Stolen Innocence

by Beverly L Anderson

  “Stalker duty?” Varick quirked his brow at the doctor.

  “Yeah, what we lovingly call whoever is standing in shouting distance of Dr. Sung in case he gets assaulted by a rabid fan,” he snorted derisively. “Damn good thing the head nurse isn’t here today. Was bad enough when the asshole blogger was snooping around.”

  Varick couldn’t help himself. “Asshole blogger?”

  Hinto shook his head and glanced to his boyfriend. “Well, yeah, there was this guy who came up here asking questions about Dr. Sung. He ended up asking Artemis, the head nurse. Big mistake. We had to call security, and not because of the guy. We were pretty sure Artemis was gonna take him apart if we didn’t get him off the floor.” Hinto gave Varick a crooked grin. “One thing you learn around here is not to let Artemis hear anything bad about Dr. Sung. We’ve lost otherwise good nurses to other floors because of his, um, protective nature of the head neurosurgeon here.”

  Smiling, Dr. Santo looked at Varick. “You’ve been hangin’ around for a bit, have you come across the head nurse?”

  “Only nurse I’ve seen has been the chunky dark-haired nurse that follows Dr. Sung around. She doesn’t like me much,” he snorted and saw a glance between the couple.

  “You’ll remember if you run afoul of Artemis,” Hinto told him with a very serious face. “Just be careful if you continue to pay attention to Dr. Sung. We’re all pretty sure that Artemis is in love with him, but Dr. Sung is oblivious to it. He’s not on shift today, otherwise, he’d be here playing kick out the trespassers instead of the rest of us.”

  Dr. Santo reached out and took Hinto’s hand. “Come on, Corazon, we’re going to waste our lunch. Good to talk to you, hope your friend does well after she’s released,” he waved as they headed toward the stairs together.

  Varick headed back to Janet’s room. She was almost done with paperwork and he went to the window and looked down. They were a couple floors up, but he grinned as he saw a familiar head of dark hair standing below in the garden area he liked so well. He was easy to spot with the purple scrubs with the white coat over them. Kieran was leaning up against the tall barrier around the fountain in the nice enclosed area. It was a relatively private area, only accessible from the inside of the hospital. Varick glanced around the courtyard to see no one else there. Varick figured he’d needed some time alone after the incident with that rabid fangirl. Varick liked the little area quite a bit; he had found it the first day he’d been here with Janet. He thought perhaps he shold go down and see if the doc needed someone to talk to.

  A figure in pink scrubs came out the door farthest away from the doctor and moved next to Kieran. He lit a cigarette, which wasn’t even allowed in the courtyard. Smoking wasn’t allowed within sixty feet of entrances. Kieran seemed oblivious to the presence, head still tilted down toward the ground and hands crossed over his body. Varick couldn’t tell from this distance whether the figure was male or female. The figure moved closer and their hand shot out and grabbed the young doctor, and pulled him close in what looked like an embrace. At first Varick felt an intense pang of jealousy at the thought Kieran had found a lover despite what he had said about meeting with him after his shift. Varick was about to turn away from window when he gasped, planting both hands on the glass and banging on it franticly as he watched Kieran slump bonelessly into the other figure’s arms. The figure quickly gathered him up bridal style and dashed through the door they’d entered from.

  “The fuck!” Varick exclaimed and turned and ran out of the room to the stairs to haul ass down there and catch whoever it was. He heard Clair shout but ignored it.

  By the time he got to the first floor, he caught a glimpse of the figure in the light pink scrubs pushing a wheelchair. Everyone in the area was milling about, minding their own business. He could now see it was a rail thin guy with reddish brown hair and light-colored skin. He had taken the white coat off Kieran and tossed a pink blanket on him. Varick could see the edge of the purple scrub top peeking out over the top of the blanket. Kieran was sitting slumped in the wheelchair as the guy calmly pushed him forward. For all appearances, he seemed to be a nurse escorting a patient outside for discharge.

  “Hey, you, stop right fucking there!” Varick yelled out. The kidnapper looked up and smiled at Varick. He dropped a wink at him before taking off for the exit in dead run.

  Varick was hot on his heels, but there was a van parked at the curb with its doors open. The kidnapper stopped the chair and picked up the doctor, tossing him over his shoulder before he leapt into the van. Varick skidded to a stop as the kidnapper slammed the van doors shut and the vehicle peeled out, surprising people around the entrance. If he had been a few seconds faster, he might have been able to take the leap into the van with him. Varick cursed because there were no plates on the vehicle. The security guard had come out just then and asked what happened.

  “Fucker...kidnapped...the doctor...” he panted, out of breath after his dash down the stairs getting to him as the adrenaline bled off.

  “What doctor?” the security officer demanded, eyes wide.

  “Doctor...Sung...” he huffed.

  The guard paused. “Which one?” he asked as he pulled out his cell phone.

  Varick glared at him. “Young...” he panted, standing up and gasping for air again. Damn, he was more out of shape than he thought. Either that or the reality of the situation had hit him full force.

  The security guard was already on the phone with 911, and Varick realized others had gathered around. Someone led him back into the hospital, escorting him to a rather lush conference room. He waited for what felt like forever, but it was probably only about five minutes before the door opened to reveal a pair of police officers. Varick looked up to see they were both middle aged men, and neither looked to be what he would call approachable. One was shorter with thick black hair that was somewhat wild about his head and nearly black eyes with a dark tan skintone. The other was perhaps a foot taller than his partner with buzzed sandy brown hair and light brown eyes. Their uniforms were crisp, but Varick noted the short one had a stain of some sort near his collar. Varick had no idea why he focused on it, but there it was and it was all he could see when he looked at this guy.

  Despite how many times Varick had spoken with police, he was nervous. Tattooed, funky-haired, leather wearing guys weren’t always treated the best. This was also his first encounter with police in St. Louis. From what he’d heard about their officers, he did not want to get on their bad side.

  “Hey, was hoping you’d get here soon,” he gave with his best attempt at a smile.

  The taller one nodded. “Officer Gentry, this is my partner Officer Kemp. We understand you witnessed this kidnapping?” he asked and pulled out a notepad. Neither officer sat down. Varick knew this tactic; he was probably a suspect.

  Varick nodded. “Um yeah, I was up on the seventh, and I saw the guy grab him in the garden below me on the fifth.”

  The shorter one, Kemp, looked at him with a tilt of his head. “And how did you see that?”

  “The room my friend is in looks over the garden below. I was waiting for her to get discharged and I was looking out the window. So-”

  “So, you just ran down seven flights of stairs to stop in the kidnapping of a random doctor?” Gentry interrupted him.

  Varick swallowed. “Well, I know him, he did the surgery on my friend. He was stressed out over something and he’d taken off alone right before then. I went back to her room, and I-”

  “So, you knew him, then? And knew he was a doctor here and he liked to go off on his own when he was stressed?” Kemp crossed his arms and Varick felt the suspicion radiate off him.

  Varick was starting to worry. He needed to get these guys to look for the doctor, not sit here questioning him about it. “Look, man, I just wanted to help-”

  Just then, the door opened with a bang, surprising all three in the conference room. A tall, dark haired woman in a navy three-piece pantsuit stood there with a greatl
y unamused look on her face. She marched into the room with her low heels clicking authoritatively. A short, thin Asian man Varick instantly noted resembled Kieran followed her into the room. He had wide set almond shaped eyes that were dark and pinched with pain, and his black hair was long and tied with a band at the base of his neck. A third person Varick recognized as the doctor from the roof closed the door behind them.

  “Officers, you can leave now,” the woman spoke.

  Kemp and Gentry exchanged a look. “Look, lady, this is our jurisdiction. We’re not done questioning this suspect-” Gentry began as he turned to face her.

  She pulled an ID badge out of her pocket and let it drop open. Varick could see the large FBI from where he sat across the table. “This is an official FBI matter and your presence is no longer required. This is my jurisdiction now. Thank you for your assistance with everything; we greatly appreciate the help that you local boys provide for us.” She pulled a card out of the sleeve her ID was in and handed it to Gentry. “Contact our office if you have any questions. Now, I’m on a time table and need to interview this witness.”

  The two officers exchanged a look and nodded to her. “Apologies, Miss...?” Kemp questioned.

  “Special Agent Lauren Richmond,” she nodded.

  She stepped aside and pulled the door open for them. They hesitated a second before they exited the conference room. She turned toward Varick after she had shut the door. She walked over and sat down across from him and smiled.

  “Varick Jaeger, this is Dr. Jae, Dr. Sung’s father, and as you heard, I’m Special Agent Richmond. This gentleman here is Dr. Thomas McKellar,” she gestured over toward Thomas as he sat down at the end of table. Jae had sat down quietly beside the agent.

  Agent Richmond nodded at him, her eyes were a deep brown that almost hedged into black. He nearly winced at the intensity of her stare.

  Varick nodded. “Happy to help get him back.” He tried to keep his voice even, but he was having a hard time doing so. “Can’t stand idle by when someone is being hurt. I tried to stop him, but by the time I got down from the seventh, I just couldn’t catch him,” he explained. He swallowed and then looked at his hands. How could he have messed up something as simple as this? He should have gotten there sooner. If he’d been in a bit better shape, maybe he could have caught up with him.

  “Just tell us the events, leaving nothing out, Mr. Jaeger.” Lauren pulled out a recorder and placing it on the table in front of him. “Include any physical descriptions of the man who kidnapped Dr. Sung as well as the vehicle they were in.”

  He told them the story beginning with seeing the doctor snatched from the garden. He explained he had spoken to him a few times, and was planning to stay after his shift to arrange a date for the weekend, and that’s why he had been hanging around so often. He gave them as detailed of a description of the man in the pink scrubs and the van he’d jumped into. He hadn’t gotten a good look at the accomplice who had been driving. Lauren didn’t interrupt or ask any questions until he reached the end of the story and looked up at her.

  “Have you noticed anyone around the hospital that shouldn’t be?” she asked.

  Varick shook his head. “There’s all those ridiculous people who keep bothering him. Dr. Santo called them stalkers.”

  “Stalkers?” she inquired with concern as she glanced toward Thomas and back at Varick.

  “Dr. Sung did these interviews he wanted him to do.” He gestured toward Thomas with a glare. “Earlier today, that’s why he ran off, to catch his breath after some girl came up to the floor professing undying love to him.” For some reason, Varick had left that part out of the story. He guessed he was still reeling from what had happened.

  Lauren frowned and looked over toward Thomas. “Interviews. You put him in the public eye, Dr. McKellar?”

  Thomas shook his head. “It was necessary. Kieran needs to have some public exposure so his patients and their families quit questioning him about his skills. I thought if he was well known it would limit that.”

  Lauren narrowed her eyes at him and turned back to Varick. “Is there anything else you want to add? Anything you think might be significant to who kidnapped the doctor or why?”

  “I don’t know, he’s awkward and the like, but I can’t imagine anyone getting upset with him. He’s good at what he does, I know that. He saved Janet’s life when no one else would.” He paused and looked between her and Jae. “Do you know anything? Have they called?” Varick inquired when he was done, now seeing Kieran’s father was more shaken than he first realized.

  Jae shook his head. “Nothing yet, we would assume that it would ransom. I think given the fact he and I are both successful doctors, a monetary demand should be coming soon. Anything else...anything else is too much to think of.”

  The door opened and another man in a suit slipped in, whispering to Lauren. She nodded, leaving for a second before coming back in with an odd-looking phone. It looked too big. If Varick didn’t miss his guess, it looked like the phones the first responders carried. She nodded and handed it to Jae. His hand was trembling as he put the phone to his ear.

  “Jae Sung.” A long pause. “I can’t get that kind of money in an hour!” he exclaimed. “What? No, please give me at least six hours!” Another pause. “Don’t touch his hands, whatever you do, don’t touch his hands, it’s his life.” Jae’s eyes were already collecting tears at the corners. “Please, don’t hurt him, I’ll get the money.” Another long pause. “I’ll be there as soon as I can get the money, please don’t...I know...but I can’t get it within an hour...okay...” He slowly put the phone down and looked at Lauren. The other guy who came in returned and shook his head. Varick guess they hadn’t gotten a trace, but he figured they’d recorded the call.

  Jae swallowed, eyes meeting Thomas’s and then flicking to Varick’s. “They want a ransom of two hundred thousand in an hour. If I don’t drop it off in an hour, they said they’ll start breaking bones...one for every hour we’re late. There’s no way I can gather that much in an hour, Thomas!”

  Thomas patted him on the shoulder softly. “Well we’re going to try. Come on.”

  KIERAN’S FIRST THOUGHT was he had a headache. His second thought was he was unusually calm since he thought he remembered someone grabbing him and stabbing him with a hypodermic needle. He blinked wearily to see he was in a large open basement. It seemed somewhat damp and he would have thought it would be colder, but it was actually quite warm. He noted a gas heater along the nearby wall that explained the warmth. There was a table in the center of the room with one floodlamp above it. Other than that, the floor was concrete and the walls were stone. He could see a set of stairs to the right going up and there was a water heater and what he assumed was a furnace on the left side of his position.

  Pulling his arms up, he realized they were securely tied in front of him, his arms wrapped from elbow to wrist with ropes. It was not tight, but it was definitely strong. He was thankful his hands were not tied in any way. His legs, though, were painfully contorted and roped together from ankle almost to his hips, ropes biting painfully into his legs and his toes felt numb. Obviously, whoever had tied him did not want him getting away. The tight roping would ensure less chance of rope burn on his body since they were spread across the entirety of his arms and legs. He jerked his bound legs experimentally and heard a clink. He would assume he was chained the wall by his ankles.

  He was still wearing his scrubs, but his shoes gone leaving him in his sock feet. It was unfortunate. He had such a hard time finding shoes that did not irritate his feet. He still felt the relative headiness of being drugged and the cotton-mouthed feeling it left behind. There was a soft gag in his mouth that was too tight to dislodge but it was loose enough so it did not cut into his mouth. He heard a noise to his right which startled him from his concentration on his situation. He glanced in the direction and saw feet coming down a stair.

  “Ah, the doc’s awake,” a playful sounding voice spoke.


  Leaning forward as far as possible, Kieran found himself staring at a tall, thin dark-haired man with deep brown eyes coming toward him. His eyes were bloodshot, and pupils dilated. He smelled of marijuana smoke and ammonia. He noticed it was not the man with the reddish hair in pink scrubs who had grabbed him from the hospital. “Yeh have a nice nap, you pretty lil’ thing?”

  Kieran scowled at him; of course, he could not say anything with a gag in his mouth. The dark-haired man grinned, showing a set of yellowed and jagged looking teeth. Kieran assumed he used something to case tooth decay. He knew methamphetamine often caused tooth loss and yellowing, and considering the drawn nature of his face, it might well be the case.

  “Looks like yer lazy father needs to understand what happens if he doesn’t follow my instructions.” He stared down for a second and then knelt in front of him. He ran his hands up and down his bound arms. “Yer really a sweet thing. Too bad we have other plans for you.” He was positively leering at him.

  “It’s been an hour, so we have to punish yeh for your father’s laziness. So, what bone will I break?” he asked, running hands down his thighs toward his knees. “Maybe a rib?” he poked harshly into his side. “Nah, too close to the organs and we can’t have yeh dying. And I don’t want to mess your cute little face up. Not yet. Maybe...ah, a toe.”

  Kieran watched as the man yanked the white sock from his left foot and ran fingers over his toes before he took his smallest in his hand and yanked it to the side. He grunted into the gag, eyes watering at the sudden sting of pain. The dark-haired man smiled, proceeding though to run his hands over Kieran’s foot, almost lovingly caressing the arch and Kieran just wanted him to stop. It tickled and he hated the feeling.

  “Only the littlest piggy this time. But if we don’t get yer father’s money soon, I’ll come break somet’ing bigger,” he said and stood up. “Or maybe I’ll need to mess up your cute face a little bit so he can see we’re not kidding around.”