The Second Heart (20 page)

The neighbor re-emerged a few moments later
with a pair of pink flip flops tucked under his arm. He once again
navigated down the stairs, though it was more difficult to do while
carrying the sandals. At the bottom of the stairs, his backpack
caught on the decorative handrail, yanking him backward and dumping
its contents onto the concrete sidewalk.

Lenny guffawed at the guy’s misfortune,
exclaiming out loud, “What a klutz!” He watched mirthfully as the
man angrily began stuffing things back into the backpack. There was
a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter, along with a bag of
baby carrots and some pouches of fruit juice. Lenny’s eyebrows knit
together as the strangeness of the backpack contents dawned on him.
“Why is this guy packing food?” he asked himself, chewing on a
hangnail.

The neighbor had finished re-packing the
backpack and threw it onto his back impatiently. He balanced on one
crutch while he bent down and picked up the pink flip-flops,
finally making his way over to his car. It was an older model
Nissan 300ZX that had been painted a deep plum color. He yanked the
door open and tossed the backpack onto the passenger seat.

Lenny thought furiously as he watched the guy
fold himself into the low sports car and finagle his crutches into
the passenger side. What is a guy doing packing food and pink
flip-flops? It was weird, to say the least. He wondered if the
neighbor was a friend of the girls’. Was it possible that he was
going to meet them? Were the pink sandals for Meredith? He yanked
on his hangnail with his teeth, ripping it down his finger and
drawing blood. He sucked on the wound, debating whether to stay and
wait or to follow the weird neighbor. He couldn’t decide what to
do, and as the guy pulled out of his parking spot, Lenny was
running out of time.

Lenny started his car and scanned the parking
lot again for any sign of the girls. He’d been sitting there for a
couple hours with no luck, but for all he knew, they could turn up
the second he left. The neighbor was now driving between the rows
of cars toward the exit to the apartment complex. If Lenny waited
any longer, he would lose him.

Cursing loudly, Lenny pulled out and followed
the neighbor, hoping that his gut feeling was right. He gunned the
engine to catch up with the purple 300ZX, turning left onto 48th
St. toward Ray Rd. He got into the left hand turn lane a few cars
behind the neighbor, where they both waited at the red light. Lenny
glanced down at his cell phone in the cup holder and debated
calling Nate. He decided to wait until he had more information to
share.

The light changed and several cars made it
through before having the yield to oncoming traffic. While Lenny
waited his turn, he watched his target turn into a gas station and
pull up to the convenience store. Almost immediately, two women
came out of the store and headed for the vehicle. The morning
sunlight gleamed off of Meredith’s red hair like a beacon, and
Lenny broke into a grin. “Yes!” he cried, excitedly pounding a fist
on the steering wheel. The light changed, and behind him, a car
leaned on the horn. Lenny flipped him the bird before making the
turn, pulling into the driveway before the gas station to wait
until the other car left again.

The girls loaded themselves into the car and
were soon back on the road. Lenny followed them onto the freeway
headed toward downtown Phoenix, feeling mildly curious as to where
they were headed. Traffic was light, making it easy to follow them
at a discreet distance. After about fifteen minutes, they exited
the freeway and made their way through the city center, finally
turning into the large hospital that took up an entire city block
of downtown real estate.

Confused, Lenny punched Nate’s number on his
cell phone.

“Hey, Len,” Nate answered.

“I got the girls. I just followed them to
Phoenix Mercy Hospital.” As he spoke, Lenny parked his car and got
out, jogging into the main entrance lobby ahead of the girls and
their neighbor. The waiting area was situated to his right, with
rows of chairs and a large bank of windows that looked out onto the
parking lot. He stepped to the side and stood next to the closest
row of chairs, which were mostly empty.

“Hmm, I wonder what they’re doing there,”
Nate mused.

“Visiting a sick grandmother?” Lenny guessed
sarcastically. “Okay, I gotta go. They’re coming in now.” He
quickly ended the call and pocketed his phone, keeping his back
turned and pretending to look out the window. From his spot near
the entrance, it was easy for Lenny to overhear their conversation
even though they kept their voices low.

“Okay, where do you want to start looking?”
The voice belonged to the black haired friend. It was low and
gravelly, full of sarcasm and sex appeal. Lenny wondered if she was
single.

“Well, they probably admitted him, like they
did with me, so... Upper floors?” This voice belonged to Meredith.
It was brighter and more cheerful than her friend’s.

“Wait a sec, you don’t even know who you’re
here to see?” the neighbor demanded incredulously.

Meredith’s friend said, “Josh, trust me when
I say the less you know about this, the better, okay? Look, just go
over there and relax. We’ll be back soon.”

“Right. What use could I be?” Josh asked in a
sarcastically cheerful tone. “I’m a gimp!” He went to sit in one of
the lobby chairs, disgruntled at being dismissed. He rested his
crutches across the chair next to him and scowled at them.

Once Josh was out of earshot, the girls stuck
their heads closer together to talk. Lenny had to strain to hear
their conversation. Slowly, he shifted his weight toward them to
try to hear more.

“--split up?” Vi was asking.

“We can cover more area that way,” Meredith
explained.

“Can’t you just use your spidey sense to find
him?”

“I don’t know,” Meredith said
tentatively.

There was a prolonged silence, and Lenny
fought the urge to turn around and look at their faces.

“I think I feel something. Come on.” Their
footsteps receded and Lenny looked in their direction just as they
were going down a hallway on the opposite side of the room.

Lenny waited a few beats before casually
strolling in the same direction as the girls. The neighbor, Josh,
had buried his nose in his phone, so Lenny was able to follow
unnoticed.

Lenny rounded the corner and quickened his
step as he saw Meredith and Vi disappear into the stairwell. He
opened the door quietly after them, listening to their footsteps
reverberate down the walls of the concrete shaft. He waited at the
foot of the stairs until they went through the door leading to the
second floor, then he quickly jogged up to keep from losing
them.

On the second floor he eased the door open
slowly and casually, putting on an indifferent air in case anyone
should notice him. He glanced both ways down the hallway, turning
to the right as he saw Meredith’s red ponytail disappear around a
corner down a side hallway. “Damn, they’re fast,” he muttered,
taking long strides to catch up.

A passing nurse raised her eyebrows at his
pace, but he flashed her a confident smile and kept walking. As he
approached the hallway that Meredith and Vi had taken, he slowed a
bit and walked past, glancing down the hallway as he did. The girls
had stopped in front of one of the first doors and were whispering
to each other.

Lenny stopped walking and pretended to take a
call on his cell phone. He leaned against the wall and peeked
around the corner, making sure to look bored and uninterested as he
held his phone up to his ear.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as
Meredith reached out and turned the knob on the door, opening it
inward. As the girls looked into the room, Lenny saw the color
drain from their faces.

Vi’s mouth parted in surprise. “Holy
shit.”

Meredith turned to her friend and gave her a
pleading look. Vi nodded and leaned against the wall, planning to
wait outside. Then Meredith stepped into the room, and as she
closed the door behind her, Lenny heard her ask, “What are you
doing here?”

Rob and
Amelia walked into their kitchen wearily. Rob tossed the car keys
on the counter while Amelia opened the fridge and looked in
blankly. They had looked for Meredith in every place they could
think of, with no luck. Their mutual worry for their daughter kept
them both silent as they went about making a simple breakfast of
eggs and toast.

As they were sitting down at the table, the
house phone rang. They both sprang up to answer it, hopeful that it
was Meredith. Amelia snatched up the phone and put it on
speakerphone, seeing on the caller ID that it was James.

“Have you found her?” Amelia demanded by way
of greeting.

“No,” James sighed. “Sorry, Mom. The
university is still closed from the fires, so there’s pretty much
no one there. I walked around and looked anyway. Have you followed
up with the hospital? Could she have gone back?”

Amelia reached up and pinched the bridge of
her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. “I don’t know, maybe. We could
try that next, I suppose.”

“Hell, try all the hospitals,” James
suggested.

“Are you volunteering?” Rob asked.

“If that’s what you want me to do, I’ll do
it,” James said reluctantly. He didn’t seem to be taking Meredith’s
absence as seriously as Rob and Amelia did.

“Good, do it. Your mom and I are going to eat
some breakfast and talk about our next steps. We’ll call you back
once we know what we’re doing.”

After they hung up the phone, they returned
to the dining room to find Sabrina standing on the table sniffing
at the eggs on Amelia’s plate.

Amelia rushed over and shooed the cat off the
table, inspecting her eggs for damage. They seemed fine, so she cut
them up with the side of her fork and took a large bite.

Rob looked at her incredulously.

Amelia looked at him and swallowed.
“What?”

Rob barked out a strained laugh and shook his
head, taking a bite of his own eggs.

Sabrina jumped up onto one of the chairs
opposite Amelia and peeked at her over the edge of the table.

“Do you suppose she’s hungry?” Amelia asked,
feeling sorry for their guest.

“I haven’t fed them. They were supposed to be
Meredith’s deal.”

“Poor kitties. I haven’t fed them, either.”
She slid her plate of eggs across the table toward the cat, feeling
guilty at their negligence. The cat happily put two paws up on the
table and started noisily slurping up the eggs.

Amelia stood up and found the cats’ bowls in
the spare bedroom, which were both empty. She moved the bowls and
the bag of cat food out to the kitchen so she would remember to
feed the cats until Meredith came home.
If Meredith comes
home
. Amelia stood at the kitchen sink for a moment, willing
herself to keep the tears at bay. Once she felt confident that she
wouldn’t cry again, she returned to the dining room.

Sabrina had finished eating the eggs and was
now devoting her attention to charming Rob out of his eggs as well.
The cat squinted her eyes at him and purred loudly, but her efforts
were wasted. He cleaned his plate with the last bite of toast and
popped it into his mouth, smacking his lips.

Amelia reached over and stroked a hand over
Sabrina’s head, who nuzzled her appreciatively. “She seems to have
warmed up to us,” she observed.

“Feed pretty much any animal and you’ve got a
new best friend,” Rob stated dryly.

“I’d rather think it’s due to my personal
charm, thank you,” Amelia said, picking up the dirty plates and
carrying them to the kitchen sink. As she was setting them down,
she heard the doorbell ring.

Rob scooted his chair back noisily, springing
toward the door impatiently, while Amelia let the dishes clatter
into the sink as she followed close behind. Sabrina jumped onto the
floor and disappeared, startled by the sudden activity.

The steely-haired nurse from the hospital
stood on their doorstep wearing an ugly, thick brown sweater and a
concerned expression. When they opened the door, Eleanor began to
speak immediately. “Hello, I’m not sure you remember me. I’m the
nurse that--”

Rob interrupted her. “Of course we remember
you, Eleanor. Please come in.” He opened the door wider and ushered
her into the living room. Rob thought about the conversation they
had had in the hallway, when Eleanor had wanted to speak with
Meredith alone. He wondered if she knew anything about Meredith’s
disappearance.

Eleanor sat down heavily onto the sofa and
plopped her purse down onto the seat next to her. Not one to waste
time, she asked, “I’m here looking for your daughter Meredith.”

Sitting across from Eleanor, Amelia and Rob’s
expectant faces fell. Rob said, “We had rather hoped that you would
be able to tell us where she is.”

“She hasn’t come home, then?” Eleanor’s eyes
slid around the room as she took in their comfortable living room.
She appeared as though she expected to see Meredith’s feet poking
out from behind an armchair.

“No. Did you expect her to?” Rob challenged.
He looked at Eleanor’s face carefully, watching for any indication
that she might know something more. He thought it was strange that
the nurse had shown up on their doorstep, and that combined with
the memory of their hallway conversation had him on edge.

“I’m not sure where she has gone,” Eleanor
said truthfully. “But it is important that I find her. She’s
risking a lot, running away.” From the corner of her eye, she saw
Sabrina walking down the hallway toward the bedrooms. She turned
her head and stared, and the cat stopped and returned her gaze.
“That’s not your cat, is it?” she asked, though she already knew
the answer.

“No, we’re cat sitting for our daughter’s
boss. His veterinary clinic got flooded with all the rain,” Amelia
said conversationally. She hoped that her friendly tone would relax
Eleanor enough to be more forthcoming with them.