been brought in.

  Wilson called over, "Hey Bruce, did you call the hospital?"

  Bruce shook his head. "I checked last night. I haven't yet this morning."

  The younger officer beside him pulled out his cell and moved off a few paces. "I'll do that right now."

  Everyone stood quietly, waiting, hoping. The officer returned within a few minutes. "No one has been admitted in the last 24 hours fitting that description."

  "Okay, if he's not at the hospital and he's not in the SUV. What are our options for finding him?"

  Meg stood, hands on her hips, frowning at the vehicle. "A search party to start from here?"

  Wilson rubbed his hands eagerly. "I volunteer."

  "Except that he may have been mugged and the SUV dumped here. Although that doesn't make any sense as this area is facing incredible poverty. The SUV would have been stripped," Jade pointed out.

  Wilson walked closer to the path to check it out while Stephen turned to the officer. "Will the insurance company's tracking system tell us where the SUV has been? So we can see where Mike may have driven?"

  Bruce frowned. "They'd have told us if they had, wouldn't they?"

  Stephen shrugged. "Depends on the system they're using. Tracking isn't the same as built-in GPS, I don't think. But then I don't know."

  "It's just another phone call." The cop added, "I'll have someone at the station make that one. If there is any information, we'll get it."

  Stephen nodded his head. "Can we take the SUV back? It's full of our gear."

  "We've processed it already. Lifted a couple of fingerprints that we'll run. No blood or anything else suspicious." He shrugged. "We don't have a crime at the moment. We might have a missing person."

  Meg frowned.

  Jade could understand. No one knew what to do or where to start.

  Wilson spoke up. He stood slightly apart from the group staring at the woods to the far side. "Let's think about this. We're at the base of a popular hiking spot. Dr. Mike has several hikes in mind for this weekend. On top of that, we're not far from the gravesite, are we?"

  Jade gazed in the direction he was pointing. All she saw was a small mountain with boulders at the bottom and a path twisting its way up the side to where it disappeared in the brush and small bushes. "I wouldn't know. I'm horrible with that kind of stuff."

  Bruce walked over to study the same patch of hills and woods. "We can't be that far. I've driven around this area a little bit." He turned back to the others. "Anyone have a map?"

  "Why does it matter where the gravesite is?"

  "Because Dr. Mike could have walked over that hill to the lab."

  "Why? When the SUV is here? Besides, Jade and Dane checked the grave last night." Meg joined them. The first officer came back with an open map in his hands. Stephen and Bruce clustered around him.

  "So I stop here, park and then hike over that small mountain to the gravesite when it's going to be dark soon – for fun? Does that make any sense to you?" Jade stared at the men in astonishment.

  Meg shook her head violently. "Walk away from a working SUV to a spot you think is on the other side…a decent climb from the gravesite? With no wheels and without letting anyone know? No way. Not in this lifetime."

  "I'd so do that," Wilson stated, a grim smile on his face. "Honestly, I have done things like that. Except I'd either come back to the SUV or I'd call for a ride once I made it to the other side – if not before – to let someone know where to bring the cold beer."

  The grin on Stephen's face said he agreed with Wilson.

  Jade shook her head. "So…then we're going to have to hike over there, if only to make sure he didn't do just that and get stuck somewhere along the way."

  Stephen laughed.

  The two women stared at each other. "Men."

  "I hear you." Jade couldn't think of one woman in her life that would do what Wilson described. Not in a million years.

  Bruce walked over with the one officer to speak with the other one. He returned a few minutes later. "It appears to be about a two- maybe three-hour hike over the top."

  The five team members turned to stare at the sparsely treed hillside. Shaking his head, Bruce said, "So, I suggest Wilson and I do the hike. Stephen, why don't you meet us on the other side in a couple of hours? We've got water and phones."

  Jade jutted her chin out. "Two of you aren't enough. Wilson can go with you too, and Meg and I can meet you at the gravesite after." She turned to the two officers. "What about organizing a search party?"

  Both men simply shook their heads, and stepped back.

  "They don't have the manpower and even if they did, they don't have enough evidence to prove that Dr. Mike is even missing," Bruce explained.

  "Fine. Jade and Meg can each drive a
n SUV back to the hotel. They can leave Dr. Mike's parked there then meet us at the gravesite."

  Leaving the rest of the words unspoken, Wilson walked back over to the first SUV and pulled out his backpack. He hefted it over one shoulder and turned toward the hillside. "Come on, let's go. We've only got an estimate of how long this will take. It could take us twice that."

  "Good thing it's a nice day for a hike." A grinning Stephen walked past with his camera in hand.

  Jade and Meg watched until the men disappeared from sight. Meg had the foresight to speak to the police before they took off; she got their contact information in case the three men didn't show up as planned. After they were left alone, Jade hopped into Dr. Mike's SUV. Meg fired up the other SUV and led the way back.

  Maybe this day would turn out to have a happy ending after all.

  ***

  Dane watched his brother pace from the living room into the kitchen and back again. He let him do it a couple more times before deciding that maybe he'd worked off enough energy to be able to talk.

  "What's going through your head?"

  John spun around and looked at him, his face flushed with temper.

  Good, he'd get this out, one way or another, and if they had to resort to fists like old times, well then that's what they would do. Dane stood and shifted his weight to the balls of his feet.

  "What's going through my head? What's not going through my head? My child is dead for starters. My wife is out of her mind; my brother-in-law is in a coma and my crazy father-in-law is missing. Other than that, not much." His sarcastic voice added, "What the fuck do you think?"

  "That's about what I figured."

  John gave him a look of absolute disgust before storming out the kitchen door. Dane stayed behind but kept an eye on him. John's life had flushed down the toilet and there wasn't much either one of them could do about it. Still, he didn't want John to do anything stupid.

  Dane decided he'd check on Peppe's cabin again. Maybe he could get John to walk that way too.

  "Let's see if Peppe came back."

  John threw up his hands. "Fine let's go check on the crazy one. Then I want to go back to the hospital. See how Tasha is."