The night after meeting with Jason, the plan had been set up. Rebel had made a big deal out of going in and out of the house. Even Angie had been a part of the plan. But she was taken out the back, where Cort couldn’t see her, and taken home.
Just like he had all along, apparently, Cort let himself into the house, entering the house about an hour after the lights had been turned off. Rodney and Heath had been hiding in the room where Angie was supposed to be sleeping. Shep and Harris, in her official capacity as an agent for the FBI, were in the room Rebel had used as her own when they lived there. Surrounding the house in the back and front were other agents, all of them armed and wearing night vision glasses. It was, he thought, a huge undertaking. Rodney thought at the time that they were making too much of a deal just to make this man pay for his crimes. He would, for the rest of his life, be ever so grateful to his family for treating the night like it was a huge ordeal because it turned out to be just that.
Cort had been released just that afternoon. All they had him on was a smaller charge that would only see him paying a fine and getting to go on doing what he’d been doing. Entering the property without permission wasn’t good, but it was a start. Getting him caught at trespassing since Harris had bought the house and land yesterday had him in some major trouble. The man and his wife had been notified that they no longer owned the place, so he had no excuse for entering the home tonight.
The man had entered the room Angie should have been in before going to the one Rebel was in. He didn’t reach out to touch the pillows that were made to look like Angie in any way. Nor did he make sure it was her under the blankets. Cort simply pulled out a gun and woke her up by banging it against her head.
“Get up, you bitch. I’m going to take care that you never fuck with me again.” Shep told Rodney he’d wanted to end it right then and there, but Harris had stopped him. Something about he had only pulled a gun and nothing more. “You hear me? I’m going to kill you.”
Rebel had sat up on the air mattress she’d been lying on. Shep said there had been a single stream of blood on her forehead, but it stopped almost as soon as he saw it. Like she’d healed that quickly. Laughing hard, she seemed to understand that Cort was going to be ended tonight. But the how of it still boggled all their minds.
“You mean you’re not going to poison me, as you did my brother?” Cort laughed like he was surprised anyone had figured it out, Shep told him. “He’s told us all about your coming into the house uninvited. Also, we’ve made sure that your cameras are all turned back on just for this event. You see, we knew you’d be here. And that you’d be trying something nasty with my niece.”
Shep told him the man seemed almost giddy knowing someone knew what he’d been up to. Then he went on to tell Rebel he’d been doing this for years, with other renters, as well as other little kids.
“It sickened me, I tell you, Rodney. Made me want to shift and tear his throat out right there on the spot.” Rodney asked Shep what had stopped him. “Your mate. She beat me to it. She beat all of us to killing him.”
While he’d not been there when she did indeed kill Cort, he’d heard about it enough times that he could see it all. Not only had Rebel killed Cort with magic that was her own, but she’d done it in a way that no one would question her about being part witch. He was reasonably sure she was as full a witch as he’d ever known.
“Mr. Marshall? Your wife has been cleaned up. She wants you to come back to see her.” The nurse looked at his grandda. “If you’re her grandda, she wants you there too. I’d be tender with her if I were you. She’s having guilt issues right now, and they’re overwhelming her. The doctor said she could have something to calm her down, but she wants to see the two of you first.”
Grandda pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his face, and then blew his nose. Waiting on him, then asking him if he was all right, Rodney hugged Grandda back tightly, as Grandda told him that he loved him more than anything.
“All you boys and your mates. You’ve no idea how much you’ve all come to mean to me. To think I might have missed this without Harris being mean to me that day.” He’d heard the story several times in the last few months. How Harris told him if he was sitting by Grandma’s grave when she came home, she was going to bury him alive. “I surely am the luckiest man alive, I tell you, son. I don’t think there is a man luckier than me right now.”
They went back to the room where Rebel was. She was wearing hospital scrubs, and her hair was wrapped up in a towel. He supposed they would have let her shower, but he’d not thought about bringing her anything to wear home. Hugging her, then letting Grandda hug her, it felt like all his worrying just slipped off his shoulders.
“I killed that man.” Rodney hugged her tighter when she broke down. “I had no idea he was going to try and kill me until he pulled out that gun. It was like I was doing it all in slow motion. I just thought of him dead and shoved all that…whatever it was at him. I swear there were no fancy moves or anything. I just raised my hands up like a person would do if there was a gun pointed at them. Rodney, he exploded. One second he was standing there with that gun out, and the next, he was just spread out all over the room. Literally.”
“Shep said it was you or him. And I’m glad you were still standing after you took him out.” Rodney had never been so happy in all his life as when Shep had come to tell him it was over. “Now that I’ve had time to think on it, I remember Shep being a little green around his face when he came to get me after it was done.”
“Now that I’ve seen that you’re all right, darling, I’m going to go down to the cafeteria and find me a piece of pie. I need it after worrying so much.” Grandda asked if they wanted something. He didn’t, but Rebel asked him for a large glass of something sweet. “That’ll be the magic you used. I’ll get you a bunch of them if they don’t have anything big enough to fit the bill. I love you, Rebel. I’m so glad you’re doing all right now. I’ll be back.”
When he left them, Rodney pulled Rebel into his arms again. “I was so worried. I knew as soon as Shep came into the room that something had happened. I swear, I didn’t even notice the blood on him until I went to the other room. But him telling us not to touch you nearly had me begging to keep you safe.”
“I was safe. Even if he’d not pulled the gun on me, I would have been all right. Shep and Harris said they were just set to get him when I reacted.” Taking her hands into his when he sat down in the chair, he asked her what made her react the way she had. “I don’t know. All I could think about was what he’d said. That he’d been doing what he’d done to our family for years. I have a feeling that once this gets out that he’s dead, they’ll come forward. It would be shameful, I think, to know he was doing this to me if I was another renter of his. But this will make others brave enough to come tell their story. Cort was a nasty man.”
“Harris is looking for past renters. She said his wife isn’t cooperating at all, but she’s not worried about that. Since the post office is cooperating, they’ll find the names of those that used that place as an address.” Rodney kissed the back of Rebel’s hand. “I’ve fallen in love with you. I think I have been for some time now, but I feel it now like it’s all I have ever felt for you. Will you marry me?”
“Strange timing there, bucko, but yes, I’ll marry you. And I’ve finally given my heart to someone. I thought I’d been in love before. I had, just before meeting you, gotten out of something of a weird relationship. He wanted to control me and who I saw, and I wanted him to kiss his own ass. Neither of us got what we wanted.” Rodney burst out laughing. It was a strange proposal. “You laugh, but he seriously wanted me to check in with him whenever I left my job and tell him how many people I saw that day. I thought it was just males at first, but he wanted them all—even the doctors and nurses. By the way, I hated working there. Has Harris had any luck with them bullying other people?”
“As a matter of fact, she sa
id she’d talk to you about it when you’re home. Do you get to go home today?” She said they were waiting on blood to come back. “For you or the copious amounts that you had on you?”
“Funny. No, mine. They said that since I passed out—I hadn’t any idea that I had—they needed to make sure I was all right. I think I need to get more fluids in me, that’s all.” Grandda came in with ten bottles of apple juice in a bag. He also had brought Rebel a large hunk of cake, pie, and some fresh veggies for her to eat. She started on the pie after drinking down two of the juices. “I do want to find someone that can tell me about whatever I have in the way of witchcraft. I have a feeling you might know someone, Grandda.”
“As a matter of fact, I know a couple of them.” The man was forever a surprise to Rodney. He had contacts and information that none of them ever dreamed he’d have. “I’ll see what I can dig up for you. The next time Lach talks to your brother, you might have her seeing if he had any of it. With magic as powerful as you have it, I’d say he might well have had a little too.”
He’d not thought of that. Thomas having magic. But if he did, Rodney did have to wonder if the kids had any as well. He made himself a note on his phone to talk to Sheila when he got home. Or to have Rebel do it. Things were starting to fall together, he thought. The simple fact that she loved him too made him feel like he could take on the world.
After an hour, not only had she eaten all that Grandda had brought her, but Rebel had also drank down all the juice, as well as three more that the nurse brought into her. When the doctor told her she could go home, they wasted no time in getting her gathered up and into the car. Grandda wanted to stay with them for a few days, and he was glad for it. Rodney was going to the school tomorrow to finish up the exams on the few children that had been out the day he’d been there.
~*~
Harris and Bella were in the conference room when the doctors started to show up. They’d been in there for just over an hour and had the seats organized as to who would sit where. This way, she could get a good accounting of all the people that had shown up. Also, they would both be able to call them by name when they had a question. Harris had plenty of them, as did Bella.
The staff they were talking to today were the ones in charge of different units of the hospital—emergency department head, surgical, as well as nurses—also, the head guy in charge of all the doctors and scheduling. Bella had a list of the names of parents to the children, hospital employees that had roughed up Aaron, and scared Angie as well. They weren’t a part of the meeting today, their parents, but they were going to have a long talk with them about how to treat a physician of good standing before she had them fired. No one, not kids or adults, was going to be tolerated in bullying anyone.
As soon as she stood up, Harris addressed the room. “I’m sure most of you know that I’m Harris Marshall. This is Bella Marshall. Mr. Marshall is going to join us shortly. We’re part of the board for this hospital. The others, the other four members, have opted not to come today for reasons I wasn’t made aware of. However, that won’t stop this meeting from being conducted. I would like to address the trouble we’ve had with one of your doctors. Doctor Rebel Walsh. She has been—”
“We all know who she is.” The physicians’ department head, James Whit, stood up when he spoke. “We’ve all heard how she’s been making the nurses cater to her every need. That she changes the schedule around to suit herself. We don’t need that kind of trouble here, so I’m glad she’s been terminated.” Bella handed the man a sheet of paper, outlining not only that she’d turned in her resignation but how she’d been complaining to the head of the hospital for several months on how she’d been bullied into quitting. “I don’t remember ever seeing this. She must have made this up so she’d look better.”
“Have you ever worked with Doctor Walsh?” He said he’d not. “I see. So all this information you have, it’s all second hand or more. Is that right?”
“Well, I trust my nurses.” Bella asked him why he’d not investigated the trouble. “I have better things to do than to look over every complaint that comes over my desk. Nurse Annabeth Handy would have been able to tell you more than I can.”
“Then why are you talking in the first place? I’m sure, like you, that I have better things to do than to listen to someone spout off information about someone that worked for him when he doesn’t have one bit of firsthand information about a good doctor.” Dr. Whit said again that he trusted his nurses. “I have an application here that I’d like you to hear. Graduated top of their class with a five-point seven GPA. Worked as a surgical doctor not only in their hospital but also was the on-call doctor for all the heads of state for their country. Treated patients not just at the hospital where they did their residency but also worked at the free clinic as a doctor, as well as an emergency surgeon when it was needed. Head of the nursing staff at Mercy General, and worked part-time as a pharmacologist when specialized drugs were needed to combat illnesses that were new to the world. Would you hire this person? Before you answer that, there are seventeen letters of recommendation from not just the other doctors where this person worked but also the nurses. Who, I might add, would clamor to work with this doctor when on shift.”
“Right away. That’s the kind of physician we need around here. Not one that thinks everything should be handed to them with bells on it.” He eyed her before speaking again. “I suppose you’re going to tell me that this is Doctor Walsh.”
“It is. Doctor Walsh came with a very good resume, as well as enough recommendations to make me think she should have been taking your place. Since you’ve made it perfectly clear that you don’t investigate problems you might have in your own hospital.” He didn’t bother answering her but sat down. “Nurse Handy. It’s my understanding that you were encouraging the nurses to make sure Doctor Walsh wasn’t happy here.”
“What a thing to say to me. I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Instead of calling her a liar, Harris simply turned around and pushed play on the computer she’d had set up beforehand. They all listened to the nurse telling one of her staff members that they didn’t like foreigners in their hospital. She didn’t like to have them treat anyone that was pure like she and the nurses that she hand picked. She had also made sure that bonuses were handed out to each one of the nurses that could prove they’d made her cry. “Doctors don’t cry. That right there should tell you something about her. I did this place a favor by making sure she’s gone.”
The next program to play had two nurses in a cubical talking to three little boys. They were their mothers. That much was obvious. However, what wasn’t clear at first was who they were telling the boys to hurt—Rebel’s nephew and niece.
“Oh, don’t be such a baby, Wendell. Just knock him around enough that he goes to his aunt about it. Doctor Walsh has got to go, or we’ll all suffer. Then when he does, she’ll come and talk to me, and I’ll make sure you’re not in trouble. I want this kid to suffer like we have to when she works here.” One of the other kids, his name wasn’t mentioned, asked why they had to suffer. “Nurse Handy is coming down hard on all of us because that woman is still working here. Doctor Walsh isn’t as bad as Handy says, but I need this job more than I need a good doctor working with me. Just do what I tell you, and things will go better for the three of you.”
Harris let it sit there for several seconds before she asked Nurse Handy what she had to say now.
“Nothing. I know what I did. And if any of these doctors were to get up off their asses and look around for a little bit, they’d see that I’m keeping the riff-raff out of their business and running a tight ship here.”
“A tight ship that turns away good doctors and nurses.” Bella laid a file down in front of each of them at the meeting. “These are the resignations of seventy nurses and other staff members that have been bullied out of a job over the last ten years. Since, you’ll notice, Nurse Handy had been in charg
e of the nursing staff. Attached to each of them are their complaints about being bullied, as well as their resignations. Each of them will have been deemed fired by their paperwork that Nurse Handy has in her office.”
“You have no right to be going into my office. The things I have there are private. Not to mention, none of your business. You return all of it right now, and I won’t press charges against you.” Harris laid her badge on the table, along with her gun and other items that made her able to do anything according to the law. “I don’t care what sort of things you say you have. I’ll put out a smear campaign that will make you look worse than any criminal you say you’ve arrested.”
The doctors looked at the nurse. Some of them actually moved their chairs back from where she was sitting. Doctor Whit stood up and sat down twice before he finally got his mouth working. He was as appalled as they were at the tactics this woman had used and shocked to the point of not knowing where to start on it.
“Do you have any idea who this is? Not to mention how much money has been donated by her family. We’d not even have this hospital if not for the Marshall family. Which means that you’d be out of a job as well.” Bella pointed out that Rebel was related to them by marriage now as well. “Christ. What the hell have you been doing, Ms. Handy? Some of the names on this list were only here for two weeks before they were filing charges against you and your staff of hit men. Yes, that’s what I called them, hitmen. They were your little troop of hit men to weed out the staff we thought would make this a better place. When I think of all the doctors that have gone through here, all of them on this list that we were all excited to work with. What would have happened if we’d have put up some kind of fuss? I’m worried to find out.”
“She would blackmail them. And if that didn’t have the desired effect, she would resort to causing harm to them.” Bella had her own information that she’d been working on with her. Lach had also spoken to a few of the nurses that had committed suicide when it got to be too much for them. Bella explained that as well.
Rodney: Marshall’s Shadow – Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance Page 4
