Runner (48 page)

Jane touched Christine's arm. "I'm here. I told you I'd do whatever it took. Talk to me. Try to wake up."

She blinked, tried to raise herself. Jane lifted her to a sitting position. "Sybil shot me." She started to say something else, but she couldn't keep from crying.

"Your baby was born, wasn't it?" Jane said. "Is it here?"

"He's still in San Diego with Richard's family. They took him away." She sobbed. "His name is Robert. He's beautiful."

"Okay. We have to get you out of here. Can you walk?"

"Yes. Not at first, but now I can. They've been keeping me pretty doped up with painkillers and things, but there's nothing wrong with my legs. I just feel so tired all the time."

"Drugs are a good way to keep you from running to the police, but they can't be expecting to keep you in this place forever."

"It's a
clinica mujer.
A woman's clinic. The doctor who delivered Robert, and saved me, is a surgeon. He owns this place. Sybil and Claudia told me he's got big connections. There's a red-light district, all whorehouses and strip clubs. That's where the head nurse said I'm going."

"She sounds like a real delight."

"She is. But I know it's real. The nurse who takes care of me told me the doctor does a lot of work for the prostitutes. They have to get checked for STDs once a month, and there are a lot of breast and butt implants, tummy tucks, abortions."

"Don't even think about that. Try to wake up."

"She said that after he's done some surgery to hide the bullet scars and maybe some breast implants I was going to one of the houses. She said if I was
good
I'd get to stay there."

"If you were
good?"

"She said there were places that I wouldn't like as much. And they're a lot farther from the border and harder to find, and there aren't any rules."

"We've got to get you out of here. You said you could walk. Do you think you could run if you had to?"

"Some. Not fast."

"Are the drugs wearing off now?"

"When the nurse came in I was already faking a little bit. I've been trying to get off the painkillers and sleeping pills, cutting down whenever I can. About half the time I palm them and flush them later."

"Great. Have you checked the possible ways out of the building?"

"They've wheeled me down to the examining rooms a few times, and I've looked. There's always a guard downstairs in the lobby. He has a gun, and there's another guy who kind of wanders. The windows in here don't open, but they seem to everywhere else. I think the only way out of this room is when the nurse comes with my pills."

"When will that be?"

"I didn't take them yet, so she'll keep coming until I do."

"All right. I've got a car—a blue Ford SUV—parked just around the block from here. The trick is to get from here to that. I saw the guard downstairs. You said there was a second guard somewhere. Do you know where his post is?"

"I don't think he has one. He seems to go on rounds like a night watchman. I've seen him look in to be sure I was here, or come in to lift something for the nurses. He has a uniform like a cop, and a gun in a holster. The other guy is always at the desk, even late at night. I don't know how often they change shifts or anything like that."

"Are there other women here who are being held?"

"Not that I know of. Since I've been here I've been the only one on this floor. But there are three or four other rooms, and they all have locks on the doors."

They both heard the elevator arrive again and the doors open. Jane said, "I've got to be out of sight. Your job is to not swallow any medicine." She stepped into the bathroom and behind the shower curtain.

They both heard the key in the lock. Christine pretended to be asleep. The door opened, the same nurse came in.

The nurse turned and looked behind her, but nobody was there. The nurse seemed to have a jumpy late-night sensation that there was movement somewhere beyond the corner of her eye. She shook her head and stepped to Christine's bed. "Christina," she said. "Wake up." She shook Christine gently, got no response, and then clutched Christine's left shoulder near the bullet wound.

Christine jumped and opened her eyes. "Ow! Are you trying to hurt me?"

"I'm trying to wake you. Take your medicine." She went to the table, poured water into the plastic cup and held it out to Christine. Then she held out the cup of pills.

"All right," said Christine. "You can go. I can take these by now without you."

"No you can't. I won't let you. I have to be sure you get everything you're supposed to." She folded her arms and stared at Christine.

Christine took the pills in her hand, brought her hand to her mouth, and gulped water, then held the cup out to the nurse.

The nurse seemed to reach for the cup, but then changed the direction of her movement and snatched Christine's other hand, twisted it hard, and held it.

Christine said, "Ow! What are you doing? Are you crazy?"

The nurse pried Christine's fingers open and revealed the pills. She gave a smirk. "I don't seem to be crazy."

"I don't need all those pills anymore. I'm not in that much pain."

The nurse smiled. "Good. I'll tell the doctor that you're just about ready for your bed in the whorehouse."

"You're disgusting."

The nurse slapped her once, then turned away from her, a small smile forming on her lips, until she saw a woman standing behind her. She jerked, then took a step backward. "You don't belong here. Get out."

"Nobody belongs here," said Jane. "Christine, it's got to be now."

Christine got out of the bed and stood unsteadily a few feet off.

Jane refilled Christine's cup from the water pitcher and said to the nurse, "Now take the pills." Jane opened her jacket to show her the handgrips of the gun protruding from her belt.

The nurse put the pills into her mouth, lifted the cup, then hesitated. Jane glared at her, and she swallowed. Jane grasped both her wrists and made her open her hands. "Now I need your uniform. Take it off and lie on the bed."

The nurse said, "What if I scream?"

"You'll only live to do it once. No second breath."

The nurse looked into Jane's eyes, then stepped out of the light blue scrubs she was wearing and lay on the bed. Jane opened a drawer of the bedside stand and took out some adhesive tape. She raised the sides of the bed and taped the nurse's wrists to the two sides. Then she took out some cotton pads from the drawer and stuffed them into the nurse's mouth and taped it.

Jane helped Christine put on the scrubs, and then pulled off the nurse's sneakers and gave them to Christine. Jane watched Christine sit in the chair, then put them on and stand up, and it made her worry. She seemed weak and tottering on her feet. "This might not be easy," Jane said. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to do the best you can."

"Just get me out of here."

The nurse was not able to speak, but she was watching them intently. Jane took the gun out of her pocket and held it up where she could see it. "Don't make noise for one hour."

The nurse nodded and turned her face away.

Jane stepped to the rheostat and turned off the light, covered the nurse with the sheet, and took Christine to the door. She looked out the small window into the corridor to be sure it was clear, then pulled Christine out, closed the door and locked it. She thought about hanging the key on the nail so things would look exactly as they had. Instead, she broke the key off in the lock, then took the house key from the ring for her SUV, put it on the ring for the room key, and hung it on the nail.

She led Christine along the hall. Then she heard the elevator move again. Someone must have pushed the button on a lower floor, and now the elevator was going down to them. Jane pulled Christine into the stairwell and closed the door. She helped her down the stairs to the third floor, but she heard the sound of the elevator doors again. Someone had arrived on the third floor. Jane opened the door just a crack so she could see the elevator.

The doors opened and another nurse came out, this one younger. The rooms were all arranged around the outer walls, with a nursing station in the center of the floor. The nurse walked down the corridor to the nursing station and sat down behind the counter with another young nurse who seemed to be doing some kind of paperwork.

Jane closed the door the rest of the way and leaned close to Christine. She whispered, "There's a patient's room on this floor that's right next to the roof of the pharmacy next door. That's the way out, but now there are nurses. They weren't here before."

Christine whispered, "It was after two-thirty when we left my room. I don't know why they'd show up now. Maybe they kept
somebody in the recovery room for a long time, then moved her here. What do we do now?"

"Go back up." Jane took her back up the stairs to the fourth floor, then went into an unoccupied room and looked out the window. "See? We're right above the room I wanted."

"What do you mean?"

"We don't have much choice. We've got to climb out this window and lower ourselves down."

"How?"

"Go to the next room and bring the sheets from the bed."

Christine went out, and Jane stripped the sheets from the two beds in the room. When she finished, Christine came back with another set. "Six sheets. We can roll them instead of tying the corners." Jane rolled each of the sheets and then tied them together. She looked up and saw Christine frowning. "What's the matter?"

"I'm not going to be good at climbing."

"That's the beauty of it. We're going down, not up. I'll tie you in and lower you."

"But what if—"

"No what- ifs. Either way you'll get down. All we're doing is slowing the trip." Jane folded the last sheet and wrapped it around Christine's body so the pressure was spread evenly. "Here's what you do. You go out the window and turn around to face me. Put your feet out and walk your way down. When you get to the third floor, push hard off the wall with your feet. When you swing out, I'll give you slack and you'll land on the roof of the pharmacy. Got the theory?"

"Yes."

"Then make it work."

"Jane, before I go, I want to say—"

"From here on, no sound."

She tied the loose end of the rope of sheets to the bed frame, tugged it tight, pushed the bed to the wall, and opened the window above it. She helped Christine climb from the bed to the windowsill, and then turn to go out on her belly. She had a pained expression on her face, which Jane hoped was only fear. Jane let her down slowly for a dozen feet, then looked over the edge at her. Christine still had her feet against the wall, and she was looking up expectantly, so Jane let her down at a steady rate, the muscles in her back and legs straining. When Christine seemed to be barely above the level of the pharmacy roof, Jane waved.

Christine bent her knees and pushed off from the wall. When Jane could see she had swung out above the pharmacy roof, she let out most of the remaining sheet quickly, and Christine landed on her feet. She waved, then stepped out of the sling Jane had tied.

Jane climbed to the windowsill. As she turned to rappel down, she saw a man's face appear in the little window on the door to the hallway. Someone must have seen Christine descend past the third-floor window and called security. Jane let the sheet slide through her hands, going downward as quickly as she could. She felt something tugging on the upper end. He was untying her. She was still ten feet above the roof of the pharmacy, but she pushed off the wall to swing outward. As soon as she felt her momentum slow she let go.

A half-second later, the rope of bedsheets came free at the fourth-floor window. As Jane dropped to the pharmacy roof, the long white rope snaked down like a streamer and fell to the ground between the two buildings. Jane picked herself up. "Go."

"Where?"

"Over here." She pulled her to the edge of the roof. "See? That's the ladder. Grasp the two sides with both hands, then lower your feet to the first rung. Get down as fast as you can."

Jane looked up at the window, but the man was gone. She looked at Christine and saw she was making her way down tentatively, right foot down a rung, then the left foot to the same rung, then right foot down again. Jane could see she was having a hard time keeping her left hand from letting go.

Jane heard running feet coming along the street side of the pharmacy, then rounding the corner. Jane looked around her on the roof. All she could see near her was a small pile of five-foot two-by-fours that had been stored up here for some future improvement. She lifted one and stepped to the edge of the roof. She saw the guard running toward the back of the pharmacy where Christine was on the ladder. Jane held the piece of lumber like a spear and threw it straight down at him. The end of the two-by-four grazed the back of the man's head, hit his right shoulder blade, and knocked him to the ground, where he lay still.

Jane went down the ladder as quickly as she could, then grasped Christine's hand and ran the other way around, between the two buildings toward the next street.

When they emerged, they could see Jane's SUV parked on the street, but there were three men in their twenties leaning against it, smoking cigarettes and talking. Jane said, "They may be harmless. Just stay out of sight for a minute while I find out."

Jane walked toward her vehicle with her keys in her hand. She pressed the button on the key fob, and the driver's-side door clicked to unlock. The men heard it and looked up to see Jane approaching. Two of them seemed to understand and stepped away from the car to the other side of the sidewalk, but the third, who had thick dark hair and a handsome face with big dark eyes, stayed where he was, leaning against the car, and grinned to reveal unnaturally white teeth.

Jane didn't smile back.
"Por favor,"
she said, and pointed to the door.

He stopped leaning, opened the driver's door as though he were helping her in.

Jane took a step toward it, but he quickly spun around and sat in the driver's seat. His two companions laughed. Jane reached into her jacket and produced the Beretta M92 pistol. She held it at waist level, so the man in the car was the only one who could see it. He was still smiling, but this time his mouth and his eyes didn't seem to belong in the same face. The smile was frozen. He said in English, "Just a joke."