“What time did Leon notify you he was... alive?”
“It was a little after midnight.”
“And you’re positive there wasn’t some kind of mix-up? A patient misidentified, perhaps?” Jack asked.
“I’m certain, Jack. I can’t really speak for Leon’s department, but I did go over his procedures and reviewed the files on everyone that had been transferred to the morgue and there’s still no explanation. Trust me—I’m a stickler for efficiency but I was hoping to find an error, a mix-up, something that would explain this.” She leaned back again and rubbed her forehead like she was rubbing away a headache. She sighed then continued, “Although there appears to be nothing physically wrong at this point, we’d still like to admit him to the pediatric ward. Maybe they can come up with something.”
“What about his emotional state?” Ellie asked. “Is he agitated or distraught?”
Again, Dr. Terry shook her head. “He’s... fine. A little quiet, but considering he woke up in a morgue, I’d say he’s your average kid.”
“Can we see him now?” Jack asked.
“Sure. I’ll walk you down.”
2
The morgue of Burkesboro Regional Hospital was tucked into the far end of the basement, far enough away from anything else so anyone heading there was there for a reason. It would never be mistaken by wayward visitors for a restroom or the cafeteria. Except for the rhythmic click-clack of Dr. Terry’s clunky heels, the hallway was eerily quiet. The smell of chemicals seeped from under the tightly sealed door.
Despite the silent voices that occupied it, Ellie had always found the morgue to be a rather lively place, especially when Leon was working. He usually kept the Beach Boys at full volume, classical on his moody days. As they approached, Ellie heard only silence.
“No music?” Ellie asked, surprised at the quiet filtering under the door.
“Even Leon was a little perplexed by this kid.” Dr. Terry keyed in a code on the electronic door then waited for it to open. When it swung open, Jack and Ellie followed her toward the office on the far side of the room.
Through the glass walls, Ellie could see Leon sitting at a gray metal desk, and a child sitting on top of it, his back to the glass wall.
Dr. Terry stopped and motioned for Jack and Ellie to do the same. “Wait right here and I’ll get Leon. I don’t think it would be in the child’s best interest at this point to hear all the details.”
Ellie peered over Dr. Terry’s shoulder, anxious to get a look at the child. He definitely had blond hair, and he was wearing a blue t-shirt but from the angle, she couldn’t see the front of it, the Superman emblem. The child turned and gazed through the glass at the trio of visitors. When he did, Ellie’s blood turned as cold as the temperature in the room.
That’s him. That’s the same kid that two days ago was dead. She gathered her blazer and wrapped her arms around herself to ward off the creepy chill. Her teeth chattered. “Are you cold?” She asked, turning toward Jack.
“It’s always cold in a morgue, Ellie.”
“No, I mean it’s colder than usual. It’s cold, cold. Weird cold.”
Jack stared at Ellie then slightly grinned. “It’s not that cold. I think you’re a little spooked.”
“You would be too if you’d seen him in that alley. And dead.”
Leon came out of the office. He was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and cut-off khakis that hung below his knees. His red hair was a mass of loose curls that sprang in different directions when he walked. As usual, Leon had way too much energy. Especially at this time of morning.
“Jack, Ellie, it’s been a while.” Leon laughed and offered his hand to Jack then gave Ellie a grabby hug. “Looking fine, woman. When are you gonna leave this old man and come to work for me? We can dance all night.” He grabbed her hand and twirled her around then dipped so low Ellie knew she was going to fall to the floor.
When he finished, he saluted Jack and pretended to stand at attention. Ellie straightened and smoothed her jacket. “Good to see you again, Leon.”
“Good to see you, too, gorgeous. You ought to get down here more often.”
“Well if I was here more often that would mean we both had too much work.” She ran a hand over her hair, hoping to settle it back into place.
“Good point. Doc says you wanted to talk to me about Johnny Doe. Weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’ve seen some doozies.” He shook his head back and forth for emphasis, sending his red curls into a bouncing frenzy.
“From the beginning, Leon,” Jack said.
“Sure.” He stuffed his hands in his pants pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet. He smelled like rose-scented room freshener. “Tuesday night I got a call around seven that the ER had a transfer—”
“Who called you?” Ellie asked, her pen poised at her notepad.
“Peter Bryson. I got up there around seven fifteen, maybe, and brought him down here to the dungeon.” He glanced around his work environment and smiled.
“What did you do after you got him down here?”
He pointed to a row of three gurneys, two with army green drapes covering noticeable lumps, and one with the drape puddled beside it on the floor. “I parked him right there. There were instructions to hold for autopsy, so I didn’t prep him or anything. I took all the information from his toe tag and went back to the office to catalog it.”
“You didn’t touch him or move him again after that?”
Leon shook his head. “Not for a while. I had four to catalog so I was in the office for about an hour and when I finished, I moved him to a drawer. I pulled the rest of my shift, and then went home.”
“Who came in after you?”
“Vanessa. She works day shift. Dr. Jenkins had three autopsies scheduled yesterday, including your little Johnny Doe, but he called in sick – the flu, I think. I mean, like it really matters down here, ya know?” He smiled.
Maybe it was a good thing Jenkins was out sick. The Medical Examiner was known to be a little stressed and jumpy. Ellie could only imagine how jumpy he would have been if he had started an autopsy on a child that wasn’t dead.
“Did Vanessa…check on him or anything?”
Leon stared at her a moment then chuckled. “Check on him how? Usually when we put ‘em in a drawer, they stay put.”
Ellie sighed. Leon was right. It was a stupid question, but considering the circumstances, she wasn’t taking anything for granted. “OK, fair enough. When did you discover he was... alive?”
“Sometime around midnight. I went up to the coffee shop and got a cup of coffee and a couple of doughnuts. When I came back, I moved him out of the drawer and put him over there. Then went to the office to finish up some paperwork.”
“Why’d you remove him from the drawer?”
“Dr. Jenkins is supposed to be in around six, and I was supposed to have all the prep work finished before he gets here.”
“What happened next?”
Leon’s eyes widened, and he spread his hands open. “Oh man, talk about weird. I was working in the office and he just…walked up. Asked where the bathroom was. Imagine that. The kid had to pee.” He laughed.
“What did you do then?”
“I took him to the bathroom.”
Ellie glared at him. “You didn’t question who he was or where he came from?”
“The kid had to go bad. Real bad. He was doing that little pee-pee dance kids do. You know how they—” He began to illustrate but Jack interrupted him.
“Um—Leon, when did you get around to asking him how he got down here?”
“After we got back from the bathroom. I asked him who he was and how he got here, and he said he ‘woke up’ on that table over there. He pointed to that empty gurney.” Leon did the same. “I’m telling you, I flipped out. He was still wearing the toe tag so I took him in the office and checked it against the paperwork and man-oh-man, the thing matched. Then I really flipped out.”
Ellie glanced at the gu
rney and saw the same sneakers she had seen in the alley now lying underneath, partially covered by the drape. She looked at Leon and nodded understandingly. She would have flipped out, too. She shivered again. “Did he say his name, or what happened to him?”
Leon shook his head. “I asked him, and he said he didn’t know.”
“What happened to him or—”
“No, his name. He doesn’t know his name.”
Ellie furrowed her brows. Even a two-year-old usually knows their name. “Was there anyone in here while you were gone?”
Leon shook his head. “Not to my knowledge. The security camera at the door would know for sure.”
“We’ll need to get a copy of that tape,” Jack said.
Ellie looked around the room, paying close attention to the upper corners. She wondered if she could get so lucky. “Are there any other cameras?”
“Just the one at the door. I guess they’re not as concerned about what goes on in here as they are who comes and goes.”
“Did anyone else come down while you were in the office?”
Leon shook his head. “Nope. Just me. We don’t get a lot of traffic down here. There’s an electronic log of each time the door’s opened, time, date—stuff like that. I know ‘cause they nailed me a few weeks ago. Came in late.“ He smiled. He was missing a tooth.
Ellie looked past Leon at Dr. Terry and the little boy. She wondered if he remembered anything. “Can you introduce us?”
“Sure. I’ve been calling him Johnny. You know, John Doe?” He bobbed his head again.
Ellie smiled. “Better than Lazarus.”
Leon laughed hard enough his hair bounced again. Jack and Ellie followed him to the glass office. The kid turned and looked at them as they entered. Ellie forced herself to breathe.
It was the same kid; there was no doubt. The same blue t-shirt with the red Superman emblem, the same green knit shorts. The same blond hair—except now there were no bloody clumps. The same delicate features, except now there were no bruises. His fair skin was flawless. There were no scuff marks at his knees, no scratches on his little skinny arms. His blue eyes were bright and sparkled with life. New life.
“Hey, Johnny, this is Ellie and Jack. They’re going to talk to you for a minute. OK?” Leon gently clapped the kid on his shoulder. “Now you be nice to him. He’s my little buddy.” He pointed a stern finger at Ellie and grinned.
Dr. Terry moved from the front of the desk and planted herself in the corner of the cramped office, making it clear she intended to stay. Ellie moved in front of the child and sat in the vacant chair. “Hey, Johnny. I’m Ellie Saunders.”
The kid smiled slightly and looked at Jack. “Y’all are cops, aren’t you?”
Ellie nodded. “Yes. We’re police officers.”
Johnny Doe nodded and continued to stare at Jack. “He looks like a cop.”
Ellie glanced at Jack and fought back a smile. “I know. He’s kind of a nerd. We’re here to see if we can’t find out what happened to you. Can you help us do that?”
“I woke up over there.” He pointed to the gurney.
“When you say you ‘woke up,’ do you remember going to sleep?”
He slowly shook his head as if he were embarrassed at the answer. He glanced at Leon then looked downward toward the tiled floor. Ellie wasn’t sure if he really didn’t remember going to sleep or if it was something he was purposely trying to forget.
“Do you remember what you were doing before you went to sleep?”
“I was walking with my daddy. We were walking down a real shiny road.”
“Do you know your daddy’s name?”
He slowly shook his head.
“Leon told us that you don’t remember your name, either.” Ellie said, tilting her head slightly to catch his gaze.
“Leon said my name was Johnny.” He lifted his head and smiled. His eyes were the color of sapphires and sparkled with a virgin brightness. “See, it says so right here.” He lifted his foot and pointed to the dangling toe tag.
Ellie read the tag and smiled. “You are exactly right. It does say Johnny. Do you have another name? Do you remember what your name was before you went to sleep?”
He shrugged his shoulders then pulled his foot up again and examined the tag. “Johnny Doe.”
“You’re a very good reader. What are you in, the first grade?”
He furrowed his brow and stared at Ellie like she was speaking in a foreign language. He slightly shook his head. “I woke up over there.” He pointed again to the gurney. “Leon says those are my shoes.”
Ellie looked at the gurney, too, then nodded. “Those are nice shoes. Do you remember where you got them?”
“Leon gave them to me. I don’t have any—see?” He kicked his feet, thumping the back of his bare heels against the metal desk.
“I like your t-shirt, too. Do you like Superman?”
He nodded. “But I like Spiderman better. He can climb walls to get away from the monsters.”
Ellie glanced at Jack. “Wow. That’s pretty cool, huh. What kind of monsters is he trying to get away from?” She asked.
With pleading eyes, Johnny Doe looked at Ellie then turned his head downward and watched his feet thump against the desk. “Just monsters. Can I play with Leon now?”
Dr. Terry softly cleared her throat.
Ellie looked up.
The doctor ran a finger across her neck, indicating it was time to cut the questioning.
Ellie pressed with one more question. “Hey, you know what? Tomorrow is Jack’s birthday. Guess how old he’s going to be.”
Johnny Doe eyed Jack then leaned in to Ellie. “Old,” he whispered.
Ellie laughed out loud. “Real old. How old will you be on your next birthday?”
He shrugged his tiny shoulders.
Ellie held up her hand, five fingers spread wide. “This many?”
He studied her hand a moment then shook his head.
Ellie added the index finger from her other hand. “I bet you’re this many.”
Again, he shook his head then yawned.
Fearing Dr. Terry would cut her off any moment, Ellie asked one more time, “and you don’t remember anything else before you woke up?”
He continued to thump his feet against the drawer. “I remember talking to my daddy.”
Ellie’s heart jumped. “Do you know your daddy’s name?”
He shook his head then looked over at Leon. “Can I play with Leon now?”
Dr. Terry stepped forward and placed her hand on the child’s shoulder in a protective manner. “I think it’s time we get you settled into a room upstairs.”
The child looked unsure. “But I want to stay here. With Leon.”
Dr. Terry’s mouth twitched like she was trying to actually smile. “We have a nice room for you upstairs—and it’s right down the hall from a big playroom.”
“Can Leon come?”
Her mouth twitched again. “Maybe after you’ve had some rest. How about if Leon helps you get your shoes on? Would you like that?”
Johnny Doe watched with scared eyes as Dr. Terry snipped the dangling toe tag and dropped it in the manila folder. It was the only link to who he was, and he didn’t seem too keen about parting with it. She lifted him down from the desk then mussed his hair, hair that a little while ago had been matted with blood. He turned once to look at the folder that held his lifeline as Leon led him out of the office.
Dr. Terry waited until the boy was out of earshot then turned to Ellie and Jack. “The chief of pediatrics will be here in about an hour. I’m sure Dr. Deveraux will let you question him again tomorrow after he’s had some rest.”
“Uh, with all due respect, Dr. Terry, time is of the essence with this. We need to find out as much about him as soon as possible if we hope to find out who did this to him.”
Dr. Terry stared hard at Ellie. “I’m somewhat familiar with how investigations work, Detective Saunders. But until Dr. Deveraux says the child is s
table enough to answer any more questions, no one is going to ask him anything.”
“You said in the emergency room that he was fine. That you couldn’t find anything wrong with him. That you were even hoping for—”
“Thank you, Dr. Terry,” Jack said. “We appreciate all your help.” He cut his eyes toward Ellie. She looked away and watched Leon help the child with his sneakers.
She wondered just how much help the boy would be. He didn’t know his name, or how old he was. He didn’t know his father’s name. The idea of school seemed phantom to him, and he didn’t remember anything prior to waking up on the morgue gurney except walking with his daddy along a shiny road. A shiny road? There had been some ice in the area the night he was found. Maybe he was referring to black ice? It wasn’t much of a lead but it was something. The only other thing Ellie could gather so far was he was uncomfortable talking about monsters. She wondered if the monster he saw in his mind was the same one that tried to beat him to death.
3
Ellie opened her front door, dropped her keys and notepad on the side table then collapsed onto the lumpy sofa, one foot dangling on the hardwood floor. She thought about pulling her leg up, snuggling down on her side and catching a couple of winks before reporting to the office. “Oh... you can’t.” She moaned and then sat up. As much as she would love just one hour of sleep, even thirty minutes, if she closed her eyes, Jack would be calling reaming her for being late.
She was battling a headache, a severe lack of sleep, and a kid she’d thought was dead but now wasn’t. Was she investigating a homicide or an assault? An array of thoughts bumped around in her head, making it throb all the more.
She pulled herself off the sofa and lumbered into the kitchen. The tiny house was old and drafty with creaking wood floors and a pull-chain light in the bathroom, but the rent was cheap. The Robins, the elderly couple who owned the place, lived next door and brought her homemade soup in the winter and vegetables from their garden in the summer. They were the closest thing she had to grandparents.
Ellie put a kettle on the old stove for coffee. She leaned against the Formica counter while she waited for the water to boil and stared at the dingy linoleum. No matter how often she mopped, which she’d admit wasn’t often, the once-white floor was yellowed with age. No amount of cleaners could permanently erase age.
The Rising Page 2
