Finders Keepers (29 page)

Ellie scooted over on the bed and Taylor climbed in next to her.
 
She handed over a half-eaten box of French fries and the cheesecake her dad had finally come back with just minutes before.
 
After downing four or five fries and then digging into the cheesecake, Taylor said casually, “What’s the plan, Stan?”

Her parents didn’t even flinch.

Ellie jerked her head toward the door and Taylor followed her gaze across the room.
 
As soon as both their eyes locked on it, that same powerful courtesy knock vibrated the door.
 
Taylor’s eyes went wide.
 
Ellie grinned.
 

First through the door was a wheelchair followed by Dr. Cooper.
 
Taylor’s mouth dropped open, half a mouthful of cheesecake and all.
 

“Hello again Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Ellie, and Ellie’s friend.”
 
He showed his perfectly straight teeth.
 
“Ellie’s got a few more tests before we can give her the all clear.
 
Right now I need to take her down to the lab to get a platelet count.
 
It’s the easiest way to tell if the surgeon was able to stop all the internal bleeding.
 
If the numbers aren’t satisfactory, then we’ll probably do an ultrasound or MRI to double check.”

Before either of her parents could move, he said, “If you’ll just wait here, I will have her back in less than an hour.”
 
He stretched his arm revealing a watch and well-tanned wrist from under his white coat.
 
“If you think you’ll be hungry, you should get something now.
 
The cafeteria closes in forty-five minutes.”

Taylor leaned into Ellie and hissed.
 
“He’s your plan?
 
How and when and why wasn’t I with you when you involved this piece of prime rib?”
 

As inconspicuously as possible, Ellie elbowed Taylor.
 

The young doctor changed his focus to Taylor.
 
“We can walk you out young lady since visiting hours are officially over.”
 

Once again Ellie had to bite her tongue.
 
Her parents could not possibly be falling for this.
 
It was barely after four in the afternoon.
 
But when she sneaked a peek at them, they just nodded, though her mother’s face had taken on what Ellie called the “hen” look.
 
Her mother had perfected it after Ellie’s first attack.
 
At this point she would worry whether it was rational or not.
 
Her face would be stuck like that, with her eyes narrow and beady and her lips pursed until Ellie had been forced to attend at least a year’s worth of sessions with a child psychologist, she was sure.
 
But at least a comforting pat from her father kept her mother in her seat for now.
 
She picked up a
Martha Stewart Living
magazine and went back to critiquing the over-priced bathroom fixtures that she was sure she saw the exact duplicate of last week at the flea market off Route 52.
 

Second nature kicked in and Ellie tuned her mother out.
 
She let Dr. Cooper help her into the wheelchair which is where he leaned close to her ear, earning her a disbelieving gape from Taylor.
 
Dr. Cooper said in a low voice, “By the way, DNR means Do Not Resuscitate, just in case you were interested in living.
 
The abbreviation I believe you were looking for is DWB—Don’t write back.”

Ouch.
 
Trounced by the old guy.
 

They were halfway to the elevator and hadn’t warranted even a second look from any of the passing hospital staff.
 
At the nurse’s station, two of the nurses gabbed while chugging Diet Coke while a third was thoroughly absorbed in her novel—the cover leaving very little to the imagination of its steamy nature.
 

Taylor saw him first.
 
She grabbed the closest handle of the wheelchair and yanked it 90 degrees.
 
Ellie covered her side and fought back a moan.
 
“What in the…”
 
Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw a large lumbering shape with a nose like a potato and the ever-distinctive pointed ears.
 
Dodge
.
 
He was at the end of the hall reading the complimentary map of the hospital that was pinned to the wall near the waiting area.
 
She reached behind her and grabbed Dr. Cooper’s arm.
 
“Hide!”

Instantly, the doctor wheeled her around and pushed Taylor in front of him.
 
He touched the beeper at his waist and it started to shriek.
 
Picking up speed, he whisked past the nurse’s station again, this time all three of them looked up.
 
Instead of flashing them his Crest commercial smile, he completely ignored them.
 
He pulled his phone from his pocket, dialed then started an animated, one-sided, conversation.
 
“You let the intern do what?” he shouted into the phone.
 
It worked.
 
The nurses resumed their previous activities without batting an eyelash.

Wow.
 
Ellie and Taylor looked at each other.
 
They were in the presence of a master.
 

The heavy
thudfalls
of Dodge’s footsteps were increasing in frequency.
 
Before they passed Ellie’s room, and her parents, Dr. Cooper wheeled Ellie around a corner with Taylor one step ahead.
 
Once out of sight of her room and Dodge, he stopped, helped her to her feet, and then ducked into a supply closet, leaving both she and Taylor out in the hall.
 
They looked at each other, but before they could express their confusion or even follow him, he was back again.
 
In his hands he held two pairs of sea green scrubs.
 
He gave Taylor both pair.
 
“You’re going to need to help Ellie.”
 
He then turned very serious, no-nonsense eyes on Ellie.
 
“The stab wound was deep but you were pretty lucky that it missed essential organs and arteries.
 
However, if you feel light-headed or blood starts soaking through your bandage, everything stops.
 
Do you understand me?”

Ellie nodded the way she did when her dad tried to discipline her.
 
Dr. Cooper’s shoulders relaxed a bit.
 
“I have a black BMW in the physician’s parking lot.
 
It’s better if we separate.
 
Someone would be sure to notice if I walked out with two girls that looked more like candy stripers than actual nurses.”
 
He pulled out a huge set of keys and handed it to Ellie.
 
“I’ll meet you there.”
  

While Ellie changed clothes with Taylor’s help, she kept a picture of Gibbs the way she’d seen him last, on the ground in her mind’s eye.
 
She couldn’t stop.
 
She couldn’t slow down.
 

Taylor pulled the hoodie over her head revealing a tight wife-beater tank top.
 
“He is so hot.
 
Tell me why we are on a rescue mission again for whatshisname when you have a man,
a doctor
, like that in your pocket?”

Ellie leaned against the wall and shook her head.
 
“What you should be wondering is why Dodge is here at the hospital.”

Next Taylor wriggled out of her jeans.
 
“That’s easy.
 
He’s Lola’s lap dog and she wants you dead, fricasseed like a fried
twinkie
.”
 

Ellie swallowed hard.
 
That was true.
 
She kicked Taylor’s clothes and her hospital gown under the shelf holding the toilet paper.

Taylor cinched her scrub pants.
 
Because of her height, the scrubs were significantly larger than she was round.
 
“Where do you think Gibbs is?
 
Even if we could somehow sneak back into that tunnel, your dad said that they didn’t find anyone with you.”

This had been on Ellie’s mind, constantly poking her like a rock in her shoe.
 
She had a suspicion but it wasn’t until Dodge showed up and Taylor compared her to a fried
twinkie
that her suspicion was confirmed.
 

“Sarah’s gone.
 
Xaneth
may still be out there but he wasn’t in any condition to move a body.
 
Besides, he wouldn’t have left me.”
 
She shivered.
 
“There’s only one person who hates me enough to leave me for dead, and in the off chance I survived, take away the one thing I want in order to lure me into another trap.”

           
Taylor’s face dawned comprehension.
 
“Lola.”
 

Their getaway worked successfully as far as the front lobby, and then it hit a minor speed bump.
 
Just as the automatic doors swished open letting the cold November air rush in, they were waylaid by one of the hospital administrators.

“Ladies?
 
There are patients waiting to be wheeled to their floors.”

Luckily Taylor’s dad was a lawyer and believed in lecturing his children about politics frequently
and
his children’s friends.
 
Ellie patted her scrub pocket as if it contained something, cuing Taylor.
 
“Sorry, it’s our break.”
 

Taylor nodded.
 
“Yes, and according to our union contract we get a fifteen minute break for every four hours of work and if you detain us, we are entitle to be paid overtime.”
 
She lifted her wrist up and pretended to read the numbers on her watch.
 
“Ooh, for every minute that means I am making…”

The man blanched and then growled in his throat, but otherwise did nothing to detain them.
 
They made a break for the parking lot.

***

There were four entrances that Ellie knew of.
 
One was through the cemetery, one through the basement in the empty store next to the Treasure Bin, one in her back yard, and the fourth was through the park.
 
The first couldn’t even be considered because, as Taylor informed she and Dr. Cooper (who kept reassuring them it was ok to call him Luke since they were not in a medical setting anymore) that it was still swarming with local miners, the fire department, and was completely quarantined by yellow police tape.

They couldn’t risk the second either.
 
That was an entrance that Lola had shown them herself.
 
Ellie was just hoping against hope that Lola couldn’t have all the entrances guarded.
 
Her back yard was probably the safest bet, but she didn’t even have to guess what Luke would say if she suggested she were capable of climbing down it.
 
Nope, they would have to place all their eggs in one basket and go through the park.

It wasn’t going to be an easy thing considering it was broad daylight.
 
Their one advantage was that it was only about forty degrees outside.
 
Ellie shivered in spite of the warmth blowing from Dr. Cooper…
er
… Luke’s car.
 
She slouched down in the back seat and rested her head against the leather headrest.
 
She only had a moment to rehearse her plan in her mind again before they pulled into a nearly empty parking lot.
 

Before Luke switched off the engine, he reached back and pulled out a medium sized black bag from behind the driver’s side seat.
 
He rummaged through it and then pulled out one long sleeve shirt and one lightweight jacket.
 
Ellie took the proffered shirt gratefully and slipped it over her head.
 
It smelled like a combination of Old Spice and antiseptic.