Late: Movement by a diver that is not made in time to obtain the intended objective.
I BOLT from the chair the minute she leaves and charge the door. “We need to get out of here before she comes back with that juice box.”
Iris wraps her hand around my wrist to keep me from walking out. “What’s going on? Why were you drilling that nurse with questions? You went totally gray. And not because she was drawing your blood.”
“I think that nurse is Luanne Cole.”
“From the photo in the newspaper?”
“The same photo that was missing from Coach Porter’s trophy case. Did you hear the way she said her name? L’anne.”
“How did you figure it out?”
“It’s a long story. The short version is a bunch of stuff has been coming back to me in bits and flashes. Luanne Cole isn’t just some nurse or springboard diver that competed against my mom. I think she was the paramedic on duty the night my house burned down. While she was drawing my blood I had a flashback of her injecting something into my arm the night of the fire that made me sleepy. And my uncle was the one who told her to do it.”
“They sedated you? Were you freaking out or something?”
“A little. But none of that explains why Les Carter, of all people, would leave me those articles.”
“It doesn’t explain why your uncle had the team photo from Coach Porter’s trophy case either.”
“Exactly. So I want to go out to my truck and get the article to see if I’m right before I have to go talk to him.”
“Okay,” Iris says. “Let’s go.”
I crack the door open, peek into the hallway, and extend my hand to Iris. “Nobody’s coming.”
We slink down the hallway quickly, looking for Derek over our shoulders, but when we reach the end we find the exit door locked. There isn’t even a handle. Swipe card only.
“Shit. We’re trapped.”
“Mousetrapped,” Iris whispers. “Like your card reading. The Cat and Mouse.”
“You think that’s what this is?”
“You don’t?” she asks, completely serious. “The cards don’t mean anything unless you pay attention to the signs.”
“I don’t know. But I’ll keep it in mind from now on.” I peer down the hallway. “Any minute now, Derek will be coming back for us. Maybe we can persuade him to let us back out for a little while.”
We’re fifty paces from reentering room 212 when Derek exits another patient’s room and intercepts us.
“What are you two doing wandering the hallways?”
“I was starving,” I say. “I thought there might be a snack machine near the lobby. It felt like that nurse took a gallon of my blood.”
Derek presses his tongue around the inside of his cheek then hands me a small carton of orange juice. “This should do the trick.” He glances at a camera mounted on the ceiling before opening the door for us. I didn’t think about there being surveillance.
“Why don’t you step back into my office, junior, so we can talk.” He takes a seat in the phlebotomist’s chair and clasps his hands behind his head. A mermaid tattoo dances across his right bicep as the muscle flexes. “Where were you two going, really? Teen ward? Research facility to rescue the animals?”
“Outside,” I say. “I was hoping to get some air before I had to deal with my uncle’s psychobabble. Like I said, growing up around people who are always trying to get inside your head sucks. Makes you paranoid.”
Derek chuckles. “Especially if you’re not telling them the truth, junior. But here’s a news flash. Trust issues and paranoia are the reason half the patients are holed up in this place.”
“You think you can cut us loose for twenty minutes?”
“I’m not supposed to let you off the ward.”
“I swear we’ll come back so fast you’ll barely notice we were gone.”
Derek flicks his eyes to Iris and licks his bottom lip. “We might be able to work something out. What’s twenty minutes of freedom worth to you?”
“Seriously?” I can’t believe this guy is going for a shakedown.
“Maybe I read you wrong, junior. I assumed what you really wanted was to hit your car and I dunno”—Derek makes a double clicking sound inside his cheek—“I know what I’d be thinking about doing with Snow White if I had twenty minutes to kill.”
Iris’s face is a mix of shock and fascination. I don’t know whether to be turned on or worried.
“How much are we talking about?” she asks, joining in the negotiations. “Would twenty bucks do it?”
“Twenty bucks and Snow White shows me her tits for more than a flash.” Derek rakes his eyes over Iris, but keeps the negotiation going with me like I’m her pimp.
“Leave her out of this and I’ll give you forty bucks if you let us borrow your badge so we can reenter the building on our own.” I open my wallet and riffle through the contents. I have sixty bucks and a free movie pass to my name.
“Fifty bucks for Snow White’s tits and the badge. Take it or leave it.”
“I’ll leave it,” I say. “And stop looking at her like that. Jeezus.”
“Fifty bucks, huh?” Iris grabs my wallet. She removes two twenties and a ten from her back pocket and winks at me. I hope that means she’s calling his bluff.
Derek’s eyes glint with smug victory. “Remember, Snow, more than a flash or no dice.”
“Fine.” Iris keeps the bills clenched in her hand. “Give me the badge first?”
Derek digs into his front pocket, ignoring me now that bargaining with Iris has become more interesting. “I just happen to have an extra one right here, with full VIP access.” He hands the badge to Iris, but doesn’t let go.
“One last thing,” Iris says, holding the extra badge in a tug-of-war. “What can you tell us about the nurse who drew Theo’s blood today?”
“Psht. Easy.” Derek releases the card. “Luanne Cole is Dr. Maddox’s favorite pet. She’s part of his research team and does whatever he says. Secretly, I get the feeling he hates her. The guy’s not too big with the emotions if you haven’t noticed, but he seems to prefer women with a little fight in them. He’d get a kick out of you, Snow, that’s for sure.”
Fuuuccck. I lean into the examination table as a wave of nausea runs chills over my body. I was right.
“Now you really do look like you need some air,” Iris says.
More than she knows.
“Show ’em if you got ’em,” Derek says. He relaxes in the chair, one hand resting on his lap near his crotch. If he touches himself, I swear to God …
“Back off, Derek. How about I show you my tits and give you sixty bucks for the badge? I just need to get some air. You’re being a dick.”
“Comments like that are the real reason guys like you get a black eye. Eighty. You’re not that pretty, junior.”
“Sixty,” Iris says. “And we won’t tell your employer what happened here.”
“Well, well, well. Looks like I read you right from the jump, princess. Deal.”
Iris trades out the money in my wallet and slaps the bills into Derek’s palm with a satisfied grin. He wraps his huge hand around her wrist and pulls her close enough to kiss and my hackles go up. I’m primed to pounce if I have to, knowing he’d fucking clobber me.
“Some other time, eh, Snow?” he says.
Iris jerks her hand from his grasp. “In your dreams, Shrek. And the name isn’t Snow White or princess; it’s French Fry.”
Derek smirks with amusement and shoves the cash into his front pocket. “Go left to the exit and keep your eye on the sky. When the light’s flashing on the camera Big Brother is watching.”
This time, we make it outside in less than five minutes. I squeeze my eyes shut and inhale, purging my nostrils of the hospital’s ancient, medicinal stench, never feeling this reborn outside of the water. I don’t know whether to bolt or go ask Uncle Phil what’s up. Derek confirmed that nurse was Luanne Cole, but I still want another look at the article in my truck.
I take a step forward, Iris’s hand in mine, but she doesn’t budge.
She’s riveted in place, mouth gaping like she just stepped into something from The Twilight Zone instead of the neglected grounds behind the hospital.
“Holy cow, Theo, Do you know what this place is?” Her face is pure fascination as she shuffles her feet over the wet lawn. She stops to kick into a spot with the toe of a brown lace-up boot, then kneels and unearths a wet clump of dirt, still rooted with grass. “Look.”
A rectangular stone is embedded in the ground with the number 167 carved into its surface. “Is that a mile marker?”
Iris looks at me with huge eyes. “It’s a grave marker. This is Ward Hill Cemetery. I overheard my parents talking about it once. Mount Pleasant and Ward Hill Cemetery are both run by the state. A few years ago they gave my dad the added responsibility of burying patients on these grounds that didn’t have families to claim the bodies. There were so many my parents were wondering if they’d have to start cremating bodies once they ran out of space.”
“How many are there?” I kick at the ground a few feet away, looking for another grave.
“Hundreds. Maybe thousands, according to my parents.”
Jeezus.
“They buried them like hamsters in shoe boxes and your dad was okay with that?”
“Not at all. He was furious. But what could he do?” Iris tosses the clump of dirt, then stands, brushing her hands on her shirt. “It’s his job.”
I wonder what else Derek the orderly does for his state job. Uncle Phil said everyone that works for him has to get their hands dirty. Derek seems like the kind of guy that would enjoy that, literally and figuratively.
“You weren’t really gonna show Derek your…” I motion toward her chest. “Were you?”
“Not if I could help it. I was just trying to sweeten the deal for you so we could call his bluff.”
“Pretty dangerous bluff.”
“I know that, Theo. And Derek Smalls is probably the exception to what I’m about to say—another one of my philosophies—but most people aren’t who they appear to be on the surface. Everybody has something they’re dealing with or feel they need to hide from people. It was obvious to me that whatever got under your skin in there is a big deal, and I’m guessing it has nothing to do with the Theo you let people see at school. It’s something you keep hidden.”
Somewhere deep inside my sense of self-preservation deflates. “Trust me, Iris. If you were me you’d keep some stuff hidden too.”