Nancy tried to keep her expectations low, but all the way to the hospital, she found herself anticipating what the girl might know or remember, any clues she might be able to give. If she remembered a dirt floor, concrete or wood? That would help eliminate options. Roughly where she came from would help too. A description of the people behind her abduction. Or, hell, maybe she would say that she and the other girls had gone on some booze cruise and lost track of time. Something. Anything.
A part of her really hoped it involved a secret passage, though.
Getting the girl's room number would require a bit of subterfuge. Nancy told the receptionist she was one of the girl's sorority sisters and she needed her room number so she could have some flowers delivered.
"Room?" the receptionist said, shaking her head. "She's in the emergency department, no assigned room yet, and she won't even know there's any flowers in the room, girl."
Nancy didn't like the sound of that, not at all.
The room was so busy that Nancy and Ned's arrival was registered as nothing more than a fleeting irritation by the overworked staff. They headed for the epicenter of activity, a curtain pulled to half-surround a bed near one of the windows.
The girl in the bed looked awful. Her hair was greasy and clung to her head. She still wore what Nancy imagined she had gone to the club in, so many days earlier. Her tank top had been hot pink at one time, but now it was grimy with dirt and sweat, and one of her belt loops hung loose. Dark purple half-moons were stark under her eyes, made even moreso by the waxy pallor of her skin. Nancy had just noticed an enormous bruise on her arm when she felt a grip on her forearm. But Ned was on her other side.
"Hey," a policeman said harshly, his brow furrowed. "You a reporter?"
Nancy shook her head. "No, no sir. I'm one of her sorority sisters, and I was just worried about her..."
"They're doing everything they can," the policeman said, as a doctor and an intern passed behind him, scowling in their direction. The monitors were emitting low, dangerous hums.
"I can't believe this," the doctor muttered, so low Nancy could only barely make out his words. "We're going to lose her soon. Stimulant."
The intern looked up. "You think she can take it?"
"It's that or lose her now," the doctor pointed out.
Ned slipped his hand into Nancy's, and she realized that the policeman had been speaking to her. Ned had been answering, but she had no idea what they had been saying.
Another doctor joined the two attendants, and through the gap in the curtain Nancy saw him take a syringe and inject something into the girl's IV drip. The first doctor made some angry outburst involving a dangerous increase in her heart rate and stabilization, and the second doctor just let out a bitter, dismissive laugh.
Ned tugged at Nancy's hand. "We need to go," he murmured.
The policeman was staring fixedly after them, but Nancy didn't care. The girl was dirty, and her pallor meant she had probably been in a confined, windowless space. She needed to look at the girl's fingernails, the soles of her feet—
The second doctor came out from behind the curtain, and she noticed a red strip across his name badge.
CDC.
What the fuck, Nancy thought, as Ned finally just wrapped his arm around her waist and practically carried her out of the emergency department. The Centers for Disease Control? Why the hell would a doctor from the CDC be in Louisiana, helping treat a recovered kidnap victim?
An experiment, Nancy thought, and shivered.
"What do you think that was," Ned asked quietly, as they walked back through the reception area. Two people in wheelchairs, one of whom had a cast, came through the revolving doors with poor grace, and Nancy couldn't blame them. It was hard enough to get through on two working legs, much less with her limp. Even though the doctor had assured her that she would be fine, Nancy was beginning to despair that she would never walk normally again.
Nancy shook her head. "Transients," she murmured. "A CDC doctor. An infection? Some sort of illicit drug trial? They needed test subjects... and she escaped somehow? Did you notice her fingernails?"
"I didn't," Ned admitted. "Sorry. Why?"
Nancy shook her head. "She would have been strapped down to a gurney... hospital gown. Clean. Needle marks? She already had an IV in..."
Ned shook his head. "It's so much fun when I can barely follow what you're saying," he chuckled.
A woman in a russet business suit approached Nancy at the edge of the parking lot, brushing her oddly stiff hair out of her heavily made-up face. "Hello? Were you just visiting the kidnapped girl?"
Nancy shot her a suspicious glance. "I'm sorry, ma'am...?"
"Any update on her status?"
Ahh. The reporters that the cop had been so worried about. She saw the remote unit, the milling cameraman and sound guy. Another van was just pulling up.
Nancy shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't help you," she said, and she and Ned started moving away.
The first van opened and a man holding a cell phone to his ear gestured frantically for the reporter. "Hey! Bumper in three minutes—she just coded. Probably going to call it soon."
The reporter ran back to the van as fast as she could in her four-inch stilettos, and Nancy and Ned exchanged a glance, then continued to the car.
Ned just sat there for a minute, the keys dangling from the ignition. "Okay, first off, that was... unsettling."
Nancy nodded. "I can't believe they could be so callous about that. If she coded...?" She wrapped her arms around her waist, shivering a little.
Ned shook his head. "Okay, what were you saying?"
Nancy explained about the doctor she had seen. "If we were in Atlanta, I could sort of buy a CDC doctor just randomly being here. But that... how long ago did she turn up?"
"The news report didn't say," Ned recalled. "Just that she was being treated here. Didn't even release her name."
"So she's really bad off. She looked like she'd been kept cooped up for a few days, but I didn't see the kind of marks on her... I don't know. So she escaped from wherever she was being kept, only that girl, none of the others, and she made it back..."
"Maybe she made a statement before she collapsed. Gave the cops some clue."
"And, with any luck, the noon news will tell me something about it too." Nancy shook her head. "Disease, Ned. What if... what if they're collecting these girls for medical tests. That could..." She had to force herself to continue. "That could explain why they took Savannah."
"An infection or a drug that only affects women?"
"Maybe they got their male test subjects in another town," Nancy said, glancing over at Ned. She patted his hand. "With any luck you're safe."
"And if they go after you..." Ned made a soft sound. "I'd feel a lot safer if you were armed. Something."
"I have you by my side," Nancy pointed out. "My own personal bodyguard."
Ned looped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him, and kissed her temple. "That's right."
They were halfway back to the inn when Nancy's stomach growled. Ned cast an amused glance at her. "We did rush out awfully quick this morning," he said.
"Might be quicker to get some breakfast out here, before we do some more exploring."
Ned shook his head, keeping a lookout for a pancake house. "You are relentless, you know that, Drew?"
Nancy opted for a stack of chocolate chip waffles, while Ned enthusiastically dug into a steak fajita omelet. Half the conversations she overheard around them were about the girl, wondering what had happened, saying that this would make tourists even less likely to come to the area. A couple mentioned the other girls, raising the question Nancy had been worrying about. Were the disappearances finished, or had they just begun?
If the girl truly was dead... Nancy shook her head. The bruise on her arm. What had caused it? She hadn't seen any obvious head injury, but...
Ned had a patient smile on his face when Nancy refocused. "Morning," he commented.
Nancy gave him a shy smile. "Sorry."
Ned shrugged. "It's okay. Another cup of coffee and maybe I can be exciting enough to keep your attention for ten minutes."
Nancy reached for his hand, patting it. "Let's go somewhere nice tonight, you and me," she said. "Celebrate. As long as we do some serious searching today, I think we deserve to kick back a little."
"We do have a lot to celebrate," he said, a slow smile lighting his features. "Baby, I can't wait to get back home."
She squeezed his hand. "I can't believe it," she whispered. He was hers.
And the sooner she was able to wrap up the case and get home, the better.
They had settled the check and were walking out when Ned suddenly turned back, digging in his pockets. A family filed in between them, and she couldn't see what he was doing. Then he reappeared, his fist closed around something.
"And what's that?"
He waited until they were back in the car to open his fist. He must have gone back to the small bank of child-height vending machines in the waiting area. In his open palm was a small clear plastic egg; a cheap ring with a heart-shaped red plastic stone slid around inside.
Nancy laughed. "How many quarters did that take?"
"Four," Ned admitted. "I gave the army men and the pony stickers to some kids. So, in lieu of the real thing... Nancy Drew, would you do the honor of wearing my cheap plastic ring until I can replace it with the diamond you deserve?"
"I will," she said, sliding it onto her left ring finger, then splaying her fingers to display it for him. "Oh, look how it shines," she laughed, then reached over to kiss his cheek.
She knew how ridiculous it was, but somehow that ludicrous ring made it feel real, more real than it had when he had accepted her proposal. She and Ned headed down the highway, stopping at deserted-looking barns and seedy warehouse spaces, looking for signs of recent occupation, freshly broken windows, suspicious vehicles. Every time the light caught that gaudy red heart, she smiled.
So many places to look. Too many places. Maybe the police did have some kind of clue. Maybe when they returned to the inn, the girls would be there.
Campgrounds with RV hookups. A tractor trailer.
It was too much to search through, too wide a radius. Too many options and not enough time. Whatever was going on, clearly they didn't have forever to find the girls.
Ned's stomach was the first to start growling at lunchtime, and though she hadn't said anything, her leg wasn't happy about all the walking they had been doing. She turned the endless tumult of her thoughts off for a little while, letting her subconscious mull over the case and their options, as she gazed at her boyfriend—her fiancé. He kept his gaze on the road ahead as he drove them back to the inn, but he was smiling.
"We should see if there are any campgrounds around here. That would be a good option," she commented. "After lunch."
"After lunch and a little rest break," Ned said, glancing over at her. "Your leg is bothering you."
She colored a little. She had thought she was keeping it pretty well disguised, but he knew her too well. She fought down the momentary impulse to snap back at him, to tell him that she could take care of herself.
"Well, if you insist."
"I do."
They brought take-out Chinese back to the inn, in time for the noon news broadcast. Lisa entered soon after it began, while Nancy, Ned, Joe, Arthur, and Diane were staring silently at the television.
"And, in our continuing coverage of the recent disappearances from downtown... according to sources at the hospital, the young woman who was admitted last night passed away this morning. The cause of death has yet to be determined, and the police are treating the death as a possible homicide."
The broadcast switched to a reporter standing beside a policeman, a microphone in her hand. "The girl was discovered near the hospital," the policeman said, his voice and demeanor stiff as he gazed at a point between the reporter and the camera. "We have a search party out looking for the other girls. If anyone out there has any information that leads to their recovery, they should call the department at..."
Once the reporter back at the station moved on to the next story, Nancy finally opened the carton of shrimp fried rice and dug her chopsticks in.
Lisa had the grace to look a little uncomfortable. "So... any leads?"
Nancy swallowed her bite and nodded a little. "Some, but it's tough. We've been trying to trace them, but I'm really hoping that after this afternoon we can narrow down the search a little."
Lisa nodded, sitting down at the edge of a dining chair. Joe, who had been listening, wild-eyed, to them, rose and went out.
"I'm just, so glad, that girl... wasn't one of them..." Lisa murmured. "Maybe they're still out there, okay..."
Nancy nodded, although every possibility she could think of made her less and less optimistic about a safe return.
Arthur and Diane glanced at each other. "Well, we're leaving tomorrow morning," Arthur said, "but in the meantime, want some help?"
Nancy and Ned exchanged a glance. "Oh, no, that's okay," Ned said gently. "I'm sure you guys have plenty to do..."
"We've already looked at all the venues, and talked them over with Christie," Diane said. "Come on, let us poke around."
After cautioning the couple to stay in their car and call the police immediately if they spotted anything out of the ordinary, Nancy directed them to the southern part of town. "I mean it," Nancy said sternly. "Anything suspicious, get out of there and call the cops. Better safe than sorry."
Ned chuckled to himself. Nancy shot a loaded glance at him, making a face. "What?" he protested. "It's just... funny, hearing you say it."
"I didn't say it wasn't good advice," she said. "Just that I never take it."
Eric was at the coast with some of his friends for the day—and Nancy tried hard not to perk up when she heard that, though she made a mental note to see if he acted at all suspicious when he returned—and so Lisa asked Ned if he would mind running a few errands for her. He left Nancy with a kiss, and by the time Nancy made it up the stairs by herself, she was ready for that nap he had been practically insisting on.
First, though, she had something to do.
"Nancy," Hannah said warmly. "I'm beginning to forget what you look like, girl. Tell me you're close to wrapping up this case."
"I hope so," Nancy said, wincing as she straightened her leg. "It's tough, though. Is Dad... available?"
"He's actually at the office," Hannah said, sobering, and Nancy shook her head. "I told him not to go, and he swore he would only be there a few hours..."
"He'd better only be a few hours," Nancy said sternly. "If he's a second longer, you have my permission to go down there and bodily collect him."
Hannah chuckled. "I'll be sure to let him know that you demanded it," she replied. "You sure the case isn't going well? You sound... pleased, maybe?"
Nancy glanced down at the plastic ring. "It's... I just wanted to tell Dad something I thought would cheer him up," she said softly. "It'll keep, though. It's okay. I miss you, Hannah. Give him my love, and I'll try to call back around dinnertime."
When she hung up, Nancy debated calling Bess or George, but she was reluctant. They didn't know about the wound that had left her effectively stranded in Louisiana, and... well, she didn't want to tell them before she told her father about her and Ned's engagement. She really wanted to tell him in person, but she was also afraid the knowledge was going to make her explode if she had to wait that long.
She felt like she had only just closed her eyes, but when she opened them, she was a little flushed and Ned was sitting beside her, gazing down at her.
"Hey," he whispered.
"Hey," she replied, reaching for him, and he let her draw him down into the circle of her arms. She held him tight, and his lips brushed her temple.
"You okay?" he murmured.
"Yeah," she whispered, and kissed the corner of his mouth, the point of his jaw, his neck.
He nuzzled against her, brushing his lips over her neck. She crooked her finger under his chin and brought his face back to hers, tilting her head to kiss him.
It was the first time he was touching her as her fiancé.
She knew they needed to go, to get back out there and look for the girls, but she couldn't help it. Oh God, she loved this, she loved the sensation of his fingers as he stroked and caressed her.
He would be her husband. He would pin her under him, he would find his pleasure in her, and while a small part of her was still terribly, terribly afraid, most of her wanted it, wanted to be one with him.
He kissed her when she began to moan and arch up under him, and when they finally collapsed, panting, to the bed, she was flushed and breathless, and so was he.
"I love you," he sighed. "Oh my God, I love you."
She smiled, bringing her hand up, fanning her fingers. "I know," she told him with a little chuckle, flashing the ring again.
He grabbed her hand. "I'm gonna frame that thing if you keep showing it to me," he told her, kissing her cheek.
"It's sweet," she smiled.
"You're sweet."
They began in the east. She kept feeling like they needed to head west, but they had spent all day yesterday in that direction, and since the girl had ended up at the city hospital, she had a feeling the girls had to be within a definite radius. She didn't really expect Arthur and Diane to find anything, but maybe they would. Maybe the old folks would blow the case wide open.
They had just gotten out of the car to explore an old abandoned factory site when Ned glanced over at her. "So, how do you imagine it," he said.
"Imagine what?"
He smiled a little. "Our wedding," he said, quieter, almost shyly.
She had been wandering away from him. She turned back and caught his hand in hers as they studied the windows, looked for patterns in the dust and fallen leaves to indicate a more elaborate trespasser than the usual teenage vagrants.
"Small," she admitted. "We won't have much time to plan and I don't... I don't really want that many people there anyway." She glanced over at him. "I mean, unless you do."
Ned shrugged. "Family and friends. I mean, we can invite the entire frat... if you want to wake up in Canada smelling like absinthe with no idea why you have half an Edgar Allan Poe poem tattooed on your ass..."
"That sounds like the perfect wedding night," she mock gushed, clutching at his hand.
"Yeah, well." He shrugged. "I was going to call my parents tonight and tell them...?"
She nodded. "Dad went to work today, or else I would have told him."
"He went to work?" Ned asked incredulously.
She nodded, shrugging a little. "If he had the strength to do it... I mean, he loves it. Lives for it." She snickered softly. "Here I am, hobbling around on a bum leg because I can't turn down a mystery. Not like I can judge."
Ned slipped his arm around her waist. "And we need to talk about that, too. I know detective work is what makes you happy..."
Nancy glanced over at him, her heart sinking. She had been worried about this conversation practically since the day she had fallen in love with him. She knew he loved her, but he worried about her so much, too.
He squeezed her gently. "Just be careful, okay?" he said gruffly. "It would tear me apart if anything happened to you."
"I know," she whispered. "Ned, I know... how much you worry, and..."
"And I love you," he said. "And this is what makes you happy. I wish you had a safer hobby, like rehabilitating rabid sharks or something..."
She chuckled. "That's always been my backup plan," she teased him.
He kissed her temple. "I know your leg is driving you nuts, but at least this way I can keep up with you."
She made a face. "Every morning I wake up wishing it would just be better," she sighed.
"Well, baby, I promise that if it's not better by the time we go on our honeymoon, I'll make sure you follow doctor's orders and get plenty of bedrest."
She raised her eyebrow at him. "Oh? So that's what we're going to be doing in bed? Resting?"
"Yeah. I mean, after we've had so much sex that we technically can't move anymore."
She slipped her arm around him and squeezed his side. "Long as we're gentle the first time," she whispered.
Ned's smile was tentative. "Oh, sweetheart, we will be. I promise."
She had had such high hopes for the abandoned factory, but they found no signs there. Three more warehouses, four barns—and all they saw were a few stray dogs, cans pockmarked with buckshot, the dark stain of the high-water marks.
"You know," Ned commented, once they were back in the car and she was rubbing her leg, debating asking if he wanted to soak in the tub with her later, "there's one place that just occurred to me."
"Oh?"
"The old hospital," he said.
"Hmm," she said. "It does have this nice symmetry to it. The crazy doctor... what if he's behind it all?"
"Crazy doctor?"
"The CDC one." She waved her hand. "Experiment goes too far, he dumps her at the real hospital, shows up to offer his services. Yes! Oooh."
Ned gave a fist-pump. "Okay, so we run out there, go back and get changed for dinner, have a super-romantic meal and fool around after... and with any luck we find these guys, call the cops and let them know on the way back, then first flight out tomorrow."
Nancy closed her eyes, letting out a long moan. "Don't tease me," she groaned, turning to look at him.
"I'm being optimistic. There's a difference."
They took a few wrong turns on the way out to the hospital. Apparently it had been built before a bypass road, and while it was set back slightly from a divided highway, the road itself was in disorder. Ned gritted his teeth as they went over half a dozen potholes. "If we pop a tire on the way back, someone is going to get a strongly-worded letter," he growled.
Nancy winced as she slipped out of the passenger seat, rubbing briskly at her leg. Ned reached down to help her up and she quietly gasped in pain. "I think you said something about a quick visit," she murmured, rubbing her leg again.
Ned shook his head. "Maybe we should just come back tomorrow. You look..."
"We're already out here," she pointed out. "Might as well poke around, it shouldn't take too long."
The hospital was four stories, and though Nancy remembered from the newspaper article that it had only been abandoned for a relatively short period of time, it already looked disheveled, almost sullen. Grass had poked through the pavement and lay in pale dead blades on top. The windows on the lower floors reflected the sunset in a blinding opaque sheet.
Nancy grasped Ned's hand again as they began to circle around the main entrance. "Two cars back there," Ned pointed out quietly.
"Maybe drug deal?" Nancy mused aloud.
"Yeah, that makes me feel safe," Ned muttered.
Nancy squeezed his hand. "Don't worry, Nickerson. I'm here to protect you," she said, and fluttered her lashes.
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and despite her bravado, she felt a cold shiver cross her stomach.
"Think two cars is enough proof to get the cops out here?"
Nancy shook her head. "We're already out here," she said again. "And I think we're close, Ned, I think this was a good idea. If it's not this place, it's one like it."
Ned sighed as he glanced up at the hospital. "At least if it were night, we'd be able to see lights in the windows."
Then they saw the three men walking around the side of the building, heading straight toward them. None of the men were familiar to Nancy, although the sensation she felt when she saw them was familiar. They were dangerous.
"You're trespassing," the one in the center called out. The two on the outside exchanged a glance, though, then turned their attention back to Nancy.
A woman. She was a woman, and that was apparently what they were looking for.
"You're trespassing," Nancy replied defiantly, as Ned tugged her to a stop. "We're part of the search party. What are you doing out here?"
Ned's grip tightened on her. "I think this is enough to call the cops," he murmured. "Come on, sweetheart. Let's go."
The three men were moving so fast, too fast, in the shadow of the crumbling building. Now all three of them had their gazes fixed on Nancy. The one in the center broke off and began to run, a wicked grin on his face.
"Run," Ned said urgently, pulling her with him.
But she couldn't run.
She tried as hard as she could, though.
The man reached for Nancy's arm and she shook him off, letting out a soft pleading cry. He snatched at her again and managed to whip her around, and she was panting, trying to think of any martial arts move she could try that didn't require putting too much weight on her bad leg.
He grabbed at her again and Ned shouted an epithet at the man. Behind him, the other two seemed to be either jeering or chastising him, Nancy didn't know which.
Then the man darted forward, and Ned swept Nancy behind him, bringing his fist back for an uppercut.
It was so quick that it felt like it was over before it had even begun. She blinked and Ned was collapsing to the ground, in a pool of dying sunlight.
She had no idea what the man had done to Ned, but it had been brutal.
Panic flooded through her, giving her the strength to ignore her wound and Ned's weight as she began to pull him to his feet. He almost lost his footing a few times, but together they made it back to the car. Her heart was beating so hard that the pounding seemed to echo in her shaking limbs.
"Keys! Keys!" she demanded, glancing frantically over her shoulder, praying desperately that the guys would lose interest once they were in the car, that one of them wasn't running back to get in his own vehicle and pursue. Ned's pallor and labored breathing were scaring her. He dug in his pocket and dropped the keys onto her lap.
When she looked over at him, he was shaking.
She was choking, and only by supreme effort did she not start screaming. Distantly she knew her leg was throbbing, as she jammed her foot down on the accelerator, listening for the muffled thump of one of them throwing himself on the car. She gritted her teeth and peeled out onto the highway, cutting off three cars as she did so. The angry bleats of their car horns followed her as she pressed the pedal even harder.
A hot stab of pain lanced through her leg. She ignored it, glaring at the speedometer, palpably willing the car to go faster.
"Ned? Ned?" she asked, turning to catch a quick glance at him. "Are you okay? Are you bleeding?"
He didn't answer, and she realized that the gasped breaths she was hearing were her own. A small tremor went through his hand when she touched it.
"Shit. Shit," she gasped out, slamming the palm of her hand into the steering wheel as her eyes filled with tears, blurring the road in front of her. "Ned, come on, please. Please don't scare me like this."
When she cast another glance at him, he looked still as death.