I see you finally made it to work on time,” the night- shift team leader said.
Gina bit her lip and nodded.
“Oh, yeah,” said another nurse. “I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d almost forgotten what you look like.” Gina held back a sharp retort as several others gave enthusiastic nods.
Jenni gave her a look that said, suck it up, don’t take the bait.
According to the report, the census had increased sharply and beds on the unit were close to being filled with more influenza complications. Nurses, and others on the staff, were starting to call in sick with the flu, and the hospital was now officially short staffed.
Another patient, in her mid-40s, had died during the night, from the same flu bug that seemed to be killing most of the senior patients.
Secondary bacterial infections were hitting older people the hardest―pneumonia was by far the worst offender. IVs just couldn’t replace lost fluids and infuse antibiotics fast enough without causing another whole cascade of problems. Just a rotten fact, old people, with their weakened immune systems, weren’t able to fight back.
It was that time of day when doctors began popping in to check up on their patients. Brad walked up to her as she was keying notes into the desk computer. He whispered, “What a great evening. I was sorry when it ended.”
She looked up at him, smiled. “It was fun. And that’s the first time I’ve been to Rizzo’s. It really lives up to its reputation for good food and an intimate atmosphere. Thanks again.”
That really sounded stupid—like a dumb, unsophisticated boob. How lame can I get? Four years with one guy and I’ve lost all my pizzazz.
She could see her attempt at being easy-going and cool wasn’t fooling him for a single moment, but his eyes were probing for some kind of real reaction. Something honest instead of some meaningless line.
Can’t deal with this man right now. It’s too soon.
“Are you off this weekend?” Brad said.
“Well ... as a matter of fact, I am.”
“How about we do a reprise.”
She hesitated a beat. “Whoa, I don’t know, Brad. Let me think about it.”
He smiled, his dimples dimpled, and she remembered him sitting close to her during their dinner together. It left her feeling breathless and conflicted.
“No pressure. Think about it.” He gently touched her shoulder and walked away. Her skin burned under her scrubs where his fingertips had rested briefly.
* * *
Taking care of routine patient tasks—breakfast, meds, assessment—took up most of the morning. More and more of their patients were succumbing to infections and turning critical.
Gina grabbed a moment to slip into the work room for some needed supplies. Jenni was in a corner weeping.
“Hey, girl, what’s the matter? Is there anything I can do to help?”
“God, I’m such a wuss.” Jenni dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. “It’s really nothing, nothing I can’t handle.” Then she began to cry again.
Gina wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “Tell me. Maybe talking about it will at least make you feel better.”
It all spilled out in a rush. “That guy Russ is still following me after work.”
“No! Are you kidding me? Still following you? You mean in his car?”
Jenni nodded, blew her nose, and tried to compose herself.
“Have you gone to the police? Maybe they can help.”
Jennie shook her head.
“I don’t know ... this is getting pretty serious,” Gina said. “If the guy’s really stalking you ... I mean, are you really sure? He looks all right, like an average Joe.”
“Yeah, he looks all right, but there’s nothing average about him. At first I thought it was my imagination, but yesterday I caught him again. He was following me to my apartment.”
“Maybe you need to stay with someone. You’re not originally from this area, are you?
“No. I’m from the Midwest. Indiana.”
“Do you know anyone you can room with for a while?”
“No. That’s one of the reasons I chose San Francisco—lots of employment opportunities and I could get away from family. But mainly, back home there’s a guy who not only dumped me, but married my best friend.”
“That’s pretty awful.”
Jenni started crying again. “I had to leave. Everyone was driving me crazy with constant questions, consoling comments. All that kind of shit. I had to leave, get a fresh start.”
“We could be talking about me,” Gina said. “It seems we’re in the same corner, needing to get away from old haunts. I definitely know the feeling.” Stray thoughts of Dominick and Harry floated through her mind like unwanted chaff.
“What am I going to do?”
Think there’s a chance that if you’re nicer to Russell he might leave you alone? Most of these guys just want to be noticed.”
Of course, it never worked for me.
“Listen, I’ll never be nice to that creep again,” Jenni said. “I don’t want to talk about it; I can barely stand to be around him. That’s why I mess with his name—I know he hates it, and I probably shouldn’t do it, but it’s the only way I can get back at him.”
“Hey, Jen, come stay with me for awhile. I’ve got an extra bedroom and I could use the company, what with Harry gone—”
“—But isn’t he due back soon?”
“No. I think he might have signed on for an extended stay,” Gina said. “Even if Harry were here, he would understand. It would be okay with him, no matter what.”
Jenni gave her a tentative smile. “Well, if you really don’t mind, it might help me get a decent night’s sleep.”
“Tell you what, go to your place after work, pick up some of your stuff and come on over.”
“Thanks, Gina.”
* * *
Gina snatched a table in a remote area of the cafeteria, propped two chairs against the table to save a spot for Vinnie and Helen. The three of them hadn’t gotten together for a week and she particularly missed seeing her brother.
She breezed through the line, which was never crowded during the early lunch hour. She chose a large bowl of roasted pepper soup—her favorite—and placed it on the tray next to an extra-large chunk of sourdough bread. A dessert of diet raspberry Jell-O jiggled next to a large cup of black coffee.
She was halfway through her soup when Vinnie and Helen eased into the seats she’d saved for them.
“Hi, you two.” Gina put her spoon down and took a mammoth bite of bread.
Vinnie started hammering at her right away: “What’s this I hear about you going out on a date?”
“Oh, leave the poor thing alone,” Helen said, picking up her meatball sandwich.
“How did you hear about that?”
Helen gave her one of her cynical leers. “You’re not forgetting about the Ridgewood grapevine, are you?”
She was really in for it. Vinnie hadn’t even started his cheeseburger or the ever present French fries smothered in catsup.
“Have you permanently broken up with Harry, Sis? ’Cause if you have, you sure haven’t said a word to me about it.”
“You keep forgetting you’re my younger brother ... I don’t have to tell you squat.”
“Now before you turn me into a referee, you two stop it!” Helen said, her mouth full of sandwich.
Gina and Vinnie glared at each other; Gina was the first to look away. She finally said, “Brad Rizzo is a really a nice guy and it was just an evening out. That’s all.”
Helen placed a hand on Gina’s. “What’s going on with you and Harry?”
Gina took another spoonful of her soup, stalling for time. She didn’t know what was going on. “We’re taking a break from each other, I guess. That’s all.”
“Do you still love the guy?” Vinnie asked softly.
“I don’t know how I feel, Vin. It’s gotten so all he ever talks about is the same thing–getting married. You know how I feel about
that. I only want to be with him ... I don’t want to get married. That’s obviously not working for him.”
“But, dear girl, dating? That puts a whole new crimp in the situation,” Helen said. “It’s like you’ve given up on him.”
“Look, it was just a night out. I needed to get away from my routine, needed some company. Brad was really fun to be with.”
Helen whistled. “And quite the looker.”
Gina laughed. “Would you feel better if he was homely?”
She got two answers at once:
Helen said, “No.”
Vinnie said, “Yes.”
Chapter 8
Russell was in his trash-filled Ford Ranger pickup, parked down the block from Jenni’s VW. He was thinking about his mother while he waited for Jenni to get off work.
There were moments when he missed his mother, who’d had a cruel, nasty mouth ... unless she wanted something. She’d always been mean to him, especially when she’d been drinking.
Which was always.
Her being struck down by some dumb kid and dying was her final act of abandonment. It forced him to live with Todd, his foster father.
Russell looked at Jenni’s little red car. It made him restless to remember how he’d been so attracted to her; she was the center piece of so many of his fantasies. He even took her out to Todd’s cabin because he desperately wanted her to like him.
He snapped out his reverie as soon as Jenni arrived and drove away from the curb. He followed to her first stop, a dry cleaners.
She wasn’t inside very long and came out carrying plastic-wrapped clothes on hangers. She was hanging them on hooks in the back of her VW when something flashed in his peripheral vision. It was like someone had stood up close to the car and was staring in at him before disappearing.
Someone was watching him. Again.
He got out of the car and took a lap around it. No one was there, but when he looked up, Jenni had closed the rear door of her car and was staring hard at him.
Guess I blew it.
It didn’t matter that she knew. He still continued to follow her from three cars back.
Maybe a little worry will make her call me Russell. Treat me like a man instead of some loser.
He stared at the plaque on his dashboard: Russell Owen Thorpe. He’d installed it there not only to declare ownership of his pickup, but to remind himself who he was. A person with a name, not just any name, but a good solid one.
Yeah!
He finally got tired of following Jenni and, pulled off the main thoroughfare, left her behind where she was still crawling along in traffic.
He hit the side streets to Carlin’s Mortuary. He had a 5:30 appointment with his old high school buddy, Eddy, who worked as a mortuary tech. Eddy said Carlin’s was one of the most popular establishments in the business.
Must be true because Eddy never had any trouble getting what Russell needed.
Always plenty of dead bodies passing through Carlin’s.
He checked his watch again. He was going to be right on time.
* * *
His friend was waiting at the back door where they took in the stiffs. He had on his grubby one-piece coveralls under a chest-to-knee apron, and rubber boots
“Hey, man. How’s it goin’?
Russell nodded, got out of the pickup and approached Eddy. The closer he got, the more the chemical odors made his nose itch. He looked at the package the tech was holding and frowned. He felt a blast of anger surge.
“That doesn’t look like my order, Eddy.
“Yeah, well, I’m kinda busy. You’ll have to trim it down to size yourself. Besides, the boss man cornered me, started asking a lot of questions.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“Said I was giving it to a high school biology lab for study.” Russell could see Eddy didn’t like holding the package, tossed it back and forth between hands like a hot potato. “I usually have no trouble sneaking in your order, but after today ... well, I don’t know. It’s getting too risky.”
Russell laughed, reached into his pocket. “Sounds like you did okay and it’s an easy two hundred bucks.”
“We’ll see.” Eddy took the bills from Russell and slipped them into a pocket under his apron. “It’s getting harder and harder to find stiffs that haven’t had hip replacements.” He let out a snort. “Too bad you don’t want titanium replacements. Got bags full of that crap from the crematorium, although the boss loves getting them.”
Russell was getting light-headed, ready to puke from the fumes radiating off his high school buddy. “Can’t make bone handles out of titanium,” Russell said.
“Gotta get moving.” Eddy placed the bundle in Russell’s arms.
“Got it!” Russell said, grasping the package. “See you around.”
Eddy stepped back inside the building, Russell hurried to the Ford Ranger and drove to his favorite drive-in. He ordered a Big Mac and a double order of French fries. In the parking lot he unwrapped the burger, crumpled the paper and threw it into the back seat of the SuperCab, onto the pile of wrappers from previous meals. He downed the food, taking huge bites, barely chewing any of it, swallowing large pieces of meat in large gulps. He washed it down with a sixteen-ounce Coke.
He kept looking at the package.
* * *
At his kitchen table, Russell put on his latex gloves. He carefully unwrapped the outer butcher paper and then removed the plastic that Eddy had used to wrap the entire femur.
The leg bone shone a skeletal white and he shook his head, annoyed that Eddy hadn’t cut off the head of the femur the way he usually did. That was the part he didn’t want. Now Russell would have to deal with it.
He turned his IPod up loud, put in his ear buds so the neighbors wouldn’t bug him, and took a deep breath. Then he poured a glass full of vodka, downed it in two gulps, and wailed at the ceiling
“Yeah man!”
The crashing beat of the heavy metal music raged through him. He picked up a fine-toothed saw and cut the head off of the femoral neck.
Smooth as silk.
You won’t have to worry about a broken hip any more, little lady.
He stopped for a moment, wondering how he knew it was the leg of a woman. He shrugged his shoulders and resumed cutting away extraneous fat and muscle chunks until there was only bone.
Now he had the part he wanted.
He went to a large cabinet, opened the drawer, and looked at the stored bone parts he’d been drying. There were several pieces that were almost ready for coring out the marrow before he could create a bone-handled knife that he would sell on the internet.
Of course, he never claimed it was human bone.
Why would he tell anyone that?
His foster father had taught him how to work with animal bones. But one day Todd suggested they try human bone.
That’s where Eddy first came in. He would gather thigh bones or sometimes arm bones and they would cut them into pieces.
Since Russell had to cut off the head of the hip this time, it meant he would have to stuff it into a grocery bag, along with the rest of the tissue he’d removed, and drop everything into a plastic garden waste bag.
Later on when the streets were deserted, he would carry it to a Dumpster down the block and get rid of it.
He smiled when he looked at the length of the bone he’d just retrieved. He would cut it in half, then shape each segment before drying. Each individually fashioned for style.
Chapter 9
Gina buzzed Jenni into the building and ran down the stairs to help her carry some groceries and a couple of small suitcases. They met about halfway up.
“Is that all you have?” Gina took the food and nodded towards the two carryons.
“I don’t plan on staying but a few days. Actually, I almost called to cancel even though I know for sure he’s definitely following me now. I saw him in the lot at the dry cleaners ... and he knows I saw him.”
“That’s terrible, J
enni.”
They walked into the apartment, dropped off the groceries in the kitchen. Gina led the way to the bedroom where Jenni would be staying. “This is it, in all of its glory.”
“What a lovely large room.” Jenni set her bags down and stepped over to the curtained window. There was a line of magnolia trees planted along the street and a couple stood tall outside the apartment complex. “It’s like being in a garden, with the tree’s leafy spread right outside the window.”
“Leave that unpacking for later. Let’s have a Coke,” Gina said.
“How about some tea instead,” Jenni said.
“Good idea.”
* * *
They sat at the kitchen table, Jenni with her cup of green tea, Gina with a Diet Coke.
“Listen, Jenni, maybe it’s time you went to the cops. I have a friend in the police department who might be able to offer some help. The last thing you need is to be the focus of some weirdo like Russell.”
“I feel kind of silly. I never actually caught him until today. Most of the time I kind of sensed his presence.” Jenny took a sip of her tea. “Stupid, huh? Who senses someone tailing them?”
Gina laughed. “I don’t think it’s stupid at all. You’ll never know the kind of hot water I’ve been in because of a gut feeling. Did he follow you here?”
“That’s the weird part. After I saw him, he followed me for a short while and then disappeared.”
“That only tells us he knows where you live and doesn’t have to stay on your tail.”
Gina’s phone rang. As she went to answer it, Jenni said, “Jeez, a Neanderthal who still has a land line.”
Gina was laughing as she lifted the phone to her ear.
“Someone is happy.”
“Oh, hi, Brad.”
Jenni whistled. Gina turned to her and frowned.
“So what have you decided about Saturday?”
Gina hated the pounding of her heart. “How about a tentative yes?”
“It’s a step in the right direction. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. And remember, I know how to fatten up an Italian girl.”
Before she could respond, he was gone.
Bone Dus Page 4
