Future Imperfect

by Simon Rose

  “Okay, now what?” he asked.

  “We wait for a car,” replied Alex.

  “Listen,” said Stephanie. “It sounds like one’s coming,”

  She moved to the edge of the road, waving her arms frantically as an older model blue car came around the corner. The car slowed down, turned into the pull-in, and stopped. A middle-aged man wearing a t-shirt, shorts, and a baseball cap stepped out from the driver’s seat.

  “What happened to you guys?” said the man, as he approached them.

  “We were out hiking and our dad twisted his ankle,” said Alex.

  He noticed that the man was carefully studying Andrew’s face, noting all his fresh bruises.

  “Are you going to be okay?” the man asked Andrew.

  “Yes, I think so,” he replied. “I’ll be fine. I just need to go home and get fixed up.”

  The man peered further along the road in both directions.

  “Where’s your car parked?” he asked.

  Alex hesitated, unsure of what to say.

  “My mom dropped us all off here this morning,” said Stephanie, thinking quickly.

  “Does she know what’s happened to your dad?” the man asked.

  “No,” replied Stephanie. “My dad wouldn’t let us bring our cell phones and his battery died. We only just managed to get him all the way to the road, hoping someone like you would stop and help us.”

  The man continued to study Andrew’s face. To Alex’s alarm, the man also glanced curiously over at the spot where they’d emerged from the woods. Stephanie noticed too and gave Alex a wink.

  “Oh, Dad!” she exclaimed, hugging Andrew. “It’s all my fault you got hurt! I’m so sorry.”

  She instantly burst into tears, which grabbed the man’s attention.

  “Okay, okay,” he said, appearing somewhat unnerved at Stephanie’s emotional outburst. “Let’s get you guys home.”

  Stephanie gave Alex another wink as the man helped Andrew to stand. The man supported Andrew as he walked over to the car. Alex and Stephanie helped to ease Andrew into the passenger seat. They then climbed into the back of the car.

  “I’m Frank, by the way,” said the man, offering Andrew his hand.

  “Andrew Mitchell,” said Andrew, shaking Frank’s hand. “This is Alex and Stephanie.”

  “Pleased to meet you both,” said Frank, turning to face the back seat before turning the key in the ignition. “So where am I taking you?”

  “We should probably take my dad to a hospital to get checked out,” said Alex.

  “Yeah,” Stephanie agreed. “Just to make sure nothing’s broken.”

  “Okay,” said Frank. “Not a problem.”

  He drove out of the pull-in and onto the road. They hadn’t travelled far when just ahead of them, the white van roared out of the woods through the exit from the dirt track. The tires screeched loudly as the van sped past them on the opposite side of the road.

  “Wow, looks like someone’s in a hurry,” said Frank.

  Alex and Stephanie nervously looked out of the car’s back window. They breathed a sigh of relief as the white van continued speeding away in the opposite direction before it vanished out of sight around the corner.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Road to Recovery

  IT WAS GETTING dark as they approached the hospital. Alex had tried calling his mom a couple of times from the car to let her know what had happened. However, she hadn’t answered and he didn’t leave a message. He decided he’d wait until they’d safely arrived at the hospital before he’d try Angela again.

  Frank parked the car in the short-term loading zone outside the entrance to the hospital’s Emergency department. He then helped Andrew out of the passenger seat.

  “Are you guys going to be okay?” asked Frank. “Did you want me to come in with you?”

  “No, I think we’ll be fine, thanks,” Alex replied. “We can take it from here.”

  “Thanks again for all your help,” said Andrew, shaking Frank’s hand.

  “No problem,” Frank replied. “Best of luck.”

  He got back into the car and waved to them all as he drove away.

  STEPHANIE WENT OVER to grab one of the hospital wheelchairs that were standing beside the Emergency entrance.

  “There’s no need for that,” said Andrew, dismissively, as she eased the wheelchair toward him.

  “Come on, Dad,” said Alex. “You’re still unsteady on your feet.”

  “Fine,” said Andrew.

  He scowled then smiled at both of them as he sat down in the wheelchair.

  “You’d better try your mom again, Alex.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Alex took out his phone and this time Angela picked up straight away.

  “Mom, it’s Alex.”

  “Alex? Where are you? I’m sorry, I only just saw that you’d called a couple of times earlier. My phone’s been really weird today.”

  “We found Dad.”

  “What? What do you mean? I don’t understand. You found your dad? Is he okay?”

  “He’s fine,” Alex replied, smiling over at Andrew. “We’re at the hospital.”

  “Which one?”

  “The same one as before.”

  “But is he okay?”

  “He’s fine, Mom, honestly. They’re just going to check him out. We can talk about this once you get here.”

  “I’m on my way,” said Angela, hanging up.

  “What did she say?” Andrew asked.

  “She’s heading over here. Let’s get you inside.”

  Stephanie grabbed the wheelchair handles and began pushing Andrew toward the revolving door at the hospital’s entrance.

  “Can you take him to the reception desk?” said Alex. “I just need to check something.”

  “What?” Stephanie asked.

  Alex edged back a couple of steps and tilted his head, indicating that Stephanie should join him.

  “What is it?”

  “I need to call Marino,” Alex whispered. “I just don’t want Dad to hear me.”

  Stephanie nodded and went back to Andrew. As they entered the Emergency department, Alex made another phone call.

  “Officer Marino? It’s Alex Mitchell.”

  “Alex? Where are you? What’s going on? I got a message from your dad, or at least from his email.”

  “We found him. He’s here at the hospital, the one where we first met.”

  “What? Where did you find him?”

  “It’s a long story, believe me,” said Alex. “It’ll be easier to explain in person.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  ALEX MADE HIS way into the hospital. Stephanie and Andrew were sitting in the waiting area directly across from the reception desk.

  “We’ve checked in,” said Stephanie, as Alex approached. “They said someone’s coming to see us in a minute.”

  A nurse emerged through a pair of doors beside the desk.

  “Mr. Mitchell?” she said.

  “Yes,” replied Andrew.

  “What happened to you?” she asked, studying the wounds and bruises on Andrew’s face.

  “It’s a complicated story,” Andrew replied.

  “Well, we’ll get you fixed up,” said the nurse.

  She took hold of the handles and gently turned the wheelchair around. She then wheeled Andrew through the double doors. Alex and Stephanie followed the nurse as she steered Andrew’s wheelchair along the corridors. The hospital was relatively busy with a variety of medical staff, technicians, patients, and their family members. Alex and Stephanie stayed a few paces behind the nurse.

  “What did you and Dad tell them?” asked Alex.

  “We said he’d been attacked and robbed,” Stephanie replied. “The woman at the reception desk asked for more details but I said that the police were coming here. I hope you spoke to Marino.”

  “I did. She’s on her way.”

  “Okay, Mr. Mitchell,” said the nurse ahead of them.
“It’s just through here.”

  They entered a large room containing a number of beds, some of which were curtained off. The nurse wheeled Andrew toward one of the patient areas and pulled the curtain aside.

  “Do you need help?” she asked Andrew, as she parked the wheelchair beside the bed.

  “No, I’ll be fine,” said Andrew.

  He carefully stood up from the wheelchair and lay down on the bed.

  “Okay,” said the nurse. “One of the other nurses will be here shortly to check on you and get the drip connected.”

  “Thanks,” said Andrew.

  The nurse left, and Andrew immediately turned to Alex and Stephanie.

  “So how did you find me anyway? Didn’t you say that mine in the woods was a secret facility?”

  “How much do you remember, Dad?” asked Alex. “After the car crash in the rainstorm?”

  “I don’t remember how I got there but they kept me in that laboratory under the company headquarters at first and asked me all sorts of questions. One of Veronica’s accomplices was pretty rough, trying to beat me into submission. But I think I was more afraid of the other one, Palmer, the guy who injected me with all sorts of drugs. After he started doing that, I don’t remember much at all until I was at the mine. How did you find that place?”

  Alex paused before answering.

  “Mom and I never accepted that you might be dead,” he began. “We were both convinced that you’d be found eventually, but Stephanie and I did some research too.”

  “What kind of research?” asked Andrew.

  Alex looked over at Stephanie for some inspiration.

  “We were both suspicious of Veronica,” she added, “especially after Robert died. It was just too sudden. He was in very good shape.”

  “Yes, we were going to do that half-marathon for charity,” said Andrew, sighing. “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”

  “We had no proof,” Alex said. “But it just seemed to us to be very convenient that he was dead and that she was taking over the company so quickly. We looked into her business dealings.”

  “We also went to Castlewood Dynamics,” said Stephanie.

  “What for?”

  “Robert and Veronica came to the house to see how Mom and I were doing,” Alex explained. “Veronica took your laptop away with her. She said she needed to check a few things on there.”

  “But she has no authority to do something like that,” said Andrew.

  “That’s what we thought,” Stephanie added. “Even if they assumed you might be dead at that point, at least officially. We managed to get into the offices at Castlewood but we couldn’t find the laptop. We learned about Robert’s death just as we were leaving the building.”

  “We decided to go to the police and talk to them,” Alex continued. “A couple of officers visited us here at the hospital after the accident so we decided to go and see them. We wanted to talk to Officer Marino, who came to see us, but she wasn’t around so we saw her partner, Officer Henderson.”

  “And he helped you?”

  Stephanie shook her head.

  “At first it seemed that way, but he was going to take us to a place outside town. We saw the coordinates on the GPS in the police car. We knew that he was working for Veronica. We escaped and got a cab out to the woods and then went to the mine. The rest you know.”

  “Working for her?” said Andrew, looking confused. “I don’t understand.”

  “Veronica had friends in the police department who were helping her, Dad,” said Alex.

  “I can’t believe this. The police?”

  “Yes,” Stephanie added. “She had them make sure that your disappearance wasn’t being investigated properly. I think she thought that eventually you’d be declared dead and it’d all be forgotten.”

  “Okay, Mr. Mitchell,” said a male nurse, as he arrived at the bedside. “I just need to get you hooked up to the drip and do a few tests. Do you kids want to go and wait in the reception area? This won’t take too long.”

  “Dad?” said Alex.

  “It’s okay,” Andrew replied. “You two wait out there. Maybe your mom will be here soon and you can send her in here to see me?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Telling Stories

  ANGELA ARRIVED JUST as Alex and Stephanie sat down in the reception area. She hurried over and gave them both a big hug.

  “Where’s your dad? Are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  “It’s a long story, Mom,” said Alex. “Why don’t you go and see Dad first?”

  He didn’t want Angela to be there when Marino arrived at the hospital.

  “Yes, you’re probably right,” she said. “Do I need to check in with anyone?”

  “Just with the people over there,” Stephanie replied, pointing at the reception desk.

  “Thanks, Stephanie.”

  Angela went over to the desk and briefly talked with the woman on duty.

  “Are you two okay staying here?” she asked, when she came back to the seating area.

  “We’ll be fine,” said Alex.

  Angela smiled then made her way through the double doors into the interior of the hospital.

  “So have you thought about what we’re going to tell Marino?” asked Stephanie.

  “Only that it needs to be the same as what we just told my dad,” Alex replied.

  “Can you remember all that?”

  “Let’s hope so,” he said, with a wink.

  They both saw Marino as she entered the reception area.

  “How are you both?” she asked when she reached them. “How’s your dad, Alex?”

  “He’s fine, they’re looking after him, and my mom just went in to see him.”

  “Okay, I need to talk to him briefly too. I need to chat with you two as well, so don’t go anywhere.”

  She went over to the reception desk then was directed through the double doors to where Andrew was being treated.

  “Do we tell her about Henderson?” said Stephanie.

  “We’ll have to play it cool, see what she knows.”

  “Do you think we can trust her?”

  “I hope so, but I can’t be certain. Let’s get a drink and snack from the vending machine.”

  BY THE TIME they sat back down, Marino emerged through the double doors. She walked over to where they were sitting.

  “Well, your dad seems to be in good hands, Alex,” she said. “I’ve asked for a private room where we can talk. Come this way.”

  She took Alex and Stephanie into a small room adjacent to the reception area that appeared to be used as a coffee break room by the hospital staff members. There was a small kitchen area and the room had several chairs placed around a long table.

  “I’ve asked that we aren’t disturbed,” said Marino as she sat down on one of the chairs.

  She gestured for Alex and Stephanie to take a seat. They sat down on the chairs on the opposite side of the table.

  “So,” she began. “I guess it’s time that you two told me what’s been going on.”

  Alex and Stephanie managed to weave a convincing tale about how they’d rescued Andrew. Since they’d been linked to a suspected break-in at Castlewood Dynamics, they admitted to Marino that they’d been there. However, this was when they’d been attempting to collect Andrew’s laptop on the day that Robert died. Marino mentioned that Sandy had confirmed their presence at the offices anyway. Alex and Stephanie convinced Marino that Veronica simply concocted the break-in story too since she knew that they were suspicious of her. Fortunately, Marino seemed to have no inkling that Alex and Stephanie might have been at the Castlewood mansion or at the lab in the basement of the headquarters.

  “You should have thought about contacting me right away,” said Marino.

  “We did,” Alex replied.

  “You did?”

  “I mean we did think about it but thought you’d be too busy.”

  “Then when we finally decided that we really needed
your help,” added Stephanie, “we couldn’t reach you on the phone so we went to your office. That’s when we met Officer Henderson.”

  “He was supposed to be taking us to see you,” Alex continued. “Then in the car we saw the real destination was out in the woods. We had no idea what it meant but took a chance that it was where my dad was being held prisoner.”

  Marino nodded.

  “We’ve been tracking business dealings and trading on the stock market by someone with connections to Castlewood Dynamics for quite a while,” she explained. “We’ve also been investigating some of the companies that were associated with Castlewood, mostly related to things that Veronica was involved in. Robert Castlewood’s death was also viewed as suspicious.”

  Alex glanced over at Stephanie before he spoke again.

  “Veronica said that she had connections in the police department. That some officers were delaying the investigation into the car crash.”

  “A few things have emerged during the course of our investigation, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you anything else.”

  “And Henderson?” asked Stephanie.

  “I’m sorry,” Marino replied. “I can’t tell you any more about that either. So what happened after you saw the map showing where your dad might be being held prisoner?”

  Alex and Stephanie took turns explaining what had happened on their journey through the woods and when they’d reached the mine before escaping with Andrew.

  “And you say that the last time you saw Veronica she was in the woods?” said Marino.

  “Yes, she was unconscious when we left her there,” Alex replied. “We knew those guys were coming to pick her up and they had guns too.”

  “Then we saw the van later racing away in the opposite direction on the highway,” added Stephanie. “If they saw us in that guy’s car they didn’t care.”

  Marino shook her head.

  “No, we think they went to a private airfield where Castlewood Dynamics have a number of different aircraft, planes as well as helicopters. We checked it out and one of the planes is missing.”

  “Where did she go?” asked Alex.

  “We don’t know yet. They didn’t file a flight plan. She’s probably over the border in Mexico but she won’t stay there for long. She’s more likely to go to a different country further from the U.S. She could be in hiding for a while.”