neither. If'n anythin' happ'ns ta him, yer the one we're gonna blame. Got thet? Ah said, Got thet?'
'Yeah, yeah. I got it.'
Matt listened to the car depart and then straightened up and crossed over to Lewis.
'I can't believe you have this place mined,' he said.
'Ah had me an adventrous spell back in the lat sixties, an'joined the army,' Lewis replied.
'I remember you telling me about that.'
'Well, what Ah may not a tole ya was Ah signed up mostly 'cause Ah wanted ta learn how ta blow thangs up. I'z in demolitions in Nam. Come in handy from time to time, blowin' up stumps an' such. Plus nobody gits near to this here place less'n we want 'em to.'
'Or away from it, either, it seems. You guys never cease to amaze me.'
'Gimme a hand back ta bed, Doc,' Lewis said, picking up his intravenous bag and chest tube. 'Allis excitement has me a mot tuckered.'
Any benefit Matt had accrued from his nap at Nikki's bedside was gone. His eyes burning with fatigue, he gazed up wistfully at the turnoff to his house as he pointed the Harley back toward the hospital. He would make rounds and then sign out to whoever was taking over coverage. After that, bed.
It was still possible the BC amp;C thugs might come after him, but besides being careful, there wasn't anything he could do about it except run, which he wasn't going to do. The Slocumbs had made their point and made it well. Come after us again only if trying to get us is worth dying for. As for the toxic dump, there was no way to predict what Armand Stevenson and the other powers at the mine were going to do. The only thing that was certain at the moment was that because of an anonymous note from a barely educated local who didn't want acknowledgment or even a reward, his long struggle against BC amp;C had been vindicated.
The doctors' parking lot was nearly filled. Just fifteen years old, the hospital now boasted specialists in every area of internal medicine, and most of the surgical specialties as well. It pained him to give BC amp;C kudos for anything, but in fact the company was largely responsible for the continued growth of the place.
He found a space close to the ambulance bay and locked the Harley. Then he crossed the ER and headed up the stairs to Med/Surg 2. Not too surprisingly, Tarvis Lyons was dozing in his seat by the door to Nikki's room, his chin resting on his chest. Something — Matt's footsteps on the tile or perhaps a breeze down the hallway — roused the policeman just before Matt reached him.
'Hey, Ledge, wazzapnin'?' he said.
'Everything okay?'
'Yep. Your lady got off just like clockwork.'
'Got off where?' Matt asked, feeling a sudden chill.
'For the MRI you ordered,' Lyons said, clearly bewildered.
Matt raced to the doorway. Nikki's bed was empty and had been made, awaiting a return Matt doubted would be happening.
'Tarvis,' he said, his pulse hammering, 'I didn't order an MRI.'
CHAPTER 19
It was right there in the physician' s orders section of Nikki's chart, right below the order Matt had written for neuro checks.
MRI at Hastings Hospital. Ptnt to go by ambulance. T.O. Dr. Rutledge.
T.O. — telephone order. Someone had called the ward secretary using Matt's name and had ordered that Nikki be transported by ambulance for an MRI at Hastings Hospital. Quickly, Matt called the radiologist there. He was not at all surprised to learn that, at his request, Nikki had been inserted into their MRI schedule as an emergency. Her appointment was for thirty minutes ago, but as of yet she hadn't shown up.
Tarvis Lyons, looking nonplussed and bereft, was waiting by the doorway to Nikki's room.
'I screwed up, didn't I,' he said.
'Just tell me what happened.'
'You and Chief Grimes both said not to let no one into the room unless I knew who they were. Well, if I don't know the Stith brothers, I don't know anyone.'
'The Stith brothers?'
'Marty and Gerald. They drive for Gold Cross Ambulance. Marty's part-time with the fire department, too. They're regulars on Saturdays at Snooky's, just like me. So, first the nurse came and told me you had ordered an MRI and the ambulance was coming. Then a little while later the Stiths showed up and took her. I had no idea I wasn't supposed to let her go.'
Matt rubbed at his eyes. Who in the hell could have engineered this? It had to be someone who knew the hospital and how things were done. A doctor? A nurse? He snatched up the phone and called the operator.
'Hi, it's Dr. Rutledge. Could you please get me Gold Cross Ambulance?'
'Right away, Doctor.'
'Gold Cross, Mary speaking.'
'Mary, it's Dr. Matt Rutledge at the hospital. Would you please radio the ambulance that's taking Nikki Solari from Montgomery County to Hastings Hospital?'
'What do you want me to tell them?'
'Tell them to turn around and get back here as soon as possible. Don't take the patient to Hastings.'
Matt tapped his foot and fidgeted with the light cord, but he knew what was coming.
'Dr. Rutledge,' the dispatcher said, 'this is very strange. I can't seem to raise them.'
'Maybe they're in the hospital already.'
'They each have portable units that kick in as soon as they leave the ambulance. I'll check on the trouble. Do you want me to keep trying the radio?'
'Yeah, sure,' Matt said. 'Keep trying.'
At that instant, Tarvis Lyons's radio crackled to life.
'Lyons.'
'Tarvis, it's Chief Grimes.'
'Shit,' Lyons whispered. 'Yes, Chief.'
'I told you not to let that woman out of your sight.'
'I don't remember you sayin' — '
'Tarvis, give me that,' Matt snapped, snatching the radio away. 'Chief, it's Matt Rutledge. Someone using my name called in an order to have Nikki taken to Hastings for an MRI. She never arrived and the Gold Cross people can't raise the ambulance on the radio.'
'That's because the drivers have been duct-taped to a tree in the woods off Highway 29. They just got brought in here. Nikki Solari's not with them.'
'Damn. I'm coming right over.'
'Listen, don't bother. I'll be over to — '
Matt handed the radio back to Lyons.
'Tarvis,' he said, 'if the chief calls back, tell him I didn't hear what he said and I'm on my way over.'
The police station, standard redbrick issue with an attached garage and jail in back, was situated as far on the east end of town as the hospital was on the west. Matt rode the Harley over, searching his mind for a hint as to who could have engineered Nikki's abduction, and why. Whoever it was had to have been watching him to know he had left the hospital. If only Nikki had shared a theory — any theory — as to why the two men were waiting for her in the first place.
The patrolman on the station desk phoned Grimes and then, with a shake of his head, motioned Matt toward a bank of folding chairs. Through the open blinds on the interior picture window in Grimes's spacious office, Matt could see the chief talking to the two ambulance drivers. The Stith brothers, both freckled and red-haired, seemed to be talking at once. Matt had never spoken more than a few words to either of them, but that contact was enough
