Hope To Escape (10 page)

"I think there may be some clothes missing, but it's hard to tell when they're all piled up like this."

"Is there anything that you are sure is missing. Anything at all?" Roden persisted.

Manda studied
harder
, then said, "I think maybe her winter coat is missing. It's usually in the back of the closet until the cold really sets in. I don't see it."

"Well," Roden added it up, "The suitcase is gone and her winter coat has been taken though it's only mid-September. I think it may be possible that he was planning on being away for awhile?"

"Maybe he is planning to hole up somewhere for the winter." Martin suggested with a somewhat joking tinge to his voice.

"I don't know," Roden replied, "but perhaps you can use your handy lock-picking talent to get into Max's apartment. Then I could check it out like Manda did here."

"Sure, sure," Martin answered. He jumped up from the seat he had taken on the bed and headed back towards the living room. Roden and Manda left the room a moment after and almost ran into him as he stopped short of the door.

"Oh, yeah," Manda exclaimed. "What are we going to do about him?" She pointed to the unconscious man still sprawled on the floor in front of the apartment's entrance.

"What if we just dump him in an alley somewhere?"

"Martin!" Manda looked shocked at such an idea.

"He needs medical attention." Roden added.

"Sorry," Martin looked apologetic.

"We need to get him to a hospital." Roden explained, displeased at this delay.

"How can we do that without raising the wrong attention?" Manda voiced the same concern that Roden felt.

"Raising attention would take a lot of time away from us," Martin expounded on their train of thought. "We'd have to register and give some kind of explanation. With the guy in this condition,
a
report would most likely have to be written. It would give Max plenty of time to get away."

"Yeah," Manda added, exasperated. "We can't let that happen." She became more visibly anxious.

Martin once again had an idea. "We can't dump him off in an ally and he needs a hospital, so lets just dump him off at the hospital. Anonymously."

"How will we manage that?" Roden replied skeptically. "I think dumping him there will only draw attention." The very idea sounded completely unethical.

"Just leave it to me." Martin had a rather devilish smile on his face. "Let's just get him in the car and drive him there, and I'll take care of the rest."

Roden hesitated, but finally resigned himself to this idea. They couldn't afford to lose the time. "Fine. Let me do something first." Roden grabbed a small pillow from the couch and used Martin's tie to secure it around the man's neck.

"This should give his neck
a
little more support in case there is some spinal injury. Now, let's get him up. But be extremely careful. He could have more internal damage than we're aware of." Knowing the possibility of this, Roden began to move the man against his better judgment.

Roden and Martin bent over the body and heaved him into a standing position. Supporting him on either side, they waited as Manda opened the door, then they dragged him down the hall towards the elevator, where they waited in silence. When the elevator doors finally opened, an older gentleman exited. Roden looked self-conscious and Manda's nervousness showed clear on her face.

Martin, however, just smiled and addressed the old man who eyed them warily, "Poor guy's already wasted," he nodded to the man hanging from his shoulder, "and it's not even nine-thirty yet. Quite a party down the hall!"

The old man sniffed and looked distastefully at the unconscious body as he continued to pass. The excuse seemed to work, despite the bandaged head and the pillow. Martin smiled self-indulgently as they pulled the body into the elevator. Manda did not appear impressed this time.

"Are you enjoying this?" She demanded of him.

As he looked at her, his smile changed to
a
smirk. "Well, you have to admit, it is sort of exciting." Manda's jaw dropped in disgusted awe. Roden looked at him with disappointed wonder. Could this guy be serious?

"Or not." Martin then amended with a frown and an almost inperceptively roll of his eye, as the elevator doors shut behind them.

* * *

Roden, Manda and Martin continued down to the building's lobby in silence. When they reached the entrance, they slipped out the door and made slow but steady progress to the car. Once there, they slid the man into the front seat. Roden noticed that his breathing had improved to the point that the rise and fall of his chest had actually become discernable. The pillow brace probably alleviated some constriction from his airway.

Manda and Martin squeezed into the back of the car, while Roden fastened their new passenger in. In next to no time they set off towards the hospital. Silence still ensued. Roden was surprised at Manda's restraint, but when he glanced at her through the rearview mirror, he saw the serious worry on her face. The situation, it seemed, was really starting to get to her.

Looking for a little distraction himself, he decided to press Martin for his plan on getting this man beside him some medical attention.

"It's simple, really." Martin obliged. "We get to St. Tom's and you pull to the east side of the building near the emergency room. I'll get out and drag this guy close to the door, maybe prop him up against the wall. Then, I'll go to the desk and let them know that I noticed an injured man outside. I'll just be some innocent passerby pulling a Good Samaritan deed. Then, I'll walk out and meet you on the other side of the building where you will have stationed yourself while I perform my task. That way, we'll be near the exit, and can get back out before we draw any suspicions."

When no one commented on this plan, Martin probed for approval. "Well, what do you think?"

Roden nodded. "Simple. Sounds like it will do the job." Manda didn't say anything. She just heaved a sigh, obviously too preoccupied to listen to the conversation.

When they pulled into the hospital drive, Roden made his way to the side of the building and parked along the fire lane. He got out and opened the door for Martin. The building was well lit, so they scanned the area to make sure no witnesses were present. Then, they hauled the body out of the car. Roden secured him to Martin's agile frame, and watched as he dragged the limp fellow off towards the emergency entrance.

He got back in the car and shifted into gear. The trip to the other side of the building continued in silence. When he stopped the car, he looked at Manda in the mirror once again. Her worried expression hadn't changed. He shifted in his seat to get a better look at her.

"Manda, tell me what you're thinking." The gentle demand came right out. It seemed that his occupation always came into play, even in a situation when he was not exactly emotionally stable himself.

Manda took
a
moment to answer. When she did, her subject of thought was not what Roden had been expecting. "Ess is my best friend. She would tell me if she was seeing someone." He couldn't
tell
if it was a statement or a question.

"I – I'm afraid I don't know Ess, but there might be more to this than we're aware of. We don't know who this guy is that was laying on her floor – "

"Then what was he doing there?"

"Are you sure she never mentioned a date or a crush?" Roden asked. A thought entered his head that Manda probably never let Ess get
a
word in edgewise about her own life. However, he kept up his well-practiced 'serious face', which he often used with his patients.

"A crush?" Manda was indignant . . . yet again. "She's not fifteen, for cryin' out loud!" She took a breath and paused for a minute. "Agh, sorry. I don't know why it upsets me. It's just that she hardly ever had a date to talk about. I mean, she did talk about guys – of course she talked about guys, but dating – that was rare; and I could never even get her to go on blind dates . . ."

She went on like this for at least another minute. Roden felt that the situation would be better for her as long as she kept talking. More to the point, he began to undergo a slight level of shock himself over the fact that Manda actually said the word 'sorry'. He had a feeling that it was a significant hurdle for her to admit that she overreacts on occasion.

" . . . I'm just worried about her. She's so shy around men, and now some lunatic has nabbed her. What's that going to do to her? Oh, God, I hope she's alright." If it was possible for this woman to cry, Roden thought, she was close to it.

"I'm sure Ess will be able to hold her own, especially against Max. He's very docile and rather quiet himself. I'm sure she will be all right. We just need to find her and bring her home."

Just then, he remembered a detail from Max's message, and wondered why he didn't think of it when he first saw the unconscious man in Esther's apartment. "Max seems to think that Esther is in trouble, and that he is rescuing her from someone else who wants to hurt her. If that's the case, I'm sure he is striving his best to keep her safe. Maybe he thought this guy we found in her apartment meant to do her harm. He probably thinks that he has her best interests in mind. I'm sure she's fine in his hands." Was he trying to convince Manda or himself? He couldn't be sure.

"What do you mean he thinks he's rescuing her from someone else?" This was new to Manda. Roden had failed to mention this part previously, so he filled her in by repeating Max's voice message word-for-word as best as he could remember.

They didn't have time to discuss or analyze this tidbit any further. Suddenly, the passenger door opened, making Roden and Manda jump. The next moment, Martin slid into the seat and slammed the door shut. He looked at the other passengers who were both slow to react to the getaway. "Well, come on. Let's go. Let's get out of here."

Roden shifted the car into gear and headed out of the parking lot. After turning in the direction of Max's apartment, he addressed Martin, "So, how did it go?"

"Oh, fine, fine," was the reply.

"Fine?" Roden repeated. "Do you care to elaborate? What happened?"

"My plan was perfect. Went just as I thought. No one saw me stage the guy outside of the emergency room, and no one suspected that I knew more than I let on." Martin was smug. Manda's accusation had certainly been correct. This guy was enjoying the situation entirely too much.

But then, Roden contemplated, Martin didn't know any of the people involved. What other emotions could there be for him other than enjoyment? . . . Perhaps disgust? Perturbation? Distress? They seemed reasonable responses, but were evidently not the only plausible ones in this circumstance. Still, getting a thrill from
a
crisis situation, that was disturbing.

They drove on in silence. Hopefully, Max's apartment would lead them in the right direction. Roden just wanted this incident to be over with.

CHAPTER NINE

The first sensations began as a constant vibration mingled with light thumps that jostled everything just a little. Then, sound harmonized with the movement. The resonance came low and unsteady, no real pattern to the reverberation. The thumps were accompanied by low percussive thuds in a cadence without rhythm. Intermittent crescendos swelled and whirled in abrasive pitches, rising and fading in short intervals. The sense of sight returned at last, but it wasn't very helpful. Everything was dark. Painfully bright lights came and went with the crescendos at distant moments, stinging the eyes, and revealing
a
solid black environment.

It was a while before Ess was able to regain enough consciousness to comprehend her surroundings. She was in a vehicle that was in motion. There were no stops or sharp turns, and it felt like it was moving very fast. She lay across the backseat, where she had no view of the
driver
or the scenery outside. Her last memory had been of her apartment. She could not fathom how she ended up here. All she could recall at the moment was fear, and so she became afraid to move.

It was obvious from her lateral position that she wasn't buckled in, and the jostling of the vehicle shook her enough to make Ess aware of her restraints. Her wrists and ankles were trussed together in away that rendered her immobile, but did not hurt her.

After this long assessment of her situation, true panic set in. This was wrong, all wrong. She tried to think, but it was difficult to focus. All Ess remembered was that she had been home, and now she wasn't. For a moment she suggested to herself that it was a bad dream, but she knew that she was too alert to be dreaming.

With this panic came shivers. As frightened as she was to move, she couldn't keep herself from shaking. She concentrated on getting her breathing under control while tears stung her eyes and the taste of bile crept up her throat.

She knew that she needed to concentrate on getting herself away from this situation. The reasons for her abduction could wait; the freedom from her abductor could not. With the panic clouding her mind, no escape ideas would surface. Ess damned her inability to think under pressure.

Suddenly, she was sliding across the seat as the vehicle took a turn without slowing down. Her head slammed into the vehicle door, then her body was flung to the floor, causing her to release a few painful whimpers and groans. After several uncomfortable seconds spent trying to recover herself, she felt the car screech to a stop, jolting her even more.

The noise of the driver's door opening startled her, and she began to kick and pull at her restraints. Then, the back door opened at her feet. She looked towards it and saw all hope of freedom blocked by a large silhouette. The man was in black, and his features were unclear in the dark, adding to his ominous figure.

He leaned into the car's cabin, and reached for her, pulling her up off the floor. With little effort he hauled her back onto the seat, and bent over to reposition her. Without thought, Ess reacted.

With all her might she kicked at him, hitting him hard in the stomach with her knees. She heard the wind leave his chest as he doubled over. This put his head in just the right position to strike again; so she did, making contact with his face. She wasn't sure, but she thought she could feel his nose break.

He collapsed on the floor of the vehicle, with his legs hanging out of the door. As he held his hands to his face, and struggled to regain his breath, Ess reached towards her feet to work at the knot that bound her ankles. She tore at it with her fingers, bending and ripping her nails in the process. After a few seconds, the knot started to give.

The man regained his breath, and began to vocalize his pain. This made Ess more desperate as she continued her struggles. She was numb to the ache in her fingers while she worked to free herself.

Finally the rope began to unravel. She kicked and pulled, liberating her legs. Her wrists were a different matter, but they could wait. Ess wiggled her way out of the vehicle, trying to avoid the man on the floor.

She was just about out the door when the man had enough control of his pain to notice her attempted escape. He growled and grabbed at her arm. She reacted by screaming and flailing, managing to knock him in the nose once more with her elbow. He screamed in response and let her go so he could cradle his face again.

She edged her way to the end of the seat, and stood on the ground. Looking around her, she saw only darkness and trees. She was in the middle of a forest somewhere, lighted only by a half moon. The pavement beside the vehicle was only a narrow country road. The faint sound of a passing car could be heard in the distance, letting her know that she was near another road. Perhaps it was the road they had just turned off of a few moments ago.

Before taking another step, she turned back towards the man in the car. Just then, he looked up, making eye contact with her while cupping his hand against the blood gushing from his nostrils. The look in his eyes spoke fury. That stare told her that, if he caught her, he would seriously harm her, or probably kill her.

It wouldn't take much for him to find his footing and chase her. She glanced down at his legs, which were still hanging out of the car. In that instant she had an inspiration: man's greatest physical weakness.

Ess took one quick step closer to him, and, before he could counteract, she lifted her foot and slammed it between his legs. He let out a low-pitched howl. She wished she had been wearing high heals instead of tennis shoes, but her kick was effective enough. Besides, now she needed to run.

Ess turned and dashed through the woods in the direction she assumed the other road to be in. Keeping her balance and jogging at an adequate pace was difficult with her arms bound at her wrists. The night had become cold, and she wasn't clad for it, but adrenaline kept her warm and kept her going.

* * *

Max drove through the darkness, cursing himself for the way this night had turned out. Actually, his cursing extended further back than this evening. It began the day before when his lifelong fixation came crashing down on him. Had he known what his art would lead to, he would never have wrapped his fingers around
a
chisel or a paintbrush.

Once he caught a glimpse of Esther at the art gallery that day, he couldn't resist discovering more about her. It became important for him to know that she was doing well. He wanted her to be safe and happy. Initially, he told himself that all he intended to do was check up on her from time to time. When, after two weeks, he couldn't
pull
himself away from his views of Esther leaving work, Esther stopping for coffee, and Esther taking the longer route home so that she could enjoy the effects of the autumn weather on the changing leaves, he realized that he didn't have control of himself after all.

He also began to realize that he wasn't the only one watching her.

Now he drove down the highway, a few miles outside of the city. He couldn't remember the exact location of his destination, since he had only been there once, but he kept his eyes on his surroundings, trying to look for any familiar signs of the turnoff. He doubled back twice already, sure that he must have already passed it.

If one hair on that perfect head so much as appeared out of place, Max didn't think he would be able to contain himself. Esther had given him his first and most significant show of kindness. He swore that, if he ever found her again, he would repay her somehow. If he could do so by helping her like she had helped him, it would be an honor and a privilege. Now, however, this honor could only be tainted with the bitterness of knowing that he put her in this current danger in the first place. What a hard pill to swallow.

His reflections continued to be self-loathing and self-berating as he sped along. All Roden's hard work with him over the years had regressed in the past two short weeks, and the doctor's impending disappointment became another bitter pill for Max.

As his eyes darted around for any familiar landmark that would jog his memory about the turn-off, something in the distance attracted his attention. On the side of the road, he could barely make out an object from the edge of his headlights. As he got closer, it turned out to be human.

The person waved both arms in the air in an awkward looking motion, apparently flagging him down. How unfortunate. A person this far out along the highway, was not likely to meet with many other passersby as the night wore on, and those passersby might be questionable in integrity. He knew he couldn't leave a person in need out here in the woods, even if it interrupted him in his quest. He slowed his car down, and managed to stop on the side of the road just a few yards past the stranded person.

As he got out, he saw the person running towards him. It was a woman, looking rather desperate in her hurried gate, tripping over herself to get to his car. As he stepped towards her, he recognized her. It was Esther!

It couldn't be possible. The very woman he was looking for, the one that slipped through his fingers the first time he tried to save her, now appeared right before him in the middle of nowhere. The opportunity to protect her had literally been delivered to him a second time.

She made it to him, her breath heaving in exhaustion and fear. She tried to speak, to explain herself and to ask for help, but her words were coming out in rapid jumbles. Max had to catch her as she began to collapse in fatigue. He noticed that her wrists were bound together, and the state of her made him angry.

"Don't worry. I've got you." Without saying another word, he guided her into the passenger's seat of his car.

She fell into the seat like a rag doll, where she continued working to catch her breath. Max tried his best to be respectful as he picked up her legs and slid them into the car. He reached over, and fastened her seatbelt around her, avoiding eye contact because his guilt rose at the sight of her suffering. After he saw to her comfort and safety, he shut the door, and ran around the front of the car to the driver's side.

As he opened his door, he heard a metallic bang from behind him in the distance. A moment later, a small object crashed into the open door. Esther screamed in fear, trying to express to her rescuer the need for their hasty departure. Max looked in the direction from which the bang had come. Someone shot at them.

A second shot resounded, and the glass shattered in his back window. He dunked into the car, grateful that he had left it running as he shifted into drive. His foot slammed on the gas pedal, and the wheels squealed and fishtailed slightly as they threw gravel behind them. The car was back on the road in no time. Max glanced back through the rearview mirror, but could see nothing through the shattered glass.

It appeared that Esther had escaped her captor. Max peered at her, impressed at her self-sufficiency in a crisis situation. He knew, however, that they would come after her. They weren't too far behind, and he couldn't be sure they didn't know it was Max who had found her. If they recognized him, it could be
harder
for him to hide her from them.

Good thing he had the foresight to pack a bag for her.