Authors: Marion Faith Carol J.; Laird Lenora; Post Worth
Tags: #Fluffer Nutter, #dpgroup.org
Better yet, maybe she'd wake up and be in her own bed at home in Scripps Ranch, and none of this would have happened. It was the idea of going to the Hotel Del Coronado and being among all the rich and famous of San Diego County that did it to her. It was only a nightmare.
Only it wasn't.
It had happened. She had gone to jail temporarily, she'd gone on trial and now someone was determined to make her suffer.
Lord, please help me. I can't take much more of this.
* * *
The car rounded a curve and traveled down a slope to a town built on the side of the mountain.
Lorie held on for dear life to Matt's hand, but seemed unaware of it.
Was Lorie having a panic attack? Her breathing was rapid, and the color had left her face. The death grip she had on Matt's hand was another clue. Riding in the back of a patrol car must be bringing back everything that had happened to her in San Diego.
Matt squeezed Lorie's hand. The startled look in those lovely brown eyes revealed his suspicion to be true. She hadn't known she was holding his hand.
“Your dad will be all right.”
Lorie seemed to hesitate a moment before nodding. “I've been praying.”
“So have I.” Matt longed to tell Lorie everything was going to work out, that she didn't have to be afraid of riding in a patrol car, but he wasn't sure how much she'd be comfortable with him saying, considering the officer up front listening. He settled for laying his free hand on top of hers. “We'll be at the hospital soon, and then we should know something.”
They'd know Lorie's dad's prognosis. But would the criminal who'd forced them off the road and shot at Lorie be waiting for them?
EIGHTEEN
B
y the time the patrol car pulled up by the hospital's emergency-room entrance, Lorie was jumping at every siren. Knowing her dad was inside made her rush out of the car the moment Deputy Vincent opened the door, barely remembering to thank him before she rushed through the automatic sliding-glass entry.
A world of beeping medical equipment, crying children and overly bright lights stunned her into immobility for a moment. Spotting triage, Lorie looked over the shoulder of a lady with an apparently broken arm.
“Ben Narramore?”
The beefy male nurse in SpongeBob scrubs at the computer nodded his head at the curtained staging areas. “In three, but his wife's with him. You'll have to wait.”
“Thanks.”
Lorie searched for a chair near unit three, but most of them were already takenâalthough no one seemed terribly pleased to be in them. The orange plastic seats might have been salvaged from the late 1960s. They looked miserably uncomfortable. Snagging one at the end of a row, she discovered her assessment was correct.
Once she was seated, Lorie remembered Matt. Where was he? Squirming in the chair, she discovered him close to the emergency entrance, talking with Deputy Vincent. After a moment, Vincent removed his radio from his belt and spoke a few terse words into it. It crackled a response. As he reattached it to his utility belt, he handed Matt a cell phone. Matt must have shown him his broken one.
Whom was Matt calling? As she sat there, feeling like a voyeur, Matt made two phone calls. He gave the phone back to Deputy Vincent, shook his hand and then made eye contact with Lorie.
Wending his way through the assorted patients and their families waiting to be seen, Matt reached Lorie's side. Deputy Vincent remained close to the door, keeping an eye on those present.
“Where's your dad?”
Lorie nodded at unit three.
“Let me fill you in.” Matt lowered his voice until she could barely hear him over the background of hospital noise. “Lanier County Sheriff's Department put out an APB on the pickup. They found it this morning, abandoned. It came up on the database as stolen from a theater in Branson yesterday.”
Lorie shuddered. “And they drove it all the way down here to...”
“Looks that way.” Matt laid a warm hand on Lorie's shoulder.
“No signâ”
Matt shook his head. “Not even a gum wrapper. No blood, either. The shooter must have been in another vehicle. They're doing a test for fingerprints, but they don't have the budget for DNA.”
“And if he wore glovesâ” Lorie broke off as the curtain to unit three opened. Mom scanned the crowd. “Over here, Mom!”
Mom walked over toward them, moving more slowly than Lorie would have expected. She was limping. Lorie jumped up and helped her to the chair she'd just vacated.
“How's Dad?”
“Two broken ribs, three fractured ribs, but no punctured lung or other internal injuries, praise the Lord!”
“What about you?”
Mom shook her head. “It's only a sprain. I'll be fine.”
An alarm rang through the hospital, immediately followed by a voice over the PA system.
“Code Amber. Code Amber. Please evacuate the building in a calm and orderly manner.” The message repeated.
All around them in the waiting room, patients, orderlies and nurses began to exit through the emergency room doors.
Lorie grabbed Matt's arm. “What is it?”
“Code Amber means it's a bomb threat.”
Mom blanched. “We've got to get your dad out of here.”
Deputy Vincent wove through the exiting mass of humanity, radio in hand. “We have units on the way.”
A man in a white lab coat wheeled Dad's gurney out of unit three as several nurses and orderlies helped other patients toward the sliding glass doors. Instead of following them, he turned the gurney toward the door to the radiology department.
Separating from the others, Lorie followed after him. “Hey!” she shouted. “Aren't you supposed to be taking him outside?”
“Shortcut.”
Lorie didn't know her way around this hospital, but she could see the glass sliding doors that led out to the parking lot. Why was he headed in the opposite direction?
“Stop!”
With a smirking glance over his shoulder, the man took off, wheeling the gurney with practiced ease, steering it and throwing open the automatic door switch.
He was kidnapping Dad! Instinct took over. Lorie sprinted after them.
The door slammed shut in her face before she could follow. She shoved it. It refused to open. Panicked, she turned to find the access pressure panel to open the door. Pressing the wheelchair symbol on the aluminum square finally made the door swing open.
Behind her, Lorie heard racing footsteps and scarcely moved out of the way before Matt and Deputy Vincent flew past her, guns drawn. Heart banging fit to burst from her chest, she gave chase, struggling to keep up.
“Stop!” Matt ordered.
The man glanced over his shoulder. Abandoning the gurney, he dashed for the nearest elevator. Matt and Vincent gave chase, but the doors squeaked closed in their faces. Vincent pointed at the door to the staircase, and they raced through it.
Lorie reached her dad's gurney and stopped it a second before it would have slammed into the abandoned radiology nurses' station. She gasped, trying to get her breath.
“Dad, you okay?”
Dad's eyes were slightly glazed, doubtless from pain medication, but he smiled when he saw Lorie. “That was some wild ride, cupcake.”
Lorie deliberately slowed her breathing as she scanned the controls of the gurney. How hard could it be to operate?
“We have to get out of here. There's a bomb threat.”
“You know how to drive this thing?”
“I'm fixing to learn.” Lorie took the side rail of the gurney and started wheeling Dad back the way they'd come.
* * *
Matt and Vincent ran down to the basement.
The place was abandoned. Watching the indicator light on the elevator, they waited in gun stance where they'd be out of sight of the perp.
The elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. The man in the lab coat stepped out, breathing hard.
“Freeze!”
The man ducked back into the elevator and pushed a button. As the doors began to close, Matt dived in after him. The perp aimed a kick at Matt's hand. The gun flew out a narrow gap in the doors and clattered to the basement floor just as the doors closed.
The perp lunged at Matt as the elevator began to rise. Matt ducked to one side, grabbed the man's arm and slammed his head into the elevator wall with a mighty thud. Before he could regain his balance, Matt got him in a headlock.
“Who paid you? Who's behind this?”
As the man started spewing curses, Matt tightened his chokehold. A gurgling sound made Matt loosen his hold just enough to keep from knocking him unconscious. He wanted him awake for interrogation.
The elevator stopped on the first floor. As the doors opened, Deputy Vincent stood outside, breathing hard, arms braced in gun stance.
“Cuffs!”
The still-winded Vincent stood down and helped Matt cuff the would-be kidnapper.
“Any word as to whether someone's found a sign of a bomb?”
Vincent shrugged. “Can't take chances. We still need to get out of here. Bomb squad's already on the premises.”
“My piece still in the basement?”
Vincent pulled Matt's gun from the back of his belt and handed it over.
At Vincent's quizzical look, Matt glanced at the perp.
“Long story.”
“You're too late.” The man's voice held a sneer. “By now, she's gone.”
Matt's heart sank.
Lorie!
* * *
Mom had been herded out the doors with the rest of the people in E.R. by the time Lorie maneuvered Dad's gurney back toward the emergency exit. The empty corridors echoed with mindless beeps. Her footsteps on the worn gray tiles sounded like gunshots.
No one remained in E.R. The ambulance that had brought Dad sat by the emergency-room doors, abandoned, its motor still running. As Lorie pushed Dad's gurney through the doors, she scanned the parking lot, looking for Mom, or anyone. How far had they made everyone retreat? Clear to the next county?
If this is a nightmare, I want to wake up now!
No. There they were, two blocks awayâwhite-coated doctors, nurses in scrubs, patients on gurneys, in wheelchairs, some standing about looking as dazed as Lorie felt.
“Don't drive so fast, cupcake. I'm getting seasick.”
“Sorry, Dad.” Lorie slowed her pace and tried to keep the gurney from running away with her.
As she headed past the ambulance, a hand clamped over her mouth as a strong arm grabbed her around the waist. Lorie struggled and kicked back against her captor as the gurney rolled to the curb and stopped, jolting Dad.
“Hey!” Dad's shout was louder than the hospital's alarm system, but Lorie doubted the hospital evacuees heard it from all their distance away.
She tried to open her mouth to let out a scream of her own when a voice murmured in Lorie's ear. “Come quietly, or your father's dead.”
Lorie stilled. A moment later, rough hands threw her into the back of the ambulance and slammed the door. Outside, Dad yelled for help as the engine roared to life. On her hands and knees, Lorie toppled sideways into the gear cabinet as the ambulance careened out of the parking lot. Pain socked the back of her head before the world went black.
* * *
Matt raced out the door to see the ambulance disappearing down the road, with a frantic-looking Ben on a gurney beside the curb. He ran to Ben's side.
“Don't worry about me!” Ben waved his hand in the direction of the ambulance. “Get after her. Go. Go!”
Vincent was only two steps behind Matt. He jerked his head at the patrol car, and Matt raced around to the passenger side, barely getting the door closed as it roared to life, lights and siren blaring.
Vincent keyed the unit's radio. “All units, this is unit A-1 in pursuit of a stolen ambulance northbound on First, kidnap victim inside. Suspect likely armed and dangerous. Over.”
Units began answering as Dispatch came back, ordering assistance.
Matt's heart pounded like a racehorse. If only he hadn't chased the perp. If onlyâ
I need to pray.
Even though he currently was powerless to do anything physical for Lorie, there was still one thing he
could
do. As the patrol car sped down First Street, blasting through red lights with Vincent leaning on the horn, Matt prayed for Lorie's safety, and that they'd be able to reach her in time.
The patrol car clung to the ambulance like a burr to a hunting dog. Vehicles that had pulled over to the right went by in a blur. Matt grasped the armrest, leaning forward as if by sheer will he could make the car go faster. Meanwhile, his mind was racing with questions. How had they been tracked to the hospital? How had the kidnapper even known they'd survived the crash? The way they'd careened off the mountain, he should have assumed they were dead.
The image of Sam McGee from Search and Rescue radioing their location on ham radio popped into Matt's brain. Of course. The kidnapper must have been monitoring two meters. Ham radio was wonderful, but it was public. Anyone with a shortwave receiver could listen.
“Borrow your cell phone again?”
Vincent nodded without taking his eyes off the road.
Matt reached for it as the ambulance took a left onto Highway 32. He keyed in Frank's personal mobile number.
“Sutherland.”
“Sheriff, it's MacGregor. Lorie's been kidnapped. Lanier County Deputy Vincent and I are in pursuit of an ambulance headed on Hwy 32 toward Dainger County.”
“Roger. We'll set up a roadblock.” The phone double-beeped as Frank ended the call.
As the patrol car raced after the ambulance, a semi hauling a load of chickens pulled onto the highway from a crossroad in front of them. The ambulance swerved around, but its driver regained control. Vincent spun the wheel, leaning on the horn again, but the semi's driver lost control. The truck skidded across the road and the trailerload of chicken cages fell onto its side, taking the semi's cab with it. The radio that prevented the driver from hearing their sirens still pounded a heavy-metal beat into the air.
Matt braced himself for impact, but Vincent stomped on the brakes. Tires screamed in protest as they skidded to a halt, inches away from the mountain of poultry.
Matt pounded the dashboard as he watched the ambulance race away, taking Lorie with it.
If it would have helped, Matt would have torn his hair out, especially as the next few minutes passed and he received word that the ambulance had disappeared without ever crossing the roadblock into Dainger County. It could be anywhere. The driver could be clear out of Arkansas into Oklahoma by now.
Returning to the hospital felt like the wrong thing to do, but after the Highway Patrol arrived to help clear the road of dead and dying chickens and round up the living escapees, Deputy Vincent received the call from his dispatcher to return at once.
Anxiety twisted at Matt's guts. Scriptures tried to surface in his brain, telling him not to fret, that God was in charge, but worry kept worming its way to the top. Lorie could be dead by now. The bomb might have gone off at the hospital, injuring her parents and everyone else in a three-block radius. How would he ever explain abandoning them to Lorie if anything happened to them? If only Lorie were alive to explain anything toâ
As the patrol car neared the hospital, Matt noticed people reentering the building. A couple of police officers were leading the handcuffed kidnapper out and sticking him into a patrol car. Before Vincent had the car parked, Matt leaped out of it with a terse “Thanks.”
Matt raced to the police car, badge already in hand. “MacGregor, Dainger County Sheriff's Department. I need to question this guy.”