"Thank you," responded Alex, "You wanted to see
me."
"Does he break every promise he makes?"
"Who?"
"Come closer and I'll whisper it in your ear. "
"No, thanks; your breath is bad, you stink and
frankly I don't like you very much. Now who are we
talking about?"
"The man with the plan and the money," answered
Dan in riddle like fashion.
“Who, Dan?" "Will you make sure I don't serve time?"
"I can't do that; that's up to other people."
"I know something you don't know," sang Dan.
Alex watched as Dan continued to sing and lick his
lips. She was repulsed by him, "So the man with the
plan and the money. Who is he?" Dan continued
to sing and eye her body. She felt like she were on
display in some museum.
"This isn't working," James said to himself as he
watched the mind games that Dan was playing on
Alex. James nodded, lit a cigarette and returned his
attention to the interrogation room.
"Dan," said Alex, hoping to pull his attention back to
her. She watched as his unfocused eyes returned to eying her. She walked away from the door, closer
to him, "Dan, did Tad Pierce hire you to torment
me," she asked.
Alex watched as the emotions changed on Dan's
face. She watched as the anger, unfulfilled passion
and desire came into focus in his eyes, "That
bastard! He promised me no jail time. He promised
that if I made you go back to D.C., he would make
me very rich. All I had to do was have you. I could
still have you and nobody would stop me," Dan
raved, his eyes going glassy again. He attempted
to stand up but his shackles only allowed him partial
movement. Hunched over with the chair on his
back, Dan began to walk towards Alex, "I'm going to
have you," he began to sing. Alex backed up against the door and almost fell
over Sam and Rob charged in. Rob forced Dan
back into a sitting position as Sam escorted Alex out
of the room.
"Are you alright," asked James gathering her up in
his arms.
"Yeah. I'm fine," she exhaled, "Can we go home
now, Sam?"
"Sure. If I need anything else, I'll call you. "
"Drop me off at the hospital," requested Alex as
they walked to the car.
"You going to tuck in Grayson," joked James. "Yeah, I am. I want to make sure he doesn't need
anything and see when he'll be released. Besides, I
need to get my car. "
"Alright. You know I can't resist that smile. "
James and Alex drove the short distance from the
police station to the hospital each wrapped in their
own thoughts. Alex was preoccupied with the best
way to deal with Francine and James was
suppressing an urge to be jealous of Alex's
attentions to Grayson.
"I'll be home in about an hour," said Alex kissing
James' lips.
"If you're not, I'm coming for you." "Alright," Alex laughed getting out of the car and
heading for the door of the hospital.
James pulled away from the curb and pointed the
car for home. Lighting a cigarette, James inhaled
the smoke and caught a lingering whiff of Alex's
perfume. Smiling, he hoped that the smell would
become a permanent part of his home and his life.
Alex caught the elevator in the lobby and pushed
the button for Grayson's floor. She was surprised to
find Nurse Willamina still manning her post behind
the station. Flashing the nurse a wicked smile, Alex
continued into Grayson's room and pushed the
door open.
"Hey handsome, what's up," asked Alex cheerfully
as she crossed the floor to his bed. As she got closer, she noticed the stone faced expression and
the odd tilt of his body.
"Grayson," she questioned leaning over him.
Alex gasped as she saw the blood seeping through
the sheet in a large red pool, "Oh my God.”
Alex grabbed the call button and pressed it
urgently, hoping to get anybody's attention.
"What is problem," announced the nurse as she
came through the door.
"Please, get a doctor, he's hurt. "
"Of course, he hurt. He got nasty bumps," said the
nurse coming closer to the bed.
"No not that," she angrily bit off, "That," pointing to
the bloody sheet. A second nurse rushed into the room and saw what
Alex was pointing, "I'll get Dr. Gibson," she said
running from the room.
"Here, help me," urged Nurse Willamina pulling
back the sheet from the open wound.
Alex assisted the nurse in pulling the sheet down
and folding it into a compression pad. The nurse
held the pad on until the doctor arrived with the
second nurse and a cart of medical supplies.
Nurse Willamina handed Alex over to the care of a
candy striper who had come in with the doctor and
took her to the waiting room.
"Wait here. Dr. Gibson will come get you when
he's finished. " Looking around the room and taking a seat, Alex
noticed just one other person, a man who sat
reading a copy of "Time" magazine with Tad's face
on the cover. Alex shook her head quietly and
wondered how this could have happened. Dan and
Dominic were in jail and couldn't have caused
Grayson this type of injury. She wondered if a third
man could have been hired by Tad to take care of
Grayson and possibly James.
"James," Alex whispered reaching for her purse and
her cell phone. Alex's hand was seized by the
stranger from the other side of the room,
"Do you mind," she argued.
"Yes, actually I do," came the icy reply. "Tad," Alex whispered, shuddering.
Chapter 24
"Hello, darling; how are you? I see that the
competition has done well by you," he smiled sitting
down beside her. Reaching into her purse, Tad
removed her cell phone and put it under the chair
in which he was sitting, "You won't need that. Shall
we go?"
"The only place you're going Tad is jail. Now let me
go before I start screaming," she said trying to jerk
her arm from his grasp.
"We'll have none of that, my love," he answered
pulling a revolver from underneath his jacket.
"Shooting me will only bring unwanted attention." "Trust me, Alex. I'm not going to shoot you. I love
you."
Alex laughed, "You don't know the meaning of the
word."
"Shall we go before that beautiful little candy
striper returns?" "Tad, I told you I am not going with
you.”
"Yes, you are Alex. You see, if you make me shoot
you then the doctors will come running and if they
come running then you're little friend will die. You
don't want that do you?"
Alex paled at the revelation of his words, "You did
that?"
"I knew you'd come back to visit your lover boy
eventually. It was just a matter of time. So I poked a few holes in him while he slept," said
desc
ribed an evil smile on his face, "Once somebody
discovered him, you'd either come running or be
sent from the room. Either way, it was a perfect
distraction for me. This all your fault, you
know. You just had to come here and take away
the one chance I had of becoming a senator. I
needed that money damn you."
"So this more about money than it is about love,"
declared Alex.
Tad pushed the gun into her side, "It doesn't matter
anymore, does it. We're flying out of here tonight
and into D.C. where a nice priest awaits us. Once
we're married the money comes to you and then
you die in a mysterious car crash or something and I
have all the means I need to achieve my goal," dragging Alex out of her chair by her arm, he
pushed her towards the hallway.
Alex saw the wild gleam in his eye and knew he
would shoot her, either accidentally or on
purpose. Scared for both her life and for
Grayson's, Alex complied with Tad's demands
praying that James would find her somehow.
Tad continued to half drag, half pull Alex onto the
elevator and managed to remain calm while
surrounded by hospital staff. He panicked a little
when a security guard got onto the elevator and
applied more pressure to Alex's already bruised ribs
with the gun, "Not a sound," he whispered. Alex
nodded her head mutely; realizing the closed
confinements of the elevator was not the ideal
escape from both Alex and Tad's lips. As the
exited the car, Alex almost jumped with joy to find
Sam and Rob in the lobby.
"Alex! Are you just coming from seeing Grayson,"
asked Sam as she and Tad walked by.
"Ignore them," said Tad.
"Alex?”
Tad rushed Alex out of the lobby towards the
parking lot, "Where's your car," asked Tad.
"Over there; in lot 4," she replied.
Tad got Alex to the car and had her drive out of the
parking lot, leaving Sam and Rob watching them
from the lobby doors. "What the hell was that all about," asked Sam.
"I don't know. But that was Tad Pierce," responded
Rob holding up a picture he had acquired from the
Associated Press.
"Damn. I'll go see Grayson, you follow them. "
Rob nodded his head and went to retrieve his own
car. He had seen Alex and Tad heading towards
Alex's house.
Sam ran the steps to the fourth floor and Grayson's
room. He narrowly missed colliding with the nurse
who was just leaving his room.
"Slow down," ordered Nurse Willamina.
"I need to see Grayson Laird," said Sam flashing his
badge. "You can see him, but he won't be talking for a
while. He's in surgery. "
"Surgery? What the hell happened?"
"He was stabbed," said the second nurse who was
changing the sheets on the bed.
"Stabbed; how?"
"A man came, stabbed him with knife. Security
searching for him, checking monitors. I go see sister
now," explained Willamina.
"Sister,” Sam questioned; his confusion getting the
better of him.
"Red hair, blue eyes; not sister, just says so," she
explained in broken English heading for the waiting
room at the end of the hallway. Sam followed the
stout nurse down the hall to the waiting room. It occurred to him that Alex had said she was
Grayson's sister to get better visitation privileges.
As they entered the room, they found it empty,
"Humph. Where she go," asked the nurse before
shrugging and heading back to the nurses’ station.
Sam stood in the entranceway knowing something
was wrong. He was reaching for the cell phone he
kept in his jacket pocket when heard another phone
ringing. Walking around the room, Sam attempted
to find the source. Finally, he stooped to look
underneath a row of chairs near the
windows. Sam took a tissue from the box on the
end table and picked up the phone.
"Hello," he answered. James frowned at the masculine voice on the
phone,
"I'm trying to reach Alexandra Chambers. Who's
this?"
"James? It's Sam."
"Sam, what in the hell are you doing with Alex's
phone," he asked concerned.
"James, I got some bad news. "
Sam explained what had taken place since he
arrived at the hospital. Sighing in frustration,
James told Sam to stay put and that he was on his
way back to the hospital.
After hanging up, Sam put down Alex's phone and
dialed his own. He requested that a unit be
dispatched to the hospital to assist the security team and take statements from the hospital
staff. Then he called Rob.
"What do you got," he asked.
"So far they just seem to be driving. At first they
were headed to Alex's house, but then they
changed paths. They're on the expressway."
"Don't let Tad see you but don't lose them
either. The minute you think you know where
they're going call me."
"Will do."
Sam hung up and kicked a chair. He felt frustrated
at not being able to get Alex away from Tad in the
lobby. "If I'd only recognized his face," he swore
standing there. "Sam," asked James from behind him, "Have you
heard from her?"
"No. Rob is following them in my truck. Alex will
recognize it, but Tad won't. I'm hoping she stays in
sight. "
"I don't know. They're on the expressway heading
away from town," Sam responded his voice trailing
off, "Damn," he swore again, reaching for his cell
phone.
"Rob, get some units to cover the airport and route
seven. I think he intends to get her out of town
and back to D.C."
Sam led James out of the waiting room as two
technicians entered it. They searched the room and lifted Tad and Alex's fingerprints from her cell
phone.
"Hey Sam," hollered one of them holding a plastic
baggie.
Sam and James went back into the room and
examined the contents of the bag. Sam extended a
gloved hand into the bag and withdrew a large,
serrated edged knife covered in blood.
James whistled, "Tad stabbed Grayson with that?"
"Possibly," replied Sam.
"Probably," came a third voice as Dr. Gibson, still
dressed in surgical scrubs crossed the room to
where Sam and James stood, "The weapon used to
stab Mr. Laird was a two inch serrated blade, like
this one. He was stabbed twice in the abdomen. One of those swipes punctured the
outer lining of his stomach requiring surgery to
repair it."
"He could have died," commented Sam.
"If he'd been discovered an hour later on the
nurse's rounds, yes. He'd lost a lot of blood before
his friend found him.”
"Thanks, Doc. I'll hav
e somebody come by and get
an official statement later," concluded Sam excusing
the doctor.
James stared out of the window thinking of
Alex. He had heard the doctor's words and knew
that Tad had gone over the edge. He was terrified
to think that Tad would escape with her, "If he
touches her, I'll kill him," he vowed. "I'm sure she's fine," comforted Sam, "besides, Rob
is right behind them."
"I pray to God, you're right."
Alex drove steadily trying to keep the truck in her
rear view mirror. She tried desperately not to be
frightened but failed miserably. She had no way to
check on Grayson's condition and the wild look in
Tad's eye made her wary of his the gun and his
fists.
"Where am I going," she asked after being directed
to the expressway.
"The airport," he replied quietly looking in the
mirror for police cars.
"What are you looking for," Alex asked trying to
divert his attention from the mirror. "Cops, your lovers, anyone who could screw up my
plan," he responded glancing at her and then at the
speedometer, "Let's try keep it under 60. I don't
want to stumble into a speed trap," Alex nodded
and slowed down the car, "That's better," he said
seeing a sign for the airport, "Is that a shortcut?
"It's more like a back road."
"Take it; less traffic. "
"I can't," stated Alex trying to stall. Taking the back
road would alert Tad to the presence of Sam's truck
behind them.
"Why not," he asked suspiciously.
"They're doing construction on one of the
bridges. We'd have to sit in what little traffic there is and the police are directing traffic," she lied
passing the exit without taking it.
"Well, since you've just passed it, I guess we'll be
taking the highway after all," he responded looking
in the mirror again.
Alex caught the movement of his head and cursed
quietly. She could still see the truck and could tell
by the way Tad was fingering the pistol that he was
able to see the truck now too.
"What's wrong," she questioned innocently.
"Looks like we're being followed," he responded
bitterly, "Nice ploy to keep us on the expressway
where he could be concealed. Take the next exit,"
he ordered gesturing with the weapon. Alex turned off the expressway and wondered
vaguely if Tad knew exactly where the airport was
or if he could be diverted by a roundabout
route. "Tad, how did you get to the hospital?"
"I took a cab from the airport. My chartered plane