Montana Standoff

by Sharon Dunn

They trotted across the broken concrete to where the ambulance waited. She squinted at the bright lights as she climbed in and sat beside Crew. He’d been hooked up to an IV, but remained motionless, with his eyes closed.

  She touched his thick, dark hair.

  Please, God, don’t let him die.

  She studied Crew. His shirt was bloody, his face bruised. A thousand memories scrolled through her head. She’d been five and Crew had been seven when their parents died. Their grandmother had taken them in until she died. After that, it had been a series of foster homes. Some good, some not so good. Crew had been the one constant in her life.

  They pulled up to the emergency room doors. Sarah stepped out and watched as they unloaded the stretcher. She glanced around the lot and at the entrances. No sign of Bryan.

  Sarah entered through the doors where they’d taken her brother.

  The woman at the check-in desk stood up. “Ma’am, it would be best if you waited until the doctor came out to talk to you.”

  “But I want to be with my brother.”

  “They have to determine the extent of his injuries and what needs to be done.” The woman handed her a clipboard. “In the meantime, why don’t you fill out this information about your brother.”

  With a heavy heart, Sarah sat down in the waiting room. She stared at the form on the clipboard. Health Insurance, Address, Place of Employment—all normal things that most people took for granted. She tossed the form aside. She didn’t want to think about this right now.

  She paced. She found a vending machine with snacks and a soda. She paced some more.

  She slumped down in the chair and stared out at the dark night. Bryan should be here by now.

  What had delayed him?

  * * *

  The taillight of the ambulance had no sooner slipped out of view over a hill when Bryan’s phone buzzed with a new text. He pulled over, expecting it to be from Sarah.

  I suggest you stop your investigation right now.

  No need to sign that one. Mason was up to his old tricks. Of course, it would be from a number that couldn’t be traced back to him. The guy was good at covering his tracks.

  The text didn’t scare him. It fueled his anger and indignation. He’d been running away from Mason’s thugs when he’d climbed up into that fire tower with Sarah, and it seemed like he’d been running in one way or another ever since. No more.

  If it was the last thing he ever did and the hardest thing he did, he would see to it that Mason went to jail so that no one would have to fear him or his cohorts ever again.

  And he was starting to think he was getting pretty close. Mason was becoming either sloppy or desperate. Setting Crazy Ray’s up as a torture chamber wasn’t too smart. Mason had to know they’d linked the dealership to him or he wouldn’t have sent Ray on vacation where he couldn’t talk.

  He turned his steering wheel and entered the flow of traffic. Mason’s thugs hadn’t killed Crew, but they had dumped him and left him for dead. Had Crew finally given them the information they wanted? Or had they given up? They knew they were being tailed. Maybe they’d decided Crew’s information wasn’t worth getting caught over.

  The road curved as he headed uphill. The hospital was built next to the hiking trails that connected with Lewis and Clark Park. He pulled into the hospital parking lot. Though the lot wasn’t as full as it would have been during the day, he had to park a ways from the emergency room doors.

  As he approached the emergency room, a man in scrubs came through the hospital’s sliding doors. “Are you Bryan Keyes?”

  “Yeah.” How did this guy know his name?

  “Sarah Langston asked me to keep an eye out for you. She misplaced her phone. They’ve taken her brother to surgery on the third floor. There’s a waiting room up there right through the main entrance. She wanted you to know that you’ll find her there.”

  Nodding his understanding, Bryan passed through the sliding doors. A woman with her head bent over a book sat at the registration desk. He walked over to the elevator, stepped in and pushed the button for the third floor.

  Moments later, the doors slid open. The second he stepped out on the carpet, Bryan knew something was wrong.

  At this time of night, he didn’t expect a huge staff, but no one occupied the nurses’ station. Bryan strode toward the hallway. Empty. A huge piece of plastic had been stapled across an opening at the end of the hallway along with a sign that read Closed For Construction.

  He’d been set up.

  Bryan turned and bolted for the elevator.

  Why the misdirection? Had they come back to finish Crew off and didn’t want him interfering? Or...oh, no, were they after Sarah again and wanted him out of the way?

  Glancing side to side, he waited for the elevator doors to open.

  Footsteps pounded behind him. He whirled around, ready to land a blow. The assailant, his old buddy Deep Voice, grabbed his arm. A second man came up from behind.

  He had only a moment to register the needle sinking into his biceps before he collapsed to the floor.

  TWELVE

  “Miss Langston?”

  Someone shook her shoulder. She opened her eyes. Predawn light streamed through the window. She’d been asleep on the waiting room couch for hours.

  She looked up at the woman who had awakened her. Dressed as a nurse, she was middle-aged with kind eyes.

  “Your brother is stabilized. He’s got some fractured ribs and lacerations. The thing we are most concerned about is his brain. He received severe blows to the head. We’ll have to watch him for several days to determine the extent of the damage.”

  “Is he conscious?”

  The nurse shook her head. “You’re welcome to go in and sit with him. Room 117.”

  Sarah stood up. Her head still hadn’t cleared from the fog of sleep. Bryan wasn’t in the waiting room. As she made her way down the hall, she tried his cell phone. No answer. Sarah pushed open the door of 117.

  Crew looked peaceful. The blood had been cleaned off him and replaced with clean white bandages around his head and on his hand. A nurse checked an IV and pulled the blankets up higher on his chest. Beside the bed on a tray sat a wallet, a watch and a creased picture of her and Crew. They must have tossed out the bloody bandanna.

  The nurse pulled a chair from a corner of the room. “Sometimes it helps if you talk to them. The jury is still out on how much someone in a coma can hear.”

  Sarah winced at the word coma.

  “I’m sure the talking won’t be in vain. I’ve seen amazing recoveries in my time.” The nurse patted Crew’s head and left, her soft-soled shoes barely making any noise as she crossed the room.

  Sarah leaned over the bed and took Crew’s hand in her own. “Hey, big brother.” His fingers were as cold to the touch as porcelain. She spoke some more to him about shared childhood memories. Overcome with sorrow, she stepped away from the hospital bed. She had to do something or the sadness and fear for Crew’s future would consume her.

  Finding Bryan seemed like the easiest task. But when she tried calling again, he still wasn’t picking up. Maybe he’d been called to another job?

  Sarah cleared her throat and dialed the police station. “Hello, I’m trying to locate Officer Bryan Keyes. Has he come by there or called in?”

  “Not that I noticed, and he’s not on the roster yet,” said the desk sergeant.

  “Can you have him call me if he does come in?” Sarah gave her name and number and hung up.

  A chill that had nothing to do with the room permeated her skin. What had happened to Bryan?

  She studied her phone. With two phone calls she had exhausted the possibilities of who she could contact. She didn’t know anything about Bryan anymore—who his friends were, who was important in his life. Ten years ago
, he had been her whole world.

  Her gaze traveled over to the tray that contained all of Crew’s worldly possessions. A revelation crept into her head. No phone.

  Crew had called her when she was at the station, but he had no cell phone in his possession. He could have used a pay phone or the free one at the library, but...what if he’d simply borrowed a phone from someone? It was worth checking. She clicked through her phone until the number she was looking for came up. She dialed it.

  “Hello?”

  She recognized the voice. “Eddie, is that you?”

  The line went dead.

  She wandered the room. No use calling back; he’d check the number. Eddie had been leaving the park when Crew was taken, and he was the one who had lured her into the fairgrounds building. Why didn’t he want to talk to her? She remembered what Crew had said about there being spies everywhere. At the time it had seemed paranoid, but now...

  She stared out the window. The tall street lamp glowed in the early morning light. She stepped a little closer to the window. Down below, Bryan’s white sedan stood out. Panic flooded through her. Bryan had made it to the hospital. So where was he?

  Sarah stroked Crew’s cheek and kissed his forehead. “Hang in there.”

  She ran out into the hallway and back to the emergency room check-in desk. The admin woman was the same one who had been on duty when Crew was brought in.

  “Did a man come through here looking for me, Sarah Langston? He’s tall, broad shoulders, dark brown hair. He had on a black T-shirt.”

  The woman shook her head. “Sorry. We had an abundance of senior citizens and teenagers last night but no one who looked like that.”

  Sarah ran out to the white sedan. Locked. Empty.

  Her hands were shaking when she dialed directly into the police station.

  “Discovery Police Station.” The same desk sergeant she had talked to earlier.

  Sarah struggled to speak in a calm voice. “I think Bryan Keyes is missing. He was supposed to meet me at the hospital, but something must have happened to him. His car is here, but he never came into the E.R. That was hours ago.”

  “I’ll send a unit over.”

  Sarah hung up and searched the lot. Where else would he have gone? The pharmacy and doctors’ offices were all closed at night. Her gaze rested on the general registration and admittance area, separate from the E.R.

  She hurried over to the sliding glass doors and stepped onto the carpet.

  A lone woman sat behind her computer. “Can I help you?”

  “Were you working about five or six hours ago?”

  “Yes, I was. I get off shift in about forty-five minutes.”

  “Did a man about my age come through here?”

  She thought for a moment. “Tall guy, dark shirt? Sort of messy handsome look?”

  Sarah nodded.

  “We don’t get that much traffic. I thought it was odd that he didn’t ask me for directions. He went straight for the elevator like he knew where he was going.”

  “Where could he have gone?”

  “The third floor on this wing is under construction, so he probably went up to the second floor.”

  “There’s no one on the third floor?” Realization spread through her.

  The admin lady furled her forehead. “Not at night. The construction guys show up around nine.”

  Sarah darted over to the elevator. Bryan hadn’t gone to the second floor. He’d been lured to the third floor; she was sure of it. As the elevator rose, she realized she probably should have waited for the police to show up. But she couldn’t just sit around, not knowing if Bryan was up there. If he was hurt. If he needed her help.

  She pulled her key ring from her purse and adjusted the pepper spray in her hand. The door slid open. Sarah stepped onto the carpet. Treading lightly, she walked over to the nurses’ station.

  A door whooshed open down the hall. The crinkle of thick plastic pressed on her ears. Sarah ducked behind the high counter of the nurses’ station and peeked around to watch as a man stalked past, his footfall heavy on the floor.

  She lifted her head a few inches above the counter. She saw the man from the back as he stared at the elevator—muscular, thick neck...it was Deep Voice, the guy who had taken her into the forest to kill her.

  Bryan had to be around here somewhere. She scampered on all fours toward the wall of plastic. Carefully lifting the plastic at the corner, she cringed at each noise as she scooted through.

  Sarah came out into an expansive open area where the walls had been gutted, the floors torn up and building materials occupied most of the floor space. She ran around a stack of drywall. Bryan slumped in a corner of the room. His chin resting on his chest, his shirt torn, hands tied in front of him.

  “Bryan.”

  He lifted his head, but it wobbled on his neck. His eyes were unfocused. His breathing labored.

  “Let’s get you out of here.”

  She had only minutes before the guard came back.

  “Knife in my pocket.” Bryan bent his head, indicating the pocket of his jeans.

  She dug out the pocketknife and cut him free. She angled underneath his shoulder and helped him stand. They couldn’t go back to the elevator. With Bryan limping along, she searched the room. There had to be a stairwell around here somewhere.

  She spotted it just as she heard the crinkling of plastic. No way could they outrun the guard. Sarah flung open the door of the stairwell. She let go of Bryan, allowing him to slump to the floor.

  Then she waited, holding the pepper spray in her trembling hand.

  Pounding footsteps. The stairwell door swung open. She aimed and pressed the button. Deep Voice shrieked, groaned in pain. Stepping over him, she pressed the door shut and helped Bryan get to his feet.

  He was coming around, more able to walk though still dizzy. They had just made it to the second floor landing when the door above them swung open. Deep Voice shouted down at them, his voice bouncing off the tight walls. The time between footsteps indicated he couldn’t see clearly.

  Sarah pushed open the door and stepped out onto a floor that appeared abandoned, as well. The signs on the doors indicated that these were specialists’ offices. The elevator was at the end of the hall. She pushed the button for the first floor. Bryan leaned against the wall for support.

  Behind them, the stairwell door burst open. Deep Voice stumbled toward them, swaying a bit and stopping to rub his eyes.

  The elevator doors remained shut.

  The thug loomed closer to them.

  Sarah pushed the button again.

  He was within twenty feet. His reddened face stood in sharp contrast to his snarling mouth that revealed yellow teeth.

  The doors swung open. Bryan stumbled inside, but when she moved to follow, Deep Voice grabbed her shirttail and held her back. Bryan leapt toward her, gathering her in his arms. He pulled her free and pushed the man. Caught off guard, the thug stumbled backward and the elevator doors slid closed.

  The elevator descended and Bryan held her while he leaned against the wall, strong arms surrounding her. She rested her palm on his chest where she could feel his heart racing. She tilted her head and looked into his eyes. “What happened to you?” Her voice came out in a breathless whisper.

  Still not totally free from whatever they had drugged him with, Bryan blinked several times. “They encouraged me to drop the investigation. And I think they wanted me out of commission. When I got to the hospital, someone was waiting outside, dressed in scrubs, to tell me you were waiting for me on the third floor. Once I showed up, they drugged me.”

  “But they didn’t try to kill you.”

  “I’m sure they would have eventually, but not before I could be used to somehow get them access to you or Crew.” The elevator do
ors opened. Bryan pushed away from the wall. “Is Crew still...?”

  She pulled free of his embrace. “Yes, he’s alive—but not conscious.”

  Strength returned to Bryan’s voice. “We better get over there. I don’t think he’s safe.”

  THIRTEEN

  Bryan’s head still felt fuzzy from the drugs that had left him incapacitated but conscious. He tried as best he could to scan for any signs of danger.

  Sarah squeezed his hand and pulled him down a hallway. “His room is up here.” Her voice filled with urgency.

  From inside the room, a woman screamed. A man in scrubs emerged. The same man who had misdirected Bryan before. His eyes grew wide at the sight of Bryan. He turned and bolted. Bryan ran after him, but in his weakened state he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep up. The man disappeared around a corner.

  Bryan braced his hand against a wall, gasping for breath. He returned to the room where a nurse and Sarah both leaned over Crew.

  “Is he...?”

  “When I came in here...” The nurse put a trembling hand to her mouth. “That man was holding Mr. Langston by the collar and slapping him.”

  Bryan approached the hospital bed. Crew lay with his eyes closed, still unconscious. “Do you know who he is?”

  “He’s not anyone I’ve ever seen on shift,” said the nurse.

  Bryan pulled Sarah aside while the nurse continued to fuss over Crew. “I don’t think Crew told those guys what they wanted to know. That’s why they came back here. You heard what the nurse said. That guy could have used the opportunity to kill Crew, but he didn’t. Instead, he tried to wake him up.”

  “So they didn’t toss him out of the car because they were finished with him.”

  “They must have panicked because we were closing in on them,” Bryan said. “I’m sure Mason encouraged them to finish their mission.”

  The nurse left the room.

  “Staff watched him pretty close through the night. This was probably the first chance they had to find him alone.” Sarah clutched Bryan’s shirt and gazed up into his eyes. “What are we going to do?”