Flight of the Scarlet Tanager

by Bevill, C. L.

  Barely squeezing into the narrow area she heard movement in the hallway. Nurse Tou’s voice came loudly, “Dammit, you can’t just go into Mrs. Dumont’s room like she was a common criminal. Her husband is on the board of directors.”

  “Better hurry,” advised Mason. “Mrs. Dumont is right next door. She has mononucleosis, and her husband sure wants to know who she got it from.”

  Teddy waggled her fingers at him and let go of the side with her other hand. She dropped into darkness, dreading what she was making herself do, but she knew it was only for a few seconds, that there was a bit of light below her, trickling in from the various chute openings and from the basement below. As air whooshed around her she remembered his comment and thought, Where has that guy seen me without make up?

  •

  Mason was lying in his bed with his arms pillowing his head when Redmond unceremoniously entered the room. His black gaze scanned the room for irregularities and unerringly came back to the open window. The older man in the bed looked back at the man in the suit with curious expectation. The patient inquired gruffly, “You here about the conditions in the hospital?” He didn’t wait for Redmond to answer. “Well, the little bitch in the nurse’s uniform is a top, number-one, loudmouthed, commie control freak if ever I saw one. Her name’s something oriental and she forced me to have an enema yesterday.” He considered. “Not that I mind having a good-looking woman’s hands on my ass, but an enema. You ever try to hold a gut full of water in a gut that already wants to pop out of your side anyway.” He pursed his lips in disgust. “That’s unmanly.”

  Redmond didn’t respond. He went to the open window and examined it thoroughly. “You see someone crawl past on the ledge?”

  “I ain’t prone to seeing things like that,” answered Mason firmly. He saw Nurse Tou standing at the door, a worried expression on her face. The older man knew when something was up and something that could worry a tough bird like Tou was something to truly be concerned about. His eyes traveled back to the laundry chute. The little door was still open about an inch. He’d gotten up and pushed it quickly back in before someone came into the door, returning to his bed as swiftly as he was able. But he hadn’t closed it all the way and it was possible that the man in the suit might notice it at any moment.

  He didn’t know who the young woman was running from, but he did know that she had jumped off a bridge to save a little boy. After all, it had been on CNN Headline News about twenty-gazillion times, and it seemed to a man like Mason that a woman like that ought to be able to come and go as she pleased. He had, after all, served in the Corps, during Viet Nam, and not seen such an equivalent act of heroism performed in all his time in the Delta. This predicament with this man searching the rooms like they all had woken up in communist China yesterday smelled to high heaven and Mason didn’t like that at all.

  This man with a shock of hair darker than night reminded him of the plain-clothed military intelligence men in Nam, men without conscience, men who used others ruthlessly, murdering civilians without consequence, and committing worse crimes than any criminal in an American prison. What could a little girl like that have done to warrant cops searching rooms?

  Redmond turned back to Mason and even Nurse Tou stepped forward protectively, as if her ninety-eight pounds could stop a man twice her size. If Peter Shawn wasn’t going to shield the patients of this hospital then she would, and she hadn’t even realized that she should be afraid for herself. The government man asked coldly, “Did a girl crawl into your window?”

  “Nope,” answered Mason. She hadn’t crawled. He had kind of pulled her in, even though it had hurt him something fierce deep inside his intestines. No shame in telling the truth. He lowered his arms from behind his head and folded them carefully across his chest, a belligerent expression on his face.

  Redmond saw the facial aspect and slowly raked his eyes around the room again, searching for someone, for something. He glanced up at the ceiling tiles and then down as if something could give him clues that he needed to follow. There was a little debris by the window on the floor. He knelt by the window and pushed them around with a finger. When he stood he could see that the ledge was damaged. Moldering concrete wasn’t as sturdy as it had been decades previous when the building had been constructed. “She scrape her feet? Her knees?” asked Redmond calmly. The girl was still in a hospital gown. No shoes. Nothing to preserve the young flesh on her legs against the rough materials on the exterior of the building.

  Mason didn’t say anything. If one didn’t overtly lie then one didn’t have to make excuses to God later. And everyone knew that lies of omission weren’t really lies at all. God knows exactly what I meant by it.

  The tiny Asian woman took another step forward as if Redmond threatened her patient by something more than his penetrating stare. Mason didn’t dare look away from the government employee, but he didn’t need to answer the questions. The man already had most of what he needed to know.

  “She go out the door?” Redmond walked coolly toward Mason, as if to shake his hand, as if they were old friends, his face implacable. He stopped at the side of the bed, close enough to invade the patient’s personal space, close enough to intimidate the older man. Nurse Tou was trembling with rage behind him, but kept her mouth shut. “Slip out your door and into the stairwell? If so, my partner will catch her on the bottom.” It was the only way that she could have gone. While he was in one of the other rooms searching she had moved as hastily as she could, coming into this man’s room, passed through it, and into the hallway with a modicum of concealment because the distance from point A to point B was minimal. What had Gower said about her? She’s special. She’s quick. She plans. He respects her. He shook his head. It didn’t matter to him except that they needed to attain the target, through whatever means necessary.

  Giving the crotchety man in the hospital a last lingering glare Redmond almost turned away. As his shoulder turned to follow the presumed path of the girl down the stairwell, Mason relaxed minutely, his muscles going a little slack, the pugnacity flowing out of his craggy facade. Redmond’s thoughts followed the unconscious actions, Why would the old man relax if he didn’t have anything to hide?

  The government man stopped abruptly. He gazed serenely at Mason. What difference should it make to a man like this? He knew the type. A trouble-maker. An irritable fool. A pain in the ass. Someone who wanted control and power and couldn’t have it, so he affected his setting in any manner he could. It might amuse him to help a young woman, seemingly innocent, seemingly naive, altogether heroic, escape pursuers. Redmond accurately gauged the nominal expression on the patient’s face again.

  Too many seconds had passed. The nurse was puzzled at Redmond’s hesitation. Then Mason’s eyes flickered to one side. They quickly returned to center of mass but he saw instantly that he had inadvertently given something away. Mason frowned.

  Redmond shifted to one side, keeping one eye on Mason, and seeking out where the older man’s eyes had gone. A sound of interest coursed out of his mouth, a smooth current of acknowledgment. “I wouldn’t have thought she could fit in there,” he murmured. “This go to the basement, Nurse?” He didn’t wait for an answer. The look on her face said everything else he wanted to know. His hand touched the handle of the laundry chute, then promptly disappeared into his jacket and produced a slim cell phone. He flipped it open and punched a speed dial number. Without waiting for the other to answer he said, “She’s in the basement. The laundry room. Took the fast way down through a laundry chute. If we’re lucky she hurt herself further.”

  Tou made a noise of disgust. “What kind of men are you?”

  Mason spit on the floor beside Redmond’s shoes and raised his chin up defiantly as the man in the suit gave him another frosty stare. “What are you going to do? Arrest me?”

  The dark-haired man with his pitch black eyes and his detached aura merely looked at him for a moment and exited the room, moving around the nurse with a cat-like motion. Tou
spared a glance at Mason, who shrugged almost apologetically, and hurried out to tell Peter Shawn exactly what she thought of this entire seamy affair.

  •

  Teddy hit the laundry pile like a ton of bricks. It was a thick mound, of that she was fortunate, but it didn’t seem thick enough to break a three story fall. She lost all ability to breathe when she hit the heap of smelly sheets and towels. Her ribs screamed with protest as she impacted, straining against the previous day’s injuries and the stitches at her forehead seemed like seven little knives tugging at her flesh. She lay on her back and made odd gasping noises as she attempted to get oxygen into her tortured lungs. Abruptly, she could breathe again and it was like manna from heaven.

  At least it isn’t laundry day and the basket empty, she said thankfully to herself when she was able to draw breath once more. She scrambled out of the large, rolling basket and steadied herself on the side for a moment. There was a bit of warm moisture working its way around her eye and down the side of her face. Some of the stitches had broken and she was bleeding again. No time to worry about that.

  Skimming the room with her eyes Teddy found she was alone. The laundry chute went through all three floors and ended up in the laundry room with several industrial sized washers and dryers. These were empty and silent. Tables for folding linens lined one wall, filled with the hundreds of sheets and towels that were needed to stock a hospital. Shelves of detergent and fabric softener lined another wall. Then there was the door. She paused to briefly sift through the dirty laundry. There was nothing there but sheets, towels and a few other soiled hospital gowns.

  Out the door was a dark hallway. She chose left and wound up in a locker room. Two doctors were talking at the end of the room and didn’t look around as she pulled her head back out. She padded down the opposite way and found the women’s locker room. It was a smaller room and the lockers were lined up like cords of firewood. It was also empty. She started working her way through the lockers, opening each one, looking for something that she could walk out of the hospital in. Most were secured with various types of locks that she didn’t have time to pry open. Then it occurred to her that not only was her time precipitously running out, but that they could be here at any second. Opening the door and looking into every nook and cranny. With no witnesses about to see what they might do to her. And here she had provided them with a private place with which to do their worst to her.

  God, am I stupid? she berated herself. She grabbed clothing out of an unsecured locker that she had opened and hurried to the end of the room. There was another set of doors and she slipped through them. Inside were rows of showers, in little booths with plastic curtains for the privacy of the nurses and staff who used them. Behind her there was a noise that came from the locker room. Someone had quietly come into that room, footsteps echoed in the basement room as they carefully and unhesitatingly crossed the cold, bare floor, hard heels clicking as they went.

  Teddy swallowed and she made her way across the shower room. There were windows on the opposite side and perhaps she could get out of one of these before the person came into this room. She didn’t even have to guess. It was one of them. Maybe the old man upstairs hadn’t pointed a finger, but maybe he hadn’t needed to do that. One of the two men who made her guts ache with fear.

  She had reached the window and discovered that it was barred from the outside. Too many intruders had attempted to gain entrance to this place and they had secured it with bars. Teddy almost hit the window in mute frustration. She glanced over her shoulder and saw no one behind her. Then she went to each window. All were barred and none of them seemed likely candidates for her first attempt to successfully bend wrought iron.

  But her nervous eyes cast about and saw something that gave her a pause of relief. There was something that was going to allow her to get out of this death trap.

  However when more hands firmly grasped her she couldn’t help the scream that came out of her mouth.

  •

  Gower swiftly returned to the side door of the hospital where a reporter was smoking a cigarette. He wasn’t running but moving quickly enough to pique the other man’s journalistic interests. The thirty-something year old man named Nemo Hudson scrutinized Gower carefully and asked, “Hey, what’s up with you? You know something about our girl up on three?”

  “Exterminator,” replied Gower. He couldn’t help the surge of excitement within him. He was so close to the girl. He was so close he could smell her fragrance; he could brush her flesh with his fingers. She was only feet from him. It was electrifying. “Rats on two. Gnawed on some patient up there. Probably going to sue the hospital for a trillion.”

  “A lawyer,” the reporter nodded knowingly and comprehendingly. He flipped a card out to Gower but the other man had already moved too far past to take it. Bloody shysters. Nice suit, though. Must make a freaking million dollars a year. Is it too late for me to go to law school? Nemo took another puff on the cigarette and thought about it some more. Why would a lawyer be running for it? Then he flicked the cigarette away, and picked up his camera gear, going in search of the blonde-haired guy in the good suit. Maybe there’s another story in it around here.

  When Nemo moved inside the door Gower had already vanished into the stairwell.

  •

  The man spun Teddy around and glared down into her face. “You’re not supposed to be down here, Miss,” he snarled. She saw at once that the man holding her was an irate security guard and from his words he didn’t know that she was being actively sought. She took a few seconds to look the man over. Not more than a few inches taller than she. Not more than a decade older. Brown hair. Brown eyes. Wire-rimmed glasses. A little peeved with Teddy. His nametag said Clough. And he didn’t have a portable radio on him that might have clued him into the fact that the people above her were pursuing her.

  “Uh,” she started to say. She was more than a little unnerved. They had come close before, but this was the closest and if this man held her up any longer he might as well be handing her directly into their welcoming arms. For a moment Teddy was tongue-tied and she found that she didn’t like that state. He held her by one wrist and looked into her face. She held onto a set of clothing with the other hand and her brains seemed like a plate of scrambled eggs. Here’s your brain. Here’s your brain on fear. “My boyfriend,” she sputtered suddenly.

  Clough’s face transformed from irritated into puzzled. “What?”

  “My boyfriend’s upstairs, and he beats me,” Teddy said, the words all jumbled together. The fear of what the two men were going to do with her gave her enough impetus to pull this charade off.

  “Jesus,” muttered the young man. “Is that what happened to your face?”

  Teddy nodded, pleased that the words that had come from nothingness were working. “You have to let me go. He’s looking for me, and he’s going to hurt me. Hurt me bad.” She wanted this intrusive man to let her wrist go, the instinct for flight surging in her blood, the blind impulse pushing her to run as fast as she could, to fly away before they found her again.

  “That’s why you’re down here,” he said, his voice low and concerned now. “Stealing a nurse’s clothes. To get away from this guy?”

  She nodded.

  His hand came off her wrist, and his arm came up around her shoulders, protectively, urging her back to the main area, where he could summon the police and take care of the matter in a legal and authoritative manner. He said as he moved, “Don’t worry. I won’t let that bastard hurt you. We’ll call the police and...” Just as his hand left her flesh and he trailed off uncertainly, Teddy poised to flee, but there was an almost silent hissing sound that echoed through the shower area. The security guard dropped his protective arm and looked down at her. Then he looked down at himself. He said, “That hurt.”

  Teddy took a step back and bumped into the wall. It was the only thing that prevented her knees from buckling. The guard named Clough reached up to his chest and touched it gingerly.
He turned slightly and not only could Teddy see the blonde-haired man in a suit standing at the entrance to the showers with a gun in his hand, but that there was a blood stain the size of a CD disc on Clough’s back. A stain the color of a crimson sunset on the Pacific Ocean that spread and spread and spread.

  Her eyes flickered back to the blonde-haired man. She had never seen him in person before, but she knew he had been chasing her for years. Circumspect telephone calls to friends from places she’d been before on cloned cellular phones had told her what she wanted to know. Then something had changed. Yesterday had happened. Her rescue of the little boy. Someone had recognized her face. Someone like Sailor Jack or Big Bridget or Nurse Chapman. Or the paramedic who had loaded her on an ambulance. Someone had called the hotline. Someone had said, “Hey, that gal looks just like her. Didn’t realize it before. But she’s a ringer. Probably not her, but I’m calling just in case. Ain’t there still a big reward?”

  Teddy reached out to the security guard with one tremulous hand, letting the stolen clothing fall away from her hand onto the cold cement floor. She said, “I’m sorry,” but he was already gone. His eyes were glazing over as his body crumpled to the floor. She brought her hand up to cover her mouth and looked back at the blonde-haired man.

  “My name is Gower,” he said conversationally, his voice smooth and flowing like warm honey. He lowered the hand with the pistol in it. She could clearly see the silencer fit onto the end of the gun. She even knew that the gun was a Glock 18, specifically one of the later models, which offered an option of fully automatic fire. A model that was only technically available to law enforcement and Teddy knew that not only was it a rare weapon but a highly illegal one, especially with the silencer. Who says a varied resume can’t help your general knowledge base? “And you and I have to have a discussion. I believe you know the topic.”

  Gower, she thought. I’ve heard that name before. A long, long time ago. Teddy’s eyes lowered to the dead guard at her feet and she broke the frozen mold that she had put herself into. She moved to the left, two steps with bared feet, two steps closer to the place she wanted to be, the place she’d noticed before. Gower watched her as she moved and chuckled, “There isn’t a lot of places you can go in here and it would be better if I didn’t have to shoot your knees to get you to stop moving.”