Michelle and Rod reached the door and peered outside. There was a sidewalk, and a long grassy area which led to trees bordering a street. They figured they were at the back side of the hospital. They could see a service bay where the hospital received supplies.
Rod called Sammy and said, “We’re at the back of the hospital. Pull around near the service entrance. When we exit, an alarm will go off, so we’ll wait till we see you. Then we’ll make a run for it.”
“I’m already at the back of the hospital. Wait! There are a couple of police cars stopping near me. You better hide till they get inside. I’ll call when the coast is clear.”
“Police are coming,” Rod said urgently to the others. “We gotta hide.”
They turned around and started jogging back down the hallway away from the door where the police would be entering. They had to rush because the door was glass and they could be seen from the outside.
“I saw restrooms,” Michelle said, panting. “Just a little further and around the bend in the corridor.”
Rod automatically went for Caballeros, but Michelle shook her head and pulled him into the Senoras. “Stalls,” she said.
Rod nodded and they went inside. Luckily there were three stalls. The professor went inside one. Heather and Mike in another. Rod and Michelle took the last one.
It was cramped inside when they closed the stall doors. Michelle and Rod each climbed up on one side of the toilet, so their feet wouldn’t show. Since they were both tall, their heads popped up over the top of the door. They would have to bend their knees if someone came inside.
“Isn’t this romantic? I get my girlfriend back and we’re balancing on the edge of a toilet,” Rod said.
Michelle laughed at the remark, then said. “I’m wondering why all the police activity. No one was hurt. The fire truck would come automatically with the alarm. But Sammy said there were five police cars at the front of the building, and some police in the back as well.”
“It is strange. Vandalism isn’t that big a deal.”
They stopped whispering when they heard the sound of several pairs of heavy boots moving down the corridor where they were hiding. Someone opened the door and it slammed back against the wall with an echoing crash. Michelle ducked and held her breath. Luckily, no one came inside and they all exited the stalls after a couple of minutes.
They used paper towels to blot more of the water from their clothing.
“Just in case, I’m going to fix it so no one can see your hair,” Heather said to Michelle. She took some time adjusting the sheet over Michelle’s head, then stood back and said, “Perfect. In the dark I think you could pass for a nun.”
“Except for the hospital slippers,” Michelle said. She looked in the bathroom mirror. Heather had done an excellent job.
Rod called Sammy to see if it would be safe to leave the building.
“Yeah,” Sammy said. “The police are all inside now. I can see the door where you’ll come out. I’ll blink my lights when I see you, so you’ll know where I am.”
They walked warily back the way they’d come. When they were in front of the door, Rod said, “Walk casually, but move fast.” He saw Sammy’s blinking headlights. He threw the door open.
It sounded like an ambulance siren blast had gone off.
Chapter 31
They moved quickly across the wide grassy space toward the street. To their relief, as soon as the door closed behind them, the alarm stopped blasting.
They could see Sammy was out of the car, holding the doors open for them. They were almost free.
Then a huge spotlight caught them in blinding white light. A loud male voice shouted, “Alto. Stop.” It sounded like he was shouting through a megaphone.
They all skidded to a stop. Michelle felt like a deer in the headlights. She squinted, holding her hand up to shade her eyes so she could see beyond the glaring, dazzling light.
The man coming toward them had on a blue uniform, a billed cap, and wide belt with a gun holster prominently displayed. He lowered the flashlight so they weren’t blinded and came up to him.
“Hola,”
“Do you speak English?” Rod asked.
The policeman nodded. “Did you come from the hospital?”
Michelle shook her head; the guy was staring right at her. She thought fast and pulled Lucifer out of her purse. “I was just hunting for my kitty with my friends. He ran away when we took him out for a potty break.”
“You’re all wet,” the man said, looking them over with suspicion.
“Caught in the sprinklers,” Rod said, feigning a laugh, like it was a funny situation. “We saw police cars in the area. What’s going on?”
The policeman used his thumb to point back at the hospital “A nurse was burned at the Gynecological Clinic behind the main hospital. She almost died. No one knows how it happened. But a patient is missing, believed to be loco...crazy. We think a deranged patient hurt that nurse. I have a description of the missing woman. She’s tall with black hair, name of Michelle Satinov. We’ve been hunting all over the hospital and grounds for her.”
Oh shit. Michelle almost put her hand on the sheet covering her head to make sure her hair was completely covered, then stopped abruptly. It would be a tell. If the Mexican policeman couldn’t see her black hair, she might be safe. She reasoned Omar probably harmed the nurse if he got angry enough when she was missing during the
