The psychiatrist finished extracting himself from the body drawer. When he did, Lauren walked over and leaned down to look into the drawer. The back of it was gone and it opened into a small room behind the wall of body drawers. “What the hell is this?” Lauren said.
Dr. Mansfield looked down at her. “I wish you had stayed upstairs. This is really unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary! You’ve covered up a potential viral outbreak here. This is insane.”
“You don’t understand.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Lauren squinted at the impassive doctor. “You never sent the blood work to the CDC, did you?”
“I didn’t need to. I know what killed your patient.”
“What do you mean? How could you possibly…” Lauren’s voice faltered as he looked from Dr. Mansfield’s face to Scott Moran’s and back again. They weren’t scared. They had been caught in a major cover-up, yet they weren’t scared at all.
An alarm sounded in her head. There was no reason these men should be so calm. Unless…
She spun around to look at Janney. The sheriff shrugged and blocked the doorway.
“Oh God. What are you all doing?”
“Science. Advancing civilization.” Dr. Mansfield kicked the body drawer closed with his foot.
“Are you conducting experiments on these girls? Is that it?”
Janney cleared his throat behind her. She turned in time to see him pointing at his watch. “Sorenson has the ambulance upstairs. We should get going before people start asking questions.”
“Where are you taking them?” Lauren cried out. Then it hit her. The thought that should have occurred to her from the beginning. Her voice came out no more than a whisper. “Did you have something to do with Sarah disappearing? Do you know where she is?”
Dr. Mansfield looked as if he might answer her but then thought better of it. He looked past her to Janney. “You’re right. We’ll take her with us.” His voice was changed. Gone was the smooth gentility of the country doctor. His words came out in a clipped tone, with the stern confidence of someone used to having orders followed without question. “Make sure there’s a cover story and her car is removed from the parking lot.”
“I’ll take care of it, Boss.”
Dr. Mansfield straightened up as Janney said the words, his eyes darting to Lauren. Janney caught the unspoken reprimand and stared down at the floor.
Lauren noticed the interaction. Slowly, she made the connection of what Janney had said. She turned and stared open-mouthed at Dr. Mansfield. “Jack said someone called the Boss was responsible for all this. For taking Sarah. Is that you? Are you the one they call the Boss? Are you the one doing all this to my family?”
Dr. Mansfield looked at Janney again, a wave of anger flashing in his eyes. When he turned back to Lauren, he was back in control, his voice calm. “Your daughter is safe. If you come with me quietly, I’ll take you to her.”
Lauren broke down, sobbing. “How could you? How could you take my baby? What’s wrong with you?”
“I’ve always liked you. This wasn’t personal. If you knew what I do, you might appreciate the decision I had to make. I will explain things to you, but right now we have to go. Scott here will medicate you for our little trip. It’s only sodium butabarbital. You may not believe this, but you can still trust me.”
“Screw you.” Lauren said. “Screw you and your trust. If you hurt my baby, I’ll kill you.”
Lauren watched as Scott Moran produced a syringe from a bag and indicated that Janney should hold her. She relaxed her body as the sheriff grabbed her arms.
Thinking that Lauren had given in, Janney loosened his grip. As soon as he did, Lauren twisted forward and kicked, hard, into the man’s groin. His grunt told Lauren the heel of her shoe had found its mark.
Quickly, she spun to the side and used Janney’s momentum from bending over to push him headlong into the room. Her path to the door clear now, she ran into the corridor and sprinted to the elevator at the end. She tried to ignore the shouting behind her. And then the heavy footsteps as the men ran after her.
Stairs or elevator? Finding the right key to unlock the door, or waiting for the elevator to close. She chose the elevator just as she reached the end of the corridor. With a fluid movement that surprised even her, she launched herself over the chair that blocked the door, hooking it with her foot as she did to drag it into the elevator. She spun around and slammed her fist into the buttons to close the door.
She backed up against the rear of the elevator, tears obscuring her vision. Janney and Moran were running down the corridor, racing to get to the elevator before the metal doors slid shut.
They were too close.
She wasn’t going to make it.
She cussed under her breath, pleading for the doors to move faster. She looked around the compartment for a weapon but there was nothing. If they got there she was dead.
Please God. Please God.
Janney’s face filled the narrow gap between the doors. He reached out with his hand to force the elevator back open. Lauren shut her eyes and cried out.
Then silence. She opened her eyes and saw that the doors had closed. The elevator lurched as it started its slow climb to the first floor.
She would have allowed herself a sigh of relief but there was movement on the gurney next to her. She looked over reluctantly, not really wanting to look at the disfigured face again. The body bag was still unzipped as she had left it but the head had lolled to one side. Now the poor girl’s face stared right at her.
She reached out an unsteady hand to zip the bag up. There would be police and hospital staff everywhere once she got out of the elevator and. They didn’t need to see this.
As she tugged on the zipper, she glanced down to the girl’s face. A single open eye stared back at her.
Then the eye blinked.
Lauren jumped back, screaming. The eye roamed around searching her out. The girl was alive.
The elevator shuddered to a stop. Then, groaning under its age-old machinery, it started back down to the basement.
“No, no,” Lauren whimpered, taking her eyes off the girl long enough to beat on the control panel with her hand. She should have known better. Dr. Mansfield had an emergency override key. Of course he would use it to stop her.
She screamed at the ceiling, praying that someone upstairs would hear her. That someone would come and save her and save this poor, diseased girl who was impossibly still alive. Lauren didn’t stop screaming until the elevator stopped back in the basement and the door slid open to reveal Mansfield, Janney and Scott Moran waiting for her. The second gurney was positioned behind them, a white sheet still covering the body on it.
Janney had pulled out his gun and now trained it on Lauren’s chest. She caught her breath and held her hands in front of her as if they would be able to deflect a bullet if he decided to fire at her.
“We’ve lost enough time.” Dr. Mansfield motioned the sheriff and Moran forward. Lauren struggled when Janney grabbed her by the arms, his fingers digging into her arm this time. Scott Moran tapped the syringe then calmly walked toward Lauren.
“You’re crazy. You’re all crazy,” Lauren said. She felt a little stab of pain from the injection in her arm.
Dr. Mansfield ignored the comment. “Perhaps when I explain everything you’ll think differently.”
The drug took effect immediately. Her muscles relaxed and black walls appeared on either side of her vision. She tried to step forward but stumbled. Dr. Mansfield grabbed her arm and steered her toward the second gurney in the corridor. She tried to say something but her mouth wouldn’t respond.